Category Archives: Foreign Policy

The People’s House Or The Pope’s House?

Etiquette, Foreign Policy, Politics, Propaganda, Religion

What was noted in this space on 01.23.15 and years prior will be reiterated again, today: It was an abomination when Mexican President Felipe Calderon was allowed to address a joint session of Congress in May of 2010, it was as unseemly for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to have been permitted to issue forth in the same venue earlier this year, and every bit as improper for the Pontiff to insert himself into American politics by doing the same. Via Vatican City (AFP):

Pope Francis is gearing up for potentially his most politically charged trip yet, an eight-day whirlwind visit which will take him from Havana’s Revolution Square in Cuba to the headquarters of the United Nations.

The Argentine, who will become the first pontiff to address a joint meeting of Congress in Washington, has taken advantage of a summer lull at the Vatican to fine-tune his hotly awaited speeches, sources at the Holy See say. …

The American people’s representatives are the traitors here. For it is they who’ve permitted this reoccurring spectacle; it is they who’ve turned the American People’s House into a House for hire; a one-way exchange program for foreign dignitaries.

Of course, this is purely a no-partisan rule and has nothing to do with the fact that the anti-intellectual Jorge Bergoglio is shaping up to be a dreadful cur.

Bush, Obama And Hillary Destabilized The … World

Britain, Europe, Foreign Policy, IMMIGRATION

“When they destabilized Libya and overthrew strongman Muammar Gadhafi in 2011, the U.S. and its Canadian and European allies unleashed a series of events that accounts for the steady flood into Europe of migrants from North Africa.” (From “The Curse Of Col. Gadhafi.”)

The leveling of Libya courtesy of Barack Obama’s Amazon women warriors—Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and Samantha Power—is one source of destabilization. Another is the destruction of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan:

“A large majority of people undertaking these arduous and dangerous journeys are refugees fleeing from places such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan,” confirmed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. You know who finished those countries off: George W. Bush. He is responsible for interventions that rippled into Syria and now Europe; it is being flooded by migrants from the Middle East and North Africa.

Those who make it across the Mediterranean and wash up on southern Italy’s shores, then proceed inland. Some are clamoring to cross the channel into United Kingdom, via the Channel Tunnel. It is a “Camp of the Saints” scenario—“the 1973 novel by French author Jean Raspail envisioning an apocalyptic ‘invasion’ of Europe by successive boatloads of Third World nationals.”

Between them, Bush, Obama and Clinton destabilized the … world

Kurdish Separatists: They Fight ISIS, But Threaten Statists

Federalism, Foreign Policy, Iraq, Just War, Middle East, Nationhood, States' Rights

The Turks lump together as terrorists both the Islamic State and the paramilitary wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is fighting ISIS. “Kurds in Iraq and Syria are among the most formidable opponents of the extremist group.” And the US agrees. Americans, after all, hate separatists. It reminds them of their lost right of secession, removed by force by Abe Lincoln. Born of a loose confederation of independent states, Americans now favor a strong, overweening central state, and they want to see the same in the tribal lands of the Middle East.

Turkey’s military has been ramping up attacks on Kurdish separatists since last month. The government decided to join the U.S.-led military campaign against Islamic State while simultaneously launching assaults on the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Turkey.

MORE.

Does McCain Owe A Mea Culpa To POWS & MIAS?

Criminal Injustice, Foreign Policy, John McCain, Media, War

“Does McCain Owe Mea Culpa To POWS & MIAS?” is the current column, now on The Unz Review, America’s smartest webzine. An excerpt:

“It’s the beginning of the end for Donald Trump.” “It disqualifies him as a presidential candidate.” “This is the end of his run.” So crowed the political operatives looking to take down Mr. Trump, and by so doing, protect the political status quo and ease themselves into positions of greater power. The egos in the anchor’s chair and the pundits opposite chimed in: “He’ll make the more serious candidates look more serious,” predicted the next Michael Oakeshott and favorite imbecile, S. E. Cupp.

The Donald is in the dock for desecrating one of the political establishment’s most sacred cows: Sen. John McCain. Speaking at a forum in Iowa, the popular presidential hopeful said these sagacious things about the Republican from Arizona:

“[McCain’s] not a war hero. He is a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, okay?” (On the same occasion, Trump ventured that he was not particularly for the Vietnam War, a position that should endear him to principled libertarians.)

Not only does Donald Trump not owe Sen. McCain an apology; McCain likely owes mea culpa to Trump—and to the very many Vietnam veterans and their families whom he is alleged to have betrayed.

Yes, the heroic prisoner-of-war pedigree upon which McCain has established his career and credibility is probably a myth.

For our purposes, the story begins with Sydney Schanberg, back in the days before American journalism became a circle jerk of power brokers.

Mr. Schanberg is one of “America’s most eminent journalists.” “For his accounts of the fall of Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge in 1975,” Schanberg “was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting ‘at great risk.’ He is also the recipient of many other awards–including two George Polk awards, two Overseas Press Club awards and the Sigma Delta Chi prize for distinguished journalism.” Schanberg’s byline at The Nation magazine further reveals that:

The 1984 movie, The Killing Fields [watch it!], which won several Academy Awards, was based on his book ‘The Death and Life of Dith Pran’–a memoir of his experiences covering the war in Cambodia for the New York Times and of his relationship with his Cambodian colleague, Dith Pran.

Schanberg is also the author of a “remarkable 8,000-word exposé”: “McCain and the POW Cover-Up.” Here follow the opening paragraphs. They provide a précis of the forensic evidence collected by Schanberg against McCain as ally of Vietnam War POWs and men missing inaction …

Read on. “Does McCain Owe A Mea Culpa To POWS & MIAS?” is now on The Unz Review.