RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/12/article/bullets-for-bodies-a-sick-twist-in-iran

There are protests and riots across Iran, brutally put down by Iranian security forces and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC); the government is charging families for the bullets used to kill their loved ones before releasing bodies to them. Inflation is rampant and economic growth is negative. Sanctions on Iranian oil shipments have led Iran to steal Iraqi oil, one cause of the anti-Iranian riots across Iraq.

Yet, Iran continues to arm its proxies and allies with missiles that can strike Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Jordan and Israel. Ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, controlled by Iran’s Quds Force, are being spread across the region.

The Quds Force, commanded by Major General Qasem Soleimani, is part of the IRGC that works with Houthis in Yemen, with pro-Iranian government and government-recognized Shiite militias in Iraq, with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, and with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.

While all of this aggressiveness may be the outward explosion of a regime in trouble, the transfer of these missiles and drones threatens not only some of America’s closest friends but threatens American forces in the region. Iranian general Allahnoor Noorollahi says Iran has 21 US military bases directly in its sights.

According to Axios, US bases in the Middle East include:

• Bahrain: More than 7,000 US troops, mostly naval forces, are there to maintain Persian Gulf security.
• Iraq: About 5,200 US troops were in the northern part of Iraq as of January, per the Defense Department. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said they were there help combat ISIS. The number may drop as the Iraqi military has said US troops have to leave.
• Jordan: About 2,795 US troops support operations to defeat ISIS and promote regional stability.
• Kuwait: Over 13,000 American troops are stationed in Kuwait and the US Central Command (CENTCOM) forward headquarters is there as well.
• Oman:   The country has hosted US operations since 1980 and has assisted the US in combating ISIS. A few hundred Americans are there now.
• Qatar: As many as 13,000 US troops are in Qatar, with plans to expand. The Gulf nation supports US efforts to combat regional terrorism.
• Saudi Arabia: The Trump administration announced on Nov. 19 that approximately 3,000 US troops will be deployed to Saudi Arabia to protect the region “against hostile action by Iran and its proxy forces.”
• Syria: CENTCOM does not disclose the current number of troops, but DOD has said about 2,000 US service personnel were in Syria, and the Military Times reportsapproximately 800 might still be there to protect oil resources.
• Turkey: The number of US troops in Turkey is unclear, but the country’s strategic location makes it valuable for transporting arms and people. The US has air bases in Izmir and Incirlik as part of NATO.
• United Arab Emirates: 5,000 US troops are stationed at air and naval bases.

The roots of the December 6, 2019 murder of three US soldiers on the Pensacola Naval Air Station, by an Islamic Saudi terrorist, are independent of US policy in the Middle East and beyond, as are all previous cases of anti-US and anti-Western Islamic terrorism. 

For instance, the launching of the anti-US terror stampede by Iran’s Ayatollahs was initiated in 1979, while the US supported the Ayatollahs ascension to power in Teheran and betrayed the Shah of Iran. Moreover, Erdogan’s intense support of Muslim Brotherhood terrorism, which has targeted the US and all pro-US Arab regimes, is aimed at advancing Erdogan’s vision to reestablish the Ottoman Empire and undermine US interests, in spite of Turkey’s NATO membership and the multi-year, mega-billion dollar US investment in Turkey’s national security since 1947.

Islamic rage and anti-Western terrorism are not driven by economic, social, or educational goals.  The roots of the Islamic rage against Western culture, in general, and the US – the leader of Western democracies – in particular, are nurtured by a worldview, which precedes the 1776 independence of the USA and the 1620 landing of the Early Pilgrims in New England.

According to Prof. Bernard Lewis, a world-leading expert on Islam and the Middle East, the anti-Western Islamic rage represents an early edition of a clash of civilizations: “If the fighters in the war for Islam, the holy war ‘in the path of God,’ are fighting for God, it follows that their opponents are fighting against God…. The army is God’s army and the enemy is God’s enemy…. In the classical Islamic view, to which many Muslims are beginning to return, the world and all mankind are divided into two: the House of Islam… and the House of Unbelief, or the House of War, which it is the duty of Muslims ultimately to bring to Islam…. Muslims from an early date recognized a genuine rival – a competing world religion…. This was Christendom…. The struggle between these rival systems has now lasted for some 14 centuries.  It began with the advent of Islam, in the 7th century…. It has consisted of a long series of attacks and counterattacks, Jihads and crusades, conquests and re-conquests…. America had become the archenemy, the incarnation of evil, the diabolic opponent of all that is good, and specifically, for Muslims, of Islam….”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-principled-dissident-turns-despotic-premier-11575937539?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident turned politician Aung San Suu Kyi will again capture the world’s attention this week. To those who still remember her as a prisoner of conscience with a serene smile, the reason may come as a surprise. As Myanmar’s civilian leader, Ms. Suu Kyi has taken on a new mantle: spokesperson for mass atrocity.

Ms. Suu Kyi will appear Tuesday to lead her country’s defense against allegations of genocide before the International Court of Justice at The Hague. The Myanmar military has persecuted the country’s ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority for years. During two brutal ethnic-cleansing campaigns in 2016-17, the military reportedly oversaw the murder of people in their homes, the rape of women and girls, and the arson of entire communities. In the aftermath, more than 800,000 Rohingya have fled and sought refuge in Bangladesh.

After Ms. Suu Kyi’s 15 years under house arrest for criticizing the regime, many outsiders, especially her longtime supporters in the West, thought that she would use her position of power and moral authority to curb the military’s excesses. Instead, Ms. Suu Kyi is defending the crackdown, claiming that Rohingya terrorists are creating an “iceberg” of misinformation about the military’s treatment of the group.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/12/08/thousands-of-british-jews-and-supporters-hold-major-rally-against-antisemitism-in-london/

Thousands of British Jews and their supporters came together for a major rally against antisemitism on Sunday in London’s Parliament Square.

Concerns over antisemitism have skyrocketed in recent years, with the overwhelming majority of British Jews coming to see the opposition Labour party as institutionally antisemitic.

British Jews and their allies rally against antisemitism in London’s Parliament Square, December 8, 2019. Photo: Courtesy of the Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Thousands of British Jews and their supporters came together for a major rally against antisemitism on Sunday in London’s Parliament Square.

Concerns over antisemitism have skyrocketed in recent years, with the overwhelming majority of British Jews coming to see the opposition Labour party as institutionally antisemitic.

British Jews have expressed particular trepidation about the possibility of a Labour victory in the upcoming December 12 elections. Though the Conservative party still leads, Labour has narrowed the gap in recent polls.

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3041172/after-half-year-anti-government-unrest-800000-marchers-take?utm_medium=email&utm_

Organisers claim another massive turnout, while police say it peaked at 183,000
Procession from Causeway Bay to Central largely peaceful until nightfall, when protesters hurled petrol bombs at court buildings

Hundreds of thousands flooded Hong Kong’s commercial heart on Sunday to mark six months of their fight against the government, saying that while city residents had become more united and won international support, officials still failed to meet their demands for greater democracy and accountability.

The march was largely peaceful until nightfall, when some radical protesters hurled petrol bombs at the entrance of the High Court and Court of Final Appeal. That came after 
police confiscated weapons The front, which had police approval to march until 10pm, called time on the action at about 8.15pm. Its leaders said they felt pressured by the large police presence, accusing the force of intimidating participants in Central, where small stand-offs between officers and protesters occurred.

 including knives and a Glock semi-automatic pistol in raids before the rally began.

Organiser the Civil Human Rights Front estimated 800,000 people marched from Victoria Park in Causeway Bay to Chater Road in Central. Police said turnout peaked at 183,000.

“The political message is clear. People are resilient and people are persistent with the five demands,” said Eric Lai Yan-ho, deputy convenor of the front, urging Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to meet their requests, which include an independent inquiry into police use of force at protests.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15257/europe-deradicalization-programs

The latest attack in London was a lethal mix of religious dissimulation and Western naïveté. It also, one hopes, buries all the British illusions of deradicalizing jihadists. As the Times reported, the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), the so-called “nudge unit” formerly part of the Cabinet Office, had examined 33 deradicalization programs across the UK and found that only two were supposedly successful.

France had already tried it out. A bipartisan report in the French Senate had condemned the French deradicalization program as a “total fiasco”….

A recent UK government report warned that British imams in 48 Islamic schools have been promoting violence and intolerance. It is British society that must be deradicalized, not the jihadists.

Usman Khan apparently saw Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones as “unbelievers”, not as “rehabilitators”. If we do not change our rules of engagement, more of the same will follow.

It was a tragedy of good intentions. “Jack Merritt died in the London Bridge attack. Don’t forget what he stood for”, Emma Goldberg wrote in The New York Times. Merritt was one of the two victims of Usman Khan, an Islamic terrorist who struck on London Bridge on November 29. The other victim was Saskia Jones, a student at the conference targeted by the jihadist. They both dreamed of working to save and protect their murderer.

London had been hosting the fifth anniversary of Learning Together, an event in which ex-prisoners, staff members, students and criminology experts came from all over the country to celebrate the success of their initiative to deradicalize jihadists. Khan had been present as a model of the recovery program. In 2012, Khan was sentenced to prison for plotting to blow up first the London Stock Exchange, then London’s Mayor at the time, Boris Johnson, and then the London Eye ferris wheel. According to the Daily Telegraph, Learning Together used Khan as a “case study” on how reintegration programs in society work. He had even written a poem and a note of thanks to the organizers, on a computer made available to him by his tutors.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15261/britain-election-antisemitism

Although all the parties standing for election have delivered broad claims on key issues such as the economy, social care, health, and more, everybody knows that this election is, at heart, about Brexit.

Today’s Labour Party remains far behind the Tories in the polls. By mid-November, Labour stood at 28% while the Conservatives were at 39%.

“The claims that the [Labour] party is “doing everything” it reasonably can to tackle anti-Jewish racism and that it has “investigated every single case”, are a mendacious fiction. According to the Jewish Labour Movement, there are at least 130 outstanding cases before the party, some dating back years, and thousands more have been reported but remain unresolved.” — Ephraim Mirvis, Britain’s Chief Rabbi.

The political situation in the UK is in a state of near chaos. A General Election was called in October for 12 December. Whereas such elections are normally run between whichever party is in power (currently the Tory, or Conservative Party, with Boris Johnson as Prime Minister) and the loyal opposition (in this case the Labour Party), the carefully balanced routine that in the past has allowed conservative and socialist parties to come to power has now collapsed.

Among other things, this election is confused in a race between the Tories, Labour, the fast-growing anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats, the Scottish National Party (third-largest in the UK overall), and the newly formed Brexit Party.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/america-root-for-boris-johnson-11575837887?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

The outcome of Thursday’s British general election will have a profound bearing on the future of U.S.-U.K. relations. If Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson wins, Washington can look forward to a serious upgrade in its relations with London, not least because Mr. Johnson appears to enjoy a good personal accord with President Trump.

A victory for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose quasi-Marxist politics and visceral anti-Americanism have been very much in evidence during the election campaign, would create serious tensions in trans-Atlantic relations.

From Washington’s perspective, the most important consideration is the impact the election outcome will have on the fate of the Brexit negotiations. The Trump administration enthusiastically supports Britain’s plans to leave the European Union, as it means the U.K. would be able to negotiate new trade agreements with the U.S. without interference from the EU.

The protracted Brexit negotiations, which began after a 2016 referendum, have been seriously undermined by the previous Conservative government’s minority status in the House of Commons. Mr. Johnson’s first priority, therefore, is to seek a working majority, a feat not achieved by the Conservatives since former Prime Minister David Cameron secured a modest majority in the 2015 election. It soon disappeared after his successor, Theresa May, called an election in 2017. She expected to bolster her majority but lost it instead. That severely limited her ability to complete Brexit and cost her the premiership this summer. CONTINUE AT SITE

https://www.wsj.com/articles/britains-election-stakes-11575841904?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Britons head to the polls Thursday for their most consequential general election since the 1970s. As with the 1979 vote that brought Margaret Thatcher to power, the outcome will shape Britain for a generation.

First and foremost, this is a Brexit election. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is campaigning to restore democratic legitimacy after Parliament has spent three years trying to thwart voters’ 2016 decision to leave the European Union. He is asking the electorate to give him a majority to pass his divorce deal, which despite its flaws remains the best chance to deliver Brexit and liberate Britain to enter a new era.

Opinion polls suggest voters are giving Mr. Johnson credit for his Brexit leadership. He has won the blessing of Nigel Farage, whose Brexit Party isn’t running against Tories in many seats in order to avoid splitting the Leave vote. Mr. Johnson’s opponents have helped him, too, as Remain politicians struggle to explain why voters should revise their 2016 verdict.

This means that, unlike his hapless predecessor Theresa May, Mr. Johnson is finally giving voters a real choice: a plan that delivers Brexit, or a crop of muddled centrists and wet former Tories who won’t.

***

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/12/elizabeth-warren-economic-plans-lessons-from-europe/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=right-rail&utm_content=top-stories&utm_term=fourth

It’s no model for what leftist schemes would create here.

A nationwide series of protests, some of them violent, is convulsing France. The proximate cause is pension reform, and the French are having a splendid time: In news photos, the protesters are positively beaming, and a recent BBC report described the mood, amid the arson and destruction of property, as “festive.”

I suspect that the American version of that will be less festive, when the time comes.

Paul Krugman of the New York Times, who as a columnist always has had a particularly unkeen sense of timing, in November attacked the “Europhobia” of centrist Democrats. “Going on about how terrible things are in France is a sure sign that you have no idea what you’re talking about,” he wrote. I do not think France is a particularly badly governed country, but the French are mad as hell about it, and surely their opinion must count for something.

If you are wondering where Professor Krugman is seeing all those centrist Democrats who were terrified of France in early autumn, it is helpful to know that the column is one long stage whisper at Steven Rattner, the Obama-administration Treasury official who wrote in the New York Times that Warren is the candidate for those who “want to live in France (economically).” Warren’s policies, Rattner wrote, would impose dirigiste European practices on U.S. firms. Rattner, who is after all an Obama guy, is generally supportive of New Deal–style welfare statism but fears Warren’s

intention to impose vast new regulatory burdens and to revamp the way business functions, which could have an even more negative effect on our economy. Many of America’s global champions, like banks and tech giants, would be dismembered. Private equity, which plays a useful role in driving business efficiency, would be effectively eliminated. Shale fracking would be banned, which would send oil and natural gas prices soaring and cost millions of Americans their jobs. And on and on.