RUTHFULLY YOURS

North Korea

North Korea seeks respect on the cheap — and attention and cash — that it cannot win the old-fashioned way by the long, hard work of achieving a dynamic economy or an influential culture.

Over the last quarter-century, it has proved that feigned madness and the road to nuclear weapons (Pakistan is another good example) provide a shortcut to all three goals: It is now feared, in the news, and likely to receive another round of Western danegeld.

Setting off a bomb (as opposed to merely bragging that it soon will do so) seems to stave off a Western-style preemption of the sort that eventually liquidated Saddam Hussein and Moammar Qaddafi.

Unlike both Iraq and Libya, North Korea had two other indemnity policies that so far have ruled out Western preemption: 1) a nuclear neighboring patron like China, and 2) a nihilistic conventional artillery and missile arsenal aimed at a nearby rich Westernized South Korea. An outmoded, conventional, short-ranged asset would be largely irrelevant in most military landscapes, but it is not when based just 35 miles from Seoul (which exchanged hands five times from the beginning to end of the Korean War). Consequently, the unpredictability of Beijing and the possibility of an attack within hours on Seoul — which would end up like Dresden in 1945 — enhanced North Korea’s small nuclear arsenal.

What then is North Korea’s ultimate objective?

Most obviously, a permanent landscape of crisis, in which it can periodically test a more sophisticated bomb than the last, threaten to incinerate a Western city, and launch a missile into Western airspace. If done symphonically, periodic “crises” are then created, envoys pour into the region, the U.N. goes into panic mode, the EU weighs in, “wise men” meet, China is jawboned — and a brand-new, revised, updated, and superior aid “package” is delivered, with stern warnings not to try the con again.

Thus the latest Korean Caligula gets global attention, his praetorian guard are assured of their continued privilege, and China offers its Cheshire smile to signal that Armageddon is avoided.

This shakedown can continue indefinitely — or at least until too many other countries (see Iran) emulate North Korea and too many players make the game too expensive and too dangerous. Or it can continue until a true breakthrough in missile defense nullifies all North Korean offensive capability, or until China sees the growing costs outweighing its heretofore undeniable benefits.

China

As a rule, China finds it worthwhile to exploit anything that proves unsettling to Washington, that ties down American conventional troops and strategic assets in Asia and the Pacific, and that can potentially create problems in Asian democracies. China clearly enjoys the subterranean tensions among Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States.

China plays the proverbial no-good neighbor (I’ve known one or two) who cuts loose the tether on his pit bull, soon hears a commotion in your environs, wanders over to your farm to express both shock and regret that his man-biter “somehow” got loose, sort of apologizes, and then, once you get the message, leashes the crazed dog and trots home — until he seeks even greater chaos next time.

If current levels of immigration continue, native Norwegians will be a minority in their own country within a few decades. In some parts of inner city Oslo, they are already a minority.

Ethnic Norwegians living in these areas are called “infidel whore.” Many feel as if they are strangers in what once was their own country. Yet the politicians and mass media are not interested. The ruling elites are far more interested in cases of alleged “Islamophobia” or “white racism.”

A report commissioned by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) suggested in early 2017 that the Muslim Brotherhood is secretly leading Islamic groups in building a parallel society in Sweden by infiltrating organizations and political parties in the country.

Ramadan is supposed to be an Islamic holy month of fasting. In reality, as one is thought to be doubly rewarded in paradise for deeds “fighting corruption” during Ramadan, it is a month of “jihad and victories.”

It therefore nearly always leads to an increase in jihad violence in different parts of the world.

Breitbart News counted at least 1,620 people killed by militant Muslims during Ramadan in 2017. Most of these were killed in Muslim-majority countries. However, deadly Islamic terrorist attacks also hit Western cities such as London.

When dealing with Muslim terror, it can be useful to separate it into two different, categories: Big Terror and Little Terror. Big Terror includes mass casualty attacks such as suicide bombings. Little Terror includes other forms of violence and harassment, such as torching cars, that have a negative impact on daily life. Both forms of terror are intended to spread fear.

France suffers from tens of thousands of car fires every year. Sweden, which has the highest number of Muslim immigrants in Scandinavia, also has the highest number of car fires. In the Muslim-dominated Swedish city of Malmö, cars are now torched on a nearly daily basis.

In June 2017 during Ramadan, dozens of instances of wheel-tampering were reported in different police districts in Denmark. In all cases, the lug nuts that secure the wheels of a car had been loosened. One motorist was driving along when he heard an odd noise. Shortly afterward, his left front wheel appeared in front of the car and rolled off into a field. The car ended up in a ditch; the man, in a hospital. The police have so far been unable to find the perpetrators. They have been advising all motorists thoroughly to check their lug nuts before starting their car.

In June 2017, Oslo, Norway, experienced a significant number of car fires within a few weeks. Officially, the police claimed they could see no connection between these fires, which spiked during Ramadan and mainly took place in Muslim-dominated areas. Anonymous sources claimed that a group of young immigrant men – who had apparently been complicit in the burnings — had shouted: “We’re going to make Malmö!”

If current levels of immigration continue, native Norwegians will be a minority in their own country within a few decades. In some parts of inner-city Oslo, they are already a minority. The author Halvor Fosli, in 2015, published a book in which he interviewed ethnic Norwegians living in those areas. They are called “infidel whore.” Many feel as if they are strangers in what once was their own country. Yet the politicians and mass media are not interested. The ruling elites are far more interested in cases of alleged “Islamophobia” or “white racism.”

Here’s part of President Donald Trump’s speech in Poland: “The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?”

After this speech, which was warmly received by Poles, the president encountered predictable criticism. Most of the criticism reflected gross ignorance and dishonesty.

One example of that ignorance was penned in the Atlantic magazine by Peter Beinart, a contributing editor and associate professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York. Beinart said, “Donald Trump referred 10 times to ‘the West’ and five times to ‘our civilization.’ His white nationalist supporters will understand exactly what he means.” He added, “The West is a racial and religious term. To be considered Western, a country must be largely Christian (preferably Protestant or Catholic) and largely white.”

Intellectual elites argue that different cultures and their values are morally equivalent. That’s ludicrous. Western culture and values are superior to all others. I have a few questions for those who’d claim that such a statement is untrue or smacks of racism and Eurocentrism. Is forcible female genital mutilation, as practiced in nearly 30 sub-Saharan African and Middle Eastern countries, a morally equivalent cultural value? Slavery is practiced in Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Sudan; is it morally equivalent? In most of the Middle East, there are numerous limitations placed on women, such as prohibitions on driving, employment and education. Under Islamic law, in some countries, female adulterers face death by stoning. Thieves face the punishment of having their hands severed. Homosexuality is a crime punishable by death in some countries. Are these cultural values morally equivalent, superior or inferior to Western values?

During his speech, Trump asked several vital questions. “Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?” There’s no question that the West has the military might to protect itself. The question is whether we have the intelligence to recognize the attack and the will to defend ourselves from annihilation.

Much of the Muslim world is at war with Western civilization. Islamists’ use multiculturalism as a foot in the door to attack Western and Christian values from the inside. Much of that attack has its roots on college campuses among the intellectual elite who indoctrinate our youth. Multiculturalism has not yet done the damage in the U.S. that it has in Western European countries — such as England, France and Germany — but it’s on its way.

My colleague Dr. Thomas Sowell reveals some of the problem. He says, “Those in the Islamic world have for centuries been taught to regard themselves as far superior to the ‘infidels’ of the West, while everything they see with their own eyes now tells them otherwise.” Sowell adds, “Nowhere have whole peoples seen their situation reversed more visibly or more painfully than the peoples of the Islamic world.” Few people, such as Persians and Arabs, once at the top of civilization, accept their reversals of fortune gracefully. Moreover, they don’t blame themselves and their culture. They blame the West.

By the way, one need not be a Westerner to hold Western values. One just has to accept the sanctity of the individual above all else.

WASHINGTON—A U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane was forced to take evasive action to avoid a possible mid-air collision after a Chinese jet fighter came within 300 feet of the American aircraft over the East China Sea, U.S. officials said Monday.

Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said a Chinese J-10 jet fighter rapidly approached under the U.S. EP-3 reconnaissance plane, slowed down and then flew in front of the American pilot, triggering the plane’s collision alarm system and forcing it to take evasive action.

The Chinese plane came within 300 feet of the U.S. plane, which was flying in international airspace, according to another defense official.

Capt. Davis said the incident was “uncharacteristic” of the Chinese military, calling it an exception, not the rule, for interactions between pilots in the area.

The incident is the latest in series of incidents between the U.S. and Chinese militaries as tensions rise on the Korean Peninsula.

In May, Chinese planes were involved in two similar incidents criticized by the Pentagon.