‘Delight in smooth-sounding platitudes, refusal to face unpleasant facts … genuine love of peace and pathetic belief that love can be its sole foundation … the utter devotion of the Liberals to sentiment apart from reality … though free from wickedness or evil design, played a definite part in the unleashing upon the world of horrors and miseries”.
So said Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm and it’s tragic that we are having to learn the same lessons less than a century later. We face a rising axis composed of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia that is more powerful than Nazi Germany, more strategically threatening than the Soviet Union. It commands much of the world’s population, has cornered the processing of critical minerals and possesses more than half the planet’s thermonuclear weapons. It is also militarising faster than the West and sowing discord (particularly online) while gaining ever more influence in the non-aligned world, not least Africa where Russian flags are flying in the Sahel.
It is time to wake up and smell the danger.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/5cb92c64-701c-11ee-8275-e4bad3604bca?shareToken=f92eebc4d3000c4aceea50e3a555e82c
The above excerpt is from a piece, While our leaders indulge in puerile squabbles, tyrants seize the moment: Western complacency has allowed China, Iran, North Korea and Russia to amass a frightening advantage, by Matthew Syed, in The Sunday Times. Even if you don’t read the rest of my blog post, I urge you to read Mr. Syed’s piece.
With events in the world changing at warp speed, mostly I want to focus my blog on the big picture events (the geopolitics) and trying to offer a tiny bit of historical background and information I find relevant. I caveat all of this with this is my personal opinion blog and I am not any sort of expert on anything – only a grandma, mother and American citizen, who’s concerned about the divides in America, our thoroughly corrupted information ecosystems that are polluted with lies and more lies, plus I’m very concerned about the lack of loyalty to both our American foundational principles and our constitutional republic, as all these alarming events beyond our shores are swirling.
Unfortunately, petty hyper-partisan politics consume way too much space in our public political discourse and it’s a safe bet most people wait for what their favorite pundits, celebrities, or people they listen to on social media spoon-feed them and then run with that as their hot take about what’s going on. Almost daily it’s some new catchy talking points or phrase that all of a sudden everyone is repeating as if it’s some brilliant analysis. I did say “listen to,” because I doubt most people go looking for more information to read or digging for some background information. I’m trying to add in news links, sources that are useful, and books.
If anyone asked me what’s going to happen, well, I can’t predict what America’s adversaries are going to do, let alone anyone else for that matter, but I think this war widening is more likely than not. I hope I’m wrong.
A lot of people in MAGA political circles seem to believe that Trump was a superhero, who kept America safe and certainly I prefer Trump’s foreign policies and the efforts to secure our borders, but Trump reveled in being America’s Disruptor-In-Chief and fanning divides. That played into the hands of our adversaries and that’s likely why Putin and Xi cheer Trump. Trump says he’s good friends with them (part of the tough guy crowd). With Trump they know America’s top leadership will be in constant turmoil. There are a whole lot of far-left political people who also fomented divides in America (Summer of Love anyone, or how about all the COVID drama). Biden displays glaring weakness dealing with our adversaries, especially China and Iran, and that plays into our adversaries hands too. And add in Biden also aggressively works to divide America, especially when he rages about “MAGA Republicans.” Often I say, “We are doomed with leaders like these,” and “Is this the best America can come up with for leaders?”
The truth is our adversaries have their own policy goals and want to replace America (and the West) as the top dogs on the world stage – this is their objective, regardless who is president here in America. A stronger America and allied West might deter them, but it’s important to realize they have been working for years (decades) to pursue their objectives – long before Trump or Biden were president.
Many of the situations creating flashpoints now – like Ukraine vs. Russia and Hamas vs. Israel have long, long histories. I had honestly hoped we could close the book on having to deal with more radical Islamist terrorist threats, but here we are and it feels like we’re back where we started with 9/11.
This weekend I was looking over my books on radical Islamist stuff and I came across, The Islamic Bomb, by Steve Weissman and Herbert Krosney, which was published in 1981 and that’s the first book I think I read about the threat of nuclear weapons in the Islamic world. I thought about how long this has been a serious threat. This book starts out with Chapter 1, titled: The Bombing of the Osirak Reactor, which occurred in 1981 – it was the Israelis bombing an Iraqi site, where Saddam Hussein was trying to develop nuclear weapons. It kind of feels like we’re always back to square one with the nuclear threat issue and chaos in the Mideast.
Here we are in 2023 and many Americans are understandably sick of foreign wars that never seemed to benefit America and wars that never seemed to end.
America’s adversaries have been flexing their muscles, as America began retreating from our adventures in the Bush-era Global War on Terror and regime change/democracy-building projects, which was followed by the Obama embrace of the glorious “Arab Spring.” Creating power vacuums is always an invitation for other powers to try to fill them. This was going on in the Trump years too, despite Trump’s tougher policies on Iran and it’s escalated dramatically in the Biden years, largely due to Biden’s major public displays of bungled events (like the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle and the Chinese spy balloon fiasco) and very weak foreign policy decisions – especially with catering to Iran.
China is on the move too. Back in June there was this – Chinese warship cuts off US Navy ship, marking 2nd military provocation in week.
Well, now China is threatening Philippine vessels – Philippines say Chinese boats rammed vessels in disputed waters
I feel we’re on the way to a larger war, because Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are flexing their muscles, aggressively expanding their influence and making the moves to pursue their territorial aspirations. This is going to happen no matter who is President, I believe. Unfortunately, America is too politically and culturally divided and disunited, while our adversaries are more united by the day. I’m still hopeful our leaders will wake up to the threats and begin to pull our country together.
In my last blog post I had links to two news articles on Russia and North Korea meeting and agreeing to closer ties – economic and security (that’s military). A few days ago when President Biden gave his speech committing the US to aiding Ukraine and Israel, China was hosting their Belt and Road conference in Beijing, which is ostensibly about international cooperation. Putin was the guest of honor. The Taliban showed up… and so did Viktor Orban (the guy Tucker Carlson was fawning all over). This article at The China Project, Surprise attendees, notable absences, and Vladimir Putin at the Belt and Road Forum, covers who attended and who didn’t.
Senator Mitch McConnell, whom many among the MAGA right loathe, hit the Sunday shows to talk about aiding Ukraine and Israel and he wants to get the aid package through quickly – and there’s talk that additional funding for border security might be included too. It’s become a MAGA default position to rail about aid to Ukraine and McConnell is despised among the MAGA right, so naturally there will be plenty of angry debates. The truth is McConnell explained the reality of the situation in the first minute:
libertybelle diaries 