RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Palestinian militant group Hamas on Monday urged Lebanon's Hezbollah militia to withdraw its fighters from Syria and accused it of stoking sectarian tensions, leveling unprecedented public criticism against a former ally.
The Hamas statement came as the region's Sunni and Shiite Muslims are lining up on opposite sides of Syria's civil war. Most of those trying to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad are Sunnis, as are their regional backers. Assad and key members of his regime are Alawites, followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and he is being supported by Shiite Iran, also the main backer of Hezbollah.
Last month, Hezbollah sharply raised its profile in the fighting in Syria, playing a key role in the Assad regime's capture of the strategic rebel-held town of Qusair. Many Sunni hard-liners have taken Hezbollah's intervention as a declaration of war by Shiites, and some have urged Sunnis to fight alongside the rebels.
Hamas, a Sunni movement, on Monday criticized Hezbollah over its growing role in the Syria conflict. In a statement, Hamas called on Hezbollah to "withdraw its forces from Syria and keep its weapons directed at the Zionist enemy (Israel)." Hamas also said that sending forces to Syria "contributed to the sectarian polarization in the region."
Hamas and Hezbollah used to be part of the self-proclaimed Iranian and Syrian-led "axis of resistance" against Israel. Hamas leaders in exile were based in Syria, and both Hamas and Hezbollah received funds and weapons from Iran.
Hamas leaders left Syria last year to protest Assad's crackdown on fellow Sunnis. Since then, Hamas has drifted away from Iran and moved closer to the region's Sunni camp led by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, though it has not formally cut ties with Tehran.
Hamas and Hezbollah played important roles in Iran's attempt to set up heavily armed proxies on opposite sides of Israel — Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
For years, Hamas and Hezbollah enjoyed close ties.
Two decades ago, when Israel deported hundreds of Islamic militants from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to south Lebanon for a year, leaders of Hamas had a chance to meet face-to-face with Hezbollah leaders. The office of the Hamas representative in Lebanon is located in a heavily guarded Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut. Hamas officials have said Hezbollah has shared its military experience with their group.
Two Hamas officials in Gaza said Monday's statement is a result of growing outrage within Hamas over Hezbollah's involvement in Syria. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt the movement's top leaders who have been meeting in Cairo since Sunday.
On Saturday, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, Ali Barakeh, met with a member of the Hezbollah political bureau, Hassan Hubballah.
Hezbollah said in a statement that the two discussed "the existential challenges facing the Muslim and Arab world today, particularly the war on Syria," but it did not elaborate.

CAIRO (AP) — Under Hosni Mubarak's rule, Egypt's authorities took a tough line on Egyptians coming home after waging "jihad" in places like Afghanistan, Chechnya or the Balkans, fearing they would bring back extremist ideology, combat experience and a thirst for regime change. In most cases, they were imprisoned and tortured.
But after Mubarak's overthrow and his replacement by an elected Islamist president, jihad has gained a degree of legitimacy in Egypt, and the country has become a source of fighters heading to the war in Syria.
Egyptian militants are known to have been travelling to Syria to fight alongside Sunni rebels for more than year — but their movements were done quietly. But in recent days, a string of clerics have called for jihad in Syria, with some calling for volunteers to go fight against President Bashar Assad's regime.
On Saturday, Morsi attended a rally by hard-line clerics who have called for jihad and spoke before a cheering crowd at a Cairo stadium, mainly Islamists. Waving a flag of Egypt and the Syrian opposition, he ripped into the Syrian regime, announced Egypt was cutting ties with Damascus and denounced Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah guerrillas for fighting alongside Assad's forces.
Clerics at the rally urged Morsi to back their calls for jihad to support rebels. Morsi did not address their calls and did not mention jihad. But his appearance was seen as in implicit backing of the clerics' message. It came after a senior presidential aide last week said that while Egypt was not encouraging citizens to travel to Syria to help rebels, they were free to do so and the state would take no action against them.
Khalil el-Anani, an Egyptian expert on Islamist groups, called the move "Morsi's endorsement of jihad in Syria" and warned it was "a strategic mistake that will create a new Afghanistan in the Middle East."
"He is pushing Egypt into a sectarian war in which we have no interest," he said.
The new tone in Egypt risks fueling the flow of Egyptian jihadi fighters to Syria, where the conflict is already increasingly defined by the sectarian divide, with the mostly Sunni rebels fighting a regime rooted in the minority Alawite sect, an off-shoot of Shiite Islam, and backed by Shiite Iran and Hezbollah.
The conflict is also becoming more regional after Hezbollah intervened to help Assad defeat rebels in a strategic western town this month. Since then, hard-liners around the region have hiked calls for Sunnis to join the rebels in the fight. There are already believed to be several thousand foreign fighters among the rebel ranks, largely Islamist extremists some with al-Qaida ties.
The United States last week hardened its own position on Assad's regime, agreeing to provide the rebels with lethal weapons.
Damascus on Sunday lashed out at Morsi for his speech a day earlier, saying he "joins a choir of conspiracy and incitement led by the United States and Israel against Syria."
It accused him of endorsing calls by hardline clerics for people to fight in Syria.
Egypt's powerful military also seemed to distance itself from Morsi speech, in which he pledged that Egypt's government and military are behind the struggle of the Syrian people against Assad.
On Sunday, the state news agency quoted an unidentified military official underlining that "the Egyptian army will not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. It will not be dragged or be used in any of the regional struggles."
There are no official figures on how many Egyptians have gone to Syria to fight. Security officials monitoring the movement of militants estimate as many as 2,500 have gone, and their numbers are likely to significantly pick up after Hezbollah's intervention.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Organizations associated with Egypt's ultraconservative Salafi movement are believed to help organize movements for Egyptians to Syria. Islamist websites have reported that up to several dozen Egyptians have been killed while fighting in Syria the past two years, though the number has not been independently confirmed. The conflict, now in its third year, has killed nearly 93,000 people, according to new figures released by the United Nations.
Under Mubarak's 29-year rule, Egypt was a major Mideast bulwark against religious militancy. Mubarak closely cooperated with the United States and other Western nations in the hunt for extremists wanted in connection with terror attacks and dismantling the financial networks for militant groups. His regime was also notorious for rights abuses and torture against militants and other opponents
In the 1990s, militants who gained combat experience fighting the Russians in Afghanistan staged an anti-government insurgency that took the lives of more than 1,000 people, mostly civilians. Mubarak's security forces crushed the insurgency, and in the years that followed the groups involved renounced violence, though they maintained a hard-line ideology.
The fall of Mubarak in early 2011 and Morsi's election nearly a year ago allowed many of the former militants to come in from the cold.
Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, from which he hails, gets key backing from one of the main former Islamic militant groups, Gamaa Islamiya, as well as from several political parties of the Salafi movement.
A senior official at the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police and internal security, said the names of at least 3,000 militants have in recent months been removed from the wanted list posted at the country's points of entry over the past two years.
Many of the 3,000 have since Morsi taken office returned to Egypt from exile and are now freely participating in the country's Islamist-dominated politics, said the official.
Those who returned home included individuals tried and convicted in connection to the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat, the attempted assassination against Mubarak in Ethiopia in 1995 or militants who have been involved in wars abroad, said the official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Morsi's turning up the heat on Assad's regime appeared to be a concession to his ultraconservative allies, who have been unhappy with his government's moves to improve ties with Shiite Iran, Assad's main regional backer.
It also strengthens their backing for him ahead of giant anti-Morsi demonstrations planned by his opponents on June 30.
"This is a terrible idea," said Michael W. Hanna, an Egypt expert from the New York-based Century Foundation. "He is refocusing the anger of Egyptians over his policies away toward foreign issues instead of the domestic mess he is presiding over at home."
The security official said there are worries in the security establishment that sanctioning travel to Syria for Egyptians could later embolden jihadi groups to set up their training camps and political parties to create their own militias. Armed militant groups have become increasingly active in lawless parts of the Sinai Peninsula, where there has been a flood of weapons smuggled from Libya.
The change in Egypt's approach has not gone unnoticed in the West.
Last week, Germany's Interior Ministry issued its 2012 report on domestic security in which it noted an increase in the travel to Egypt by suspected Islamic extremists, ostensibly because they wanted to live in Muslim countries or study Arabic but in some specific cases may have been really interested in joining jihadi training camps.
The report doesn't specify where these training camps are located, whether in Egypt or elsewhere in the Middle East, North Africa or South Asia.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, will not permit no-fly zones to be imposed over Syria, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Monday.
"I think we fundamentally will not allow this scenario," Lukashevich told a news briefing, adding that calls for a no-fly zone showed disrespect for international law.
Lukashevich spoke before planned talks between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of a G8 summit in Northern Ireland which were expected to focus on the conflict in Syria that has killed at least 93,000 people.
Russia and the United States are trying to bring representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his foes to the negotiating table, but Moscow has criticized U.S. plans to arm rebel forces and to consider imposing a no-fly zone.
"All these maneuvers about no-fly zones and humanitarian corridors are a direct consequence of a lack of respect for international law," Lukashevich said.
He said Russia did not want a scenario in Syria that resembled the events in Libya after the imposition of a no-fly zone which enabled NATO aircraft to help rebels overthrow Muammar Gaddafi.

 Dreadclaw69 wrote:
And Russia "will not allow" a no-fly zone to be established

(Reuters) wrote:

CAIRO - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said he had cut all diplomatic ties with Damascus on Saturday and backed a no-fly zone over Syria, pitching the most populous Arab state more firmly against President Bashar al-Assad.

Addressing a rally called by Sunni Muslim clerics in Cairo, the Sunni Islamist head of state also warned Assad's ally, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi'ite militia Hezbollah, to pull back from fighting in Syria.

"Hezbollah must leave Syria. These are serious words," said Mursi, whose country hosted a conference of Sunni clerics this week who issued a call for holy war against Damascus.

"There is no space or place for Hezbollah in Syria," Mursi said.

The rally underscored the region's deepening sectarian rift. A cleric who spoke before Mursi described Shi'ites as heretics, infidels, oppressors and polytheists.

It was also a show of support for Mursi as his opponents mobilise for protests to demand early presidential elections.

Mursi waved Syrian and Egyptian flags as he entered the auditorium packed with 20,000 supporters. The crowd chanted: "From the free revolutionaries of Egypt: We will stamp on you, Bashar!"

Mursi, a Muslim Brotherhood politician, steered clear of direct references to Shi'ites and Iran but in a partial allusion to Tehran, he accused states in the region and beyond of feeding "a campaign of extermination and planned ethnic cleansing" in Syria.

"We decided today to entirely break off relations with Syria and with the current Syrian regime," he said. He also urged world powers not to hesitate to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria.

Western diplomats said on Friday that Washington was considering a limited no-fly zone over parts of Syria, but the White House said later that the United States had no national interest in pursuing that option.

Russia, an ally of Assad and fierce opponent of outside military intervention in Syria, said any attempt to impose a no-fly zone using F-16 fighter jets and Patriots based in Jordan would be illegal.

Mursi said he was organising an urgent summit of Arab and other Islamic states to discuss the situation in Syria, where the United States has in recent days decided to take steps to arm the rebels.

Egypt's U.S.-funded and -trained army is among the most powerful in the Middle East. There has been no suggestion, however, that Egypt, a country steeped in poverty, should get involved in the fighting in Syria.

WARNS AGAINST VIOLENCE

Mursi said: "The Egyptian people supports the struggle of the Syrian people, materially and morally, and Egypt, its nation, leadership ... and army, will not abandon the Syrian people until it achieves its rights and dignity."

The Brotherhood has joined calls this week from Sunni Muslim religious organisations for jihad against Assad and his Shi'ite allies.

Egypt has not taken an active role in arming the Syrian rebels, but an aide to Mursi said this week that Cairo would not stand in the way of Egyptians who wanted to fight in Syria.

It marked Mursi's second combative foreign policy speech in less than a week. On Monday, he said Egypt would keep "all options open" for dealing with a dispute with Ethiopia over a giant dam it is building on the Nile, though he said Cairo did not want war and stressed it would work diplomatically.

Mursi's liberal and leftist opponents are mobilising for mass protests on June 30, the anniversary of Mursi coming to office, fuelling fears of possible further violence.

Mursi told his Islamist supporters at the rally that they must not be dragged into confrontations and that he would not tolerate any violence.

 Jihadin wrote:
I'm placing good beer as bet we do not make it in time to provide them with advance weaponry. As we do not give up our... *snip* ...Stingers... *snip*

 Noble713 wrote:
I've seen a consistent trend in this thread of attacking the messenger instead of applying critical thought about the content of the message. The stats on American foodstamp use come from the Federal government, they are not invented out of thin air by bloggers. They are invented out of thin air by bureaucrats. So if you have a problem with a picture that they paint you should accuse the Chairman of the Federal Reserve of being a junk economist.

No it's more like insisting that the McDonald's employee with a GED probably isn't going to experience sufficient wage growth in the future to pay for the McMansion that he owns now. Protestations that he is well on his way to a 6-figure income while he spends his non-McD's hours playing Xbox are unconvincing.

Except it's *not working*. Small business ownership is down. Wages are stagnant in nominal terms and significantly down in real terms.

An oversupply of savings? Where? On the balance sheets of big banks perhaps?

1. I notice the URL for your image references Krugman. I hope you are not looking to him as a subject matter expert. This is the same guy who suggested that an alien invasion would be good for the economy.

2. Past performance is no indicator of future success. Case in point? Zimbabwe:


Sitting at 2000 on Zimbabwe's graph and saying "See? Inflation is flat. Therefore we are at no risk of hyperinflation." really didn't work out too well.

3. You do know that the CPI formulas are massaged regularly to fit the intended agenda of the moment? Even Ron Paul has said as much. Or you could just look at the Big Mac Index as an example. FYI: Peter Schiff (featured in the link) is one of the investors who accurately predicted the financial collapse of 2008.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
Oh yes, this is going to end well.

 Jihadin wrote:
I say Sebster and Noble go at it tonight. I think we were a bit much on Sebster last night. I have to give him credit though. He stuck to his guns lol

 sebster wrote:

 Jihadin wrote:
I say Sebster and Noble go at it tonight. I think we were a bit much on Sebster last night. I have to give him credit though. He stuck to his guns lol

Bit much on me? Dude, a guy claimed that tactical officers wore balaclavas for no reason but their personal shame.

Burns sustained in combat explosions in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF explosion burns)
Burns , Volume 32 , Issue 7 , Pages 853 - 857, http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0305417906000969
David S. Kauvar, Steven E. Wolf, Charles E. Wade, Leopoldo C. Cancio, Evan M. Renz, John B. Holcomb
United States Army Institute of Surgical Research, Fort Sam Houston, TX, United States
Accepted 15 March 2006


We undertook the current study in order to analyze the pattern and severity of burns incurred by military forces in OIF and OEF as the result of detonations of explosive devices in combat. It was our intention to use the data gathered for two purposes. The first goal was to examine the impact of these burns on military operational readiness. The second was to generate recommendations regarding potential measures that could be taken to reduce the incidence and severity of combat-associated burns occurring as the result of any hostile action throughout the world. .....

There were a total of 274 patients from OIF and OEF admitted to theUSAISR during the inclusion period (Apr 03 - Apr 05). Of these, 142 (52%) sustained burns as the result of the detonation of an explosive device through the action of hostile agents. The rate of patient admission for explosive burns and the proportion of patients sustaining these injuries have increased over the course of the conflict (Table 1). In addition to the increasing incidence, severity of burn injury has increased with mean total body surface area (TBSA) burned decreasing between 2003 and 2004, but increasing to its highest level in 2005. Injury severity scores (ISS) and frequency of inhalation injury (as diagnosed by fiber optic bronchoscopy) increased consistently from 2003 to 2005. .....


The problem of burns in the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan is a significant one. This report documents the problem as it relates to burns occurring as the result of hostile action comprising the use of explosive devices of varying kinds. Such detonations account for just over one half of all burns from OIF and OEF. We have also reported on our overall experience with OIF and OEF burns over the same time period [13]. To place the injuries documented in the current report in context, among 273 total OIF and OEF burn patients seen at the USAISR from March 2003 to May 2005, 62% were wounded as the direct result of hostile action with the majority of these injured in explosions. The remainder of burns did not result from enemy action. To comprehensively define the epidemiology of burns in current operations, a complete data set including those patients who were not admitted to the USAISR Burn Center would be needed. Unfortunately, such data are not available at this time, and so these casualties are not reflected in this report.

On the modern battlefield, burn injuries continue to represent a significant source of combat-related mortality and morbidity. This is especially apparent in ongoing conflicts because of the nature of operations in the Iraqi and Afghan theaters. These missions frequently involve ground operations consisting of foot patrols or ground watches and vehicle-based operations on an urban battlefield. During such operations, military personnel are subject to unpredictable attack by improvised and conventional incendiary explosive devices. The predominance of the detonation of improvised devices as a cause of combat burn injury presents challenges in the care of combat casualties. The devices causing burns span a range from small, homemade bombs filled with ball-bearings or other shrapnel-producing agents to modified conventional incendiary munitions such as large charge-filled howitzer rounds to fuel tanks with detonators. The array of devices used and thus the injury pattern created by them has been previously unseen on a large scale by U.S. forces. Regardless of the device used, combat explosions may result in burns through two mechanisms; directly from the heat of the initial explosive blast or from the secondary effect of burning vehicles, clothing, and equipment. The frequency and severity of burn is increasing, along with the proportion of patients who are injures in combat explosive detonations.

Many of the personnel injured in OIF and OEF explosions sustained burns when a vehicle in which they were riding came under attack by an explosive device. Burns incurred during battlefield vehicle operations arise from two primary sources: the explosion of armament on or near the vehicle and the fires that result from the combustion of ammunition, fuel, or hydraulic and other flammable fluids [6]. This dual nature of the etiology of vehicle-associated burns in combat partially explains the pattern of injury seen in our population. Those with small burns isolated to the hands and head likely suffered their burns during the initial explosion while their arms and faces were exposed outside the vehicle when it was attacked by a detonating device. Those with involvement of the trunk and lower extremity tended to have larger surface area burns and likely were burned by fires occurring in smoldering vehicles, a phenomenon similar to that seen in burn casualties during the Vietnam War [4].

In this population of casualties with burns sustained as the result of the detonation of hostile explosive devices, the mean burn size was small and 75% of patients had involvement of less than 20% of the TBSA. This distribution mirrors those seen in historical conflicts where the approximately 80% of burns involve less than 20% TBSA [1]. In Vietnam, 66% of burn patients had less than 20% TBSA involvement and in the 1982 war in Lebanon, 50% of casualties had burns involving less than 10% TBSA [4,7].

The small average size of the burns seen in this population belies the morbidity carried by these injuries. Burns to the hands and face are some of the most difficult to care for, and can have significant long-term morbidity and functional consequences [8–10]. The predominance of burn injury of the hands and head (particularly the face) is a pattern that has been identified throughout recent military history. During the Lebanese war of 1982, over three quarters of burn casualties with unprotected hands and face suffered burns to these areas [7]. In the Vietnam War, Allen et al, working at an in-theater burn center in Japan with a similar relationship to the combat field hospitals as the USAISR, identified that a significant portion of the burn casualties had small flash burns to the hands and face and that these injuries posed treatment challenges out of proportion to their total burn size [4]. .....

Many patients in this population sustained burns isolated to areas of the body that were unprotected by military clothing and equipment. The high incidence, great morbidity, and potential preventability of burns to the hands and head in combat situations have been identified in the past, and wider and more consistent use of protective garments has been advocated [11]. The protective effects of conventional and specialized clothing and equipment in combat burn injury have been well documented. Fireretardant flight suits made of Nomex, when properly worn, reduce the incidence and severity of burns associated with military helicopter accidents [12]. Similar suits were issued to tank and armored vehicle crewmen in the United States Army beginning in 1970 and have demonstrated similar efficacy in combat operations, decreasing the severity of burn injury when such vehicles are attacked [6]. The best evidence of the efficacy of fireproof garments in armored vehicle combat is Israeli data from the 1982 war in Lebanon. In this conflict, the use of flame-retardant gloves alone reduced the incidence of hand burns from 75 to 7% among tank crewmen who sustained burns. The incidence of hand burns with glove use decreased from 25 to 2.5% among all injured crewmen [7].

The only reliable way to reduce the impact of explosive burns on military operational readiness is to prevent the injuries themselves. As has been seen in previously reported combat casualty populations, the distribution of burns seen in this population likely represents the protective effect of the wounded patients’ clothing and equipment such as body armor. Many burns were isolated to the hands and head, indicating that protecting these areas from burn injury through the broader use of protective garments or devices could significantly reduce the total number of burns in this population. The use of protective garments on the hands and head/face alone might result in not only a reduction in the overall number of burn casualties, but also in decreased burn severity, morbidity, and potentially increased return-to-duty rates among soldiers that are burned.


Conclusion: Burns resulting from combat explosions increased in frequency, size and injury severity. Burns were concentrated on areas not protected by clothing or equipment. These injuries created long hospital stays and frequently prevented soldiers from returning to duty. While wound distribution has not changed, combat burn care has improved, and continued emphasis on military protective equipment for the hands and face is warranted.


Assess the threat and take appropriate preventive action. Light weight fire-retardant gloves and balaclava or neck gaiter worn during vehicle ops might be a little warm and uncomfortable but it is nothing compared to the heat and discomfort felt without such protective gear if your vehicle hits an IED.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



psencik1950

06-30-2008, 08:03

Assess the threat and take appropriate preventive action. Light weight fire-retardant gloves and balaclava or neck gaiter worn during vehicle ops might be a little warm and uncomfortable but it is nothing compared to the heat and discomfort felt without such protective gear if your vehicle hits an IED.

I guess the last paragraph puts it all in the proverbial nutshell. So if you don't read anything but this last paragraph, you,ve gotten something out of this study.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



HMC-FMF-PJ

07-02-2008, 23:05

Link to a post with the Army's Authorized Product List (APL) of Flame Resistant Combat Glove

 Breotan wrote:
Personal shame is why I wear them. I look like an idiot when I'm skiing. Would really rather nobody recognized me.

 Jihadin wrote:
Lack of Combat Experience. and no sense of humor. Stop playing in our world Sebster till you glean some info on what we're talking about.

 Jihadin wrote:
Hell I wear the mask to avoid drawing attention to myself if I was close to popping tape. Buys me more time to lose the pounds. That way if it does go before the board they have a little trouble confirming it was me. I lost twenty lbs by then and my badge number is covered now slowly ease yourself in some of this humor.

On a right note though. I want someone gawddamn accountable off the bat if there were an illegal kill. I want proof identification of the confirmation on the guy face. Main reason why we do not wear Balaclava in combat

 sebster wrote:


There's no 'protestation that he's on his way to a six figure income'. It's just making the point that if you want to include future payment obligations, you should also consider the money that will be earned that will pay for those obligations, exactly as is happening now.

It doesn't require some massive increase in income. I don't know where you got that from, or if you just made it up because it sounded great, but its got absolutely nothing to do with the US financial position.

Except it's *not working*. Small business ownership is down. Wages are stagnant in nominal terms and significantly down in real terms.

The seatbelt, like the monetary measures, greatly lessened the damage.

 Jihadin wrote:
He actually delivered those weapon system? Are they in the hands of the rebels as we speak now. Are they smiting the government forces?

Your first clue you should have seen off the bat
According to some reports over 20,000 Stinger Missiles "disappeared" in Libya and nobody knows where the missiles went or who has them (see disturbing video:

 Noble713 wrote:
You could cut discretionary spending to 0 and the US would barely break even, with income of $2.5T vs outlays of $2.3T. Of course that means wiping out the $680B Defense budget.... So every year we are spending 30% more than we earn, already sitting with a debt/GDP ratio >100%. Where will the future earnings increases come from? We are not making productivity-increasing investments such as revamping our transportation infrastructure. We are in a hole, and there are no indications that we have the means to dig ourselves out of it.

In the short-term. But the long-term effect is likely to be the same sort of stagnation Japan has experienced for the past two decades.

Interest rates have been in the gutter for years, yet hasn't made a dent in the unemployed/underemployed/discourage labor force.

-_- His thought experiment only has a point if you fail to comprehend the broken window fallacy.

There's other examples besides Zimbabwe. The Roman Empire under Diocletian. Bolivia in the 80's. Or everyone's favorite, the Wiemar Republic.

One of the greatest periods of growth in the US economy was deflationary (the late 1800's). If technology is improving we are making more efficient use of resources to deliver an equal or greater output. So it stands to reason that your purchasing power should *increase* not *decrease*. Case in point: consumer electronics. $1000 buys far more computer power today than it did 20 years ago.

The demand was driven by over-leveraged consumers buying non-productivity increasing assets (new cars every 2 years and giant houses). If demand has taken a hit it's a correction that was long overdue. The mistake has been *not* letting the institutions who failed actually suffer the consequences for their actions and instead prop them up, essentially rewarding them for their misjudgement.

World powers supporting Syria's rebels decided on Saturday to take "secret steps" to change the balance on the battlefield, after the United States and others called for increasing military aid to insurgents.

Yet even as they prepared to step up their own involvement in a war that has killed nearly 100,000 people, they demanded that Iran and Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah stop supporting President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

In their final communique, the ministers agreed to "provide urgently all the necessary materiel and equipment to the opposition on the ground, each country in its own way in order to enable them to counter brutal attacks by the regime and its allies and protect the Syrian people".

Speaking in Doha, top Qatari diplomat Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said the meeting of foreign ministers of the "Friends of Syria" had taken "secret decisions about practical measures to change the situation on the ground in Syria".

Ministers from Britain, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States attended the talks.

Washington and Doha called for increasing military aid to end what US Secretary of State John Kerry called an "imbalance" in Assad's favour.

Kerry said the United States remained committed to a peace plan that includes a conference in Geneva and a transitional government picked both by Assad and the opposition.

But he said the rebels need more support "for the purpose of being able to get to Geneva and to be able to address the imbalance on the ground".

To that end, he said, "the United States and other countries here -- in their various ways, each choosing its own approach -- will increase the scope and scale of assistance to the political and military opposition".

Sheikh Hamad echoed Kerry's remarks, calling for arms deliveries to the rebels to create a military balance that could help forge peace.

A peaceful end "cannot be reached unless a balance on the ground is achieved, in order to force the regime to sit down to talks," he told the ministers.

"Getting arms and using them could be the only way to achieve peace."

On Thursday, the rebel Free Syrian Army said it was already receiving unspecified new types of arms that could change the course of the battle, but also said it needed anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons.

In their communique, the ministers agreed that all military aid provided would be chanelled through the FSA's Supreme Military Council.

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the ministers demanded that predominantly Shiite Iran and Hezbollah stop meddling in the war by supporting Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

"We have demanded that Iran and Hezbollah end their intervention in the conflict," said Fabius.

"Hezbollah has played a terribly negative role, mainly in the attack on Qusayr," a strategic town recaptured from rebels earlier this month with the group's help.

"We are fully against the internationalisation of the conflict," he told reporters.

Kerry also accused Assad of an "internationalisation" of the conflict, which has claimed nearly 100,000 lives, by bringing in Iran and Hezbollah.

And the final communique said the crossing into Syria of militia and fighters that support the regime, a clear reference to Hezbollah, "must be prevented."

The ministers also warned of the "increasing presence and growing radicalism" and "terrorist elements in Syria."

It is "a matter that deepens the concerns for the future of Syria, threatens the security of neighbouring countries and risks destabilising the wider region and the world," they said.

Sheikh Hamad also voiced support for a peace conference but insisted there could be no role in the future government for "Assad and aides with bloodstained hands".

He accused Assad's regime of wanting to block the Geneva conference in order to stay in power, "even if that costs one million dead, millions of displaced and refugees, and the destruction of Syria and its partition".

The final communique stated that Assad "has no role in the transitional governing body or thereafter."

On the ground, loyalist forces pressed a fierce four-day assault on rebel-held parts of Damascus, while insurgents launched a new attack on regime-controlled neighbourhoods of second city Aleppo.

Saturday's developments come as the military pushed on with its bid to end the insurgency in and around Homs in central Syria, said the Observatory.

They also come a day after at least 100 people were killed nationwide, it added.