Category: terrorism

Macron is right, but it is too little too late

Millions of oppressed fled Syria. Most were fleeing death and misery. Many though were embedded with extremism, a brand of Islam bereft of tolerance, hence “believe like me or die”. Once the doors were thrown open in the EU, many European members were forced to yield, and in many forms of Islam there is no leeway for getting along with “freedom of speech”. Thus, like in Communist China, or Cuba, or Venezuela, or North Korea, or Russia, or a variety of dictatorships in Africa, or in Asian Islam, like in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, or for the likes of Hamas, Hezbollah, PLO, Iran, and others, free exchange of ideas is anathema to them, and even the slightest disagreement with their dogma inspires horror and murder, as we saw recently in Paris and Nice. Macron’s response is justified, but it is too little too late, and he was weak for too long in recognizing the inevitable influence the influx would have on European sensibilities and customs. The seeds of this destruction are now already planted in Europe, and every country that opened its doors to this particular endless immigration has introduced social conflict that is in many respects incompatible with the traditional freedoms inherent in Western culture. The result unfortunately has repeated itself in London, in Paris, and throughout the EU. It is not going away.

We see some of this in Ilan Omar, her intolerance and ideology, her palpable hatred of America, and Jews in particular. We see it also in a host of others who fled somewhere to bring this intolerance to our shores, in some cases itching for a fight. There is no place for it in our culture. There are hundreds of millions who can and do get along in the world. But for the rest it is like throwing a match into a barrel of oil.

There are those ready to appease the intolerance of those of Omar’s ilk, yield to their demands of “believe like me or die”, and the current thread of appeasement which runs through the Left’s eagerness to embrace those who despise our freedom and our nation leaves me in fear of our future, with the likes of Tlaib, Omar, Ellison and others manipulating our open system to their advantage, and injecting insidious dogma into those they influence (like the rabid Antisemitism and hatred of Israel spreading like wildfire in the BLM/Antifa movement and the Democratic Party).

We should use Macron’s initial fecklessness as an example of what not to do, and a cautionary tale to impel us to adopt the vigilance we need to keep the incompatible hatred and violence from infecting our nation. We welcome legal immigrants and refugees to our shores, but they are welcome only if they abide by our long, long history and traditions of freedom, tolerance and acceptance, and “believe like me or die” is not acceptable dogma in our collective American DNA. It most certainly is not.

The New Antisemitic Democratic Party – It is the Hypocrisy Party now.

Well, a dozen Democratic Party congresspeople in the US (including two Jews), have decided to try to censure Israel, never having done so to Hamas for murdering Jews, because Israel refused to allow a visit by Oman and Tlaib, two supporters of Palestinians and BDS. They are two of the most vitriolic, brazen and unrepentant Antisemites in the US Congress, issuing daily criticism of Jews and Israel with the same old centuries old tropes which preceded the Holocaust, have never died down in Europe, and are daily fare in Iran, the West Bank and Gaza. Oman and Tlaib set up Israel with a fake trip designed to attack Israel, support BDS (which is against Israeli law) and rather than meet with any Israeli government representatives for a dialogue, was designed to visit only Palestinians. Consequently, they were barred by Israel.

Barring these Antisemitic reprobates was more than fully justified. Their vitriol and hatred of Israel knows no measures, their constant diatribes against Israel have betrayed their rabid racism against Jews, and they have no place in Congress. They should have been censured themselves, and strongly. Where are the investigations into their antisemitic activities? Their contacts with known terrorist organizations?

What’s worse, their positions have been adopted by some of the Democratic Party candidates for President who have vowed to cut off all aid and military support of our primary ally in the Middle East, Israel, and have sworn to support the terrorists running the Palestinian government.

Could the Democratic Party be any more bizarre and disturbed than it is?  A blatantly Antisemitic political party which complains about “white supremacy” and constantly accuses the President of being a racist? Is there any greater hypocrisy? What is wrong with this party? The further to the left it has drifted, driven there by President Obama, the more fascist it has begun to look, and now we are seeing signs of the racism and hatred of Jews which has characterized many previous fascist movements.

It is essential these congresspeople get a grip on themselves and realize what idiocy they are speaking. They are adamantly supporting two Holocaust deniers who have been barred from entering Israel for violating Israeli law  barring anyone who support BDS from entering Israel. If the Democratic Party wants to get elected, it should be seriously worried about being seen as supporting Iran, Hamas, the PLO, China, Venezuela and other US enemies, as well as some of the other hateful positions put forth by AOC and her “squad” of racists.

Bloomberg’s latest anti-Israel editorial is not only surprising, it is inane – Bloomberg says Israel is 100% responsible for the plight of Palestinians, not Hamas, not the PLO, not Abbas

Don’t look for the words Hamas, PLO or Abbas in the latest anti-Israel editorial offered by Bloomberg in the August 21, 2018 edition of the Taipei Times on P.9 entitled “The Palestinians cannot keep living under Israeli apartheid” penned by Hussein Ibish.

How is it possible to write a 3 page article about the “Palestinians'” misery and not mention the word “Hamas” or the term “PLO” or the name “Abbas”, lingering President of the PLO since 2005 (is there an election in sight)? The “Palestinians” are under the heel of those organizations and that man, not Israel. Israel affords more rights to its Arab citizens than most other Arab countries afford their own citizens. Tens of billions of dollars of aid to the Palestinians are wasted each year on terrorism, bombs, tunnels, brainwashing and corruption, and not to schools, hospitals, education and the betterment of the “Palestinian” people. Hamas and the PLO are dedicated to keeping the “Palestinian” people poor and wretched so that someone can write an article like this. In Bloomberg no less. What a travesty.

Golda Meir, President of Israel said 60 years ago “Peace? We will have no peace with the Arabs until they love their children more than they hate us.” Until they educate their children to be better and stop teaching them to hate Jews, the ultimate racism and Antisemitism in the world, there will be no solution. Israel’s motto is Never Again and it means Never. Ever. Surrounding nations should look to Israel as an example of how to have a successful democratic country in the midst of a sea of tyranny. Israel took a desert and turned it into an oasis. The Palestinians took an oasis and turned it into a desert, and now weep for living in a desert – like a child who murdered his parents and throws himself on the mercy of the Court as an orphan, seeking sympathy. The path to peace runs through Gaza and the PLO, not through Jerusalem. There is no negotiating peace with people who do not want peace, only genocide against the Jews once more. Israel, like Taiwan, is a unique nation, in Israel’s case fighting alone against a sea of racism, and in the case of Taiwan, against international greed and addiction for Chinese lucre. Great people and great ideas persist in the midst of adversity. Israel and Taiwan will prevail.

The fact Mr. Ibish’s article argues for Israel to be prevented from being a Jewish state (among a surrounding and nearby 24 nations which are Islamic states or Arab states where Jews are not welcome) is telling. This is another stab at destroying Israel, with immigration if necessary. The problem of the “Palestinians” is not Israel, it is Hamas and the PLO, both corrupt, both happiest when the people are the most pathetic, their “governments” are oppressive, there are no human rights, no women’s rights, no freedom, no due process (due process in Gaza means summary execution at the pleasure and fiat of Hamas leadership) and no accountability (and oddly no mention of either of them in this 3 page article). Abbas was “elected” in 2005 and he is still in power after 13 years and the people have not benefited one single bit in all that time. When the PLO and Hamas are thrown out of governing the people, there will be hope for a future. As long as the world, the U.N. especially, and anyone who wishes to destroy the notion of a Jewish state continue to support the “Palestinians” as cannon fodder, there will be no peace. Israel is a tiny Jewish state in its historical homeland of more than 3,000 years, the one place in the world Jews can be safe. That will never change again. Never. Ever.

Newsflash: Bad people are brutal, and people die in wars.

Sigh. Newsflash: people die in wars.

Eradicating an enemy who kills without conscience can be costly, but is absolutely necessary.  Regarding an article out of AP today about deaths in Mosul during the raging battle with ISIS there in March, 2017 (Taipei Times Dec. 21, 2017 p. 1 “More than 9,000 dead in battle to oust ISIS from Mosul”), it is clear that the number of civilian casualties are directly proportional to the absence of morals or ethics or care or concern for human life by the adversary, because our systems provide for adherence to those norms, but theirs do not, and in fact they use brutality as a weapon against us. However, when the adversary is bereft of conscience, it all goes out the window and you are in the fight of your life. Period.

President Obama micromanaged conflicts and we made almost no progress against ISIS. The supposed “progress” made during his administration was miniscule, chaotic, disjointed, betrayal, and incompetent (e.g. stepping aside (Obama’s chief policy) and turning the fight over to Russia, who by the way, WAS FIGHTING FOR THE OTHER SIDE – DUH!). When facing an adversary like ISIS (and Assad, the flavor of the month of Arab strongman with no compunction about murdering hundreds of thousands of his own people), who uses people as human shields, you simply cannot allow them to control the battle in this way. It is sadly like removing a cancer, which often involves death of good cells as well. People who are placed thus are already dead, because hesitation will embolden them to kill ever more, take more, be more cruel and brutal (as ISIS proved), as opposed to obliterating them finally so they can kill no more.

This is war. During WWII tens of millions died at the hands of the Nazis and Japanese (often brutally and bereft of human conscience), and finally the US ended the Pacific war with awful weapons, saving millions of lives and costing hundreds of thousands. I offer no apology for this. Those attacks ended the war within a week.

ISIS needed to be crushed, and attacking them with pebbles from 1,000 yards on alternate Sundays when the moon was in decline was an idiotic approach, and prolonged the war to destroy ISIS for years while hundreds of thousands died and millions were displaced. The refugee crisis today in the world is directly related to the absence of any conviction to win the battle on the ground because the Commander in Chief was a wimp and tied the hands and legs of his warriors.

We cannot control the depths of depravity that some adversaries sink to except to destroy them. If you are unwilling to do that to save families and children and the future, stand aside. Others will step into the fray and accomplish the task, in our case, with far more discretion than in previous conflicts in history. There are bean counters who will whine and weep. So be it. Stand aside.

Appeasement gets nowhere and accomplishes absolutely nothing. We need to stop appeasing evil. This means China especially, and Russia, Iran, terrorists, ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, PLA, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, and many others. Kumbaya diplomacy accomplished nothing the past ten years. It is time for a new paradigm which does not involve hand-wringing, whining, caving in and running away. Stand aside.

I wrote about this yesterday here regarding the world’s appeasement of the Palestinians who have only grown more intransigent and belligerent with every European appeaser’s vote of betrayal of the US and Israel.

Stand aside. Get out of the way.

Letter to Europe Upon Betrayal of the US and Israel – What the Hell is Wrong with You?

Dear Europe,

I will use polite language. What the Hell is wrong with you? Have you learned absolutely nothing in the last 100 years? What does it take for you to actually learn from a disaster? Have you learned absolutely NOTHING about the failure of appeasement as a strategy?

I hearken back to a notable statesman from your past who was one of the few Europeans who actually understood the danger and refused to yield. When Hitler rose up, Europe quivered and quaked, moaned, whined and appeased, appeased, appeased. And 50 million died, including 6 million Jews exterminated. Appeasement, appeasement, appeasement. It is the ONLY policy in Europe that keeps coming back despite the historical fact that no evil regime backs down because of appeasement – ever.

Consequently, Chamberlain appeased, and begged, Hitler built a monster war machine, France submitted to Vichy, the rest of Europe yielded, and tens of milions died. Consequently, only Winston Churchill’s backbone drove the war effort against the German machine. Appeasement merely encouraged Hitler and threw gasoline on the fire. Have you learned NOTHING??

More recently, kneeling beside President Obama, the spineless American President, you basically invited Iran to become a nuclear nation, and helped the UN join Obama in his betrayal of the American legislature and appeasement of Iran, which included billions of dollars, which has financed its hegemony and terrorist efforts throughout the Middle East.

You joined the idiotic Agreed Framework with North Korea in 1994, agreed to by another master of appeasement, Bill Clinton, even though the agreement was breached while the ink was drying. And now North Korea has nuclear weapons and missiles because you constantly did nothing, because you are incapable of acting. Have you learned NOTHING??

Now, instead of actually joining forces with the US in Syria (France’s debacle, among many in that region of the world) and wiping out Assad and ISIS, Europe twiddled its thumbs, whined and moaned about the conflict, and now basically by appeasing Assad, Russia, Iran and who knows who else, the many millions of displaced refugees have changed the very nature of Europe (and not from a good standpoint) and within a few decades, the Europe we know will have changed completely. Have you learned NOTHING??? NOTHING???

Now, when the American President had the “temerity” to actually speak the truth about Jerusalem, that it was (and has been since 1,000 B.C.) the capital of Israel, Europe wrung its hands, wept, moaned, tutted, shook its head, and actually betrayed the United States and Israel in the United Nations Security Council by appeasing the Palestinians. French President Macron actually used the word “appeasement” in his response to the American President’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Europe collectively moaned that this changed U.S. policy. Of course it did not. The policy was stated in the law from 25 years ago that mandated the U.S. Embassy be moved to Jerusalem. All of the intervening Presidents appeased the Palestinians. And the result??? Peace? No. Discussions? No. Movement by the Palestinians? No. Cessation of terrorism? No. Improvement in the lives of Palestinians? No. Education ? No. Jobs? No. Infrastructure? No. Bombs? Yes. Rank, genocidal Antisemitism? Yes.

When I taught negotiation skills in Asia for over ten years, I always mentioned the difference between American and European negotiation strategies. American negotiators negotiate to prevail. European negotiators negotiate to please (otherwise called “appeasement”). This is nowhere more apparent than in the 100 years of appeasement of evil that Europe has engaged in over and over and over and over and over. Having no stomach for conflict, Europe is an easy mark for butchers like Hitler.

The Palestinians only understand one thing – an ultimatum, something they never ever ever ever get from the UN, from Europe, and from spineless American presidents, such as Carter, Clinton, Obama. Yielding to the Palestinians has NEVER yielded any progress in peace. It has only emboldened the Palestinians to commit more murder and mayhem in Israel, to teach their children in school to hate Jews and that all of the Jews in the world must be destroyed. Sadly (and sickly) these feelings are not alien to Europe, which has practiced Antisemitism for the last 1,000 years, or more.

Europe, all of it, and in particular France and England, betrayed the United States and Israel yesterday in the Security Council (did they think Obama was still President, and Oppeasement was the order of the day?) Have you learned NOTHING???? NOTHING at all????

Europe has been appeasing China and its so-called fake One-China Policy, which is actually China’s excuse to try to destroy democracy on its doorstep, and Europe appeases China, and turns the other way, and ignores Taiwan. Does appeasement help? No, it only gives greedy European capitals Kommunist Kash.  And Europe condemns Israel, when Europe itself is corrupt and bereft of ethics. Europe is such an easy mark. What the Hell is wrong with you? Have you learned NOTHING???

The Palestinians want genocide against Israel and Jews everywhere. Is Europe insane?? Does it pretend that looking the other way will make it go away? or that it will lead to a resolution, peace? What the Hell is wrong with you? Have you learned abolutely NOTHING??????

Let me put it to you straight. Israel will prevail. When Jews say “Never again” they mean NEVER AGAIN. Appeasement is ridiculous, nearly wiped out the Jewish race, and resulted in tens of millions of deaths. Europe has been appeasing over and over and over and over for 100 years. What the Hell is wrong with you??? Have you learned NOTHING????

We will do this with you or without you. The way things are going, you will be gone in a few decades, as you appease yourselves out of existence. Have you learned NOTHING? What the Hell is wrong with you??

Fondly,

Opposition to Legislation Against Israel on the Spurious Grounds of Violating Palestinian Children’s Human Rights – Pro-Palestinian Groups using Palestinian Kids as “Human Shields”

This is an email I just sent to Betty McCollum, Congresswoman for the 4th District in Minnesota after learning of her sponsorship of a bill entitled Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act.  It seems the BDS lobby is now using Palestinian kids as human shields to try to hide the malice in the Palestinian campaign to end Israel and Jews. It is embarrassing there are actually people in Congress who have bought this ruse.

1. I am appalled at your bill regarding Israel.

2. A child aged 8 walks into a department store in downtown St. Paul wearing a suicide bomb vest. What should you do? After the child is tackled to the ground by an heroic officer, and apprehended before the vest can be detonated, what to do with the child? Catch and release? Release to parents (who armed the child in the first place, or failed to stop Uncle X from teaching the child to kill)? Detain the child pending further investigation? How about if the story is about thousands of child/teen bombers over a longer time period?

3. Instead of focusing on a tiny nation fighting against a billion adversaries all religiously committed to exterminating them and all Jews worldwide, how about focusing on the brainwashing in Palestinian schools? How about preventing a child from taking part in terrorism by halting aid to a regime that indoctrinates its children with the notion that suicide bombing Jews is the highest achievement they can attain, and that all Jews must be killed? This is the basic curriculum in Palestinian schools. Not be a doctor. Not be a lawyer. Not be an artist. Not be a scientist. Be a terrorist, be a Jew killer.

4. There are hundreds of millions of children suffering around the world, many many many many of them suffering at the hands of Islamic societies using them as child soldiers or as child brides or as slaves. And yet, you focus on Israel, the only true democracy in the region, a nation of around 8 million people, not on the 1.5 billion in Arab nations surrounding it eager to kill every Jew alive. Imagine, if only the region were focused on actually educating their children instead of indoctrinating them to murder? Golda Meir said “Peace? There will be no peace until the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.” She said that 60 years ago. It is still completely true today. By the way. The doctrine for Israel is “Never again.” I wonder. Have you ever visited Dachau? Auschwitz? Buchenwald? If you haven’t been to a concentration camp, you cannot viscerally understand what Israel is dealing with.

5. Palestinians always have had the opportunity for normalcy. But having been chosen by the Arab world as cannon fodder, they have decided to torture their people to try to destroy Israel. Congratulations for buying into the lie that Israel is persecuting Palestinians. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been given to the Palestinians and used there to pay terrorists’ families when they have murdered Jewish children, or to build bombs, or tunnels, not build schools, hospitals or commercial enterprises. Israel created an oasis out of a desert. The Palestinians have turned an oasis into a desert. Go figure.

6. My fervent hope is that this legislation dies an ignominious death in some Committee somewhere. However, given the recent insanity gripping my Democratic Party, I am not sure of the support. Imagine having to turn to Republicans for common sense. What a strange and twisted thing liberalism has become. You were among a group who sponsored the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2017 – are  you really going to conflate the Holocaust with Palestinians opposed to Israel’s battle for survival against all adversaries determined to kill all Jews? Perhaps you believe that Hamas is a charitable organization?

North Korean Nuclear Debacle is Iran’s Debacle in Waiting

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” – Edmund Burke.

President Clinton was so eager to resolve the Korean nuclear threat, I believe he was willing to sign an agreement with North Korea written in snow and accept mist in promises. It would seem the negotiating team (part of whom were also amazingly brought in by President Obama for the Iran negotiations) were outclassed, outsmarted and outwitted. To the extent any person outside China actually believed China had or has any interest whatsoever in ending North Korea’s program, they are sadly misinformed. Communist China has directly benefited from North Korea’s bad acts for twenty years, and has continued to expertly play US presidents like fiddles, including Clinton, Bush, Obama and now Trump.

If there is no diplomatic solution now outside Communist China, one can look to the previous administrations for blame, each having to some degree allowed Communist China to have its way with them instead of taking steps to actually put an end to Korea’s nuclear program. It is too late now. With an ICBM in the oven, and hardened facilities under mountains and underground, there is little that can be done short of decapitation or immediate regime change, and even in that case, there is no telling what would follow the end of the Kim dynasty.

North Korea violated its Agreement during negotiations, while it was being drafted, moments after it was signed, and every day since then.

The trouble is, at the beginning, there was far more of a chance to take military action to stop North Korea from actually developing nuclear weapons technology and the weapons themselves, and with each succeeding year it became more difficult. Nothing was accomplished during the Bush Administration, and the final nails in the nuclear coffin were put in place during President Obama’s Oppeasement foreign policy debacle, repeated in rushed negotiations in horrible detail with Iran before Obama left office, a gift so to speak that will keep on giving for decades, and the full effect of which has not yet been felt around the world when Iran becomes a nuclear power (as it will under the dubious agreement).

Communist China and North Korea have played this game well for such a long time. CCP leaders pretend to call out North Korea, even vote in favor or abstain from heavy sanctions, but secretly violate those sanctions almost immediately. They call for patience, negotiations, peace in the region (for instance calling for cessation to joint military exercises between the US and South Korea), all as part of this grand scheme and game. Whenever Communist China needs a threat, it just winks at North Korea, and missiles are aloft, and dire warnings come from Beijing (“Woe is us, woe is us, what are we to do? Peace, negotiate, leave it to us”). This is usually followed by laughter in the CCP’s lair.

China will continue to prop up North Korea, secretly or otherwise, because it is the most useful tool in keeping the US in check, achieving its goals regarding Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, the South China sea, human rights, and a host of other issues it wishes the US to stay away from.

The longer we play this game of loser’s chess, the worse the situation grows. Pretending to be the peacemaker (and the environmentalist and the voice of reason and the next great source of trade and money) is China’s long term strategy to relegate the US to a back seat to its hegemony and intentions to remake the world in its own totalitarian image. North Korea is simply a tool in that game.

Just as Clinton did 25 years ago, Obama began the game with Iran several years ago. It does not end well. It never does, particularly when it is played by the JV team (led by President Obama whistling Kumbaya, Kerry and his merry band of fools and appeasers) and the quintessential flim-flam men from Iran. There was no contest. And now, President Obama, having been intent on singing Kumbaya instead of ending Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons, and having prevented destruction of Iran’s facilities after developing the weapons to do so while it was actually possible, has ensured we are stuck with a nuclear Iran, something that can lead to disaster.

Good men doing nothing. This is the hallmark of diplomacy for the past twenty five years. When will anyone learn?

“Terrorism blowback” is just a convenient excuse – the causes and the solution come from within Islam only

I ran across Professor Brahma Chellaney’s article on the Strategist website entitled “How to stop terrorism in Europe” from September 2016. When I read his article published here today (Taipei Times, June 10, 2017, P. 9), I thought of the two articles together, and thought I would address Professor Chellaney’s propositions, which while detailed are simplistic.

 First, one proposition in the former article caught my attention. Professor Chellaney says: “The problem is not Islam, as many populists claim…. Today, that threat results from radical Islamism—a fundamentalist vision of society reordered according to Sharia law.” I can agree with this, for the most part.

 Going further, Professor Chellaney would seem to agree with one of the principal tenets of the Trump administration: “Beyond enduring untold suffering and violence, many of today’s refugees, from war-torn countries … have imbibed radical Islamist ideology and, specifically, calls to jihad. Some might be Islamic State fighters who have disguised themselves as asylum-seekers, in order to carry out terrorist attacks in Europe. US intelligence officials have repeatedly warned of this possibility.”

 The solution? Well, Professor Chellaney says “To many in Europe, these factors suggest that the key to keeping Europe safe is controlling the flow of refugees, including through improved vetting procedures.” But he rightfully observes that “…not even constructing a Fortress Europe would eliminate the terrorist threat. After all, some attacks, including in Brussels and Paris, have been carried out by Muslim European citizens who became radicalized in their own bedrooms.”

 And thus the simplistic answer: “The only way to address the threat of terrorism effectively is to tackle the radical Islamist ideology that underpins it.” Easier said than done, but there is something in there that Professor Chellaney overlooks that is absolutely correct. Professor Chellaney focuses on Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and then suggests launching an information campaign to discredit the ideology, and then compares this to the success the West achieved against communism.

While there is something that seems correct about this (ignoring the vast distinction between Communism and deeply rooted religion), there is still one determinative thing that is missing.

Professor Chellaney rather simplistically concludes “To take down the terrorists requires delegitimizing the belief system that justifies their actions.” This is completely accurate. As if the West can do anything to discredit this extreme form of Islam (especially when the far left cannot even bring themselves to say the words “Islam” and “terrorism” in the same sentence).

 No, the point missing is this. Discrediting radical Islamist ideology is the only solution, and that must come from inside Islam itself, not from the West. Until Muslim leaders around the world stand up against radical Islam, there can be no solution. Until there are speeches and fatwahs by these leaders against terrorism, there can be no solutions that do not involve war and fighting and many innocent deaths. Until the ideology underpinning the ISIS rise is demonized from within Islam itself there will continue to be a long line of those willing to kill brutally in its name.

There are valuable insights in Professor Chellaney’s earlier article, but only half a solution, somewhat timidly presented, avoiding the real issue, can Islam learn to police itself and rid itself of this extremism? We have no business bringing down this hateful violent ideology from the outside. Islam must cleanse itself of this cancer.

 The article today “The age of blowback terror from Western interventionism” is just another Project Syndicate anti-America anti-West piece (from deep within George Soros’ viewpoint, I suppose). I bridle at the notion that liberal thinkers love to blame liberal Western democracies for the ills in the Middle-east, ignoring the fact that those conflicts actually predate the United States by at least 500 years. The Iraq war did not cause terrorism, it resulted from terrorism. Saddam, Ghadaffy, these men were brutal dictators who murdered hundreds of thousands of their own people.  To weep on one hand when we do not give aid to the Castros’ Cuba, which also has murdered many of its people, but decry helping the people of Iraq and Libya throw off the shackles of madmen is hypocritical, at best.

 It is true however that Iraq spawned ISIS, when President Obama ran away. Had he not, it is doubtful ISIS would have sprung from Al-Qaeda in Iraq, or at least there would have been a greater chance to contain it.

 “Blame America” is Project Syndicate’s favorite mantra. However, I am perplexed by Professor Chellaney’s final thought: “As the US and its allies continue to face terrorist blowback, it is hoped that Trump comes to his senses, and helps to turn the seemingly interminable War on Terror that Bush launched in 2001 into a battle that can actually be won.”

 Is he referring to the ideological battle to kill the underpinnings of radical Islam, or something on the battlefield, or both? As I said before, the ideological battle must take place within the confines of Islam itself. The Muslim world must decide for itself whether it wants war or peace. Trump went directly to Saudi Arabia and began the dialogue to face this threat to peace. What follows remains to be seen.

 Golda Meir said it best so very long ago (60 years ago?), that “we won’t have peace until the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.”  It still seems true today.

Don’t believe everything you read in Project Syndicate articles, particularly those regarding China.  I do thank Professor Chellaney for his two articles which provided the very thoughtful and detailed discussion which invited my comments here today. I can always appreciate an erudite argument from which to form an opinion.