Don’t get too discouraged by all the neoconnery. Remember, Trump likes to give people their head and let them hang themselves.
UPDATE: My take is that Trump has told the generals and the CIA something like this: “It’s been 16 years. You say that you haven’t been successful because my predecessors kept interfering with you and forcing you to play nation-building dollhouse. That’s true. Fine. Hands off it is. You have carte blanche. Tell me what you need and I’ll give it to you. And if you still can’t deliver, well, then we’ll know and you’ll have no excuses.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Please be seated. Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Tillerson, members of the cabinet, General Dunford, Deputy Secretary Shanahan and Colonel Duggan. Most especially, thank you to the men and women of Fort Myer and every member of the United States military at home and abroad. We send our thoughts and prayers to the families of our brave sailors who were injured and lost after a tragic collision at sea as well as to those conducting the search and recovery efforts.
I am here tonight to lay out our path forward in Afghanistan and South Asia. But before I provide the details of our new strategy, I want to say a few words to the service members here with us tonight, to those watching from their posts, and to all Americans listening at home. Since the founding of our republic, our country has produced a special class of heroes whose selflessness, courage, and resolve is unmatched in human history.
American patriots from every generation have given their last breath on the battlefield – for our nation and for our freedom. Through their lives, and though their lives were cut short, in their deeds they achieved total immortality. By following the heroic example of those who fought to preserve our republic, we can find the inspiration our country needs to unify, to heal and to remain one nation under God. The men and women of our military operate as one team, with one shared mission and one shared sense of purpose.
They transcend every line of race, ethnicity, creed and color to serve together and sacrifice together in absolutely perfect cohesion. That is because all service members are brothers and sisters. They are all part of the same family. It’s called the American family. They take the same oath, fight for the same flag and live according to the same law.
They are bound together by common purpose, mutual trust and selfless devotion to our nation and to each other. The soldier understands what we as a nation too often forget, that a wound inflicted upon on a single member of our community is a wound inflicted upon us all. When one part of America hurts, we all hurt.
And when one citizen suffers an injustice, we all suffer together. Loyalty to our nation demands loyalty to one another. Love for America requires love for all of its people. When we open our hearts to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice, no place for bigotry and no tolerance for hate. The young men and women we send to fight our wars abroad deserve to return to a country that is not at war with itself at home. We cannot remain a force for peace in the world if we are not at peace with each other.
As we send our bravest to defeat our enemies overseas, and we will always win, let us find the courage to heal our divisions within. Let us make a simple promise to the men and women we ask to fight in our name, that when they return home from battle, they will find a country that has renewed the sacred bonds of love and loyalty that unite us together as one.
Thanks to the vigilance and skill of the American military, and of our many allies throughout the world, horrors on the scale of September 11, and nobody can ever forget that, have not been repeated on our shores. But we must acknowledge the reality I am here to talk about tonight, that nearly 16 years after September 11 attacks, after the extraordinary sacrifice of blood and treasure, the American people are weary of war without victory.
Nowhere is this more evident than with the war in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history – 17 years. I share the American people’s frustration. I also share their frustration over a foreign policy that has spent too much time, energy, money, and most importantly, lives trying to rebuild countries in our own image instead of pursuing our security interests above all other considerations. That is why shortly after my inauguration, I directed Secretary of Defense Mattis and my national security team to undertake a comprehensive review of all strategic options in Afghanistan and South Asia.
My original instinct was to pull out, and historically I like following my instincts. But all my life, I have heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office. In other words, when you are president of the United States. So I studied Afghanistan in great detail and from every conceivable angle. After many meetings over many months, we held our final meeting last Friday at Camp David with my cabinet and generals to complete our strategy. I arrived at three fundamental conclusion about America’s core interests in Afghanistan.
First, our nation must seek an honorable and enduring outcome worthy of the tremendous sacrifices that have been made, especially the sacrifices of lives. The men and women who serve our nation in combat deserve a plan for victory. They deserve the tools they need and the trust they have earned to fight and to win.
Second, the consequences of a rapid exit are both predictable and unacceptable. 9/11, the worst terrorist attack in our history, was planned and directed from Afghanistan because that country was ruled by a government that gave comfort and shelter to terrorists. A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum that terrorists, including ISIS and al Qaeda, would instantly fill, just as happened before September 11. And as we know, in 2011, America hastily and mistakenly withdrew from Iraq.
As a result, our hard-won gains slipped back into the hands of terrorist enemies. Our soldiers watched as cities they had fought for and bled to liberate and won were occupied by a terrorist group called ISIS. The vacuum we created by leaving too soon gave safe haven for ISIS to spread, to grow, recruit and launch attacks. We cannot repeat in Afghanistan the mistake our leaders made in Iraq.
Third and finally, I concluded that the security threats we face in Afghanistan and the broader region are immense. Today, 20 U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations are active in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The highest concentration in any region anywhere in the world. For its part, Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence and terror. The threat is worse because Pakistan and India are two nuclear-armed states, whose tense relations threaten to spiral into conflict, and that could happen.
No one denies that we have inherited a challenging and troubling situation in Afghanistan and South Asia, but we do not have the luxury of going back in time and making different or better decisions.
When I became president, I was given a bad and very complex hand, but I fully knew what I was getting into. Big and intricate problems. But one way or another, these problems will be solved. I am a problem solver. And in the end, we will win. We must address the reality of the world as it exists right now, the threats we face, and the confronting of all of the problems of today, an extremely predictable consequences of a hasty withdrawal. We need look no further than last week’s vile, vicious attack in Barcelona to understand that terror groups will stop at nothing to commit the mass murder of innocent men, women and children.
You saw it for yourself. Horrible. As I outlined in my speech in Saudi Arabia, three months ago, America and our partners are committed to stripping terrorists of their territory, cutting off their funding and exposing the false allure of their evil ideology. Terrorists who slaughter innocent people will find no glory in this life or the next. They are nothing but thugs and criminals and predators, and, that’s right, losers. Working alongside our allies, we will break their will, dry up their recruitment, keep them from crossing our borders, and yes, we will defeat them, and we will defeat them handily.
In Afghanistan and Pakistan, America’s interests are clear. We must stop the resurgence of safe havens that enable terrorists to threaten America. And we must prevent nuclear weapons and materials from coming into the hands of terrorists and being used against us or anywhere in the world, for that matter. But to prosecute this war, we will learn from history.
As a result of our comprehensive review, American strategy in Afghanistan and South Asia will change dramatically in the following ways: A core pillar of our new strategy is a shift from a time-based approach to one based on conditions. I’ve said it many times, how counterproductive it is for the United States to announce in advance the dates we intend to begin or end military options.
We will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities. Conditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables, will guide our strategy from now on. America’s enemies must never know our plans or believe they can wait us out. I will not say when we are going to attack, but attack we will.
Another fundamental pillar of our new strategy is the integration of all instruments of American power: diplomatic, economic, and military, toward a successful outcome. Someday, after an effective military effort, perhaps it will be possible to have a political settlement that includes elements of the Taliban and Afghanistan, but nobody knows if or when that will ever happen. America will continue its support for the Afghan government and the Afghan military as they confront the Taliban in the field.
Ultimately, it is up to the people of Afghanistan to take ownership of their future, to govern their society, and to achieve an everlasting peace. We are a partner and a friend, but we will not dictate to the Afghan people how to live or how to govern their own complex society. We are not nation building again. We are killing terrorists.
The next pillar of our new strategy is to change the approach in how to deal with Pakistan. We can no longer be silent about Pakistan’s safe havens for terrorist organizations, the Taliban, and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond.
Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with our effort in Afghanistan. It has much to lose by continuing to harbor criminals and terrorists. In the past, Pakistan has been a valued partner. Our militaries have worked together against common enemies. The Pakistani people have suffered greatly from terrorism and extremism. We recognize those contributions and those sacrifices, but Pakistan has also sheltered the same organizations that try every single day to kill our people. We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars, at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting. But that will have to change. And that will change immediately. No partnership can survive a country’s harboring of militants and terrorists who target U.S. service members and officials. It is time for Pakistan to demonstrate its commitment to civilization, order and to peace.
Another critical part of the South Asia strategy for America is to further develop its strategic partnership with India, the world’s largest democracy and a key security and economic partner of the United States. We appreciate India’s important contributions to stability in Afghanistan, but India makes billions of dollars in trade with the United States, and we want them to help us more with Afghanistan, especially in the area of economic assistance and development. We are committed to pursuing our shared objectives for peace and security in South Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific region.
Finally, my administration will ensure that you, the brave defenders of the American people, will have the necessary tools and rules of engagement to make this strategy work and work effectively and work quickly.
I have already lifted restrictions the previous administration placed on our war fighters that prevented the secretary of defense and our commanders in the field from fully and swiftly waging battle against the enemy.
Micromanagement from Washington, D.C. does not win battles. They are won in the field drawing upon the judgment and expertise of wartime commanders and frontline soldiers, acting in real time with real authority and with a clear mission to defeat the enemy. That’s why we will also expand authority for American armed forces to target the terrorist and criminal networks that sow violence and chaos throughout Afghanistan.
These killers need to know they have nowhere to hide, that no place is beyond the reach of American might and American arms. Retribution will be fast and powerful.
As we lift restrictions and expand authorities in the field, we are already seeing dramatic results in the campaign to defeat ISIS, including the liberation of Mosul in Iraq. Since my inauguration, we have achieved record-breaking success in that regard. We will also maximize sanctions and other financial and law enforcement actions against these networks to eliminate their ability to export terror. When America commits its warriors to battle, we must ensure they have every weapon to apply swift, decisive and overwhelming force.
Our troops will fight to win. We will fight to win. From now on, victory will have a clear definition — attacking our enemies, obliterating ISIS, crushing al-Qaida, preventing the Taliban from taking over Afghanistan and stopping mass terror attacks against America before they emerge. We will ask our NATO allies and global partners to support our new strategy, with additional troop and funding increases in line with our own. We are confident they will.
Since taking office, I have made clear that our allies and partners must contribute much more money to our collective defense, and they have done so.
In this struggle, the heaviest burden will continue to be borne by the good people of Afghanistan and their courageous armed forces.
As the prime minister of Afghanistan has promised, we are going to participate in economic development to help defray the cost of this war to us. Afghanistan is fighting to defend and secure their country against the same enemies who threaten us. The stronger the Afghan security forces become, the less we will have to do. Afghans will secure and build their own nation and define their own future. We want them to succeed. But we will no longer use American military might to construct democracies in faraway lands or try to rebuild other countries in our own image. Those days are now over. Instead, we will work with allies and partners to protect our shared interests.
We are not asking others to change their way of life but to pursue common goals that allow our children to live better and safer lives. This principled realism will guide our decisions moving forward. Military power alone will not bring peace to Afghanistan or stop the terrorist threat arising in that country.
But strategically-applied force aims to create the conditions for a political process to achieve a lasting peace. America will work with the Afghan government as long as we see determination and progress.
However, our commitment is not unlimited, and our support is not a blank check. The government of Afghanistan must carry their share of the military, political and economic burden. The American people expect to see real reforms, real progress and real results.
Our patience is not unlimited. We will keep our eyes wide open. In abiding by the oath I took on January 20, I will remain steadfast in protecting American lives and American interests. In this effort, we will make common cause with any nation that chooses to stand and fight alongside us against this global threat.
Terrorists, take heed. America will never let up until you are dealt a lasting defeat. Under my administration, many billions of dollars more is being spent on our military. And this includes vast amounts being spent on our nuclear arsenal and missile defense. In every generation, we have faced down evil, and we have always prevailed.
We prevailed because we know who we are and what we are fighting for. Not far from where we are gathered tonight, hundreds of thousands of America’s greatest patriots lay in eternal rest at Arlington national cemetery. There is more courage, sacrifice and love in those hallowed grounds than in any other spot on the face of the Earth.
Many of those who have fought and died in Afghanistan enlisted in the months after September 11, 2001. They volunteered for a simple reason: they loved America and they were determined to protect her. Now we must secure the cause for which they gave their lives. We must unite to defend America from its enemies abroad. We must restore the bonds of loyalty among our citizens at home, and we must achieve an honorable and enduring outcome worthy of the enormous price that so many have paid.
Our actions and in months to come, all of them will honor the sacrifice of every fallen hero, every family who lost a loved one and every wounded warrior who shed their blood in defense of our great nation.
With our resolve, we will ensure that your service and that your family’s will bring about the defeat of our enemies and the arrival of peace. We will push onward to victory with power in our hearts, courage in our souls and everlasting pride in each and every one of you.
Thank you. May God bless our military, and may God bless the United States of America. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Tag: war
“Better early than late”
First France, now Spain.
Barcelona’s chief rabbi has urged Jews to move to Israel after warning that Europe has been ‘lost’ because of the threat from radical Islam…. In an interview with Jewish news agency JTA, he said: ‘I tell my congregants: Don’t think we’re here for good, and I encourage them to buy property in Israel. This place is lost. Don’t repeat the mistake of Algerian Jews, of Venezuelan Jews. Better early than late. Europe is lost.’
That’s good advice, and it is entirely in line with what Israel’s Prime Minister recommends. And although there are those who really don’t like to hear it, it is absolutely pro-semitic advice that applies to the rest of the Diasporans around the world as well.
There are three things worthy of note here. First, this makes it abundantly clear that the Jews of France and Spain do not regard themselves as French nor Spanish in the end. They will not fight for their countries of residence when they have a homeland to which they can safely retreat. Which, of course, is perfectly understandable. But no such option exists for the actual French and Spanish peoples; my money is on the Spaniards, who bravely reclaimed their land and restored their nation after centuries of Islamic occupation.
The second thing is the observation smart people can genuinely see these things coming, sometimes more than a decade in advance. I was always impressed by the way Ludwig von Mises left Austria in 1934, several years before the Anschluss and five years before WWII actually began, simply due to his ability to read the tea leaves correctly.
The third thing is that Europe is not lost. Neither is America. Remember, nothing worth fighting for is lost until the very last man willing to fight for it surrenders or dies. The West is not simply going to lay down and die.
Never forget. All we need is twelve.
Civil War 2.0
Whose side are you on, asks Pat Buchanan:
First in his class at West Point, hero of the Mexican War, Lee was the man to whom President Lincoln turned to lead his army. But when Virginia seceded, Lee would not lift up his sword against his own people and chose to defend his home state rather than wage war upon her.
This veneration of Lee, wrote Richard Weaver, “appears in the saying attributed to a Confederate soldier, ‘The rest of us may have … descended from monkeys, but it took a God to make Marse Robert.’”
Growing up after World War II, this was accepted history.
Yet, on the militant left today, the name Lee evokes raw hatred and howls of “racist and traitor.” A clamor has arisen to have all statues of him and all Confederate soldiers and statesmen pulled down from their pedestals and put in museums or tossed onto trash piles.
What has changed since 1965?
It is not history. There have been no great new discoveries about Lee.
What has changed is America herself. She is not the same country. We have passed through a great social, cultural and moral revolution that has left us irretrievably divided on separate shores.
And the politicians are in panic….
While easy for Republicans to wash their hands of such odious elements as Nazis in Charlottesville, will they take up the defense of the monuments and statues that have defined our history, or capitulate to the icon-smashers?
In this Second American Civil War, whose side are you on?
This is why the Fake News is so desperate to draw a mythical line between Nazi vs Not-Nazi, rather than Nationalist Right vs Globalist Left, as the situation actually requires, because they know they fall on the weaker side that is actively opposed to American heritage and history and tradition.
And it is also why they are desperate to hide the obvious link between the coming civil war and post-1965 immigration. History clearly shows that there are only two ways to stop this war. One is to proactively break up the United States and implement population transfers, the other is to restore the pre-1965 population demographics through mass repatriations.
Neither solution is likely. Man seldom takes the opportunity to avoid war. That’s why he is doomed to fight them. The citizens of the USA are not exceptional in this regard.
Three and three
If conservatives, Republicans, and the Alt-Right want to survive the conflict with Antifa and the violent forces of globalism, then all of them would do very well to read this book: 4th Generation Warfare Handbook. I would strongly advise getting the paperback, both for future reference and the ability to share it with others.
This is not a practical guide. But it establishes core principles that need to be understood, from which specific practices and policies can be developed.
The Three Classic Levels of War
The three classic levels of war – strategic, operational, and tactical – still exist in Fourth Generation war. But all three are affected, and to some extent changed, by the Fourth Generation. One important change is that, while in the first three generations strategy was the province of generals, the Fourth Generation has given us the “strategic corporal.” These days, the actions of a single enlisted man can have strategic consequences, especially if they happen to take place when cameras are rolling.
What succeeds on the tactical level can easily be counter-productive at the operational and strategic levels. For example, by using their overwhelming firepower at the tactical level, state forces may in some cases intimidate the local population into fearing them and leaving them alone. But fear and hate are closely related, and if the local population ends up hating the state forces, that works toward their strategic defeat.
Fourth Generation war poses an especially difficult problem to operational art: put simply, it is difficult to operationalize. Often, Fourth Generation opponents have strategic centers of gravity that are intangible. These may involve proving their manhood to their comrades and local women, obeying the commandments of their religion, or demonstrating their tribe’s bravery to other tribes. Because operational art is the art of focusing tactical actions on enemy strategic centers of gravity, operational art becomes difficult or even impossible.
Three New Levels of War
While the three classic levels of war carry over into the Fourth Generation, they are joined there by three new levels which may ultimately be more important. Colonel Boyd identified these three new levels as the physical, the mental, and the moral levels. Furthermore, he argued that the physical level – killing people and breaking things – is the least powerful, the moral level is the most powerful, and the mental level lies between the other two. Colonel Boyd argued that this is especially true in guerrilla warfare, which is more closely related to Fourth Generation war than is formal warfare between state militaries. The history of guerrilla warfare, from the Spanish guerrilla war against Napoleon through Israel’s experience in southern Lebanon, supports Colonel Boyd’s observation.
This leads to the central dilemma of Fourth Generation war: what works for you on the physical (and sometimes mental) level often works against you at the moral level. It is therefore very easy to win all the tactical engagements in a Fourth Generation conflict yet still lose the war. To the degree you win at the physical level by utilizing firepower that causes casualties and property damage to the local population, every physical victory may move you closer to moral defeat, and the moral level is decisive.
Some examples from the American experience in Iraq help illustrate the contradiction between the physical and moral levels:
- The U. S. Army conducted many raids on civilian homes in areas it occupied. In these raids, the troops physically dominated the civilians. Mentally, they terrified them. But at the moral level, breaking into private homes in the middle of the night, terrifying women and children, and sometimes treating detainees in ways that publicly humiliated them (like stepping on their heads) worked powerfully against the Americans. An enraged population responded by providing the Iraqi resistance with more support at each level of war, physical, mental, and moral.
- At Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison, MPs and interrogators dominated prisoners physically and mentally – as too many photographs attest. But when that domination was publicly exposed, the United States suffered an enormous defeat at the moral level. Some American commanders recognized this when they referred to the soldiers responsible for the abuse as, “the jerks who lost us the war.”
- In Iraq and elsewhere, American troops (other than Special Forces) quickly establish base camps that mirror American conditions: air conditioning, good medical care, plenty of food and pure water. The local people are not allowed into the bases except in service roles. Physically, the American superiority over the lives the locals lead is overwhelming. Mentally, it projects the power and success of American society. But morally, the constant message of “we are better than you” works against the Americans. Traditional cultures tend to put high values on pride and honor, and when foreigners seem to sneer at local ways, the locals may respond by defending their honor in a traditional manner – by fighting. After many, if not most, American military interventions, Fourth Generation war has tended to intensify and spread rather than contract.
The practice of a successful Fourth Generation entity, al-Qaeda, offers an interesting contrast. Osama bin Laden, who came from a wealthy family, lived for years in an Afghan cave. In part, this was for security. But bin Laden’s choice also reflected a keen understanding of the power of the moral level of war. By sharing the hardships and dangers of his followers, Osama bin Laden drew a sharp contrast at the moral level with the leaders of local states, and also with senior officers in most state armies.
The contradiction between the physical and moral levels of war in Fourth Generation conflicts is similar to the tension between the tactical and strategic levels, but the two are not identical. The physical, mental, and moral levels all play at each of the three classic levels – tactical, operational, and strategic. Any disharmony among levels creates openings which Fourth Generation opponents will be quick to exploit.
SJWs always project
And what they are projecting is fear. Lots and lots of fear. SF-SJW David Gerrold rants on Facebook:
“After my initial flash of anger more than two years ago, I have said little about rabid puppies, sad puppies, and their pathetic efforts to stuff the various ballot boxes for awards.
Several reasons. I consider their “movement” to be a sad desperate effort by angry little men, and because I have more important things to do than invest energy in self-destructive attention-bores. And finally, because negativity in some creates negativity in others — the only way to win that game is to not play.
But while the rabid puppies movement in SF is a mostly unimportant flicker, eventually to be forgotten as a momentary annoyance, it still has to be seen as a symptom of something worse, the rise of neo-nazis tactics in the national conversation.
It’s no accident that Vox Bray and Milo Yiannazinuts are working off the same page. They are not “the alt-right” — that’s a euphemism. They’re not just assholes, committed to specific cultural disruptions, they’re shit-magnets, hoping to create power by attracting the worst of the worst
as followers.
This week, the so-called “alt-right” have revealed themselves to be the fault-right. They have paraded through the streets of an American city waving the flags of treason and genocide.
Americans of good will have the right to be concerned. We have the right to be frustrated. And finally, we have the right to be justifiably angry at the behavior of spoiled little white boys.
The tiki-torch marchers have revealed themselves to be political illiterates, historically ignorant, and little more than a cluster of desperate little wannabe bullies. Their shouts of defiance are intended to intimidate the rest of us into fearful silence.
It won’t work.
Okay, it’ll work for a while. This week’s exercises in torch-waving and dick-waggling will inspire other, equally silly demonstrations of disloyalty to the American ideal.
But eventually — and it cannot come too soon for me — the men and women who have actually taken an oath to defend the United States and its Constitution will be called upon to deal with this attempt to create a new Civil War.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would argue that there are groups in this nation committed not only to a new Civil War, but ultimately the destruction of the United States government and the Constitution, so that they can replace it with a theocratic fascism.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would trace all this back to the Fred Koch’s funding of the John Birch Society and I would point out that the game plan they’ve been following for fifty years can be found in the Blue Book and the Black Book of that group — the English translations of Mein Kampf.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would further argue that the failure of the police to act against these thugs is a result of a decades-long campaign to infiltrate police departments with white supremacists.
But one doesn’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to see the dangers inherent in the neo-nazi tactics of those who falsely believe that their time has come. They are an ugly political minority, a cancer on the American soul.
We have not yet found our new Gandhi, our new Martin Luther King, our new Harvey Milk — but there will come a day when the rest of us find our voice and draw a line in the sand. Perhaps we need not a single voice, but a whole chorus of voices speaking out, calling shame on those who have become enemies of the very nation that nurtured them and protected their freedom.
The United States is a nation of immigrants, it is a nation whose strength is diversity. The promise of America is liberty and justice for all. When the all of us are ready to confront the some of us, there will likely be violence, that’s what they are working toward, that’s why they are working themselves into a blather — but if the last Civil War couldn’t break the Union, I doubt very much that this latest rabble of desperate and pathetic little losers will accomplish anything useful, except perhaps to give themselves further reasons to fester in self-destructive bitterness. They are pathetic, desperate, fearful little men.”
Another thing I noticed. SJWs not only always project, they’re always waiting for someone else to show up and do their fighting for them.
President Congress
The Saker argues that the God-Emperor is participating in his own foreign policy neutering by the Congress:
I submit that the key to the correct understanding of the Russian response is in the fact that the latest US sanctions contain an absolutely unprecedented and, frankly, shocking feature: the new measures strip the President from the authority to revoke the sanctions. In practical terms, if Trump wanted to lift any of these sanctions, he would have to send an official letter to Congress which would then have 30 days to approve or reject the proposed action. In other words, the Congress has now hijacked the power of the Presidency to conduct foreign policy and taken upon itself to micromanage the US foreign policy.
That, my friends, is clearly a constitutional coup d’état and a gross violation of the principles of separation of powers which is at the very core of the US political system.
It also is a telling testimony to the utter depravity of the US Congress which took no such measures when Presidents bypass Congress and started wars without the needed congressional authority, but which is now overtly taking over the US foreign policy to prevent the risk of “peace breaking out” between Russia and the USA.
And Trump’s reaction?
He declared that he would sign the bill.
Yes, the main is willing to put his signature on the text which represents an illegal coup d’état against this own authority and against the Constitution which he swore to uphold.
With this in mind, the Russian reaction is quite simple and understandable: they have given up on Trump.
Not that they ever had much hope in him, but they always strongly felt that the election of Trump might maybe provide the world with a truly historical opportunity to change the disastrous dynamic initiated by the Neocons under Obama and maybe return the international relations to a semblance of sanity. Alas, this did not happen, Trump turned out to be an overcooked noodle whose only real achievement was to express his thoughts in 140 characters or less. But the one crucial, vital, thing which Trump absolutely needed to succeed in – mercilessly crushing the Neocons – he totally failed to achieve. Worse, his only reaction to their multi-dimensional attempts at overthrowing him were each time met with clumsy attempts at appeasing them.
For Russia is means that President Trump has now been replaced by “President Congress”.
Is he correct? Quite possibly. But remember, Donald Trump has a long history of making initial missteps and then correcting for them. It is far – FAR – too soon to count him down, let alone out.
Russia expels US diplomats
This is a warning to the Trump administration: do not permit NATO to extend an invitation to Georgia:
Speaking late on Sunday, the Russian president said that the time for retaliation has come: “we’ve been waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, we had hopes that the situation would change. But it looks like, it’s not going to change in the near future… I decided that it is time for us to show that we will not leave anything unanswered.”
Putin added that “the personnel of the US diplomatic missions in Russia will be cut by 755 people and will now equal the number of the Russian diplomatic personnel in the United States, 455 people on each side” Putin said, adding that “because over a thousand employees, diplomats and technical personnel have been working and are still working in Russia, and 755 of them will have to cease their work in the Russian Federation. It’s considerable.”
Putin also told the Russian audience that “the American side has made a move which, it is important to note, hasn’t been provoked by anything, to worsen Russian-US relations. [It includes] unlawful restrictions, attempts to influence other states of the world, including our allies, who are interested in developing and keeping relations with Russia.”
Target USA
The mainland USA is now in range of a North Korean ICBM:
North Korea fired a missile on Friday that experts said was capable of striking Los Angeles and other U.S. cities and the United States and South Korea responded by staging a joint missile exercise, the South Korean news agency Yonhap said.
The Trump administration, which has branded North Korea the “most urgent and dangerous threat to peace,” condemned the launch as reckless.
“By threatening the world, these weapons and tests further isolate North Korea, weaken its economy, and deprive its people,” President Donald Trump said in a statement. “The United States will take all necessary steps to ensure the security of the American homeland and protect our allies in the region.”
The unusual late-night launch added to exasperation in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo over Pyongyang’s continuing development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Friday’s test prompted U.S. and South Korean military officials to discuss military response options…. The launch from North Korea’s northern Jangang province took place at 11:41 p.m. (1441 GMT), an official at South Korea’s Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the missile flew for about 45 minutes before apparently landing in the waters of Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
Japanese broadcaster NHK, citing a military official, said the missile reached an altitude of more than 3,000 km (1,860 miles). The South Korean military said the missile was believed to be an ICBM-class, flying more than 1,000 km (620 miles) and reaching an altitude of 3,700 km (2,300 miles). In Washington, the Pentagon also said it had assessed that the missile was an ICBM.
U.S. officials said the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Pentagon spy agency, has determined that North Korea will be able to field a reliable nuclear-capable ICBM by next year, earlier than previously thought.
Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies said the launch showed Los Angeles was within range of a North Korean missile, with Chicago, New York and Washington, just out of reach.
“They may not have demonstrated the full range. The computer models suggest it can hit all of those targets,” he said.
The U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists said its calculations showed the missile could have been capable of going as far into the United States as Denver and Chicago.
The potential cost of dealing with a nuclear North Korea is only going to go up from here. The question is, are Russia and China on board with a US attempt to remove the North Korean threat or is a nuclear North Korea simply something that the world will have to accept, as it has accepted a nuclear Pakistan, Israel, and Iran.
There are no good options here, only varying degress of slightly less bad. I don’t know if Trump will actually dare to grasp the nettle, but I think he’s much more likely to do so than Bush, Clinton, or Obama were.
Border battles in the EU
Diversity and vibrancy suddenly don’t appear to be strengthening trans-European ties anymore:
AUSTRIA has warned it will send soldiers to close the border with Italy in 24 hours if Rome decides to take the “nuclear option” and grant visas to almost 100,000 migrants stranded in the Mediterranean country.
Austria is threatening to close the Brennan mountain pass border with Italy. Desperate Italian officials have said they are considering allowing thousands of migrants out of the country and into the rest of Europe, as they struggle to cope with the 10,000 people arriving every day.
Austria, which shares a border with Italy via Brenner, an Alpine mountain pass, has reacted to the proposals with fury, saying it would immediately introduce border controls in the region.
Yesterday during a border visit, Austria’s Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said: “Italy granting humanitarian visas to migrants is unacceptable. In that case, we would immediately introduce controls in Brenner.
Let’s see. Option 1: border war with Austria. Option 2: send the invaders back. This really doesn’t seem to be a very difficult decision.
This isn’t an entirely new development. Switzerland already has troops in position on the border just north of Como; they sent a tank battalion to the Como-Chiasso border last year. Which, one assumes, is why we didn’t see pictures of invaders swarming up through Switzerland towards Germany despite it being an obvious route.
Mailvox: “May he rot in Hell”
It is being widely reported that Sen. John McCain is terminal with brain cancer. One reader is entirely unsympathetic.
John McCain is dying from the same type of brain tumor that my father is – a Glioblastoma. There is an indirect but pertinent relationship between my father and the dear senator that extends beyond their shared terminal illness.
In early to mid elementary-school ages, I remember my father deploying numerous times to Bosnia/Herzegovania/Kosovo. At the time, I didn’t understand why it was necessary. I’m no genius and no one really explained it to me outside of the “America is for freedom” concept. Almost 20 years later, with a skeptics intuition, I smell bullshit.
My father is a Physician’s Assistant which requires a master’s degree in medicine. His only health issues in the past were kinetically related because he played soccer and basketball. We also have no family history of any cancer at all. He took care of himself; no smoking, regular exercise, good diet.
So it came as a shock to us when we learned he had a brain tumor that was likely to be his end. When he met with the private oncologist who operates her private practice near a military base we were stunned by what she told us. Over 70 percent of the patients she sees with Glioblastomas were or are military members who have had exposure to burn-pits.
What’s a burn-pit? In a base of operations overseas there is no garbage service. No one makes you differentiate your organic vs recyclable garbage. You throw everything into a big pit that is set on fire. This really isn’t a big deal as long as you’re not burning anything hazardous. Plastic and paper and shit will make you cough, but it’s not likely to give you long-time health problems. But what if you throw in depleted Uranium casings?
That’s right. Our military uses depleted uranium ammunition because it’s effective at peircing armor and thick walls. And what do they do with the remaining ordinance? They throw it into a fucking fire right next to the camp.
What does John McCain have to do with this? He’s an acolyte for the Prince of Lies. Here’s an excerpt of a NYT Q&A w/ McCain concerning his initial disapporval of the Bosnian intervention and his ultimate betrayal of that “belief”:
Q. You, as much as anyone in Congress, know the high costs of war, and yet you and Senator Bob Dole, in a politically unpopular move, pushed for a Senate endorsement of the Bosnia mission. Why did you consider this important?
A. I had been a long-time skeptic, if not outright opponent, of our Bosnia policy. Senator Dole and I and others were strong proponents of lifting the arms embargo. But when the president made his commitment, committing not just Bill Clinton but the United States of America, the entire situation changed. There were significant negative costs associated with repudiating such a commitment — one, the credibility of the United States, two, the lasting viability of NATO, and three, the assurances of leaders of the participants in the war that the conflict would be reignited. I have no doubt that the Congress has the authority to cut off funding, but that was not going to happen. When you vote to cut off funding, with American troops already there, whether you intend to or not you send a message to those troops that you don’t support what they’re doing.Apparently not funding a war that you supposedly disagree with is now treasonous because you can’t have the perception that the people you’re ordering to fight the war are doing something for an immoral pretense.
John McCain was just diagnosed with the same brain tumor my father was. I firmly believe that had my father not been exposed to that radiation he would be happy and healthy. He’s now teetering on a knife’s edge.
The God Emperor has released a statement that asks for thoughts and prayers for Johnny on the trigger.
I will not waste my prayers for John. May he rot in Hell.
Death comes for us all in time. I wonder if the senator has any regrets about his conduct during his time on Earth, or if he is hoping to hear “well done, thou good and faithful servant”, from the Father of Lies.