America First: Military Defense Part II

Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

This is a follow-up to a prior article where I outlined how our foreign policy should return to the principle of America First, which was advocated by our Founding Fathers. This article focuses on specific actions that should be taken for our defense. While I am admittedly not a military planning expert, these suggestions are based on common sense; a characteristic sorely missing in many of our current defense leadership who seem more focused on their “woke” agenda.

We are living in a dangerous time. During the Cold War, we only had to worry about the Soviet Union from the standpoint of nuclear conflict. Now with China, Russia, North Korea, Pakistan, and soon Iran, having nuclear capability, the situation is far more complex and dangerous. First: one of the things that President Reagan wisely did was to encourage the development of an effective missile defense system. This was not continued by subsequent administrations. We need to return to developing a missile defense system. If we don’t, we will be at the mercy of any rogue country that decides to launch an attack. Second: we need to establish a satellite defense system that will protect our essential satellites without which a modern war cannot be fought. President Trump’s decision to create an effective Space Force needs to be strongly supported. Third: we need to fortify and secure our electrical power grid from sabotage or direct attack. This must also include protecting the computer programs that control these systems. One of the dumbest proposals from the Left is offshore wind farms. I cannot think of anything more vulnerable than a power system fifty miles away from our shores. Fourth, we need to consolidate our current military forces. According to a recent article in the Epoch Times, we have over 200,000 military personnel scattered all over the globe. We need to refocus these deployments and encourage our allies to support their own defenses. Europe, South Korea, and Japan for example, should not be relying on us for their defense. We are 34 trillion dollars in debt!. Fifth, we need to focus on ensuring that we have the strongest Navy in the world. We should use this force as needed and then return them to proximity to our shores where their vulnerability to attack is lessoned as compared to stationing naval fleets all over the world. Sixth, we need to return to the principle contained in the Monroe Doctrine that declared the Western Hemisphere to be off limits to our adversaries. Allowing China to infiltrate countries like Venezuela and Ecuador is contrary to our interests.

The last item is dealing with the drug cartels in Mexico. The weaponization of mass illegal migration, is a direct threat of our survival as a country. The influx of fentanyl is estimated to kill 100,000 Americans each year and is now the greatest cause of death of American men between the age of 19 and 45. We fought terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. When are we going to get serious and destroy the drug cartels? That is a fight worth having.

The above will require a refocusing of our defense efforts. However, continuing what we have been doing is no longer tenable.

America First: Defense Part I

Author: R. Alan Harrop, PhD

In another recent article, I wrote about the importance of putting America First (as advocated by the Founding Fathers) and ensuring that we have a strong economy not dependent of other countries for essential manufactures, medical supplies and food. This article will focus on what we should be doing to protect our country from current and future adversaries.

There were two essential principles of the America First policy of the Founding Fathers. The first was avoiding foreign wars that did not directly impact on our security; and the second was to focus on ensuring that the Western Hemisphere did not become controlled by our adversaries from other parts of the world (i.e. The Monroe Doctrine). The Founding Fathers would be dismayed that some of our leaders have increasingly advocated that we are obligated to defend other countries anywhere in the world that are threatened or attacked. This progressive, globalist idea has us acting as the world’s policeman to keep the world “ Safe for Democracy” This idea, advocated by Woodrow Wilson, has led us into many wars where we actually failed, made things worse, and as a consequence are increasingly seen as weak and not a country to be afraid of offending. This is not good for our security since it invites more aggression.

A good example, was our invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of the attacks on 9/11. Instead of just identifying the enemy, hitting them with overwhelming force, and then leaving; the elitist leaders of our country decided we should turn both those countries into democracies. After wasting trillions of dollars (which we don’t have) and the lives of our patriotic military personnel, we are in many ways worse than before. Iran is in ascendance and the Taliban was left with $85 billion dollars of the finest military equipment. Also, our worst adversary, China, has taken over a military airbase we built! Of course, our leaders never asked us if this is what we wanted. They just took it upon themselves since they know best. These things would never have happened if we had followed the American First principle of our Founding Fathers.

We are perceived as so weak, that a group of Houthi rebels in Yemen attack our ships and those of other countries with impunity. This reminds me of the wars with the Barbary Pirates who captured our ships and enslaved our sailors in the early 1800s. Along with a couple of allies, we hit them hard and stopped their attacks on our ships. We should do likewise with the Houthis. Hit them with overwhelming force and stop matching them shot for shot.

As far as protecting our hemisphere is concerned, China has been steadily increasing its influence over several South American countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil and Chile. China extends loans that then make those countries dependent on their relationship with China. For example, China has loaned over $60 billion to Venezuela some of which was used for military equipment to suppress the uprising against communist dictator President Maduro. China builds its own seaports and other facilities that can be used to offset our influence in the Western Hemisphere. This is part of China’s Belt and Road project that has the objective of controlling the global world order.

In summary, it is time for America to re-evaluate our commitments and foreign policy to ensure that we are focused on what is best for America.

Does America Have A Justice System?

On Thursday, The Epoch Times reported that Special Counsel Robert Hur has announced that President Biden will not be charged for mishandling classified documents. I suppose it would be petty to point out that as a Senator or a private citizen he was not entitled to have those documents in his personal possession, but I guess that really doesn’t matter.

The article reports:

Among the reasons stated for not pressing charges was that Biden would present to the jury ‘as sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’

I would like to point out that this elderly man with a poor memory is President of the United States. I also question the ‘well-meaning’ part.

The article continues:

“Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” Mr. Hur wrote in a 388-page report to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The materials, stated the report, included “marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and notebooks containing Mr. Biden’s handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods.” The FBI collected these items during a search of President Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, residence last year.

This is  unbelievable. President Trump’s house gets searched, and he gets charged while President Biden (because he is essentially considered a senile old man) gets away scot free. They searched Baron Trump’s room. Shouldn’t someone have searched Hunter Biden’s room?

I don’t know how (or if) we recover from the banana republic we have become.

 

While We Were Watching Other Things…

Yesterday The Washington Examiner posted an article about what is currently happening in  Afghanistan. I’m not sure at exactly what point we totally botched our handling of Afghanistan, but we obviously did.

The article reports:

Over two years after the Biden administration abruptly pulled out of Afghanistan, China is sliding in with its eyes on the war-torn country’s natural resources.

China is being welcomed with open arms by the ruling Taliban government, according to a Pentagon audit.

What’s more, the Taliban are moving to warm relations with China, sending their first ambassador to Beijing, according to John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction.

“On December 1, 2023, the new Taliban ambassador to China, Bilal Karimi, arrived in Beijing, marking the first ambassador the Taliban have sent to another country since seizing power in 2021. While no country formally recognizes the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan, China does maintain an embassy in Kabul,” Sopko’s latest audit for Congress and shared with Secrets said.

The audit suggested the Taliban are campaigning for more Chinese investment.

It said the Taliban have “reportedly asked” to join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Belt and Road Initiative.

Sopko said the Taliban’s acting commerce minister, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, has been very direct in wooing Chinese investment. He quoted Azizi saying, “China, which invests all over the world, should also invest in Afghanistan. … We have everything they need, such as lithium, copper, and iron.”

In the last year, China and the Taliban have inked a 25-year mining contract at Amu Darya, said to have the world’s third-largest oil and natural gas reserves. A Chinese firm is also investing in Afghan power generation and building a major cement factory.

For a number of years, China has been quietly creating a monopoly on the raw materials needed to support modern technology. This is another step in that direction.

Why We Need Accountability For The Money And Weapons We Are Sending To Ukraine

On Monday, The American Thinker posted the following headline:

Foiled Muslim terrorists were set to purchase American weapons from Ukrainian military official for pennies on the dollar

The article reports:

In April of 2022, Reuters ran an article on the status of a particular American munition—thanks to Joe Biden’s willingness to empty American stores for Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the war in Ukraine, the stock of Raytheon’s “Stinger” missile was dwindling, and “re-stocking challenges” had appeared on the horizon. A month later, in May, Axios reported this:

The U.S. Army awarded Raytheon Technologies a $624 million contract to produce 1,300 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to replenish its stock after sending around 1,400 of the missile systems to Ukraine in response to Russia’s unprovoked invasion.

The jihadists who planned attacks on cathedrals in Austria and Germany this past Christmas were offered a rocket launcher by an unnamed army official in Ukraine, according to the Austrian news outlet, Exxpress.

The site reported on Wednesday that the German Federal Criminal Police Office had obtained testimony from one of the suspects affiliated with the Islamic State terror cell in the Afghan province of Khorasan (ISPK) that revealed the group had been approached by “a contact who is supposed to fight in the army in the Donetsk Basin” regarding the purchase of a U.S.-manufactured FIM-92 Stinger missile.

It was reported that the Ukrainian national within his country’s military ranks offered to sell the weapon for $5,000 and regularly visits Germany to attempt to sell military equipment on the black market.

The article concludes:

First, the cadaver-in-chief pulls out of Afghanistan in the most asinine and irresponsible of ways, causing the murders of American soldiers and Afghan civilians, and hands billions of dollars over to the terrorist group now running the government; then, he delivers weapons over to one of the most notoriously corrupt government cartels in the history of the world, and those arms somehow make it to the black market, being sold to the very jihadists who have “intensified” thanks to his efforts and foreign policies.

Seriously, what a tangled web—how is it possible that one man can play such a crucial role in crisis after crisis? Well, because that man is Joe Biden.

No more money to Ukraine.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

On Tuesday, The U.K. Daily Mail reported the following:

Since the fall of Afghanistan, the U.S. has forked over funds to groups under the brutal Taliban regime to the tune of $2.35 billion. 

That’s according to a new report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), released to the public on Tuesday. 

Another $1.7 billion ‘remained available for possible disbursement’ at the time of the report, dated July 30.

Why are we giving money to people who hate us? Can’t they hate us for free?

In May 2023, U.S. News reported:

The Taliban’s return to power has affected all citizens. In December 2022, for example, the government reinstituted public floggings and executions. But Afghan women, in particular, have seen decades of hard-earned rights stripped away during less than two years of Taliban rule. Though the Taliban initially promised to uphold women’s and minority rights, they have instead imposed strict restrictions. The most recent blow to women’s rights came in April, when women were banned from working for the United Nations, further limiting their participation in the workforce and day-to-day life.

The article at U.S. News includes a timeline of how the Taliban has taken away women’s rights since they took control. Why are we sending these people money (that we don’t have)?

The article at The U.K. Mail concludes:

UN experts say 20 years of progress for women and girls were undone with the takeover of the Taliban in 2021. Women have now largely been banned from attending high school and driving or working outside the home. 

Sopko [John Sopko, head of SIGAR (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction)] noted in April that in addition to the $2.35 billion, another $3.5 billion is slated to come in to Afghanistan through an international fund.

‘I don’t trust the Taliban as far as you can throw them,’ Sopko told the committee. ‘The information we’re getting — again, not from the State Department who isn’t talking to us or USAID … is that the Taliban are already diverting funds.’ 

‘I haven’t seen a starving Taliban fighter on TV, they seem to be fat dumb and happy. I see starving Afghan children on TV.’

‘If the purpose is to help the Afghan people we have to have effective oversight,’ Sopko said, blaming an ‘over-reliance’ on international agencies he said have been ‘horrible’ about providing his agency with information.

It would be interesting to know who is responsible for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. It would also be interesting to know why we are giving the country that kind of money as they are eliminating the rights of women? Do we care about women’s rights overseas?

Where Is The Money Going?

On Wednesday, American Greatness posted an article about the aid America has been sending to Afghanistan since the American withdrawal.

The article reports:

Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko slammed the U.S. Department of State and USAID during a House Oversight and Reform hearing on Wednesday, accusing the agencies of allowing U.S. taxpayer dollars to be diverted to the Taliban and stonewalling his inquiries into the situation.

According to Sopko, the United States has provided more than $8 billion in assistance to the Afghan people since the U.S. withdrawal, but due to “a lack of aggressive oversight controls,” unknown quantities of U.S. dollars could be ending up in the hands of the Taliban.

The GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee heard from four Inspectors General Wednesday morning during its first hearing on “the Biden Administration’s Disastrous Withdrawal from Afghanistan.”

“While I agree and we all agree Afghanistan faces dire humanitarian and economic situation, it is critical that our assistance not be diverted by the Taliban,” Sopko declared in his opening statement.

The article notes:

The Department of State, USAID, the UN and other agencies have refused to give him “basic information that we or any other oversight body would need to ensure safe stewardship of tax dollars,” Sopko testified.

“More troubling, State and USAID have instructed their employees not to talk to SIGAR, and in one recent instance, State told one of its contractors not to participate in a SIGAR audit,” he added. “I note in passing that DOD’s refusal to respond to SIGAR’s inquiries in 2022 caused months of delay in responding to this committee’s requests.”

Thank God the Republicans took over the House of Representatives. Do you think Congress would be even questioning this if the Democrats were still in control? America cannot afford to be the piggy-bank of the world. Most of the money we are sending to other countries is money we have borrowed from China. At some point our borrowing will end. Does anyone believe that any of the countries we have financed are going to pay us back? It’s bad enough that we are borrowing money to send to Afghanistan, but it is even worse that our government cannot tell us that the money we are sending is not supporting the Taliban.

Creating Global Chaos

The Biden administration has created global chaos. Remember when voters were told that President Biden would bring stability and ‘normalcy’ to America? How is that working?

On Wednesday, American Greatness posted a list of President Biden’s foreign policy ‘accomplishments’.

Here is a summary of the list:

1) Joe Biden abruptly pulled all U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

2) The Biden Administration allowed a Chinese high-altitude spy balloon to traverse the continental United States, spying on key American military installations.

3) In March 2021, at an Anchorage, Alaska mini-summit, Chinese diplomats unleashed a relentless barrage at their stunned and mostly silent American counterparts.

4) In June 2021, in response to Russian cyber-attacks against the United States, Biden meekly asked Putin to at least make off-limits certain critical American infrastructure

5) When asked what he would do if Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden replied that the reaction would depend on whether the Russians conducted a “minor incursion.”

6) Between 2021 and 2022, Joe Biden serially insulted and bragged that he would not meet Muhammad bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, and one of our oldest and most valuable allies in the Middle East.

7) For much of 2021, the Biden Administration made it known that it was eager and ready to offer concessions to re-enter the dangerous Iran nuclear deal—at a time when Iran has joined China and Russia in a new geostrategic partnership.

8) Almost immediately upon inauguration, the administration moved the United States away from Israel, restored financial aid to radical Palestinians, and both publicly and privately alienated the current Netanyahu government.

9) In serial fashion, Biden stopped all construction on the border wall and opened the border.

10) In the last two years, the Pentagon has embarked on a woke agenda.

Please follow the link to read the details. If this is normal, I don’t like it.

Some Highlights From The April 6 White House Press Briefing

It’s good to know that creative fiction lives. It’s not so good to know that it lives in the White House Press Briefing Room.

Below are parts of the transcript from the April 6 briefing:

…But while it was always the President’s intent to end that war, it is also undeniable that decisions made and the lack of planning done by the previous administration significantly limited options available to him.

President Biden inherited a force presence in Afghanistan of some 2,500 troops. That was the lowest since 2001. He inherited a Special Immigrant Visa program that had been starved of resources. And he inherited a deal struck between the previous administration and the Taliban that called for the complete removal of all U.S. troops by May of 2021 — or else the Taliban, which had stopped its attacks while the deal was in place, would go back to war against the United States.

…And just to remind: We continue to facilitate the safe departures of Americans from Afghanistan when they tell us they are ready to leave. And we have proudly welcomed nearly 100,000 of our Afghan partners and their family members to the United States. Many of these families left Afghanistan after the withdrawal, and they continue to arrive on a regular basis.

Scott Johnson at Power Line Blog also posted an article about the briefing. That article included two Twitter screen shots:

I am amazed.

Where The Democrats Went Wrong

The red wave never happened, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are headed in the wrong direction. There was probably fraud in some areas, but unless it can be proved, it will continue. There were not enough Republicans elected to change the direction we are heading. On Monday, The Washington Examiner posted an article detailing some of those problems.

The article reports:

If there were a way to illustrate the beginning, middle, and end of this election cycle in four powerful moments, I’d start with the faces of the men and women working on the construction of the Keystone pipeline, and the owners of the small businesses who supported them, that I witnessed days after President Joe Biden terminated their livelihoods.

These are people who work with their hands in the harshest of weather conditions digging trenches, cleaning feeder pipes, laying concrete, ensuring the proper fittings on the connecting pipes, and loading and unloading heavy materials by hand. That’s not including the faces of the people who run the motels, diners, machine shops, and barber shops and the mechanics who make sure they are fed, housed, cleaned, and able to get home when the job is done.

The next image in my coverage of these first two years of the Biden administration captured the true beginning of his descent away from the public. It happened while I was driving past the town square in Independence, Missouri, and saw 13 empty chairs sitting in a semicircle at the base of the lowered American flag in front of the Old Jackson County Courthouse, with each chair bearing the name of one of the 13 soldiers lost in Afghanistan during Biden’s bug-out from that country.

It was in the days and weeks after Aug. 26, 2021, when the nation lost those service members during Biden’s botched withdrawal, that the media and the Democratic Party as a whole failed to understand the mark that moment had on the American psyche. It was a shift away from the party in power and the president, whose credibility since then has never stopped slipping away.

…The final image of this election happened last week when someone snapped an iPhone photo of Michael McGuire, who just got off of work at the local coal mine and rushed to Rupp Arena at the University of Kentucky so he could watch an event with his son.

The article concludes:

The Democratic Party and the cultural curators in this country that run our institutions, academia, national media, corporations, Hollywood, and our sports entities have forgotten that these people vote — no matter how much pressure you place on them, no matter how much you look down on them or call them names or believe you know better than them or think they should just deal with high prices or accept dangerous crime in their communities.

They feel much more connected to the values and work ethic of the McGuires in this world than the Hollywood actors sent out in droves to bring the votes home for the Democratic Party.

The Democrats need a much better message to appeal to voters the next time a big election is held — one that is aspirational, nondivisive, and truly inclusive.

That wasn’t their message this year.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. It is extremely insightful.

Mixed Emotions On A Recent Headline

The Biden administration has announced the killing of top al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri over the weekend. That’s a good thing. I have little doubt that al-Zawahiri is dead, I have a lot of doubt as to exactly what the truth is surrounding his death.

The Conservative Review points out a few problems with the announcement:

According to expert terrorism analyst Bill Roggio, the narrative that al-Zawahiri’s death was a counterterrorism success “masks the undeniable truth that Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is a safe haven for al-Qaeda.”

That is because, as Roggio explained, al-Zawahiri was “hiding” in plain-sight, i.e., he was not hiding at all.

“Zawahiri was killed in the Sherpur neighborhood, in a home run by a deputy of Sirajuddin Haqqani. Sirajuddin is of course one of two deputy Taliban emirs as well as the interior minister,” Roggio explained. “Zawahiri could not operate in Afghanistan — particularly in Kabul — without the consent of the Taliban. He wasn’t in the remote mountains of Kunar, Nuristan, or Nangarhar, or distant provinces of Ghazni, Helmand, or Kandahar. He was in the Taliban’s capital.”

The Conservative Treehouse is also somewhat skeptical of the narrative:

Everything about the supposed killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri is suspect, weird and fishy.

♦First, Al Zawahiri has been reported as killed or dead at least a half dozen times in the last 10 years; including by natural causes.  ♦Second, Ayman Zawahiri was very old. Western citations put his age at 71 (born 1951), however, that is suspect (sounds like his younger brother’s age).  ♦Third, the location of his reported killing in Kabul is odd.  Zawahiri was known to avoid large populations, and even with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan the tribal conflicts with factions of the Taliban would have been an issue.

♦Fourth, somehow the Taliban waited until after the U.S. intelligence community leaked the strike to the media before they issued a statement condemning the drone attack.  Since when does al-Qaeda wait 48+ hours to denounce hostile action in their territory?   Coordinating and timed joint press releases between the White House and ‘Taliban‘ to western media outlets is seriously sketchy.

♦Fifth, absolutely no official outline from the Pentagon or White House on this “successful counterterrorism strike“?  Despite a primetime presidential address, the White House has no announcement, no official statement, nothing, on their website.  Additionally, Biden leads off saying the attack was on Saturday, the Taliban waited 48-hours to denounce a U.S. drone strike?  Think about it.  Doesn’t add up.  More sketchy.

♦Sixth, and seemingly just an oddball addendum, Fox News breaks the story using Jennifer Griffin as lead reporter.  As I noted several days ago, Griffin had been missing from Fox News since she went bonzo in March attacking Tucker Carlson over his cynicism of the official State Dept and Pentagon narrative in Ukraine.

I am willing to rejoice that a terrorist has departed the earth, but I do wonder if the information we have been given is accurate. It is also disturbing to learn that Afghanistan is once again a safe haven for al-Qaeda.

Funding Our Enemies

On Saturday, The Associated Press reported:

President Joe Biden signed an order Friday to free $7 billion in Afghan assets now frozen in the U.S., splitting the money between humanitarian aid for poverty-stricken Afghanistan and a fund for Sept. 11 victims still seeking relief for the terror attacks that killed thousands and shocked the world.

No money would immediately be released. But Biden’s order calls for banks to provide $3.5 billion of the frozen amount to a trust fund for distribution through humanitarian groups for Afghan relief and basic needs. The other $3.5 billion would stay in the U.S. to finance payments from lawsuits by U.S. victims of terrorism that are still working their way through the courts.

International funding to Afghanistan was suspended and billions of dollars of the country’s assets abroad, mostly in the United States, were frozen after the Taliban took control of the country in August as the U.S. military withdrew.

The article concludes:

The United Nations last month issued an appeal for nearly $5 billion, its largest ever appeal for one country, estimating that nearly 90% of the country’s 38 million people were surviving below the poverty level of $1.90 a day. The U.N. also warned that upward of 1 million children risked starvation.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Friday night that it is “encouraged” by Biden’s executive order.

“”It’s also important to reiterate that humanitarian assistance alone will be insufficient to meet the tremendous needs of Afghan women and men and children over the long term, and it is critical that the Afghan economy is able to restart in order for these needs of the Afghan people to be met with a sustainable and meaningful manner,” Dujarric said.

David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee, on Wednesday urged release of the funds to prevent famine.

“The humanitarian community did not choose the government, but that is no excuse to punish the people, and there is a middle course — to help the Afghan people without embracing the new government,” Miliband said at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the matter.

I hate to be cynical (but I’m good at it), but does anyone think that the money given to the Taliban will be used to improve the living conditions of the people living in Afghanistan? We only need to look at the Gaza Strip to see how humanitarian aid can be misused to buy weapons and build military infrastructure. All of that money should go to the victims of 9/11 and their families. Why are we funding terrorism?

Who Is In Charge?

Yesterday The Conservative Treehouse reported that Secretary of State Blinken has signed an agreement stating that Qatar will formally represent U.S. interests in Afghanistan. Interesting choice.

The article reports:

It is appropriate, given the severity and urgency of the issues we face, that we not mince words. Qatar is the formal Middle East government that supports political Islam through the organization known as the Muslim Brotherhood, aka “the brotherhood.”

The Muslim Brotherhood is the fabric covering the umbrella of political Islam. The umbrella ribs are the different factions of Islam reflecting varying degrees of extremism or authenticity. As a result, all of the various factions of Islamic extremism, al-Nusra, al-Qaeda, ISIS, Taliban, ISIS-k etc., are given legitimacy through the political front of The Muslim Brotherood which faces the aggregate west.

The nation state of Qatar is the primary financing agent for The Brotherhood, and all nations who engage with Qatar on a geopolitical level are essentially engaging with The Brotherhood. Conversely, if a nation state wants to engage with any of the various Islamic groups -each containing various levels of authenticity (ie. extremism)- they can do so through Qatar which acts as an official government intermediary on behalf of The Muslim Brotherhood.

EXAMPLES: •When President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi expelled the radical leaders of The Brotherhood from Egypt, they went to Qatar.  •When President Donald Trump asked the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to confront radical Islamic extremism, the Arab nations confronted Qatar.  •When Qatar was forced to expel the five most radical leaders of The Brotherhood they went to Turkey.  [Turkish President Recep Erdogan is aligned in common principle with The Brotherhood.]  •When the U.S. released captured Islamic extremists from Gitmo (al-Qaeda in Afghanistan), they were transferred to Qatar.  •When the the Taliban took back control over Afghanistan, the al-Qaeda leaders from Qatar went back to Afghanistan.

These examples showcase the fulcrum of Qatar as it relates to supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which is -by extension- the political face of extremist/authentic Islam.  Another example would be Hillary Clinton (Sec of State) and Leon Panetta (CIA) using Qatar as the financial center and transport hub for covert U.S. missile shipments into Libya (Operation Zero Footprint), that lead to the attack in Benghazi after the U.S. politics shifted due to al-Qaeda giving the missiles to their Brotherhood allies in Afghanistan and Syria to attack U.S. troops.

The article concludes:

While this sounds purposefully opaque, which it is, to those who do not know the geopolitical background, such an agreement makes buckets of sense.  Barack Obama has always supported the Muslim Brotherhood, and Barack Obama’s network is currently in charge of the administration represented by the face of Joe Biden.

Other ideological supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood/Qatar include: John Kerry, John McCain, Adam Kinzinger, Samantha Power, Valerie Jarrett, Susan Rice, Liz Cheney, the CIA, Evan McMullin, Huma Abedin, Mike Morrell, Hillary Clinton, John Bolton, the U.S. State Department, the Brookings Institute (Lawfare, etc.), the government of China, the government of Turkey, and The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In return, Qatar funds the Democrats and Republicans who operate within all of the ideological DC institutions (ie. Clinton Global Initiative) that support the Muslim Brotherhood either directly or through the process of willful blindness that Islam calls taqiya.

The Biden administration is paving the way for more worldwide terrorism. Under President Biden, America is not acting as a purveyor of peace in the world, but an enabler of terrorism.

 

The Rescues Continue

CBN News posted an article today about an Afghan refugee who joined the American army after the 9/11 attacks.

The article reports:

An Afghan native who came to the U.S. as a refugee days before the 9/11 attacks and later served as a U.S. soldier told Fox News this week he illegally crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan about a month ago to rescue at-risk individuals and family members.

The unnamed former soldier — who spoke on condition of anonymity — said he has rescued at least 30 people from Afghanistan, including Christians and other religious minorities stuck in the midst of the Taliban’s reemergence.

He described himself to Fox as a “proud American soldier” who fought in Afghanistan before leaving due to injuries.

Some of the man’s family members in Afghanistan have faced retribution over the years due to his American military service. Those fears have intensified in the wake of the Taliban’s revival. Despite pleading for help from the U.S. government to keep them safe, he reportedly received no assistance.

In an initial interview with Fox, he said he hadn’t gotten his family members out but had rescued others in need; after the interview, though, he reportedly did successfully rescue his relatives, but challenges remain.

The family is in an unnamed country and could be returned to Afghanistan if they don’t find a permanent solution within 28 days.

The ex-soldier has also faced his own set of troubles, telling the outlet that he was at one point “lashed” by the Taliban after militants caught him.

The article also notes:

“Had they known that I had actually just helped a Catholic family get out, it would have been worse,” he said. “Far worse.”

The Taliban continue their intense crackdown inside Afghanistan, with reports that they are only allowing some girls to return to school, among other restrictions.

Our government has a lot to answer for in its handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Unfortunately, as long as the swamp is in power in Washington, no one will be held accountable.

A Not-So-Veiled Threat?

Yesterday The Daily Caller posted an article about the Taliban regime in Afghanistan’s request for recognition as legitimate by the nations of the world.

The article reports:

The Taliban warned the U.S. and the rest of the global community Saturday that their decision to withhold formal recognition of Afghanistan’s new government may result in consequences for the world.

“Our message to America is, if unrecognition continues, Afghan problems continue, it is the problem of the region and could turn into a problem for the world,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at Saturday’s press conference, according to Reuters.

Mujahid noted that absence of formal diplomatic ties between Afghanistan and the U.S. led to the military invasion in 2001, Reuters reported.

I don’t think the absence of formal diplomatic ties was actually the problem.

The article concludes:

Although not yet recognized by a single country in the world, the Taliban are counting on China to provide financial assistance to Afghanistan’s struggling economy. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar, in late October, Reuters reported.

The spokesperson also added that China had vowed to inject funds into Afghanistan’s transport infrastructure, as well as to provide Kabul’s exports access to Chinese markets via neighboring Pakistan.

U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said the Biden administration’s strategy in regard to the Taliban was a “far cry” from formal recognition during a briefing in September. However, she did not claim that the U.S. would never recognize the organization.

There are a few things to consider here. China has moved quickly to fill the vacuum left by the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. It is quite possible that China will be able to use the infrastructure America left behind to exploit the rare earth elements that could bring Afghanistan into the twenty first century. China has been working for decades on cornering the market on the elements needed for the computer technology of today. Also consider the fact that much of our Washington ‘leaders’ are indebted to (that’s a polite word for owned by) China. I only wish that we could afford to pay our national leaders as well as China pays them. There are many aspects of the Afghanistan debacle that have much wider ramifications than simply leaving Afghanistan.

Our Pakistani “Allies”

Jihad Watch reported the following today:

Interrogation of two female suicide bombers named Shifa Haris and Mizha Siddique of the Islamic State’s Kerala module has revealed that around 3200 ISIS sleeper cells are operating in Kerala, India. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) team from Delhi arrested both of the women from a residence at Thana in Kerala’s Kannur in August of this year.

Each of these cells has around 10 members, which translates to the presence of 32000 Islamic jihadis in the state, with at least 40% of these being women. Many of these women have been converted to Islam from other faiths through narcotics jihad or grooming jihad. The charge sheet presented by the NIA states that Mizha Siddique had travelled to Tehran with her accomplices and intended to cross over to Syria illegally, but failed. Mizha was working under the direction of the Kerala ISIS kingpin, Mohammad Ameen, and recruiting Muslim youth for ISIS. Mohammad Ameen is now behind bars. Mizha had recruited her cousins Shifa Harris and Mushab Anwar for jihad and inspired them to join ISIS. Shifa had sent funds to their Kashmir module; they were planning Hijra, Islamic religious migration, to Kashmir. About seven young jihadis were set to migrate to Kashmir from Kerala.

This large-scaled permeation of sleeper cells suggests that the ideologues of the Islamic State are now embedded across Kerala, and its growth is difficult to monitor or check. Most of the members of the ISIS sleeper cells are part of its cyber brigade, are incorrigibly indoctrinated, and could pick up arms at any moment to fight for a caliphate led by the Islamic State.

These jihadis are mostly modern, highly qualified, and adept at using the latest technologies and gadgets. Apart from grooming, many were lured into this cause with promises of sex, money, positions, drugs, or foreign jobs. The Kerala brigade also involves people from the film and media industries, who are working closely with each other.

The article concludes by noting the role that Pakistan played in the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan:

The victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan was impossible without the support of the Pakistani military. In between May and June of this year, Pakistan started to position the Taliban with a renewed image on the international stage. Pakistani federal minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi publically claimed that “the Taliban might wear baggy dresses but they have intelligent brains,” and Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed asserted that the current Taliban leadership is a moderate one compared to the Taliban of 1996 that had publicly displayed the dead bodies of the then-Afghan president Najibullah and his brother. Again, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan denied the US airspace for attacking the Taliban.

The Taliban commanders, on the other hand, were functional in Peshawar and Quetta in Pakistan, much like how Osama bin Laden was operating out of their backyard. They were transferring both their troops and those of Pakistan towards Kabul and other major Afghan cities. The Pakistani agency ISI was overseeing these jihad terror cells, and has provided a fertile breeding ground for Islamic terrorists. When the most opportune time arrives, they may reach out to the jihadis-in-the-making in Kerala’s sleeper cells and order them to carry out massive acts of terror.

Why in the world are we giving Pakistan foreign aid?

A Story That Needs To Be Told

Yesterday YouTube posted a Glenn Beck interview with a young lady who escaped from Afghanistan after the government fell. The young lady and her sister were interviewed. It is a long, compelling interview. I understand that people surfing the Internet generally don’t take the time to watch something for almost an hour. However, if you are a military veteran, particularly an Afghanistan veteran, please watch the last ten minutes. What the young lady stated in the final minutes of the interview was a revelation to me and I suspect it will be a revelation to many Americans. Please watch the interview.

Lest We Forget

Breitbart posted an article yesterday reminding us that 38 California schoolchildren are still stranded in Afghanistan.

The article reports:

And this is just one school district in one state. God only knows how many more there are.

One reason we don’t know is because the State Department refuses to tell us how many Americans are still trapped in that terrorist hell hole. And with the establishment media running interference for Biden, the administration is getting away with this — with not informing the public about who and how many are being held by the Taliban.

And what other conclusion can we come to at this point other than this: these Americans left behind by Biden — and I think that number reaches the hundreds — are being held by the Taliban. In other words, they are hostages.

Other than being held hostage, give me a good reason why these kids are not home, and all the other Americans have not yet come home?

What could possibly be stopping them, other than the Taliban?

And we all know why this is happening. The Taliban are using these hostages to extract concessions and cash from the White House, and if past is prologue, Biden will pay up, which will only encourage more hostage-taking.

The article concludes:

It’s just remarkable that America’s establishment is now so corrupt and broken that children — American children! — being held hostage by monstrous terrorists are no longer as important to the media as shielding Biden from the political damage he deserves. But, of course, this is all his fault. He was the one who decided not only to pull our troops before our civilians (including kids) were safely home; he handed the Taliban tens of billions of dollars in operational U.S. war equipment.

But rather than pressuring the Biden administration to get these kids home, the media are deliberately ignoring what would be a ratings-grabber of a story to protect Biden.

A few dead kids?

Whatever.

The cause comes first.

 

We Need More Information On This

Yesterday The Daily Wire posted an article about the difficulty some Americans are having coming from Afghanistan to America.

The article reports:

The Biden administration has reportedly blocked a charter flight from Afghanistan carrying more than 100 American citizens and green card holders from landing in the U.S.

The volunteer group in charge of managing the flight accused the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of refusing to give clearance for the charter flight to land in the U.S. The flight is carrying dozens of people who have been trapped in Afghanistan for weeks since the U.S. military withdrew at the end of August, according to Reuters.

“They will not allow a charter on an international flight into a U.S. port of entry,” said Project Dynamo founder Bryan Stern. By Tuesday morning, Stern, who is aboard the blocked flight, had made it out of Kabul to an airport in Abu Dhabi.

Stern said the flight had been stuck on the ground for at least 14 hours awaiting clearance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The flight is carrying 117 people, including 59 children.

“An administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were unfamiliar with the matter, but that the U.S. government typically takes time to verify the manifests of charter planes before clearing them to land in the United States,” the Reuters report said.

“They were unfamiliar with the matter?!?!?” What?! Every administration official should be doing everything they can to repatriate the Americans the administration stranded in Afghanistan.

The article concludes:

Jean Marie Thrower, an Army veteran and volunteer with the Afghan Rescue Crew, said on Sunday that the number of trapped Americans is “definitely” higher than what the State Department claims. As The Daily Wire reported:

“Definitely, there are more than the hundred that is being stated. We have multiple groups working together with teams with rosters of people, and we continue to scrub those rosters to make sure we know where these people are at,” Thrower said. “I do want to say as a veteran, quickly, that I’m appalled at our administration and how they have disrespected Americans and our allies, as well as put our soldiers’ future operations in jeopardy.”

Thrower said that the Biden administration is underestimating the number of Americans still in Afghanistan based on the number of people she and the Afghan Rescue Crew are in contact with.

“We have the evidence out there. We are talking to these people. We have American children. We have children being born that are really under American citizenship, technically. So, there are a lot of different things,” Thrower said.

Say what you will about President Trump; I don’t believe he would have stranded Americans.

Haven’t They Got Better Things To Do?

The Gateway Pundit is reporting today that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the U.S. Veterans’ groups that are going into Afghanistan that are going into Afghanistan and rescuing Americans and Afghans who were stranded there by our government.

The article reports:

The FBI has contacted veterans’ groups which helped evacuate Americans and at-risk allies left behind after the chaotic Afghanistan evacuation last month to make sure they did not violate federal laws.

Agents have enquired about financial records and flight manifests, and visited at least one group leader at home, Politico reported.

Agents are reportedly looking at whether any groups solicited money, offered bribes, or hired for-profit contractors for security and escort services.

The controversial private military contractor Erik Prince, who founded Blackwater, offered to safely evacuate people for $6,500 each, sparking allegations of profiteering. It is unclear if Prince has been contacted by the FBI.

Dozens of private groups made up of veterans and workers with experience in Afghanistan cropped up to aid those looking to flee the country.

Many were coordinated over messaging apps like WhatsApp, and some have continued their work since American military forces left the country for good on August 31.

This is amazing after the State Department has been accused of blocking the take-offs of some refugee  planes and then giving the names of the passengers to the Taliban. If the State Department is not willing to rescue Americans, they should at least get out of the way and let someone else do it!

Who Decides?

Yesterday The Daily Caller posted an article about the Taliban’s request for representation at the United Nations. The article includes a list of the countries that will decide whether the current Afghanistan Ambassador to the United Nations remains in place or the Taliban gets to seat its Ambassador. The nine countries which will make this decision are the United States, China, Russia, Sweden, the Bahamas, Bhutan, Chile, Namibia and Sierra Leone.

The article reports:

The Islamic militant group wrote the U.N. Secretary-General, Portugal’s Antonio Guterres, Monday to request permission to participate in the ongoing gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, according to The Associated Press. Five days prior, Afghanistan’s current ambassador to the U.N., Ghulam, Isaczai, provided Guterres with a list of the Afghan government’s delegation for the proceedings.

The Taliban letter was written with the letterhead “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” and was signed by the Taliban’s appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ameer Khan Muttaqi, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The letter said that former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was removed from power by the Islamic militants Aug. 15, and that the global community no longer recognized him or his government as the leaders of Afghanistan. As a result, Muttaqi said, Isaczai could no longer represent Afghanistan at the U.N.

It should be noted that if the Taliban is seated in place of the current Afghan Ambassador, the Taliban inherits Afghanistan’s seat on the U.N. Women’s Rights Commission. I suspect that I am not the only person that has a problem with that.

Trying To Establish Legitimacy

Yesterday One America News reported that the Taliban has asked to address the United Nations in New York this week. They have nominated Doha-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as Afghanistan’s UN Ambassador. There is a problem with that–Ghulam Isaczai is already Afghanistan’s UN Ambassador.

The article reports:

The Taliban have asked to address world leaders at the United Nations in New York this week and nominated their Doha-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as Afghanistan’s U.N. ambassador, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi made the request in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday. Muttaqi asked to speak during the annual high-level meeting of the General Assembly, which finishes on Monday.

Guterres’ spokesperson, Farhan Haq, confirmed Muttaqi’s letter. The move sets up a showdown with Ghulam Isaczai, the U.N. ambassador in New York representing Afghanistan’s government ousted last month by the Taliban.

Haq said the rival requests for Afghanistan’s U.N. seat had been sent to a nine-member credentials committee, whose members include the United States, China and Russia. The committee is unlikely to meet on the issue before Monday, so it is doubtful that the Taliban foreign minister will address the world body.

Eventual U.N. acceptance of the ambassador of the Taliban would be an important step in the hardline Islamist group’s bid for international recognition, which could help unlock badly needed funds for the cash-strapped Afghan economy.

Guterres has said that the Taliban’s desire for international recognition is the only leverage other countries have to press for inclusive government and respect for rights, particularly for women, in Afghanistan.

The Taliban letter said Isaczai’s mission “is considered over and that he no longer represents Afghanistan,” said Haq.

Until a decision is made by the credentials committee Isaczai will remain in the seat, according to the General Assembly rules. He is currently scheduled to address the final day of the meeting on Sept. 27, but it was not immediately clear if any countries might object in the wake of the Taliban letter.

The Taliban is a terrorist regime, but they are no less a terrorist regime than Iran. How many UN member countries are ruled by tyrants or dictators? The United Nations was supposed to be a beacon of freedom and peace. Instead it has become a place where terrorists and dictators come to be given legitimacy. It really is time for America to leave the United Nations and ask the United Nations to leave America.

The Friday-Night News Dump

Any time the media wants Americans to ignore a story, they release it on a Friday night. Sometimes that works; sometimes it doesn’t. A lot depends on the seriousness of the story. Yesterday’s news dump was a very serious story about 10 innocent civilians America killed in Afghanistan in response to the attack on the airport at Kabul.

Breitbart posted an article yesterday with ten questions that need to be answered by the Biden administration about the attack. Please follow the link to read the entire article. I am simply going to list the questions:

1. What did President Joe Biden know, and did he authorize the strike?

2. Were there political motivations behind the strike?

3. Why would the military launch an airstrike against an unknown person, absent compelling evidence of imminent threat?

4. Was the U.S. fed bad intelligence by the Taliban or other bad actors?

5. What does taking “full responsibility”mean? Where are the hearings, resignations, prosecutions, demotions,  or firings?

6. Why was the U.S. public fed a false story by the Pentagon and the White House for several weeks?

7. Why would the U.S. military settle for an evacuation where it had to rely on airstrikes?

8. How inaccurate is the U.S. military in general when it comes to airstrikes?

9. Will this compromise national security by discouraging legitimate, accurate targeted killings?

10. Will the Biden administration apologize to the new Taliban regime, and pay reparations?

Those are all good questions. We need answers.

Showering Terrorists With Cash

The Daily Caller reported yesterday that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will be sending $64 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan to address the “compounding effects of insecurity, conflict, recurring natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic.” That makes my head hurt. How about sending $64 million in aid to America to house our homeless veterans and improve healthcare for our veterans?

The article reports:

The funding will come from USAID and the State Department, and will be distributed through the United Nations and independent aid groups, the agency said in a press release. The humanitarian aid will help provide vulnerable Afghans with “critically needed food, health care, nutrition, medical supplies, protection, hygiene supplies and other urgently needed relief.”

USAID also said it has created a Disaster Assistance Response Team to lead the U.S. government’s humanitarian response in Afghanistan and work with partners on the ground to provide assistance.

Does anyone actually believe that the money will be used for humanitarian purposes and not to arm terrorists in the Middle East?

The article concludes:

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged Afghanistan’s neighbors to keep their borders open to refugees and promised to ensure the Taliban does not block humanitarian assistance, particularly to groups such as women and girls.

“The United States will also work with the international community to help ensure that the Taliban follow through on its commitments and advance unhindered humanitarian access, freedom of movement for aid workers of all genders, safety and security of humanitarian staff, and safe passage for all those who wish to leave Afghanistan,”  he said in a statement.

I think it’s time to remove the State Department from our government. They obviously do not work for us.

 

Telling The Truth

Marc Thiessen posted an op-ed piece at The Washington Post yesterday. The piece is also available at the American Enterprise Institute website. The op-ed piece explains why President Biden should not go to Ground Zero on September 11th.

The op-ed notes:

Biden has no business setting foot in those sacred places on that hallowed day. I take no joy in saying this. As a general rule, I believe that when a president attends a ceremony on behalf of the American people, he is not representing himself but the office of the presidency. We respect that office, even if we do not respect the man who occupies it.

But this is different. Joe Biden is the president who surrendered to the enemies who attacked us on 9/11. He not only surrendered but did so with dishonor — leaving stranded behind enemy lines American citizens, legal permanent residents, and the majority of our Afghan allies who risked their lives to help us. Not by accident, mind you. Intentionally. He ordered the last US plane to take off from Kabul knowing that he was leaving them behind — even though he pledged not to leave until every American was out. He forced our NATO allies — who were in Afghanistan only because America was attacked on 9/11 — to do the same to their nationals and Afghan allies. This is a stain on the honor of our nation. At the very moment the bells ring at Ground Zero on 9/11, US citizens and allies will be hiding from Taliban death squads because of Biden’s shameful decisions.

In carrying out America’s retreat, Biden knowingly put the safety of US service members securing the airport in the hands of the Taliban and the Haqqani network — a US-designated terrorist organization — by refusing a Taliban offer to let the US military secure Kabul while we evacuated. The Taliban set up checkpoints where it prevented many Americans from reaching the airport, but it allowed a suicide bomber to get through — killing 13 Americans and injuring 18 more. On Saturday, those who died as a result of Biden’s blunder will rest in freshly dug graves, while those who survived will watch the ceremonies from hospital beds with injuries they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

As the evacuation took place, Biden repeatedly lied to the American people. He said no Americans were having trouble getting to the airport, which was blatantly untrue. He said the United States had no interest in Afghanistan because al-Qaeda was “gone” — when in fact al-Qaeda is deeply embedded with the Taliban. He claimed no allies were questioning the United States’ credibility, when many of our allies were aghast at his display of weakness and publicly pleading with him to extend his artificial deadline. He said that none of his military advisers had recommended leaving a residual force, when some had. He even asked the Afghan president to lie about how the fight against the Taliban was going, urging him to project a different picture “whether it is true or not.” And after it was all over, he still declared his Afghan debacle an “extraordinary success.”

Please follow the link to read the rest of the editorial. What is stated is true. President Biden has disgraced his office and disgraced America. We have lost our status in the world because of his dishonesty and his unwillingness to live up to our obligations to our allies to keep them informed of our actions and include them in our decision-making process.