RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2024/09/30/our-ukrainian-war-narrative-paradoxes-obsessions-and-disconnects/

About half of America sympathizes with Ukraine’s plight and wishes to arm it.

After all, Kyiv was attacked preemptively by Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, in an effort to decapitate its government and turn the country into a Russian satellite, perhaps similar to the status of a Belarus or Chechnya.

The heroic ability of the Ukrainians to save Kyiv and to stop the Russian assault beyond the occupied Donbas and Crimea has hinged on Western weapons deliveries, specifically from European NATO countries and, to a far greater extent, the United States.

But now, after a reported 1 million combined dead, wounded, or missing Ukrainians and Russians (the actual figure is probably far higher), the war remains deadlocked with no end in sight.

Putin serially threatens to break the static front with tactical nuclear weapons. The Europeans are tiring. And no one in the United States has come up with a strategy to push back the Russians from either their February 2022 demarcation points or their post-2014 occupation of Ukrainian borderlands.

The result is a lot of disconnects, paradoxes, and mysteries about the war, the Biden administration’s role in it, and the general geostrategic landscape surrounding the conflict.

Ukrainian Election Interference?

Americans are demonized by the Uniparty elites for having doubts about their blank-check support for Ukraine. And while the American people are mostly anti-Putin, they are not always pro-Ukraine.

But why is that so?

For one, we know that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20982/iran-newest-proxy-sudan

Iran, having just had two of its major proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, seriously degraded, is apparently setting its sights on a new, “consolation prize” proxy to use as an additional base of operations: Sudan.

Iran’s strategy of supporting and infiltrating other countries and terrorist groups — as it has done in Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Lebanon, Venezuela and Yemen — appears as yet another extension of its strategy of moving into territories with weak or unstable governments to expand its influence throughout the Middle East, to create new fronts for its campaign to destroy Israel and bring down the world order led by the West.

A major port and foothold in Sudan will enable Iran to accomplish two of its goals: to continue encircling Israel in a “ring of fire” by opening yet another front from which to attack the small Jewish nation from the southwest, and to further control all international shipping in the Red Sea.

The Sudanese Armed Forces, led by [Sudanese General Abdel Fattah] Al-Burhan… although invited [for peace talks], was not represented. “We will not go to Geneva,” Al-Burhan told reporters in Port Sudan, at the time; “we will fight for 100 years.”

Al-Burhan nevertheless showed up at the UN recently, asking for talks. Why did he not respect the offer from the US and the international community when they gave him that opportunity in Geneva? Might the incident suggest a lack of candor?

Openly stating its ambition to dominate the Middle East — and to drive US forces out of the region presumably to make it easier to do so – Iran, for 40 years, through force and intimidation, has been seeking to dominate its neighbors in the Middle East, not just Israel, but also Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Iran’s militias and proxies have been firing, as well, on American assets in the region, more than 160 times just in the last year, with virtually no response from the US. Iran has also been extending its reach into Africa, especially with the increasing collaboration of two powerful allies: China and Russia.

Iran’s influence is not presently confined to any region. Iran has, for instance, been “exporting the revolution” to the Western Hemisphere, particularly, as mentioned, Venezuela, an ideal base from which to harass the “Big Satan,” especially when Iran will have nuclear weapons, which are reportedly close to being “taken public.”

This new, potential land-grab by Iran, in collaboration with Russia and China, poses yet another serious security threat not only to Israel, but also to the entire region and the United States. It is hoped that the US government, and whoever wins the November election, will give this emerging flashpoint urgent attention.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20979/slaughter-in-bangladesh

Muhammad Yunus is one of the major donors of Clinton Foundation, and according to a cable leaked by Wikileaks, back in 2007, Hillary Clinton made frantic bids and exerted pressure on Bangladesh Army to make her friend Yunus head of the then military-backed interim government.

[S]ince August 5, 2024, massive attacks on Hindus, including their homes, businesses and temples began, while local media were barred from covering these incidents, as the Yunus regime has been arresting critics and journalists and bringing murder cases against them.

As Yunus is enjoying full support of the Biden administration as well as Democratic Party leaders such as Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, none of the rights groups, including Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch has issued any statement pertaining attacks (including murder and rapes) on Hindus in the country.

On August 5, 2024, Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina was forced to flee the country and take refuge in India following a month-long anti-government movement led by Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), ultra-Islamist Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Hizb Ut Tahrir and other Islamist organizations in the country. It was earlier perceived by many that the Biden administration had been trying to topple Sheikh Hasina from power and install Muhammad Yunus as head of the government.

Muhammad Yunus is one of the major donors of Clinton Foundation, and according to a cable leaked by Wikileaks, back in 2007, Hillary Clinton made frantic bids and exerted pressure on Bangladesh Army to make her friend Yunus head of the then military-backed interim government.

https://quadrant.org.au/features/world/a-dose-of-unwanted-truth-at-the-un/

“From this day on, know that the Argentine Republic will abandon the position of historical neutrality that characterised us and will be at the forefront of the struggle to defend freedom. As Thomas Paine said, “Those who wish to reap the blessings of freedom must, as men, endure the fatigue of defending it.”

To the authorities of the United Nations, to the representatives of the various countries that make up the United Nations and to all the citizens of the world who are watching us, good afternoon. For those who do not know, I am not a politician, I am an economist, a libertarian liberal economist who has never had the ambition to be a politician and who was honored with the position of President of the Argentine Republic after the resounding failure of more than a century of collectivist policies — policies that destroyed our country.

This is my first speech before the UN General Assembly and I would like to take this opportunity, with humility, to alert the various nations of the world to the path they have been treading for decades and the danger of this very organisation’s failure to fulfill its original mission.

I do not come here to tell the world what to do. I come to tell the world, on the one hand, what will happen if the United Nations continues to promote collectivist policies, which they have been doing under the mandate of the 2030 Agenda, and, on the other hand, to lay out the values the new Argentina defends.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/zelenskys-partisanship/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=blog-post&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=top-bar-latest&utm_term=first

Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to campaign with Kamala Harris and to specifically attack the Republican vice-presidential nominee — preemptively blaming J. D. Vance for a global war — is unwise for many reasons. By appearing at what was in effect a campaign event for Democrats, the Ukrainian president himself is now deliberately and knowingly contributing to the political polarization of this issue in a way that can only work to his country’s detriment. 

There are two possible explanations for this bizarre stunt: One, Zelensky has concluded that Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán is correct in saying that a Trump victory means that U.S. aid to Ukraine will immediately be zeroed to nothing. Or two, the Harris campaign is using its own leverage over Zelensky to make him a campaign surrogate, hoping to complete its pitch to Nikki Haley–style Republican voters who overwhelmingly support Ukraine, even if this stunt does more damage to Ukraine’s cause among Republicans generally.

To the first point, there is little evidence Donald Trump will simply cut off U.S. support for Ukraine. Trump has been cagey about his views on supporting Ukraine, but there are some clues about his wanting to keep his options open. First, he backed Republican Mike Johnson in the House as Johnson signed onto a Ukraine aid package. Second, Vance, as his running mate, has stuck to the script set by Trump. Even though Vance went out of his way to debate and cajole his own party on this issue when he was in the Senate, he did not mention Ukraine once in his own convention speech, and on the stump he repeats Trump’s views, not his own. Trump has said only that the war wouldn’t have happened if he were in office, and that it will end shortly after he is elected. He has also implied that he could, if he wanted to, make worse problems for Vladimir Putin.

To the second point, the deployment of Zelensky on the American political front amounts to a tacit admission that perhaps Ukraine isn’t vital to America’s interests. If it were, Democrats would not make it an acceptable sacrifice in a presidential campaign.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20966/persecution-of-christians-august

Muslim militants slit the throats of about 26 people inside a church: “All non-Muslim men over the age of 12 were separated out before being killed.” — acnuk.org, August 30, 2024, Burkina Faso.

“So let everyone know that the role of Christians in Lebanon has ended! You have become a minority in this country, and yet you still hold high positions… Nobody would accept this issue. The coming generations will… not accept that the president must be Christian; he must be a Sunni Muslim or Shi’ite.” — Reda Saad, pro-Hezbollah commentator, x.com, August 18, 2024.

“We informed the police about the accused, but they still did not take any action, giving sufficient time to Asad to convert the minor child and contract an Islamic marriage with her…. Fairy is just 12 years old. She had no access to a cell phone and rarely went out of the home by herself….” — Parveen Shaukat, mother of Fairy Shaukat,12, abducted, converted and married by Muhammad Assad; morningstarnews.org, August 28, 2024, Pakistan.

“The accused not only kidnapped the child, he converted her and contracted an Islamic marriage to save himself from prosecution [a common practice by kidnappers to sexually exploit underage non-Muslim girls].” — Sumera Shafique, Christian attorney; morningstarnews.org, August 28, 2024, Pakistan.

“Women who disappear and are never recovered must live an unimaginable nightmare. The large majority of these women are never reunited with their families or friends because police response in Egypt is dismissive and corrupt.” — Coptic Solidary report, “‘Jihad of the Womb’: Trafficking of Coptic Women & Girls in Egypt”, copticsolidarity.org, September 10, 2020, Egypt.

On August 5, a Muslim migrant from North Africa was arrested for robbing a church in Turin. There were many other acts of arson, desecration (including of a Christian cemetery), statue breaking, and thefts targeting churches in Italy throughout the month of August — torinotoday.it, August 6, 2024, Italy.

On Sunday, Aug. 18, a mob consisting of local officials forcibly dragged a Christian pastor from his church and sealed off its site on the dubious claim that the place had originally belonged to the government…. “What was disappointing was those people who closed my church were my friends….” — morningstarnews.org, September 3, 2024, Indonesia.

On Aug. 30, a massive fire “broke out” in the Coptic Christian Diocese of Beni Suef in Egypt, consuming all of the five-story Christian building’s contents…. [T]his is only the latest of many churches in Egypt to be torched and immediately attributed to “faulty wires” and other natural causes. In one month alone, August 2022, a full 11 churches reportedly “caught fire.”… Also “interesting” is that “accidental” fires in mosques—which outnumber churches in Egypt by a ratio of 40 to 1—are completely unheard of.” — copticslodarity.org, September 2, 2024, Egypt.

https://quadrant.org.au/features/qed/wests-self-assisted-suicide/

EXCERPT

Instead of the leaders with iron resolve we got terribly Democratic and profoundly weak Joe Biden, a succession of the UK PMs whose names nobody can remember, former GDR Young Communist League member Angela ‘Mutti’ Merkel, ex-Secretary-General of the Portuguese Socialist Party Antonio Guterres and the ever-elegant Emmanuel Macron, addicted to long chats with Vladimir Putin. In keeping with the trend, Australia has granted itself the honour of being governed by Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong.

It seems the proudest achievement of the human species, Western Civilization, is quietly expiring under the assault of resentful and determined enemies. Sensing weakness, they are gathering for the kill. In too many instances the West facilitates its own demise, aiding and abetting those who would destroy it.

Those who are as old as I might remember big buttons proclaiming “Nuclear? No thanks”. Ubiquitous, they were a visible aspect of the unilateral disarmament campaign orchestrated by Moscow and conducted by the front organisations such as People for Nuclear Disarmament, the World Council of Churches and the like. Motivating this campaign was the Soviet fear that the Western nuclear deterrent might succeed in defeating Moscow’s conventional arms assault on Western Europe should push ever come to shove.

Now, the “protest” movement is more sophisticated – it fights for the clean environment, nothing political, you see. The neo-Marxist movement has weaponized ecology and, under the guise of saving the planet, undermines the West. They do it by posturing as “green” movements, fighting to stop fossil fuels production in the West. The result has been spectacular. We are forced to buy the necessary fuel from OPEC and Russia, countries have no homegrown protest movements which can pump oil to their hearts’ and treasuries’ content. According to the July issue of the Foreign Policy, before its assault on Ukraine, Russia was getting around $US1 billion US dollars every day in oil revenues. After the Western sanctions that figure declined to $720 million dollars per day — a decrease certainly, but still more than enough to wage war on Ukraine, finance anti-Western activities while keeping things on the homefront relatively content.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/09/22/the-death-pains-of-the-european-union/

The largely unspoken trade-off involved in membership of the European Union is that democracy and national sovereignty are sacrificed in return for economic prosperity. Member states give up much of their control over critical policy areas to an unelected, technocratic elite who are entrusted with delivering higher living standards and productivity. But Brussels is not keeping its part of the bargain – and hasn’t for some time.

Worse, the EU economy is about to endure decades of ‘slow agony’. This is the grim prognosis not of a Eurosceptic or populist, but of one of Europe’s most senior technocrats, Mario Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank and ex-prime minister of Italy. Last week, Draghi unveiled a 400-page doorstopper report, commissioned by the EU, on the ‘future of European competitiveness’. Without radical economic reform, he warns, EU member states will suffer from stagnant living standards, technological backwardness and geopolitical impotence.

As Draghi’s report makes clear, the EU has been in deep economic trouble for some time now. At the turn of the century, the EU and US were on a relatively equal footing. But, on a per-capita basis, real disposable income in the EU has grown at only half the rate of the US since 2000. The US now massively outperforms the EU in advanced technology. Only four in the world’s top-50 tech firms are European. Almost a million manufacturing jobs were lost in the EU in the last four years alone. For too long, Draghi argues, policymakers have viewed the growing gap between the EU and US as merely an ‘inconvenience’, rather than the ‘calamity’ it really is.

In truth, Draghi’s bleak assessment actually underestimates the scale of the EU’s economic malaise. Looking at averages across the 27-member bloc obscures the depths of the crisis. Astonishingly, the economies of Italy, Spain and Greece, having been battered by the Euro crisis and EU-mandated austerity, are actually smaller than they were in the late 2000s. Germany, traditionally the EU’s economic powerhouse, is rapidly deindustrialising. In France, the EU’s second-largest economy, debt is spiralling to the kind of levels seen in Italy just before the Euro crisis. The cost of all this foregone growth is a diminished quality of life, stretched public services and decaying infrastructure.