UPDATE: In the course of the day, Israel launched massive retaliation raids inside Syria which targeted eight Syrian and four Iranian military sites. The raids came in retaliation for Syria’s downing of an Israeli F-16 yesterday.
In response to the massive Israeli incursion Russia, whose anti-aircraft systems were probably responsible for downing the war plane, warned Israel not to overstep:
Moscow said the Israeli airstrikes on Syrian bases potentially imperiled Russian military advisers stationed there. “The creation of any threat to the lives and safety of Russian military servicemen currently in Syria on the invitation of its lawful government to help fight terrorists is absolutely unacceptable,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Putin is warning Netanyahu that there is a red line and that whatever plans he has against Iran better avoid harming Russian interests. The problem is that Russia and Iran’s interests in Syria are aligned. That makes Israel a potential Russian enemy if it really lets loose inside Syria. This could become “interesting.”
In contrast, the U.S. has released a statement from a State Department underling undersecretary decrying the escalation and blaming Iran. Clearly, either Trump is distracted or this is a low priority issue for him. This is a perfect example of how a tinderbox region can explode when a U.S. president is asleep at the switch.
Let’s start with the useful information Lerner offers (it isn’t much, but it is something): Iran launched a sophisticated new stealth drone from inside Syria which crossed the frontier (to have a frontier you need a border which, thanks to Israeli rejectionism, there is none defined) into Israel. It was shot down after flying 90 seconds into Israel by an IAF Apache helicopter.
Big bad Israel doesn’t truck with such nonsense from puny frontline states like Syria or its Iranian allies, so the American-made F-16s were summoned to teach the little Arab sh*ts a lesson. The war planes struck at the sites which supposedly launched the drone (though why the Iranians wouldn’t have had plenty of time to scatter and hide their launch vehicle after the drone was launched, I don’t know) destroying it. Lerner, being the good IDF poodle he is, even offers advanced video from the tip of the very Israeli missile which allegedly took out the mobile launcher (though he offers no proof that the video is of the actual event he claims). We don’t see the launcher destroyed because, presumably the video camera was destroyed when it hit the target. Again, this is all supposition based on Lerner’s word, which isn’t worth a bucket of warm piss (I love old American political sayings!).
Then the plot thickens considerably when the Syrian air-defense, operating Russian-built missile systems, sprang into action and launched a barrage at the attacking F-16s. For the first time in several years, during which Israel routinely attacked Syrian targets with impunity, the Syrians hit their target and downed a war plane, which crashed inside Israel, severely wounding one pilot and lightly wounding the other.
Though the wounded pilot’s name has not been released, an Israeli media site reported his name is Oded Karmon, 35. The site has taken down the article, probably because military censorship forbids the publication of IAF pilots’ names. At least one reason for this prohibition is that Israel does not want to see its pilots arrested in foreign capitals and hauled before the dock in the Hague for war crimes.
This is outrageous from an Israeli perspective: an Arab state actually fighting back and drawing blood on Israeli pilots and a plane worth tens of millions? Something not to be countenanced. That’s why the military PR machine sprang into action and deployed Lerner to lay on the hasbara sh*t very thick. The very notion that a bunch of Arabs would violate Israeli air space and then down an Israeli plane is simply intolerable.
So, despite the fact that Israel has been routinely assassinating Syrian, Hezbollah and Iranian commanders for years with similar attacks on Syrian soil; that it has routinely bombed weapons convoys inside Syria; that it has routinely shot down Syrian war planes which momentarily and accidentally crossed Israel-occupied Golan–all this amounts to nothing because, after all, it is Israel. Tiny, pure Israel whose actions are always justified, who is always the victim.
Despite Israeli military firepower (it is ranked the 11th strongest army in the world), much of Israeli military strategy consists of smoke and mirrors. An Israeli war with Iran? Hardly. Because Israeli planes invading the territory of a foreign country are shot down, Netanyahu is going to attack Tehran? Actually, in this political climate he could, and get away with it. Trump will, if anything, applaud him. The UN would stand by helplessly. While the Sunni states cheered.
But even Bibi isn’t stupid enough to go there (or is he?). That’s why Lerner’s headline is a bunch of war-mongering nonsense; and why the Forward is guilty of pimping for a new Middle East war. That is unforgivable in the current incendiary climate in which a single match could start a regional conflagration. But why should Jane Eisner care? She has her nice Jewish trivia listicles to tend…
And here’s the real kicker: keep your eye on Israeli domestic politics because that clearly factors into the equation of current events. Bibi Netanyahu is about to be hit by an Israeli police recommendation that he be indicted on corruption charges. And that’s only the first of four cases against him. He could be indicted on all of the other charges as well, though it’s a bit early to tell.
What goes better with a potentially fatal criminal probe against an Israeli prime minister than a nice little war to liven things up, united the populace against a foreign enemy, and distract them from the greedy little bugger sitting in the PM’s chair?? And don’t you dare think for once that Bibi isn’t capable of thinking in such terms. He is and he does.
NOTE: Reddit is one of the strangest online information portals imaginable. Some subreddits like r/Palestine welcome wide-ranging discussion and others like r/Israel and r/IsraelPalestine censor opinions that aren’t fully in accord with the prevailing wisdom, as represented by the prejudices of the moderators. Today’s and yesterday’s posts were submitted to r/Syriancivilwar and summarily rejected and removed by the moderator because they “offer no new information.” Yet another moderator said my post was “opinion,” and gave me a formal warning. This is clearly bogus, as I pointed out the perspective I offered was actually new and not generally covered in the MSM. What “yankeedoodle,” the moderator really meant to say, but couldn’t or wouldn’t, is it offered no new information he approved of.
Lol I hope we get along. I post here often enough…
Anyway…
‘…An Israeli war with Iran? ‘
Of course not. The whole idea is a US war with Iran. That’s why Israel tries to attribute her terrorist acts to us. See various assassinations, and in particular, an especially horrific bombing in eastern Iran. CIA agents…
If Israel attacks Iran, everyone just says ‘now she’s gone too far.’ Plus, absent nukes, she can’t win.
If the US attacks Iran, WE can indeed be Hitler II (you ain’t seen nothin’ yet). What’s more, we’ll get stuck, and we’ll be ostracized by the whole world.
…and Israel will have us all to herself. Sigh. xxx ooo. True love.
The story I have read is this: the Syrians knew that Israel had tabs on the air base that hosts Iranians drones, and so they allowed the Israelis to see all the preparations for the launch of that drone into Israel.
The reason they did that is because the Syrians calculated that this air base is beyond the range of Israeli standoff missiles launched from the safety of Lebanese airspace.
So the drone was a deliberate attempt to elicit a retaliatory raid from the IDF with the full understanding that this would require the Israeli jets to enter Syrian airspace, rather than simply loiter inside Lebanese airspace to fire-and-scoot.
A trap, in a word, and one that the Israelis fell into.
Not just a slap on the face, but a serious humiliation for Netanyahu because he can’t afford to escalate this into a full-blown war against the Syrians. Allowing himself to be dragged into that would seriously upend the IDF plan to go all ape-shit on Hezbollah inside Lebanon, which Israel can only hope to prosecute if Syria sits on the sidelines.
Which, obviously, wouldn’t be true if that shooting-war starts with Israel and Syria shooting each other up.
Apparently we have destroyed about half of the Syrian anti-aircraft power.
For the first time in weeks no Syrian planes bombed Syrian citizens.
Hallelujah
@Ariel Koren: You’re full of horseshit. Nor do you know anything about Syrian air activities. Syrian planes don’t need anti aircraft batteries in order fly sorties against targets. Your claim about how much of Syrian air defense was harmed is also suspect, if not a downright lie. You think the Russians haven’t factored into the air defence systems they sell the Syrians how to protect them from Israeli attack?
Hallelujah, You’re a bum.
Sorry, simohurtta: Didn’t see your similar comment till after I published mine.
According to some reports, we destroyed many control towers at Syrian Air Force bases.
And why would Russia bring in air defense? Rebels do not have aircraft and shooting down any other airplane can get into political mess.
@ Ariel Koren: I don’t care how many control towers the IAF destroyed. Do you think that Syrians, Russian & Israelis, for that matter, don’t have alternative options for controlling air power than their control towers?
Read your sources. The Russians ARE Syria’s air defence providing trainers and the hardware including missiles, launchers, etc. for the Syrians.
“Apparently we have destroyed about half of the Syrian anti-aircraft power”
Soooooo, let me get this right: in the morning the Israelis knew so little about Syrian anti-aircraft defences that they were taken completely by surprise when the Syrians took down an F-16, yet by the end of that vey same day the Israeli’s knowledge of those defences had become so complete that they were able to confidently state that, yep, we’ve taken out half of them.
Correct?
And it doesn’t worry you that there might be a wee, ahem, disconnect between the former statement of fact and the latter statement of claim?
Seems to me to be much more sensible to assume that if the Israelis were clueless – and complacent – in the morning then they are likely to be just as clueless – though considerably more bombastic – in the evening.
After all, nobody likes to be humiliated in front of their adoring public…..
Fact is, Syria keeps quit about the whole thing. They gave away some candies in the markets for moral but didn’t reveal anything about what was destroyed.
So… I guess humiliation is exactly what they feel right now.
@ Ariel Koren: No, if you actually knew anything about Syria, which you clearly don’t, you’d realize that most Syrians are celebrating their victory over Israeli might. Nor are you the person to “guess” what any Arab is thinking or feeling.
“Fact is, Syria keeps quit about the whole thing”
They are expected to prove a negative, are they? How does that work, exactly?
“They gave away some candies in the markets for moral but didn’t reveal anything about what was destroyed.”
Gee, and there I was thinking the opposite i.e. it is up to Israel to provide evidence to back up its bravado, not vice versa.
Because this seems to have escaped your attention: the Israelis were very quick to release the early morning video feed as that missile smacked into that “Iranian command truck”, yet in all the “taking out half of Syria’s air defences” barrage that followed the Syrian retort there was…… nothin’.
Nothing at all.
No drone footage of a Syrian launch platform going Kaboooooooooom!
No video feed from the missiles zeroing in on Syria radar installations.
Maybe in all the excitement none of the over-excitable lads at IDF Headquarters thought to hit the “Record” button. Maybe.
Or maybe, just maybe, the Israelis can’t actually back up their claim.
Mind you, the Syrians can point to that burning wreckage and say “yep, pretty sure we nailed it”:.
And, regardless of all the Israeli shouting, that’s pretty much all the Syrians are obliged to point to.
The easiest way to test that is to fly more jets into Syria.
🙂
Soli
God must love Bibi to have this happen a week before he was going to be arrested for corruption…
@ Shulamit Braha: Not sure God is controlling events surrounding Bibi. I think he’s delegated that to the Dark Side.
“The raids came in retaliation for Syria’s downing of an Israeli F-16 yesterday.”
Is this mistake was made on purpose in an attempt to hide the fact that Iranian forces (from Syria) were the ones who started this round by sending a drone to Israel’s border?
Or is this your subliminal happiness on an Israeli aircraft being hit?
@ Papok: The Iranians didn’t “start this round.” The first round was started by Israel, as I wrote here (and which you conveniently ignored) with scores of attacks by Israeli forces inside Syria. That’s the aggression & belligerence which drew the Iranian response. Don’t be fooled by Bibi’s hasbara. There is historical context to everything in the Middle East. You’ve just left out most of it to the detriment of your argument.
You link Iranian activity to “aggression” by Israel against Syria to claim that Israel started this round? So now all of a sudden Iran is Syria’s defence forces?!
And the Israeli “aggression”, was it towards Syrian Mardi Gras parade? Or was it aimed against weapon convoys ?
But wait, let me guess: Israel is still to claim because it occupied the Golan… no… Israel is tp blaim because it even has the nerve to exist.
@ Papok: Israel has nuclear weapons and manufactures billions of dollars worth of armaments each year. So by your logic, any Arab state feeling threatened should have every right to bomb Israeli weapons plants. I want you to explicitly tell me you believe they have the right to do that (whether they can or not is irrelevant, eventually they may be able to). If not, you’re a friggin’ hypocrite. Allocating to Israel the right to invade and bomb other countries without them having the same right vis a vis Israel. But this wouldn’t be the first time a hasbara hypocrite like you did this.
You read the comment rules & you read ’em good, bud. If you try that bullshit here it’s a quick exit ticket for you. First, you don’t tell me what I believe (nor do I believe what you claim). Second, you don’t talk about Israel or Palestinian denialism–that’s a banning offense here.
Consider yourself warned. Your next comment rule offense could bring moderation.
First of all there is a big difference between manufacturing weapons in your own country and sending weapons to terror groups of another country. But any way, if Iran really believe that Israel is a threat, then by all means, they should do whatever necessary to try and stop that threat (ofcourse taking into consideration they can lose). But we all know that Israel has no interest in Iran (except in regard to stop them from being able to destroy Israel) Yet for some reason Iranian officials and leaders are declaring time and time again that they want to destroy Israel, for various religious reason.
@ Papok:
Um, no there isn’t. Israel sends its weapons to tyrants and terror groups around the world. Read any number of posts here which confirm that. So that means Israeli weapons and hardware manufactured inside Israel and shipped to tyrants may be targeted for destruction in the same way Israel targets Iran & HEzbollah? I’m glad you just granted permission to Iran to ship its weapons to Syria and Hezbollah. Since you’ve done so you may now not approve of Israel bombing those weapons in Syria and elsewhere.
I could just as easily say “Iran has no interest in Israel” and we’d both be dead wrong.
Nope, never said it. Read the blog posts I’ve written disproving this bit of Zio-scam. Comment rules clearly state you may not state falsehoods. The claim you’ve made is demonstrably false. DOn’t make it again unless you want the door to hit you on the way outa here.
Israel’s belligerency in the region is known throughout the world and it has zero to do with hatred and more to do with the reality.
One cannot claim self-defense and foster policies of occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, war solicitation domestically and abroad, and publish papers in the military reviewed media over and over about the “next war” openly while claiming self-defense.
Does Israel even know what “self-defense” means? One mistake via false invocation is excusable; repetition implies willful guilt. “Self-defense” is Israel’s false justification for offensive violence.
“Is this mistake was made on purpose in an attempt to hide the fact that Iranian forces (from Syria) were the ones who started this round by sending a drone to Israel’s border?”
You really should listen to yourself.
Even the Israelis are acknowledging that this intrusion was carried out by a copy of the USAF stealth drone that the Iranians hijacked over Iranian airspace.
You know the one, it was a big embarrassment to Obama and the Iranians gloated for weeks over it
So the Iranians were only doing to Israel what the Americans had been doing to Iran.
Now, I invite you to compare and contrast: when the AMERICANS flew their drone into Iran did the Iranians go ape-shit and launch missile attacks on the US base from whence it came?
Or did they simply say “Hey, we’ll have that, thanks!”.
And when the IRANIANS then did exactly the same thing with their copy of that same drone did the Israelis simply say “Oh no you don’t, we’re not letting you get that thing back!”
Or did they go all ape-shit and bomb the crap out of the T4 airfield?
One seems to me to be the reaction of a grown-up, while the other appears to be the antics of an excitable juvenile with anger-management issues.
I’ll let you take a stab at identifying who-is-whom, though I have the depressing feeling that you’ll get it wrong.
Hallelujah — seriously do you Ariel really believe in that naive Israeli war propaganda. Syria has tens of thousands of men in their air defense forces and despite of the long civil war quite much of equipment and trained troops
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Air_Defense_Force
Do you believe that Russia would allow Israeli so easily to destroy halve of the Syrian air defense capacity and so weaken their own military situation in Syria? Russia has also the interests of tens of billion dollars in selling their very developed air defense systems around the world. There is much interest in buing the Russian systems in your neighborhood and else around the world. The S-300, S-400, Pantsir-S1 etc are very “serious” weapon systems. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Iraq, Syria etc would not have bought the Russian systems if they would not do what is wanted of them.
Israelis have the tendency of undermining their opponents and creating rather hilarious war hero tales. Even in 1973 war Syrians and others had destroyed 102–387 aircraftts of the 440 Israel had with the Soviet weapons. Of the 1700 Israelis tanks 1000 were “kaput” when the war was ended. Surely the Arabs had lost in 1973 plenty of equipment, but they had enormous reserves waiting to join to war. The great powers saved Israel by ending the war so fast. Now Arabs have equal level weapons as Israel has.
“Now Arabs have equal level weapons as Israel has” do you really believe so? Good!
In 73 there were indeed many casualties due to underestimating Arab armies and soviet weapons. The range you give for downed aircraft is silly. If you can’t be more accurate, you shouldn’t quote any number but no doubt many IAF planes were shut down.
When Russia sell Syria s-300 or s-400 it will be a different story. At least if we allow it to be operational and not take it out before.
@ Ariel Koren: You are both arguing the wrong terms. Arabs don’t need to have superior or even equal levels of lethality in their armaments. They only need to fight Israel to a draw in order to be perceived as winners by both the world & especially the Israeli public. And clearly the Arabs can inflict major damage on Israeli forces. That’s all they need to do in order to provide a credible force & deterrent.
[comment deleted for comment rule violation: you may not publish comments that are racist, Islamophobic, Arabophobic; or that include false, ethnic stereotypes. Just as the rules don’t permit the same behavior directed against Israelis or Jews. If you do this again you may be moderated.]
The numbers of destroyed Israeli planes in the 1973 war were from Wikipedia and the sources were a White House briefing from 22.10.1973 and the History of Egyptian Air Force. The true figure is something between 102 and 387. The White House briefing is interesting, it was done in Middle of the war and it was Israeli General P. Beled informed Kissinger.
https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB98/octwar-56.pdf
Believing that any army honestly tells the truth about their real material losses is naive even for an Israeli. Not USA, not Israel, not Russia etc ever tell the public the whole truth even after the war. Israel had to tell now about the downed Israeli plane, because it fell in the middle of a populated area. Did Israeli army tell the truth about of their losses in Lebanon during the decades? The whole Israeli propaganda aimed to their own Zionists and western world is built on that Israel kills and destroys in the ratio against own losses with 100 to 1 and is always superior. However the reality is different, Israel might kill in a real war against Arab and Muslim world with the ratio of 3 to 1. But the reality is that Arabs and Muslims have 100 times more military resources and manpower. Destroying Gaza in the past decades “operations” are not real wars, they more are equal to that of German SS destroying Warsaw Ghetto. A clever Israeli would at the latest during 2006 Lebanon war noticed that the Israeli superiority time is over.
Without air superiority Israel is in real military troubles. Could Israelis really fight weeks and months against against endless equal and massive ground forces? I doubt it.
By the way Syria has already bought S-300 systems. Are they operational is unclear. Your opinion that it is Israel which decides the fate of them is mildly said amusing. Surely Russia as the main backer of Syrian regime has military interests in Syria. If it would allow Israel to destroy Syria’s air control and air defense it would be would be extremely dangerous for the Russian troops and bases in Syria. There is no military, economical or strategic sense for Russia to allow such moves. Letting Israel now and then inform of destroying a couple of buildings or so called weapon convoys is a way letting Israel to satisfy its own home front and US media. However these more or less imaginary attacks must be militarily insignificant to Russia, Syria or Iran.
“Israel Pimps for New Middle East War” – and what do Iranians do? Sit on their hands?
@ Ariel Koren: Iranians are less inciting, less provocative, less bellicose than Israelis. But Iranians will not leave Israel to be the only party willing to stand up for its interests aggressively. So yes, the Iranians are no shrinking violets. Nor should they be.
“Iranians are less inciting, less provocative, less bellicose than Israelis”.
I believe great numbers of Iraqis, Syrians, Yemenis, Bahrainis, Saudis and Lebanese would beg to differ.
@ Doctor John:
And you are an expert on what Iraqis, Syrians, Saudis think BECAUSE…?
I would expect Sunni client states of the Saudis like the ones you mention to believe the worst of Iran and any Shia state. That doesn’t mean the propaganda they spout is true.
From other sources I understand that the drone did not go into Israel proper, but only over the Golan Heights. That means it was still within Syria, which in turn means Israel’s subsequent attack was not justified legally, even if has unilaterally annexed the Golan, or even if it would only be controlling the Golan.
Either way, the appearance of the drone was a godsend to Israel because it could use that as an excuse for its subsequent attack, and similarly the downing of the F16 was a fantastic opportunity for the massive subsequent attack.
The entire “Iranian drone” scenario/narrative is only confirmed through one source, Israel and its military driven and/or censored media, and has many faults inborn: (1) the area the drone would have been in is not considered Israeli by international law; (2) Syria claims any drone airborne was tending to its security strategy against the terrorists Israel openly supports while providing mere lip service otherwise; (3) Israel’s aggression upon Syria, including over 100 war acts, did not start with this scenario and so a claim of “self-defense” is precluded; (4) Syria has no domestic manufacturing base for drones and so it must purchase them (all Syrian drones will be non-Syrian); and, (5) there is no tangible reason why Iran or Syria would send a drone into Israeli airspace and then — as your great insight recorded in this post — not move the MOBILE launcher once the drone was targeted.
The more likely scenario is that Israel is suffering PTSD after getting smacked down by Syria, 9x smaller than Iran, as they were warned would happen with additional illegal intrusions back in October 2017 by Syria. And that Hasbara has kicked in to “explain away” the loss on the scoreboard and complete popping of the fantasy illusion that Israel can get away with all of its illegal acts.
Soli
Drone was shut down over Israeli land no one disputes (not over Golan).
2-3-4. No one said it was Syrian. It was Iranian.
The launcher was over 100km from Israeli border. They felt safe. AND in the clip, it does look like the command car was moving.
Sorry — all of this information re: a drone even existing, the location of the launcher, etc., is delivered from the side making two hundred poor excuses and justifications for why their F-16 was shot down by the Syrian military, in command of Russian anti-aircraft weapons and also Iranian drones, which they purchased.
Was the F-16 an “American jet” or was it sold to Israel by America? These semantics don’t work on anyone of minimal political potency.
The Syrian narrative is that the drone was operating in the Golan Heights to observe terrorist camps, which they have a clear interest in doing. The Israeli narrative is that, without clear motivation outlined, that they launched the drone into Israeli territory. There is conjecture via optical analysis that this was done to bait the Israelis into a trap.
The same Israeli side that is delivering that counter-narrative lies about other countless things in defense of its staked interests (the occupation, the ethnic cleansing scheme and “Greater Israel” project, ties to puppet Arab states, foreign espionage, political pressure groups abroad like AIPAC/ADL, clear influence over many media assets, Rachel Corrie, Ahed Tamimi, etc.), and even more so, about this even being one of “Iranian aggression”.
Clearly, if there was a trap set, the launcher vehicle wouldn’t have been exposed. Clearly, if they intended to fly the drone into Israeli territory, the launcher vehicle would have been well-moved prior to that intrusion. The narrative of the drone seems like a way to explain away Israel’s guilt in trying to strike Syria several times.
The only thing there is clear evidence of is that an F-16 was downed by the Syrian military after several publicly stated Israeli aggressions against Syria, claiming a right to topple the duly elected government of Syria, which runs mutual to terrorist interests. Syria warned it would happen in October 2017, and it did.
Israel also used Lebanese airspace illegally to retaliate against Syria. The claim now by the Israeli side is that half of Syria’s air defenses were destroyed. Modus operandi are repetitive and clear indication of the things the hasbara narrative won’t say and tries to cover up. We can assume Israel was intruding into Syrian airspace and was downed as a legitimate result of self-defense by Syria.
We cannot accept the lies that Iran had involvement in this, as if Syria has no military of its own.
Soli
@ Soleimani:
I can only take the grandstanding on Iran’s behalf so far. There are plenty of arguments that can be made here. But claiming no Iranian involvement stretches things beyond the reasonable. I don’t want to get into an argument with you on this. But it’s entirely credible that Iran flew that drone and that it flew into Israel. I see no need to try to paint Iran as white as snow in this matter. No one in this standoff is an angel: not the Israelis, not the Saudis, not the Syrians, not the Iranians and not Hezbollah.
Let’s not continue this in this thread. Feel free to continue to contribute to other threads.
I didn’t see this until now. I have to be clear, I am actually Pakistani in ancestry, but American by birth and my secular family is intermarried with secular European Jews, so I am not really grandstanding for any particular country (or do not intend to do so). I just have an opinion that differs than what was said.
I think the main factor being neglected here is that Syria DOES have its own military and that, if we are blaming Assad for things like acts against his own people, then we should at least go to the point of least logical resistance re: who flew Syria’s purchased drones.
If we do claim that Iran flew the drone produced by them in Syria, then do we also claim by the same logic that Russia launched the anti-aircraft missile in Syria produced by them?
That is really the point I was driving. Why is Iran part of this story and by whose hand? Why isn’t Russia, to juxtapose?
Please feel free to not publish this comment. I am really just trying to clarify my message for your own review, Richard.
I came to this blog because your views are refreshing. I just hope that sometimes I am allowed to disagree without being categorized as another troll or grandstander. I used to have the same problems creating coalition because I wouldn’t allow for minute differences of opinion. The only way to increase our amplitude is to be more tolerant of allies and less tolerant of those who clearly have the wrong motives in mind.
Soli