Semarang Banjir, Penerbangan di Bandara Ahmad Yani Sempat Delay

Penjemputan dilakukan manajemen Angkasa Pura I Bandara Ahmad Yani karena akses jalan masuk menuju bandara masih terendam banjir. (suaramerdeka.com/Dok)

Cuaca buruk di Kota Semarang, Jawa Tengah (Jateng), membuat bencana banjir yang berdampak pada aktivitas penerbangan di Bandara Internasional Jenderal Ahmad Yani Semarang. Bahkan, sejumlah maskapai penerbangan pun terpaksa harus menunda keberangkatan pesawatnya dari Semarang, hari Sabtu, 31/12/2022.

Seharusnya saya terbang pukul 11.40 WIB, tapi saat ini pesawat masih di Jakarta dan baru jalan ke sini. Alasannya karena cuaca buruk,” ujar seorang penumpang pesawat di Bandara Ahmad Yani Semarang, Jerica Deasy, kepada Solopos.com, hari Sabtu siang.

Perempuan yang karib disapa Jeje ini mengaku berencana terbang ke Jakarta untuk menjalankan pekerjaan yang berkaitan dengan perayaan malam tahun baru. Ia mengaku sempat kaget saat berangkat menuju ke bandara menyusul kondisi banjir yang melanda Kota Semarang.

“Ini gila. Sepinggang lo [banjir]. Saya baru tahu banjir semacam ini bisa terjadi di Semarang,” ujarnya.

Jeje mengaku berdasarkan informasi yang diterimanyaa, banjir itu terjadi akibat ada tanggul yang jebol sehingga air meluap hingga ke wilayah perkotaan. “Saya tanya petugas DPU, katanya ada tanggul jebol sehingga airnya meluber sampai ke sini,” ujarnya.

Sementara itu, dari rilis Laporan Situasi Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah (BPBD) Kota Semarang tercatat 28 titik mengalami banjir, 18 titik tanah atau talud longsor, 15 titik gelombang tinggi, dan satu titik gelombang pasang di kawasan Pantai Marina, Kecamatan Semarang Barat.

“BPBD sudah melakukan beberapa upaya seperti mendirikan dapur umum, melakukan dropping 500 bungkus nasi, menutup sembilan titik talud yang jebol, dan melakukan evakuasi di seluruh kompleks Marina,” tulis siaran pers BPBD Kota Semarang.

Sementara itu, General Manager PT Angkasa Pura (AP) I Bandara Internasional Jenderal Ahmad Yani Semarang, Hardi Ariyanto, dalam keterangan tertulisnya pihak Bandara Internasional Jenderal Ahmad Yani Semarang mengaku saat ini bandaranya sudah beroperasi secara normal setelah sejumlah penerbangan mengalami delay akibat tingginya curah hujan dan cuaca buruk sejak hari Jumat, 30/12/2022. Ia juga memastikan seluruh pendukung penerbangan aman untuk operasional penerbangan.

Kendati demikian, hingga Sabtu pukul 12.00 WIB, terdapat 13 penerbangan yang terdampak baik kedatangan maupun keberangkatan dengan rute dari dan ke Jakarta, Balikapapan, Ketapang, dan Banjarmasin. Selain keterlambatan keberangkatan, terdapat satu penerbangan dari Banjarmasin yang dialihkan ke Surabaya.

“Mengingat curah hujan masih tinggi dan terdapat genangan air di beberapa titik lokasi pada jalan menuju dan dari bandara, kami mengimbau kepada pengguna jasa untuk tetap berhati-hati,” ujar Hardi.

Stasiun Tawang Semarang Tergenang Banjir

Banjir juga menggenangi Stasiun Tawang Semarang tergenang. Banjir setinggi mata kaki setelah hujan deras mengguyur Kota Semarang, hari Sabtu siang, 31/12/2022. Banjir tersebut tak mengganggu jadwal kereta api (KA).

Kondisi Banjir di Jalan Gajah Kota Semarang, Sabtu, 31 Desember 2022. Foto Jamal Abdun Nasr

Manager Humas KAI Daerah Operasi 4 Semarang Ixfan Hendri Wintoko mengatakan pihaknya tengah berupaya mengurai dampak banjir. "Kami berkomitmen untuk senantiasa mengutamakan keselamatan, keamanan, dan kenyamanan perjalanan kereta api," kata Ixfan di Semarang, Sabtu, 31 Desember 2022.

Banjir juga menggenangi beberapa titik di jalur kereta api lintas utara Pulau Jawa. Hal itu menyebabkan kereta api yang akan melintas harus tertahan atau berjalan dengan pembatasan kecepatan tertentu sehingga mengalami keterlambatan.

Ada dua titik jalur yang tidak bisa dilalui perjalanan kereta api. Pertama di petak jalan Semarang Tawang-Alastua Kota Semarang karena ada genangan air setinggi 12 sentimeter di atas kop rel. Kemudian petak jalan Kaliwungu-Kalibodri Kabupaten Kendal karena Sungai Waridin meluap mengakibatkan gogosan pada jalur rel KA di wilayah tersebut.

Hingga kini ada empat perjalanan kereta yang mengalami keterlambatan, yaitu KA 186 Kamandaka relasi Tegal-Semarang Tawang terlambat 117 menit. KA 263 Menoreh relasi Semarang Tawang-Jakarta Kota terlambat 140 menit.

Selanjutnya KA 189 Joglosemarkerto relasi Solo Balapan-Tegal terlambat 52 menit. Serta KA 267A Ambarawa Ekspress dengan relasi Surabaya Pasarturi-Semarang Poncol terlambat 34 menit.

"Kami atas nama Manajemen KAI mengucapkan permohonan maaf kepada para pelanggan karena terganggunya perjalanan dan pelayanan kereta api akibat banjir yang terjadi wilayah Semarang, Kendal, dan sekitarnya," ucap dia.

Banjir yang merendam lima kecamatan di Kota Semarang, Jawa Tengah (Jateng) akibat hujan deras sejak hari Jumat malam, 30/12/2022.

Sekdakot Semarang, Iswar Aminudin mengatakan bahwa, hujan deras sempat membuat hampir di semua wilayah Kota Semarang terjadi banjir.

"Hampir semua wilayah Kota Semarang terendam tapi sekarang mulai surut," jelasnya.

Laporan yang dia terima, saat ini wilayah yang terendam banjir tinggal beberapa titik seperti Kecamatan Genuk, Kecamatan Mangkang, Kecamatan Pedurungan, Kecamatan Ngaliyan (Wonosari) dan Semarang Utara.

"Tinggal beberapa lokasi yang tergenang banjir, hanya beberapa titik karena cekungan," ujarnya. Dia menjelaskan, untuk kondisi genangan di pusat Kota Semarang sudah mulai kering karena airnya sudah berhasil dialirkan ke rumah pompa.

"Drainase kita sudah cukup mengalirkan air dari pusat kota ke pompa-pompa air," jelasnya.

Sampai saat ada beberapa titik seperti di Pedurungan dan Genuk yang warganya sudah dilakukan evakuasi ke tempat yang lebih aman. "Untuk Mangkang belum ada informasi yang masuk soal warga yang dievakuasi," imbuhnya

Untuk itu, dia mengimbau kepada warga Kota Semarang agar tetap waspada dengan hujan ekstrem selama beberapa hari yang akan datang.

"Bersihkan sampah di selokan. Selain itu warga yang tinggal di bukit juga hati-hati longsor. Kalau ada retakan segera lapor," imbuhnya

Putin allows to collect gas supplies debts in unfriendly countries’ currency

©Mikhail Klimentyev/Russian Presidential
Press and Information Office/TASS

Russian natural gas suppliers may settle with gas buyers from unfriendly countries in foreign currency if they collect debts for gas supplies from such buyers or if they repay the debt themselves, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree, published on Friday on the legal information portal.

The decree specifies that settlements can be made in a foreign currency, using a special account opened by an authorized bank on the basis of the application of the Russian supplier. Indebtedness for gas supplies will be considered as repaid after crediting the foreign buyer on such account.

At the same time, the document said that "the repayment of the foreign buyer's debt under the contract for the supply of natural gas is not a ground for resuming natural gas supplies by the Russian supplier in case the foreign buyer fails to comply with the procedure established by this decree".

Putin shocked the European gas market at the end of March by signing a decree that ordered a full switch to ruble payments for Russian pipeline gas amid the Kremlin's standoff with the western nations over the invasion of Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin allowed natural-gas buyers from 'unfriendly' countries to pay debts for fuel in foreign currency, partly lifting a requirement for ruble-only payments.

Repayment of debt doesn't provide grounds for a resumption of Russian gas supplies to buyers that don't comply with other requirements of a presidential decree issued earlier this year, according to amendments published late Friday.

Supplies were subsequently cut off to some companies and countries, such as Poland and Finland, that refused the terms of the decree, which was seen as a means to spur demand for rubles after the United States and the European Union implemented stiff economic sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Putin's decree meant that buyers of Russian gas in Europe -- all EU countries were included in the "unfriendly" category -- had to buy rubles on the Russian market to pay for supplies.

The president defended the policy by saying that Western countries had “canceled the confidence in its currencies" by imposing sanctions on Russia for the war against Ukraine.

The change announced on December 30 to allow debt settlement does not automatically mean the resumption of gas supplies, according to the information published.

Putin previously ordered the central bank and the government to develop "the order of transactions for the purchase of rubles on the domestic market of the Russian Federation by gas buyers."

Russian gas giant Gazprom PJSC halted gas supplies to clients in Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark, as well as supplies to Germany under a contract with Shell Energy Europe, after companies refused to comply with the decree. Other European companies opened special ruble and foreign-currency accounts at Gazprombank JSC, which was authorized to handle payments for natural gas.

Payment for Russian gas

Since April 1, buyers from unfriendly countries could pay for Russian gas only in rubles. However, taking into account the currency of contracts (which are usually dollars and euros), Moscow made a concession to its counterparts:

Customers would have to transfer money in foreign currencies to Gazprombank, which would buy rubles at stock exchanges and transfer them to special rubles accounts of importers to be paid from. At the same time, Russia will continue to supply gas in the volumes and at the prices fixed in the contracts concluded earlier.

The European Commission initially considered this scheme as a violation of the sanctions. However, as Bloomberg reported, the European Commission circulated new regulations according to which European importers would be able to continue paying for Russian gas without violating the sanctions imposed on Moscow, and open bank accounts for settlements in the currency stipulated by the contracts.

Gazprom supplies gas for Europe through Ukraine equaling 41.2 mln cubic meters via Sudzha

Gazprom supplies gas for Europe through Ukraine in the volume of 41.2 mln cubic meters per day via the Sudzha gas pumping station, a Gazprom representative told reporters, adding that the request for pumping through Sokhranovka had been rejected by the Ukrainian side.

"Gazprom supplies Russian gas for transit through Ukrainian territory via the Sudzha gas pumping station in the volume of 41.2 mln cubic meters confirmed by the Ukrainian side as of December 31. The request for the Sokhranovka gas pumping station has been rejected," he said.

On Friday, December 30, the pumping volume equaled 42.4 mln cubic meters.

Earlier it was reported on the website of the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) that the transit of gas through Ukrainian territory might total around 42.4 mln cubic meters on December 31.

US Arms Sales to NATO Allies Almost Double in 2022

CCO//pixabay

Apart from sending arms to its NATO allies, the Biden administration also continues to supply Kiev with weapons, something that Moscow warns will only further aggravate the Ukraine conflict.

The number and price of arms sales approved by Washington to its NATO allies almost doubled in 2022 as compared to 2021, a US magazine has reported.

The outlet noted that last year, the US government approved 14 possible major arms sales to its allies in the alliance, worth about $15.5 billion. In 2022, the figure soared to 24 potential major arms sales with price tag of around $28 billion, including $1.24 billion worth of arms sales to possible new NATO member Finland.

The magazine pointed out that the data indicates that the US remains “a major arms supplier for allies in Europe in the short term,” in the midst of European defense industries’ push to “meet wartime demands for conventional arms and ammunition.”

According to the media outlet, the increase took place as NATO members scrambled “to stock up on high-end weapons” amid the ongoing Russian special military operation in Ukraine.

The outlet reported that although some of arms sales deals were negotiated years beforehand, the Russian special operation sent NATO’s European members scrambling to bump up their military spending, and to replenish vehicles, weapons, and ammunition delivered to the Ukrainian military.

Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia have all ordered HIMARS Multiple-Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), while the US State Department authorized earlier this month the sale of 116 M1A1 Abrams tanks to Poland, after Warsaw sent its Soviet-era T-72 and domestically-made PT-91 tanks to Kiev’s forces.

The report comes after President Joe Biden signed a new $1.7 trillion federal spending bill into law, a document that includes $858 billion in defense spending.

According to a statement released on the website of the US Senate Committee on Budget Appropriations, the so-called National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) comprises “$44.9 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine and our (America’s) NATO allies.” Since Russia launched its special operation in Ukraine on February 24, the US and its allies have supplied more than $40 billion worth of arms to Kiev. Moscow has repeatedly warned that providing Kiev with arms prolongs the Ukraine conflict.

The signing of the NDAA followed a separate US media outlet reporting about a surge in the share prices of the four largest US defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon Technologies, and Pratt & Whitney.

The outlet reported that Lockheed Martin “had booked more than $950 million worth of its own missile military orders from the Pentagon in part to refill stockpiles being used in Ukraine, while Raytheon Technologies was awarded with “more than $2 billion in contracts to deliver missile systems to expand or replenish weapons used to help Ukraine.”

US Fast-Tracking Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Private Arms Sales to Kiev, Reports Say

The United States has fast-tracked hundreds of millions of dollars worth of private weapons sales to Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation in February, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

The US expedited over $300 million in private arms sales to Ukraine, reducing approval times from weeks to hours, in just the first four months of 2022, the report said.

The State Department authorized less than $15 million in such sales to Ukraine throughout the entirety of fiscal year 2021, the report noted.

The hundreds of millions of dollars in private arms sales to Ukraine comes alongside over $17.5 billion in security assistance provided by the Biden administration to Ukraine since taking office.

Russia has repeatedly slammed Washington and its allies over their continued arms deliveries to the Kiev regime, pointing to the danger they pose in escalating the crisis and facilitating weapons smuggling, as a large part of the weapons end up on the black market.

US to Expedite Arms Sales to Allies, Partners With Aim of Outcompeting China - Reports

©AP Photo / Eugene Hoshiko

The United States will speed up its arms sales to allies and partners by removing several bureaucratic road bumps that could cause delays in order to better compete with countries such as China, the Wall Street Journal reported citing US defense officials.

The report said on Friday that the Defense Department launched an initiative to streamline US arms sales to foreign countries, especially to allies and partners that have provided military equipment to Ukraine.

The United States promised European allies who have provided military equipment to Ukraine that it would be able to replenish their stocks, but the US defense industry is facing a backlog, the report said.

The United States could speed up arms sales by having US defense officials help countries draft initial requests for military equipment that would help avoid delays caused by requests that trigger security concerns, the report said.

The Defense Department only approves contracts once a year for certain military equipment, which means countries that fail to submit their orders by the Defense Department's deadline must wait until the following year, the report added.

However, the State Department is currently consulting with the Defense Department on this matter in light of the mission to speed up arms sales to allies, according to the report.

Jalur Puncak Bogor Padat dan Berkabut

Jarak pandang saat jalur Puncak Bogor berkabut. Foto/Pojoksatu

Kepala Satuan Lalu Lintas Polres Bogor, AKP Dicky Anggi Pranata mengatakan, volume kendaraan di Puncak Bogor, Jawa Barat mengalami peningkatan selama 25 persen dan cuacanya berkabut.

Peningkatan ini diakibatkan libur Natal dan Tahun Baru 2023 dibandingkan hari biasa.

"Per hari ini jam 13.00 WIB, itu sudah ada kurang lebih 28.000 kendaraan," katanya, mengutip dari Antara.

Untuk mengatasi kepadatan volume kendaraan di Jalur Puncak, pihaknya memberlakukan rekayasa lalu lintas berupa sistem satu arah dari arah Puncak menuju Jakarta sekitar satu jam.

Ia menyebutkan, saat arus lalu lintas sudah terbilang padat, maka rekayasa lalu lintas yang digunakan yaitu sistem satu arah secara situasional.

"Oleh karena itu kita sesegera mungkin memulai proses satu arah bawah untuk menguras arus ke bawah," kata dia. Cuaca di Puncak Bogor juga diselimuti kabut yang membuat jarak pandang di kawasan Kecamatan Cisarua, Kabupaten Bogor, itu terbatas. Polisi mengimbau pengendara berhati-hati dan tidak memaksakan diri saat berkendara.

“Kawasan Puncak berkabut, cuaca sedikit gerimis. Kami dari Satlantas Polres Bogor mengimbau masyarakat yang berkendara untuk tetap berhati-hati. Jangan memaksakan juga. Sebaiknya istirahat dulu di posisi yang aman,” kata KBO Satlantas Polres Bogor Iptu Ketut Laswarjana, pada hari Kamis, 29/12/2022.

Ketut menyebutkan kawasan berkabut di Jl Raya Puncak biasanya terjadi mulai kawasan Gunung Mas hingga perbatasan Cianjur.

“Titik kabut ini kan biasanya mulai dari Gunung Mas ke atas, kemudian Riung Gunung dan seterusnya. Kalau hujan lebat sih kabut hilang, kabut akan tebal kalau cuaca gerimis,” kata Ketut.

“Tentunya pandangan akan terbatas, makanya kita imbau untuk tetap hati-hati. Lebih baik istirahat sementara di tempat yang aman, sampai jalur kembali aman untuk berkendara,” tambahnya.

Ketut menambahkan Puncak Bogor berkabut lantaran memang kerap diguyur hujan dalam sepekan terakhir. Pengendara dan wisatawan juga diminta hati-hati ketika berteduh atau beristirahat.

“Kami dari Satlantas Polres Bogor mengimbau kepada masyarakat yang akan berwisata ke Puncak, terutama yang mau parkir, yang mau istirahat, mau berteduh, silakan pastikan betul melihat di atasnya, jangan parkir di bawah pohon untuk antisipasi dampak pohon tumbang,” katanya.

“Kemudian bagi pengendara roda dua, jangan memaksakan, kalau cuaca kurang bagus ataupun hujan lebat dan jalur Puncak Bogor berkabut, bisa istirahat dulu di tempat yang aman,” tambah Ketut.

Beberapa titik terjadinya kemacetan yaitu di Simpang Gadog hingga Cimory Megamendung di jalur Jakarta menuju Puncak. Di jalur Puncak menuju Jakarta kemacetan terjadi di KFC Cisarua, Pasar Cisarua hingga Taman Safari Indonesia (TSI), dan di Taman Wisata Matahari (TWM) hingga Cimory Megamendung.

Sementara, Kepala Polres Bogor, AKBP Iman Imanuddin, menyebutkan, kepadatan kendaraan yang terjadi pada Jumat siang ini karena masyarakat yang merayakan Tahun Baru di Puncak tiba lebih awal, sebelum jalurnya ditutup total alias tanpa kendaraan roda empat pada malam Tahun Baru.

"Karena kami sudah informasikan dari awal untuk tanggal 31 Desember kami akan berlakukan pembatasan, sebagaimana meningkatnya kegiatan masyarakat di jalur puncak, melalui malam tanpa kendaraan roda empat untuk malam tahun baru," kata dia.

Direncanakan besok, 31 Desember 2022 mulai pukul 06.00 sore sampai 1 Januari 2023 jam 6 pagi, jalan kendaraan yang menuju ke Puncak Bogor Jawa Barat akan ditutup.

How Saddam Hussein’s Execution Scarred Iraq and Changed US Foreign Policy Forever

©AP Photo / Chris Hondros

Friday marks the anniversary of the December 30, 2006 execution of Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi leader reviled by Iranians for his 1980s war of aggression, but respected by many Iraqis for standing up to Western imperialism. How did Hussein’s hanging by the American occupation regime affect Iraq and alter US foreign policy? Sputnik media explains.

“Long live the people! Long live the Arab nation! Long Live the Ummah! Damn sellout dogs like you! Let the traitors be devastated! God is great!.....The end is near, you will see. This homeland is ours!...Don’t think this is over. This is just the beginning!”

Saddam Hussein Former President of Iraq

Those were the words shouted by Saddam Hussein on November 5, 2006 as a judge read out a verdict finding him guilty of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide for the Iraqi government’s execution of 148 Shiite rebels in Dujail, Iraq in July 1982 in response to an attempt on Hussein’s life.

Hussein remained obstinate, sarcastic and uncooperative throughout the October 2005-December 2006 trial, insisting that he was the constitutionally-elected president of Iraq, and saying he didn’t "recognize the body that designated and authorized" the trial, "nor the aggression" behind it.

Hussein repeatedly laughed in the judge’s face, and compared the Dujail incident to the US crackdown on Fallujah in 2004, which a defense witness said had been “wiped off the map” after four Americans were killed by insurgents.

Hussein’s execution was hailed by US and European media as an "end to an era" for Iraq, a “grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three US presidents” and “ruled Iraq in a reign of fear for three decades.”

Iraq Destabilized

But whatever personal gratification President George W. Bush and his staff may have felt during that moment – which marked the culmination of the US war on Iraq begun under Bush’s father, it didn’t provide any long-term sense of solace to ordinary Iraqis, nor to the US occupation forces who were facing the worst period insurgency since the invasion of Iraq began in March 2003. The Pentagon closed out 2006 as one of its bloodiest years in US history, with 823 troops killed, and 904 more the following year.

By the time the US withdrew from Iraq in 2011, some 4,492 troops were dead, 32,222 injured, and tens of thousands more left with debilitating psychological problems, like post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal ideation. A devastating 2021 study found that some 30,177 US active-duty troops and Iraq and Afghanistan veterans had taken their own lives between 2001 and 2021.

As for Iraqi casualties, they were so severe that fierce debate over their scale continues to this day, with estimates ranging from 461,000 to over one million. For perspective, Iraq had a total pre-war population of 25.6 million people.

The ‘shock and awe’ invasion, combined with fierce fighting between US forces and pro-Saddam Baath Party loyalists, plus Sunni and Shia insurgents (who also fought and ethnically cleansed each other), forced up to six million people to flee their homes, with Iraq’s already weakened pre-war infrastructure turned into rubble and tens of thousands of homes destroyed or severely damaged. Hospitals and schools were left without running water, the electricity grid and sanitation networks were smashed, and the country suffered outbreaks of cholera, typhoid and other deadly diseases.

Middle East Destabilized

“Obviously, the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake, alright?...We spent $2 trillion, thousands of lives, we don’t even have it. Iran is taking over Iraq with the second largest oil reserves in the world. Obviously it was a mistake. George Bush made a mistake. We can make mistakes, but that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East,” then-presidential candidate Donald Trump said in a debate with Jeb Bush during the 2016 race.

Donald Trump Former President of the United States

Love him or hate him, on this issue, the real estate mogul was right. The collapse of the centralized government in Iraq, made worse by the US’s decision to dismantle all Baath-led institutions, including the military and police, sparked an insurgency that would mutate into Daesh (ISIS), a fanatical Sunni militia challenging al-Qaeda as the Middle East’s top terror group. Between 2013-2014, Daesh spread across much of western Iraq, made its way into northeastern Syria, and gained a foothold, or individual militants pledging allegiance to the group in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Turkey, Egypt, France, and much of North and West Africa, including Nigeria.

It took the combined military and intelligence capabilities of the Syrian and Iraqi governments, Russian and Iranian airpower/advisors, Hezbollah fighters, and US coalition forces to push the terrorists back.

The war against Daesh displaced over ten million Syrian and Iraqi civilians, with over 45,000 civilians in the two countries killed – up to 13,000 of them in US-led coalition airstrikes, and the humanitarian situation in both countries deteriorating further.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared final victory over Daesh in December 2017, with Trump proclaiming victory over the terrorists in Syria in December 2018 and announcing a withdrawal (which never took place).

How Iraq Forced US to Change Its Policy

Saddam Hussein’s “This is just the beginning!” cry during his verdict proved prophetic. Since the Iraq invasion, his ouster and public execution, the US never again launched a large-scale invasion of another country. Instead, Washington has shifted its operations to large-scale bombings (Libya in 2011), drone strikes (Yemen from 2002-2020), funding terrorist insurgencies and proxy armies (Syria, Ukraine), fomenting color revolutions and coups (2000 to present in countries including Ukraine, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Myanmar, Tunisia, Egypt, and Bolivia), and limited, often secret, troop deployments.

Things could have been much worse. Had the Iraq War become the resounding success the Bush White House hoped it would be, it’s entirely possible that the invasion of the ancient Mesopotamian cradle of civilization may have turned out to be just a stepping stone in a strategy to endow the US with total control over the entire Middle East.

“About ten days after 9/11 I went to the Pentagon and saw Secretary [of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary [of Defense Paul] Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people in the Joint Staff who used to work for me and one of the generals called me in and said ‘sir you gotta come in and talk to me a second…We’ve made the decision, we’re going to war with Iraq’. This was on or about the 20th of September,” former US Army general and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe Wesley Clark recalled in an interview in 2007.

“I said ‘well did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda? ‘No, no,’ he says, ‘there’s nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq.’ He said ‘I guess it’s like we don’t know what to do about terrorists but we got a good military and we can take down governments,’” the retired officer continued.

“I came back to see him a few weeks later and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan and I said ‘are we still going to war with Iraq?’ and he said ‘oh it’s worse than that.’ He reached over on his desk and picked up a piece of paper and said ‘I just got this down from upstairs,’ (meaning secretary of defense’s office) today, and said ‘this is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and finishing off – Iran,” Clark said.

Wesley Clark Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe

Echoing Merkel, Fmr French Prez Confirms West Lied to Russia on Minsk Deal to Buy Kiev Time to Rearm

©AP Photo / Alexander Zemlianichenko

The revelation comes a few weeks after Germany's former chancellor admitted that the peace agreement struck in the Belarusian capital in February 2015 was a contrivance used to buy time to build up Ukraine’s military after it had been shattered in fierce fighting with Donbass militias.

The Minsk Peace Accords were never about bringing peace to Donbass, former French President Francois Hollande has admitted.

“Since 2014, Ukraine has strengthened its military posture. Indeed, the Ukrainian army [of 2022] was completely different from that of 2014. It was better trained and equipped. It is the merit of the Minsk Agreements to have given the Ukrainian Army this opportunity,” Hollande said in an interview with Ukrainian media this week.

The former French president, who left office in 2017 with an approval rating hovering in the single-digits, had the courtesy to admit that while the Minsk agreement was functioning, Russia was meeting its obligations as a guarantor.

“Every month, (former Ukrainian President) Petro Poroshenko, Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin and I had long telephone conversations in which we exchanged information on the progress of the Minsk protocols. Even if we saw that there was an obvious unwillingness, there was still a dialogue” via the Normandy Format, Hollande said.

Another of the Minsk peace deal’s “merits” was that it “didn’t allow the area controlled by separatists to expand,” Hollande added.

Confession is Good for the Soul

Hollande’s comments are the third confirmation in two months by a senior official involved in the Minsk negotiations that the West and its Ukrainian client state were never serious about implementing the peace agreement.

On December 7, Angela Merkel said that Minsk “was an attempt to buy time for Ukraine,” and that “Ukraine used this time to become stronger, as you can see today. The Ukraine of 2014-2015 is not the Ukraine of today,” she said.

A month earlier, Petro Poroshenko told Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus that he “needed the Minsk Accords to get at least four years to form the Ukrainian Armed Forces, build up the Ukrainian economy and train the Ukrainian military together with NATO to create the best armed forces in Eastern Europe, created according to NATO standards.”

Signed on February 12, 2015 by Ukraine and guarantors Russia, Germany and France, the Minsk Peace Agreements were a thirteen-part ceasefire and peace deal which would have allowed Kiev to restore control over the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in exchange for broad, constitutionally-mandated autonomy.

Over the seven years after the treaty was signed, Kiev stalled on implementing the agreement, and continued low-intensity shelling and sabotage attacks against the Donbass. An attempt by President Volodymyr Zelensky to implement the treaty in late 2019 sparked widespread protests in Kiev led by Poroshenko, hardline pro-EU parties, and ultranationalist fighters and Donbass war veterans, prompting Zelensky to back down.

In February 2022, observing a severe escalation of tensions along the line of contact in the Donbass, and suspected Ukrainian sabotage attacks targeting senior military officials in Donetsk and Lugansk, Russia recognized the pair of self-proclaimed republics as sovereign nations, and, on February 24, kicked off a special military operation to ‘demilitarize’ and ‘de-Nazify’ Ukraine amid fears that Kiev was preparing an imminent all-out assault on the Donbass. In September, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and the Russian-administered areas of Kherson and Zaporozhye became part of Russia after status referendums.

Commenting on Merkel’s admission about Minsk this month, President Putin expressed shock and disappointment.

“Frankly speaking, I did not expect to hear such a thing from the former federal chancellor. Because I always proceeded from the idea that the German leadership behaves sincerely with us. Yes, they were on Ukraine’s side, supported Kiev, but it always seemed to me that Germany always sincerely sought a peaceful settlement based on the principles that we had agreed on, which were achieved, including within the framework of the Minsk process,” Putin said.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who hosted the Minsk negotiations in the Belarusian capital back in 2015, did not mince words about Merkel’s comments, saying the situation was “not just disgusting” but “abominable,” and that Merkel “acted in a petty, obnoxious way” trying to bring attention to herself.

Putin, Lukashenko Agree on Deployment of Joint Regional Grouping of Forces

Earlier in the day, at October, 2022, the Belarusian president held a meeting with the country's military and security forces, and told reporters that Minsk had been warned through unofficial channels about plans to carry out an attack on Belarusian territory from Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko have agreed on the deployment of a joint regional group of forces.

"In connection with the aggravation of the situation on the western borders of the Union State, we agreed to deploy a regional grouping of forces from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. This complies with our documents. They say that if the threat reaches the level it has now, we begin to use the Union State grouping of forces," Lukashenko said on Monday, his remarks cited by the Belta News Agency.

The Belarusian president clarified that the Belarusian Army constitutes the basis or core of this group of forces.

"I must inform you that the formation of this grouping has begun. It has been going on for, I think two days. I gave an order to start forming this group," Lukashenko said.

Earlier in the day, in a meeting with the country's military and security forces, Lukashenko warned Kiev not to move forward with any plans to carry out a first strike on Belarus.

"I have already said today that Ukraine is not just contemplating, but planning strikes on the territory of Belarus. Of course, the Ukrainians absolutely do not need this. Why would they need to open a second front on our southern border, which is their northern border? This is madness from the military point of view. They are being pushed by their patrons to unleash a war against Belarus in order to draw us into it," Lukashenko said.

The Belarusian president said the message received from unofficial channels was that Ukraine was planning to create a 'Crimean Bridge Part II'-style scenario in Belarus.

"My answer was simple: tell the president of Ukraine and other insane individuals that the Crimean Bridge will seem like flowers to them if they touch even one meter of our territory with their dirty hands," Lukashenko said.

The president ordered the military and security forces, including the KGB, to determine what else needs to be done to strengthen Belarusian security, "taking into account the rapidly changing situation."

Commenting on Lukashenko's comments later in the day Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that "interaction in various fields, including defense, is constantly being discussed during bilateral contacts between Presidents Putin and Lukashenko," and that this interaction is spelled out in the Union State's military doctrine.

Despite its territory being used by Russian forces in the early stages of Moscow's military operation operation in Ukraine, Belarus has so far managed to stay out of the conflict, with its forces deployed westward to face down NATO forces concentrated in Poland and the Baltics.

The Ukrainian military launched several attacks against Belarus, with Lukashenko reporting in March that a Ukrainian Tochka-U missile had been shot down by Belarusian air defense troops. A second attack - targeting Belarusian military targets, was foiled in June.

The Belarusian Army has 45,000 active-duty personnel, and 290,000 reservists, among whom 120,000 are members of the country's territorial defense forces.

Russia and Belarus are members of the Union State - a supranational organization created in the late 1990s aimed at the integration of the countries' political, economic and defense policies. The Union State's military doctrine states that any aggression against either of its members constitutes aggression against both, requiring "appropriate measures" to be taken "using all the forces and means" at the countries' disposal to neutralize the threat.

The Ukrainian crisis entered a new phase on Saturday after Ukrainian security forces carried out a terrorist attack against the Crimean Bridge - a key piece of infrastructure linking the peninsula to the Russian mainland to the east. Russia responded by carrying out strikes against infrastructure across Ukraine on Monday.