Video - Assange & Philip Giraldi (ex-CIA) - Topic: RUSSIA, TURKEY & SYRIA

ꕤ ASSANGE VIDEO TOPIC:  RUSSIA, TURKEY & SYRIA SOURCE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOu520INXqA&feature=youtu.be ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Video posted on YouTube by Russia Today. Supporters of Russia and Syria aren't happy with Julian Assange's suggestion that Russian intelligence didn't anticipate the Turkish strike on their pilots in Syria. Assange refers to it as the "severe incompetence of the Russian intelligence services".  Ouch.   Assange goes on to say it was "... severe incompetence in relation to Ukraine, and severe incompetence in relation to Turkey because there were plenty of warning signals being given off by the Turks." Assange asks "Why weren't those warning signals properly understood?", before saying that this is not to justify what Turkey did. Assange says that in a realpolitik analysis, those messages should have been understood and that we should think about what will happen in about 6 months time, when the West, Russia and Iran are committed in various ways to the elimination of ISIS, because the establishments in those countries consider it a partial threat to their own interests. He goes on to say this wasn't always the case, and that ISIS was fed in various ways by Western interests and interests of Saudis and so on. Assange suggests that there will come a point in about 6 months time, where ISIS is almost completely debilitated, to the point where it will no longer have organised control of some portion of territory, and that ISIS will be back to being a guerilla group. Assange suggests out that in 6 months time when ISIS is practically eliminated as a significant force, Syria will have had hardware from about 10 or 12 different countries bombing Syria , and he asks:  what are all those forces going to do then, are they just going to go home?     Damascus is 70km away, and they can just steer 70km to Damascus if they want, so it's a very dangerous situation, Assange says. Assange also points out 'nationalistic imperatives' in Turkey and in Russia, and that the Syrian [government] is fighting for its life. Former counter-terrorism specialist and CIA military intelligence officer Philip Giraldi (what was basically said (not entirely word-for-word)): Erdogan has very skilfully (and sometimes clumsily) fear-mongered on a number of levels and on a number of issues to the Turkish people, and the fear-mongering has enabled Erdogan to aggrandise power, in both legal and illegal ways, in Turkey, and now Turkey has a head of state who is an autocrat, who essentially is not limited by any rules and feels himself free to do whatever he wants. Regarding the shoot-down, Giraldi disagrees with Assange to a certain extent: Shooting down a plane is an act of war, particularly when the plane was not threatening Turkey in any genuine way and the disturbing element for me is the fact that this was not a decision made by a colonel or a general on the border defending Turkey's airspace, this was a decision made at the highest levels of the Turkish government, and that means that Erdogan was setting up or provoking an act of war type situation with the Russians with two objectives: One is being to scuttle any plans for a grand alliance against ISIS, as he does not want that, for a number of reasons. The second reason would be to try to pull NATO in, in an attempt to support his view of Assad, his view of ISIS and, most particularly, his view of the Kurds.   The Kurds are essential to Turkish thinking -- strategic thinking.  The Kurds are the enemy.  ISIS is not the enemy.  Assad is only the enemy because, in a sense, they see him as a surrogate for the Kurds. Giraldi thinks Erdogan's created a global crisis by shooting down the Russian aircraft, as it could have escalated.  Giraldi says he thinks Erodogan is reckless and that this was a manifestation of his recklessness. And that's all folks. Lots of interesting points made. I've not watched multi-national conflicts in the Middle East for long enough to be able to weigh up any of this.  I think this is an edit from one of the videos I have banked up to watch.  I think I need to quit messing around with graphics editors and shuffling pictures around. Really enjoyed that. ---------------------- ꕤ The ex-CIA guy, Giraldi, comes across like he might be good natured and unassuming.  Nothing like I imagined CIA.  He seems nice. The Assange audio always seems to be muffled (but this wasn't as muffled as the last video I'd been watching). The last  (French) video I watched (some of) was a shocker.  Tried to transcribe but it was hard going ...  I'm also super tired, which doesn't help.  Kept drifting off to sleep in the bath.  lol  ꕤ