WINDS OF WAR

Many, if not most people realize that we are now at war with Iran, except for Joe Biden, who instead thinks we are at war with Russia, even though no one declared it. Worse, this administration continues to believe that they can still deal with the mullah’s regime, after replenishing them with funds and getting nothing in return except contempt and even worse behavior. But the reality is while we may think otherwise, or don’t want to become involved in a wider war, Iran is already at war with us, whether we like it or not. They have been for some time, and already have the blood of hundreds if not thousands of Americans, Frenchmen, Arabs, and others going back to the Beirut bombing. There have already been numerous attacks on our troops by all of their proxies, who have clearly been organized by Tehran. Do they not understand that the mullahs actually mean what they say; to drive the “Great Satan” out of the region, and exterminate the Jews? What more will it take?

Retaliating on the proxies accomplishes little because they are simply puppets who would collapse without Iranian support. Our response now should instead be directed at the mullahs, with the targeted aim of taking them out, which would bring joy to a people living under repression over so many years. That is where “regime change” is truly needed, and where we have a case for it, not with the Russians. 

Unfortunately we could not possibly be in a worse position than we are now with this weak and bumbling administration, which itself has enabled all the problems we now face around the world. But as disastrous as these developments have been they have become a far worse harbingers of world spinning out of control and into a major war. 

Ominously, ill-conceived policies have brought us to a situation disturbingly similar to the outbreak of World War II. Germany and Japan had nothing in common apart from an appetite for expansion and a shared aversion to the one power standing in their path to world domination- the USA. Now we find the Russians, Chinese, and Iranians coalescing in an alliance of convenience. The easiest pillar to remove is Iran, thereby eliminating a menace without triggering the others. 

Our overall strategy should have been focused on containing the Iranians, and further undermining them, given their lack of legitimacy with their own people. Yet when the people rose up we provided no help or encouragement that might have dramatically altered the strategic situation in the region. Instead they pursued an idiotic, ill-conceived strategy of containing not Iran, but Russia. The wisest overall strategy for the US and its allies would have been to re-engage and bind Russia to the West, where it truly belongs. Instead they have been driven into the arms of China, which everyone agrees is now the major threat to this country. This is not to ignore what they have done in Ukraine, but who green-lighted that “minor incursion” in the first place? 

Our overall policy should have been, and now going forward must be, not just containing Iran, but undermining and overthrowing the regime, that will otherwise continue to pose a major danger to the world. They have not changed at all over several decades now. How much longer will it take to fully understand that when they say death to America, death to Israel they really mean it? There is still an opportunity to make this Iranian plot blow up in their faces and even face the ire of their own long-oppressed population. We must somehow develop the will and determination to win this war once and for all. If we fail to do so the prospects for world peace will be far worse than they are now.  

 

AN IRANIAN TRAP

I increasingly believe that Israel may be in danger of falling into a trap contrived by the Iranians. The mullahs have clearly shown their hand when every other proxy they have starts attacking Israel. It is quite likely that they planned and encouraged the hideous Hamas attack on Israel that was so over-the-top in its evil brutality that it would certainly force Israel to respond. In this case then Hamas are nothing more than disposable, albeit all-too-wiling puppets, of Iran, which clearly has no qualms in sacrificing Palestinians to advance their overall strategy. 

It is both proper and just that Israel has responded to this atrocity, but at the same time it is for the better that they have slowed a massive incursion into Gaza. It is not that punishment should be put off at all, and they should continue to destroy Hamas as a military force, but the far more dangerous, and far more direct Iranian threat is really via Hezbollah. If they can keep Hamas at bay with the current effort, I think it would be wiser to continue to fake preparation for a full invasion and instead prepare to use maximum force against Hezbollah. 

That is something the US can and should support directly. They have an overdue reckoning for the murder of so many Americans over the years that must be avenged. Furthermore they are a clear extension of the rotten Iranian regime, which almost certainly obtain a nuclear weapon if they are not prevented here and now, and furthermore they are the most likely entity to actually use the bomb were they to get it. 

We don’t know what the Iranian intentions were, but there is no question that they have orchestrated the present conflict, knowing there would be retaliation. So it would be wise to move more cautiously before a shoe drops from the other foot in order to get a better handle on what their true plot consists of. That there is one, carefully contrived, is beyond the shadow of a doubt. Once there is clarity it may be time to kill the snake at its head. 

WHEN THINGS AREN'T WHAT THEY SEEM TO BE

Yesterday I received an email news headline from The NY Times stating that Israel had bombed a hospital in Gaza killing 500+ innocent people. Other rotten media outlets also ran with the story, which turned out to be patently false as Israel then produced clear evidence that the rocket came from Islamic Jihad in Gaza itself. 

 But by then the truth didn’t matter as Hamas seized upon the phony story in a propaganda push leading to hostile demonstrations around the world. Even though the truth is clear, there are many people who believe what they want to believe, obvious to factual reality, as well a  more sinister parties who deliberately ignore the truth. 

 

The media again is clearly at fault for not bothering to fact check, accepting Hamas propaganda as truth. But far worse is the doubling down and prolongation of the lies. We see this over and over. The stories claiming Donald Trump was a Russian operative were patently false, but they were repeated over and over again as gospel truth because people who virulently oppose him want to believe it to be true, regardless of the facts. To this day, despite conclusive evidence, there are politicians and other people repeating this big lie. On the other side you also have people who continue to believe that the election was stolen without any clear evidence of anything that would have altered the election outcome. 

 

These kinds of things go on now constantly beyond mere credulity to beliefs that if it’s not true it ought to be, given that whomever or whatever is so bad. When stories circulated that people from Asia were being targeting and assaulted many liberals wanted to believe it was the work of white racists, becoming deeply disturbed or in denial when it became clear that most of these activities were propagated by black people. Unfortunately this mentality is more widespread than it has ever been despite supposedly higher education, which is now failing miserably in teaching basic deliberative thought processes, critical analysis, and virtually any rational process so that no one is made to feel “uncomfortable.” 

Ordinary people may respond to what they are fed, but what is unforgivable is the extent to which peopled who ought to know better, and who are in positions that enable them to find the actual truth if they bother to look for it, continue to uncritically or deliberately promote and reinforce lies. The extent to which ideological comfort or preferences trump factual reality in American media is appalling. Here we have the NY Times, presuming to be the gold standard of journalism, frequently and unashamedly promoting this kind of nonsense, and when the truth emerges beyond question the corrections or retractions are only to be found deep within paragraphs and pages of the paper. This is true of virtually all major news media; seldom if ever will they tell you that they were wrong or misrepresented the truth. It is clear that today “journalism” doesn’t exist. 

It is no wonder that the media is at an all-time low in public respect and approval, because even people who engage in wishful thinking know that there is constant distortion and fabrication. This is going to continue as long as no price is paid for lax standards, minimal effort, and flagrant transgressions. 

Under these conditions we can expect more and more stories casting Israel in the worst possible light as this conflict expands. The initial cause of it all will be forgotten and calls for cease-fire and "peace" will grow louder. Intelligent people will know enough to critically examine stories before jumping to conclusions, and discount the words of those who do. For it is just as likely for things not to be what they seem to be initially as they are to be true. 

 

 

 

 

DISASTERS ABROAD AND AT HOME - 2

 2. CLOSER TO HOME

Those who remain baffled as to how so many lower income people have gravitated towards Trump are simply oblivious to the facts on the ground. For them rising prices for basic necessities are not at all burdensome, and even welcome to the extent that it facilitates the realization of their loftier social goals. This really registered on me yesterday when I went to the supermarket with my wife, with the same sort of dread that undoubtedly is shared by these very same people. 

But it is impossible to ignore the higher prices of basic necessities that is so apparent to people who are now barely getting by paycheck to paycheck, and who must studiously consider every purchase and how it impacts their resources. They continue to work and pay taxes while an increasing share of the people in this country do neither. It is really rich to hear over the supermarket loudspeaker about how this or that product being promoted is “sustainable” in origin, as if that mattered at all to people who are concerned far more with how produce prices have doubled. Then “Hispanic Heritage” is duly noted in emphasizing products from Puerto Rico, which is about the only homeland of people appreciating this sort of patronizing nonsense, in a country where the preponderant population with Spanish surnames is Mexican in origin, as are the promoted products. 

That sort of detail is inconsequential for those who have the privilege of forming words that others must hear;  words that are even more inconsequential to the life they are living day to day. So of course these are people who, as Hillary Clinton stated outright, need to be “reprogrammed,” the sort of notion you increasingly hear in left-wing circles. They have already accomplished this to a disturbing extent with our young people. 

But what these enlightened idiots fail to realize is that dismissive contempt flows both ways, or that they have opened the door to being reprogrammed themselves, which they richly deserve. All of the institutions they have taken control of and perverted can now be purged by the rising tide of anger they have precipitated. Given how clear their intentions to control others has become, and how awful the consequences have been, their just rewards are overdue. 

The only saving grace for those at fault is the ineptitude of the Republicans in articulating what is a very clear case. Public disenchantment is palpable but they have thus far failed to explain the connection between Democrat policies and the consequences people are facing. Unless and until that responsibility is clearly established things will remain muddled and we will continue to flounder at a time when we can ill afford to. Things are still likely to get worse before they get better. 

DISASTERS ABROAD AND AT HOME - 1

1. THE WORLD




It is fairly obvious to people outside of the Biden administration that the Iranians are behind the vicious, savage attacks on Israel, which has justly responded accordingly in what is likely to be an ever-expanding war. Only now do they say they stand unwavering with Israel, notwithstanding the dangerously diminished capacity of our military to help as we are stretched thin around the world. 




 In re-establishing the Obama policies of bolstering Iran in return for “cooperation,” to the detriment of our allies in the region, they have only brought about yet another catastrophe on the world. The destruction they engineered in this country is bad enough, but even worse is how they have managed to botch virtually everything everywhere else in the world. They managed, to our everlasting shame, and without consulting with our allies, to get away with the obscenity of the Afghanistan debacle they caused, as well as green-lighting a “small incursion” by the Russians into Ukraine. 




They cut off Netanyahu, the most dynamic and effective leader in the western world, and insulted and alienated our Arab friends, whose relations and cooperation with Israel had been warming thanks to the Trump-inspired Abraham Accords. Then they debased themselves by going back and begging the Arabs to mitigate the oil crisis they themselves had created. 




The prime beneficiaries of all of this has been the Iranian mullahs, who clearly fear and seek to disrupt Arab-Israeli cooperation. If we had stuck to our principles  the popular uprisings in Iran might have succeeded had we provided aid and encouragement. Instead no help or support was given, leaving the evil regime intact and empowered. Instead of seizing the opportunity ourselves, it is the Iranians who have done so in the vacuum we have left, and there will be no peace in the region unless and until that menace is eliminated. They again outmaneuvered the Great Satan.




This fumbling weakness and inconsistency has resulted in a far more dangerous and unstable world than the one they inherited. It is also now clear that the Chinese Communists will never have a better opportunity to seize Taiwan given that we are now getting bogged down in wars in Europe and the Middle East while our military capabilities have been seriously degraded. There is virtually no chance at the present time that we can prevent this. Whatever you may think of Donald Trump, none of this would have happened under his stewardship. 




This administration will likely now backtrack and do the opposite of what they were steadfast in before now that the wind has conflated into a hurricane, and yet once again they may be able to spin this to their advantage and obscure their seminal role in generating it all, just as they have on the border.  But what is desperately needed is a clear and consistent strategy to oust the mullahs once and for all. Unfortunately that is probably beyond their capabilities, no matter what they may now say, but at least Netanyahu has the presence of mind to not trust them. Consequently he is the one who is going to be determining the direction of things thanks to the confusion and lack of clarity in our present regime, which will now be too sheepish to buck the congress and Israelis on these matters, and that is not a bad thing.