SU-34: Coming after Obunga's ISIS butt buddies....

We need to understand that the Chinese think that they are very close to defeating stealth technology, and that the Russians are working closely with the Chinese generally.

But the Ukraine doesn't belong to Russia. That is merely an assertation that you and the rest of the world needn't accept.

Did anybody REALLY expect Vladimir Putin to sit there and watch Bork OPbunga, George Soros, Monsanto, and Victoria Nuland just walk off that?? If nothing else, no rational person should have anticipated Putin just watching that jolly crew walk off with the Russian-speaking Eastern part of Ukraine or Crimea but, apparently, that was the plan.

It still comes back to the idea that they are calling it their own, which doesn't make it so - unless everybody lets them, which is what Hawkeye said.

The trouble is, the West started it with our outrageous moves in Kosovo. We can't easily condemn Russia for using military force to redraw international borders when we do the very same thing ourselves.

It seems clear to me that neither Bill Clinton or Barack Obama gave two shits about what Bush promised gorbachev.

By positioning the Moskva, a cruiser armed with S300 missiles, west of Latakia, the Russians have endangered the IAF's favorite corridor of flight into Syria. The IAF has no stealth capabilities to circumvent this anti-access/area denial — A2/AD — bubble, nor any other air force in the area.

Russian President Vladimir Putin managed to do in several days what US President Barack Obama failed to do in the last three years: He's created a true no-fly zone. Putin's actions suggest, in my opinion, that he's willing to force the coalition and the Israel air force into reporting and coordinating their flights in the region — an act I’m sure no one is in favor of or willing to comply with.

The Moskva carries an estimated 64 S-300 missiles, according to foreign sources), and could intercept multiple targets up to 150 miles away, making it a serious threat in addition to other Russian assets in the region.

Accompanied by his own Middle East adviser, Naji N. Najjar, Vallely held a quiet meeting at the Russian Embassy in Paris with Putin’s special representative for the Middle East and Syria, Mikhail L. Bogdanov.

Vallely proposed that the Russians meet with generals of the Free Syrian Army, which has sought the ouster of Assad.

Vallely, who has backed and helped secure TOW missiles for some of the army’s 40,000 to 50,000 fighters, told Bogdanov he believes the FSA could unite Syria.

“Nobody else has come up with a plan for Syria,” Vallely told G2Bulletin.

He explained that he originally was scheduled to meet with Russia’s ambassador to France but when ushered into the room, it was Bogdanov who greeted him.

Vallely’s meeting with Bogdanov comes as representatives of the United States, France, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are scheduled to meet in Vienna to discuss a political solution to the Syrian civil war, which is going into its fourth year. Millions of Syrians have fled the country, creating a refugee crisis in Europe.

Valley believes Bogdanov took the plan seriously.

Go to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin for the full details of this story, and more.

“Putin knows he’s running the chessboard, and he knows that (President) Obama and the American government are just talk, they’re weak. So he knows that (Putin) can basically do whatever he wants to,” Vallely said.

“That’s why this plan is very optimistic in nature but certainly very doable if Putin wants to go that route.”

Vallely met the top Putin aide in his capacity as founder of the group Stand Up America. In the military, Vallely served in the Vietnam War and was deputy commanding general of Pacific Command.

Along with retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, Vallely co-authored the book “Endgame: The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror.”

‘Stop bombing them’

Vallely emphasized to Bogdanov that the Syrian people are not against the Russian people and their nation’s vital interests. But the general insisted that the first step is for the Russians to stop bombing the Free Syrian Army and innocent civilians.

A cease-fire, Vallely said, would help end the Syrian conflict through political compromise.

Go to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin for the full details of this story, and more.

Just some of the provisions in Vallely’s plan include:

Current Syrian government officials, including Assad, would resign and be replaced by an interim government, parliament and president representing all Syrians and religious groups.
The new government would plan for future elections. All Syrians who have fled would be returned to the homeland through the Mediterranean ports of Latakia and Tartus, and Turkish passage zones.
Western Syrian territory would be secured and declared the Syrian Resettlement Zone for all Syrian refugees now in Europe, Jordan and Turkey.

America’s traditional Middle East allies, having run out of patience with President Barack Obama's policy in Syria, are now reaching out to a resurgent Russia -- even though it is bolstering the very dictator so many of them have pushed to leave power.

Some in Washington see the new ties as a threat to U.S. interests, especially because the U.S. has worked since the 1970s to keep Russian influence out of the Middle East. But the Obama administration sees an opportunity. The State Department is now quietly encouraging U.S. allies to engage with Moscow, as part of Secretary John Kerry's quest to win Russian support for a political process in Syria.

Kerry is the main U.S. official still arguing for cooperation with Russia to start peace talks that could resolve the Syrian civil war. But the Russian response has been consistently to rebuke Kerry’s offers. Since Kerry began his latest diplomacy push in the spring, the Russians have sent tanks, bombers and soldiers to Syria. The Russian air force has focused its bombing on the U.S.-backed opposition instead of the Islamic State, the terrorists whom Kerry believes present a common enemy for Russia and the U.S.

Nevertheless, Kerry has been pushing forward with his plan to convince Russia to be a partner in stabilizing the Middle East. He convened a meeting in Vienna last Friday between the foreign ministers of Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey and expressed optimism the four countries could work together on Syria.

“While we can agree to disagree on what and when might occur with respect to the resolution of the Assad problem, we clearly can agree on a process that helps to bring about a resolution of that question. And that is a very important starting place,” Kerry said.

After the meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in his remarks to the press briefly focused on common objectives Russia shared with the U.S. But Lavrov used the opportunity mainly to launch into a broad criticism of U.S. policy in the region. He complained about the U.S. interventions in Iraq and Libya and said that Russia would never support a plan that included regime change in Damascus.

“I have already heard rumors that deals are being or will be made here that in a certain time period President Assad will go,” he said. “All this is not so.”

A senior administration official told us last week that this time around Kerry is trying to start a political process despite the disagreement over Bashar al-Assad. Kerry has said recently that the U.S. could accept Assad remaining in power for a transition period, but the official said the Russians won’t concede to that.

“If we can get into a political process, sometimes these things have a way of resolving themselves,” Kerry said Friday.

But while Kerry focused on convincing Russia to join with the West, Putin has been working to convince America’s Middle East allies that Moscow is the new power in the region.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's former ambassador to Washington and former intelligence chief, said as much Friday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. There he gave President Vladimir Putin credit for outmaneuvering the U.S. and said Russia was now in a position to demand attention and respect.

“Putin is a man who has done so much harm to innocent people throughout the area in Syria. But I must also consider that he is the head of a state, and that state is a big state, and he feels that state should have a decision-making role in the world,” he said. “And we have to deal with him. And it’s not that you ignore him or cast him off as a megalomaniac. He has a vision of the world and a strategy to put that vision in place.”

By hosting Assad in Moscow, Turki said, Putin sent a message to the region that anyone who wishes to oust Assad must go through him. Putin may not be sincere when he says he wants to fight the Islamic State, but the U.S.-led coalition has not committed the resources necessary for the mission either, he said.

While Russia participates in the new U.S.-led discussions over Syria, it is simultaneously striking side deals with U.S. allies to further its military presence there, which the U.S. government has called counterproductive.

On the same day as the Vienna meeting, Russia signed an agreement with Jordan to coordinate militarily against the Islamic State. The next day, Kerry traveled to Jordan and Saudi Arabia to discuss Syria with leaders there. (Putin didn’t have to go to Saudi Arabia; the Saudi defense minister had visited Moscow earlier this month.) And while Kerry was in the region, the government of Iraq announced it had given Russia the green light to begin airstrikes there too, over U.S. objections.

Other gulf states have sent senior diplomats to Moscow in the last two weeks to discuss Russia's recent moves into Syria. One senior Arab diplomat told us that these discussions were mainly to gauge Russia's long-term intentions in Syria and to try to persuade Moscow to bomb Islamic State targets rather than more moderate rebels.

American allies who are not active in multilateral diplomacy over Syria have been establishing closer ties to Moscow as well. This month, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to see Putin, Israel established a hotline with Russia's military to avoid an accidental confrontation between their forces. After Egyptian President Abdel el-Sisi visited Putin in August, he pledged Egypt would work with Moscow against the Islamic State.

Retired General Jack Keane testified last week that Moscow is betting on U.S. inaction.

“Putin is counting on the United States’ fear of escalation and fear of confrontation to scare off any U.S. retaliation,” Keane said. “We need to continue to push for Assad to go, but lets be realistic. Russia, as Assad’s protector, will now play the decisive role.”

Some within the Obama administration tell us that Putin and Lavrov are leading Kerry on and that the only way Russia would become a constructive partner in Syria would be through coercion, such as sanctions against Putin or more military aid to the rebels Putin is attacking. But the White House is unwilling to escalate pressures against Russia because the guiding principle is to avoid a new crisis with Moscow.

The immediate problem with Kerry's approach is that it forces America’s friends in the region to hedge their bets and move closer to Russia. Over the long term, there is a contradiction in Kerry’s plan. Putin is either the key to a peaceful resolution in Syria or the main obstacle. He can't be both.

What do you make of this idea to defeat stealth with a lot of radar drones flying in a pattern and connected to a computer to decode the information, then when the chinese/russians get a hit they launch intercepts to go make the kill? Sounds intriguing to this layman.

A prominent Turkish journalist has compiled a list of 41 “moderate” rebel leaders who have been killed in the last 30 days. No wonder Washington is flipping out:

CAIRO (Reuters) - A militant group affiliated to Islamic State in Egypt claimed responsibility for the downing of a Russian passenger plane that crashed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Saturday, the group said in a statement circulated by supporters on Twitter.

Egyptian security sources earlier on Saturday said early investigations suggested the plane crashed due to a technical fault.

The claim of responsibility was also carried by the Aamaq website which acts as a semi official news agency for Islamic State.

"The fighters of the Islamic State were able to down a Russian plane over Sinai province that was carrying over 220 Russian crusaders. They were all killed, thanks be to God," the statement circulated on Twitter said.