Afghanistan: Biden embraces the forever war Reversing Trump’s peace agreement will mean the Afghan War entering its third decade. Tim Black

https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/02/23/afghanistan-biden-embraces-the-forever-war/

On 7 October this year, it will be 20 years since the US and the UK launched Operation Enduring Freedom. This was the start of what we now know of as the War in Afghanistan.

The operation may not have done much for freedom, but it has certainly endured, despite President Obama giving the operation a name change in 2014. In fact, it is the longest war that the US has ever been involved in. Longer than Vietnam. Longer even than the two world wars combined. It has cost the lives of tens of thousands of Afghan civilians, and hundreds of American and British soldiers. The Watson Institute at Brown University puts the overall death toll at over 157,000 and counting.

And for what? The continued impoverishment of one of the poorest nations on the planet? A territory which is held by roughly the same antagonists in the same proportions as it was held 20 years ago? Rarely have so many given so much for so little.

That grim 20th anniversary approaching in October was never meant to be reached, however. Under the conditions of the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan, struck between the Trump administration and the Taliban on 29 February last year, the 2,500 US and the 6,500 NATO troops still based in Afghanistan were slated to be fully withdrawn by 1 May this year.

Garland Will Make January 6 Investigation His Priority Facts won’t stop this investigatory and political freight train from running over anyone in its path. By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/22/garland-will-make-january-6-investigation-his-priority/

On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck filled with two tons of explosives parked outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The blast killed 168 people, including 15 children under the age of six at the site’s child care center.

It was the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil between Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Everyone old enough still remembers when they first heard the news and saw the first horrific images of firefighters gently carrying out the broken bodies of dead toddlers.

The Oklahoma City bombing bears no comparison to what happened at the Capitol building on January 6. To suggest so not only is an historical false equivalence but a heartless diminution of the suffering and loss McVeigh and his co-conspirators, Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier, inflicted that day—a painful affront to the families left behind.

But during his confirmation hearing Monday, Merrick Garland, Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, insisted the current political climate is worse than the divisive climate leading up to McVeigh’s mass murder nearly 26 years ago. 

“We are facing a more dangerous period than we faced in Oklahoma City,” Garland told Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.). “From what I have seen . . . it looks like an extremely aggressive and perfectly appropriate beginning to an investigation all across the country in the same way our regional investigation was but many, many times more.”

He continued. “I can assure you this will be my first priority and my first briefing.”

The Democrats’ Consigliere

Garland, of course, is referring to the ongoing and partisan Justice Department inquisition into the so-called “insurrection” at the Capitol building on January 6. Top officials warn the probe will be one that is “unprecedented in size and scope.” More than 200 people already have been arrested, mostly for misdemeanors, and dozens remain behind bars denied bail; federal prosecutors argue defendants with no criminal record nonetheless pose a risk to the community for the thoughtcrime of doubting the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Merrick Garland! Neera Tanden! Xavier Becerra! The Dems are really overplaying their hand By Patricia McCarthy

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/02/merrick_garland_neera_tanden_xavier_becerra_the_dems_are_really_overplaying_their_hand.html

Merrick Garland, the man Obama wanted to put on the SCOTUS, is now President Biden’s choice to be his attorney general.  Based on what we heard Monday, we can breathe a sigh of relief that he never made it onto the Supreme Court.  

But then again, those that Trump did get confirmed for the court have thoroughly abdicated their responsibility, betrayed the oath they took as justices.   With the exception of Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch it appears there are no other actual constitutionalists seated there.

But back to Garland.  He evaded answering most questions posed by Republicans.  He compared the January 6th events at the Capitol to the Oklahoma City bombing (168 killed)!  He refused to condemn the billions of dollars in damage done by Antifa and BLM as domestic terrorism but vowed to prosecute all who were involved in the January 6th breach, even though the only person with a gun was the person who shot and killed Ashley Babbitt.   It should be clear to every sentient American that what happened that day was carefully planned, not by Trump supporters but by their opponents, who strategized that a conflagration would be the perfect stunt with which to impugn the President.

Garland’s evasive non-answers were truly shocking.  Why didn’t the Republicans in the room get up and walk out?  Why do the Republicans always cave in collective knee-jerk fashion to the authoritarian pretenses of the left?  It is a question for the ages for it has so long been true.  Trump’s brash courage to fight back showed us who the good guys are and who the cowards are.  Sadly, those with the courage of their conservative pro-

American convictions are too few.  

Charles Jacobs Video: Cancel Culture Hits Boston’s Jews Jewish organizations are being taken over by well-funded, ideologically-driven leftists.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/charles-jacobs-video-cancel-culture-hits-bostons-frontpagemagcom/

Dr. Jacobs discusses Cancel Culture Hits Boston’s Jews, unveiling how Jewish organizations are being taken over by well-funded, ideologically-driven leftists.

Don’t miss it!

Joe Biden’s Dangerous First Month Welcome to ‘America Last’. Bruce Thornton

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/joe-bidens-dangerous-first-month-bruce-thornton/

The collateral damage of the Democrats’ irrational obsession with Donald Trump includes Trump’s transformative policies that rescued both an underperforming economy, and a foreign policy dangerously mired in stale “new world order” narratives. In just one month the extent of the Dems’ damage is obvious, with more to come if Biden’s plans can secure legislative approval.

Exhibit One is the COVID relief and stimulus grift, a near $2 trillion boondoggle crammed with payoffs to political clients like blue-state governments to pay for goodies that have nothing to do with the virus––like nearly $1 trillion in spending for state and local governments and housing aid, and including $130 billion for schools, even though between $53 and $63 billion remains unspent from last year’s COVID Education Relief Funds. There’s also dough for Medicaid expansion, nutrition assistance programs, and raising the tax credits for dependent children––the usual bribes doled out by redistributionist progressives. And don’t forget the $1 billion for “vaccines confidence activities,” that is, progressive marketing “nudges” to get people to do what government wants. 

Coming after the previous administration’s largesse, this new binge is reprehensible. At least last spring there was a reason for spend money to mitigate the economic impact of the lockdowns in lost jobs and shuttered small businesses. The December bill was more problematic, but handing out money near an election is too useful to give up. But now, when we are closer to easing the lockdowns and getting the economy back to speed, is not the time to load up on even more debt and distort the market with “stimulus” money that rarely stimulates the economy while rewarding partisan clients. And given that by some estimates $1 trillion in various relief and stimulus programs from last year hasn’t been spent or is unaccounted for, borrowing even more is fiscal malfeasance. 

Finally, remember that if this bill passes, another $2 trillion will be piled onto our $27 trillion national debt, now surpassing GDP for the first time since World War II. The inevitable reckoning for this chronic bipartisan debt and deficit binge––along with unfunded federal liabilities and the collision of entitlement spending with a growing and longer-living population of recipients–– will now be much closer.

What if the “Conspiracy” is Real? A disturbing glance at the powers-that-be.Joseph Hippolito

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/what-if-conspiracy-real-joseph-hippolito/

In a matter of just five days, two separate incidents demonstrated the collusion used by the powers-that-be to control thought.

On Feb. 5, Mike Lindell, who founded MyPillow, released a two-hour documentary, “Absolute Proof,” providing detailed evidence of fraud during the Presidential election. On Feb. 10, the House of Representatives’ impeachment managers showed a video of the bedlam at the Capitol on Jan. 6, bedlam they accused President Donald Trump of inciting.

Once Lindell released his documentary, Google and Wikipedia attempted to manipulate his search results and biography, respectively. Two days after the impeachment managers released their video, David Schoen, one of Trump’s defense attorneys demonstrated how the video deliberately misrepresented his client. Trump’s trial ended the next day in acquittal.

Both cases show the determination of Big Government, Big Tech and Big Media — at the very least — to promote narratives that advance their unified interests and agendas. In the process, those three entities — along with Big Business, Big Academia, Big Whatever — will try to destroy anyone who opposes those narratives. 

As FrontPage Magazine reported in “People of the Lie,” organizations ranging from businesses to foreign governments to federal agencies to charitable foundations use “astroturf” to influence opinion. “Astroturf” provides the illusion of a grassroots campaign while hiding its artificial nature. The strategy involves creating various kinds of written and video content — including blogs, social media accounts, video channels, online comments, letters to the editor — often through third parties.

Jerusalem Under Israeli Sovereignty What does America’s new leadership mean for the Jewish state? Dr. Shmuel Katz and Chaim Silberstein

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/understanding-geo-political-dynamics-jerusalem-dr-shmuel-katz-and-chaim-silberstein/

What does it mean for Israel that the United States has a new leader? Should we expect a repeat of previous policies, or will the President Biden and the new White House administration forge its own path?

Assuming the latter, these principles guide the U.S.-Israel relationship:

Broad popular American support for Israel
President Biden’s personal sympathy toward Israel
Shared Judeo-Christian values
America’s own strategic interests
The desire to strengthen America’s most trusted Mideast ally
The mutual desire to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons
The positive momentum generated by the Abraham Accords

Regarding Jerusalem, specifically, it is critical to reinforce the importance of united Jerusalem under Israeli control. The new administration will be under intense pressure, both from within and without, to take steps liable to compromise the future of united Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty.

We must refrain from freezing construction in Jewish neighborhoods in the eastern part of Jerusalem, where nearly half of Jerusalem’s 570,000 Jews live. Under the Obama administration, most construction in those neighborhoods was frozen for six years, though it did not bring the parties any closer to peaceful resolution.

One positive stabilizing sign is reflected in the Biden administration’s commitment not to roll back the reality of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The administration also expresses commitment to a “two-state solution” regarding Palestinians, while recognizing that the parties are not quickly returning to the negotiating table. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken added his wish that neither party “takes steps that make the already difficult process even more challenging.”

Biden and the Uyghurs Rationalizing a communist regime’s monstrosities. Joseph Klein

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/biden-rationalizes-chinas-human-rights-abuses-joseph-klein/

President Joe Biden is so much in the tank for the Chinese regime that he is making excuses for the regime’s horrendous treatment of the Uyghurs, the mostly Muslim ethnic minority living in northwestern China. When asked about the human rights abuses against the Uyghurs during his townhall meeting hosted by CNN on February 17th, Biden chalked the problem up to Chinese history and cultural norms.

Biden said that when China “has been victimized by the outer world is when they haven’t been unified at home.” Biden went on to explain that “the central principle of [Chinese President] Xi Jinping is that there must be a united, tightly controlled China.” And then, in a nod to cultural relativism, Biden declared, “Culturally, there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow.”

In other words, forget about universal inalienable human rights, which no government can take away. Biden has opted instead for the notion that each government gets to define human rights for its people that correspond with its country’s own cultural “norms.”

China has detained over 1 million Uyghurs in what amounts to concentration camps, where they have been subjected to gang rape, sterilization, and torture. Xi called the Uyghurs “criminals” who must be remolded and transformed. The purpose of China’s “re-education” of ethnic minorities such as the Uyghurs, Xi said, was to guide “all ethnic groups on establishing a correct perspective on the country, history and nationality.”

Biden said during his town hall meeting that he told Xi he would speak out against what Xi is “doing with the Uyghurs in western mountains of China.” However, when given the opportunity to condemn China’s ethnic cleansing of the Uyghurs, Biden took a pass. He could have stood by his own Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s affirmation that China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs. But Biden did not do so.

The Duped Generation that Supports BDS by Richard Kemp

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17091/bds-support

BDS tells its supporters that it is “an inclusive, anti-racist human rights movement that is opposed on principle to all forms of discrimination, including anti-semitism and Islamophobia”. That is a lie.

BDS has also succeeded in making life worse for Palestinian Arabs, the very people they falsely claim to help. This includes backing and strengthening the leadership of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas….

Vast international funds provided to assist them have been systematically embezzled by their leaders for their own enrichment…. This month, the UK’s Jewish News revealed that $145 million of British taxpayers’ money has been spent on incitement in Palestinian schools since 2016 alone.

Young and impressionable men and women, whose main attention is on studying for their degrees, have been duped by Barghouti’s BDS rabble-rousers into thinking they were demonstrating in support of a two-state solution to be achieved by peaceful means.

Using words chillingly resonant of the Third Reich, Mahmoud Abbas said during a speech in Egypt: “In a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli — civilian or soldier — on our lands”. He meant Jews. Israeli Arabs would be welcomed.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that he and President Biden are “resolutely opposed” to BDS because it “unfairly and inappropriately singles out Israel and creates a double standard”. The US administration should take up the plans… to target organisations that engage with or otherwise support BDS, such as Amnesty International, Oxfam and Human Rights Watch, and cut off government funding. British and European governments should follow suit….

Yet again we approach the depths of the annual Jew Hate Week around the world. Its organizers know better than to call it what it is. They brand their hatefest “Israel Apartheid Week”, but their true meaning and purpose is blindingly obvious. Since its early festerings in Toronto in 2005, Jew Hate Week has inflicted itself on the world, polluting universities from America to Australia and from South Africa to Northern Ireland.

Held on campuses at around this time each year, Jew Hate Week is the racist Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement’s flagship event for subverting university students to their malevolent cause. Palestinian-led, at the forefront of BDS are Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace in the US, and Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and War on Want in the UK. Democrat Squad members Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are among its main cheerleaders in America. In Britain, disgraced former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is a staunch supporter as are many of his party including members of parliament.

Erdoğan’s War Against Freedom on Campus by Burak Bekdil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17057/turkey-academic-freedom

On February 2, Turkish police detained more than 150 people peacefully protesting Erdoğan’s appointment of a party loyalist as BOUN’s new rector. It was the first time a non-BOUN graduate was appointed as head of the university since 1971. Students, professors and alumni have been protesting the appointment of rector Melih Bulu, a former member of Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party, since early January.

On February 3, Erdoğan denounced student protesters as “terrorists” and vowed to crackdown on demonstrations. By then the police had detained more than 250 students. Erdoğan admitted he feared the BOUN protests could grow into anti-government protests and said he would not let them swell.

In [Erdogan’s] Islamist worldview, youth dissent is good only if it protests ideas Islamism opposes, not if it protests Islamists.

Bosporus University (Boğaziçi Üniversitesi in Turkish, or BOUN in its acronym) is one of Turkey’s top three “Ivy League” higher education institutions. Established as Robert College in 1863, BOUN was the first American university founded outside the US. Its founders were wealthy philanthropist Christopher Robert and missionary Cyrus Hamlin. Robert College was handed over to the Turkish government in 1971 and reflagged itself as BOUN.

BOUN’s notable graduates include former prime ministers Tansu Çiller and Ahmet Davutoğlu. Times Higher Education put BOUN in 601-800 in its 2021 world university ranking. Every year about 2.5 million Turkish pupils take a national examination to enter a university. In last year’s examination 708 of the top 1,000 in 2.5 million contenders enrolled at BOUN. In other words, 70% of Turkey’s best students prefer this university.

Turkish Islamists have always been at odds with the liberal, pro-Western traditions of BOUN. In an interview, Binali Yıldırım, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s choice for prime minister in 2016, commented that he did not attend BOUN in his youth because he “saw boys and girls sitting and talking together in the university’s yard” and found the genders intermixing unacceptable. It was precisely this ideological incompatibility that opened a new front in the battle between tyrannical Islamism and an elite university.