RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18682/north-korea-threat

China’s urging “flexibility” on North Korea appears to coincide with the Chinese Communist Party’s ambitions in the region.

“According to unclassified intelligence reports to Congress, there are five key Chinese banks and a specially created holding company that funds the North Korean missile and nuclear technology programs.” — Peter Huessy, Real Clear Defense, August 10, 2017.

China’s main strategic concern when it comes to the Korean peninsula is apparently to end the US presence there and keep it out of US hands so that China can finally establish itself as the hegemon in the region.

North Korean escalation in the form of increased missile tests and resumption of ICBM and nuclear tests to pressure the US to make concessions — in the shape of troop withdrawals from South Korea — would play directly into the hands of China, enabling it to replace the US and establish itself as the primary power in the region.

“They are looking to take actions, which we believe are fundamentally destabilizing, as a way to increase pressure.” — US official in Washington to journalists, France24.com, January 31, 2022.

China, however, seems to have no interest in cooperating with the US on North Korea. Attempts to secure “Beijing’s cooperation” to build necessary economic leverage over North Korea are therefore exercises in futility.

China clearly cannot be relied on voluntarily to use its leverage over North Korea to persuade Kim Jong-un to give up his missile and nuclear program. To resolve the impasse, it is necessary to employ means that will leave China no choice other than to cooperate on North Korea.

A highly efficient way of doing that, Gordon Chang has suggested, would be to cut off the large Chinese banks and businesses that support the North Korean missile and nuclear technology from the global financial system by designating them a “primary money laundering concern” under Section 311 of the Patriot Act.

“In short, American policymakers know how to get China to begin acting responsibly.” — Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, May 10, 2021.

The question now is — will the Biden administration muster the political will to designate those large Chinese banks under Section 311 of the Patriot Act?

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18770/eu-iran-nuclear-deal

The European Union has presented Iran with a new draft text that aims to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. The document, which has not been made public, presumably offers additional concessions to coax Tehran into rejoining the agreement.

In May 2022, for instance, Iran reached a new dangerous and destabilizing threshold: its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% reached 42 kilograms, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In June, Iran removed 27 surveillance cameras from its nuclear facilities. The move came after the IAEA censured Iran for not answering questions about uranium traces found at three undeclared sites.

The EU’s continued appeasement of Iran also comes amid a violent crackdown against civil society in the country. Human rights groups have blasted the EU for its unwillingness to hold the Iranian government to account.

The EU appears to be sacrificing human rights on the altar of financial gain.

“If we simply cling to the idea that continued negotiations will somehow lead to resolution, we’ll be sleepwalking as we did with Russia, allowing a hostile power to take advantage of diplomacy while pursuing increasingly aggressive actions against us and our allies…. ” — Nicola Beer and Peter Neumann, “Iran: Time for a Plan B,” Politico, July 21, 2022.

The European Union has presented Iran with a new draft text that aims to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. The document, which has not been made public, presumably offers additional concessions to coax Tehran into rejoining the agreement.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/communist-china-deserves-be-disrespected-terence-p-jeffrey/

The American people last year bought $75 billion worth of cellphones manufactured in Communist China and $59 billion worth of computers.

We also bought more than $39 billion in Chinese-made toys and games, $24 billion in clothing and textiles and $19 billion in household appliances.

Over the course of the year, people in this country purchased $504.9 billion in goods from Communist China, while Communist China bought only $151.4 billion from us. The result was a $353.5 billion bilateral trade deficit — by far the largest trade deficit the United States ran with any country.

In fact, in every year since 1985 — the first year that the Census Bureau reported the U.S.-China trade balance — the United States has run a trade deficit with this Communist regime.

Now, the Chinese regime is vowing to conduct massive air and naval exercises in and above the waters surrounding Taiwan — an island it does not control, but over which it claims sovereignty.

Why is it doing this? Because U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has had the temerity to visit Taiwan.

What is the difference between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China?

The people of Taiwan are free, and the people of the People’s Republic are not.

https://pjmedia.com/blog/craig-karpel/2009/02/22/irans-strategic-nuclear-deception-n17618

Iran’s satellite launch earlier this month should have been a wake-up call. Instead, the West has reached over and hit the snooze button.

Swift, vigorous measures need to be taken to deal with the new reality that Iranians, who could possess a nuclear weapon by the end of next year, have demonstrated that their Safir 2 rocket, which was used as the launch vehicle, is able to deliver a warhead to southern Europe.

The New York Times reported:

The Iranian rocket had two stages, Mr. [Charles] Vick said. If it were carrying a small warhead, he said, the Iranian missile could fire the weapon about 2,500 kilometers, or slightly more than 1,550 miles. The rocket could send a weapon to targets in Israel, but experts said that Iran had already possessed that capability.

That falls short of the range of an intercontinental ballistic missile, Mr. Vick said. For Iran to achieve that technical step, he added, it would have to develop a more powerful basic rocket or more upper stages — two goals that weapons experts think it is pursuing.

Dr. [Charles] Ferguson of the Council on Foreign Relations said that Iran’s technical advance, if translated into a military missile, might put a warhead within range of southern Europe, including Turkey, Greece, and Italy.

Heritage Foundation senior fellow and former deputy assistant secretary of defense Peter Brookes’ reaction to the launch: “In theory, if you can launch a ballistic missile that can place a satellite into Earth orbit, you have the scientific wherewithal to hit a target anywhere on Earth with a warhead.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18766/lebanon-leaders-reality

The Lebanese authorities are accusing Bishop al-Hajj of treason for bringing money to the poor and the sick, at a time when Iran is delivering — through Hezbollah — money and weapons to be used in the next war against Israel.

The money and the weapons that the Iranians are sending to Lebanon are designed to strengthen the mullahs’ control over the country. Iran, incidentally, is already occupying three other Arab countries: Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

“In our days, a bishop is being arrested and interrogated as if he was a foreign agent, while Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is received with full honor.” — Joseph Abu Fadel, Lebanese political analyst, Twitter, July 19, 2022.

[T]he Lebanese people are being forced to seek aid from their families and relatives in Israel “because of the failure of the Lebanese states at all levels.” — Alain Dargham, reporter for MTV Lebanon News, Twitter, July 21, 2022.

The Christians who fled to Israel did so out of fear for their lives and the lives of their families. They ran away from the terrorism and intimidation of Hezbollah and other terrorist groups.

If the Christian families living in Israel are able to send money and medicine to their relatives in Lebanon, it shows that those who moved to Israel are doing much better than the Christians they left behind in Lebanon.

Bishop al-Hajj is not a traitor. He is a hero to his community and the rest of the Lebanese people.

Iran and Hezbollah are afraid that such aid would open the eyes of the Lebanese people and make them realize that Israel is not their enemy. God forbid, they may even see that life in Israel is not so bad after all — and that their Israeli neighbors are prepared to help them.

The leaders of Lebanon, who have to report to their masters in Tehran, are evidently seeking to keep their people living in misery and poverty. The leaders are worried that if the people lead good and comfortable lives, they will stop thinking about violence and jihad (holy war) against Israel because they would have a lot to lose. The leaders also want their people to continue living in misery and poverty so that they can shift the blame for it to Israel.

For the past few years, the failed state of Lebanon has been experiencing one of its worst economic, political and social crises in recent history due to years of political strife and economic downfall. Yet instead of focusing their efforts on finding ways to end the crisis, the Lebanese authorities and leaders are spending their time intimidating those who seek to alleviate the suffering of the Lebanese people.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/08/zawahiri-deserves-to-rot/

The al-Qaeda mastermind Ayman al-Zawahiri has rejoined his co-conspirator, Osama bin Laden, somewhere in the thereafter. The terrorist leader was reportedly killed in Afghanistan by a drone strike ordered by President Biden, who addressed the country Monday evening. A sociopathic maestro of mass murder is no more, and all Americans should welcome this victory against an Islamist mass-murder cult that has waged war against the free world.

Al-Zawahiri was second only to Osama bin Laden himself within al-Qaeda’s hierarchy. Alongside bin Laden, he orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, in addition to a wave of Islamist violence across the world. To al-Zawahiri, mass death was a religious duty “for every Muslim who can do it in every country in which it is possible to do it,” he wrote in 1998. Accordingly, from New York City to London to Baghdad, Zawahiri was responsible for plotting acts of terror that murdered thousands.

Although Washington took out bin Laden in 2011, and although the threat of jihadism has faded to background noise in recent years — replaced with anxiety about the threat from China and Russia, in addition to other, more conventional nation-state threats — the threat to the American homeland remained. In fact, the threat from one of those adversaries, Iran, joined with al-Qaeda’s worldwide networks spanning the Mideast, Africa, and even the Philippines, is still considerable. Even with Zawahiri gone, much of that network remains in play, including the Iran–al-Qaeda nexus.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18754/tyranny-liberty-democracy

When presidents and prime ministers make and enforce their own laws under the pretext of “emergency powers,” then citizens should not be surprised when their leaders discover an endless supply of “emergencies” requiring urgent action.

The opposite of tyranny is not democracy, but rather liberty and individual rights. Is it not startling, then, that Western leaders extol democracy, yet pay such little homage to personal freedoms?

Yet freedom, liberty, and individual rights are rarely mentioned. In their stead, political leaders cherish the “virtues” of democracy and little else. It is as if a linguistic sleight of hand has robbed Western citizens of their most valuable heritage.

Is it not strange that Western leaders laud democracy over authoritarianism while simultaneously diminishing the power of their voters and strengthening the authority of foreign institutions [such as the EU, the UN, and the WHO]? Shouldn’t “democratic” nations decide their own fates?

Why should bigger, broader forms of international government, however, be seen as more virtuous and less corrupt than their national forms?…. For that matter, had Hitler’s Nazi Party succeeded in conquering all of Europe, would his “European Union” have deserved greater legitimacy than the national governments of Poland, Belgium, or France?

When national populations are denied self-determination and personal liberties are treated as privileges, not rights, then tyranny is never far from taking hold.

Political language manipulates political debate. Abortion opponents who define themselves as “pro-life” semantically render abortion proponents as “pro-death.” Abortion supporters who define themselves as “pro-choice” semantically render any opposition as “anti-choice.” Who wants to be “pro-death” or “anti-choice,” after all? Such is the nature of politics. Words are weapons: when wielded deftly, they shape the battlespace for our minds.

So what does it mean when Western leaders these days speak so much of democracy but so little of individual rights? Or that they preach the virtues of international institutions, while demonizing nationalism as xenophobic and dangerous? It means that national sovereignty and natural, inviolable rights are under direct attack throughout the West.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18764/biden-iran-masochistic-nail

There is no way that you or anyone else could help the Iranian people return to normalcy as long as the present regime is in place in Tehran. A people that finds itself in the hands of a brutal authoritarian regime that claims a divine mandate and is ready to do whatever it takes to remain in power, no holds barred, is beyond help by any outsider with the best of intentions.

If you help the Islamic Republic improve its economy, the bulk of the proceeds will go to strengthening the apparatus of repression, with the people receiving mere crumbs to keep their mouths shut.

If you make a deal with the supposedly “reasonable” faction within the regime, its rivals will do whatever they can to sabotage the deal. Haven’t you noticed that each time that the faction you consider as reasonable comes close to normalization, other factions start seizing hostages, putting bombs in your cities, or raiding your embassies to derail the process?

President Barack Obama even smuggled $1.7 billion in cash to “help the Iranian people” but the money went to the regime’s repressive machine. Each time, however, that cursed “goodwill” led to the seizing of new hostages and a more virulent campaign of vilification against “the evil foreign powers.”

Whatever helps this foreign power, with the best intentions one could offer, will go to the regime, not to the Iranian people.

Remember how Prince Charles of Great Britain, Queen Rania of Jordan and US President George W Bush helped collect vast sums to help the earthquake-stricken people of Bam in southeast Iran? Well, not a single farthing reached those people while Khomeinist propaganda claimed that “the evil foreigner” was using humanitarian aid as a cover for espionage and the conversion of Iranians to “canceled (manuskh) religions such as Christianity.

[T]he late Shinzo Abe went to Tehran to play peacemaker, he was insulted and told to return home empty-handed. It is interesting that President Joe Biden or whoever is his ventriloquist still thinks they can normalize the quintessentially abnormal.

“How can one help the Iranian people restore their normal life?”

This was the question that a Japanese friend put to me in 2019 in what at the time seemed to be a casual chat in a Persian restaurant in London. Three years later, I have just learned that the question had been something more than a dinner-table note to prolong the conversation. The friend in question had been sounding out a few people about the tactics that then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should pursue during a visit to Tehran to persuade the ruling mullahs to lead Iran back into “normal life.”