![“They will divide brother from brother…”US/Jordan/Iraq/Lebanon War Games Send Proxy War Signal To Assad
(“They will divide brother from brother…”; See the sidebar here for context)
ZARQA, Jordan (AP) — Under the watchful eye of stern-faced American advisers, hundreds of U.S.-trained Jordanian commandos fanned across this dusty desert plain, holding war games that could eventually form the basis of an assault in Syria.
With the recent deployment of Patriot missiles near the Syrian border, and the mock Syrian accents of those playing the enemy, the message was clear: There is fear of spillover from the Syrian war in this U.S.-allied kingdom, and the potential for a Jordanian role in securing Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles should Bashar Assad’s regime lose control.
Dubbed Eager Lion, the 12-day exercise involves combined land, air and sea maneuvers across the country. It brings together 8,000 personnel from 19 Arab and European nations to train on border security, irregular warfare, terrorism and counterinsurgency.
Marine Corps Lt. Col. Duke Shienle said Syria “is a concern that all our regional partners share.”
The Syrian crisis is “causing all military in the region to increase intensity,” he said as he supervised masked commandos in black uniforms from Jordan and two other Syria neighbors - Iraq and Lebanon - in a mock exercise to free a hijacked aircraft on an airstrip in the eastern Jordanian desert.
Nearby, U.S. military strategists taught Jordanian riot police to quickly contain a mock protest by angry mobs in a crowded refugee camp. The trainers refused to name the camp, but the trainees said it was “Zaatari,” a reference to a refugee settlement straddling the border with Syria that shelters around 185,000 displaced Syrians.
“We want freedom! We want a free Syria!” the trainees shouted, speaking the Syrian dialect as they depicted Syrian refugees. Others looked on from under dusty tents pitched on a strip of desert outside a Jordanian army compound. The location of this exercise and others could not be disclosed in line with Jordanian army regulations.
Elsewhere, in the south, hundreds of masked Jordanian commandos in black uniforms used machine-guns, rocket propellers and tanks to overwhelm an enemy target as Jordanian helicopters and fighter jets - all part of previous American donations - buzzed the skies overhead…Read the rest itAddenda… The quoted Lt. Col. Duke Shienle’s claim to fame lies in this 2004 publication for the US Command: [Google PDF web cache]: “Liberator or Occupier: Indigenous Allies Make the Difference”](http://24.media.tumblr.com/429105e70e32ff7f62fed76218ff6a26/tumblr_mom9j7fz111r9ju7do1_500.jpg)
US/Jordan/Iraq/Lebanon War Games Send Proxy War Signal To Assad“They will divide brother from brother…”
(“They will divide brother from brother…”; See the sidebar here for context)
ZARQA, Jordan (AP) — Under the watchful eye of stern-faced American advisers, hundreds of U.S.-trained Jordanian commandos fanned across this dusty desert plain, holding war games that could eventually form the basis of an assault in Syria.Addenda… The quoted Lt. Col. Duke Shienle’s claim to fame lies in this 2004 publication for the US Command: [Google PDF web cache]: “Liberator or Occupier: Indigenous Allies Make the Difference”
With the recent deployment of Patriot missiles near the Syrian border, and the mock Syrian accents of those playing the enemy, the message was clear: There is fear of spillover from the Syrian war in this U.S.-allied kingdom, and the potential for a Jordanian role in securing Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles should Bashar Assad’s regime lose control.
Dubbed Eager Lion, the 12-day exercise involves combined land, air and sea maneuvers across the country. It brings together 8,000 personnel from 19 Arab and European nations to train on border security, irregular warfare, terrorism and counterinsurgency.
Marine Corps Lt. Col. Duke Shienle said Syria “is a concern that all our regional partners share.”
The Syrian crisis is “causing all military in the region to increase intensity,” he said as he supervised masked commandos in black uniforms from Jordan and two other Syria neighbors - Iraq and Lebanon - in a mock exercise to free a hijacked aircraft on an airstrip in the eastern Jordanian desert.
Nearby, U.S. military strategists taught Jordanian riot police to quickly contain a mock protest by angry mobs in a crowded refugee camp. The trainers refused to name the camp, but the trainees said it was “Zaatari,” a reference to a refugee settlement straddling the border with Syria that shelters around 185,000 displaced Syrians.
“We want freedom! We want a free Syria!” the trainees shouted, speaking the Syrian dialect as they depicted Syrian refugees. Others looked on from under dusty tents pitched on a strip of desert outside a Jordanian army compound. The location of this exercise and others could not be disclosed in line with Jordanian army regulations.
Elsewhere, in the south, hundreds of masked Jordanian commandos in black uniforms used machine-guns, rocket propellers and tanks to overwhelm an enemy target as Jordanian helicopters and fighter jets - all part of previous American donations - buzzed the skies overhead…
![Meanwhile, in Turkey… The civil showdown that derailed NATO’s war on Syria comes to a head. As one Wall Street Journal reporter local to Turkey said a few days ago: “I suspect he means violence.” “There are people who claim this is the Turkish Spring, but what they do not see is that Turkey has been living through its spring since 2002,” said Mr. Erdogan, referring to the year his political party won a majority of seats in Parliament.
“By tomorrow at the latest, the Gezi Park incident will end,” he continued. “This is a public park, not an area of occupation.”
After the meeting with the union, Mr. Erdogan met separately with a group of 11 people, including academics, artists and students, in Ankara.Taksim Solidarity, an umbrella group of protest organizers that had been excluded, said the meeting with the smaller group was an effort to mislead the Turkish public and would not produce anything while violence by the police continued. The group was also critical of the proposed referendum. [In Full @ the New York Times]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/a19176502d707994ca4969efa83270c2/tumblr_mod303FAs51r9ju7do1_500.jpg)
