We’ve had forces in Niger since at least 2013. The French even longer as there’s abundant natural resources even if most of the country is desert. The country is also part a major transit route in the Sahara from Timbuktu to Khartoum. Continue reading “”
Category: Diplomacy
“The people wanting a “pause” or a “cease fire” only want that because Israel is winning. That’s been made obvious.”
Blinken ‘Frantically’ Fails to Find Support for ‘Pause’ in Gaza
If you were keeping an eye on the news over the weekend, you probably noticed that Secretary of State Antony Blinken was popping up all over the place. He was dispatched on unannounced “surprise” trips to Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Cyprus, and elsewhere, all in an effort to find some support for the Biden administration’s position on the war in Gaza. Biden is trying to walk a narrow path between supporting Israel’s right to defend itself and providing humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza. But as the Associated Press reports, his “frantic” efforts largely fell on deaf ears. Most of these largely Arab nations hate Israel and they have no interest in a “humanitarian pause” in the fighting. They want a ceasefire and the chance for Hamas to regroup. So it appears that the conflict in Gaza is now costing Joe Biden both at home and abroad, at least politically.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was wrapping up a grueling Middle East diplomatic tour on Monday in Turkey after only limited success in his furious efforts to forge a regional consensus on how best to ease civilian suffering in Gaza as Israel intensifies its war against Hamas.
Blinken met in the Turkish capital of Ankara with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan after a frantic weekend of travel that took him from Israel to Jordan, the occupied West Bank, Cyprus and Iraq to build support for the Biden administration’s proposal for “humanitarian pauses” to Israel’s relentless military campaign in Gaza.
Blinken’s shuttle diplomacy came as troops are expected to enter the city Monday or Tuesday, and are likely to face militants fighting street by street using a vast network of tunnels.
Blinken’s trip to Turkey was met with a particularly harsh reception. President Erdogan wouldn’t even meet with him, instead sending his Foreign Minister to do the honors. Protesters showed up ahead of the meeting waving Palestinian flags. Some chanted curses at the Secretary of State, calling him a “murderer” and demanding he “get out of Turkey.”
The U.S.-Turkish Incirlik military air base was also the target of protests that threatened to turn violent. The military had to be called in and they fired tear gas and water cannons at the crowds that were attempting to breach the compound. The U.S. Embassy in Ankara was also the target of hundreds of protesters. This has been yet another example of why Turkey shouldn’t be in NATO (as I’ve been saying here for years) and they definitely don’t belong in the European Union. Their values are simply too different and Erdogan is a tyrant.
Jordan and Turkey have both recalled their ambassadors to Israel. Egypt’s Foreign Minister appeared at a press conference with Blinken in Jorand this weekend. Rather than supporting America’s efforts, he condemned Israel’s actions and called for an immediate ceasefire, declaring that Israel’s actions had “gone beyond self-defense” and could no longer be justified.
Blinken is now on his way to Asia where he will hold meetings in Japan, South Korea, and India. He may have better luck in the first two nations than he did in the Middle East, but India is more closely aligned with Russia these days and has stayed largely silent on the situation in Gaza. India’s Prime Minister initially condemned the October 7 Hamas massacre as a “terror attack,” but later voted “present” on a UN resolution condemning Hamas.
All in all, Blinken’s trip has thus far failed to produce much in the way of results, but that’s really not his fault (for a change). It was always going to be a huge lift to convince more countries to throw their unambiguous support behind Israel. The world is increasingly divided over this issue, with almost all of Israel’s support coming from North America and Western Europe. Most of the other countries are either backing the Palestinians or they don’t want to get their hands dirty in this mess. And the world was already divided along similar lines over the situation in Ukraine. If this winds up turning into a wider regional war or even a world war, you’ll be able to look back at this moment and see where the wheels really began coming off the wagon.
Separatists Fed Up With Trudeau Want Province to Break Away From Canada, Become 51st State
An advocacy group in Alberta, Canada, is trying to educate residents of the province about what it argues would be the benefits of breaking off from the country to join the U.S. as its 51st state.
“I find myself having an affinity toward the U.S. more than Canada because of the freedom, Constitution and just the entire republican system versus the monarchy here, which is really a pseudonym for dictatorship,” a source with the Alberta 51 Project told Fox News Digital.
Founded in 2022, the project is “dedicated to supporting education to all Albertans on why we should become the 51st state of the United States of America,” according to its website. About one-fifth of Canadians in various provinces believe they would be better off under the U.S. government, according to a poll done by Research Co. earlier this year.
Pentagon Moves Troops To Prepare For Possible Sudan Embassy Evacuation.
The Pentagon is repositioning troops near the country of Sudan to prepare for a possible embassy evacuation as the nation devolves into civil war.
The Defense Department moved additional troops and equipment to a naval base in Djibouti, a small African country on the Gulf of Aden, to prepare for the potential evacuation, The Associated Press reported. The Pentagon said publicly it was deploying “additional capabilities” to the region but did not provide specifics.
Planning for an evacuation reportedly intensified after an American diplomatic convoy came under fire in Sudan on Monday. Fighting broke out in the country earlier this week between two rival factions, loyal to two warring military leaders who had been co-governing until negotiations toward a democratic process recently collapsed.
The State Department said Thursday that all embassy staff in Khartoum are currently safe and accounted for, but that the conditions on the ground are not currently stable enough for an evacuation of the staff or of other American citizens in the country. The department estimates that about 16,000 American citizens are in the country, but cautioned the figure is likely somewhat inaccurate. Americans in Sudan are being advised to shelter in place and avoid traveling on the streets.
Khartoum’s airport has been shut down and control over the area is disputed. The last time the United States conducted a ground evacuation of embassy personnel was in Libya in 2014, although it is unclear what methods could be used to do so in Sudan. At least 330 people have been killed in the several days of fighting so far, according to the most recent estimates, and an agreed ceasefire earlier this week failed almost immediately.
Finland to officially join NATO on Tuesday
The country, which shares a border with Russia, applied to join the military alliance in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
It is the first enlargement of NATO since North Macedonia joined the alliance in 2020.
The announcement was confirmed by NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who said the move will make Finland and other members safer.
“We will raise the Finnish flag for the first time here at NATO headquarters. It will be a good day for Finland’s security, for Nordic security and for NATO as a whole,” he told reporters in Brussels.
He also expressed his hope that Finland’s neighbour Sweden will be permitted to join in the coming months.
Russia immediately responded to the announcement, with an official telling state-owned news agency RIA that the country would bolster forces along its 1,300km (810 mile) border with Finland.
‘We will strengthen our military potential in the western and northwestern direction,” Russia’s deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko told RIA.
“In the event that the forces and resources of other NATO members are deployed in Finland, we will take additional steps to reliably ensure Russia’s military security.”
Finnish president Sauli Niinistö, defence minister Antti Kaikkonen and foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, are now due to attend a ceremony to mark Finland’s membership of NATO.
“It is a historic moment for us. For Finland, the most important objective at the meeting will be to emphasize NATO’s support to Ukraine as Russia continues its illegal aggression,” Mr Haavisto said in a statement.
“We seek to promote stability and security throughout the Euro-Atlantic region.”
Turkey was the last of NATO’s 30 members to accept Finland’s application – which ends the country’s decades of military non-alignment.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier in March that Finland had secured his country’s blessing after taking concrete steps to keep promises to crack down on groups seen by Ankara as terrorists, and to free up defence exports.
However, Turkey is still blocking the approval of Sweden joining NATO, with the government saying Stockholm has so far failed to sufficiently crackdown on similar groups.
I was told that the Biden Administration would return us to smooth diplomacy and happy allies. Saudi Arabia isn’t what I’d call a ‘good’ ally, but they can wind up being a very bad enemy. And SloJoe and his lackeys are just the ones to do that.
Saudi Arabia joins the new Axis of Evil.
The biggest story breaking on Friday was clearly the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the existential threat that may pose to America’s economy and possibly the global marketplace as well. But as the New York Post pointed out yesterday, the downfall of SVB may not carry the same long-term impact as another story that received far less attention. Friday was also the day that Saudi Arabia announced that it has restored its diplomatic ties with Iran. Making the announcement even more worrying is the fact that the deal was brokered by China. The possible upside to the story is that such an agreement may mark an end to (or at least a significant decrease in) the ongoing proxy war that the two nations have been fighting in Yemen. The obvious downside is that the Saudis will be pulled more closely into the Axis of Evil that has grown around China and Russia.
Seen from the long run, however, [the collapse of SVB] was probably not the most important event of the day.
The honor goes to the announcement that Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic relations.
Given their long proxy war in Yemen and fierce sectarian hatred, the sudden agreement (right) was stunning.
Even more so because China brokered it.
Foreign policy analysts immediately recognized the stunning announcement as yet another indicator of the Chinese Communist Party’s “ambition of offering an alternative to a US-led world order.” And Saudi Arabia is an impressive addition to that coalition indeed. Keep in mind that the Saudis are still tied with Russia as the second-largest producer of oil, pumping out 11% of the world’s supply. (America is still at number one – for now, anyway – with 20%.) They also control vast deposits of natural gas, iron, gold, and copper.
Or we’re going to do what, say ‘stop’ again?
U.S. Warns China Not to Supply Russia With Weapons for Ukraine War
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence suggests China is considering providing arms and ammunition to Russia, an involvement in the Kremlin’s war effort that would be a “serious problem,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Blinken said the United States long has been concerned that China would provide weapons to Russia. He pointed to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s promise to Russian President Vladimir Putin of a partnership with “no limits” when they met just weeks before Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Since then, ties between the two countries have only grown stronger.
“We’ve been watching this very, very closely. And, for the most part, China has been engaged in providing rhetorical, political, diplomatic support to Russia, but we have information that gives us concern that they are considering providing lethal support to Russia in the war against Ukraine,” Blinken said in an interview that aired Sunday, a day after his meeting at a security conference in Munich with Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official.
“It was important for me to share very clearly with Wang Yi that this would be a serious problem,” Blinken said.
With Putin determined to show some progress on the battlefield as the war nears the one-year mark, Russian forces have been on the offensive in eastern Ukraine.
“The Ukrainians are holding very strong, the Russians are suffering horrific losses in this effort,” Blinken said. He estimated that Russia has 97 percent of its ground troops in Ukraine.
The Russians also are eager to capture more territory before Ukraine receives the more advanced weapons recently pledged by the U.S. and its European allies.
“But what Secretary Blinken said is big news to me,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Graham said the world should “come down hard on China” if it provides lethal weapons to Russia and he advised Chinese leaders not to do anything rash.
“To the Chinese, if you jump on the Putin train now, you’re dumber than dirt,” he said. “It would be like buying a ticket on the Titanic after you saw the movie. Don’t do this.”
Graham said it would be the “most catastrophic thing that could happen to the U.S.-China relationship. … That would change everything forever.”
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have been heightened in recent weeks after the U.S. shot down what it says was a Chinese spy balloon. China insists it was used mainly for meteorological research and was blown off course.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, also expressed her concern about any effort by the Chinese to arm Russia, saying “that would be a red line.”
Retired Gen. Jack Keane, a former Army vice chief of staff, said he agreed with the Biden administration’s decision to expose China’s possible readiness to provide some lethal weapons to Russia. He said it may persuade China to hold off.
“And I think coming out and exposing and I would go further and tell them what we think they are attempting to provide, China will pull back likely after that public exposure,” Keane said.
Blinken and Graham were on ABC’s “This Week,” Thomas-Greenfield appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and Keane spoke on “Fox News Sunday.”
But SloJoe said we’d be loved after Trump was gone!
China and Russia creeping further into West as major Latin American nations reject the US
Soon after Brazil’s leftist former president, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, secured a non-consecutive third term in October, the White House rushed to embrace the incoming government. With the addition of Brazil, a new bloc of Latin American countries that were once reliable U.S. partners will now be governed by presidents determined to expand ties with China, Russia, and Iran.
The Biden administration is eager to work with Lula on issues like climate and recently announced it is preparing an “early opportunity” to meet with him. This is in stark contrast to its treatment of outgoing conservative President Jair Bolsonaro, who could not secure a meeting with President Joe Biden until threatening to boycott the Summit of the Americas this past June.
Lula, who previously governed between 2003 and 2010, narrowly defeated incumbent Bolsonaro by a less than 2% margin. Lula’s political comeback is astounding after he spent 580 days in prison for convictions for money laundering and corruption charges. He was later released on procedural grounds by his Worker’s Party-appointed majority in the Supreme Court but was never exonerated.
The harsh economic impact of the pandemic and persistent media attacks on Bolsonaro both locally and internationally led a slim majority of Brazilians to opt for Lula, who spent months moderating his rhetoric and building a broad coalition with traditional centrist politicians.
If its engagements with the region’s other recently elected leftist leaders are any indication, the Biden administration is likely to pursue closer relations with Lula. But a White House eager to snub outgoing Bolsonaro and embrace Lula on issues like climate should not overlook the serious questions that another Lula term will pose for U.S. interests in its own neighborhood.
When Lula takes office on Jan. 1, every major Latin American economy will be governed by the far Left for the first time ever. A new bloc by way of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico is in the making. These countries will now be led by presidents who have derided U.S. influence while growing economic and diplomatic ties with the Cuban, Venezuelan, and Nicaraguan dictatorships.
Vladimir rattles a saber?
alrighty then..
NATO to kick off nuclear drills involving B-52 bombers on Monday.
BRUSSELS, Oct 14 (Reuters) – NATO said on Friday it would launch its annual nuclear exercise “Steadfast Noon” on Monday, with up to 60 aircraft taking part in training flights over Belgium, the North Sea and Britain to practise the use of U.S. nuclear bombs based in Europe.
The nuclear drills – which do not involve live bombs – are taking place amid heightened tensions after Russia repeatedly threatened nuclear strikes in Ukraine following major military setbacks on the battlefield there.
“Steadfast Noon” is likely to coincide with Moscow’s own annual nuclear drills, dubbed “Grom”, which are normally conducted in late October and in which Russia tests its nuclear-capable bombers, submarines and missiles.
NATO said the Western drills were not prompted by the latest tensions with Russia.
“The exercise, which runs until 30 October, is a routine, recurring training activity and it is not linked to any current world events,” the alliance declared on its webpage, adding that no live weapons would be used.
“This exercise helps ensure that the alliance’s nuclear deterrent remains safe, secure and effective,” said NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu.
Belgium is hosting the drills that will involve 14 countries and up to 60 aircraft, including the most advanced fighter jets on the market and U.S. B-52 long-range bombers that will fly in from Minot Air Base in North Dakota, the statement said.
On Tuesday, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg made clear that the alliance would proceed with its drills despite the tense international situation.
Cancelling the drills because of the war in Ukraine would send a “very wrong signal”, he told reporters, arguing that NATO’s military strength was the best way to prevent any further escalation of tensions.
Three AM Call? Biden Can’t Even Take Urgent Calls From World Leader
Joe Biden has been missing for most of the month of August, on a vacation between Delaware and Kiawah, South Carolina. Before that, he was 13 days in isolation due to COVID. So he has been mostly out of the public eye for a long time until the end of this week.
But he was also blowing off his responsibilities in the process, according to a new report.
Israel has been, justifiably, concerned by the insane effort of the Biden administration to revive the Iran nuclear deal. Not only could lifting the sanctions empower the mullahs but now there are reports that the proposed new deal would also involve lifting the arms embargo on Iran. That would enable one of the chief state sponsors of terrorism — the people who chant “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” — to get all kinds of weapons, courtesy of Joe Biden. Meanwhile, there would be no enforcement mechanism to make sure that they were upholding the uranium enrichment limitations that Iran is supposed to comply with in the deal. Why would anyone make such a move that is so inherently against the interests of the United States?
The Israeli Prime Minister has been trying to get Joe Biden on the phone to talk about what the U.S. is doing but Joe Biden is just blowing him off either because he’s completely absent or avoiding talking to them.
“Prime Minister Yair Lapid has requested a meeting with US President Joe Biden during his visit to the US for the UN General Assembly next month,” The Post reported, “amid deep concern in Jerusalem over an impending nuclear deal between Washington and Tehran.”
Evidently, “Lapid hopes to meet with Biden on September 20, the day that the US president is set to address the General Assembly,” but no meeting has yet been confirmed — but it’s worse than that. “Lapid has yet to be able to speak to Biden on the phone, despite recent advances in Iran talks, according to multiple sources,” The Post noted.
They haven’t spoken in weeks. The Post said the White House blamed Biden’s vacation. That’s not an excuse when a world leader is trying to get hold of you. Remember how his team claimed that he was working everywhere he is while he’s taken about 35 percent of his time in office on vacation. That of course was another Biden team lie. You can’t have it both ways.
But Biden has been back in town since Wednesday, August 24 and the Post report was on the 27th. So that doesn’t say a lot for Joe Biden keeping up his responsibilities. Or perhaps the problem here is that he knows that he can’t justify what they are about to do.
Israel’s PM Yair Lapid is no hawk. But he opposes the new Iran deal. So do others on the Israeli left. So does the Mossad. So do our Gulf allies. They all know more than Biden about the devastating risks — perhaps Biden should listen to them!
— David M Friedman (@DavidM_Friedman) August 29, 2022
The head of Mossad is scheduled to come to Washington, D.C. next week to talk about the intel that they have on Iran with Congress. So there will be some discussion at some point.
But it’s embarrassing that it even makes it into foreign papers that Biden is such an absent leader. Biden is harming our foreign policy. Not to mention endangering our national security if he can’t be reached for things that are so important and when he considers things like the Iran Deal.
Senate Approves Admitting Sweden, Finland to NATO
The Senate overwhelmingly ratified Sweden and Finland’s applications to join NATO on Wednesday, boosting the two Nordic nations in their bid to join the Atlantic alliance.
The vote comes just over two months after Stockholm and Helsinki first sought to join the 30-member bloc amid Russia’s months-long brutal invasion of Ukraine.
The Swedish and Finnish ambassadors to the US were invited to watch the Senate debate and vote from the chamber’s gallery. A two-thirds majority was required to approve the expansion.
The only member to vote against ratification was Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who claimed that China was the bigger threat.
If he actually is mentally capable of understanding that he’s been humiliated, that is.
Saudi Arabia Humiliates Joe Biden With Major Oil Announcement
Joe Biden’s recent trip to the Middle East made many headlines, and none of them were particularly good. The president first landed in Israel where he promptly insulted Holocaust victims. At several other points during the week, he looked physically and mentally frail, appearing aloof and out of it. Then there was Biden’s stopover in Saudi Arabia, which led to a now-infamous fist bump that set teeth gnashing because the left hate the Saudis.
But the topline from the president’s tour was simple: It accomplished nothing. While the White House tried to hint that a deal for increased production had been reached, there was never any evidence offered. The reason why became clear on Wednesday after the Saudis stabbed Biden directly in the front as part of a big announcement from OPEC Plus.
Saudi Arabia is one of the original founders of OPEC, and they wield heavy influence over the OPEC and OPEC Plus nations. The entire point of Biden’s trip to the kingdom was to secure Saudi support for a large increase in production to help offset the global oil supply crunch that has driven up prices. Instead of getting a production boost of around half a million barrels a day, the president ended up with just 100,000, a massive reduction compared to the expectation. For context, the United States uses about 21 million barrels of oil a day, making a global increase of 100,000 a day nothing but a rounding error.
The situation gets dimmer, though. Apparently, that “increase” doesn’t even amount to any real increase.
That is what total failure looks like. The President of the United States went to the Middle East to beg a country he had previously tried to make a “pariah” for oil. Why? Because Biden’s own domestic energy policies have been so disastrous. The president then returned with no actual agreement, choosing bluster over substance. Now, the results of that are in, and the Saudis aren’t even pretending to have played along. It’s yet another embarrassment for Biden and the nation.
This is the danger of having the world’s worst foreign policy “expert” in the White House. Biden has famously been wrong on every major geopolitical issue for the last half-century, and you can add his plan to punish the Saudis while elevating Iran to the list. It didn’t have to be this way. Trump left an improving Middle East on the table, with the Arab nations and Israel moving toward a historic peace. All Biden had to do was eat his ice cream, keep the status quo rolling, and reap the benefits for everyone.
He just couldn’t do it, though. Instead, the president stuck his finger in the eye of the Saudis, causing them to cease their long-standing cooperation, harming American consumers along the way. And for what? To pursue some pointless nuclear deal with Iran? This is who Biden is. He’s a man always in search of failure, and he can turn any good into bad.
I’m old enough to remember when gas prices were low, Putin was sulking in a corner and China was whining about Trump being mean to them. Now we have 4.50 gas, Russian invading Ukraine, and Biden is worried China will invade Taiwan. But no mean tweets and that is what is important!
U.S. officials grow more concerned about potential action by China on Taiwan
Chinese officials have strongly asserted this summer that no part of the Taiwan Strait can be considered international waters, contrary to the views of the United States and other nations. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said in June that “China has sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait.”
American officials do not know whether China plans to enforce that claim. But Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, who is close to President Biden and deals with the administration often on issues involving Taiwan, said “there is a lot of attention being paid” to what lessons China, its military and Mr. Xi might be learning from events in Ukraine.
“And one school of thought is that the lesson is ‘go early and go strong’ before there is time to strengthen Taiwan’s defenses,” Mr. Coons said in an interview on Sunday. “And we may be heading to an earlier confrontation — more a squeeze than an invasion — than we thought.”
Chinese officials are aware that Biden administration officials, also applying lessons learned from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, are trying to shape their weapons sales to Taiwan to turn the democratic island into what some call a “porcupine” — bristling with enough effective armaments and defense systems to deter Chinese leaders from trying to attack it.
The meat puppet goes off teleprompter…… again.
Quip O’ The Day
Maybe someone in the West Wing should establish an Office for Explaining What the President Had Really Meant to Say. Obviously, it would be a full-time, high-pressure job, presumably with a high turnover.
White House performs cleanup after Biden says US military would defend Taiwan.
President Joe Biden said the United States would respond militarily if China invaded Taiwan — a response that appeared to break with Washington’s long-standing policy of “strategic ambiguity” before the White House walked it back.
Asked during a news conference in Tokyo whether he would “get involved militarily to defend Taiwan” after not doing so in Ukraine, Biden said, “Yes, that’s the commitment we made.”
“We agree with the One China policy,” Biden said, speaking alongside Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. “We signed on to it, and all the attendant agreements made from there, but the idea that it can be taken by force, just taken by force, is just not appropriate. It will dislocate the entire region and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine.”
“It’s a burden that’s even stronger,” he added.
Taipei welcomed Biden’s remarks, with Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou expressing “sincere welcome and gratitude.”
The president said China is “already flirting with danger right now by flying so close and all the maneuvers they’re undertaking,” a reference to Beijing military aircraft flying within Taiwan’s defense zone.
The president’s comments prompted a flurry of condemnation from China, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin voicing “strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the response.
“China has no room for compromise or concessions on issues involving China’s core interests such as sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Wang said. President Xi Jinping’s Communist Party claims the island, though it has never ruled it.
Wang added, “China will take firm action to safeguard its sovereignty and security interests, and we will do what we say.”
Biden earlier said that U.S. policy toward Taiwan “has not changed at all.” Later, the White House said Biden’s words did not signal a policy change. An official said Biden reiterated the One China Policy and stands by the Taiwan Relations Act to provide Taiwan with the military means to defend itself.
It was not the first time Biden or the White House has had to clarify his remarks on Taiwan, a sensitive issue on which certain words risk rapidly inflaming tensions with another nuclear power.
The comments recalled Biden’s pledge last year to defend Taiwan when he was asked about the potential threat of a Chinese hypersonic missile test during a town hall event. The White House later said there was no change in policy.
Biden also described Taiwan as “independent” while speaking to reporters in November last year before clarifying that he was not asserting its independence, merely talking about its need to make its own decisions.
SloJoe isn’t up to the job
Jill Biden sent on diplomatic mission to save the Summit of the Americas.
Joe Biden is sending his wife to do what he can’t get done. Jill Biden boarded a plane on Wednesday headed to Latin America. She is on a six-day tour through the capital cities of Central and northwestern South America. Her mission is to charm foreign leaders into accepting invitations to the upcoming Summit of the Americas in June. So far, only about half of the invitees have accepted their invitations. Participation of only 50% would be the latest embarrassment for Team Biden.
Times are tough for the incompetent and inept Biden administration. In a nod to just how bad things are, Jill Biden looks to be the go-to person being called upon by the White House to handle this diplomatic tightrope. The summit is billed as “President Biden’s highest priority event for the region” on the State Department’s website but it is turning into a disaster. The president of Mexico is leading the calls for a boycott in reaction to the Biden administration’s plan to exclude leaders from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
The summit is to be hosted in the United States for the first time since the inaugural summit in Miami in 1994. It will be held in Los Angeles this year.
Sweden’s Ruling Social Democratic Party Backs NATO Bid
Sweden’s ruling Social Democratic Party on Sunday said it was in favour of joining NATO, reversing its decades-long opposition and paving the way for the country to submit a membership application.
The turnaround comes amid soaring political and public support in Sweden for joining the Western military alliance after Russia’s February 24th invasion of Ukraine.
The issue has divided Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democrats, with some party members expressing concern that the decision was being rushed through.
The party said Sunday that if Sweden’s application were approved, it would work to express “unilateral reservations against the deployment of nuclear weapons and permanent bases on Swedish territory.”
The announcement came just hours after neighbouring Finland announced its official intention to apply for membership.
The two countries have expressed a desire to act in unison and submit their applications jointly, in a move seen as a deterrent against aggression from Russia.
A security policy review by the parties in Sweden’s parliament presented on Friday concluded that Swedish NATO membership would reduce the risk of conflict in northern Europe.
The report stopped short of offering a concrete recommendation on whether to join, but noted that it was “not realistic to develop bilateral defence alliances outside existing European and Euro-Atlantic structures.”
It also noted that “within the framework of current cooperation, there is no guarantee that Sweden would be helped if it were the target of a serious threat or attack.”
Sweden, which was neutral in World War II, has stayed out of military alliances for more than 200 years, though it has forged closer ties with NATO since the 1990s.
Finland to apply to NATO ‘without delay,’ as Sweden mulls stance.
“Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay,” President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in a joint statement. “We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.”
Leaders in both Sweden and Finland had been expected to announce their positions on joining NATO this week, as the war in Ukraine continues to have unintended consequences for Russia by potentially pushing two more of its neighbors to the transatlantic alliance.
Finland’s decision to apply for NATO membership is a threat to the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, Russia’s presidential press secretary, said on Thursday.
“Another enlargement of NATO does not make our continent more stable and secure,” Peskov told reporters.
Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ann Linde said on Thursday that Finland’s leaders had delivered an “important message,” adding that her country “will decide after the report from the security policy consultations has been presented.” Sweden’s ruling party is expected to announce its position on May 15. Finland’s parliament is expected to debate the issue and then vote a day later.
The Scandinavian countries have long held neutral status when it comes to European conflict. Finland became a neutral country after the Second World War, while Sweden has resisted military alliances long before that.
House Brings Back World War II-Era Weapons Program To Support Ukraine, Biden Expected To Sign
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted Thursday to reinstate a World War II weapons sharing program to support Ukraine against the continuing Russian invasion.
Republican South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson introduced the Ukrainian Democracy Defense Lend Lease Act in February. It is modeled after the Lend Lease Program, which was first created by Congress in 1941 to arm Great Britain. It passed the House 417-10, with 221 Democrats and 196 Republicans voting in favor. Ten Republicans voted against the legislation.
A companion bill unanimously passed the Senate in an April 6 voice vote. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the legislation, Politico reported, although Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby declined “to get ahead of the president’s decision with respect to” the bill during his Wednesday press conference.
“It’s absolutely the amazing, the unintended consequences of Vladimir Putin, that he’s brought Democrats and Republicans together,” Wilson said on the House floor. “He has united the people of the U.S., and with the leadership of [House Foreign Affairs Committee] chairman Greg Meeks and the ranking member Mike McCaul, Americans are united in their support of the people of Ukraine. For 63 days, the courageous people of Ukraine have resisted full-scale invasion by war criminal Putin with his murderous occupying forces, in large part due to the courageous leadership of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”
“Ukraine’s request is simple: provide the weapons needed to protect the Ukrainian homeland and Ukrainian families.”
The initial Lend Lease Program allowed the U.S. government to provide weapons to first Great Britain and then the Soviet Union during World War II. With both countries bankrupt, the U.S. provided them with weapons that they could either return or pay for at a later date.
The U.S. has already provided Ukraine with $13.6 billion in military aid. Biden announced earlier Thursday his request for an addition $33 billion in military and humanitarian aid, as well as funds for the Ukrainian government to keep essential services in place.
Ukraine Has Joined NATO Whether Russia Likes It or Not, and More Are Yet to Follow
One of the bogus reasons that Vladimir Putin laid out for his incompetently executed invasion of Ukraine was to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. Against all evidence and commonsense, he claimed that Ukraine’s membership in a defensive alliance like NATO posed a direct threat to Russia. Putin and his acolytes would have us believe that NATO has just been lying in wait for the chance to bring Ukraine into NATO so NATO can invade Russia or something. Instead, in something of a geopolitical “own goal,” the invasion of Ukraine has created a de facto expansion of NATO to include Ukraine, and a de jure expansion of NATO to include Finland and Sweden is only months away.
Thursday, the NATO foreign ministers met in an emergency session to discuss the war in Ukraine and, more specifically, how to keep Ukraine in the war. This quote is from my post titled, Game-Changing Weapons Begin to Flow to Ukraine After NATO Emergency Meeting.
For starters, the attendees were not only NATO nations; there were also observers present: the European Union, Sweden, Finland, Georgia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Ukraine. If Putin was afraid of being surrounded before, he should take a quick look at his map now (just a reminder that Japan and Russia still have an unresolved border dispute, see Russia conducts military exercises in disputed islands).
A very insightful statement came from Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, “I think the deal that Ukraine is offering is fair. You give us weapons; we sacrifice our lives, and the war is contained in Ukraine.”
All of the actions taken by NATO countries indicate they have agreed to Mr. Kuleba’s deal.
This is what you get when a senile dolt with foot in mouth disease makes statements that back an adversary into a corner with no face saving way out.
Sun-Tzu wrote you’re supposed to build your enemy a ‘golden bridge’ to retreat over.
He also wrote that when you find yourself on ‘lethal ground’ where there is no retreat, your force will fight like mad men to win, so they might not die.
Russians once again threatening nuclear war
We’ve heard it from Vladimir Putin himself. We’ve heard it from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. But just in case we somehow missed the message, a political scientist and longtime supporter of Putin by the name of Sergey Mikheev went on Russian state television this week to make their point absolutely crystal clear. If the United States, NATO, or any other western nation sends any sort of military peacekeeping force into Ukraine, Russia will start unloading their nuclear arsenal on everyone. This time the warning wasn’t even subtle, though. Mikheev actually sounded excited or perhaps even exuberant over the idea. He also had a list of targets at hand. Near the top of the list was Warsaw, with Berlin and the capitals of some other EU members not far behind. (Free Beacon)
A Russian political scientist tied to President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow will launch a nuclear strike on Europe if a NATO peacekeeping force is deployed to intervene in Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
“This would mean nuclear war. Yes!” Sergey Mikheev, a Putin loyalist, said in a recent interview on Russian state-controlled television. Mikheev said that Warsaw “would be instantly destroyed” and that Germany, Estonia, and the Baltic states would also be hit, according to video of the appearance published by the Middle East Media Research Institute, which has been tracking the conflict.
“We need to convey a simple message to Europe: You will receive a nuclear strike in European territory if you form some sort of a NATO peacekeeping contingent, if you decide to deploy this contingent somewhere and so forth,” Mikheev said.
Here’s Mister Mikheev delivering his message to NATO and the world.
So there is no longer any suggestion of subtlety coming from the Russians at this point. In the runup to the invasion and for a short time afterward, Putin was at least being a little bit cagey, suggesting there could be serious “repercussions” if the west interfered. There were reminders of how easily his missiles could reach European capitals. But he wasn’t going so far as to bluntly talk about global thermonuclear war.
In reality, this is pretty much all that Putin has left in his bag of tricks, assuming that Mad Vlad is still in control of his senses well enough to grasp all of this realistically. If you’re getting your news from literally anywhere other than Russian state-operated television, you’ve seen the current state of the Russian military. Their soldiers were being outperformed and driven back by volunteers from one of the poorest countries in Europe. Their tanks and armor were constantly breaking down, assuming anyone remembered to bring along some gasoline for them. Their air force barely showed up at all and many of the jets that did make it into Ukrainian skies were shot down by shoulder-fired rockets. If The United States military, aligned with some NATO allies, actually engaged Russia in a land war we would probably mop them up in a matter of a week or two.
So the only thing that the Madman of Moscow has left is the threat of his nuclear arsenal. And it’s a powerful threat to be sure. But would he use it? There are a lot of nuclear weapons pointing back at him. Some are on land, while others are hiding under the sea. I hate to sound like I’m echoing Mikheev here, but if Russia fires first, Moscow will be a slowly cooling pool of radioactive glass in a matter of hours. Of course, that assumes that the leaders in the west have the intestinal fortitude to pull the trigger. That’s the real nightmare scenario if you ask me. Would we really let Putin get away with launching a nuke at a population center? I would hope not, but these days, how can we really be sure?