The Norwegian newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv laments that Europe has fallen into a postmodernist stupor characterized by a lack of leadership and political will, and that Russia needs to shake Europe's leaders out of this state in order to solve the Syrian conflict, which has resulted in the ongoing refugee crisis.

The refugee crisis facing Europe must force its politicians to return to the principles of realpolitik in order to solve the Syrian crisis, by making political decisions based on reality and not a "postmodern paradise" that denies responsibility for the plight of millions forced to leave their homes in the Middle East, political scientist Janne Haaland Matlary wrote in the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv on Friday.

Citing the disastrous 2011 military intervention in Libya as an example of the dangers of EU and US foreign policy, the author, a professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo, warns that attempts to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power will only lead to a power vacuum, and a greater crisis.

"We created a power vacuum [in Libya], which was quickly filled by a variety of militias and terrorist groups, earning massive incomes on the illegal transportation of refugees and migrants."

"The parallels with Syria are obvious. Is it not better to take a political decision which chooses the stability of a dictator to a 'Libyan scenario'?" asks Matlary, a member of Norway's Conservative Party and former representative of the Christian Democratic Party, who served as Norway's State Secretary for Foreign Affairs from 1997-2000.

The day after Corbyn won the Labour leadership, David Cameron said that the member of parliament would undermine the nation's defenses.

Newly elected British opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is a "threat to national security," according to U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron.

The day after Corbyn won the Labour leadership with a massive 59.5 percent of the vote, Cameron took to Twitter Sunday saying that the leftist, pro-immigrant rights member of parliament would undermine the nation's defenses.

"The Labour Party is now a threat to our national security, our economic security and your family's security," he said.

The Conservative Party also took to social media to blast Corbyn, urging followers to spread the message about the "risk" presented by the new opposition leader. The move represents a push by Britain's ruling party to portray Corbyn in negative terms to set the tone for future debates, including the forthcoming parliamentary vote on bombing Syria, which will test the strength of Corbyn's influence over his party.
Over the course of his leadership campaign, Corbyn pledged that he would scrap the U.K.'s Trident nuclear program, and oppose airstrikes on Syria, having been particularly vocal against the "illegal" war in Iraq.

UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said that the United Kingdom will continue to help Ukraine's armed forces to modernize and provide technical assistance to support reform in the fight against corruption, public financial management, the ease of doing business and asset recovery.

The United Kingdom will continue to provide military support to Kiev, in response to what London considers to be Russian aggression in Ukraine, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Friday.

"The UK will continue to support Ukraine to restore its sovereignty and territorial integrity and reforms its institutions. Specifically, we will continue to help Ukraine's armed forces to modernize and provide technical assistance to support reform in the fight against corruption, public financial management, the ease of doing business and asset recovery," Hammond stated.

The statement comes on the opening day of the 12th annual Yalta European Strategy in Ukraine. The conference, aimed at promoting Ukraine's European integration, brings together top European and world diplomats.

Crimea is virtually free from its dependency on shipments of produce from Ukraine, according to the First Deputy Minister of the Industrial Policy of the Republic of Crimea Konstantin Ravich.

Earlier, Ukrainian MPs and leaders of the pro-Ukrainian Mejlis, claiming to represent the Crimean Tatar nation, Refat Chubarov and Mustafa Dzhemilev declared their intent to block all shipments of goods and foodstuffs from Ukraine to Crimea. In order to do so, a group of "Crimean Tatar activists and Ukrainian patriots" is scheduled to arrive at the Russian-Ukrainian border in Crimea in late September.

"I believe that there's no reason to be afraid of some food blockade," Ravich said. "The residents of Crimea and tourists, when they visit local stores they see that Crimea virtually stopped using produce from Ukraine."

The deputy minister added that by considering the food blockade of Crimea the Ukrainian politicians dealt a mortal blow to the Ukraine's image as a reliable business partner.

Mikhail Kurkov, head of the Crimean Food Company, said that most of the goods and foodstuffs are delivered to Crimea from the Rostov and Krasnodar Regions of Russia, and that the local Crimean enterprises also increase their production output.

He also added that the capacity of the Kerch ferry is more than enough to provide the residents of Crimea with all the things they need.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov voices skepticism about the sincerity of the US, as the leader of the so-called international anti-Daesh coalition, in the fight against the Takfiri militants in the Middle East.

In an interview with Russia's Channel One TV on Sunday, Lavrov said Moscow has been informed by sources in the US-led coalition that there have been instances when Washington would refuse to authorize airstrikes on confirmed Daesh positions, adding that this raises questions about the US motives.

"I hope that I won't fail anyone, saying that some of our colleagues from the coalition states say that they receive information where exactly, on which positions the [so-called] Islamic State (Daesh) troops are located, but the commander of the coalition [of course, from the US] doesn't approve the strike," he said.

"I could suspect that apart from the claimed purpose - fighting [the so-called] Islamic State - there is something else [as the aim] of the coalition," he added.

Brute Force and Ignorance,
Just hit town,
Looking like survivors,
From the Lost and Found.

Brute Force and Ignorance,
Have come to play,
A one-night stand at eight o'clock,
Then they'll be on their way.

From, "Brute Force and Ignorance", by Rory Gallagher

Whooo! Rory Gallagher - remember him? Don't be surprised if you don't, because he was probably the best blues guitarist you never heard of. Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal just before the nineteen-fifties and rock & roll took off like a scared cat, a teenage Rory Gallagher stayed up late to listen to Radio Luxembourg because he couldn't afford records. He played entirely by ear, couldn't read a note, but he could play anything that had strings on it. In 1971, influential British music magazine Melody Maker voted him International Guitarist of the Year, ahead of Eric Clapton, with whom he shared both influences (Big Bill Broonzy, Leadbelly, Muddy Waters) and a soulful blues style. In 1995 he was dead in a London hospital, of liver complications, when he was just 47.

Anyway, this post isn't really about Rory Gallagher, except perhaps in the sense of what a prophet he was. Because we have entered - are firmly established, in fact - into an age in which a significant group of people in the English-speaking world are proud to be ignorant. George W. Bush was the first president who routinely cited his low academic standings - because he thought it made him sound folksy and one of the little people - and a startling proportion of the general public is now apparently quite happy to be misled by "experts" who don't know what the hell they are talking about.

After 18 years in prison, the man who exposed Israel's nuclear weapons program to the world, Mordechai Vanunu, remains restricted under obsolete principles contradicting the UN Charter on Human Rights, prominent whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg told RT.

Calling Vanunu a "preeminent prophet of the nuclear era," Ellsberg stressed that Israel must recognize, for its own good, what Vanunu did was right and come clean about the existence of its nuclear weapons program. The Israeli government should also stop lying to its own people and the world and admit that they were the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East, he added.

Ellsberg, who exposed the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War to the American media in 1971 and was prosecuted and branded a "traitor" by some for his move, also talked about Vanunu's ordeal from the perspective of a whistleblower.

RT:Ten years since his release, Vanunu is still under constant government pressure, is in constant fear of arrest. Why is that happening, do you think?

Daniel Ellsberg: I think it's essentially what they want to be a life-time punishment, in effect, for embarrassing them, actually, in a policy that really can't be defended in the nuclear era. Is it really legitimate for a country to develop nuclear weapons in secret and continue to maintain the secrecy, then, indefinitely from the world, or pretend to keep that secret? I think not. I think Vanunu did exactly the right thing by telling his fellow citizens, and the rest of the world, that Israel had a large nuclear program. And for that, he served 18 years in prison: 10 and a half in a very small cell of isolation - a 6 by 9 foot cell - what Amnesty called "torture," essentially, for that long period.

I've seen a lot of anger directed at Hungary over the last few days. There's been a lot of criticism of the government, and close scrutiny of the words of the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

I'm not a fan of the Hungarian government, and I don't like the wall being built between Hungary and Serbia. I'm even less of a fan though of the politics which led to this dire situation in the first place.

Whatever you think of the politics in Hungary, it is not to blame for the refugee crisis. The same liberal media which is quick to criticize the Hungarian leadership, is not so quick to criticize those who are directly responsible for helping to cause the civil wars that continue in the lands which people are fleeing from and who, in the face of it, are calling for yet more war, and unbelievably so.

Over the last few days there seems to have been a lot of focus on Hungary and other so-called EU gateway countries, with all kinds of accusations and finger pointing having taken place. The crisis is said to be a European problem by some, a Hungarian one by others, or perhaps a German one depending on your view.

The conversations and chatter in the media continue, and all the while the British government is quietly contemplating bombing Syria, in a move which beggars belief. It's clear then, why attention is being shifted away from war-mongering Cameron toward another distracting scapegoat.

The liberal media and the government, both want to bomb Syria, and both are resolute and steadfast in blaming anyone but the British state for its hand in causing the refugee crisis. That really tells you all you need to know.

ISIS is the problem, Assad is the problem, and now this week, we are being told that Hungary and other nations on the border of the EU are the problem.

Once again the "wisdom" of Washington's generals raises the question about the American leadership's ability in both political and military affairs. This time it is due to the recent statement of the once again notorious, although retired, former leading US General David Petraeus, that suggests actively relying on the Jabhat al-Nusra currently at war in Syria.

Perhaps D. Petraeus, owing to his "excessive preoccupation" did not have time to get acquainted with the fact that Jabhat al-Nusra is officially considered a terrorist organization by the White House. It is well known that it is this very organization that is the most cruel and is famed for terrorists who have left a bloody trail of numerous civilian deaths.

But perhaps D. Petraeus "accidentally" revealed to us that very secret plan (after all, he led the most "secret" organization of the United States, the Central Intelligence Agency, from September 2011 to November 9, 2012), according to which the White House has set its policy of gambling on the support a leading terrorist organization, be it al-Qaeda, established by the CIA in 1988, or others, including, it appears, Jabhat al-Nusra!

Who is D.Petraeus, who considers himself the savior of the American nation and the world, some new Herostratus and, who proposes new, drastic, as yet unheard of methods for fighting terrorists with terrorists? It should be noted that he was until recently a very well-known and influential figure in the contemporary US establishment. After graduating from the prestigious Military Academy at West Point in 1970, he successfully married the daughter of General William Knowlton, who, according to malicious rumors, even provided his son-in-law, a mediocre soldier, with rapid career advancement to the highest posts. Now a retired general, in his time he was the commander of the Multi-National Force - Iraq (MNF-I) and served as the head of United States Central Command, then commanded the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. His latest position is Director of the CIA. However, the "courageous" General was then sentenced to pay a significant fine and two years' suspended sentence for his dubious affairs. As the saying goes "Don't be so sure the same won't happen to you." But the general has surfaced and he now advises the US administration on the issue of the fight against the Islamic State with whom the group Jabhat al-Nusra is at war. Clearly, it's impossible to find a better "consultant" in the USA! Of course, D. Petraeus is well aware of the tragic events that have now swept the Middle East in a bloody wave, and which began after the barbaric and unprovoked US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.

From Washington to the western media, everyone has been talking about reports of potential Russian 'intervention' in Syria. On the one hand, the proliferation of this meme is a case study in the western propaganda system, as one report is then repeated ad nauseam from thousands of sources, then built upon by subsequent reports, thereby manufacturing the irrefutable truth from the perspective of media pundits and western mouthpieces. On the other hand, the new reports also raise some interesting questions about the motives of both the US and Russia, as well as the other interested parties to the conflict in Syria.

In examining this new chapter of the ongoing war in Syria, two critical and interrelated points seem to rise above all others in importance: Why is the western media hyping this narrative of Russian intervention? And why is direct Russian involvement, limited though it may be, seen as such a threat by the US?

Dissecting the Propaganda

An Israeli publication reported that Russian air power would be increasing in Syria with "Russian jets in Syrian skies," as the headline read. While all the information came from unnamed "western diplomatic sources," and was accompanied by little more than assertions of fact without any tangible evidence, the media outcry began almost immediately, with literally hundreds of news outlets reporting the same information. Within 24 hours however, a Russian military source denied the allegations, saying,"There has been no redeployment of Russian combat aircraft to the Syrian Arab Republic...The Russian Air Force is at its permanent bases and carrying out normal troop training and combat duty."