RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/02/colossal_incompetence_biden_officials_completely_unprepared_for_fall_of_afghanistan_leaked_memo_shows.html

It’s not huge news that the Biden administration was a colossal failure on Afghanistan, or that Joe Biden still thinks there’s nothing to apologize for.

What’s news now is the colossal incompetence that went on inside that administration as Afghanistan was collapsing, according to a leaked memo that Axios got hold of:

Leaked notes from a White House Situation Room meeting the day before Kabul fell shed new light on just how unprepared the Biden administration was to evacuate Afghan nationals who’d helped the United States in its 20-year war against the Taliban.

Why it matters: Hours before the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan’s capital on Aug. 15, 2021, senior Biden administration officials were still discussing and assigning basic actions involved in a mass civilian evacuation.

Outsiders were frustrated and suspicious the administration was having plenty of meetings but was stuck in bureaucratic inertia and lacked urgency until the last minute.
While the word “immediately” peppers the document, it’s clear officials were still scrambling to finalize their plans — on the afternoon of Aug. 14.
For example, they’d just decided they needed to notify local Afghan staff “to begin to register their interest in relocation to the United States,” the document says.
And they were still determining which countries could serve as transit points for evacuees.

It’s nasty stuff.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18185/us-encouraging-houthis

The Arabs say that the Biden administration made a mistake when it decided last year to remove the Houthis from the international terrorist list. The Biden administration’s move, they noted, has emboldened one of the most dangerous terrorist groups in the Middle East and endangered international peace and security.

Ultimately, the terrorism of Iran and its terrorist groups will reach the US, and, as with Afghanistan, it is the Biden administration that will justly be blamed.

The 22 members of the Arab League urged the Biden administration to re-classify the Iran-backed Houthi militia as a terrorist organization. The attacks “constitute… a real threat to… energy supplies and the stability of the global economy…. harm international peace and security, and pose a threat to international commercial shipping lines.” — Asharq Al-Awsat, January 24, 2022.

“What is the Biden administration waiting for in order to re-evaluate its position? Does it want to continue being a spectator?” – Atef Saadawy, Egyptian strategic and international affairs expert, Sky News Arabia, January 18, 2022.

The re-designation of the Houthi militia as a terrorist organization “will… facilitate the process of establishing peace in Yemen and a political solution that preserves its unity and territorial integrity and the security and stability of neighboring countries.” — Atef Saadawy, Sky News Arabia, January 18, 2022.

The time has come for the US administration… “to end its contradictory positions and flabby handling of the Yemeni crisis, which has exacerbated matters even more.” — Atef Saadawy, Sky News Arabia, January 18, 2022.

“What is happening now in Yemen is the responsibility of the US…. The first decision of the Biden administration… was to remove the Houthis from the list of terrorism, and this is a big mistake. Iran wants to use the Houthis to pressure the Americans to revive the nuclear deal.” — Emad Adin Adib, prominent Egyptian writer, journalist and businessman, El Watan News, January 25, 2022.

“[T]he Biden administration needs to show that it knows what is happening in the Middle East….Iran invested every dollar [from the Obama administration] in the service of its expansion project [in the Arab countries] and the empowerment of its militias in the region.” — Khairallah Khairallah, Lebanese writer and political analyst, Alraimedia.com, January 22, 2022.

“Moreover, it is no secret that the current US administration is encouraging the Houthis to be more aggressive. They [the Houthis] are more hostile towards the US itself. A few weeks ago, the Houthis stormed the US embassy in [the Yemeni capital of] Sana’a…. It seems that the US administration is still convinced that Iran wants an agreement in Vienna and that the Houthis are still searching for a peaceful solution in Yemen.” — Khairallah Khairallah, Alraimedia.com, January 22, 2022.

https://www.nysun.com/editorials/america-appears-to-be-edging-toward-recognition/91994/

America and its European allies, in what would be a final humiliation, appear to be moving toward recognition of — in effect, a surrender to — the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Following meetings with the Kabul regime at Oslo, the Western powers released a statement falling short of “official recognition or legitimization of the interim government.” Yet it outlines conditions for the Taliban to resume a role on the world stage.

The Western powers emphasized “the importance of respect for human rights” in Afghanistan as well as “the strong need for an inclusive and representative political system” in the war-torn nation. The Taliban was also encouraged “to do more to stop the alarming increase of human rights violations.” There were no promises of renewed funding in the statement, but it suggests aid could flow again if the Taliban reforms its ways.

Afghan opponents of the Taliban are calling it a mistake to hold the meetings at all. “We believe this conference was a form of appeasement by Western governments to a terrorist group,” a spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Resistance Front, Ali Nazary, tells the Sun. The Resistance Front — led by Ahmad Massoud, a son of the anti-Soviet fighter, Ahmad Shah Massoud — bills itself as “the last force fighting for the restoration of democracy in Afghanistan.”

The Western powers may be attempting to move toward recognition of the Taliban, Mr. Nazary says, but he predicts the effort will fail. “The Taliban will never be able to meet those conditions,” Mr. Nazary said. The Taliban is a “fractured group fighting among themselves” and is not able to present any coherent message to foreign powers. Under these circumstances, “their promises are worthless,” Mr. Nazary contended.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18177/yemen-humanitarian-crisis

The humanitarian situation in Yemen is indeed unbearable, but it is the Houthis who are causing and compounding it.

If the international community wants, it can pay a ransom to the people causing the suffering. It is a form of manipulation…. What the Houthis and similar groups see is: Extortion works, let’s keep doing it!

The Houthis are backed by Iran, just like its designated terror proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas. All three terror groups are disruptive forces in the Middle East, and used by Iran in its efforts to undercut U.S. influence in the region and threaten Israel and the Gulf states.

The government of the internationally recognized Republic of Yemen also has presented intelligence showing that the Houthis work with al-Qaeda and ISIS to spread terror and conflict in the country.

The problem, therefore, is not just the Houthis, it is also Iran. When the Houthis are not listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), Iran is effectively invited to advance its nuclear weapons program and “export its revolution” — with no obstruction.

Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaeda and ISIS are not groups that have earned the trust of the international community to help alleviate humanitarian crises anywhere in the world, ever.

Delay or failure to re-list the Houthis will only allow the problem to metastasize and further spread across the Middle East — exactly the objective of Iran’s regime. The Houthis’ attacks on the UAE has shown the Iranian-backed terror proxy’s reach expanding to build fear; they have already threatened more attacks.

How the U.S. addresses the threat posed by the Houthis will be closely watched by Iran’s friends, the Russians and the Chinese. It will be watched by Iran’s other proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas. It also will be watched closely by the friends of the U.S., including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Australia, the Philippines, Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.

Allowing the Houthis — and Iran — unchecked freedom to terrorize the Middle East will only make the humanitarian crisis expand in scope and severity. Iran, Russia and China are saber rattling. The Biden Administration needs to show it will protect our allies, immediately redesignate the Houthis as an FTO, and make aggression unthinkable to our adversaries – not reward them.

The U.S. and the international community can no longer ignore or reward the malign behavior of Iran or the Houthis.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-694816

It was clear from the outset that the nuclear talks in Vienna would turn out to be a farce. Promoted by the administration of US President Joe Biden as a means of returning to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) from which former president Donald Trump withdrew in 2018, the move to go back to the literal and figurative table was born of a pipe dream, at best. At worst, it stemmed from cynical disregard for the consequences of a hegemonic regime in Tehran armed with weapons of mass destruction.

The fantasy on the part of American and European liberals is that achieving a new and improved JCPOA is the safest — or only — way to prevent Iran from building atomic bombs. Western “pragmatists,” meanwhile, are concerned more about trade with the Islamic Republic than matters of war and peace.

The far-left apologists for a Russia-China-Iran axis possess a mixture of the above, but with a heavier ideological bent. Members of this camp, which includes radical Islamists, have an inverted view of good and evil. They see the West in general, particularly the United States, as an embodiment of the latter.

But all share a desire for a deal to be forged with the mullah-led government of Ebrahim (“the butcher”) Raisi, along the lines of the one signed between the P5+1 countries (China, France, Russia, Britain, the US and Germany) and his “moderate” predecessor, Hassan Rouhani.

Following last week’s Abu Dhabi attack, Biden said he will consider reversing the decision. That would be the right move and he should do it immediately.

Biden’s moves were a classic example of the failure of appeasement. Inevitably, the Iranian ayatollahs were not won over by these and other US placations. Instead they have become increasingly hard-nosed, demanding more US compromises in exchange for fewer restrictions on their nuclear weapons project — a typical Iranian regime response to perceived weakness.

Ansar Allah still represents a direct terrorist threat to the US. In the past it has taken American citizens hostage and in 2016 fired anti-ship missiles at US vessels off the coast of Yemen…. Ansar Allah also jeopardises wider American interests in the region, as well as its allies.

So far the West has proved impotent in helping to end this devastating war, with all efforts at agreeing a negotiated settlement frustrated largely due to Ansar Allah’s intransigence. Its violent offensive against Yemen’s Marib Governorate that began last February is further evidence that — with Iranian backing — it continues to seek only the path of war. As events since Biden became president have shown, appeasement is the opposite of the answer.

It is essential that the US renew its strong opposition to Iran’s expansionist actions, countering them at every opportunity…. An implacably hard-line stance towards these terrorists is essential to reassure US allies that there are consequences for violence against them.

Re-designation would not prevent Iran from continuing to fuel the Yemen insurgency but it would send a message of US strength to Tehran, one sorely needed in the months following the Afghanistan debacle and the administration’s open desperation to renew the nuclear deal at almost any price.

The US administration could overcome this [problem of delivering humanitarian aid] by granting broad licenses and waivers to organizations and companies operating in and around Yemen, enabling essential supplies including food, fuel and medicines to be delivered. This would also need to take account of Ansar Allah’s demands for bribes from aid agencies, and their propensity to steal aid for their own profit. This is a challenge the US administration has so far side-stepped but must now clarify.

No doubt such a licensing regime would introduce further complications to the already desperate and fraught humanitarian programmes — on top of the theft of aid by Ansar Allah. But such additional bureaucratic effort is a price that needs to be paid for the wider political and strategic benefits in countering Iranian and Ansar Allah violence.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/bidens-pathetic-energy-theater/

The New York Times reports that President Biden has a plan to counteract Russia’s energy stranglehold on Europe:

The Biden Administration announced on Tuesday that it was working with gas and crude oil suppliers from the Middle East, North Africa and Asia to bolster supplies to Europe in coming weeks, in an effort to blunt the threat that Russia could cut off fuel shipments in the escalating conflict over Ukraine.

The EU currently imports about a third of its oil and gas from Russia. And, of course, the Germans have been busily making the situation worse by shuttering their nuclear-powered electric plants and pushing for the opening of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would bypass Ukraine and further entrench German dependence on Vladimir Putin’s petro power.

“We expect to be prepared to ensure alternative supplies covering a significant majority of the potential shortfall,’’ a Biden administration official told the Times.

And if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. . .

https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/ric-grenell-ukraine-russia-biden/2022/01/22/id/1053553/

The situation with Ukraine is a “disaster” with only “terrible and bad choices,” says former ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell, and foreign leaders “smell weakness” with President Joe Biden in charge.

“All the work we did, whether it’s the border, whether it’s the Middle East, and now what we’re seeing in Europe is frustrating,” Grenell, who served under former President Donald Trump and is now a senior national security analyst for Newsmax, said on “The Count.”

“We don’t have any good choices. But the reality is that the leaders of Russia and China and a whole bunch of other places smell weakness.”

And now, with the news that the United States is starting to evacuate nonessential personnel from Ukraine, that shows that there is no plan for what will happen if Russia invades Ukraine or what will happen if Americans are left behind enemy lines, like they were in Afghanistan.

“We don’t have a handle on the numbers,” said Grenell, adding that the U.S. does not have an ambassador in Ukraine, so lower-level individuals are left to coordinate with Washinton.

“I can tell you from experience,” he said. “I’d been at the State Department for 11 years. The individuals who are in charge of our embassy in Ukraine right now are not making decisions on their own. They’re going back and organizing with the assistant secretary of state for Europe, who is Karen Donfried, who used to work for the German Marshall fund where the Germans paid part of her salary. So this is a disaster situation all over.”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10439847/Three-Bidens-Iran-negotiating-team-RESIGN-not-tough-nuke-deal.html

Republican Rep. Michael Waltz praised the negotiators who have stepped back for ‘recognizing when diplomacy is getting too desperate’
Waltz has had his own experience in the Middle East as an Army Green Beret 
State Department official confirmed Tuesday that Richard Nephew stood down
He was  U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Iran and known as sanctions architect
Nephew, who wanted Biden to take a harder stance against Iran, has reportedly been avoiding the meetings in Vienna since December 
At the same time, reports emerged that two other negotiators had left
It comes at a critical time in negotiations between the West and Tehran 
Iran has rejected talk of an interim agreement and wants a legal guarantee that the U.S. will not walk away from the nuclear deal

A Republican member of Congress on Tuesday praised three Biden administration officials who walked away from their roles on the State Department’s nuclear talks with Iran.

Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida, who served in the Middle East as one of the Army’s elite Green Berets, told DailyMail.com their departure at a critical junction of the discussions is a reflection of President Joe Biden’s policies putting ‘national security at risk.’

A State Department official confirmed that Richard Nephew, known as the architect of sanctions on Tehran, had stepped down as U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Iran after urging a tougher stance on nuclear talks.