RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2022/03/13/pompeo_we_should_prepare_taiwan_to_defend_itself_like_we_failed_to_do_for_ukraine.html

Former Trump administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke about his recent trip to Taiwan and Singapore on FNC’s Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures”

MIKE POMPEO: I’ve talked about the fact that Ukraine is an absolute tragedy. We’ve been behind. What I’m really worried about is cascading series of crises. Overnight there were missiles fired near him U.S. consulate in Iraq.

When I was in Twiwan, they were worried about the same thing. A series of cascading crises that effects them and their lives. I made the statement when I was in Taiwan we ought to do the simple thing of recognizing their independence. Everybody knows they have never been part of mainland Communist China. They don’t want to be.

We ought to be doing the things that we failed to do last summer for the Ukrainian people we ought to be doing for Taiwan.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-eyes-venezuelan-oil-russia-ukraine-gas-prices-maduro-national-imports-11647195311?mod=opinion_lead_pos8

War profiteering is the world’s second-oldest profession, and it’s silly to feign shock over efforts by petroleum companies and financiers to use the bloodshed in Ukraine to make money in Venezuela.

It’s harder to understand why the Biden administration would rush to help the oil industry and its bankers at the expense of the long-suffering Venezuelan people and U.S. national security. But that seems to be where we’re headed.

On March 5 representatives from the White House and the State Department visited Caracas to negotiate with dictator Nicolás Maduro. The meeting wasn’t public. But judging from press reports, citing people familiar with the matter, it’s pretty clear that the administration is thinking about lifting the U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil imports and that it wanted to see what it could get in return.

The White House plays down that speculation. The meeting just happened to take place amid surging gasoline prices and ahead of Mr. Biden’s Tuesday announcement that the U.S. will forbid Russian oil imports.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18327/wartime-confidantes

By anyone’s definition, US President Joseph Biden has become an American war president.

Which begs the question – who are his closest confidantes at a time of extreme peril?

Lincoln had Edwin Stanton who was an unflappable War Secretary Lincoln could depend upon during the darkest days of the Civil War.

Woodrow Wilson sought the advice of “Colonel” Edward House, who served as his diplomatic representative in dealing with our European Allies during World War I and in the months that followed the armistice.

FDR depended on the likes of Harry Hopkins, General George Marshall, and Admiral William Leahy – smart strategists who understood the existential threat that faced America and the free world during World War II.

And Joe Biden? Who is advising this president to confront and outplay Russian President Vladimir Putin at a time when Russian rocket strikes are creeping ever closer to our NATO ally, Poland? Who is giving Biden the type of insight and analysis he needs, given that any misstep could see an exchange of weapons of mass destruction?

Vice President Kamala Harris, whose unimpressive performance during her recent diplomatic mission to Eastern Europe must have given our allies much pause for thought?

This author raised the question of Biden’s unofficial circle of advisors in the Fall of last year when the issues were domestic and Washington’s policies had created such massive national debt that it was capable of triggering historic inflation. (And here we are.) While history teaches us that failed economic models can destroy a nation (such as Germany in the 1920s and the Soviet Union in the 1980s), war can leave a field of ruin where great cities once stood.

We reported then that published reports revealed that John Podesta, Clinton’s former chief of staff and senior counselor to Obama, was actively lobbying Democratic Congressmen on behalf of Biden’s “Build Back Better ” agenda. We also noted that Podesta’s older brother, Anthony, a longtime Democratic lobbyist and fundraiser, was the subject of a New York Times story that reported Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei had hired Podesta despite the fact that Huawei was identified as a national security threat by the Trump administration, and even the Biden administration.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18315/biden-administration-eu-iran

Many Iranians, meanwhile, in defiance of Iran’s regime, gathered outside the Ukrainian embassy in Tehran to express their support for the Ukrainian people, criticize the Iranian government for supporting Russia, and chanted “Death to Putin”.

As police began cracking down on the protesters, the Biden administration and the EU remained silent.

Why are the Biden administration and the EU appeasing the Iranian regime, which has for four decades attacked Americans and carried out terrorist activities and assassinations?

The Biden administration and the other members of the JCPOA nuclear deal negotiated in 2015 (China, France, Russia, the UK and Germany) — with the European Union — instead of holding Iran to account, are evidently determined to reward it. It is not quite clear for what. For years of unspeakable behavior, both to its own citizens and internationally?

Meanwhile, as the US has been negotiating this new agreement, US intelligence services have just identified “at least two Iranians” as trying to assassinate former officials of the Trump administration. The Biden administration is said to have been trying to cover up the plot lest it derail the negotiations to shower Iran with “rewards”.

The Iranian regime, an official state sponsor of terrorism, has carried out terrorist activities around the world for almost four decades. Why are the Biden administration and the EU not implementing the same policies towards Iran’s regime as they are towards Russia?

While the European Union has leveled different kinds of sanctions on Russia, including restricting access to the EU’s capital and financial markets, the EU nevertheless continues to appease Moscow’s staunch ally, the world’s largest sponsor of state terrorism, Iran.

https://emetonline.org/russian-roulette-and-high-treason/

While all eyes are, understandably, on the horrific war Russia inflicted upon Ukraine, scant little attention has been paid to the Iran nuclear negotiations in Vienna and the imminent deal. What seems to have also escaped public purview is that America, which was not even allowed into the room to negotiate directly with the Iran, has allowed Russia interlocutor Mikhail Ulyanov to be our water carrier in these critical negotiations. 

It is nothing short of diplomatic malpractice for the American team, headed by Robert Malley, to let a Russian emissary to the Iran negotiations be our water carrier. For months during these talks, Russia has made its imperial designs on Ukraine quite clear, threatening NATO and all of the West as well.  

It has been made transparent that Russia under Putin has no love lost for the United States and wants to resurrect the Cold War, with Russia emerging as a major player on the world’s stage.  Yet, for some inexplicable reason, Malley depended on Russia to negotiate for us, in what State Antony Blinken promised to be “a longer, stronger deal” with Iran.  

One hoped for an agreement that would address the issues omitted from the 2015 agreement, such as Iran’s malign behavior throughout the region and the globe, its missile development, and the sunset clauses which are all due to expire in nine short years. (UN Security Council Resolution 2231, regarding the arms embargo, expired in October 2021.) 

A recent viral video shows Ulyanov gloating about his wins for the Islamic republic. Here are his exact words: “Iranian clerics are fighting for Iranian nuclear national interests like lions.” (His emphasis.)  “I am absolutely sincere in this regard. Iran got much more than it could expect, much more….Our Chinese friends were also very efficient and useful as co-negotiators. We could rely on each other on many, many points.” 

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/bidens-foreign-policy-inconsistencies-come-to-a-head-in-iran-negotiations/

Despite speculations that the Iran deal would drop earlier this week, negotiators in Vienna are still stalling, primarily over Russian demands. EU foreign minister Josep Borrell tweeted that the final text of the agreement is “essentially ready and on the table.” 

Russia continues to demand that U.S. sanctions in response to the brutal invasion of Ukraine do not effect Moscow’s trade with Tehran. 

Given Putin’s needless brutality over the last months, it’s by no means unreasonable to block the Russians from seeking a perk from the proceedings in Vienna. On Tuesday, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland accused Russia of “trying to up the ante and broaden its demands” in Vienna, but said the U.S. is not “playing ‘Let’s Make a Deal.’”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18310/palestinians-jihad-fundamentalism

“America is unable to decide on war against Russia, and therefore the US will not be a decision-maker in international politics.” — Musa Abu Marzouk, member of the Hamas “politburo,” Twitter, February 26, 2022.
As far as Hamas is concerned, the weaker the US the greater are their chances of fulfilling their goal of replacing Israel with an Islamic state.
Articles 13 of the Hamas Charter states “There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad.”
Washington’s image in the Arab world has been battered to the point at which even its allies are beginning to challenge its policies and decisions, Atallah said.
“Biden [in his State of the Union speech] ignored the Afghanistan issue, especially in light of the confused [US] withdrawal. He was also cautious not to talk about relations with China so as not to provoke it. Biden’s speech confirms with full clarity the loss of a consistent strategic vision with regard to central issues globally. This is a sign of the loss of the prestige of the great country [the US]. Biden’s speech was a message of a historical recognition of the upcoming political defeat and the beginning of the birth of a new international order.” — Hassan Asfour, former Palestinian Authority minister, Khbrpress.ps, March 2, 2022.
“When two Gulf countries refuse to support the US, this means the image of America in the region is deeply tarnished, and that there is a changing mood.” — Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas official, Khbrpress.ps, March 4, 2022.
The Americans need to understand that no matter how many gifts they give to the Palestinians, that will not stop Hamas and many others from continuing to hate the US and look at it as an enemy.
Some Arabs hate the US because of its support for corrupt Arab dictatorships and its war against Islamist terrorist groups. Others see the US as a country that represents the anti-Muslim “infidels” in the West.
The only way for the Americans to deal with these Muslim extremists is by not showing any sign of weakness or appeasement. The weaker you are and the more you try to appease them, the bigger their appetite becomes to fight against the US.
Such voices coming from the Palestinians corroborate claims of the erosion of the US standing, especially among the Arabs. They are responding to an anemic US under the Biden administration that has forfeited its credibility as well as its capacity to stand behind its allies and friends. This US approach does not bode well for the future of the region. The pattern of weakness and inaction are being interpreted as a sign of cowardice posing as “caution,” and as a green light to pursue jihadi and terrorist schemes and establish yet another Islamic fundamentalist state.