There are so many political happenings today that it’s difficult to chose where to start first. I guess it’s best to look at some background. The president and his Chinese counterpart are supposed to be talking about what to do with Kim in Pyongyang. China wants the U. S. presence in the region to be decreased, but the antics of Kim Jong Il make it necessary for the U. S. to increase its military presence. The situation is one of Beginnings making in the first place, thinking a strong North Korean leader would create a good buffer between the U. S. Army in South Korea and the Western border on Manchuria, the Northwestern most province of China. Of course, if China hadn’t intervened in the Korean war in 1950, there would be no U. S. Army presence in Korea at all.
Now Trump is examining all options in how to take care of the problem of Kim playing with nukes on missiles that can reach Japan and possibly even California. Add to that the cruise missile attack last night on the Syrian airbase from which Assad launched his nerve gas attack on civilian non-combatants. Let me assure you, if Trump tells Chi he’s going to do something about North Korea on his own if China won’t help, Chi will believe it’s not a bluff.
Chi tells his people that Trump is an unpredictable madman. The action last night goes a long way to reinforce that impression in the Chinese mind. Of course the people of China don’t get the full story. And atrocities don’t effect the Chinese the way it offends Americans. The history of China is rife with atrocity.
The problem with Assad is that his frustration over the fragility of his grip on power has eroded his respect for the people he claims to rule. Those who are rebelling against Assad are objecting to the minority that Assad belongs to running the whole country without concern for their needs. They would have accepted Assad’s continued leadership if he only gave them a voice in the government. But Assad feared that would water down his absolute authority.
Now we have Russian, Iranian and other fringe Shiites backing Assad. But Assad is the only leader in the region who protects the Christians under him. In rebel held areas Christians have been purged through intimidation, violent expulsion and murder. While all this was going on, even though the media reported it, the United States Department of State did nothing to succor the Christians. In fact, Christians were routinely denied refugee status by State while Muslims were allowed in.
So I have mixed feelings about Assad. The man is criminal, committing crimes against humanity with more regularity than he changes his socks. Yet no one else is willing to defend the Church in the Middle East. What to do? Thanks to the rhetorical statements Trump made in his campain, he will be blocked by all those judges appointed by Obama when the Democrats removed the 60-vote requirement for clocher in the debate over appointments other than the Supreme Court.
One hundred years ago today (April 7, 1917) the United States Congress voted to declare war on the Central Powers (Germany, Austria and Turkey) in World War One. The entire continent of Europe had been tied up in alliances between kingdoms and countries for “mutual defense.” A Serbian separatist assassinated the heir to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, and also the Austro-Humgarian Empire, Archduke Ferdinand, in Sarajevo, Bosnia in August 1914, and dragged the entire continent into a protracted and bloody brawl that lasted more than four years. President Wilson vowed to keep us out. His campain slogan in 1916 was, “He kept us out of war.” But American commercial interests in France and the United Kingdom, as well as the rest of the Allied Nations, led the German Navy to sink American ships carrying food and weapons to Europe. Enough open submarine warfare led to a bellicose attitude in the American people and Congress went along for the ride.
Today we have a reason to remember the U. S. entry into the bloodbath that was the First World War. The world is once again polarized between power blocks. But now there are three, not two. The Chinese want to control the Far East without American meddling. Europe and the other democracies allied with it want to live their own way, buy and sell, and talk down on less developed countries. Russia wants to regain the “glories” of the Soviet days, but Putin rules as a Czar. Then there are the wild cards that will drag us all into conflict, Islamic State, North Korea, Taliban, Iran, etc. I wouldn’t try to do Trump’s job if I would get all his money to do it.
Ol’ Fuzzy is not employable and was denied for disability benefits. The only thing I have is the blogs. But I don’t qualify for ads on the blogs until September. If you like the scribbles I post, please help me keep it going. You can leave me a gratuity by dropping a buck or two in Ol' Fuzzy's Tip Jar. This is a PayPal account I opened on Wednesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment