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© Mohammad Hannon/APPro-fascist military forces to participate in Eager Lion military exercise in Amman, Jordan, Sunday, May 27.
Ukraine's referendums in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk provinces earlier this month were met with condemnation from the West, especially the US.

Accusations of the electorate voting "at the barrel of a gun" were thrown at regions where almost 90 per cent in Donetsk and 96.2 per cent in Luhansk voted in favour of self-rule, on a near 90 per cent turnout.

Many did indeed vote at the barrels of guns. The guns of the junta in Kiev which, following a successful coup overthrowing an elected government, is now backed by the US, Britain, the EU and Nato.

The army was sent east to stop people voting. Its actions resulted in several deaths.

As the barrels of guns go, they don't get much bigger than those focused on the voters of Ukraine when the new regime holds its national elections on May 25.

The US warship Vella Gulf is expected to arrive in the Black Sea "on the eve of presidential elections," with US diplomats stressing that "the United States wanted to support the actions of the new Ukrainian authorities through the presence of US warships in the Black Sea."

In "support" of the elections the Vella Gulf is "armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles and anti-submarine and anti-aircraft Standard-2 and Standard-3 missiles. The ship carries a total of 122 missiles on board. The vessel also has two multi-purpose helicopters."

It is also "a guided missile cruiser built for open-ocean warfare and long-range attacks on targets inland."

That should bring the voters out.

Additionally, the French navy's intelligence ship Dupuy de Lome is currently in the waters off Bulgaria's port city of Varna, "designed for radar monitoring and capable of intercepting communications including phone calls and emails."

If the people of Ukraine survive US military backing for "democracy," the people of Syria may face an even bigger challenge in their presidential election nine days later.

As Ukraine goes to the polls Operation Eager Lion kicks off in Syria's neighbour Jordan. It is a "military training drill" involving 24 countries, "organised by the Jordan armed forces in co-operation with the US army."

US military exercise names are long pondered over to make them meaningful, assertive, with the ring of authority, dominance and control.

Eager Lion has all the authority of a bully's playground taunt - "Assad" means lion in Arabic.

The "training drill" happens to run from May 25 to June 10. Syria goes to the polls on June 3.

The distance between Jordan's capital Amman and Damascus is a mere 109 miles.

The training drill has happened before. Last year's exercise was described by Natowatch.org as "a Nato exercise in all but name."

Last year was smaller, with 18 nations taking part. Equipment "drilled" included "amphibious assault ships, AV-B Harrier II warplanes, C130 Hercules, F18 Hornets, F16 Falcons, Patriot missile systems and the V-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft."

This year we learn that "the land component includes a mixture of special operations forces and marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which played a role in Operation Odyssey Dawn to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya in 2011."

We know what happened to Libya.

Ground, air and naval forces will be deployed. The US now has 1,000 troops stationed in Jordan long-term.

In April last year we saw another silly-named operation in Qatar, Operation Eagle Resolve, according to the US Department of Defence.

It reportedly included every country in the region except Syria and Iran. "Everyone had representation."

Syria and Iran were of course on a Pentagon list made after September 11 of "seven countries" to be "taken out in five years."

The US is behind schedule, but appears to be still working on it, even under its Nobel Peace Prize-winning and, more recently, "ambassador for humanity" awarded US president.