RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/cameronarcand/2022/01/24/pentagon-8500-troops-being-placed-on-high-alert-for-possible-deployment-to-europe-n1552382

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby announced that 8,500 American troops are on standby for swift deployment to Eastern Europe in order to assist NATO allies if Russia decides to invade Ukraine.

“Secretary Austin placed a range of units in the U.S. on a heightened preparedness to deploy, which increases our readiness to provide forces if NATO should activate the NRF or if other situations develop,” he said Monday.

“All told, the number of forces that the secretary has placed on heightened alert comes up to about 8,500 personnel.”

The administration is hoping that this move will deter Putin from starting combat at the Russian-Ukrainian border, but reporters quickly scrutinized the decision, particularly if those troops are not going directly to Ukraine.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/russia-ukraine-biden-weakness-mike-pompeo

From negotiating with the malign Iranian regime while they have threatened former President Trump, or allowing the Taliban to sweep through Afghanistan and directly imperil American lives, or refusing to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its central role in the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic or for its aggression towards Taiwan, the Biden administration’s record after one year in office is marked by abject weakness.

But his weakness has been unmatched in attempting to deter Russia’s imminent invasion of Ukraine.

For months now, Vladimir Putin has massed Russian military forces on the Ukrainian border. Last month, on December 17, the Kremlin unveiled two draft agreements that essentially acted as ultimatums for NATO and the Biden administration.

The demands? For the United States and NATO to guarantee that NATO would not expand further east, that the United States would withdraw its nuclear missiles from Europe, and that no NATO country would cooperate militarily with former Soviet countries.  In effect, Vladimir Putin wants to reestablish Russian dominance over Eastern Europe by recapturing old Soviet bloc countries.

Of course, this would be disastrous for Europe and American national security.  President Putin made no offers or concessions in exchange for these demands.  He included no guarantees to withdraw the mass of Russian troops in the Donbass region of Ukraine, and proposed no plan to end Russia’s illegal occupation of Crimea.

All he ‘promised’ was to no longer threaten America.  Any competent team in the White House, any capable American president, would have responded to such threats with immediate and tangible costs to the Russians.

They would have responded to the massive military build-up on Ukraine’s border with preemptive, crushing economic sanctions and an ironclad guarantee to help Ukraine defend itself should Russia invade.  President Biden should be rallying European allies to commit themselves to standing against Putin and his lawless, authoritarian actions.  But deterrence was lost with Biden’s weakness.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18164/houthis-terrorist-group

Attempts to deliver humanitarian aid to the poverty-stricken people of Yemen appear to have been blocked by the Houthis themselves, as well as by the United States, which has withdrawn support for Saudi Arabia, while giving the Houthis a free pass.

The Houthi strategy, it appears, is to use the dire living situation of the civilians under its control as a shield to get what it wants, such as being removed from the terrorist list and continuing its terror activities without facing any consequences.

If the Biden administration surrenders to this strategy, not only will the terror group feel that it has won, it will also be empowered to ratchet up its violence, crimes, and drone and missile attacks.

A surrender to this form of extortion will also set precedent for other terrorist groups or countries to deprive their populations of humanitarian aid, and hold them as hostages while they blackmail the US and the international community into handing them as a ransom whatever they dream up — in addition to continuing their terrorist activities without any consequences.

The United States can, as it is doing with Iran, re-list the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and allow the export of humanitarian goods to Yemen — if the Houthis even permit. If they do not, it is all the more reason to hold them accountable even more harshly rather than reward them.

This morning, Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, intercepted two ballistic missiles, launched courtesy of the Houthis.

The problem began almost a year ago, courtesy of the Biden administration. After less than a month in office, the Biden administration reversed yet another policy of the former administration. On February 12, 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken officially revoked the designation of the Houthis, an Iran-backed militia group, also known as Ansar Allah (“Partisans of Allah”), as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. According to the U.S. State Department press release:

“This decision is a recognition of the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen…. on Yemenis’ access to basic commodities like food and fuel. The revocations are intended to ensure that relevant U.S. policies do not impede assistance to those already suffering what has been called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/west-barks-putin-caravan-moves-bruce-thornton/

For nearly two decades Russian President Vladimir Putin has challenged the West’s “rules-based international order” seemingly validated by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which Putin has called “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” During that time, Western leaders have imposed economic sanctions on Russia, and diplomats have scolded Putin for his violation of human rights and the borders of his neighbors, illiberal policies and murders of political rivals, and ongoing attempts to restore the old Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.

But as recent events show, all that tough talk hasn’t slowed Putin down, and if anything has confirmed his contempt for a rich global rival unwilling to face the hard choices necessary for checking his aggression, even though, as the Associated Press said last week, the conflict is heading for a “potentially disastrous confrontation.” With oil prices rising significantly, easing the costs of economic sanctions; China and Iran increasing its cooperation with Russia; and a year of feckless global retreat and appeasement by the Biden administration––including cancelling Trump’s sanctions on the company building the Nordstream 2 pipeline for increasing Russian natural gas deliveries to Europe––Putin may now be calculating that the time is ripe for more aggressive actions to achieve his goal of pushing NATO from Russia’s borders, and restoring its geopolitical clout.

Most recently, Putin has intensified his ongoing pressure against eastern Ukraine by moving nearly 100,000 Russian troops to the border with Ukraine. He’s also sent paratroopers to Kazakhstan to prop up its president, a Putin lackey who is facing serious protests. Many of the protestors have been killed.

The actions against Ukraine are a continuation of aggression going back to the Obama administration in 2014, when Putin seized Crimea from Ukraine, then invaded eastern Ukraine with “little green men,” Russian soldiers in unmarked green uniforms.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/01/washington-in-slumber/

Sleepy Washington is likely on the verge of being awakened by a major world crisis.

Washingtonians may not fully grasp the impression their city gives to foreign visitors these days. It is one of somnolence. Too many shops or restaurants are closed, temporarily or permanently; the traffic is light; the streets largely empty. As a suburbanite, I drive into Washington for meetings and find I never have to use a parking garage these days. Downtown is sufficiently deserted to make finding a parking meter easy. Thus, to foreign visitors, it often seems that the city is asleep and nothing important is happening right now.

They are right. What, after all, is happening on Capitol Hill? Nothing — or rather nothing but kabuki. Despite knowing what the outcome will be, the Democratic leadership forces votes that will be lost. Perhaps they are thinking this will be useful in November, but for the moment, it means that Congress is doing nothing of serious value.

And what is going on in the executive branch? On the border issues, nothing. On Covid, nothing: The president has said this is mostly a state issue, and anyway, most Americans have given up relying on so-called experts in the federal government. Americans can sign up now for three free masks, a pathetic measure of government action. The “energy in the Executive” of which Hamilton wrote consists nowadays of travel and speeches, and the only thing that gets this president energized is an opportunity to attack his domestic opponents.

On foreign policy, the president is waiting for Putin’s next move. This puts the United States in a position of reaction, issuing repeated warnings of a vague and general nature. Of real action, such as sending 10,000 troops to Poland or announcing a shipment of 2,000 anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, there is none. The only significant thing that happened in the foreign-policy world in the last week or two was the president’s disastrous press-conference error in saying that a small incursion into Ukraine by Putin would not be a very big deal. This was such an amazing mistake that the White House issued a correction in the nature of a retraction within one hour of Biden’s speech. But such errors give insight into the mind of the president, and this insight will have been profoundly unnerving to every American friend or ally anywhere in the world. Those who are dependent on Joe Biden for their security will have shivered last Wednesday evening. Think of it: This is the most dangerous, immediate national-security issue, and it was certain to come up at the press conference, yet the president was not only inarticulate but actually unable to state U.S. policy clearly.

https://justthenews.com/government/security/amid-missile-test-surge-much-bidens-north-korea-policy-still-unknown

As North Korea starts 2022 with a barrage of weapons tests, the Biden administration’s policy toward the country remains largely undefined to the public, raising questions about how Washington will respond to what could be a year of North Korean provocations and brinkmanship with the U.S.

North Korea on Monday launched short-range ballistic missiles near the capital, Pyongyang, in the country’s fourth missile test in less than two weeks — the most such launches the North has ever conducted to start a year.

It took Pyongyang 10 months to conduct the same number of missile tests last year.

North Korea said the purpose of its latest launch was “evaluation,” describing it as a success.

The test was aimed at “making a selective examination of the tactical guided missiles which are being produced and equipped and verifying the accuracy of the weapon system,” according to North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency. “The Academy of Defense Science has confirmed the accuracy, safety, and operational effectiveness of this weapon system being produced.”

North Korea’s recent missile launches were part of the development of new weapons systems, according to Bruce Klinger, a senior research fellow for northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation.

“Any improvement in Pyongyang’s ability to attack our allies and U.S. forces stationed there is worrisome,” Klinger told Just the News.

https://www.nysun.com/editorials/a-staggering-act-of-appeasement/91963/

The decision of the Biden administration to arrange for the payment of Iran’s dues at the United Nations is being described to us as “a staggering act of appeasement.” That is the phrase used by our sometimes legwoman at the United Nations, Claudia Rosett. We had called her to see what she made of the news. Her tirade is probably still echoing down the telephone lines from the fastness of upstate New York.

The gist of the story is that Iran had failed to pay its dues at the United Nations and had in consequence lost its voting rights in the World Body. One would think that this would be a boon for America. It’s the fruit of American sanctions, after all, and would mean that Iran would be able to foment less trouble at Turtle Bay. If that’s what one thinks, though, one would not be a muckety muck in the Biden administration.

No, it seems that the Biden administration wants Iran to have a vote in the United Nations because the UN is the route through which the Obama administration struck its articles of appeasement known as the Iran nuclear deal. Remember, President Obama couldn’t get the deal ratified in the Senate. The pact was opposed, as the Times noted in an editorial, “overwhelmingly” by both houses of our Congress.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18156/christian-genocide

On November 17, 2021, the U.S. State Department removed Nigeria from its list of Countries of Particular Concern…. despite several human rights organizations characterizing the persecution meted out to Nigeria’s Christians as a “genocide.”

Worse, not only did the Obama State Department for eight years refuse to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern; during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State (2009-2013), she, too, refused to designate Boko Haram in Nigeria as a “terrorist” organization… despite [its] being a jihadist group whose adherents have murdered more Christians and bombed more churches than the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria combined.

Her refusal persisted despite the urging of the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and more than a dozen senators and congressmen for her to designate Boko Haram.

“The one thing she could have done, the one tool she had at her disposal, she didn’t use. And nobody can say she wasn’t urged to do it. It’s gross hypocrisy… The FBI, the CIA, and the Justice Department really wanted Boko Haram designated, they wanted the authorities that would provide to go after them, and they voiced that repeatedly to elected officials.” — A “former senior U.S. official,” quoted by Josh Rogin in the Daily Beast, May 7, 2014.

Apparently such is the official unwavering and consistent response, whether under Obama/Clinton or now under Biden: Nigeria is not a “country of particular concern” — even as a genocide continues to be waged against its Christians.

A recent and ostensibly insignificant “label change” by the U.S. Department of State sheds light on both President Joe Biden and former president Barack Obama, as well as on a potential presidential candidate for 2024, Hillary Clinton.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18160/biden-colossal-failure-on-iran-redesignate

The Houthis serve as Iran’s proxy in the civil war in Yemen and against Saudi Arabia, which backs the internationally recognized Republic of Yemen government. The UAE, which hosts U.S. military forces at Al Dhafra air base, has been a part of the Saudi coalition to support the official Yemeni government.

With its decisions to delist the Houthis, sideline the Abraham Accords, and focus on diplomacy all within days of each other, the Biden administration demonstrated the lengths it would go to reenter the deeply flawed, Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran.

The State Department most likely realized early on that its decision to delist the Houthis [from the List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations] was doomed to failure. Only two days after they were removed from the terrorist list, the State Department was forced to condemn the group for its continued attacks. State Department spokesperson Ned Price lamely said that the U.S. remains “deeply troubled” by the group’s actions.

Given the clear evidence that its policies are not working, it is time for the Biden administration to shift direction. The administration must redesignate the Houthis as the terrorist organization it is.

A recent drone and missile attack by Iranian-backed Houthis rebels on Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, has laid-bare the ongoing failures of the Biden administration’s approach to Iran and foreign policy in general. The attack, which was deliberately aimed at civilian instead of military targets, shows the limits of appeasement and diplomacy in a region where Iran, figuratively and literally, tries to call-the-shots for and against its neighbors.