WHEN A PRESIDENT WAS A REAL PRESIDENT!

Picture sent by Mark Waldeland!

When The DOJ Entrapped And Murdered Randy Weaver For His Christian Beliefs…

August 1, 2022

Lessons from Ruby Ridge

By Huck Davenport at American Thinker:

For those too young to remember, it was thirty years ago this month that the DOJ entrapped Randy Weaver for his Christian beliefs, issued a death warrant, killed his dog, son, and wife, and shot Weaver and his friend.

Surely, the DOJ doesn’t just execute innocent people. Yet, as we learned at trial:

He had no propensity to commit crimes. Never even had a traffic ticket. Never been charged with a crime of any kind and honorably served his country.

While living in Iowa, Weaver learned it was illegal to homeschool his children independently, so he moved his family to a cabin in remote Idaho, Ruby Ridge.

Weaver attended Aryan Nation meetings three times, meeting not far from Ruby Ridge, “to exchange ideas, talk to people, I usually ended up arguing.” That’s where Gus Magisano befriended Weaver and tried to involve him in illicit activity. Weaver refused. But after three years of coaxing, Weaver finally agreed to make two sawed-off shotguns. Magisano was a fed.

What the feds really wanted was an informant, so they blackmailed Weaver: inform or face prison. Weaver refused; he was no “snitch.” With facts withheld, a grand jury indicted Weaver but, instead of simply arresting him, the feds concocted an elaborate ruse. Taking advantage of Weaver’s good nature, agents feigned being a family with car trouble stranded on a snowy bridge:

When I walked up to help, several agents jumped me and threw me to the ground. A female agent, posing to be the stranded wife, threw Vicki [his wife] to the ground.

Weaver’s probation officer erroneously wrote to Weaver that his court date was a month after the actual date. Because of the error, Weaver failed to appear, and the judge issued a bench warrant. To his shock, Weaver read about the warrant in the newspaper and later read a denial that the probation officer’s letter existed. Despite the letter’s veracity, a U.S. Attorney convened a grand jury, withheld the letter, and received an indictment for failing to appear. Weaver testified “this just added on to everything; we could not trust anything that was going on. I wanted reassurance that I would get a fair trial.”

Image: Vicki Weaver before she was murdered. Public domain.

So, Weaver waited in his cabin for a marshal to show up with the warrant for his arrest. No one ever came. Rather than arresting him, FBI agent Larry Potts signed a death warrant:

If any adult male is observed with a weapon prior to the announcement, deadly force can and should be employed if the shot could be taken without endangering any children.

The FBI knew Weaver, his wife, and his adult children regularly carried arms, as many did in the rural community. “We were right in the middle of grizzly territory, mountain lions, moose. They are very dangerous animals.” But certainly not more dangerous than government agents.

Eighteen months later, on August 21, 1992, marshals arrived making no announcement for surrender. They were “in combat gear. They were wearing full camouflage suits with black ninja-type hoods. They were carrying machine guns and semi-automatic pistols. They were trained to kill.”

Sam, Weaver’s son called out, “Striker [the family labrador] is acting weird.” Believing Striker had spotted an animal, Sam and Weaver’s friend, Kevin Harris, both armed, as usual, went to investigate when shots rang out. Striker was shot dead at their feet. Sam and Harris instinctively fired back in self-defense. Harris’s shot allegedly killed a marshal. Weaver yelled, “Sam, get home.” Sam turned and hollered, “I’m coming, Dad.” As he ran, a marshal’s bullet penetrated his heart.

After the melee, Weaver carried Sam’s lifeless body to the shed. As the family wept, locked in their cabin,

agents surrounded the property with elite hostage teams, snipers, military war-fare equipment, helicopters, high-powered rifles, machine guns, infrared heat scanning equipment, listening devices. They did not notify the family that they were surrounded, nor did they give anyone in the family an opportunity to surrender.

Desperate to see Sam one last time, Weaver went with Harris and his daughter to the shed. As Weaver opened the shed, without warning, a bullet struck his shoulder. Sara pleaded with her injured father, “We gotta go home. We gotta get in the house now.” As they ran back, Vicki, terrified, came to the door screaming, “what happened, what happened?” Clutching her baby in her arms, she held the door as her family scrambled for safety. Just as they entered, a sniper’s bullet shattered her skull, and the exiting bullet struck Harris in the chest and arm.

The siege would continue for 11 days. If it were possible to breed more mistrust, a robot carrying a phone was sent on the pretense of negotiations:

It had a sawed-off shotgun on the side aimed at the telephone, they later said was empty. I didn’t believe that. I have no doubt in my mind whoever grabbed that telephone was dead.

Lt. Col. “Bo” Gritz was brought in to negotiate, but convincing Weaver to trust the Government seemed impossible:

I thought I would step out the door with Bo and they would kill us both and then tell the world we had started shooting at them. I figured they could make up any story.

Mercifully, Gritz succeeded. He later recalled, “God be praised because the thing that really touches me, obviously, is that family would have been wiped out.”

The NY Times ran the headline, “White Supremacist Surrenders. Weaver and his wife were believers in Christian Identity, which holds that Europeans are the lost tribe of Israel, that blacks are subhuman and Jews are satanic. The agency has said its officers fired only after being shot at.” With that, the guilt had been assigned, the DOJ absolved, and the demonization was complete.

Weaver, charged with first-degree murder, though he never fired a shot at anyone, faced the death penalty. The DOJ subpoenaed a staggering 51 witnesses over three months, and when it was done, Weaver was found not guilty on all counts except minor charges for failing to appear.

As for the DOJ, Larry Potts, who signed that death warrant, was promoted to Deputy Director. The marshal who put a bullet into Sam’s back was awarded the medal of valor.

The sniper who assassinated Vicki had charges brought but dropped. One A.G. was so outraged he worked without pay attempting to reinstate the charges. They

reacted to pressure to dismiss charges. It’s a very important issue for our safety and our liberty. If federal agents can commit violent crimes with impunity, where’s the rule of law? Who protects the people from their own government?

Answer: No one. The top law enforcement arm of the Government is itself above the law. The DOJ today operates with complete impunity, unaccountable, and corrupt.

The abuse is endless. When the Senate Oversight Committee had the temerity to investigate the DOJ, the CIA hacked into the Senate’s computers to thwart the investigation. When questioned about it under oath they lied. CIA Director Brennan, Director of National Intelligence Clapper, and FBI Director Comey would prove to be serial perjurers and never face consequences.

They’ve continued to entrap American citizens, most recently in the politically motivated Whitmer kidnapping hoax. They’ve brought the full powers of the DOJ to bear on parents daring to protest out-of-control school boards, suppressed Hunter Biden’s laptop, incarcerated J6 protestors indefinitely, and now regularly target political enemies with pre-dawn military-style raids.

Thirty years ago, the DOJ proved to be out of control at Ruby Ridge. Since then, its abuses have only accelerated, and oversight has proven impossible. The entire criminal organization needs to be shuttered, and rebuilt outside of the incestuous confines of the Beltway with a strict code of ethics that, if violated, would result in a permanent ban from government jobs and loss of pension. We are out of options.

https://lockerdome.com/lad/8965120688797543?pubid=ld-7146-6908&pubo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.americanthinker.com&rid=www.americanthinker.com&width=610

Learning About Improving OUR AMERICA

Kendall Qualls: Black kids deserve better than fatherless homes and low expectations

[. . .] To achieve change, the black community must unify around two key messages: Boosting education expectations and restoring fathers to the home. How can we achieve this? First, invest in church-based education and not just traditional — and failing — public schooling. Second, insist that welfare programs are a temporary rather than permanent way of life — with benefits limited to a maximum of five to seven years. And, most crucially, incentivize marriage through additional beneficial tax codes. 

Such strategies can (and do) work: In Mississippi, for instance, black students who once scored poorly on standardized reading tests are now performing at some of the highest levels in the nation. One reason for this turnaround, say local leaders, is the Literacy-Based Promotion Act, implemented in 2013, which requires third-graders to pass a reading test before they can be promoted to the fourth grade.

Our community can rise when expectations rise for it. Now is the time to raise them even further. Let’s stop buying the victim narrative and restore our families and communities. We’ll all be better off for it.

To learn more about “I AM A VICTOR” and watch the film visit IamAVictor.com . To learn more about TakeCharge visit takechargemn.com .

…article found by Mark Waldeland…

Our Nancy SHOULD Visit Taiwan!

AUGUST 1, 2022 BY SCOTT JOHNSON at Power Line:

THAT TAIWAN TRIP

According to Senator Tom Cotton, the leak of Nancy Pelosi’s planned trip to Taiwan “came straight from “the White House.” The AP reported yesterday that Taiwan was omitted from the itinerary of her Asian trip, but security concerns must have had something to do with that. Today comes word that Taiwanese and US officials expect her to visit Taiwan.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Pelosi is indeed planning to visit Taiwan. The Washington Examiner now reports “Taiwan cancels leave of some soldiers ‘to immediately prepare for war.’”

The Biden administration has both lowered respect for the United States among our enemies and amplified Pelosi’s visit into something like a crisis. It would be terrible for the United States if she succumbed to the pressure of the CCP and the Biden administration. We wish her the best on her planned visit.

As Grandpa Biden Sits And Deceives At Home!

Ukraine sends out first grain shipment by sea

JAZZ SHAW Aug 01, 2022 at HotAir: 

Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP

The supposed agreement to allow Ukraine to resume agricultural exports by sea that was brokered by Turkey and Iran has been proceeding in fits and starts from the beginning. The day after the Kremlin signed off on the deal they turned around and shelled the port city of Odesa. But now, NBC News is reporting that the first ship full of corn has left Odesa and will bring the crops to ports in Africa. Of course, this assumes that the Russians don’t seize the ship during their “inspection” of it. It also assumes that the mines have been sufficiently cleared from that region of the Black Sea and the ship doesn’t mysteriously have a hole blown in it and sink. But if this shipment goes through, it could mark a return to at least some sense of “normalcy” for the Ukrainian economy after many months of a protracted war with the Russians.

The first ship carrying grain from Ukraine left a port in Odesa Monday, after months of Russian blockade helped fuel a mounting global food crisis.

The breakthrough follows a United Nations-backed deal between Kyiv and Moscow last month and while intense fighting continues in the east and the south. The departure of the first shipment will raise hopes that the impact of the war — now five months old — might be eased for millions facing hunger and poverty across the world, though doubts over Russia’s commitment to any deal will continue.

A vessel carrying 26,000 tons of corn set sail from the port in the country’s south, beginning its journey through heavily mined waters beyond the Black Sea and toward Lebanon’s Tripoli, according to a U.N.-led monitoring center.

NBC is being rather generous in saying that “doubts over Russia’s commitment to any deal will continue.” That’s putting it mildly. Russia has broken virtually every agreement they’ve made with Ukraine since the beginning of the war. You may recall how during the siege of Mariupol, the Russians agreed on three or more occasions to establish safe evacuation corridors for civilians. Each time, when people loaded up vehicles and attempted to leave the area, the Russians shelled the convoys.

There was a time when I would have been tempted to say ‘yes, but the world is watching.’ Now, however, I don’t think that fact matters a bit to Vladimir Putin. He controls the state-run media in Russia and his version of the story is the only one most of his people hear. What the rest of the world thinks clearly doesn’t matter to Mad Vlad, nor do all of the sanctions that he’s been hit with. That’s the nice thing about being an alleged trillionaire. You can afford to wait something like this out, even if your own people are starving.

If this ship isn’t attacked and the corn makes it to the international market, they can attempt more shipments in the coming weeks. If it doesn’t happen soon, a lot of those crops are going to spoil and all of this will have been for nothing.

Meanwhile, the actual war still doesn’t seem to be slowing down. A report over the weekend indicated that the Ukrainian forces have launched yet another push to the south, attempting to take back some of the territory that the Russians previously grabbed. Perhaps not coincidentally, some of this fighting is taking place only a short distance to the north of Odesa. (Associated Press)

The Ukrainians have used American-supplied rocket launchers to strike bridges and military infrastructure in the south, forcing Russia to divert its forces from the Donbas in the east to counter the new threat.

With the war in Ukraine now in its sixth month, the coming weeks may prove decisive.

While the bulk of Russian and Ukrainian military assets are conсentrated in the Donbas, the industrial region of mines and factories, both sides hope to make gains elsewhere.

In addition to the eastern industrial regions in the Donbas, Russia clearly wants to hold on to as much coastal area as possible. Controlling the ports gives them more opportunities when it comes to moving their naval forces around. It also cuts off Ukraine’s access to shipping and economic opportunities. When you look at this news of grain shipments resuming in that context, it’s all the easier to suspect that this could be a ruse on the part of the Russians. They have a lot of incentive to stop those shipments from happening and very little motivation to keep their promises.

White House downplays decision to fill in border wall gaps, claims Biden admin ‘cleaning up’ Trump’s ‘mess’

Biden admin filling gaps in US-Mexico border wall despite ‘not another foot’ campaign pledge

By Haris Alic at Fox News

Yuma mayor says ‘we have 52 gaps’ in border wall

BeyondWords

The White House on Friday downplayed its decision to finish construction on a section of former President Donald Trump’s border wall near Yuma, Arizona. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the move by Fox News Channel’s Peter Doocy during the daily press briefing. Jean-Pierre asserted that President Biden was “not finishing the wall,” but rather filling gaps to prevent migrants from attempting dangerous border crossings. 

TRUMP, AT US-MEXICO BORDER, SLAMS BIDEN FOR ‘OPEN, REALLY DANGEROUS’ BORDER

“We are cleaning up the mess the prior administration made,” said Jean-Pierre. “We are trying to save lives… A border wall is an ineffective use of taxpayer dollars.” 

U.S. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre holds the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington on June 16, 2022. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)

The Department of Homeland Security announced earlier this week that it was prioritizing the completion of the wall near the Morelos Dam in Arizona. The decision was made, according to administration officials, to protect illegal migrants from getting hurt while attempting to traverse a dangerous section of the Colorado River. 

DHS officials not that the area in question is the third-busiest illegal-crossing site across along the U.S-Mexico border. In the first six months of this year alone, border patrol agents have stopped migrants more than 160,000 times along the section. 

DC MAYOR BOWSER ASKS FOR NATIONAL GUARD HELP WITH MIGRANT BUSES FROM SOUTHERN BORDER: ‘HUMANITARIAN CRISIS’

“This area presents safety and life hazard risks for migrants attempting to cross into the United States where there is a risk of drownings and injuries from falls,” DHS said in a statement. “This area also poses a life and safety risk to first responders and agents responding to incidents in this area.”

In this June 10, 2021, file photo, a pair of migrant families from Brazil pass through a gap in the border wall to reach the U.S. after crossing from Mexico to Yuma, Ariz., to seek asylum. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia, File)

News of the decision to fill gaps in the border was met with derision by Republican lawmakers. 

“After Hispanic support for President Biden craters to 26% approval, he suddenly wants to complete the border wall,” Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., tweeted. 

Name A Washington GOPer As Corrupt And Deceitful As Madame Pelosi Or Adam Schiff! And Then There’s That President Guy….

 AUGUST 1, 2022 BY SCOTT JOHNSON at Power Line:

A CLOWN-CAR ADMINISTRATION

President Biden is the Clown-in-Chief of the big circus that is the Biden administration. He has half a mind to be president. There is nothing funny about it. His administration is a circus colloquially speaking. President Biden and senior administration officials are not serious people. They have manifested as political hacks.

Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate set the tone. Her self-identification as black was prerequisite to her selection. Transparency is her leading quality. To put it discreetly, she is transparently vacuous.

Take Janet Yellen — please. Yellen holds the venerable office of Secretary of the Treasury. Former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Yellen is well qualified for the job and an ostensibly serious person. Yet she has proved unfit for the office, regurgitating administration talking points with an utter lack of seriousness. Inflation — it was transitory. Recession — not yet. Abortion — restricting it would be “very damaging” to the economy.

As Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has managed to create a recruiting crisis for the armed forces. He has injected the Democratic Party’s racial mania into the veins of every branch of the military. According to Austin, our armed forces are rife with “whiteness” and “white rage.” He has done great damage to morale and his performance has detracted from our national security. Whatever his contribution to our departure from Afghanistan, he should have been relieved of his office at that time.

Like Yellen, Merrick Garland appeared qualified to serve as Attorney General. In office, however, Garland has proved just another hack. His declaration that “white supremacists” constitute our biggest national security threat is party-line histrionics unbecoming to his office.

As Secretary of State, Antony Blinken also had his hand in the Afghanistan disgrace. He continues his mad pursuit of Iran. He won’t take “Death to America” for an answer. He has done everything within the realm of the politically deniable to appease the mullahs and is still at it. He has fallen far short of the requirements of the office.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has responsibility for the domestic security of the United States. It’s a big and important job. Assuring us that the border is secure, Mayorkas has taken Baghdad Bob as his role model. His clownishness isn’t entirely his fault. He is executing the policy promised by Biden. If he had any self-respect, however, he would have departed long ago. He believes his routine.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg put the exclamation point on my clown-car metaphor. How can all those clowns fit in one car?

Most recently, Secretary Cardona has unveiled his plans to codify the “trans” ideology that grips the left. Six Republican Senators have responded in a letter that begins to trace the consequences of the trans regime. Stanley Kurtz takes it up at NRO Corner here.

I end on the “trans” note this morning because it explains the construction of the clown car. It is constructed on the woke ideology that has taken control of the Democratic Party. Biden and his secretaries have fallen into line with the new orthodoxy. It is unreal, it is absurd, and it rules every corner of this administration.

Iranian Mullahs Still Preach “DEATH TO AMERICA”! WHEN WILL THEY HAVE THEIR NUCLEAR WEAPONS TO USE?

 JULY 31, 2022 BY JOHN HINDERAKER at Power Line:

IRAN THREATENS NEW YORK CITY?

I am not sure I understand this story, so I pass it on for what it is worth. From the Jerusalem Post:

Iran expert Ben Sabti tweeted that an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “Telegram channel threatens to produce atomic warhead for missiles,” citing the channel’s message: “Iran can immediately return to Emad project and build an atomic bomb if Natanz facilities are attacked.”

This is the tweet. I take it that the IRGC is a more or less official arm of Iran’s government:

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=powerlineUS&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1553350385166868480&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.powerlineblog.com%2Farchives%2F2022%2F07%2Firan-threatens-new-york-city.php&sessionId=6d54982fded5fa24b725bd9c5e0d64dfb325f6e6&siteScreenName=powerlineUS&theme=light&widgetsVersion=6da0b7085cc99%3A1658260301864&width=550px

The Emad, cited in the message, is an Iranian long-range missile.

The IRGC-linked Bisimchi Media (Radioman Media) Telegram channel published a video titled “When Will Iran’s Sleeping Nuclear Warheads Awaken,” according to the London-based Iran International news outlet.

I think this is the video in the tweet, but that isn’t entirely clear.

The short video declares that Iran’s regime will develop nuclear weapons in a rapid-fire period of time “if the US or the Zionist regime make any stupid mistakes.”

Per Iran International, the video states that Iran’s ballistic missiles have the capability of “turning New York into hellish ruins,” in an ostensible reference to Iran’s space program.

I take it that “space” refers to ICBMs. I don’t know whether Iran’s long-range missiles are yet capable of striking our Eastern seaboard.

The news organization paraphrased the video as stating that “the facilities at Natanz may be highly vulnerable to a possible attack by Western powers and Israel but Fordow will immediately assume war footing and begin the nuclear breakout project within a short time if Natanz comes under missile attack.”

The video declared that the regime can move its “peaceful nuclear program to a nuclear weapons program” at a fast pace.

I think it is beyond dispute at this point that Iran’s nuclear program is far advanced, and can easily be channeled into weapons production. In that context, why anyone is still talking about the “Iran nuclear deal” is beyond me. I did find the reference to “turning New York into hellish ruins” striking, but I suppose that is what the mullahs have in mind when they say “death to America.”

Leftist Fascism IS MORE ENERGIZED AT OUR TODAY SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES THAN TEACHING CIVILITY, TRUTH, AND WISDOM!

July 31, 2022

Are Christians Being Persecuted in America?

By Raymond Ibrahim at American Thinker:

A new study by Lifeway Research found that more than half (54%) of the 1,005 Americans surveyed believe that religious freedom is eroding in the United States.  Even more, 59%, said the treatment of Christians and intolerance for their beliefs is getting worse.

“Intolerance is about cultural pushback,” Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, explained.  “In the American marketplace of ideas, not all systems of thought are welcomed. The majority of all religions notice this pushback against Christians today.”

What does one make of these statistics?  Relevant Magazine — a Christian publication, the tagline of which is “God, lifestyle, and progressive culture” — is a good place to start.  Responding to these findings in a recent article, it gets it right by arguing that, whatever Christians in America may be experiencing, they are certainly not being persecuted the way their counterparts are in other nations and parts of the world:

[C]onservative Christian groups [in America] have a lot to celebrate. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and delivered a big win to Christians who want to pray in public schools. These are big, historic decisions and they don’t square with a narrative of diminishing religious liberty for Christians.

This is especially true on the global scale. Open Doors USA’s World Watch List keeps track of the countries where it’s most dangerous to be a Christian, and the stories on their meticulously detailed database are heartbreaking. Christians in places like Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia can be imprisoned, tortured and even killed for their faith. …

It is, indeed, especially silly to argue that Christians in America have it anywhere near as bad as Christians in, say, the Muslim world, where the overwhelming majority of persecution against Christians take place.  The same World Watch List referenced above found that the “extreme persecution” meted out to Christians in nine of the top 11 worst nations in the world comes from Islamic oppression or is occurring in Muslim-majority nations.  Moreover, the persecution Christians experience in 39 of the 50 worst nations on the World Watch List is also from Islamic oppression or is occurring in Muslim-majority nations.   

That said, the Relevant article gets it wrong, very wrong, by minimizing what is happening in America.  It argues that what Christians in America are experiencing

isn’t so much about actually losing religious freedom as it is losing the war for vibes. … Christians may not like being confronted with different opinions or having to make space for others in a diverse environment, but that does not necessarily mean they’re being met with outright intolerance. It simply means giving others the same freedom you want them to give you.

Such reasoning makes sense only in a vacuum, for it fails to take into account that — unlike all of those other non-Christian nations around the world where Christian minorities are being persecuted — America was founded as a Christian nation.  The fact that it is where it is today —  where Christians, who still form the majority of the citizenry, are experiencing any kind of intolerance, harassment, or discrimination — is suggestive of a gradual but slippery slope that bodes ill for the future.

It is, for example, rather silly to argue, as Relevant does, that it is a “big win to Christians” that Roe v. Wade was overturned, or that Christians can pray in public schools.  Actually, that Roe v. Wade was ever a thing, or that there was ever any question about Christians praying in public, is indicative of the big loss Christians have experienced in this nation. 

Put differently, if American Christianity were as influential as the Relevant article implies, there never would have been a Roe v. Wade or questions over public prayer, or any of those many other cultural “values” that currently supersede and directly contradict Christian principles, in the first place — just as principles that directly contradict Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist values have little impact on Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist nations, where their values reign supreme and uncontested.

Imagine a line, a continuum, from 1 to 10.  The number 1 represents nations that prioritize their religious principles, and 10 represents nations that have completely abandoned their faith.  Most of the non-Western — especially Muslim — world, I would argue, is probably between 1 and 2.  Where is the U.S. on this scale with regard to its founding faith?  I would guess somewhere between 6 and 7.  Maybe worse?

Such a placement is hardly a “big win” for Christianity in America, nor does it suggest that “conservative Christian groups have a lot to celebrate,” as Relevant claims.  Rather, it shows just how irrelevant Christianity has become.

More to the point, as America gets closer to 10 — and as the number of actual Christians continues to dwindle — prepare to see a concomitant rise in real and actual persecution, the sort experienced in the non-Western world.

The story of America, as I fear history will eventually teach, is the story of one long slippery slope — the individual bumps of which are subtle, gradual, and thus imperceptible — into destruction.   

Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.

May God Bless Taiwan!

July 31, 2022

What Could Kill Taiwan

By Daniel Jia at American Thinker:

The U.S.’s latest arms sale to Taiwan, announced on July 15, is the fourth one this year.  In contrast, there was only one sale in 2021.  As Taiwan faces growing pressure from China’s diplomatic, economic, and military coercion, the accelerated U.S. arms sale manifests the U.S.’s commitment to Taiwan’s defense against China, consistent with the passing in the U.S. Congress of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, which includes provisions aimed at strengthening Taiwan’s defense capability, and President Biden’s repeated pledge to defending Taiwan (militarily if necessary).

Taiwan, meanwhile, is readying itself for a full-scale China invasion through various measures: showcasing missile strike ability, deploying asymmetric weaponries, performing drills reminiscent of the Blitz (the bombing of London by Nazi Germany), etc.

These measures are essential to deter and counter China’s attacks, but they are not sufficient to defeat China.  Taiwan, and the U.S. as well, must psychologically be ready to encounter battlefield casualties at a scale that no one else but the army of Communist China would be willing to inflict without hesitance.

History still holds its value for today’s high tech–savvy and humanitarian-nurtured citizens of Taiwan.  The proceedings and endings of the Korean War are the seminal textbook that Taiwan can learn from.

I

The Korean War started when the communist North Korea burst through the N. 38th Parallel with the ambition of putting the entire Korean Peninsula under communist control, an intention similar to what China has for Taiwan today.

Although North Korea failed to achieve its political goal, its de facto backer China succeeded in preventing the U.S.-led U.N. Command from achieving its objectives, under U.N. approval, of unifying Korea and eradicating communism from the peninsula.

China, with inferiorly equipped armies, achieved its strategic and political goal through tactics that inflicted massive casualties not only on the opponents, but mostly on its own.  This is a trap Taiwan should be very cautious to not fall into when the time comes to fight for its survival.

II

From the beginning of the Korean War, China understood that American society, recovering from World War II, did not want to engage in another bloody war, and the U.S. politicians’ mandates were given by the people.  Throughout the entire Korean War, China carried out a military strategy to exhaust U.S. public support, effectively chipping away its military strength through massive, often suicidal, “human wave attacks.”

Take the Battle of Chosin Reservoir (27 November–13 December 1950) as an example.  In this first major engagement between the U.S. and China in the Korean War, China lost 25,000 soldiers in exchange for the lives of 718 U.S. soldiers in a failed encirclement attempt.

Although this battle has been dubbed as one of the U.S. Marines’ greatest accomplishments, China’s political calculation about the U.S.’s resolve proved correct.  The U.S. public initially cheered for the bitter, happy conclusion of the battle, but anti-war sentiment was also sown, partially by the massive deaths of Chinese soldiers in battles.

The U.N. forces retreated to the south of the 38th Parallel after the Battle of Chosin Reservoir and abandoned its initial objectives.

When the war was reaching the final months of its second year in 1952, the U.S.-led U.N. forces could hardly sustain the mounting losses inflicted by the Chinese tactics of gradual but constant attrition.  Back in the U.S., the overall public sentiment had turned from support to resentment, and “End the War” became the loudest campaign slogan during the presidential election in that year.

The then-president-elect, Eisenhower, subsequently chose an armistice with the communists over liberating the peninsula from them, even though he had been strongly opposing his predecessor Truman’s policy of containment toward Communist China.

It would be an overstatement to attribute the shelving of the U.N.’s political plan entirely to the anti-war pressure.  The decision nevertheless was the first sign that the Korean War would not end favorably for the defending side.

Would Taiwan (and the U.S.) be able to steer clear of this kind of retreat from its military and political stance in the event of an invasion of Taiwan by China?

III

The Korean War concluded with the establishment of China’s hold on the peninsula through North Korea, a more solidified and aggressive communist state than it was before the war.  The U.S. swallowed its humiliation.

During the Korean War, the determinant difference between the U.S.-led U.N. command and Communist China’s forces was not military strength, but the value of life.  The U.S. and its allies treated life as one of the most sacred presents a human being could receive, whereas in the eye of Communist China, life was (and still is) the most worthless disposable.

This fundamental difference dictated the contrasting difference in response to the loss of lives in the Korean War.  The U.S. was disarmed psychologically and morally after losing nearly 36,500 of its own soldiers in the war, let alone the loss of another 197,500 on the communist China side (as estimated by Chinese sources; the true number could be several times higher).  China, in contrast, was ready to lose 200,000 more lives if necessary to achieve its above-mentioned strategic and political goals.

In a war fought between these two ideological camps, leaders of democratic nations face far greater obstacles than their counterparts, having to achieve seemingly paradoxical missions to win the war: subdue the bloodthirsty opponents through decisive destruction, and submit to humanitarian pressure by minimizing battleground casualties.  When these opposing goals cannot be reconciled, the latter often prevails.

The U.S. chose an armistice instead of a decisive victory to end the Korean War.  Whether the subsequent suffering of tens of millions of North Koreans and hundreds of millions of Chinese under communist repression justifies that armistice-for-peace approach warrants a conscientious answer from all who genuinely advocate peace.

Today, China would to apply the same suicidal tactics if it chose to invade Taiwan, only at a much larger scale, after successfully propagating nationalist ideas among the Chinese people for 70 years.

At a certain point, Taiwan would have to face the same tough choice as the US did seven decades ago: Accept a humiliating armistice with China after blood has already been shed, or pursue a harder but complete victory to ensure a long-lasting and true peace.