Countdown To Iran

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “Countdown To Iran.”

For two decades the cat and mouse game with Iran’s development of nuclear weapons has gone on while Iran is leading State sponsor of terrorism and one of the worst human rights abusers.  Iran has marched forward with its desire for a global caliphate and has gone on threatening death and destruction in the Middle East and beyond and murdering with impunity. 

Now the end game is almost here…

The U.S. and Israel are committed to preventing Iran’s existential threat and may G-d help us. 

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Escalating Iranian Threat To World Peace

Iran is spreading it’s caliphate ambitions across the Middle from Iran to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and more. 

As the #1 world sponsor of terrorism and abuser of human rights, there is reason to be concerned and afraid of Iran’s intentions and actions. 

The ISIS terror and caliphate may end up paling in comparison to the threat of a dangerous fundamentalist Iran with emerging nukes, ballistic missiles, and a fearsome spreading caliphate of their own. 

Now Iran conveniently claims that radiological material, Iridium, was stolen, and where it ends up exploding no one yet knows, but we can guess the likely targets.

What wonderful plausible deniability for a suitcase WMD bomb horrifically placed and detonated by Iran, themselves. 

As Israel is burning, Aleppo is being flattened, Mosul fighting is raging street by street, and terrorists are plotting ever greater strikes into our heartlands, we are sitting here dumb and dumber. 

Please G-d, he will restore peace to our lands and people.

May He grant our leaders the wisdom to act as necessary, with due speed and agility to defeat our enemies whether ISIS or Iran and not be fooled by agreements not worth the ridiculous paper they are written on. 

(Source Video: Andy Blumenthal)

Have A Nice Doomsday

This was a photo of a photo I took at Washington Artworks this past weekend.

An anti-nuke demonstration outside the White House with signs that say:

“Live by the bomb, die by the bomb.”

and 

“Ban all nuclear weapons or have a nice doomsday.”

This was particularly interesting juxtaposed to the editorial in the Wall Street Journal yesterday by the UAE Ambassador to the U.S. who reflected on “one year after the Iran nuclear deal” and outright stated:

“Don’t be fooled. The Iran–we have long known–hostile, expansionist, violent–is alive and well.”

And he goes on to cite the multiple ballistic missile tests by Iran (October, November, and March), the firing of rockets by Iran dangerously close to a U.S. aircraft carrier (December), the detaining of US Navy sailors on their knees broadcast to the world (January), an $8 billion purchase by Iran of Russian fighter jets, planes, and helicopters (February), and the seizure of shipments by Iran of large weapons caches supporting terrorism around the world (February, March, and April) including just yesterday when the U.S. seized thousands of AK-47s and RPGs headed for Yemen. 

The editorial ends…

“Our hope for a new Iran should not cloud the reality that the old Iran is very much still with us–as dangerous and as disruptive as ever,”

Let’s pray that our earnest yearnings for peace with Iran (and North Korea for that matter) does not end in the polar opposite…a “nice” nuke doomsday scenario by the leading state sponsor(s) of terrorism worldwide. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy from Washington Artworks)

X Marks The Spot

So what is this with the big orange X on the street in downtown Washington, D.C.

Is this the site for something really big and grand going up here–maybe the next big monument or tower (hehe)? 

Hopefully, (G-d forbid) not the next ground zero for the Iranians who have once again tested their long-range missiles in violation of UN resolutions and have called us their “main enemy.”

Can anyone out there really understand why we’ve abandoned a decades long relationship with Sunni-Saudi Arabia (and related other friendly Sunni states in the Persian gulf) and instead replaced it with a deal with Shia-Iran that hates the U.S. and is hell-bent on developing nuclear weapons of mass destruction and the ballistic missiles to deliver them?

Since an estimated 10-13% of the Muslim world is Sunni, renouncing the relationship with Saudi Arabia–and by extension the 1.5 billion Sunni Muslims (of a total 1.7 billion Muslims worldwide)–seems like a very risky proposition.

Indeed, 1) going into Iraq and overthrowing Saddam Husseim and liberating the 70% of the Iraqis that are Shia, then 2) lifting sanctions and aligning ourselves with Iran, the largest Shia country, and 3) now allowing Iran and Hezbollah to go into Syria to support the Alawite-Assad regime (the predominant Shia group) presumably has us taking sides in the Sunni-Shia Muslim worlds. 

However, why in the world would we choose those that explicitly hate us, support and conduct terror, and vow to destroy the U.S. over those like the Saudis that have in some ways worked with us in the past (even if we don’t need their oil as much now)?

Just a hypothetical, but perhaps could we be strengthening the smaller, thereby weaker Shiites as a counterbalance to an otherwise overwhelming Sunni majority Muslim world and a potentially dangerous and developing radicalized powerful ISIS state.

And if this is our strategy, at what risk are we playing this hand with a dedicated Iranian foe that has it’s own schemes for hegemony with a powerful Caliphate and the nuclear weapons to match. 😉

(Source Photo: Danielle Blumenthal)

Rose-Colored Glasses Make Everything…More Rosey

 

Yesterday, Iran detains 2 U.S. naval vessels…

And 10 of our brave military men and wome (from the world’s superpower) are literally on their knees held captive and broadcast for all the world to see.

Yet the truly unbeleivable response is “We don’t see this as hostile intent.”

 

However, Iran’s most unfriendly overtures to the U.S. also include:

– Taking 60+ Americans taken hostage for 444 long days. 

– Bombing Marine barracks, through Hezbollah proxy, killing 241 American servicemen and women in Beirut. 

– Shooting live missiles within just 1,500 yards of  our aircraft carriers

– Blowing up a replica of a U.S. warship

– Testing multiple ballistic missiles capable of carrying nukes

– Continuing to hold 4 Americans hostage

– Threatening genocide against the Holy Land

– Regularly chanting “Death to America” and burning our flag

What do we do?

A deal to release $100+ billion dollar to the world’s #1 sponsor of terrorism and remove sanctions.

Funny thing is we’ve seen this story before…

– ISIS attacking and threatening American cities with a new 9/11 attack and seeking to build a dangerous Caliphate

– North Korea testing an H-bomb and ballistic missiles with nukes to hit the U.S.  

– Russia annexing Crimea and settling into Syria to bolster Assad

 

– Syria continuing to use chemical weapons, laying seige and starving tens of thousands of their own people, and killing, wounding, and displacing millions to be absorbed by the West. 

But we open our hearts and borders and seek to take in more refugees with a questionabe vetting process, not even use the term “radical Islamist,” and to whiteout any red lines that we’ve drawn to protect our national security. 

Surely, our sworn enemies of the Axis of Evil don’t want to hurt us…perhaps, kill and destroy are more accurate terms. 😉

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Jim Simonson)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Counter Terrorism Response Level: DYSFUNCTIONAL

OMG, this is completely dysfunctional and embarrassing. 

Can we stop the fighting among ourselves–Democrats and Republicans, Judeo-Christians and Muslims, CNN and FOX, NRA and gun control advocates, immigration pros and foes, etc.)

AND

Instead focus and go after the real murderous culprits–the radical Islamist terrorists who are killing, imprisoning, torturing, raping, enslaving, and taking over vast lands to build a shariah-rule caliphate and take our freedoms and lives away?

We are losing the war on terror, because we can’t get our collective act together! 😉

(Source Photo: adapted from here with attribution for original to Elliott Brown)

Refugee Crisis OR Something More Sinister And Deadly?

When presidential candidate, Donald Trump said, “I will build a big beautiful safe zone in Syria for the refugees“–many on the left were aghast. 

Then I got forwarded this video on what’s happening in Europe or to Europe (and to a far more limited extent to America).

The basic question raised–are the throngs of people making their way from the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia to Europe (and to America):

1) REFUGEES: Is this diversity, multiculturalism, humanitarianism, and truly helping refugees in need?

OR

2) MIGRANTS: Is this the overrunning of a continent and society–driven by the desire for money, land, power, sex and religious domination–without anyone ever even firing a shot?

No one wants to think the worst–even when terror is happening around us and ISIS is claiming to be planting thousands of terrorists among the refugees (like a massive Trojan Horse)–we still want to believe that we are doing the right thing, doing good, and helping people in need by welcoming them in. 

Most of us or our families have been refugees at one time or another–seeking safety and a better life–so we know what it’s like to need others and to need a chance–and we want to help others like others helped us. 

But watching the terror attacks, violence, rapes, and threats by some (or many, I don’t really know) of the current waves of “refugees”–one wonders is this like prior refugees coming and needing genuine help or something we’ve never quite seen before? 😉

When Terror Strikes–We Do What?

Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal today writes compellingly about how tolerance for terror (or what he calls tolerance for intolerance) is allowing it to happen. 

For example, Jews are getting knifed, stoned, and intentionally run over almost daily in the Holy Land and not a peep from anyone, except to blame it on settlements, even though this extreme barbaric violence was happening long before there ever was a single settlement. 

It has become okay to use violence–even terrible sickening and brutal violence against civilians–and as much of it as one can muster–if you have a perceived gripe. Shall we talk burning victims alive, running over live bound victims with tanks, throwing gays off of the roofs of buildings, beheadings and crucifixions, serial killings and mass graves, abducting young girls as sex slaves, use of chemical weapons and indiscriminate bombings and shootings, and more. 

So what do we do?

– We tolerate the intolerable by excusing absolute insufferable violence against innocent men, women, and children, because some are feeling upset or aggrieved–so we show maybe misplaced compassion, where we should be expressing outrage at inhumane acts of murder and barbarism.

– We negotiate to try and appease the terrorists, but they couldn’t care less about deals when blood is the only thing that will quench their thirst for Jihad, power, and a new Caliphate.

– We use bold but empty phrases to placate the public and victim’s families–such as we are at war or we will be merciless and we will destroy them. and then we perform another single bombing run and drop 20 in retaliation (on perhaps empty buildings as the enemy claims) after the U.S. has already run 6,000 bombing runs previously. 

– We are afraid to name the enemy, with democratic candidates at Saturday’s night debate even refusing to use the term “radical Islamists“

– We are afraid to fight the good and necessary fight–after the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, some are “war weary,” or perhaps pacifists to an out of bounds extreme–where we are willing to risk another major attack on U.S. soil rather than appropriately defend ourselves and bring the fight to the enemy. 

WAKE UP USA, EU, NATO, AND UN. 

This problem is not going away–it is not “contained”–the war is not won–far from it. 😉

(Source Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)

A Volcano Of Our Own Making

So I saw this cool volcano making kit in the store. 

Kids typically do this cool experiment where they make a mock volcano erupt and the hot lava spills out in all directions and makes a big stinkin’ mess. 

But when I saw this volcano game kit, I couldn’t help connect this with all the real-world mess going on today with the endless and increasingly savage terrorism we are witnessing from brutal acts of terror to full blown religious civil wars, Arab Spring, and building of Caliphates across the region. 

Now we have religiously-inspired murders and maimings of millions of people with countless more displaced and refugees streaming across Europe.

The problem here though is that this is caused by crazy adults, and not playful and learning children. 

Most recently today, I watched a video of ISIS killing a bound prisoner (see starting in video link at 1:55) by rolling over him with a tank {extremely brutal and gory}.

The unbelievable savagery taking place with knifings, shootings, stonings, suicide bombings, beheadings, burnings, crucifixions, abductions, enslavement, gang rape, and more.

This is the Middle East today erupting and the adults are playing politics, personal and religious biases, and sick gamesmanship with millions of people’s lives.

Unfortunately, what happens over there tends to come here in the West…and this eruption is a doing of our own head-in-the-sand making. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Times and Events Of Gog And Magog

So I have never ever heard so much talk about doomsday as I am these days. 

Earlier in the year (January 2015) the Doomsday Clock moved up to 3 minutes to midnight–that was a full 2 minute move or 40% advance to the end of times. 

The cited reasons by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists:

– “Unchecked climate change”

– “Nuclear arms race”

Essentially, these “pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity.”

But on a daily level now–

Islamic extremism showing through post 9/11 mounting turmoil and unbelievable terror in the Middle East, including seeming non-ending ISIS brutality, Iran’s march towards nuclear weapons and advanced ballistic missiles, the Sunni vs. Shiite war for dominion centering (lately) in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen but with much larger geopolitcal overtones towards a return of a powerful caliphate to challenge the West, fighting between Muslims and Christians in countries like Nigeria, ongoing terror threats to the democratic State of Israel, and a rising tide death, casualties, and refugees.

Russian aggression in multiple countries and regions including Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria, air and naval military incursions and encroachment towards Turkey, the countries in the Baltic Sea region, the Arctic, and even a Russian military satellite parking itself between 2 U.S. satellites yesterday. 

China’s militarization including greater military spending on advanced weapons, Island/posts building in the South China Sea, and ongoing threatening overtures toward Taiwan and other neighbors, and cyber warfare conducted against the U.S.government and the private sector. 

Frightening new military capabilities are coming online with advances in weapons of mass destruction–nuclear, chemical, biological, and radiological–colonization and militarization of space, laser weapons, satellite killers, swarms of drones, armies of robots, and cyberwar.

The drumbeat of climate change and environmental deterioration (unsustainable practices of deforestation, overfishing, pollution, and the extinction of countless species) is being felt in changing weather patterns, global warming, glacier meltdown, alternating threats of flooding and drought in various part of the world, major storms and lightening patterns, and an uptick in natural disasters (tsunamis, hurricanes, and tornadoes), and an overall trend towards shortage and conflict. 

An ailing global economy after 2 major recessions in the 21st century so far, booming national debts, stalling economies, slowing innovation, and scarcity of stable, good paying, full time jobs in an outsourcing, short-term, freelance, contractor culture, and automaton and robotization advances. 

Dysfunctional political systems that are bogged down with endless indecision, infighting, bickering, finger-pointing, stalemates, shutdowns, pork barrel spending, catering to special interest groups, short-term wins at the expense of long-term goals, corruption, and a lack of strong capable leadership at the helm. 

An article I read recently from Russian Times, I believe, said how the U.S. teeters just steps from potential collapse by just relatively easy societal interruptions (presumably that they could facilitate) and that with farms/food production far from major metropolitan areas, people hooked on drugs that they could not get supplies for, and other severe disruptions in our critical care needs, we would be in big trouble–the message was clearly watch out, you are extremely vulnerable. 

That these tactic threats and overtures are already being made explicit is not a good sign. Just politicians and countries throwing around their weight or jockeying for position on the world stage–who knows?

But people are frail, countries are vulnerable, budgets are limited, and bad things can and do happen if we are not careful in a world ticking closer to very dangerous times and events.

The coming realization of the prophecy of a devastating world war–of Gog and Magog–is what people are saying to me.  

In conversation about deteriorating world events, my wife innocently asked someone this week–“Can we avoid a major world war?” Their unequivocal response, “No, it’s inevitable!” 😉 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)