ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

As negotiations between the major state actors in the Syrian conflict continue without a solid solution; Turkey has used the confusion on the ground to continue military actions to gain territory. The targets include both US and Russian allies – the two leading nations in the Syrian negotiations – leaving Turkey in an increasingly lonely quest to retain dominance. The “cessation of hostilities”, opening besieged areas to humanitarian aid and facilitating talks between the Assad regime and Syrian opposition are agreed to be the first plausible stepping stones of negotiations taking place in Munich . Still; even this low bar seems out of reach with recent counterproductive actions by military actors in and around Syria. The United States and Russia; still in disagreement over visions for the future Syrian government, have agreed that the nation’s best hope is to be kept intact to restore control and order . The largest roadblock – the future of Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad – continu

By Justin King  -    Langley, Virginia -  As more and more evidence mounts that the US government was secretly assisting the Islamic State, it might be time to point out a few instances when the Central Intelligence Agency created secret armies. The current  theory  suggests the US secretly supported the Islamic State so the Islamists would destabilize the government of Syrian President Assad. If that seems out of the question, remember the CIA once started a war over bananas… literal bananas. Cuba:  Probably the best known secret army. Castro nationalized the assets of western companies after his government took power,  so the US decided to overthrow the government of Cuba and install a puppet regime. As with most of the armies backed by the US intelligence establishment, it failed. Miserably. The Bay of Pigs invasion saw  1400 US-trained Cubans  surrender to Castro’s forces within 24 hours. El Salvador:  The US-supported Salvadoran government faced opposition from communist rebel

In his January 2016 State of the Union Address, US President Barack Obama proudly declared that «We spend more on our military than the next eight nations combined», which is a startling and indeed repulsive boast. What is less surprising is the US decision to refocus military spending, thus boosting shares in military industry companies. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) calculates that spending was higher than the next seven countries, rather than eight, but the message is still there: Following the President’s statement, on February 2 his Defence Secretary Ashton Carter gave a speech on defence affairs at the Economic Club in Washington. The Economic Club is proud of the fact that «For over 25 years [it] has provided a forum for prominent business and government leaders who have influenced economic and public policy both here and abroad. Members represent over 600 businesses and organizations [in Washington, DC] that are at the forefront of the private

By Finian Cunningham Less than five months after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered military intervention in Syria, the five-year war has been completely transformed. Peace is far from certain as a tentative truce this week will attest. The conflict may even escalate. But what Russia’s intervention has certainly achieved is to squeeze out into the open the poisonous forces of regime change that have brought Syria to its dire condition. Not only is the Syrian state pulled back from the brink of collapse into a terrorist-run failed entity, as befell «NATO liberated» Libya, but the Russian air strikes like a surgical operation have lanced the noxious inflammation festering in Syria. All sorts of poisons are now oozing and being exposed, primarily the nefarious roles played by Western powers, their regional allies, and the toxic lies propounded by the Western news media to cover for crimes against peace. If it were not for the gravity of human suffering, the situation could be seen a