The following piece was written by Larry Johnson at Sonar21.com. There is a link to the original and many more great articles and videos from Larry at the bottom.

Damn Bernard at Moon of Alabama (just kidding)! He took the keyboard right out of my hand with his latest piece, U.S. Has Stopped Ukrainian ATACMS Strikes On Russia. That’s what I intended to write tonight. Instead of me regurgitating his piece, go read it. We learned yesterday that Russia’s top general, Gerasimov, called US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charlie Brown, on November 27th. We do not know what was said in that conversation, but we do know that no more ATACMs, Storm Shadows or SCALPS have been launched into Russian territory since that conversation. You don’t need an advanced degree in logic to surmise that Russia warned the United States (and told them to pass it on to its NATO partners) that the Russian Oreshnik missile was a warning and that Russia would hit NATO bases if further attacks occurred.

Guess what? Since that phone call, no more missile launches into Russia. Instead, Ukraine is still sending drones that are being routinely shot down. This means that the US and NATO are no longer providing attack coordinates to the Ukrainians. In this game of stare down, the West blinked.

This does not mean that the West has called a halt to its efforts to damage Russia. Nope. The West persists in trying to pull off a Maidan 2.0 in Georgia — i.e., paying and equipping protestors with weapons to provoke a violent response by the Georgian government — but Georgia ain’t taking the bait. The US and the UK, in my view, dispatched Ukrainian officers to Turkey and Syria to prep and assist the terrorist group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in carrying out an offensive to take control of northern Syria.

If you are following the Telegram channels commenting on Syria, there is an air of panic and despair. While I do not doubt that HTS has made some significant gains, let me remind you that this is a full-blown Western-directed intelligence and military operation. As such, there is an enormous information operation being unleashed. I have not forgotten the “information” that saturated Western media outlets back in 2013 and 2014. There were multiple reports over a period of a few weeks that Assad was going to capitulate and flee Syria. It was bullshit. I was reading the intel at the time and the Defense Intelligence Agency, then under the direction of Michael Flynn, was telling a very different story. Kudos to Mike for not playing politics, despite enormous pressure from the Obama Administration chiefs to paint a different picture.

So, take the social media posts with a grain of salt. Russia and Iran are showing no signs of surrendering and walking away from Syria.

I discussed the situation in Syria today with Nima.

Now for something different. I recorded a chat with Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism, on Wednesday. She does not appear on camera because her camera was not working. However, she is a witty and intelligent commentator and we discussed the current events from an economic perspective.

And, it is Friday. Ray McGovern and I did our weekly wrap-up with Judge Napolitano.

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