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« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2018, 05:15:06 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 9-21-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
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Once our coalition forces were withdrawn34, Barack Obama’s “moment of success” in Iraq became just that. When Obama won re-election, in part thanks to his administration’s Benghazi cover-up, we saw the further deterioration of conditions in the Middle East that led militants to declare themselves a sovereign Islamic State, better known as ISIS or ISIL. For three harrowing years, much of Iraq and Syria was under the control of this rump thugocracy.
On the other side of the Iraq frontier, Iran was sufficiently emboldened by Obama’s hands-off policies — as well as $1.7 billion in American cash — to itself meddle in Iraq’s affairs35. Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran was the icing on the cake, so much so that treasonous former Secretary of State John Kerry has encouraged the Iranian leaders to simply wait out the Trump administration36 in the belief that some subsequent president will undo what Trump has done.
The success of Trump’s strategy in dismantling the Islamic State — which allowed those on the ground to run the war rather than DC-based bureaucrats — worked brilliantly in a military sense. But the global War on Terror is an asymmetrical battle, which explains why terrorist incidents, while down worldwide, have increased in severity and frequency in certain areas. (An annex37 to the Country Reports on Terrorism points out that, while still a small number in comparison to world hotspots, deaths or injuries from terror attacks were significantly higher year-over-year in the United Kingdom and Spain, while France also had a 59% increase in the number of attacks.)
Notably, Western Europe has taken in a huge number of Middle Eastern migrants in the last decade.
Undeterred, President Trump is planning to ratchet up pressure on Iran, including the restoration of the Iranian oil embargo38, which had been lifted as part of the Obama deal. But harsher measures may be required to curb Iran’s malevolence, because, as Ambassador Sales noted, “Iran uses terrorism as a tool of its statecraft. It has no reservations about using that tool on any continent.” While Iranian leadership will be in New York for the upcoming UN General Assembly meeting, there are no plans for talks between the Iranians and the Trump administration regarding this or other issues — so they may be taking Kerry’s advice.
Iran isn’t the whole problem, though. Wrapping up a question-and-answer session on the release of the report, Ambassador Sales, who’s also the State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism, was asked about a domestic threat: “I think all three of them [al-Qaida, ISIS, and Iran] have both the capability and intent [to carry out domestic terror attacks],” he replied, “so the key question then becomes: What are we doing about it? And I think there’s a suite of tools that are useful against all three of those diverse threat streams.”
Those tools include stopping their flow of money, cutting off terrorist travel, and using law enforcement to investigate, prosecute, and incarcerate suspected terrorists. In other words, tools that the previous administration either lacked the will to employ or, worse, were complicit in working against. But at least there’s now evidence that a new approach has turned the tide in the Long War.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/58401-the-good-news-on-terrorism
MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST
Hispanics Reap Benefits of Trump’s Economy39 — “President Trump’s economy is the rising tide that is lifting all boats. This is especially true for Hispanics.”
The Truth About Teacher Pay40 — The popular perception is that teachers are underpaid, but is that widely true?
Your Email: A Presumption of Privacy?41 — Google admits to allowing third-party data mining of users’ Gmail accounts.
Video: Liberal Students Admit Trump Helping Economy42 — Students have varying opinions on Trump but admit that the economy is booming with his help.
OPINION IN BRIEF
Rich Lowry: “At its best, our system of justice judges each individual — the accuser and the accused — on the basis of the evidence and with an adversarial process that has proved over the centuries to be the best way to ascertain the truth. The problem is that Ford’s accusation doesn’t seem particularly provable, and the Democratic-media complex isn’t very interested in proving it. It wants to take her truthfulness as a given, as a matter of cosmic and gender equity. ‘I believe the survivor,’ says Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal. It would be accurate for him to say, ‘I believe Ford is a survivor.’ But the point is to take rhetorical and political advantage of her alleged victimhood before it has been established — indeed, to use her assumed victimhood to foreclose any serious questioning of whether she is a victim or not. We’re seeing, in effect, the importation of the kangaroo court colleges use to adjudicate such cases to the United States Senate.”
SHORT CUTS
Upright: “Ford’s demand is, to put it simply, out of line. … There is no precedent for a quid pro quo demand for testimony by a witness. [Ford] does not have the right to set conditions before testifying under oath.” —Georgetown law professor (and Democrat) Jonathan Turley
Upright II: “I believe [Ford] has to show up on Monday. If she doesn’t show up on Monday she has violated [Kavanaugh’s] core right to confront his accuser. If he shows up, what’s he going to respond to? News reports? She has to go under oath.” —Harvard law professor (and Democrat) Alan Dershowitz
For the record: “If the FBI wants to investigate things that need investigation there is much behavior from the Bill and Hillary Clinton era that would keep agents busy and produce results of interest to the public and law enforcement, including alleged Chinese hacking of Hillary’s emails while she was secretary of state, Uranium One scandal, foreign gifts to the Clinton Foundation and so much more.” —Cal Thomas
Blind squirrel finds a nut: “To President Trump’s point, I mean, there’s a deep state feel to this, right?” —NBC reporter Jonathan Allen
Braying Jackass: “We never had a president who was engaged in this kind of behavior. I mean, he’s not telling the truth. He keeps changing his mind. He’s sabotaging the world order in many respects. … Something’s got to happen to this guy, because if we don’t get rid of him, he’s going to undermine America and even the world.” —California Gov. Jerry Brown
Accurate — minus the “ir”: “Of course the presidency will be something I consider. It would be irresponsible not to.” —Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)
And last… “It wasn’t supposed to go this far. Senate Republicans were supposed to buckle. Trump was supposed to get wobbly. Kavanaugh was supposed to have dropped out by now. Senate Democrats had no contingency plan for a scenario in which people demanded evidence.” —Sean Davis
https://patriotpost.us/articles/58377-friday-short-cuts
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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Nate Jackson, Managing Editor
Mark Alexander, Publisher |
