Thursday, February 12, 2015

Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- February 12, 2015



Adam Chandler, The Atlantic: A New and Unimproved Ceasefire

An all-night peace summit yielded an agreement to de-escalate the violence in eastern Ukraine even as tanks were spotted crossing into the country from Russia overnight.

Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- February 12, 2015

US effort to train Syrian rebels ramps up: Can Pentagon avoid past follies? -- Anna Mulrine

The Kurds need weapons, now -- David Ignatius, Washington Post

Arab nations united in fury against Isis but divided on strategy -- Kareem Shaheen in Beirut and Ian Black, The Guardian

How to bankrupt the Islamic State -- Peter Harrell, MSNBC

Islamic Republic of Iran or Islamic State: What's the Difference? -- Cameron Glenn and Garrett Nada, Newsweek

Deadly Cooperation: Boko Haram and Islamic State -- Laura Murray, Jerusalem Post

The Dawn Divides: The Islamic State and Libya’s Inter-Islamist War -- Amanda Kadlec and Hassan Morajea, War On The Rocks

How Yemen Fits Iran Plans for Mideast Rule, Beyond -- CBN

Analysis: The regional implications of the Houthi takeover in Yemen -- Jeremy Binnie, IHS Jane's 360

The Narco-State of Afghanistan -- Najibullah Gulabzoi, The Diplomat

China Unveils Major South China Sea Gas Find -- Prashanth Parameswaran, The Diplomat

Chinese leader's US visit is 'more symbolic than substantive', say experts -- Jonathan Kaiman, The Guardian

Why UN peacekeepers have failed to protect the people of Darfur -- Jason Patinkin, CSM

'Grexit' would be no easy ride for austerity-weary Greeks -- Jeremy Gaunt, Reuters

Nicaragua Constructs Enormous Canal, Blind to its Environmental Cost -- Pablo Fonseca Q., Scientific American

The rise of the everyday drone? -- Chris Gaylord, CSM

10 comments:

James said...

This is a terrible deal for Kiev. They've essentially sold off the east for the IMF loan. Maybe it was the best they could get, but this will not turn out well.

War News Updates Editor said...

The IMf loan is just a drop in the bucket on what they need. I am still digesting this agreement .... I am not optimistic that it will hold.

Jay Farquharson said...

It's already broken.

Porshenko's refused both "Special Status" and Federalization, less than an hour after signing the agreement,

And by denying the existence of the Debaltseve Cauldron, he's created another Donetsk Airport situation, but worse.

War News Updates Editor said...

I agree Jay. The Debaltseve cauldron is Donetsk airport .... but with far more men, civilians trapped, and military equipment being involved.

Jay Farquharson said...

Porshenko has trapped himself.

The UAF has to keep attacking to try free The Cauldron, but they won't be able to, and the cauldron will become another Iillovask but with much worse political fallout for the Regime,

If they don't keep attacking, the Cauldron will fall to starvation, and again with massive political fall out for the Regime.

Gargaine thinks the IMF loan was blood money from the US, to get Porshenko to blow off Merkel and Hollande, and keep the fighting going.

There really are no Admiral Ackbar's in the Ukraine.

War News Updates Editor said...

During last night's talks Poroshenko was leaving the room every 2 or 3 hours to make a phone call. I have no proof .... just my gut feeling .... but I suspect that he was calling Washington.

As to the funds that the IMF are giving .... I am just shaking me head. I know these people, they are not going to respect the IMF's demands to reform their system ... and the IMF probably knows that. Nope .... that money is going to go straight into the war machine.

Jay Farquharson said...

Word I am getting, is that just before leaving, to attend Minsk II, Porshenko visited the ATO Command in Kramatorsk, and was promised that there was no Cauldron, and that there would be three " clearing" attacks to restore the lines. ( only two took place, both massive failures),

Simienchecko, not that anything he says is reliable, inferrs that the constant phone calls were to get reports on the military actions, and that what Porshenko was told, was lies.

War News Updates Editor said...

That makes a lot of sense Jay. I agree with your analysis.

Jay Farquharson said...

Interesting analysis, translated from Russian, with the translators comments,

http://fortruss.blogspot.ca/2015/02/all-is-lost-poroshenko-after-minsk-2.html?m=1

War News Updates Editor said...

Thank you for the link. I have been reading the same thing from other Russian sources.