© AFP / John ThysUS defense minister Ashton Carter speaks at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on October 8, 2015
"This will have consequences for Russia itself which is rightly fearful of attacks ... in coming days, the Russians will begin to suffer from casualties," Carter said at a NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels dominated by the Syrian crisis.
Comment: A veiled threat? Is the US going to trot out a newer bigger bunch of baddies now? Its certainly not out of concern for Russia or its military incurring casualties that Carter is saying this, so why say it? To sound like he has a better grasp of the situation than the Russians do? And it's not like Russia hasn't had experience fighting terrorists before -- just see what it did to liberate Chechnya from its scourge of Western supported terrorists in the early 2000's.
The secretary told reporters that Russia was backing the wrong horse in Syria and urged President Vladimir Putin to sign up to the US programme of a future without Assad.
Comment: Does he mean the US agenda of further destroying Syria, toppling its democratically elected leader Bashar al-Assad and installing a CIA-installed puppet regime? Is that the horse Putin should be betting on and signing up for?
Worse still, Moscow was reckless in its military commitment, risking clashes with US and other planes targeting Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria.
Comment: Why would Russia be risking clashes with the US after he's been in direct phone contact with Russia's Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu? Has Carter not been listening to what Shoygu and others have been telling him?
"They have shot cruise missiles from a ship in the Caspian Sea without warning; they have come within just a few miles (kilometres) of one of our unmanned aerial vehicles," Carter said.
Comment: Without warning? Does he mean like the way the US just destroyed a defenseless hospital in Afghanistan without warning -- even though the US was informed that it was a defenseless hospital?
"They have initiated a joint ground offensive with the Syrian regime, shattering the facade that they are there to fight ISIL," he added, using another name for Islamic State.
Comment: What bizarro world is US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter living in? How does aiding or even joining Syria's military equate with not being there to fight ISIL?!
Damascus announced Thursday it had launched a "vast offensive" to wrest back territory from rebel forces the day after Russia launched a series of unprecedented cruise missile attacks from ships in the Caspian Sea.
NATO diplomatic sources said Moscow had given no advance warning of the missile strikes which came as a complete surprise.
Comment: There will likely be more "surprises" if NATO doesn't stand down its abhorrent aggression, bullying and plans for more carnage. But best not to expect anything resembling wisdom or humanity from this organization. Better to expect more of the same and worse.
A Syrian general said the Russian intervention had weakened IS and other opponents of Assad but Washington says that more than 90 percent of Moscow's strikes have targeted the moderate opposition backed by the West.
Comment: Headchoppers backed by the West are still, at the end of the day, headchoppers. That's all they know how to do and they have no legitimate business in Syria other than getting a paycheck from the CIA - if you call that legitimate business.
Russia has justified its intervention in Syria as part of global efforts to fight "terrorists" and also to target Russian jihadists who may one day attack their own country.
Comment: A rather good justification if Russia's is doing it with the intent of actually being effective - which, by all accounts, it appears to be!
We have a saying : A barking dog does not bite.