RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18594/help-taiwan

An important lesson learned after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is that the Free World should immediately establish normal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

The only message that ambiguity sends to Communist China is weakness, and a tacit green light to invade. America and her Asian allies would also do well to implement military and political initiatives in the Indo-Pacific region that would discourage any Chinese calculus to “reunite” with Taiwan by force.

On the diplomatic front, the Free World — led, one wishes, by the US — could help raise Taiwan’s global diplomatic profile by sponsoring its participation as an official member state in several international organizations, including the United Nations. The US Department of State should restore full diplomatic relations with Taiwan, as advocated by former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a recent visit to Taipei. In addition, the US could encourage the world’s democracies to establish official bilateral links.

Another initiative by the US could be officially to recognize Taiwan as the Republic of China, while urging all the world’s democracies to do the same.

Taiwan is not Ukraine, but the suppression of Taiwanese democracy by the Chinese Communist regime would be at least as negatively consequential to global democracies as any Russian conquest of Ukraine.

Unless the West acts boldly and demonstrates to China that the cost to it of on attack on Taiwan will be crushing, China will not be able to help feeling irresistibly tempted not only to carry out its longtime dream of overpowering Taiwan, but also assuming dominance, for a start, in the South and East China Seas.

China has already built artificial islands that it pledged would not be militarized, but which soon were; and has effectively taken over the Solomon Islands — near American territory in Guam and Hawai’i — and wields strategic influence in Sri Lanka, at the control-point of the Indian Ocean. The Chinese military might then “help” its near-abroad neighbors to resolve bilateral territorial disputes in China’s favor. These might include the Japanese-claimed Senkaku Islands, the Philippines’ claimed Scarborough Shoal, and Vietnam’s claim to the Paracel Islands.

Such an apocalyptic turn of events could even encourage North Korea finally to attack South Korea.

America’s needs above all quickly to establish a massive credible deterrence against the People’s Republic of China. Unfortunately, that seems the only realistic means of bringing China’s out-of-control aggression to a stop.

US President Joe Biden, when, during a May 23 joint press briefing with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, was asked by a reporter if ” the US would militarily support Taiwan if China attacked” he answered, “Yes, that is the commitment we made” — a statement that unfortunately the State Department immediately walked back.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/athena-thorne/2022/06/05/over-50-feared-killed-in-terror-attack-on-nigerian-catholic-church-n1603375

Reports coming out of Nigeria say that dozens of worshippers including women and children were killed in an attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, in the southwestern Nigerian state of Ondo. The attackers targeted parishioners who were celebrating Pentecost Sunday, with terrorists firing weapons into the congregation and detonating explosives. The terrorists also abducted a priest.

“Only fiends from the nether region could have conceived and carried out such dastardly act,” said Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, according to a spokesman. He called the attack “heinous” and promised, “No matter what, this country shall never give in to evil and wicked people, and darkness will never overcome light. Nigeria will eventually win.” Buhari was elected to office on a platform of making Nigeria more secure.

The New York Post reports that “It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on the church. While much of Nigeria has struggled with security issues, Ondo is widely known as one of Nigeria’s most peaceful states.”

Catholic Church head Pope Francis issued a statement via the Vatican press office: “The pope has learned of the attack on the church in Ondo, Nigeria and the deaths of dozens of worshippers, many children, during the celebration of Pentecost. While the details are being clarified, Pope Francis prays for the victims and the country, painfully affected at a time of celebration, and entrusts them both to the Lord so that he may send his spirit to console them.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18586/nato-expel-turkey

“Turkey is a member of NATO, but under Mr. Erdoğan, it no longer subscribes to the values that underpin this great alliance. Article 13 of the NATO charter provides a mechanism for members to withdraw. Perhaps it is time to amend Article 13 to establish a procedure for the expulsion of a member nation.” — Former US Senator Joe Lieberman and Mark D. Wallace, Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2022.

“[G]iving in to Ankara’s demands amounts to letting an autocrat design the security architecture of Europe and shape the future of the Western system.” — Cengiz Çandar, journalist, Al-Monitor, May 24, 2022.

With its $8,000 per capita GDP, Erdoğan’s ailing Turkey is not more powerful than the other 29 NATO allies combined. NATO’s political leaders must stop acting as if it is.

Just when, after years of idling around, NATO appears to be gaining some strategic prominence following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the only Muslim member of the alliance is holding 29 other members as hostage, blocking the most critical move in its history. Surrendering to an Islamist’s well-known oriental bargaining tactics will mean the demise of the alliance.

In a historic move, Sweden and Finland recently submitted their written applications to join NATO but Turkey’s Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is threatening to use his country’s veto power to block the Nordic nations coming under the Western security umbrella. This is putting NATO’s renewed credibility at stake, presumably to the delight of NATO’s nemesis, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18585/iran-summer-discontent

The latest protests, however, appear to be different in a number of ways. First, the main theme, although not the immediately acknowledged one, is regime change.

So far such a move had been stalled because the regime’s many opponents regarded it as their second choice, each being its own first choice. That meant that each group would rather see the present regime remain in place to prevent a rival opposition group from replacing it.

Whether the protests continue or where they will end up it is too early to tell. But one thing is clear: something has snapped between the Khomeinist regime and many Iranians, producing a gap that can no longer be bridged with the usual slogans.

For the past two weeks a large number of Iranians, perhaps hundreds of thousands, have been taking part in protest marches in more than 100 cities across Iran to vent their anger against a system that they consider to be corrupt, incompetent and oppressive.

At the same time, the government is facing the threat of massive bread shortages later this year amid reports that wheat stocks have fallen to a record low while talks to purchase from Russia 6.2 million tons of wheat, more than half of Iran’s annual consumption, seem to have stalled.

https://pjmedia.com/spengler/2022/05/30/it-became-necessary-to-destroy-the-country-to-save-it-n1602025

Peter Arnett’s celebrated quote — “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it” — was a fabrication during the Vietnam War but has a macabre application to Ukraine. American fecklessness and Russian rapacity together will leave a grease spot where Ukraine used to be. It was all tragically, idiotically unnecessary.

I argued in 2008 and on many subsequent occasions, including the February 2014 note in PJ Media reposted below. The obvious course of action in Ukraine was to permit its people to vote for a divorce, as the Czechs and Slovaks did. Instead we elected to keep the NATO option open for Ukraine, knowing that this was a red line for Russia. Never mind that Putin is a wicked fellow; he is a predictably wicked fellow with a well-defined understanding of Russian national interest, and his response to Ukraine’s prospective NATO membership was entirely predictable.

After three months of nearly-unanimous media predictions of the collapse of Russia, it now appears that the Russian army is close to controlling the Donbas. Extricating it will be difficult if not impossible. The result, as Henry Kissinger suggested at Davos last week, will be (eventually) a peace in which Ukraine cedes territory to Russia. All the “don’t appease Putin-Hitler” rhetoric will simply make us feel shabbier when we make the deal. We should feel shabby. We screwed this up on the grand scale.

Our bathetic outpouring of sympathy for Ukraine served mainly to obscure the ugly fact that Russia has better strategic weapons than we do (hypervelocity missiles and the S-400/500 air defense systems). No doubt the Russian army is corrupt, as Western commentators aver, but not so corrupt by orders of magnitude as our Pentagon, which pays top dollar for obsolete weapons while Russia and China innovate. The Javelin and Switchblade and Stinger are fine toys, but the West remains in fear of Russian nuclear weapons–as well we should. The Biden Administration won’t sent long-range missiles to Ukraine because it fears, correctly, that Ukraine might use them to attack targets deep inside Russia and start a broader war.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18581/turkey-terrorists-nato

Turkey, reportedly on the verge of yet another military incursion into Syria, appears up to other fun and games as well.

The so-called “terrorists” to whom Erdoğan is referring are Kurdish politicians, political activists, and refugees who live in Sweden and Finland. In particular, those who engage in advocacy for political equality and the official recognition of Kurds in Turkey and Syria. The Turkish government wants the two Nordic nations to extradite these individuals to Turkey.

Erdoğan’s regime, however, does not see actual jihadists in the region as terrorists and even actively supports them. For instance, news outlets have documented evidence of Erdoğan’s government’s close relationship with ISIS (the Islamic State).

ISIS collaborators received Turkish citizenship, a leaked official Turkish report showed, detailing how the jihadi group used Turkey to traffic money and obtain supplies.

Turkey is also home to Hamas terrorists…. “Hamas operates its headquarters in Istanbul.” — Israel Hayom, February 1, 2022.

Turkey’s Islamist allies in Afrin have since committed many crimes against civilians, including Christians, Yazidis and Kurds. These crimes include extortion, detention, abduction, rape, torture and murder.

For NATO’s well-being, Turkey’s threats, aggression and blackmail must not be allowed.

Turkey, reportedly on the verge of yet another military incursion into Syria, appears up to other fun and games as well.

While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine remains ongoing, two Nordic nations have applied for NATO membership: Sweden and Finland.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18580/iran-destabilizing-iraq

The goal of Iran’s mullahs is to spread their control to as many countries as possible by using their terrorist proxies, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthi militia in Yemen.

Iran’s rulers are also seeking to increase their political influence in these countries. They aim to turn Iran into a superpower and major player in the Middle East at a time when US influence in the region appears to be dwindling.

Needless to say, Iran’s mullahs are not only opposed to peace with Israel. They and their proxies have repeatedly stated that their real goal is to eliminate Israel.

Some even warned that Iran’s real intention is to destroy and isolate Iraq….

“Iran, not Israel, is the greatest affliction for Iraq.” — Farouk Yusef, Iraqi author, Al Arab, May 29, 2022.

The Iraqis, Yusef added, would have preferred to see a law criminalizing working for Iran because they do not want to end up like Lebanon, which has been destroyed by Hezbollah.

“The forces affiliated with Iran accuse everyone who refuses to be subordinate to Iran of seeking normalization with Israel.” — Hamid Al-Kifaey, Iraqi journalist, Sky News Arabia, May 15, 2022.

This is how Arab dictatorships regularly seek to discredit the opposition or anyone who speaks out against corruption and bad government: by accusing them of being Israeli or American spies and traitors.

[T]he law may be used to target political opponents who have been protesting against the corruption of the ruling elite in Baghdad. The anti-corruption activists have often been accused by the government of being “agents of Israel.” — Akeel Abbas, Iraqi academic and author, Al Hurra, May 28, 2022.

The law “radically and explicitly violates two of the basic principles stipulated in the Iraqi constitution, which prohibits enacting a law that contradicts the principles of democracy and basic rights and freedoms.” — Akeel Abbas, Sky News Arabia, May 29, 2022.

Additionally, while Russia has been losing thousands of soldiers trying to take over Ukraine, Iran, without so much as swatting a fly, has been quietly filling the void left by Russians abandoning Syria.

Iran is not waiting until it possesses nuclear weapons to proceed with its schemes. Instead, it is spreading its aggression like a deadly virus to other Muslim nations.

Or do the Biden administration and the international community secretly want the destruction of Israel and the Gulf States?

Iran’s mullahs are continuing to meddle in the internal affairs of Arab countries, especially Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

This is happening while the US administration and other Western powers continue to delude themselves into thinking that appeasing Iran’s rulers and signing a new nuclear deal with them will bring security and stability to the Middle East and the rest of the world.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/a-palestinian-celebration-of-empress-of-terror-fusako-shigenobu/

 When “empress of terror” Fusako Shigenobu was released from Tokyo’s Hachioji prison on Saturday, Palestinian groups hailed her as a heroine and bemoaned what they called her “unjust” incarceration.
The 76-year-old co-founder of the now-defunct Japanese Red Army (JRA) had completed a 20-year jail term for her masterminding of the 1974 hostage-taking of the French embassy in The Hague and the takeover of the U.S. consulate in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1975.

But it was her organization’s part in the 1972 massacre at Israel’s Lod (today, Ben-Gurion) Airport for which she is most celebrated by Palestinian activists. That attack, in which 26 people were killed and dozens more wounded, was perpetrated by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and executed by three members of the JRA.
Among the dead were 17 Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico, one Canadian tourist and eight Israelis, including National Academy of Sciences director Aharon Katzir, brother of Ephraim, who became the country’s fourth president in 1973.

The trio of JRA operatives was perfect for the job. Landing in Israel on an Air France flight from Rome, the Far East Asian men posing as musicians didn’t look like terrorists—certainly not of the PFLP variety. Without arousing the suspicion of security agents, they entered the terminal with ease, removed assault rifles from their violin cases and opened fire in every direction. While they were at it, they threw live grenades into the hysterical throng.
After the massacre, Shigenobu went into hiding in Lebanon. It was there, after all, that she had established the JRA in 1971.

For the nearly three decades until her arrest in 2000 in Osaka, where she had returned to reboot her “anti-imperialist” activities and commitment to the “Palestinian struggle,” she was Interpol’s most wanted terrorist.
It took years before she voiced any remorse for the JRA’s deadly assaults, which she now chalks up to youthful idealism. Upon her exit from behind prison walls, the elderly Communist with a Palestinian keffiyeh draped over her shoulders offered a pitiful apology “for the inconvenience [her] arrest caused to so many people.”
She told reporters that “it [the JRA’s terrorism] was half a century ago … but we caused damage to innocent people who were strangers to us by prioritizing our battle, such as by hostage-taking.”