RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19504/desantis-ukraine

From the start of the conflict one of [Putin’s] key assumptions has been that the Western powers were too weak and divided to sustain their support for the Ukrainian cause, and so it is proving.

This depressing picture will undoubtedly be interpreted by Putin as justifying his view that the West would eventually lose interest in the Ukraine conflict and that, for all the public pledges of support, the Western alliance does not want Ukraine to win after all.

There are also wider global security implications: if Putin is able to get his way. In Ukraine, he will be encouraged in the belief that he can expand his territorial ambitions into other parts of Europe. Other adversaries of the West will not fail to see a second US retreat as yet another vacuum — a green light for their territorial expansion, as well.

For example, an investigation undertaken by the Dossier Centre, a group funded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a long-standing critic of Putin, has warmed that the Kremlin plans to take over Moldova by the end of the decade, a threat also delivered in early February by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as a year ago by Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko “standing in front of a battle map that appears to show a planned invasion of Moldova, along with Ukraine.”

Moscow has also threatened to attack airfields in Poland, a NATO member state, which would require a military response from the entire NATO alliance, thereby provoking all-out war between Russia and the West. At that point, the conflict would very much become a “vital interest” for Washington.

Fortunately there are still countries such as Poland that have no intention of abandoning the Ukrainian cause. On the contrary, the plucky Poles have just reaffirmed their commitment to Kyiv by becoming the first NATO member state to send warplanes to Ukraine: Warsaw is planning to send four MIG-29 fighters.

It is a move that the Biden Administration and other allies should be encouraged to replicate. That is leadership — and what many Americans seem starved for: a Churchill, not a Chamberlain. A reminder: it would have been so much less costly in life and treasure to have stopped Hitler before he crossed the Rhine.

In an attempt to persuade DeSantis to change his mind, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has invited the Florida Governor to visit him in Kyiv.

It is an invitation DeSantis would be well-advised to accept.

No one will be more delighted at the deepening scepticism expressed about America’s continued involvement in the Ukraine conflict than Russian President Vladimir Putin.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19503/persecution-of-christians-february

“[T]he soldiers of the Caliphate… captured five Christians and slaughtered them, praise be to God.” — barnabasaid.org, February 15, 2023, Mozambique.

“I went to the police station to report my daughter’s kidnapping, but they refused to accept my complaint and forced me out of the building.” He made repeated attempts to file a criminal complaint… the police ignored his pleas.” — Morning Star News, February 13, 2023, Pakistan.

” [I]n all cases involving forced marriages of underage minority girls…. The accused first rapes the victim and then uses the cover of an Islamic Nikah [marriage certificate] to escape punishment…” — Morning Star News, February 13, 2023, Pakistan.

“Sunita is just 19, but now her whole life has been physically and mentally scarred [by acid thrown in her face]…. Even if he is convicted for his crime…. We all know how our society treats acid attack survivors….” — Morning Star News, February 13, 2023, Pakistan.

“Kill them wherever you find them [a verbatim quote of Koran 9:5]. If you are a tradesman, use a nail gun to nail the heads and crucify them on woodwork. If you are a truck driver, run them over….” — Islamic State operative, terrorism-info.org.il, February 6, 2023, Sweden.

The following are among the murders and abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of February 2023:

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19502/do-babies-still-win-wars

China, Russia and Iran spend almost twice as much on the military as they do on the health and well-being of their citizens. Their military expenditure as a percentage of GDP is more than twice the average of OECD countries, while their healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP is less than half of the OECD average.

Since the Chinese sage Sun Tzu authored The Art of War around 2,500 years ago, almost all writers on military affairs have asserted that a rapid rate of population growth is the sine qua non for a nation’s decision to go to war.

More recently, this theory was elaborated by the Swiss mercenary, General Antoine-Henri Jomini, in a series of books that have been “must reads” in most military academies since the 19th century. Echoes of the same theory are present in On War, the military “bible” written by Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian general and military historian, in the 19th century.

Thus, the Indo-European tribes left their ancestral homeland in Central Asia because they could no longer feed a rapidly growing population. Seeking more fertile land and pastures for their herds, they embarked on invasions to their west and south to find the resources they coveted.

The ancient Romans and Persians were also pushed towards conquest because of high birth rates that made the seizure of new lands a life-and-death necessity.

The Arab invasion of the Persian and Byzantine Empires in the Middle East and Asia Minor also came when the Arabian Peninsula could no longer feed its rising population. The same analysis has been applied to the Mongol invasion that brought hungry tribes from far away Mongolia to the heart of Europe and the Middle East.

Rapid population growth was also a key factor in pushing the British on a path of empire-building from the 16th century onwards. In fact, the ability to export large numbers of peoples to new lands is often cited as one of the key factors in empire-building since time immemorial.

Finally, the Nazis claimed that post-Weimar Germany needed to invade Europe in search of “Lebensraum” (living space) to secure agricultural and energy resources needed to be a big power.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2023/03/18/garbage-in-the-streets-of-paris-and-riots-over-pension-reform-pose-a-challenge-to-macrons-authority-n1679547

France is in an uproar because French workers will now have to toil an extra two years before they’re eligible for their overly-generous pension. And the change was made thanks to a rarely used article in the French Constitution — Article 49.3 — which provides that the government can pass a bill without a vote at the National Assembly, after deliberation at a Cabinet meeting.

The catch is that French President Emanuel Macron must now navigate a “no confidence” vote that will be held sometime this weekend. He is expected to weather the storm easily, but not without some damage to his standing. Macron is in the middle of his second term, and since he can’t run again, he will try to push through as much of his agenda as possible.

Meanwhile, French workers are livid over the changes. The retirement age has been raised from 62 to 64 because of overly generous governments in the past almost bankrupting the pension system. Macron’s “fix” only kicks the can down the road until the real crunch comes in a few years.

Reuters:

Riot police clashed with protesters on Friday evening in Paris as a demonstration took place at the capital’s Place de la Concorde, near the Assemblee Nationale parliament building, resulting in 61 arrests.

This led the Paris Prefecture on Saturday to ban rallies on Place de la Concorde and the nearby Champs-Elysees.

A further rally was however slated for later on Saturday on Place d’Italie in southern Paris.

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2023/03/putin-russia-and-the-purpose-of-power-daryl-mccann/

Motivating Vladimir Putin is the inviolability of Russia’s imperial past, be it the Great Northern War (1700–21) or the Great Patriotic War (1941–45). No sacrifice by the people of Russia, let alone Ukrainians, appears too high a price to pay to the gods of war as long as the greater glory of Russia is restored. Putin’s concept of the “Russian world” (Russkiy Mir) is simultaneously a language and a geographical location, a civilisation and an all-powerful state, a nation-state and an empire and, most perilous of all, his personal destiny and the fate of Russia. We can see, in retrospect at least, that the likelihood of a new incarnation of the Cold War increased as Putin began to contemplate his place in the textbooks of future generations of schoolchildren. The grandiloquence of this one man, served by the lethal but compliant siloviki, casts a terrible shadow over the world.

An unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine was not inevitable. But Putin’s early career in the KGB, an enduring enmity towards the West, and more than two decades of holding the reins of power in the Kremlin, doubtless increased the chances. On June 9, 2022, with the death toll of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers and Ukrainian civilians soaring, Putin told the young engineers, entrepreneurs and scientists attending the annual St Petersburg Economic Forum:

Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for twenty-one years. On the face of it, he was at war with Sweden taking something away from it … He was not taking away anything, he was returning. That’s how it was. The areas around Lake Ladoga, where St Petersburg was founded. When he founded the new capital, none of the European countries recognised this territory as part of Russia; everyone recognised it as part of Sweden. However, from time memorial, the Slavs lived there along with the Finno-Ugric peoples, and this territory was under Russia’s control. The same is true of the western direction, Narva and his first campaigns. Why would he go there? He was returning and reinforcing, that is what he was doing.

We can only assume he believed his bloody assault on Ukraine was a question of “returning and reinforcing” what rightfully belonged to Greater Russia—however many years it took, however many lives were lost and whether or not “European countries recognised [his conquest] as part of Russia”.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19496/iran-mission-wipe-out-america

A radical regime, whose mission is to “Export the Revolution” and bring Islamist rule to the rest of the world, will not alter its aims through policies of appeasement.

Currently, thanks to the Biden Administration’s appeasement where it would not matter and inaction where it would, the Iran’s ruling mullahs are closer than ever to acquiring nuclear weapons. The Biden administration would do well to realize that a nuclear Iran is not just an existential threat to Israel; a nuclear Iran is major threat to the region, Europe, America, the world.

The regime has made its intentions clear. Especially now that it is aligned with Putin’s Russia and the Chinese Communist Party, it would like to conquer the US.

As recently as November, Khamenei vowed, “Death to America will happen. In the new order I am talking about America will no longer have any important role.”

The headline of a report by Iran’s state-controlled Afkar News reads (in Farsi): “American Soil Is Now Within the Range of Iranian Bombs”. The report boasts about the damage that Iran could inflict, and clams that the Islamic Republic can use “a high-altitude electromagnetic bomb to attack the United States.

“The same type of ballistic missile technology used to launch the satellite could carry nuclear, chemical or even biological weapons to wipe Israel off the map, hit US bases and allies in the region and US facilities, and target NATO even in the far west of Europe….” — Afkar News, August 15, 2020.

American politicians shortsightedly fail to harden America’s electric grid, probably because it will not show up as an accomplishment that donors will respond to, electorally or financially, during their election campaigns.

Tragically, through its appeasement policies and failure to take on the Free World’s adversaries in a serious and credible way, the Biden Administration has been empowering at least one predatory regime that is determined to accomplish its mission of Jihad to rule the world at any cost; even if that requires wiping out other states. And now, thanks to the catastrophic policies of the Biden Administration — suppressing US fossil fuel production, thereby enriching Russia so it could launch a war against Ukraine; and by snubbing America’s historical ally, Saudi Arabia — it has brought US national security to the brink.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19495/china-new-world-order

On March 10, Chinese President and Communist Party General-Secretary Xi Jinping brokered a surprise agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to reestablish diplomatic relations between the two countries, effectively knocking the US off the Middle Eastern chessboard and showing himself as a power-broker on the world stage.

Xi is, in fact, on his way to Russia, possibly as soon as next week, with a 12-point peace plan — ostensibly to see if he can pull off the same wizardry with Ukraine, but more likely to nail down plans to seize Taiwan.

China as the world’s new power-broker anywhere, especially in the Middle East — until Biden squandered America’s alliances there — is conceivably a seismic turning point: possibly the beginning of China fulfilling its dream of replacing the US as the dominant superpower in a new world order.

For the Biden Administration, this is a blow for which it has only itself to thank.

In addition to ignoring Saudi security concerns about Iran’s escalating nuclear weapons program, Biden also let Iran’s terrorist proxies off the hook. He removed Yemen’s Iranian-sponsored Houthi terrorist group from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations in February 2021, and refused to put it back even after the Houthis resumed missile and drone attacks on the United Arab Emirates, as well as more attacks on the Saudi Arabia.

Is it any wonder, then, that in the vacuum the US created, the Saudis felt pushed towards China and Iran? What, after all, was their alternative?

It is likely that the Saudis were hoping that the Americans, even at the last minute, would pledge completely to terminate their negotiations with Iran over the nuclear deal, which permits Iran unlimited nuclear weapons.

China and other aggressors also cannot avoid seeing America’s non-stop ineptitude, whether the focus in the US military on teaching critical race theory and “climate change” rather than on how to win or deter wars; billions for “climate change,” which must give China, which is building “six times more coal plants than other countries,” a good laugh, while the US military budget has been in a steady net-decline, outpaced by Biden’s 6% inflation. Someone has not been minding the store.

Will more countries be willing to reject an international order based on democratic values — not to mention the world’s reserve currency — of the US?

On March 10, Chinese President and Communist Party General-Secretary Xi Jinping brokered a surprise agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to reestablish diplomatic relations between the two countries, effectively knocking the US off the Middle Eastern chessboard and showing himself as a power-broker on the world stage.

Xi is, in fact, on his way to Russia, possibly as soon as next week, with a 12-point peace plan — ostensibly to see if he can pull off the same wizardry with Ukraine, but more likely to nail down plans to seize Taiwan.

China as the world’s new power-broker anywhere, especially in the Middle East — until Biden squandered America’s alliances there — is conceivably a seismic turning point: possibly the beginning of China fulfilling its dream of replacing the US as the dominant superpower in a new world order.

For the Biden Administration, this is a blow for which it has only itself to thank.

From the outset of his presidency, President Joe Biden completely deprioritized the Middle East: “If you are going to list the regions Biden sees as a priority, the Middle East is not in the top three,” a former senior national security official and close Biden adviser told Politico in 2021.

Biden then proved this highly unwise policy to anyone in doubt with his disastrous Afghanistan exit, creating a power vacuum in the region and demonstrating to allies everywhere that they could not rely on the US.

Biden then decisively cleared the path for China with his calamitous policies toward Saudi Arabia, creating another power vacuum. Enter Xi.

Saudi Arabia for decades relied on the US for its security. Since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ascended to the second-most important position in the kingdom in 2017, he has expressed interest in loosening human right restrictions somewhat and seeking economic diversification. Then came Biden, campaigning for the presidency with the promise to make Saudi Arabia “pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are.” He threw in gratuitously that there was “very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia.”

Making matters worse, the Biden administration has continued relentlessly to try to revive the flawed 2015 JCPOA “nuclear deal” with Iran — which is the pinnacle of “social redeeming value?” The Trump Administration had withdrawn from the deal after mountains of evidence kept turning up that Iran had reportedly been cheating “since day one.” Meanwhile the Biden Administration kept completely ignoring the legitimate fears that Saudi Arabia had of a nuclear Iran.

“Washington and the West have not been serious about the region’s security since concluding the Iranian nuclear agreement in 2015,” wrote Tariq Al-Homayed, a leading Saudi journalist and former newspaper editor following the Chinese-brokered deal.

As recently as January, when International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi made it clear that “only countries making bombs” are enriching uranium at Iran’s level, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir repeated the Saudi concerns:

“I believe that Iran has an obligation to give up its nuclear program. I believe that Iran must be in compliance with the terms of the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran, if it wants to be a member in good standing of the international community needs to respect international law, needs to respect international order.”

In addition to ignoring Saudi security concerns about Iran’s escalating nuclear weapons program, Biden also let Iran’s terrorist proxies off the hook. He removed Yemen’s Iranian-sponsored Houthi terrorist group from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations in February 2021, and refused to put it back even after the Houthis resumed missile and drone attacks on the United Arab Emirates, as well as more attacks on the Saudi Arabia (here and here).

“Providing ballistic missiles to terrorist groups,” Saudi Minister al-Jubeir recently noted, “is not acceptable… Providing drones to the Houthis in Yemen is also unacceptable.”

Is it any wonder, then, that in the vacuum the US created, the Saudis felt pushed towards China and Iran? What, after all, was their alternative?

The Saudis had given the Biden Administration plenty of hints about the extent to which relations have soured.

The entire world witnessed how Saudi Arabia’s low-key reception of Biden in July 2022, complete with awkward fist bump, contrasted with the lavish welcome reception that was bestowed on China’s Xi Jinping when he visited the kingdom in December 2022. Yet the Biden administration was at a complete loss as to how to reassert itself and reengage with Saudi Arabia to restore relations and bring back at least a trace of American influence. It is likely that the Saudis were hoping that the Americans, even at the last minute, would pledge completely to terminate their negotiations with Iran over the nuclear deal, which permits Iran unlimited nuclear weapons.

According to Suzanne Maloney, vice president and director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution:

“What is notable of course is the decision to hand the Chinese a huge public relations victory — a photo op that is intended to demonstrate China’s newfound stature in the region. In that sense, it would appear to be yet another Saudi slap in the face to the Biden administration.”

The harmful effects of the China-brokered agreement, however, amount to much more than a mere “Saudi slap” to the Biden Administration — especially after the US surrender to a terrorist group, the Taliban, in 2021; the disastrous retreat from the Bagram Air Base; and the Chinese spy balloon hovering for a full week over the most strategic US military sites. They add up to an even more diminished international standing for the US.

China can now boast that it is able to rearrange the pieces on the global chessboard, upend alliances that have dominated the international world order for decades, and make peace between enemies. If China can do all that, what else can it do?

China and other aggressors also cannot avoid seeing America’s non-stop ineptitude, whether the focus in the US military on teaching critical race theory and “climate change” rather than on how to win or deter wars; billions for “climate change,” which must give China, which is building “six times more coal plants than other countries,” a good laugh, while the US military budget has been in a steady net-decline, outpaced by Biden’s 6% inflation. Someone has not been minding the store.

Above all, the new agreement has unmistakably signaled to the world that the US is a power whose best days are behind it. That impression could only have been reinforced by White House Spokesman John Kirby’s lame comment made after Saudi-Iranian agreement: “We support any effort to de-escalate tensions there.”

The Middle East region, apart from Israel, consists of more-or-less authoritarian states that share China’s views on state sovereignty, non-interference, and evidently not all that much interest in human rights. Will more countries be willing to reject an international order based on democratic values — not to mention the world’s reserve currency — of the US?

Dominating the world and replacing the US as the world’s dominant superpower by 2049 — militarily, economically, technologically and geopolitically — is what China has coveted for decades.

The deal “proves that Chinese medicine can solve problems that western medicine cannot solve,” announced Wang Yiwei, the director of the Institute of International Affairs at China’s Renmin University.

Most tragically, all the US decisions, from blocking US energy production to closing down the “China Initiative” to prevent further espionage, and including those above, that led to this juncture appear totally unnecessary own-goals.

“This is a battle of narratives for the future of the international order,” said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, a Washington-based research institute. “China is saying the world is in chaos because U.S. leadership has failed.”

Again.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/who-is-poisoning-iranian-schoolgirls-khamenei-mullahs-irgc-protest-mahsa-amini-control-regime-9e17109b?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

Iranian news outlets began reporting three months ago that schoolgirls were falling ill with headaches, dizziness, nausea, fatigue and breathing difficulties. The shrine city of Qom, historic seat of the clerical establishment, appears to have been ground zero, but 25 of the country’s 31 provinces have reported similar outbreaks. A parliamentarian who is part of a fact-finding commission said that upward of 5,000 students and teachers might have been poisoned.

Official reaction ranged from surprise and denial to grudging acknowledgment. Last week the Interior Ministry reported the arrest of several suspects. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called the poisoning “a major and unforgivable crime.”

The threats to global stability and the US homeland are growing. How will the war in Ukraine end? Can China and the US develop a less combative relationship? Join historian and Journal columnist Walter Russell Mead and editorial page editor Paul Gigot for an interactive conversation on the threats to US security.

Yet there is little doubt that the clerical regime is responsible for this assault. The only two organizations capable of undertaking an operation of this scale are the Intelligence Ministry and the domestic intelligence service of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The question is why the cagey supreme leader would opt for a course of action that was bound to unsettle further his wobbly theocracy. It’s hard to imagine his hand-picked men moving without his consent.

Since the outbreak of the “women, life and freedom” protest movement in September, which was sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, the regime has tried to assert control over the streets without “excess” brutality. Beyond Iranian Baluchistan and Kurdistan, where the government has bloodily repressed dissent, the theocracy has veered away from firing automatic weapons on crowds, as it did in 2019 to suppress a near-insurrection. Authorities prefer to arrest Iranians by the thousand. That way fear spreads without massive bloodshed, burials and religious commemorations that invite more protests. The attack on the girls’ schools—most secondary schools in Iran are single-sex—was probably an effort to intimidate without killing, to create a paralyzing fear in parents and their children.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19464/pakistan-acid-attacks-christians

“As she ran screaming for the door a second man grabbed her by the hair and forced more of the liquid down her throat, searing her esophagus. Teeth fell from her mouth as she desperately called for help, stumbling down the street. A woman heard her cries and took her to her home, pouring water over her head and taking her to hospital. At first the doctors refused to treat her, because she was a Christian.”— Daily Mail, July 12, 2012.

Not one of these attacks, with the exception of Julie Aftab, was reported on the mainstream media. Even then, no mention was made that such attacks on Christian women follow a pattern in Pakistan.

Perhaps that is something for all those who claim to care about women’s rights to think about.

A Muslim man recently splashed acid onto the face of a teenage Christian girl, disfiguring her permanently. Her crime? Refusing to convert and turning him down.