Time for United States or Turkey to Leave NATO

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has received the requisite permissions from Russian President Putin to assist in their war to reinstate Syrian mass murderer Bashar al-Assad as the uncontested dictatorial ruler in all of Syria. Now Erdoğan, in his best al-Assad imitation, has launched an all out assault on the Kurds in northern Syria. There are few questions as to what Erdoğan views as the result of his efforts will produce. His desire for a Greater Turkey, or the new Ottoman Empire, will include the areas south to include Aleppo and to the southeast to include Mosul and potentially Kirkuk. Erdoğan is poised to engage and eradicate the Kurds by ethnically cleansing the entire areas which they currently hold. The fact that the Kurds were crucial in the containment and following defeat of the Islamic State matters not to Erdoğan, they are simply the wrong kind of Muslims in his book, making them just slightly less offensive than were the Armenian Christian population to the Ottoman Empire in the ramping to World War I between 1915 and 1917 and the Armenian Genocide. What is unfolding before the world is the result of the denial of the Kurdish desire for their own independent nation after their Kurdistan referendum where 93% voted for independence.

 

Where there was one nation who backed their vote and called for recognition of the nation of Kurdistan was Israel but as the United States having just finished an election resulted in a hasty decision based on the recommendations of the State Department and many at the Pentagon, both of which told the Kurdish leadership the same thing they told the Zionist leadership in 1948, wait, the time is not right and it will cause the United States difficulties which they refused to endure. You know the world has made a huge misjudgment when a maniacal egomaniac is given a green light to start and conquer lands they crave through a genocidal cleansing of the very people who desired to simply live in peace who were told their desire for a homeland was too much bother and they should wait. The difference is the Zionists did not listen to the State Department or Pentagon (Defense Department) and President Truman also made up his own mind remembering the Biblical lessons his mother had taught him in his youth. Unfortunately, the Kurdish leaders heeded the warnings from Washington and will now likely bear the consequences. Also, the fact that the Kurds in Iraq and their brethren in Syria are far apart politically also meant that only the Iraqi Kurds were polled and there was no consideration to include the Syrian Kurds. Until the Kurds can unite under a singular leadership and unite in their political preferences preferably choosing democratic capitalism over socialist governance, they will remain two separate groups and thus weak and easy victims. How far Erdoğan decides to push might depend on Russia and Iran, as they might not support his extending into Iraq. Defeating the Syrian Kurds is obviously supported by Russia and Iran as it furthers their efforts to reseat Bashir al-Assad, beyond that would only be accepted if they were working with the Iraqis. What will be interesting is the reaction of the Russians and the Iranians when they realize that Erdoğan intends to retain the extra territory he gains, conquers, and has no intention of stepping away and gifting the lands to al-Assad. That just might be where the coalition agreement comes to a brittle and violent end.

 

Greater Turkey

 

The real question will be whether or not United States President Donald Trump notices this little item in the news and whether it registers. The good thing is it will be easy to tell whether or not the President notices, simply watch his Twitter feed. Beyond that, we would be ignoring our responsibility if we did not provide our positions and any background we might have. The easiest way to address this is to go chronologically in reverse order on our main articles involving Turkey and NATO. Our articles start with NATO and the Turkey Problem from November 29, 2015; then Turkey Needs to Prove They Belong in NATO Now from September 18, 2014; and lastly we have our original article on Turkey and NATO, The Turkey Problem for NATO from January 15, 2010.

 

Perhaps we should go back as to when, why and how it was that Turkey became a NATO member state. Turkey was included into NATO along with Greece on February 18, 1952, under the direction of President Harry S. Truman as he declared that the United States would support and back militarily any nation threatened by the Soviet Union. Marking this declaration, President Truman announced the inclusion of Greece and Turkey into NATO and thus under the NATO umbrella. These two nations were the first additions since the founding states on August 24, 1949. NATO was the Western states answer to the Warsaw Pact nations under the auspices of the Soviet Union. Thus was the genesis of the Cold War which lasted until the end of the 1980’s and the fall of the Soviet Union and its satellite nations leading to a rapid expansion of NATO absorbing the Warsaw Pact nations which desired to join. This almost led to a second cold war which would have been an empty threat as these nations now had their own democratically elected governments and governance which departed from their old alliances.

 

That brings us to the current day where there is no real Communist threat from the Russians. With Turkey now aligning with Russia and the Warsaw Pact having collapsed, the reasons why Turkey was drafted into NATO are no longer viable reasons for their remaining a member of NATO. The time has long passed to reconsider the reasons and current politics and whether Turkey still offers anything to NATO or are they a threat to NATO. Then there is the question of whether NATO even has a purpose in the modern world. NATO could, and maybe should, be transformed into a trade union where the nations assure the rest free trade. The one thing the United States must determine is whether or not free travel and open borders between NATO nations is a good idea, and if that is to be permitted, then United States need assess whether or not they desire to permit such travel with all of the NATO members. There are many other international organizations which perhaps the United States and some, if not many, of their allies might decide that they have become counterproductive and require replacement. We would suggest a new international organization to replace a number of organization which have fallen to some form of political correctness and place that before their mission statements as group think has replaced honesty throughout much of today’s world. So, obviously we feel that either Turkey should be required to resign from NATO or the United States should resign from NATO.

 

Let us enter into BTC World, where things are as we envision the world. The United States places a challenge before every organization in which they are members. For the sake of brevity, we decided to use the following organizations, NATO, the International Red Cross, and the entirety of the United Nations including all aligned organizations and courts. Taking NATO first, the test is very easy, take a vote on permitting Israel to join and when the vote fails, the United States should resign from NATO. Simultaneously, demand that the International Red Cross accept Magen David Adom and when they refuse once again, the United States should pull out. And as far as the United Nations, the United States need not bother and should simply resign. Then the United States with Israel could begin a new international peace organization and allow any nation to petition for membership. Of course each nation should then be carefully deliberated as to whether or not they are worthy of inclusion. This new organization could easily replace all the aforementioned groups and affiliated functions. Imagine a world organization where Israel is not condemned automatically at the opening of every session such as the United Nations Human Right Commission or the United Nations General Assembly. Do not fear; the International Red Cross has their difficulty as they accepted the Red Crescent but refused Magen David Adom. For some reason we doubt it has anything to do with their sign being blue but rather it being two triangles, one inverted being superimposed. Perhaps they fear accepting such a sign would lead to it bursting into flames. We promise that none of the Magen David Adom vehicles have spontaneously combusted; any that have caught fire had a lot of assistance in doing so.

 

 

The Israel test is a simple means of seeing if any of the plethora of international and regional organizations acts objectively. One need simply test to see whether or not the nations have chosen Israel out for particular consideration, negative consideration, and further their cooperation with the United States as a modifying test and see whether they pass that test. The sorry thing is that the vast majority of nations will be unable to pass such a threshold to enter into this new alliance. Using the United Nations General Assembly vote in reference to the United States recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel there are but nine nations who would be easily admitted; Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Togo and United States. There were thirty-five which abstained allowing them to receive additional considerations by checking other votes condemning Israel and checking their history and these nations are; Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Benin, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Haiti, Hungary, Jamaica, Kiribati, Latvia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda and Vanuatu. The final group was those who simply decided not to even arrive and take any stand which includes these twenty-one nations which include; Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor (Timor Leste), El Salvador, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mongolia, Myanmar, Moldova, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Zambia. The remaining one-hundred-twenty-eight General Assembly nations would find joining the United States new and rather exclusive group of nations for special and favorable treatment far more difficult. We realize that such events are a pipe dream, but without dreams what is life. We hear about Dreamers from the media all the time and how they are special and need our sympathy; what makes our dreaming any different? Yes, we realize dreams that Israel be treated fairly by international organizations are deemed unacceptable by the vast majority of the world. The world loves many things which originated in Israel such as cherry tomatoes and use the medical, agricultural and scientific discoveries and high tech inventions not to mention cell phones and security and encryption programs along with discoveries in all fields of science including life saving surgeries. Many nations have received exceptional and experienced teams who carry-out search-rescue and field-hospital alleviating their distress and giving life-saving assistance in every sort of emergency be it storms, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanos or other forms of emergencies. Unfortunately too many of these nations forget such aid when the time comes to vote to condemn Israel for virtually any reason. That is why the Israel test is such a viable test which it is sad so many nations fail such a simple test.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Will Europe Divide Over Religion?

 

Those of us old enough to have experienced a divided Europe between free and Communist also remember the Iron Curtain. Some may even recall the origins of that phrase being a speech given at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on March 5, 1946. United States President Harry S. Truman was with the British Prime Minister on the dais listening to the speech. The speech is actually titled “The Sinews of Peace” despite the most famous phrase history remembers was the term “Iron Curtain” used as Churchill stated, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.” The entirety of the speech can be viewed below. That curtain will potentially become the basis for a new wall in Europe, one where religion remains an important cornerstone of society and one which has entered what many are referring to as the post-Christian society. Some of the functionaries of the European Union describe this divide a between élites of Western Europe who favor a more cosmopolitan and tolerant society which is democratic-liberal and accepting of people of all faiths with various views against those of Eastern Europe who are less enlightened exhibiting xenophobic views where they are bigoted against foreigners and those with whom they are unfamiliar seeking protection in the religions of Old Europe and an age long left behind by New Europe.

 

 

The reality is that one Europe lived in a free society which brought them more freedom than they could manage leading them into a hedonistic fervor where personal pleasure was the new aim by which life was measured and immediacy of realization of those very pleasures superseded all other pursuits. Thus, they left behind the limitations of Christianity and entered their new multiculturalist, post-Christian age where the self replaced the church and each person became the definer of their own religious beliefs. The restrictions of morality imposed by religion were replaced with the hedonism of an older age where barbarity ruled and the gods demanded child sacrifice. This new age has its own version of child sacrifice where pregnancies are terminated by abortions such that the party can continue without consequence or interruption. This has led to Western Europe having such a low rate of childbirth by the native population that they have fallen way below replacement rate leading to an aging population requiring the importation of foreign workers. In an effort to find these workers, leaders such as Angela Merkel made a decision to permit free and unregulated immigration from the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) calling for any who consider themselves to be refugees of any nature seeking the liberal governance of Western Europe to come and join in the wonders of Europe. This has brought on a huge wave of Islamic “refugees” which happened to be largely males, unaccompanied males, and unforeseen problems. This may be the result of their utopian dream becoming their nightmare.

 

Now for Eastern Europe and why they have a different view of what their new freedom means compared to their fellow Europeans at the western end of the continent who have had freedom ever since the end of World War II. The Eastern Europeans were behind that “Iron Curtain” Winston Churchill so perfectly described. Other than East Germany which reattached to West Germany to reestablish the whole of Germany and thus are being taken for a political ride as their neighbors from West Germany had a population advantage and thus control the politics. That tore East Germany from the remainder of the Warsaw Pact nations. These nations led by Poland, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Czech Republic and the rest of the former Warsaw Pact nations, had experienced the godless forced atheism of the Communist regimes imposed by the Soviet Union. This denied them their Christianity making it something more sacred with time. Their areas were closed societies which left their towns, cities and nations as homogeneous as they were at the end of World War II, in simple terms, Poland remained very Polish, Rumania remain Romanian, Hungary remain Hungarian and so on. Once free of the authoritarian governments which had oppressed these societies, they were still in a similar state as they had been under the Nazis who were another socialist and atheistic society, thus these societies are still flocking to their churches and Christianity is having a revival throughout Eastern Europe or the old Warsaw Pact nations. Thousands of Polish Catholics replete with rosary beads ringed much of their nation gathering at border points protesting the continued atheistic secularism of their government and in solidarity with fellow Christians across Europe who have been victimized by the spread of Islam across parts of Europe.

 

New Divide of Europe Between Western and Eastern Europes

 

The two Europes could not be any more separate, the first shedding Christianity for the liberation of no religion and the other embracing Christianity after forced atheization under Soviet Union dictatorships. The first has shed the concept of traditional marriage replacing it with alternate definitions and simple hook-up culture and other alternate lifestyle choices where too many are child-free lifestyles. This had the consequence of a low reproductive rate and an aging population. Since 1950, the reproductive rate in Western Europe has steadily declined to the point that it has fallen well below replacement rate and showing no signs of recovery. The other Europe had a depressed reproductive rate while under Communism and its oppressive governance which was consistently below replacement rate. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and their respective Communist governance, the Eastern European nations have slowly risen from their melancholy lethargy. Their governance has had a less than smooth transition from Communism to Democracies independent and free from the central planning under Moscow. Their economies have slowly emerged as they faced an initial necessary improvement of infrastructure in order to make industrial growth possible. The reinitializing of free and independent nations did not exactly go without its challenges and little hiccups along the way. Where the real benefits of the newfound freedoms appears to actually taking root about now as the first generations raised entirely free of the pains of Communism are reaching adulthood, the reality of the freedom is now starting to be truly felt and the signs are impressive. The people are returning to their religious roots which had been illegal and forbidden for so long. Marriage is gaining amongst the youth and it appears that population numbers are slowly returning towards replacement rate and hopefully above into a range unseen for over half a century. Eastern Europe may be approaching a bright future if they can survive the European Union. The Western Europeans would gladly chase their Eastern Europeans from the European Union and if the Eastern Europeans are smart, they will be running so fast from the European Union that their Western European counterparts will be unable to catch them to chase them out.

 

There is nothing to prevent the Eastern Europeans from eventually following in the exact same footprints down the merry path which the Western Europeans have already tread. Perhaps the disaster that Old Europe is about to become and the potential for internecine violence and possible wars similar to the past wars against the spread of Islam, are about to repeat themselves, except this time with modern weaponry. Such conflicts will be more devastating with much higher toll in human lives than previous wars. While these threats are on the increase and the violence is growing in Western Europe, Eastern Europe will be experiencing their return to their various Christian roots with their population slowly recovering and starting to grow. It may become required for Eastern Europe to come and aid their Western Europeans otherwise they may fall to Islam and then pose a threat to Eastern Europe. Maybe history will find another John III Sobieski, King of Poland, though the next Polish savior of Europe will be possibly a Polish President, or a Romanian hero whose name will convey evil as did the name of their King Vlad III Dracula, but who will turn back invading enemies. Perhaps Western Europe will be the next conquest to eventually make up the Caliphate when Islam finally settles for the lands they posses and desire no more Jihadi Wars. What the future holds we cannot know and should we be patient, it does reveal itself in its own time. Time is the owner of great secrets of which we can know those revealed already and see those that come as we live and only strike with conjecture at what time holds from us in what we always pray will be a fantastic story for our children and their children and on for generations yet to come. For now, this is what we can say today, maybe we will say more in our hoped for mutual futures.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

When Lies Bury the Truth of Promises Given

 

Should Europe along with potentially Canada, Australia and/or the United States decide to go down the multicultural route to suicide, please do not try to demand the same of Israel and definitely please do not attempt to drag us down with you. Stop pretending that there were no promises made after World War I and that the San Remo Conference, the Treaty of Sèvres, the Treaty of Lausanne, the League of Nations affirmed Mandate System and Article 80 of the United Nations Charter by which the United Nations assumed the responsibility to enforce the League of Nations Mandate Systems was simply some myth. Many of your leaders signed these documents and now you pretend they never existed and that there were no guarantees given the Zionist Jews who even agreed to let seventy-eight percent of the British Mandate be used for an Arab state which today is Jordan. In exchange the British, that’s your nation Prime Minister Theresa May, that is the Crown of England and the British Isles, would guarantee that the Jewish State would be the remaining twenty-two percent which consist of the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and that these lands would remain inviolate. I know, it was a promise to Jews, who keeps promises to Jews. Well, perhaps the time has come for the world to start keeping its word even to Jews and perhaps the Kurds and all the little people who those bigger and more powerful and numerous nations decide are not worthy of receiving respect, perhaps that time has finally come. The Kurds have defended their land and pushed the Islamic State terrorists from more land and stopped their advances before others had even attempted such and now is the time to fulfill the promise the British gave the Kurds before oil was discovered near Mosul and the British cut a deal with King Feisal giving Iraq the majority of the Kurdish lands in exchange for oil rights leaving the remainder to ne swallowed by Syria, Tukey and Iran. Let us have the world finally keep their word and while they are making deals allow the Middle East to decide their own borders by clans and tribes instead of arbitrary lines sprawled on a map by French and British cartographers making nations which were designed to tear themselves apart such that they would never rise or band together as each would have to be ruled by dictators with iron fists or monarchs equally stifling. It was a brilliant plan except that it made for destitution and failed nations in its wake, but that was the plan, was it not. The time has come to make amends and allow for a new Middle East that can grow and develop a future for its people who are homogeneous.

 

Even if the world is unprepared to redraw the entire Middle East, perhaps a few smaller steps can be a start. First, give unto Israel and the Jews that which was promised and free the Arabs who became Palestinians in 1964, that is 1964 AD and not 1964 BCE, to relocate if they so choose with a generous buyout of their lands and homes and a nice relocation bonus plus air fare to either their new nation of choice or a neutral nation and tickets on an airline which will take them to their new location and transport of their possessions to their new home if they choose to relocate and promise to not return to Israel or make further claims. Permit the Arabs who are kept in camps for no reason other than to use against Israel, to reside in their host nation with a generous stipend given to these nations to resettle these people with half of the stipend given to the refugees directly through UNRWA. Then perhaps the world could spend the energies and efforts wasted in an effort to destroy Israel and destroy the Jewish State to solve the problems in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan. After these, there are the African States along the African Transition Zone (see map below) where terrorism has been tearing these nations drawing them into civil wars and strife where innocents are the main victims of the violence and destruction. There are so many places on this tiny little rock spinning in the vastness of space in need of humanitarian relief efforts and restructuring of their governance to better serve the people and use their natural resources and potentials for a more optimum level leading to better lives for their people. These are the challenges that the world could be fighting instead of trying to destroy one tiny little sliver of a nation sitting on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. It is not difficult to find the areas in trouble, what is difficult are caring enough to repair their problems. It has always been easier for mankind to destroy than to build; to wreck what others are building than to worry about building for others; to tear down rather than build up.

 

African Transition Zone

 

The Earth has gotten very much smaller with no place on the Earth more than half a day jet travel from every other place on the Earth. Missiles, ICBM’s in particular, can reach from any point to any other point in less than thirty minutes. This means that as more and more nations develop miniaturized thermonuclear warheads in the tens of millions of tons of explosive power and the ICBM’s with which to deliver them, every city in the world faces annihilation with next to no notice. With ship-board and submarine-based nuclear missiles, the warning time comes down to next to nothing. War is quickly becoming something that best be made obsolete or else people may become extinct along with much of the life upon the planet. Things are becoming tense in too many places around the globe for comfort. President Erdoğan of Turkey has recently taken near total control of his nation and has in the recent past declared interest in extending the borders of Turkey to include Aleppo, Syria and Mosul, Iraq in the name of defeating the Islamic State. Instead of attacking the declared target of the Islamic State, President Erdoğan has instead targeted mostly the Kurds who are located far to the north of the Islamic State forces, so much so that these attacks cannot be construed as mistakes or missed targets but only as intentional attacks. North Korea has in the past used nuclear and missile testing in order to blackmail the world in order to force aid payments or relief from sanctions. Its dictator Kim Jong Un currently rules North Korea. This dictator has ordered one of his top generals executed, his own uncle executed, his half brother living in another country assassinated and has exhibited behavior which, to say the least, has been very troubling. Take one Kim Jong Un and mix in nuclear weapons with ship launched missiles and a satellite which passes over the central United States and could be dropped to an optimum altitude to explode and EMP pulse which could, and probably would, take out all electrical service in the northern hemisphere of America. The one further problem is nobody knows exactly what this satellite has or what was the purpose of placing it in orbit such that it would cross the United States coming from the south, which is the singular direction for which there are minimal defenses. North Korea may only be a singular and presumed minor problem, but with the world wound up tighter than a drum it may only take a small drumbeat to poke the initial hole and from there who can tell how big a tear will result.

 

For one the Middle East is simply a sideshow as the bigger problems are in the Far East and Europe. Europe is collapsing and will eventually fall to the Islamic influences that have been brought into Europe to replace their lack of young adults as Europe has had a declining population trending since the mid 1980’s. Russia would like to reacquire their influence over the easternmost nations that were once part of the Warsaw Pact and spread their influence into the Balkan States. Further, due to the passivity of the United States, Russia has reestablished ties in the Middle East including naval bases in western Syria, strong relations with Iran which include weapons sales that included the S-300 anti-aircraft systems, and have opened relations with Egypt in the area of weapons sales denied by the United States in a reaction to President Sisi replacing the Muslim Brotherhood government. China has expanded into the South China Sea with such maneuvers as building manmade islands and weaponizing them with aircraft and other military assets. China has also laid claims to islands that are also claimed by Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam. China has also pushed back more than expected or desired on pressuring North Korea to calm down on threats and belligerence.

 

Economical problems are also pressing a number of nations. Leading the parade is Venezuela where there are next to no goods available even if one had sufficient money to buy things including food, medicine and other basics including toilet paper. Coming in a close and desperate second and the longest member of the destitute and bankrupt nations is North Korea where there have been desperate times where there has been next to no food for those outside the military or ruling elite who live extravagant lives. There are close to another dozen nations who are facing serious economic challenges whose people deserve a better life and more effective governance. Then there are the nations where major powers have caused grief through incomplete planning or total lack of planning. Such places were part of what was mislabeled the Arab Spring. Egypt was barely able of escaping disaster but is still a nation where the people are in need of education if they are to ever be capable of a better life.

 

The lack of education is a problem through much of the world and is one place where all of the developed nations could give so much which would result in paying dividends beyond measure. Another place where the developed nations could assist the third world nations is in agricultural technology and practices with which the farmers could contribute greatly to the national wealth and feed their own populations far more than under current conditions. Also by introducing industries, which could provide both jobs and needed services and equipment such as tractors, plows and other farming equipment, would allow their entire economies to be initiated and placed on a path which would assist their development. The leaders of nations have often made speeches about how the world could be made so much better if we could cooperate. Why not try cooperation instead of tearing one another apart. Even if only the nations who have democratic governance would cooperate, they could accomplish so much more and through leading by example, they might attract other nations into the sphere of democracies. Well, if nothing else, can we at least allow Israel to solve her problems in peace and without constant attempts to undermine her very existence. End playing games pretending that Mahmoud Abbas and his merry band of terrorists are desirous of peace and not the destruction of Israel. It is understandable why European governments are so enamored with the Arabs and their desire to destroy the Jewish States. You need their oil and they are simply attempting to finish what Europe worked so feverishly to accomplish just over three-quarters of a century ago, and blaming Germany is a muted means of attempting to pretend that they were not aided with every effort available by the majority of the nations they conquered. The French often rounded up twice the number requested begging the Germans to take the children as well and they were just one example, the Vichy French. The Netherlands were not much better and the Balkans had their own SS battalions to hunt down Jews and Slavic people. Poland had little choice as the Nazis took complete control but then there were those Polish towns that had their own pogroms when their Jews who survived attempted to return home. Almost all of Europe contributed either actively or passively with select exceptions of whom many have been recognized by Israel. As one who was interviewed stated about her working to save the Jews she could stated that she simply remained sane, Christian and moral while society went over the cliff. From what we have seen, the world is once again rushing to go over that same cliff.

 

Beyond the Cusp