Author Archives: markdowe1

Britain, Islamic State, Syria, United States

US have advanced plans for taking back Raqqa

SYRIA

raqqa-map

Raqqa, a city in Syria located on the northeast bank of the Euphrates River, is about 160 kilometres east of Aleppo.

Intro: Pentagon plan to seize Raqqa calls for significant increase in U.S. participation.

A PENTAGON PLAN for the coming assault on Raqqa, the Islamic State capital in Syria, calls for significant U.S. military participation, including increased Special Operations forces, attack helicopters and artillery, and arms supplies to the main Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighting force on the ground, according to U.S. officials.

The military’s favoured option among several variations currently under White House review, the proposal would ease a number of restrictions on U.S. activities imposed during the Obama administration.

Officials involved in the planning have proposed lifting a cap on the size of the U.S. military contingent in Syria, currently numbering about 500 Special Operations trainers and advisers to the combined Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. While the Americans would not be directly involved in ground combat, the proposal would allow them to work closer to the front line and would delegate more decision-making authority down the military line from Washington.

President Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to expand the fight against the militants in Syria, Iraq and beyond, received the plan last Monday after giving the Pentagon 30 days to prepare it.

But in a conflict where nothing has been as simple as anticipated, the Raqqa offensive has already sparked new alliances. In just the past two days, U.S. forces intended for the Raqqa battle have had to detour to a town in northern Syria to head off a confrontation between two American allied forces — Turkish and Syrian Kurdish fighters. There, they have found themselves effectively side by side with Russian and Syrian government forces with the same apparent objective.

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Approval of the Raqqa plan would effectively shut the door on Turkey’s demands that Syrian Kurds, considered terrorists by Ankara, be denied U.S. equipment and kept out of the upcoming offensive. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that arming and including the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, in the operation is unacceptable and has vowed to move his own troops and Turkish-allied Syrian rebel forces toward Raqqa.

U.S. officials, some of whom have spoken on the condition of anonymity about the still-secret planning, believe Erdogan’s tough talk is motivated primarily by domestic politics, specifically a desire to bolster prospects for an April 16 nationwide referendum that would transform Turkey’s governing system to give more power to the presidency.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the Baghdad-based U.S. commander of the anti-Islamic State coalition, has said that there was “zero evidence” that the YPG was a threat to Turkey. With some apparent exasperation, Townsend called on all anti-Islamic State forces in northern Syria to stop fighting among themselves and concentrate on the best way to beat the militants.

U.S. talks with Turkey, a NATO ally and coalition member, are ongoing. But events over the past several days in and around the town of Manbij have injected a new element in the conflict that could either help the Americans avoid a direct clash with Ankara, or set the many forces now converging on the town on the path toward a new confrontation.

Manbij, located near the Turkish border about 85 miles northwest of Raqqa, was captured by the Islamic State three years ago and retaken last August by the YPG, backed by U.S. airstrikes and military advisers. The town now forms the western edge of a militant-cleared border strip extending to neighbouring Iraq.

The United States had promised the Turks that Kurdish control would not extend to the west beyond the nearby Euphrates River, and Manbij was turned over to the Manbij Military Council, Arab fighters within the SDF. Kurdish police are in charge of local security, but the Americans have insisted that YPG fighters have largely left the scene.

Turkey disagrees and has long threatened to forcibly eject the Kurds, who it says are affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a designated terrorist organisation in both Turkey and the United States that is waging an insurgency inside Turkey for greater autonomy. After Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies took the nearby Syrian town of Al-Bab from the Islamic State on Feb. 23, the Turkish-led force began advancing toward Manbij and has captured at least two villages.

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Last Thursday, as Turkish shells reached the outskirts of the town, the Manbij Military Council announced it had invited the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to take over several nearby villages as part of a deal brokered by Russia to avoid conflict with the Turks.

Then on Friday, Moscow announced that Russian and Syrian “humanitarian” convoys were heading toward Manbij. Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis briefed that the convoys also included “some armoured equipment.”

Davis said that the U.S. government had been “informed” of the movements by Russia but that “it’s nothing that we’re party to.”

Meanwhile, photographs posted on social media showed U.S. military vehicles headed into Manbij from the east.

On Saturday, the U.S. military confirmed that it had “increased force presence in and around Manbij to deter hostile acts, enhance governance and ensure there’s no persistent YPG presence,” effectively inserting U.S. forces to keep two coalition members — Turkey and the Syrian Kurds — from fighting.

In postings on his Twitter account, coalition spokesman Col. John L. Dorrian said the coalition “has taken this deliberate action to reassure Coalition [members] & partner forces, deter aggression and keep focus on defeating ISIS,” an acronym for the Islamic State.

The United States and Russia have managed to avoid confrontation in Syria’s separate civil war, where they are on opposing sides. Trump has said repeatedly that the two powers should cooperate against the Islamic State, and he has indicated that the future of Russia-backed Assad is of less concern to him.

The Pentagon disapproves of possible U.S.-Russia cooperation, although U.S. officials are not unhappy at the buffer Russia and Syria now appear to be creating between Turkey and the Kurds, or the prospect of the Syrian government moving into Manbij. A positive result, officials said, would not only prevent Turkish forces and their Syrian allies — many of whom are on the jihadist side of the anti-Assad rebel coalition — from moving into the town, but it would also potentially push any remaining YPF forces to the eastern side of the Euphrates.

While Turkey has supported rebel forces fighting against Assad, it has never come into direct conflict with the Syrian military, and U.S. officials believe it would far rather have the Syrian government in charge of Manbij than the Kurds. There are hopes that Moscow, which has been simultaneously working to improve relations with Turkey, can help persuade Erdogan to back off.

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What the Americans manifestly do not want to see happen is the creation of a new military front and potential conflagration around Manbij that would drain both attention and resources away from plans for Raqqa. With the city believed to be the centre of Islamic State planning for overseas attacks, the offensive is seen as urgent and has already been delayed from original plans to begin in February.

In his final days in office, former president Barack Obama approved plans to send two or three Apache attack helicopters to the Syrian theatre but deferred approval of arming the Kurds as part of the SDF. Rather than moving immediately on the plan already in place, Trump at the end of January ordered the Pentagon to draw up new options by the end of February.

With the only real alternative being to use U.S. ground troops against Raqqa, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis has stuck with the basic outline of the plan drawn up under Obama, officials said. The combined Syrian Arab-Kurdish force, now numbering more than 50,000, has moved steadily to within less than six miles of the outskirts of Raqqa in an isolation phase that is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.

Even if Turkey does direct its forces south toward Raqqa, the hope is that the difficult terrain they would have to travel would prevent them from reaching there until after the offensive is well underway.

Rather than a wholesale revision, the new proposal calls for increased U.S. participation, with more personnel and equipment and less-restrictive rules. As they have in support of the Iraqi military in Mosul, U.S. fixed-wing aircraft and attack helicopters would actively back the ground force. U.S. owned and operated artillery would be moved into Syria to pound the militants from afar, while more Special Operations troops would move closer to the front lines — requiring more U.S. military assets to protect them.

The SDF — both Kurds and Arabs — would be supplied with weaponry along with vehicles and equipment to travel through and disarm what are expected to be extensive minefields and other improvised explosive devices along the way.

Trump’s executive order also directed the Pentagon to recommend changes to Obama administration restrictions on military rules of engagement that went beyond those required by international law. Principal among them is an Obama executive order, signed last summer, imposing strict rules to avoid civilian casualties. It is not known whether the new military proposal would lift those restrictions.

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Arts, History, Science, Society

Quantum Leaps: ‘Leonardo Da Vinci’

leonardo-da-vinci-the-art-of-science-2-638

1452 – 1519

It is something of an indulgence to include Leonardo Da Vinci in any study of scientists who changed the world, not least because most of his work remained unpublished and largely forgotten centuries after his death. His, however, was undoubtedly one of the most brilliant scientific minds of all time; arguably the biggest handicap preventing him from profoundly changing the world was the era in which he lived.

The genius of Leonardo’s designs for his inventions so far outstripped both his contemporaries’ intellectual grasp and contemporary technology that they were rendered literally inconceivable to anyone but him. If Leonardo could have teleported to Edison’s time, with his access to nineteenth century technology, one can only speculate how much more he may or may not have achieved than even Edison himself. But even in his own time, Leonardo’s achievements were notable:

. RENAISSANCE MAN

Leonardo is celebrated as the Renaissance artist who created such masterpieces as the Last Supper (1495 – 97) and the Mona Lisa (1503 – 06), yet much of his time was spent in scientific enquiry, often to the detriment of his art. The range of areas Leonardo examined was breathtaking. It included astronomy, geography, palaeontology, geology, botany, zoology, hydrodynamics, optics, aerodynamics and anatomy. In the later field, in particular, he undertook a number of human dissections, largely on stolen corpses, to make detailed sketches of the body. Irrespective of the breadth of his studies, however, perhaps the most important contribution Leonardo made to science was the method of his enquiry, introducing a rational, systematic approach to the study of nature after a thousand years of superstition. He would begin by setting himself straightforward scientific queries such as ‘How does a bird fly?’ Next, he would observe his subject in its natural environment, make notes on its behaviour, then repeat the observation over and over to ensure accuracy, before making sketches and ultimately drawing conclusions.

. AERODYNAMICS

Moreover, in many instances he could then directly apply the results of his enquiries into nature to designs for inventions for human use. For example, his work in aerodynamics led him to make sketches for several flying machines – which, potentially, could have flown – including a primitive helicopter, some five hundred years before the invention became a reality. He even envisaged the need for his flying machines to have a retractable landing gear to improve their aerodynamics once airborne. In 1485 he designed a parachute, three hundred years before becoming an actuality, and included calculations for the necessary size of material to safely bring to ground an object with the same weight as a human. He also had an excellent understanding of the workings of levers and gears, enabling him to design bicycles and cranes.

. HYDRODYNAMICS

Leonardo’s studies in hydrodynamics led to numerous sketches on designs for waterwheels and water-powered machines centuries before the industrial revolution. In addition, he sketched humidity-measuring equipment as well as a number of primitive diving suits, mostly with long snorkel devices to provide a supply of air.

. MILITARY INVENTIONS

During his work for the Duke of Milan between 1482 and 1499, Leonardo prepared an array of designs for weaponry such as catapults and missiles. Even in this arena, however, he could not help but create sketches of weapons that lay way ahead of their time such as hand-grenades, mortars, machine-type guns, a primitive tank and, most audaciously, a submarine.

Leonardo’s Influence

Any list of scientists ‘who could’ have changed the world, then Leonardo Da Vinci would surely be at the top of the list. But although many of the designs for his potentially world-changing creations were never published, his methodical approach to science marks a significant and symbolic stepping-stone from the Dark Ages into the modern era.

Hoping to secure employment with the Duke of Milan, he wrote to him that his areas of expertise included: the construction of bridges and irrigation canals, the designing of military weapons and architecture, as well as painting and sculpture. To add to the list, Leonardo is also credited with being the first ever person to conceive of a bicycle.

Supplementary appendage:

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Leonardo Da Vinci painting: The Mona Lisa. An oil painting by the Italian Renaissance artist which was created in 1503.

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Britain, European Union, Government, Politics, Society

View: Sir John Major and the Brexit vote

BRITAIN

john-major2

Intro: Crucially, however, if Sir John accepts the democratic decision, his counsel would surely be better deployed by helping Theresa May achieve the best possible deal for Britain

IN the space of just ten days, we have had two high profile speeches from two former British prime ministers. Both have entered the Brexit fray at a critical moment in the passage of the Article 50 Bill through Parliament.

First, Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, has called for a mass movement to overturn the result of the June 23 plebiscite. Mr Blair is orchestrating his campaign through a new foundation, a lobby group, titled Open Britain. Now, Sir John Major, the former Conservative prime minister, has waded into the debate. Sir John warns of all sorts of pitfalls ahead as Britain negotiates its exit from the European Union.

The former Conservative leader does not follow his successor in Downing Street by proposing a campaign to reverse the democratic decision of the electorate. Unlike Mr Blair, Sir John says that while he considers Brexit to be a ‘historic mistake’ it was one the British people were entitled to make.

John Major’s principal concern is with what he regards as the over-optimistic and rather simplistic expectations of those who desire a clean break with Europe. He fears for the future of the United Kingdom if Scotland were to hold another independence referendum, as well as for peace in Northern Ireland. Sir John says trade deals will be hard to achieve, the cost of leaving the EU will be substantial and that there will be long-term political consequences.

All of these points were made by various factions within the Remain camp during the referendum campaign, but the vote went against them. Sir John says that Remainers are howled down when they continue to express their opposition to Brexit, inferring an impingement against the traditions of free speech in Britain. Some will believe that Sir John’s protests are overexuberant.

One reason why some Brexiteers are overreacting to the criticisms of the referendum result is because they believe efforts are under way to reverse it. Indeed, some have argued that Mr Blair is leading those efforts in consort with Sir John Major.

Crucially, however, if Sir John accepts the democratic decision, his counsel would surely be better deployed by helping Theresa May achieve the best possible deal for Britain.

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