RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/time-to-take-advantage-of-cracks-in-tehrans-armor-opinion-675992

There’s nothing new about the powers-that-be in Tehran speaking out of both sides of their mouths, particularly when switching from Farsi to other languages. The only “novelty” was the inauguration on Tuesday – and swearing-in before the Majlis on Thursday – of Ebraim Raisi as Iran’s eighth president, replacing Hassan Rouhani in the role that he’s held since 2013.

Though it remains to be seen how Raisi “The Butcher” handles the predicament currently confronting the Islamic Republic, it’s safe to say that one way in which he’ll toe the ayatollahs’ line is to rule with an iron fist while lying about it for international consumption.

Indeed, as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s hand-picked victor in the staged June 18 “election,” Raisi is certain to hit the ground running where attempting to quash the countrywide protests that have been plaguing his country for the past few weeks is concerned.
Nor is there any doubt that he’ll continue his predecessors’ tradition of pinning the blame for the public’s dire economic straits on the United States and Israel – the former for “crippling sanctions,” and the latter for aggression.

At this juncture, however, the Iranian people are so fed up with their plight at the hands of the regime that they’re no longer willing to be fed the propaganda. They want actual sustenance in the form of food on the table and water in the tap, both of which are running as scarce as electricity.

The fact that their slogans at mass demonstrations include calls for Khamenei’s death means that they no longer fear the torturous punishment that befalls Iranian dissidents. Their denunciations of the government’s funding of Palestinian terrorism, let alone its bankrolling ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads, indicates that they have become emboldened by the sense that they have nothing left to lose

THE TROUBLE is that what they have to gain could easily be thwarted by fantasists in Washington. Yes, the administration of US President Joe Biden incredibly refuses to abandon its notion that a return to some form of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 countries from which former president Donald Trump withdrew in 2018 – is the way to curb the threat from Tehran.

https://www.nysun.com/foreign/league-of-appeasement-how-the-west-fails-to-take/91603/

If ever there were a cause for “collective response,” Iran’s deadly attack on a commercial carrier navigating the busy shipping lanes of an oil-rich region is it — unless, of course, that phrase means no response at all.

On April 2, 1917, in a speech to Congress, President Wilson cited repeated German violations of the principle of “Freedom of the Seas” as casus belli, justifying America’s entry into the European blood-letting later known as World War I.

After that war was won, Wilson went on to promote the establishment of the League of Nations, an unconstitutional, ill-fated attempt to forge a collective global response to threats against world peace.

Zoom forward to last Thursday night, when a Romanian captain and a British security officer aboard the Mercer Street were killed in a drone attack in the Persian Gulf, off the shores of Oman. The Liberian-flagged tanker is operated by Zodiac, a company listed in Britain and owned by Eyal Offer, an Israeli billionaire.

An Iranian website initially reported the attack was retaliation for an Israeli air attack on Iranian targets in Syria, but officials in Iran later denied responsibility. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel possesses irrefutable evidence of Iran’s culpability.

Soon after, Secretary of State Blinken and Britain’s foreign minister, Dominic Raab, also stated Iran was responsible. These allies will launch a “collective response,” Mr. Blinken ominously declared Monday.

Yet before the collective concluded its deliberations over what course of coordinated action it should take collectively, Iran seemed to unilaterally escalate. Earlier today the British navy reported a “potential hijacking” of a ship off the United Arab Emirates’ coast. Additionally, four oil tankers reported loss of control over their Automatic Identification System tracker.

The Iranian news agency IRNA immediately denied Tehran was involved in those attacks, and the country even offered its assistance.

Israel’s foreign and defense ministers reportedly plan to brief diplomats of the United Nations Security Council tomorrow on the Mercer Street evidence. That indicates a Security Council response. Expect Russia, China and others to demand an investigation by the world body before any collective action is taken.

Meanwhile, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said Monday that Washington remains engaged in talks aimed at reviving the articles of appeasement on the nuclear deal. “Our view,” she said, “is that every single challenge and threat we face from Iran would be made more pronounced and dangerous by an unconstrained nuclear program.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17565/afghanistan-withdrawal-china

China, which shares a tiny 47-mile-long border with Afghanistan, has long coveted developing closer ties with Kabul, not least because of the large, untapped reserves of mineral wealth that Afghanistan possesses.

Rich in copper, lithium, marble, gold and uranium, Afghanistan’s mineral wealth has been estimated to exceed in excess of $1 trillion….

Beijing already enjoys good relations with neighbouring Pakistan, where the country’s charismatic prime minister, Imran Khan, was once dubbed “Taliban Khan” for supporting the Islamist movement.

As part of Beijing’s efforts to deepen and broaden its ties in Central Asia, Beijing is also concentrating its efforts on expanding its influence in Afghanistan, a policy it expects will bear fruit if the Taliban achieve their goal of seizing control of the entire country.

Mr Biden, judging by his spirited defence of his decision to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan, clearly believes that it is in America’s interests to end its two-decade-long involvement in the country. But if the US withdrawal simply opens the way for China to become the new dominant power in Afghanistan, then Mr Biden will be responsible for causing, so far as the West is concerned, a strategic disaster of epic proportions.

The indecent haste with which the Biden administration has undertaken its military withdrawal from Afghanistan not only raises the prospect of handing control of the country over to the hardline Islamist Taliban movement. It also presents China with a golden opportunity to extend its influence over this strategically important Central Asian country.

China, which shares a tiny 47-mile-long border with Afghanistan, has long coveted developing closer ties with Kabul, not least because of the large, untapped reserves of mineral wealth that Afghanistan possesses.

Rich in copper, lithium, marble, gold and uranium, Afghanistan’s mineral wealth has been estimated to exceed in excess of $1 trillion, resources that could easily make the country economically self-sufficient if ever they were to be fully developed.

From China’s perspective, access to Afghanistan’s mineral riches would provide it with a ready supply of valuable minerals that are deemed vital to the ruling Communist party’s long-term aim of becoming the world’s pre-eminent economic power.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/07/the_hotel_california_doctrine_of_us_military_intervention.html

It is easy to remember why the United States invaded Afghanistan.  Our country had just been attacked by terrorists based there.  The nation was united in a desire to protect itself from further attacks and bring the parties responsible to justice.

It’s not so easy to remember whether the justification for the invasion was based on a broader policy, whether there was discussion at the time of what would constitute victory, or whether the invasion was an actual war in the traditional sense.  More to the point, it’s unclear whether those questions have answers today, even as we exit Afghanistan.

I’ve read several articles written by people with a ton more knowledge than I have about whether our country should stay in Afghanistan or leave.  A lot of the writers had personal experience fighting in Afghanistan.  The opinions they offer differ, with some arguing to stay and others arguing to leave.  The positions of Trump and Biden seem to be aligned on the side of leave, which is remarkable, given how much else they disagree on.

As an average citizen, I supported the decision to invade.  Like most people, the attacks scared the daylights out of me, and I was riled up more than at any other time in my life.  I suspect that our leaders were at least in part reacting to the zeitgeist as much as, or possibly more than they were thinking about the end game.

At this point, I don’t presume to know the correct answer on the stay or leave question, though I could make a solid argument for either course of action.  Stay: The situation in Afghanistan could quickly return to pre-9/11 conditions and again become a haven for terrorists plotting to attack us.  Leave: There’s nothing more to do in Afghanistan that would justify expending more blood and treasure than we already have, and we need to rely on Homeland Security and the “Intelligence Community” to defend ourselves from future terrorist attacks.  You can add in arguments about the positive or negative impacts on Afghanis from either point of view.  On this count, most people would acknowledge that leaving is going to hurt the segment of the Afghani population who want to avoid a return to the tender mercies of the Taliban, including and especially women.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/07/bidens_stupidest_mistake.html

You can’t say Joe Biden hasn’t been busy in the months since he took office. Like most great artists, Biden is prolific. The medium he works in, of course, is stupid mistakes, and he cranks out new ones every day. It is hard to say exactly which one is stupidest of all — like determining which Rembrandt painting or Beethoven symphony is the best.

The current open-the-borders-but-blame-it-all-somehow-on-Trump policy may be the most consequential. I would estimate this will lead to at least 5 million Central American paupers in the USA before Slow Joe finishes his term.

But maybe the ugliest and most humiliating stupidity is happening right now with the Afghanistan pullout, the one and only Trump idea Biden wants to follow through with — although I think Pres. Trump was having second thoughts.

The U.S. achieved mastery over the Taliban years ago. Since 2016, only a handful of our soldiers have been lost there, none last year. While the U.S. military on a global basis loses about 1000 servicemen every year to routine accidents and training mistakes.

At this point, having spent so much blood and treasure to pacify the country, why are we in such a hurry to pull out the 3,000 or so soldiers training and advising the government forces? Forces that seem willing to keep doing their own fighting and dying if we give them just a small bit of assistance.

If we completely pull out and demoralize the Afghans, I think they fold up and quit. The aftermath will be a bloody disgrace, something like the Fall of Saigon in 1975 and the original Afghan fiasco the British Retreat from Kabul in 1842. 

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17518/china-biden-administration

The simple fact is that there are large, powerful donors to the Biden campaign that have big financial stakes in these green energy companies. It is a wealth transfer to Biden’s biggest bundlers, and that is a huge and massive problem.

For those companies with inside connections to the Biden campaign, it is American taxpayer money that is truly “shovel-ready.”

Former congressmen and senators, and former US ambassadors are being paid large sums of money by governments such as China, or by firms directly linked to those governments, which do not have America’s best interest at heart. They are lobbying in Washington to get their paymasters’ voices heard.

If you invest a couple of million dollars, let us say, in lobbying, or you invest a couple of million dollars in campaign contributions, often you can get benefits that are worth ten times that.

For Wall Street and Silicon Valley, the prospect of doing deals in China is mesmerizing. To do those deals in China, as they have learned, you must play nice with the regime, speak well of them, feather their nests…. It is no less tempting for American politicians….Of greatest concern are the deals that actually advance Chinese state interests.

There is no other way to state this. The only way we can correct this situation is by exposing these people and showing U.S. citizens exactly what they are doing in our society.

[J]ust before the 2020 election, the [New York Times ran a piece by its “media reporter” bragging about their role as gatekeepers that would not pursue the Hunter Biden story.

What is China buying in the Biden Administration? A look to the recent past may provide some answers.

If you go back to 2009-10 and look at the “shovel-ready” stimulus package that President Barack Obama pushed through, as most people now know, there were huge amounts of money in the form of direct grants and loan guarantees that went to Solyndra and other “green energy” companies that failed. Yet, the question remained: Where did all that taxpayer money go for green energy?

If you trace it, you will find that 80 percent of that money went to green energy companies that were owned by individuals who sat on Barack Obama’s Finance Committee for his 2008 campaign.

Now that Obama’s former VP is president, another infrastructure package will include plenty of expenditures for more green schemes. Whether they work or whether they will simply raise our energy prices, the simple fact is that there are large, powerful donors to the Biden campaign that have big financial stakes in these green energy companies. It is a wealth transfer to Biden’s biggest bundlers, and that is a huge and massive problem. For those companies with inside connections to the Biden campaign, it is American taxpayer money that is truly “shovel-ready.”