RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-politics-china-7ca84c323b8ed15253c9cb5c04789805?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_04

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s military sent 71 planes and seven ships toward Taiwan in a 24-hour display of force directed at the self-ruled island, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Monday, after China expressed anger at Taiwan-related provisions i n a U.S. annual defense spending bill.

China’s military harassment of Taiwan, which it claims is its own territory, has intensified in recent years, and the Communist Party’s People’s Liberation Army has sent planes or ships toward the island on a near-daily basis.

Between 6 a.m. Sunday and 6 a.m. Monday, 47 of the Chinese planes crossed the median of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial boundary once tacitly accepted by both sides, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.

Among the planes China sent towards Taiwan were 18 J-16 fighter jets, 11 J-1 fighters, 6 Su-30 fighters and drones.

Taiwan said it monitored the Chinese moves through its land-based missile systems, as well as on its own navy vessels.

“This is a firm response to the current U.S.-Taiwan escalation and provocation,” said Shi Yi, the spokesman for the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command, in a statement on Sunday night. It announced that the PLA was holding joint combat patrols and joint strike drills in the waters around Taiwan.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19258/ukraine-appeasement

Kissinger is reluctant or afraid to say what he really demands, which is appeasing Russia.

The grand old man of American diplomacy claims that the mumbo-jumbo he has just spewed would somehow create “a new structure towards achieving peace through negotiation.” Later, however, he reduces “peace” to a “peace process” like the one he launched in the Middle East almost 50 years ago and which is supposed to be still going on fast to nowhere.

This war isn’t about territory.

Russia has more “territory” than any other nation on the planet. Some claim that annexing Crimea was necessary to maintain Russia’s naval presence in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. But that claim too could be dismissed as an excuse for aggression.

With his policy of détente during the Nixon and Ford administrations, Kissinger arguably helped prolong the life of the Soviet Empire by treating it as an equal partner, playing a leading role in the Helsinki Accords, and providing it with access to global capital markets among other favors bestowed.

If he skims through the Kremlin media, Kissinger would see that Putin won’t be satisfied with just a chunk of Ukraine, as he has said many times, and has already set the theme for “protecting our kith-and-kin” in Moldova and Estonia, with less direct musings about a pan-Slav empire that could include Poland, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro.

If implemented, Kissinger’s “peace plan” could become a prelude to endless war, cold, lukewarm and hot, in Europe, and the most disastrous attempt at appeasement since the Chamberlain-Daladier duo went to Munich.

Russian military lore is full of references to the cold months ahead in that part of Europe as “General Winter”. So, it is no surprise that President Vladimir Putin, disappointed in the performance of his generals, is looking at “General Winter” to help him snatch victory from the jaws of defeat as it had helped Kutuzov against Napoleon.

Putin’s reading of history, however, is slanted in favor of his illusions. In the Napoleonic war, “General Winter” was on the side of the defender, not the aggressor. With “General Winter” unlikely to work for Putin, he may have to look at another grand old man, this time a diplomat, to help him out of the hole he has dug for Russia.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19256/iran-basij-trained-killers

That members of the Basij appear in plainclothes makes it extremely difficult for people to identify them before being attacked. Iran International news agency reported: “According to Rouydad24 news website in Tehran, when people produce evidence that they were beaten or arrested by plainclothes individuals or even when videos of plainclothes officers arresting, beating or shooting at protesters emerge, the government always claims that they were ‘rogue elements…’ Since 1999… some regime insiders have been trying to convince the security forces to issue uniforms to all law enforcers, to no avail. Security forces are under the command of Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei who needs the plainclothes agents to save the regime from the people.” — Iran International, October 19, 2022.

The ruling mullahs claim that the Basij is a voluntary group, but its members are paid. In fact, the regime designates a large budget to the group every year. The Basij… is reportedly one the largest investors in the Iran Stock Exchange. Those who join the group are given financial and non-monetary incentives, such as easier entry to universities, obtaining bank loans, grants and getting employment.

Instead of preaching about human rights, the United Nations and the European Union urgently need to impose severe sanctions and cut the flow of funds to the regime and IRGC’s paramilitary and mercenary group to compel them to stop.

The Iranian regime’s mercenary paramilitary group, the Basij, consists of millions of members, and they are killing protesters with full impunity. Pictured: Basij commanders and forces attend a speech by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in honor of “National Basij Week,” on November 23, 2016. (Image source: khamenei.ir)

While the European Union is busy appeasing the ruling mullahs of Iran who are delivering weapons to Russia with which to kill Ukrainians, and while the United Nations is turning a blind eye to the massive crimes against humanity committed in Iran, neither the UN nor a single European country has yet to hold accountable the Iranian regime’s mercenary paramilitary group, the Basij. It consists of millions of members and they are killing protesters with full impunity.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19175/turkey-crushes-human-rights

Torture and abuse of citizens in Turkey is systematic and commonplace.

Kurds in Turkey are not only exposed to racism and discrimination; they are murdered simply for being Kurdish.

At the same time, those who call for an investigation on Turkey’s alleged use of chemical weapons against members of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) in Iraqi Kurdistan — journalists, lawyers, medical doctors, and members of parliament — have been detained by police and criminally investigated. On November 4, lawyer Aryen Turan was detained and released on condition of judicial control, with a ban on leaving the country, after she called for an investigation about Turkey’s alleged use of chemical weapons.

For Turkish government officials to accuse Europe of racism, discrimination or Islamophobia, while Turkish authorities victimize hundreds of thousands of their own citizens, is beyond hypocritical. It is not in Europe that Turks, Kurds and other Muslims are exposed to torture, rights abuses and other illegal acts. It is the government of Turkey that is violating and abusing their own citizens for either thinking differently or belonging to an ethnic or religious group of which the government is not fond.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-and-improved-taliban-afghanistan-women-and-girls-education-antony-blinken-11671664770?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

During President Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, U.S. officials expressed hope that the reconquering Taliban regime might be interested in joining modernity and the roll call of civilized nations. Maybe the mullahs would like Davos.

“The Taliban seeks international legitimacy and support,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Aug. 30, the official end of the evacuation. “Our message is: Any legitimacy and any support will have to be earned.” How? By “respecting the basic rights of the Afghan people, including women and minorities” and “forming an inclusive government that can meet the needs and reflect the aspirations of the Afghan people.”

On Wednesday the Taliban banned girls from attending elementary schools, as well as female teachers and other staff, the Journal reports. “My daughter has locked herself in a room since this morning and won’t stop crying,” said the father of a rising fifth-grader who wanted to become a doctor for her home village. “All her hopes are broken.” A day earlier, universities were also closed to women.

Two weeks ago the Taliban presided over its first public execution since returning to power. The convicted man had been found guilty of a murder. “Under the Islamic legal tenet of ‘qisas,’ which allows personal retribution for crimes, the father of the murder victim carried out the death sentence as a crowd watched, shooting the killer three times,” the Washington Post reports.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19238/persecution-of-christians-november

Without any prior notice, government authorities bulldozed the church and homes of 200 Christians in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, leaving them homeless. “The timing is particularly concerning, coming so soon after costly and devastating floods, and with winter already here and temperatures plummeting.” — The Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement, November 26, 2022.

108 Medieval and early modern Armenian monasteries, churches and cemeteries, between 1997 and 2011, have already experienced “complete destruction,” according to Caucasus Heritage Watch. “[N]ew satellite imagery….showed how a monastery, more than 700 years old , was destroyed, then re-erected as a mosque. — theartnewspaper.com, November 25, 2022, Azerbaijan.

“There has been a marked uptick in religiously motivated attacks by Palestinian Muslims on Christians in Bethlehem….. The Palestinian Authority, responsible for security in the area, did nothing.” — Israel365.com, November 21, 2022.

“I want to burn Christianity … we have incinerators and holocausts like Hitler, a lesson from history…. I swear to Allah we will cause chaos and kill the non-believers…. Whoever is not happy, a bullet in their head, I don’t want a single person alive who would oppose Sharia.” — Tarek Namouz, 42, a barber shop owner in London who, on seven separate occasions, sent £25,000 to ISIS fighters in Syria, Daily Mail, December 15, 2022.

“We will escalate the war against you until you submit to Islam… Our desire is to kill you or be killed, for we are martyrs before Allah, so submit or run from us.” — Message on social media addressed to “the Mozambican crusader army,” it also targeted Christians and Jews, whom it offered “three choices: submit to Islam, pay tax [jizya], or accept endless war.” — Zitamar News; November, 18, 2022, Mozambique

“Even when an abducted girl is found by police she will not be returned to her family. Instead she is sent to a Women’s refuge centre that is meant to be impartial but is corruptible. Muslim rapists or their friends gain access to these protective centres and threaten to kill the girl and her family unless she states she willingly married the Muslim man…. Christian children are bullied in school and even killed for their faith. This prevents Christian families sending them to school which perpetuates levels of illiteracy. …. Provincial Curriculum text books caricature and demonize Christians and other minorities.” — British Asian Christian Association, November 27, 2022, Pakistan.

The following are among the murders and abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of November 2022:

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19217/britain-multiculturalism-islam

This year, Leicester’s famous multiculturalism, so praised by the establishment, exploded. Knife attacks, stone- and bottle-throwing, cars torched, religious symbols under siege, dozens wounded, including policemen…. Then the hunt for Hindus began in Britain’s streets.

“Leicester to be first city where white people are minority,” announced The Independent in 2007. Some understood that it would not end well.

What happened? Leicester became Islamized fast. In 2001, the Muslim population was 11%. By 2017, it made up 20%. Among children, Islam is dominant.

For the first time since the 7th century AD, England is no longer majority Christian.

A British bishop, the brave Michael Nazir-Ali, was attacked for denouncing the existence of “no-go areas” in the UK.

No one knows what Britain will be like in 30 years. We might, however, be concerned about a scenario in which large parts of the UK and Europe could resemble Pakistan.

“Leicester has become the poster city for multicultural Britain, a place where the stunning number and size of the minorities – the 55 mosques, 18 Hindu temples, nine Sikh gurudwaras, two synagogues, two Buddhist centres and one Jain centre – are seen not as a recipe for conflict or a millstone around the city’s neck, but a badge of honour,” was how, in 2013, the British liberal newspaper The Independent celebrated the transformation of Britain’s tenth-largest city.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-mullahs-resort-to-public-hangings/

The depravity of the Iranian theocratic regime knows no bounds, as it has once again resorted to horrific acts of barbarity in an attempt to suppress the nationwide uprising, now into its 87th day. The mullahs’ regime announced on December 12 that they had hanged a young protester in public in the city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran. Majidreza Rahnavard was publicly executed less than three weeks after his arrest for participating in anti-regime protests. Majidreza was hanged from a crane after being lifted slowly into the air and left kicking and struggling as he slowly asphyxiated. He was denied access to legal representation at his trial and severely tortured in prison, suffering a broken arm and other injuries. Afraid that signs of torture on his body would be exposed, the mullahs ordered Majidreza’s body to be buried in secret, without informing his family.

The medieval brutality of Majidreza Rahnavard’s public execution, comes only days after the hanging of Mohsen Shekari, a 23-year-old student arrested during the ongoing protests, tortured into making a confession, then sentenced to death for the mullahs’ sham offense of “waging war against God.” The clerical regime’s resort to torture and execution as they attempt to quell the escalating revolution is testimony to their increasing panic and desperation as they try to cling to power. They are prepared to defy all legal norms and all basic human rights in their vicious retaliatory measures against their own people.The civilized world must hold them to account. More than 700 mostly young men and women have been murdered so far by the regime in their shoot-to-kill policy of confronting the protests. Over 30,000 have been arrested and many more death sentences will be carried out unless the civilized nations of the world intervene.