In the immediate aftermath of the failed Turkish "coup" of July 2016, the immediate concern to the US was not the fate of the Erdogan regime, but whether the US would maintain access to Incirlik Air Base, a strategic output for the US airforce, allowing it fast and easy access to most of the Middle East and part of Russia even in the immediate absence of an aircraft carrier.
Murdering the Innocent in Order to Support the Lie
Paul Craig Roberts
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
The rising hysteria about Russia is best understood as fulfilling two needs for Official Washington: the Military Industrial Complex’s transitioning from the “war on terror” to a more lucrative “new cold war” – and blunting the threat that a President Trump poses to the neoconservative/liberal-interventionist foreign-policy establishment.
Obama has deployed US Special Forces close to the Russian border to defend Baltic states who are allegedly ‘scared to death’ of Putin’s aggression. As part of a “persistent” presence of American troops in the Baltics, dozens of special ops solders will be being stationed along Europe’s eastern flank to provide reassurance to NATO allies Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. They will also complement around 4,000 Nato troops being posted to Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia in the coming months.
Four days after the first sporadic protests emerged in Mexico City, following the infamous "gasolinazo", or mandatory 15%-20% increase in Mexican gas prices which went into effect on January 1, the mood across the country has significantly deteriorated, with hundreds of demonstrators blocking highways, snarling traffic, raiding gas stations, jeopardizing critical supplies, and looting stores as angry but impotent motorists lashed out at the price surge, which is only going to get worse as inflation spikes even more following the record plunge in the Mexican Peso.