I would say, definitely a signal. Here’s a quote from a CBS report today:
“Washington — Hackers backed by the Chinese government are targeting U.S. water treatment plants and electrical grids, strategically positioning themselves within critical infrastructure systems to “wreak havoc and cause real-world harm to American citizens and communities,” FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress Wednesday.”
Filed under General Interest, Politics, Terrorism
When trying to connect a lot of dots, it’s easy to get lost in the dots and miss the bigger picture. That’s what happened to me last fall when the October 7th attack on Israel happened. Along with too many dots with a story I had been trying to understand – the suspension of Robert Malley earlier in 2023 – too many other events exploded. Listening to weird Biden administration responses to three American soldiers being killed in an Iranian proxy drone strike prodded my memory.
Something is very off with how the Biden administration still keeps trying to kowtow to Tehran and exhibiting weakness at every turn. They’re blabbing about not wanting to escalate tensions with Iran and doing meaningless, theatrical, “DON’T” warnings, while Iran has continually escalated tensions. The retaliatory strikes have been strategically pointless targets, because the Biden administration doesn’t really want to retaliate – they want to avoid upsetting Tehran.
I had saved some links about Malley, but I began trying to tune out the news information overload and never got back to this story. However, this story of the Biden administration’s top Iran/Mid-East guru being removed from his position and having his security clearance suspended, back in April 2023 is probably a very important story in light of the October 7th attack and the Biden administration’s embarrassingly weak response to increasing Iranian aggression.
Here’s a June 29, 2023 CNN report: Biden’s Iran envoy placed on leave after security clearance suspended amid investigation into possible mishandling of classified material, sources say This CNN report has this peculiar paragraph (paragraph 11):
“The move to suspend Malley’s security clearance was not communicated widely within the State Department or across the Biden administration, as the department kept him in his role and made no official announcements about replacing him. Some officials at the State Department were told that Malley was handing personal matters, which is why he had taken a back seat on the Iran portfolio, two State Department officials and a third person who was briefed told CNN.”
So, here’s what paragraph 2 said:
“A US official said that Malley’s clearance was suspended amid a State Department diplomatic security investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information. Another source familiar with the matter said he was placed on unpaid leave on Thursday afternoon.”
Why on earth did Blinken keep someone suspected of mishandling highly sensitive information working in the State Department and who lied to other State Department workers to keep it quiet? Well, Blinken and Malley are childhood friends and Malley is the Democratic Party Middle-East guru. Again, this is the CNN sentence: “Some officials at the State Department were told that Malley was handing personal matters, which is why he had taken a back seat on the Iran portfolio, two State Department officials and a third person who was briefed told CNN.” I’m wondering “were told” by whom???
I’m adding this paragraph, after publishing, because I realized I wasn’t clear about the allegations against Malley. Here’s a quote from an October 1, 2023, Lee Smith piece at Tablet Magazine, “The Biden administration’s now-suspended Iran envoy Robert Malley helped to fund, support, and direct an Iranian intelligence operation designed to influence the United States and allied governments, according to a trove of purloined Iranian government emails.” He was alleged to have mishandled highly classified information and of putting together a group of Iranian experts, who were working to sway US policy toward Iran’s objectives. It had to be some damning information for Blinken to first suspend his long-time friend/Democrats’ Iran policy guru’s security clearance in April and then when the State Department investigated, they referred it to the FBI and Malley was placed on unpaid leave in June.
Malley’s story is critically important to what’s going on with the Biden administration handling of policy with the Israel/Hamas war and with our American response to escalating attacks by Iranian proxies. Malley worked for the Clinton administration, trying to broker an Israeli/Palestinian peace deal and then for the Obama administration, becoming their architect of the Iran deal. Malley has close ties with Hamas leaders, his father was very close friends with Yasser Arafat and Malley continued those close ties. In 2008, when Obama was running for president, Malley was asked to step aside from his informal campaign role over concerns his close ties to Hamas could damage Obama. However, in 2014, Obama hired Malley to be senior director of the National Security Council and his chief Iran policy architect.
Never fear, Malley is still in the loop among the connected Democrats’ elite foreign policy crowd – he’s now a Senor Fellow at Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs and there are plenty of his cronies, who assuredly will try to relaunch him into the Democrat foreign policy club. Here’s a piece in The Nation, from October 19, 2023, Disinformation and Deception in Tehran and Washington, making the case that people are trying to sabotage Malley and other aides are having their work sabotaged. Well, it was the State Department who investigated Malley’s handling of highly classified information and referred the matter to the FBI and it was Malley’s close friend, Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, who removed him from his post – not reporters running a disinformation effort. Blinken suspended Malley’s security clearance in April – long before the reporters knew anything about it in June. Timelines matter.
Here are some links to other reports on this situation:
July 23, 2023 – Lee Smith article in Tablet Magazine : What happened to Robert Malley?
August 14, 2023 – Reuters report: Malley, on leave from US Iran envoy post, to teach at Princeton
September 29, 2023 – Jay Solomon piece in Semafor: Inside Iran’s influence operation
October 1, 2023 – Lee Smith article in Tablet Magazine: High-Level Iranian Spy Ring Busted in Washington
October 16, 2023 – Lee Smith article in Tablet Magazine: The Biden Administration Tries to Hide What It Knew About an Impending Massacre, While Leaving U.S. Backing for Iran Untouched
January 19, 2024 – Yale News: Controversial Jackson fellow Robert Malley to teach ‘Contending with Israel-Palestine’ seminar
I’ll leave it up to you to decide if Malley mishandled highly sensitive classified information or is a victim of “disinformation.” The Biden State Department decided the matter was serious enough to suspend his security clearance and refer it to the FBI. As for me, I think Malley’s so well-connected at the highest levels in Democrat circles – the Clintons, Obama, Kerry, etc. etc. etc. that the FBI will handle this like Hillary’s emails and Hunter’s laptop… another investigation to Nowhere.
I also believe the Biden White House and our other top national security agencies are thoroughly compromised.
The dots never end with the Obama crowd, that’s now the Biden crowd. Then there was this story in September 2023, connected with the Malley case: “Pentagon Defends Biden Appointee’s Alleged Membership in Iranian Influence Network. From the Washington Times: “Ms. Tabatabai is an Iranian-American scholar who now works as the chief of staff for Christopher P. Maier, the Pentagon’s assistant secretary of Defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. She had previously worked for the State Department.”
Along with Malley’s saga, right after Oct. 7th there was a pro-Hamas Homeland Security official:
If you wonder why this administration often sounds like they’re more sympathetic to the terrorist regime in Tehran and Hamas terrorists, well, just look at who is writing their policies and narratives… Malley was the Obama Iranian expert in 2016, when John Kerry was Secretary of State. Kerry was working inside deals with Iran for the release of American sailors Iran had taken hostage. Kerry did a victory lap, bragging about his smart diplomacy leading to a peaceful release of the American hostages. Then Iran unleashed a humiliating propaganda attack in the international media of American sailors on their knees. Never forget who these people really are – Malley was the Obama Iranian policy guru, with all the Iranian connections back then too.
Filed under General Interest, Politics, Terrorism
Here’s a press release from the US Department of the Treasury, The United States and United Kingdom Target Iranian Transnational Assassinations Network. An Iran based narco-trafficker reportedly has been recruiting assassins, like a Hell’s Angel Motorcycle gang member in Canada to assassinate people inside the US:
“In 2021, Zindashti’s network recruited Canadian national and British Columbia-based Hells Angels Outlaw Motorcycle Group member Damion Patrick John Ryan (Ryan) to assassinate individuals in the United States who fled Iran. Ryan, whose criminal history ranges from firearms trafficking charges to international drug trafficking, has ties to criminal elements in Canada, the United States, and Greece. Zindashti associate Asan worked closely with Ryan to plan the assassinations, sending the location and photos of the targets, in addition to coordinating payment details. Ryan also recruited Canadian national and Hell’s Angels affiliate Adam Richard Pearson (Pearson) to carry out the murders.”
Filed under General Interest, Terrorism
JK posted a comment with a link to a January 17, 2024 letter sent to Congressional leaders on my last blog post, that I think every American should read. The letter was written by ten former FBI directors and experts in counterintelligence. They warned this invasion at the southern border is different than other illegal immigration surges in the past. Here is a link to that letter:https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/pdclarion.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/9a/f9ab16aa-1396-5762-8198-2efd36fa97b1/65b32e508e0b0.pdf.pdf
They write:
“In 2021, the demographics of those crossing the porous southern border started to shift. Young men from around the world traveling alone and holding questionable motivations dramatically increased in number to become the most common profile of those breaching the nation’s border. A startling number have been found on the terrorist watchlist or are from countries designated as State Sponsors of Terror distinctly unfriendly to the United States.”
Their letter mentions, “The nation’s military and laws and other natural protective barriers have been thoroughly circumvented over the past three years.” Well, that is what would be termed “asymmetrical warfare,” if some of the thousands upon thousands of fighting age men are being deployed by nations hostile to the US, in preparation to launch asymmetrical attacks inside the US. Remembering Pearl Harbor should be on our minds, but even more recently, the Israelis didn’t believe Hamas could carry off an asymmetrical attack like October 7th last year.
I doubt America’s military can be defeated by direct confrontation and I believe our adversaries are well aware of this.
After World War I, a British soldier, Captain B. H. Liddell Hart began studying history and military strategy. He became known for his military theory, advocating the avoidance of direct frontal attack and using the indirect approach, by attacking the rear and supply lines to throw the enemy off-balance. He wrote numerous books and the photo above are the ones I have. I find his ideas interesting.
Thanks, JK for the link to this letter, because I hadn’t seen it. That’s it for this blog post, but I urge you to read the warning letter by former FBI officials.
Filed under General Interest, Military, Politics, Terrorism
While writing my last blog post, it jogged my memory. This latest targeting of Evangelicals, Catholics, Dick’s Sporting Goods shoppers, and even Bible buyers, as potential threats isn’t some alarming new attack on right-wing Americans – it’s just a continuation of the Obama agenda.
Back in 2013, I wrote a blog post, Equal Opportunity For Dummies, Courtesy Of US Army, which was about how the Obama administration went about recruiting people with close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood to review all training on Islamic-inspired terrorism within the federal government, including in the US military. Experts were fired and the fact-based training was replaced with PC training, that met with the approval of the Muslim Brotherhood mouthpieces in America.
The links in that 2013 blog post no longer work and that happens a lot with old links, but here’s a 2013 Townhall piece by Todd Starnes, Military Labels Evangelicals, Catholics as ‘Religious Extremism’. In that post I mentioned reports of a US Army Reserve unit in PA using Equal Opportunity training material that placed Evangelical Christians at the top of the list of religious extremists in America. Catholics and Mormons made this list too. This Starnes piece states:
“This slide was not produced by the Army and certainly does not reflect our policy or doctrine,” he said. “It was produced by an individual without anyone in the chain of command’s knowledge or permission.”
The Starnes piece stated that a solider attending that training asked for copies of the training material and sent them to Chaplain Alliance.“
So, while the Obama administration had people trying to label Evangelical Christians, Catholics and Mormons as religious extremists, it was simultaneously purging training material on Islamic-inspired terrorism and ranting about Islamophobia constantly. Here’s a 2012 Fox News piece: FBI removes hundreds of training documents after probe on treatment of Islam.
It wasn’t only training documents that were purged by the Obama administration, as top experts on Islamic-inspired terrorism and jihad, were also purged. Stephen Coughlin, was contracted by the JCS as an intelligence analyst, but he was purged in 2008. Here’s a bit of bio from Wikipedia:
“According to reporter Bill Gertz, Coughlin “led the way in uncovering the truth about the U.S. government’s failures to tackle the Islamic threat.”[1] Coughlin completed his master’s thesis in 2007 at the National Defense Intelligence College, which focused on the Islamic doctrine of jihad as formed by Islamic law, and directly conflicted with the positions of central Muslim outreach Pentagon aide Hesham Islam and others in the U.S. government.[1][7] In connection with the trial against the Islamic charity Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which had been designated a terrorist organization for providing millions in funds to Hamas, Coughlin wrote a memorandum that explicitly criticized several groups that the U.S. Justice Department had been involved with as part of their Muslim outreach program, identifying them as front groups of the Muslim Brotherhood that were part of a subversion plan against the United States.[1] Coughlin was eventually notified after a meeting at the Pentagon’s upper floor which included Islam, who controversially called Coughlin a “Christian zealot”, that his contract would not be renewed after March 2008.[1]“
Here’s a 2010 piece, 10 Failures of the U.S. Government on the Domestic Islamist Threat, by Patrick Poole, explaining, Hesham Islam, the Obama senior Pentagon advisor on international affairs and Pentagon point-man for Muslim outreach, who called Coughlin “a Christian zealot.”
Coughlin went on to write a book, Catastrophic Failure: Blindfolding America In the Face of Jihad, recreating his Pentagon briefings on radical Islam and Islamic law, plus historical information. I have this book and have read parts of it, but it’s a tome – over 500 pages and then hundreds of pages of notes and appendixes – plus there’s a lot of legal terms that I’m unfamiliar with, so it’s tough-going for me.
The reports in recent days of Evangelicals and Catholics being labeled potential domestic threats isn’t new – it’s the legacy of the Obama agenda, that the Biden administration has doubled down on. The reports of Americans having their purchases monitored and being labeled based on shopping at Dick’s Sporting Goods, or buying Bibles may sound surreal and alarming, but once again this effort has been going on since the Obama years and every time right-wing media creates a stir about it, the response from the FBI and the US military is they had no knowledge, it was an isolated incident, and they’re not targeting Christians, not creating watch lists and there’s nothing to see here.
So, when I started watching the November hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, I was sick to death of all the Trump “deep state” drama and prepared to dismiss it. I also got weary about all the hysteria about Twitter banning people and all that Trump-centric drama. Then I started thinking back to the years of this labeling right-wing people as potential domestic terrorists and how in the 1990s, the Clinton DOJ (Obama’s first Attorney General, Eric Holder, was in the Clinton DOJ too) and back then the FBI hyped the right-wing militia movement to the point it sounded like there were right-wing extremists everywhere… until 9/11.
Once the federal government had to face the threat of Islamic-inspired terrorism, well, that was met by anger and resistance on the left, so when Obama was elected – Islamophobia became the biggest problem in America (well, next to racism) and it was because of… dangerous right-wing extremists. In case after case of terrorist attacks within the US, carried out by radical jihadists, there was an effort to reframe the incidents by federal officials and the liberal media. With the 2106 Pulse nightclub shooting, the FBI was aware of the shooter, Omar Mateen, but within days the liberal media had reframed that as due to anti-gay, right-wing Christians. In incident after incident, the FBI was aware of the jihadist shooter, but the liberal news media went full-throttle pushing a flipped script, where right-wing zealots caused the problem, not the radical Islamist, who carried out the attack. This flipping the script tactic continues to this day.
When President Biden gave his first speech after the October 7th Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians, he pledged support for Israel, but rambled on about Islamophobia – not the murdered Israeli civilians and hundreds of innocent civilian hostages (including Americans). Hamas is another group of radical jihadists. The Biden administration, which is largely a continuation of the Obama administration, jumped into flipping the script mode. The White House press secretary was blabbing about the threat of Islamophobia as anti-Semitic attacks in America skyrocketed.
I keep mentioning that short-lived Homeland Security Disinformation Governance Board, because just because the Biden administration disbanded that quickly, that doesn’t mean they’ve ditched that idea. Some tweaked and newly named effort will reemerge, because that’s how the left pushes their radical agenda. They back up, regroup, then rebrand and push forward. They aren’t deterred and they’re certainly not defeated, even though the political right thinks that “owning the libs” is victory.
There is no concerted right-wing policy effort to counter the radical left’s onward march. The left’s been staking out territory within the federal bureaucracy and Pentagon for decades now. At the same time, for decades, even when they do have power in Washington, Republicans invariably squander it and they are always late to waking up to the left’s political moves.
.
Filed under General Interest, Information War, Terrorism
This post is going to be a timeline covering how the Biden administration is going to try to have it both ways by publicly mouthing support for Israel to respond against the horrific Hamas attack on Oct. 7th, where over 1,400 people were massacred in heinous ways, while doing everything they can to hype “Islamophobia” and throw roadblocks in the way of Israel destroying Hamas.
October 17th – The media ran a story about an Israeli missile hitting a hospital in Gaza and mass casualties. That story was false. It was a Hamas rocket that misfired and hit the hospital parking lot and not mass causalities. This false story inflamed violent, anti-Israel protests around the world:
October 20, 2023: President Biden gave an Oval Office speech affirming US support for Ukraine and Israel, but he focused more on Ukraine than Israel and he blabbered on about “Islamophobia.” There was a highly publicized murder of a Muslim boy in Illinois on October 16th and Biden mentioned that. I’m not going to argue about details, because the DOJ is investigating this, but I’ll offer one word of caution that with cases where the assailant and victims had some relationship – landlord/tenant in this case, there are often other issues and in this CNN story I linked, CAIR seems to be the media spokespeople for the Muslim family. CAIR is the Council on American Islamic Relations, founded in 1994 by leaders of the Islamic Association for Palestine and mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda. I’m not trying to justify or minimize the murder of this child, what I’m saying is I don’t know all the details and I don’t trust any narrative being stage-managed by CAIR. I’m adding this news article after posting, because it has a photo of the attorney for the mother, who was also stabbed… Ben Crump: Man pleads not guilty to hate crime in fatal stabbing of 6-year-old Muslim boy in Illinois. Ben Crump (George Floyd fame) and CAIR lawyers together… go figure.
October 23, 2023: Karine Jean-Pierre, the WH press secretary, answered a question about the rise of antisemitism in America, by stating there’s no credible threats and that the real threats are against Muslims and those perceived to be Muslims:
The next day she walked that back a bit, but it seemed bizarre to focus so heavily on “Islamophobia” and be so dismissive of the rise of anti-Semitism in America, when the incidents are cropping up all over and the angry protests supporting Hamas have been raging across American college campuses and cities.
October 30, 2023: I posted this comment on Twitter/X. Here’s a link to explain the Dem/liberal media narrative flip after the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016, Reminder: The press blamed Christian conservatives for the Pulse nightclub shooting. It was a vicious smear.:
November 1, 2023: Vice-President, Kamala Harris announces:
November 2, 2023: The global effort to hype “Islamophobia” and throw obstacles in Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas is underway .
And on and on it will go. The Republicans in the House insisting they needed to separate funding for Israel and Ukraine played right into Dems hands and the Biden administration has announced Biden will veto that separate aid for Israel bill, which will aid the “Islamophobia” crowd’s effort to hobble Israel’s military operation to destroy Hamas. It also buys more time for the global “Islamophobia” propaganda effort to hype the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. This is a global progressive propaganda effort working in tandem with the international cabal of Palestinian activists and mouthpieces, I believe.
The narrative flip to downplay anti-Semitism raging across the world and in America is underway and the efforts to hype the Palestinian cause is now coming from the White House.
And for the record: Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Hamas in 2021 and October 7th is what they got in return:
And if that’s not bad enough, here’s a FOX News report: Timeline: US forces in Iraq and Syria were attacked at least 28 times between since Oct. 17. Meanwhile Biden keeps warning Iran to stop and that we’ll respond, but so far it’s been meaningless retaliations and lip service. If you thought the Afghanistan Withdrawal Debacle was a nightmare, I fear America is in for much worse with this “Islamophobia” crowd in the driver’s seat of American foreign policy.
Update: I forgot to put in the October 17th media meltdown over the Gaza hospital/mass casualty report from Gazan officials, which the media ran with and then later that entire story imploded. I added that Oct 17th story
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics, Terrorism
Israel suffered a major attack by Hamas on Saturday and hundreds of civilians are reported murdered and large numbers of Israeli civilians taken hostage. There have been reports that some Americans in Israel were taken hostage too, but I haven’t seen any confirmation of that yet. Israel has declared war on Hamas. Iran has reportedly aided Hamas in this attack and yet so far, President Biden hasn’t said anything and neither have former presidents Obama and Clinton. All three have been gung ho with appeasing Iran and Hamas and Biden recently cut some deal with Iran – a prisoner swap and releasing $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds.
Here’s a post on X of Sec. of State Anthony Blinken admitting Iran always focuses on funding terror, which begs the question why the Biden administration is so gung ho to cut deals with Iran and why they released this $6 billion:
This article today explains some of the background and many more details of the situation in this conflict: Hamas’s War on Israel: Everything You Need to Know: Answering your questions on Hamas, Iran, the occupation, and more., written by Alana Newhouse and Jeremy Stern. This article explains the Obama/Biden embrace of Iran, who funds, arms, and trains Hamas and raises some disturbing questions about why the Biden administration has been mostly silent on Hamas’ attack on Israel and slow on condemning Hamas. Former President Obama, likewise was silent over the weekend on condemning Hamas and Iran’s support of Hamas. Here’s an excerpt from this article:
When he was Obama’s vice president, Biden was a central progenitor of the Iran Deal, which he then solidified as the cornerstone of his own administration’s Middle East policy.
By allying the U.S. with Tehran, the Iran Deal created a deadly embrace between the United States and a terror state run by corrupt medieval clerics who keep power through violence against their own people and by promoting terror and chaos abroad. As a self-proclaimed “revolutionary regime,” Iran explicitly aims to set not just Israel, but the entire region, on fire.
Giving the Iranians the backing of the U.S. was a recipe for chaos and a green light for terror throughout the region, which is exactly what has happened since Obama announced his deal. Funding Iranian terror, to the tune of $16 billion that the Biden administration sent to Iran in recent weeks, is an act of criminal negligence. As a result, it is fair to say that America has Israeli blood on its hands, too.
https://www.thefp.com/p/hamas-war-on-israel-everything-you-need-to-know
There are still unanswered questions on how Hamas was able to to carry out this attack and how Israel’s high-tech border security systems failed. There are also unanswered questions as to whether Russia and/or China possibly aided Hamas’ attack. Turkey’s, leader, President Erdogan, was also urging Israel not to wage war on Hamas and as typically happens when Israel is attacked, there will likely be an effort to reframe Israel as somehow in the wrong and also a massive PR effort directed at the Arab Street in the Middle East and Erdogan is certainly no stranger to leaning into that propaganda effort.
Just like with the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle and the disjointed Biden effort to aid Ukraine after a full-scale Russian invasion, the Biden administration will likely bungle along with how they respond to this latest crisis. Despite doing the maintaining face lip service about supporting Israel, the Biden crowd is the same as the Obama crowd and definitely not pro-Israel. This crowd also consistently made excuses for Palestinian terror in the past. Ditto this for the Clintons and former President Clinton, likewise was silent on condemning Hamas over the weekend. Back during the Clinton years, the PLO leader, Yassir Arafat, was a frequent visitor to the Clinton WH, while Hillary hobnobbed with Arafat’s wife. Coddling Palestinian terrorists, while shifting blame to Israel is par for the course with Clinton, Obama and now Biden.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and his band of nincompoops at the State Department have been posting on X, urging Israel to not respond to the attack on its country and then deleting posts, apparently reacting to public outrage for sounding weak on condemning Hamas:
Just like in every other event that dominates the news lately, wild conspiracy theories are already permeating about this attack on Israel, but so far this seems to be the gist of what’s happening. Hamas was acting with Iran’s support and direction. Russian and/or Chinese involvement has not been proven. President Biden didn’t respond and instead hosted a BBQ at the White House yesterday afternoon: White House slammed for hosting BBQ with live band as war rages in Israel.
What happened in Israel should be a wake-up call for Democrats and their open borders embrace. Israel takes securing their borders very seriously. There have been reports that possibly cyberattacks dismantled some of the Israeli border security systems, but here in the US, our government has no idea how many illegals have flooded in, where they are from and what their intentions are. Judging by how obsessed the Biden administration and Democrats are at scapegoating the right, they’re more invested in hunting down “MAGA Republicans” than illegals who mean us harm.
The Biden administration is a complete disgrace and they’re already covering their own butts for their complicity in aiding and abetting Iranian terrorism and foot-dragging on supporting Israel. While many people reflexively jump on the bandwagon urging a “ceasefire,” just like in Ukraine, what demanding a “ceasefire” does is pressure the country that was invaded to appease the country that invaded – it rewards the bad actors. This happened in Ukraine too and many Americans bought into this idea that Ukraine should just agree to a ceasefire, which would freeze lines where Russia seized Ukrainian territory. Blinken immediately urging a ceasefire would pressure Israel not to rightly defend itself. In Ukraine, Russia invaded, not the other way around and this situation with Israel, it’s important to keep in mind, who was the aggressor. Hamas invaded Israel and murdered hundreds of Israeli citizens.
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics, Terrorism
In the wake of the news that President Trump had authorized a military strike to kill Qassem Suleimani, the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, I had high hopes that a new American strategy would emerge and perhaps it might, but… President Trump’s thin-skinned outbursts will assure the every step of the way for U.S. diplomats, military commanders and political supporters ends up mired in endless, Trump-inflicted controversies, that were completely avoidable.
I spent the weekend tweeting support for President Trump’s decision to authorize the military strike, but just like with his digging in insisting his call with President Zelensky of Ukraine was a “perfect call,” Trump on Saturday tweeted:
The media leaped on attacking Trump’s mention of Iranian cultural targets as threatening to commit war crimes and it descended into an all-out spin attack against Trump from Dems, mainstream media, and even Iranian officials, playing for international sympathy and support.
All of this could have been avoided if Trump had been more careful about the words he speaks… and tweets.
Instead, on Sunday Trump went on a diatribe – doubling down on his threat to target cultural sites in Iran. He even went a step further and threatened to impose heavy sanctions on Iraq, if they kick the U.S military out of Iraq.
It sometimes seems like Trump believes his only adversary is the mainstream media in America. I believe it stems from his anger over the media turning on him in 2016, after months of giving him endless free media to wreak havoc on the GOP primary. The media turning on him seems to have enraged him to the point that getting even with them is the thing that drives him more than any of his presidential duties and responsibilities.
Trump could have just walked back that Iranian culture comment and selected a less inflammatory choice of words. Or really he could have just said, “We will follow the law.”
Instead, he chose to lash out.
The mainstream media and Dem hypocrisy will aid Trump, of course, and most Republicans will stick with him too, but his fragile ego over criticism and unwillingness to ever admit to a mistake will assure every step of the way will be much harder, because of his doubling down on a poor choice of words.
For America’s sake, a new approach to dealing with Iranian terror is welcome and long overdue. Stepping away from the carved in stone “conventional wisdom” also seemed like a breath of fresh air, because for decades, “fear of all-out war with Iran” or “igniting a larger regional war” held American foreign policy thinkers trapped into accepting a self-imposed helplessness. Trump’s saying no more to taking Iranian aggression as our only option, has created an opportunity to finally check Iran’s reign of terror. Whether Trump can curb his most self-destructive impulses to follow through and capitalize on this opportunity remains to be seen. Even if he fails, at least, he threw a wrench into buying into decades of fear-mongering masquerading as sacred “conventional wisdom.”
Too often foreign policy and military strategists become trapped by fear-induced “catastrophic thinking,” that they begin to believe adversaries are omnipotent or any forceful action might precipitate a crisis that propels us into a nightmare scenario that we can’t control. Of course, catastrophic outcomes aren’t impossible, but neither are they inevitable. The death toll and carnage from decades of unchecked Iranian terrorist activities has been a very heavy price to pay, all because “conventional wisdom” fearfully warned us we are powerless to do anything forceful to stop it.
We should not let fear control our destiny.
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics, Terrorism
In light of President Trump’s decision to order airstrikes in Syria against Assad forces this past week, I’ve been awaiting some hint of a comprehensive regional strategy for, not only defeating ISIS, but for the gigantic strategic elephant in the room (power vacuums across the region), that assure continuing fertile ground for Islamist nutjobs to reseed and grow for decades to come.
ISIS was Al Qaeda in Iraq. The belief that driving them out of Raqqa holds some sort of magical strategic power eludes me. The belief that ousting Assad opens some magical door to peace in Syria and a grand opportunity for the people of Syria, also eludes me.
The regime change cadre, like General Keane, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham are ecstatic, but these are the same people who place a lot of trust in Elizabeth O’Bagy and the Institute for the Study of War’s analysis with their “Syrian moderates” magic carpet ride.
I was going to await General McMaster’s appearances on the Sunday shows, before commenting, but here’s how I see the pros and cons from Trump’s actions. The pros:
Now the cons:
That #3 is where we screw-up most often, by believing things that are not true. Since 2012, there has been a vocal chorus among some US pundits and strategists for regime change in Syria. There has been a belief that a large part of the insurgents in Syria’s civil war are “moderates”. They are all varying shades of Islamists – that is a FACT. And that FACT should cause everyone some pause. Islamist insurgents assure that if they succeed in seizing power in Syria there will be another state run by Islamists. Why the US should be gung-ho for establishing Sharia compliant states, I don’t know. If past is prologue, nothing is simple in that region of the world.
Without all the “Rah, Rah, Go USA” cheerleading… I want to know what the comprehensive strategic ends are and how this dramatic miliary escalation fits into that strategy.
Just an added thought about articulating a strategy… the clearest American message isn’t coming from the White House, the State Department, or the Pentagon. It’s coming from the United States ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley. The rest of the Trump administration should follow her lead on how to craft a clear, principled, unified ” strong American voice” on Russia, Syria and Iran.
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics, Terrorism
America survived week #1 of the Trump Reality TV Presidency Show.
Keeping in repetitive propaganda from the Left tradition(SPIN Cycle politics to control the 24/7 news cycle), America was bombarded with another Saturday media blitz by the Dems and Left. This was weekend #2 of “Crowd Size” Saturday Theater for the Dems, as Dems orchestrated protests at airports across the country and Dems, the media, and politicians rushed to get these images broadcast around the world.
Trump’s PR was AWOL yesterday, so now they are stuck playing “Alternative Facts” Sunday again, to try to counter the liberal media spin and hysteria, from the optics and bs the Dems/Left spewed since Friday, when Trump signed the EO. CNN reported on the confusion in the Trump White House with the EO implementation:
“The policy team at the White House developed the executive order on refugees and visas, and largely avoided the traditional interagency process that would have allowed the Justice Department and homeland security agencies to provide operational guidance, according to numerous officials who spoke to CNN on Saturday.
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Department of Homeland Security leadership saw the final details shortly before the order was finalized, government officials said.
Friday night, DHS arrived at the legal interpretation that the executive order restrictions applying to seven countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen — did not apply to people with lawful permanent residence, generally referred to as green card holders.
The White House overruled that guidance overnight, according to officials familiar with the rollout. That order came from the President’s inner circle, led by Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon. Their decision held that, on a case by case basis, DHS could allow green card holders to enter the US.”
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/28/politics/donald-trump-travel-ban/index.html
It’s hard to erase the negative PR impact of the Dems rushing to airports with the liberal media to get images of detained Muslim refugee families broadcast. This not only damaged Trump and his immigration EO, it damaged the image of the US around the world, as these images sped around the globe. This starts week #2 of this information war (scorched earth) continuing from over a year of the 2016 campaign.
There’s a lot more going on here than just Dems vs. Repubs, because while the partisans remain entrenched in death match politics, these images of American democracy in disarray are damaging America’s image as a stable democracy. Trump is waging an information war against the mainstream media. Dems/Left are waging an information war against Trump using the media.
An unbiased, professional news media geared toward objectively reporting ” who, what, when, where, why and how” is best defense against both. However, our mainstream media is greatly compromised and serves as de facto Democratic Party political operatives and FOX News works as the Trump channel, agitating on the right. This information vacuum is a disservice to the American people who are basically manipulated constantly by little more than agitation propaganda spewed by partisan hacks. We’re also entering the territory where the deluge of constant propaganda and fact-deficient reporting leaves more and more Americans distrusting both the political leadership in Washington and the media.
Lots more to write about the immigration EO and the Trump White House total fail at handling everything from the preparation, implementation, and PR in regards to rolling out the EO, but also the disturbing news that President Trump has elevated Steve Bannon to sit on the NSC Principals Committee, while downgrading the DNI and Chairman of JCS to just being present when invited. Steve Bannon now playing a central, larger role in national security matters than the DNI and Chairman of the JCS should alarm every American. The Obama administration politicized national security too and Trump expanding the politicization dashes hope on Trump actually “draining the swamp”.
The downward spiral in American politics continues where the corrupt Clinton machine was defeated by an even more corrupt Obama machine and now the corrupt Trump “train”, and his, as yet to be revealed machine, defeated the united corrupt Clinton and Obama machines working together to get Hillary elected.
Here are a few links worth reading:
An interactive on the 93 Islamist terrorist plots in America since 9/11
Andrew McCarthy at National Review explains: Trump’s Exclusion of Aliens from Specific Countries Is Legal
Dan McLaughlin at National Review: Refugee Madness: Trump Is Wrong, But His Liberal Critics Are Crazy
Old ABC report on Obama’s temporary ban on refugees in 2011: Exclusive: US May Have Let ‘Dozens’ of Terrorists Into Country As Refugees
A Politico report on temporary halt of refugee program in 2014: U.S. restarts refugee program for Iraqis
libertybelle diaries 