A WordPress Blog-THE CHURCH MILITANT Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse. ALL CONTENT FROM HTTPS://RATHEREXPOSETHEM.BLOGSPOT.COM MOVED TO THIS NEW BLOG, MAY 2020
SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk speaks during an America PAC town hall on October 26, 2024 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
OAN Staff Blake Wolf
8:53 AM – Sunday, March 2, 2025
Billionaire Donald Trump ally Elon Musk recently indicated support for the United States leaving the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United Nations.
In a Saturday evening X post, MAGA influencer Gunther Eagleman wrote “It’s time to leave NATO and the UN,” in response to Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah).
Musk responded to Eagleman’s post, simply adding “I agree.”
Musk went on to share a Sunday morning X post by Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, who wrote: “NATO is a Cold War relic that needs to be relegated to a talking kiosk at the Smithsonian.”
Additionally, Musk has expressed his skepticism with the demands for continual support of Ukraine, adding “The EU (European Union) leaders and Zelensky are having fancy dinners while men die in trenches. How many parents will never see their son again? How many children will never see their father?”
NATO is a Cold War relic that needs to be relegated to a talking kiosk at the Smithsonian. https://t.co/nO9OQNBT3v
Musk’s stance on the U.S. leaving NATO and the UN is consistent with his leadership in the Department of Government Efficiency, as the United States spends a disproportionate amount in defense spending for the two international organizations.
While President Trump has not explicitly stated he plans to exit NATO, he has called on European leaders to increase their share of defense spending.
Musk’s comments follow after the Trump administration has been publicly skeptical of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, while adding that Ukrainian entry into NATO is “unrealistic.”
President Trump also recently argued that NATO expansion into Ukraine may have played a major role in setting the war off, as Putin has been warning the West that NATO expansion on Russia’s borders would be seen as a hostile act since 2008, following the NATO Bucharest Summit where the alliance announced that Ukraine would eventually become a member.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised President Trump for his comment regarding NATO’s expansion into Ukraine.
“He is the first, and so far, in my opinion, the only Western leader who has publicly and loudly said that one of the root causes of the Ukrainian situation was the impudent line of the previous administration to draw Ukraine into NATO,” Lavrov stated.
It remains to be seen whether President Trump will act on Musk’s call to exit the international alliances as the war in Ukraine continues to rage on for a third year.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) and Mark Rutte shake hands during a visit to the Eindhoven Military Air Base, in Eindhoven, on August 20, 2023. (Photo by ROB ENGELAAR/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
OAN Staff Brennan Cooney
1:47 PM – Saturday, March 1, 2025
NATO’s Secretary General Mark Rutte issued a blunt warning to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following his tense Oval Office exchange with President Donald Trump, saying that the Ukrainian leader must make amends.
During remarks to the BBC on Saturday about a call with Zelensky the day before, Rutte said Trump is due credit for the support he gave Ukraine during his first administration.
“I said: I think you have to find a way, dear Volodymyr, to restore your relationship with Donald Trump and the American administration." That is important going forward,” he told the Ukrainian president in a phone call.
On the call, Rutte went on to remind Zelensky that “we really have to respect what President Trump has done so far for Ukraine.”
“Without the Javelins in 2022, when the full-scale attack started, Ukraine would have been nowhere,” Rutte said during the BBC interview. “I told him we really have to give Trump credit for what he did then, what America did since then and also what America is still doing.”
Rutte called Friday’s heated exchange between the two leaders “unfortunate.
According to the Daily Mail, the United States has spent at least $100 billion on military aid to Ukraine.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is seen during his joint press conference with Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki and Latvian President Egils Levits on September 9, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo by Alexey Furman/Getty Images)
OAN Staff Blake Wolf
2:22 PM – Sunday, February 16, 2025
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed on Sunday that he refused to accept the United States’ proposal which would have provided the U.S. with Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in exchange for military aid.
The proposal, which was pitched on Friday at the Munich Security Conference by Vice President JD Vance, would give the United States access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals “as compensation” for support previously provided by the Biden administration, as well as for future military aid.
Ukraine is particularly rich in graphite, lithium, titanium, beryllium and uranium, which are critical materials for defense and tech industries.
Zelensky stated that he “didn’t let the ministers sign a relevant because in my view it is not ready to protect us, our interest.”
Zelensky has repeatedly stated that any deal handing over valuable minerals to the United States would need to be accompanied by security guarantees to deter any future Russian aggression.
“There are voices which say that Europe could offer security guarantees without the Americans, and I always say no,” Zelensky stated on Tuesday. “Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees.”
🚨President Zelensky: "I will never accept any decisions made between the United States and Russia about Ukraine. Never." pic.twitter.com/4Fj38ggQCI
Meanwhile, White House National Security Council Spokesman Brian Hughes stated that “President Zelensky is being short-sighted about the excellent opportunity the Trump Administration has presented to Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian president also added that Kyiv believes that Russian President Vladamir Putin is gearing up to “wage war against NATO.”
“We know for sure that he is preparing that from the territory of Belarus this year. It can happen in summer, maybe in the beginning, maybe in the end of summer. I do not know when he will prepare it. But it will happen,” Zelensky stated.
“There are risks that this could be Poland and Lithuania because we believe – we believe that Putin will wage war against NATO,” he added.
“That is why I told you that, ‘What is he waiting for?’ For a weakening of NATO by, for instance, the policy of the United States of America, for example, that the United States of America will think to take its military from Europe. Yes, Putin thinks that. But I will believe that the United States will not take its forces, its contingents from Europe because that will severely weaken NATO and the European continent. Putin definitely counts on that. And the fact that we receive information that he will think of the invasion against former Soviet republics. And forgive me, but today these are NATO countries.”
Ukraine is now in the process of crafting a “counter proposal” to be delivered to the United States in “the near future,” according to the Associated Press.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
Donald Trump doubled down Sunday on hard-line campaign pledges to impose trade tariffs and carry out mass deportations, while dangling the idea that the United States could withdraw from NATO.
In his first formal television interview -- and just six weeks before he takes office -- Trump again signaled that US support for Ukraine will scale back, saying he will "probably" cut the aid helping Kyiv repel the Russian invasion.
Trump also said he would "very quickly" look at pardons for supporters jailed for storming the US Capitol after his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden.
The interview on NBC's "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker" was taped Friday but aired Sunday, following Trump's meetings with the presidents of France and Ukraine over the weekend -- his first foreign trip since winning the November election against Biden.
Trump reiterated his familiar threat to leave NATO, the cornerstone of security in Europe since World War II, saying that US allies do not pay enough for their defense.
"If they're paying their bills, and if I think they're treating us fairly, the answer is absolutely I'd stay with NATO," said.
But there is also "absolutely" the possibility of America's departure, he said.
He also stressed that his campaign promises of huge tariffs -- including against top US trading partners Canada, Mexico and China -- would be enacted.
"We're subsidizing Mexico and we're subsidizing Canada and we're subsidizing many countries all over the world," he said.
Vowing that "properly used" tariffs are "a very powerful tool," Trump added that he would not only wield them economically, "but also for getting other things outside of economics."
As to whether Americans would see higher prices as a result of those tariffs, Trump said that "I can't guarantee anything. I can't guarantee tomorrow."
- Domestic pledges -
Trump has a history of breaking with precedent to undermine the independence of the US Federal Reserve, but he promised not to replace Chairman Jerome Powell.
However, Trump said he would go ahead with what economists say could be the hugely disruptive mass deportation of undocumented immigrants in the United States.
"I think you have to do it, and it's a hard -- it's a very tough thing to do. But you have to have rules, regulations, laws. They came in illegally," he said.
He said he would end the constitutionally protected right to US citizenship for anyone born in the country, calling it "ridiculous." It is unclear how Trump would be able to do this but he suggested, "if we can, through executive action."
"We're going to have to get it changed. We'll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it," Trump said.
[Order David Horowitz’s new book, America Betrayed, HERE.]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues to jail journalists, threaten Israel’s existence, denounce those Arab states that have dared to normalize ties to the Jewish state, bully Cyprus and Greece over gas deposits in their maritime waters, and destroy the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Turkish secularists who refused to abandon Kemalism. His latest outrages are reported on here: “Israel, Turkey trade blows in row over NATO involvement in Gaza,” by Gabriel Gavin, Politico, July 13, 2024:
Turkey has doubled down on a pledge to block NATO cooperation with Israel until a “permanent cease-fire” is in place in Gaza, amid an escalating war of words over the humanitarian crisis in the region.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan earlier this week accused Israel of violating the fundamental human rights of Palestinians in its military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
“The brutal murder of innocent people by Israel in hospitals where they go for treatment, in ambulances, in marketplaces, in centers where humanitarian aid is distributed, and in areas defined as safe, is the gravest violation of human rights,” Erdoğan said in an interview with Newsweek.
Apparently Erdogan would like us all to forget the invasions by Turkish troops in Libya, Syria, and Iraq, and the Turkish attacks, aggression, and ethnic cleansing of Kurds. Erdogan wishes us to forget his using Syrian refugees as mercenaries in Libya, his buying of Russian defense technology — the S-400 missile defense system — despite American pleas and warnings not to do so, his urging on Azerbaijan in its ruthless war against Armenia, his publicly praising by name the main Turkish planners of the 1915 Armenian genocide, Enver Pasha and Talat Pasha, and his working with Iran to oppose the US role in Syria. Erdogan’s regime sees alliances building around and against it, while Erdogan has managed to antagonize almost all of Turkey’s neighbors in the Middle East, and even more importantly, its fellow NATO members, including Washington. Erdogan wants to wreck Israel’s relationship with NATO and make the alliance a tool of jihad against the Jewish state.
“Western nations that provide Israel with weaponry,” the Turkish leader argued, “do so at the expense of being complicit in these violations.”
“Until comprehensive, sustainable peace is established in Palestine, attempts at cooperation with Israel within NATO will not be approved by Turkey,” Erdoğan said on Friday at a summit of alliance members in Washington.
NATO was meant to be a military alliance of Western, democratic states. When Turkey was allowed to join in 1952, at a time when it was much more of a democracy, the country continued along the secularist, westernizing path that had been prepared by Kemal Ataturk in in the1920s. But Turkey is now the odd man out in NATO, neither Western — as Erdogan continues to re-Islamize, and de-Kemalize, the country — nor truly democratic. Erdogan has made 74 changes to the Constitution, giving him sweeping new powers, and allowing him to possibly remain in office until 2029. Erdogan sits, the new Padishah, in his 1,500 room White Palace (the “Ak Saray”), entertaining his neo-Ottoman dreams of leading the Muslim world, and brooking no domestic dissent.
Under Erdogan, Turkey is no longer a functioning Western democracy. It still holds elections, but there is no free media, without which a real democracy is impossible. Those journalists who dare to write anything against Erdogan are arrested and jailed: Turkey has more journalists behind bars than any other country in the world, except China and Russia. As for ordinary citizens who are judged to be against the regime, they can expect, at the very least, to lose their jobs, as hundreds of thousands have done, and some are arrested and imprisoned.
Erdogan has not treated his fellow NATO members well. He has accused the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria of being run by “Nazis.” When the Netherlands cancelled – for security reasons — a campaign rally for Turks in that country, that was to have been addressed by Turkey’s foreign minister, Erdogan described the Dutch government as “Nazi remnants and fascists.” When Germany’s former Chancellor Angela Merkel called for an end to discussions about possible Turkish membership in the EU, Erdogan called her also a “Nazi” – a charge he has made a half-dozen times against Germany whenever that country’s policies annoy him. And when Austria shut down some “extremist” mosques and expelled their imams, Erdogan was again quick to describe the Austrians as “Nazis.” Germany and the Netherlands are members of NATO; though not a member, Austria closely collaborates with the organization. Erdogan has no qualms about attacking in such an intolerable fashion two fellow members, and one quasi-member, of NATO.
Turkey was allowed to join NATO both because it was then a democracy and because it had chosen to help the West against the Communist bloc, as it demonstrated in sending troops to join NATO forces in the Korean War. In the nearly 70 years since, Turkey’s major military contribution to NATO has been allowing the American Air Force to use the air base at Incirlik, which is not exactly an overwhelming contribution. When the American forces were invading Iraq in 2003, Turkey did allow the Americans to use its air space, but more importantly, it refused to allow American forces to use Incirlik Air Base, and would not permit the movement of American ground troops through Turkey. That is not what the Americans should have expected from a member of NATO.
Erdogan and those closest to him have not apologized for, nor withdrawn, their pan-Islamic plan for the destruction of Israel. Many, including Erdogan, continue to talk of “liberating” Al-Aqsa, overlooking the fact that Al-Aqsa needs no “liberation” – it is controlled by the Muslim Waqf, which is under Jordanian authority. A new Turkish ambassador to Israel, whom one would have thought would have been chosen for the post because he was well disposed to the Jewish state, once claimed that “Zionism is racism,” that Israel has “displaced millions” and committed many “massacres.” Erdogan has repeatedly echoed such rhetoric since Oct. 7, even as the U.S. has professed support for Israel. So remind me again: why is Turkey in NATO?
Larry Johnson: NATO's Nightmare: North Korea Backups Russia with 1 Million Missiles & Nuclear Warhead. In this explosive analysis, former CIA officer Larry Johnson delves into the alarming scenario of North Korea potentially supporting Russia with an unprecedented arsenal of one million missiles and nuclear warheads. This development presents a formidable challenge to NATO and could significantly shift the balance of power in global geopolitics. Johnson examined the implications of such a massive militaristic alignment, exploring how North Korea’s involvement could enhance Russian military capabilities, especially in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. He assesses the strategic motivations behind North Korea’s decision to back Russia and the potential consequences for NATO’s security posture. Furthermore, Johnson discusses the logistical and strategic challenges of integrating North Korean military assets with Russian forces, analyzing the potential effectiveness and the geopolitical signals it sends to the West. He also considered diplomatic repercussions, including how this alliance could complicate relations between major powers and the United Nations' response. This insightful video is crucial for understanding the broader implications of North Korea’s involvement in supporting Russia, analyzing potential shifts in international relations, and assessing new threats that could redefine NATO’s strategic calculations.
Larry Johnson REVEALS: Russia Begins to Attack as U.S. NATO Base Collapsed, West Prepared to Retaliate
https://thevaccinereaction.org/2023/08/these-global-organizations-want-to-control-you/; Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
There’s a group of people who control what you are allowed to see, what you read, what you watch, the posts you engage with. You haven’t heard of them, you don’t know their names. But they determine, through methods both direct and indirect, whether you are allowed to be exposed to particular messages. Their decisions can bankrupt companies, silence voices and fundamentally shift cultural norms. Who are these people and how do they do this? Well, at the top level you have a network of global elite and its creed… a universal framework full of guidelines and ratings designed to enforce approved narratives and punish disapproved ones.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
As America attempts a quid pro quo with Turkey despite its demands (it wants fighter jets as a reward for allowing Sweden to join NATO), another question is whether America should be selling fighter jets to Turkey at all, considering how they may be utilized by Turkey’s hostile President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
U.S. President Joe Biden said Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a call on Monday repeated Ankara’s desire to buy F-16 fighter jets from the United States, while Biden told him Washington wanted Ankara to drop its objection to Sweden’s joining NATO.
The exchange took place when Biden called Erdogan to congratulate him on his victory in Turkey’s presidential election on Sunday.
“I spoke to Erdogan. I congratulated Erdogan. He still wants to work on something on the F-16s.
Erdogan’s ambitions are troubling. He seeks to revive the Ottoman Empire and has declared that Turkey has nothing that contradicts the Taliban’s beliefs. Turkey oppresses the Kurds. NBC published a report, “Turkey’s attack on Kurds in Syria betrays those doing the fighting against ISIS — and dying.” Erdogan bullies Greece, and is doggedly determined to enforce Islamic blasphemy laws globally — hence his blocking of Sweden from NATO over the burning of a Qur’an by Rasmus Paludan. In fact, Turkey has demanded that Swedes must fight those who “target Islam’ if it wants to join NATO.”
Turkey has no place in NATO, to begin with. Nor should it be further armed by America in exchange for Turkey acting in NATO’s interests and expanding that alliance to include Sweden, as opposed to Turkey attending to Islamic interests. Nonetheless, the Biden administration, which has been marked by its repeated counterproductive actions, including leaving billions of dollars worth of American military equipment in Afghanistan at the Taliban’s disposal, is advancing a quid pro quo arrangement with the likes of Erdogan, while denying that the deal is actually being framed in such terms. America hardly needs to be arming more Islamic enemies.
Perhaps Biden et al hope that any deal brokered by America to bring Sweden into the NATO fold might somehow ease America’s sunken reputation while boosting sales for Lockheed Martin. The issue is far from settled among American lawmakers, some of whom support the Biden strategy, despite Biden’s historical efforts to sell fighter jets to Turkey even prior to the Sweden-NATO issue. According to Congressman Gus Michael Bilirakis in 2021:
Turkey’s illegal and unfettered actions are indicative of President Erdogan’s transformation of Turkey to a rogue state led by a leader with a nationalistic philosophy, Neo-Ottoman ambitions, and a complete disregard for following international law.
A year later, in 2022, Bilirakis and Rep. Chris Pappas lead bipartisan opposition to a Biden administration proposal to sell weapons to Turkey.
Appeasement of enemies only weakens America. But that has been the strategy of the Biden administration on every front. Only now it is using the Sweden-Turkey-NATO stalemate opportunistically to further the same appeasement strategy.
Meanwhile, no matter what the Biden administration decides, Erdogan is already looking at other options from China and Russia.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Old Joe Biden’s congratulatory message to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan upon his highlyquestionable (hey, what election isn’t these days?) reelection was boilerplate from whoever writes his tweets, but nevertheless, it revealed yet again the growing gap between the world views of the two men. That gap has serious geopolitical implications that go all the way back to the anniversary that was observed on the day after the Turkish strongman’s reelection: May 29 marked 570 years since the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks and the extinguishing, after over two thousand years of continual existence, of the Roman Empire.
Biden’s Twitter wonk wrote on Sunday afternoon: “Congratulations to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Türkiye on his re-election. I look forward to continuing to work together as NATO Allies on bilateral issues and shared global challenges.” (Türkiye is what the nation of Turkey has renamed itself so as to minimize comparisons with a certain Thanksgiving bird. Yes, really.) Biden’s mouthpiece is blandly pleased about the prospect of the U.S. “continuing to work together as NATO Allies” with Erdogan’s Turkey, but Erdogan and his supporters have a very different set of priorities.
To celebrate Erdogan’s victory, his followers gathered in Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia mosque and screamed “Allahu akbar,” which does not mean “God is great,” as the Western establishment media routinely claims, but rather, “Allah is greater,” that is, greater than your god. It is a declaration of supremacy with immense implications. Hagia Sophia was built in the year 537 and stood for nearly a thousand years as the grandest and foremost cathedral in the entire Christian world. Then on May 29, 1453, the Ottoman Turks finally succeeded in entering Constantinople, which Islamic jihadis had been trying to do for nearly eight hundred years. Amid unfathomable bloodshed, Sultan Mehmed II had the Islamic profession of faith proclaimed inside the great cathedral and was converted to a mosque.
Hagia Sophia then stood for centuries as the Ottoman Empire’s statement of the superiority and supremacy of Islam over Christianity. By the early twentieth century, however, the Ottoman Empire had become “the sick man of Europe.” After siding with Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I, it disintegrated altogether. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the strongman of the newly constituted secular Turkish Republic, attributed the empire’s decline and fall to Islam, which he called “this theology of an immoral Arab” and dismissed as “a dead thing.” In 1934, Ataturk converted Hagia Sophia into a museum, and so instead of being a symbol of Islam’s triumph over Christianity, it became a symbol of secularism’s triumph over Islam.
Erdogan, however, could not and did not stand for that. As the New York Timesnoted Thursday, he “has reoriented Turkey’s national culture, promoting a nostalgic revival of the Ottoman past.” In 2020, he reconverted Hagia Sophia into a mosque, making into a revived symbol of Islam’s superiority to Christianity, and a new symbol of Islam’s triumph over secularism. During the just-concluded presidential campaign, Erdogan crowed about his conversion of Hagia Sophia: “The entire West got mad – but I did it.” The re-mosquing of Hagia Sophia was the centerpiece of Erdogan’s program of neo-Ottomanism. And now, the Times opined just before the election that an Erdogan electoral victory would mean that “his neo-Ottomanism will have survived its strongest test in two decades.”
The Times, however, assumes that Erdogan’s neo-Ottomanism is all about rallying nationalist sentiment in order to get votes. It is actually of much greater significance. Erdogan’s neo-Ottomanism is an integral aspect of his stance toward his neighbors. In February 2018, he declared his desire to reconquer the lands the Ottoman caliphate once ruled: “Those who think that we have erased from our hearts the lands from which we withdrew in tears a hundred years ago are wrong. We say at every opportunity we have that Syria, Iraq, and other places in the geography [map] in our hearts are no different from our own homeland. We are struggling so that a foreign flag will not be waved anywhere where adhan [Islamic call to prayer in mosques] is recited. The things we have done so far [pale in comparison to the] even greater attempts and attacks [we are planning for] the coming days, inshallah [Allah willing].”
Erdogan’s Ottoman revanchism has important implications for the NATO alliance. Turkey is increasingly belligerent toward Greece, a fellow NATO country that Erdogan considers to be a rightful part of the Turkish domain. Erdogan’s daughter recently proclaimed that “the crescent will win over Cross of the West.” In Nov. 2022, a Turkish TV channel displayed a map of the projected “Turkish Sphere” in 2050. It included Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Greece, Iraq, Turkmenistan, and more. In Sept. 2022, Erdogan’s interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, declared: “We want to root out America….We don’t need the USA. We do not need a Europe that is unaware of our religion, culture, and belief… We must dismantle the USA.”
Biden’s handlers and NATO’s top dogs should consider all this carefully, but they won’t. They should also ponder the lesson of May 29: great empires that were once thought to be invincible can and do fall. Are they foolish, and ultimately self-defeating, enough to continue to think they have a friend in an increasingly open enemy such as Erdogan? Once again, they won’t even consider the possibility.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
NATO military planners want to designate an additional 300,000 troops to be positioned along the eastern edge of the alliance on the border with Russia in order to forestall any thought by Moscow of expanding the war in Ukraine.
There’s only one small problem; they don’t know where they’re going to get the weapons and ammunition.
“The current rate of consumption compared to the current rate of production of ammunition,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in early March, “is not sustainable.”
But the problem isn’t just manufacturing bullets and shells. It’s a problem of figuring out how much every NATO nation has to give in men, money, and material. And that has proved difficult in the past.
“If there’s not somebody hosting the potluck and telling everybody what to bring, then everyone would bring potato chips because potato chips are cheap, easy to get,” said James J. Townsend Jr., a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy.
“Nations,” he added, “would rather bring potato chips.”
When the NATO alliance went to war in Afghanistan, it was amusing to see many of the countries eagerly volunteering for duty at the Kabul airport. They all wanted to contribute “potato chips” to the war effort. How will this latest effort at demonstrating NATO solidarity work?
But the process could get tricky. Why? Because moving so quickly, even given a month, requires lots of people, equipment and training — and lots of money.
Some militaries will have to up their recruitment efforts. Many allies will have to increase defense spending. And everyone will have to buy more weapons, ammunition and equipment.
Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army Europe, said that “readiness” is “basically, do you have all the stuff you’re supposed to have to do the mission assigned to a unit of a particular size?”
“An artillery battalion needs to shoot X number of rounds per year for planning purposes in order to maintain its level of proficiency,” he said. A tank battalion needs to hit targets, react to different situations and “demonstrate proficiency on the move, day and night, hitting targets that are moving.”
From what we saw of NATO in Afghanistan, I am not confident that this plan to augment forces on the Russian border will amount to much. NATO countries will find ways to avoid their responsibilities rather than fulfill their obligations.
And that includes meeting the critical need for more ammunition.
“We have tended to try to stockpile munitions on the cheap … it’s just grossly inadequate,” said Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security. “I think the problems that our allies have in NATO are even more acute because many of them often rely on the U.S. as sort of the backstop.”
Sound familiar? Any NATO plan for more troops and equipment ultimately means more U.S. troops and more U.S. equipment.
Once NATO’s military plans are done, capitals will be asked to weigh in — and eventually make available troops, planes, ships and tanks for different parts of the blueprints.
A test for NATO will come this summer when leaders of the alliance’s 30 member countries meet in Lithuania.
“We are asking the nations — based on the findings we have out of our three regional plans — what we need to make these plans … executable,” said the senior NATO military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive planning.
“I think the most difficult thing,” the official added, “is the procurement.”
As always, the devil is in the details. But NATO — aside from some frontline nations like Poland and the Baltic States — is not likely to get serious about defense against Russia until Russian tanks are rolling into NATO territory.
In the face of increasing tensions between the U.S. and China, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has called for more cooperation and allies in the Indo-Pacific region. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused NATO of wanting to "defeat" Russia, accusing the NATO-backed Ukraine regime of having no "independence" and only acting as a proxy for Western powers. NATO is trying to recruit more allies and build up forces in Europe and the Indo-Pacific, while Russia and China have formed an alliance, strengthening their power and creating another obstacle for the U.S.-led alliance. As the U.S. and its NATO allies prepare for war, questions are being raised about the potential consequences, with some suggesting that politicians may be using it as a way to gain control over the population and advance their globalist agenda.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Donald Trump formally kicked off his 2024 campaign on Saturday, blitzing the states of South Carolina and New Hampshire — the first two states on the Republican primary calendar in 2024.
Trump may not have wanted to begin his formal campaign for president so soon. But others, including the man who might be his most dangerous rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, may have forced his hand. Trump is still ahead in the polls, but DeSantis has begun to surge and in some early states — specifically, New Hampshire — DeSantis is ahead. A University of New Hampshire survey released this week showed DeSantis leading Trump 42% to 30%.
Trump is experienced enough to know that these early polls don’t mean anything. The real tests will come in the early primaries.
Meanwhile, Trump has a Democrat to bury. Joe Biden may be the absolutely worst man to serve as president when Vladimir Putin is rattling his nuclear weapons.
“Through weakness and incompetence, Joe Biden has brought us to the brink of World War III,” Trump said. “We’re at the brink of World War III, just in case anybody doesn’t know it. As president, I will bring back peace through strength.”
Meanwhile, Biden keeps poking the Russian bear counting on Russian President Vladimir Putin not to lash out and start a world war.
He called Biden’s botched American pullout from Afghanistan in 2021 “the lowest day in the history of our country” and claimed that if he were president, there would be “a peace deal negotiated within 24 hours” to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He blamed Biden for border crossings and drug deaths, repeating his 2015 assertion that Mexico is sending “killers,” “murderers” and “rapists” to the U.S.
“They are sending people that are killers, murderers, they’re sending rapists. And they’re sending, frankly, terrorists, or terrorists are coming on their own, and we can’t allow this to happen,” Trump said.
But it’s the DeSantis vs. Trump cage match that will dominate the political conversation over the next year or more. And on Saturday, Trump had plenty to say about his main GOP rival.
On Saturday, Trump took his sharpest swings at DeSantis to date, accusing the governor of “trying to rewrite history” over his response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Trump said DeSantis, who has been openly skeptical about government efforts to vaccinate people against the virus, “promoted the vaccine as much as anyone.” He praised governors who did not close down their states, noting that DeSantis ordered the closure of beaches and business in some parts of the state.
“When I hear that he might [run] I think it’s very disloyal,” Trump said.
As for the polls showing DeSantis beating him in key nominating states, Trump was dismissive.
“He won’t be leading, I got him elected,” he said. “I’m the one that chose him.”
For some Republicans, it comes down to which candidate is more likely to attract a broad cross-section of American voters and prevail against Biden. To answer that, Trump brought the house down in New Hampshire with some of his policy prescriptions.
During his speech in New Hampshire, Trump doled out red meat to a friendly crowd. The crowd roared with applause when he said that, if elected, he would “eliminate federal funding for any school that pushes critical race theory or left-wing gender ideology,” and support “direct election of school principals by the parents.”
His speech in New Hampshire echoed policy prescriptions he has released over the past several weeks in the form of video addresses, on issues such as education and protecting Social Security and Medicare. His team has seen those pronouncements as a way to maneuver back onto the political stage without having to organize the signature rallies that defined Trump’s prior bids.
You can bet the farm that the Democrats and their radical allies will pull out all the stops to smear Trump — but only after he wins the nomination. It’s plain that the Democrats would much rather face Trump in a general election, having beaten him once already. But Republican voters will make the final determination about who the Democrats face, and whether it’s Trump or not, they have a miserable record to defend.
BIDEN'S ANNOUNCEMENT OF ALL-OUT WORLD WAR~PURPOSELY TO READY & CONDITION AMERICANS TO WAR WITH RUSSIA?
AIR DEFENSE SYSTEMS, ARTILLERY, HOWITZERS, MISSILE BATTERIES & LAUNCHERS ON THE WAY TO UKRAINE FROM EUROPEAN UNION / NATO COUNTRIES
Nick Brana, Co-Chair of the People's Party and Co-Organizer for Rage Against the War Machine joins us to discuss Biden's and Europe's escalation of the Ukrainian war.
RUSSIAN NUCLEAR CAPABLE WARSHIP IN THE ATLANTIC SEA OFF THE U.S. COAST
WARNING: USA Surrounded? Russian & China Nuclear Warships & Sub
Forget tanks, F-16s up next. How to get regime change in Moscow. Medvedev, yellow submarine.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Islamic supremacist Turkey is experiencing a windfall these days. From bullying Greece, playing “middle man” between Russia and the EU in supplying Russian oil, and deepening relations with Putin while supplying weapons to Ukraine, Turkey’s influence is expanding rapidly. Now it’s making demands on Finland and Sweden as a condition to join NATO, to suit the interests of Erdogan.
Turkey has no place in NATO. NATO members (as well as more suitable potential members) are now paying a dear price for the imprudence of allowing Turkey to continue to be a NATO member. Turkey has increasingly become more Islamized under Erdogan, much more than it was in 1952 when it joined NATO. In the “years following World War II, Turkey found itself in a unique geopolitical position,” siding with the Western free world when it was “desperate for protection.”
So it joined NATO. It has now become clear how short-sighted it was to embrace this Muslim country with its Ottoman history.
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham promised to “introduce bipartisan sanctions against Turkey if they invade Syria” and to “call for their suspension from NATO if they attack Kurdish forces who assisted the U.S. in the destruction of the ISIS Caliphate.”
Turkey is now accusing Sweden and Finland of providing a safe haven for what Erdogan calls Kurdish “terrorists.” So he’s ordering the two counties to turn over Kurds and “share information.” Although there will be a price to pay for throwing Turkey out of NATO now, there will ultimately be a much higher price for allowing this Islamic despot to continue to manipulate NATO.
“Turkey warns Finland, Sweden must ‘take steps’ before joining NATO,” France 24, November 4, 2022:
Turkey will not formally approve Finland and Sweden’s membership of NATO until the two countries take the necessary “steps”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg Friday.
Ankara has accused the two Nordic nations of providing a safe haven for outlawed Kurdish militants it deems “terrorists” and held back on ratifying their NATO membership despite an agreement in June.
“President Erdogan noted that the steps to be taken by Sweden and Finland would determine how fast the approval process… would go and when it would be concluded,” the Turkish presidency said.
Erdogan and Stoltenberg held a private meeting in Istanbul that was closed to the media.
Finland and Sweden dropped decades of military non-alignment and scrambled to become NATO members in May, after Russia invaded Ukraine.
But Erdogan threatened to block their bids and sought concessions, leading to a deal in June between Turkey, Finland and Sweden that included provisions on extraditions and sharing information.
New Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will visit Ankara on Tuesday to meet with Erdogan in a trip that Stockholm hopes will lead to Turkey’s approval.
Stoltenberg “welcomed the major, concrete steps already taken by both countries to put the memorandum into practice, and stressed that their accession will make NATO stronger”, the alliance said in a statement on Friday….
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Our NATO ally:
“Suleiman Soylu: ‘Without the USA, the terrorist organization PKK would not exist,’” NewsBeezer, September 3, 2022 (thanks to Joshua):
The United States has been targeted by Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, who said his country’s goal is to drive Americans out of the Middle East.
The Turkish minister made the controversial remarks while addressing rebel families who claim their children have been kidnapped by the Kurdish PKK organization and have been protesting for three years outside the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Party of the Republic of Turkey (HDP), in Diyarbakir im Southeast Turkey.
“We want to tear America apart”
“The terrorist organization will end soon in Turkey, don’t worry. But that’s not enough for us, we have to drive it out of the area too,” Soylu said, addressing the audience watching him.
And he characteristically remarked, “By rooting out the terrorist organization, we want to root out America.” I say this with all sincerity: for years they have rocked this geography with coups. Alevi-Sunnis, Turkish-Kurds, they made us fight each other.”
“They tried to alienate us from each other. They don’t want the world to know the truths of our religion and culture,” Suleiman Soylu said.
As he actually claimed, “If America weren’t here today, the terrorist organization you call the PKK/PYD wouldn’t exist. The creator of PKK and PYD is America. You are her servants.”
And he added: “The political party called HDP, along with the PKK, is a servant of the Americans. I say it openly. If America doesn’t secure the PKK and PYD, it can’t even go half a meter in the Middle East. He can’t even be kept in a cave.”
“Süleyman Soylu: HDP is a servant of the USA along with the PKK,” translated from “Süleyman Soylu: HDP, PKK ile beraber ABD’nin uşağıdır,” by Haber Merkezi, En Son Haber, September 3, 2022:
…Speaking here, Minister Soylu used the following expressions;
“In the last 3 years, the American senate has provided 2 billion dollars in aid to the PKK/PYD. The HDP is a servant of the USA along with the PKK. If we do not have security, is it possible for us to go from one place to another at night? If the USA does not ensure the security of the PKK/PYD, There would be no PKK/PYD without the USA.
We don’t need the USA. We do not need a Europe that is unaware of our religion, culture and belief. As Diyarbakir finds peace, the region finds peace. They come up with all kinds of scenarios to tear us apart from each other….
As we dismantle the terrorist organization, you should know that we are also dismantling the USA. For years, they set us against each other for this.
Terrorist organization will end soon. We must uproot it from the geography around us. We must dismantle the USA. I’m telling you frankly, there is no front or back. Alevi, Sunni, Kurdish, Turkish… That’s why they tried to set us against each other. They tried to alienate us from each other….
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
(Natural News) Fake president Joe Biden — who was never legitimately elected to the Office of the President — is now accelerating his planned destruction of America by provoking Putin into a retaliatory strike against US and NATO targets. This was all confirmed over the last three days as cited in numerous sources below.
BACKGROUND: The illegitimate Biden regime has promised to send HIMARS weapon systems to Ukraine, claiming that Ukraine has “given assurances” to Washington D.C. and promised the weapons won’t be used to wage attacks against Russian territory. This has been widely reported across the corporate media.
Despite those assurances, a high-level Ukraine spokesperson (see below) said they would break that promise and use the HIMARS weapons to attack Crimea, a region that has long self-recognized as territory of Russia (although Ukraine disputes this and claims Crimea belongs to Ukraine). “Ukraine Says It Might Use U.S. Weapons to Invade Russia,” reports ModernDiplomacy.eu, writing:
On June 1st, when the White House announced that it would be sending to Ukraine weapons that might be used for invading Russia, Jonathan Finer, deputy White House national security adviser, said Washington had asked Ukraine for assurances the missiles would not strike inside Russia. On June 3rd, Ukraine’s Government rejected that request.
At the time when Biden made that announcement on June 1st, Reuters noted that “Biden announced the plan to give Ukraine precision HIMARS rocket systems after receiving assurances from Kyiv that it would not use them to hit targets inside Russian territory.”
Then, as reported by RT, Ukrainian official Alexey Arestovich broke that promise:
Kiev may strike Crimea, a Ukrainian presidential aide says, despite assurances US weapons won’t be used to hit Russian territory.
Ukraine will use US-supplied rocket systems to strike into Russian territory should it
deem such attacks necessary, Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Alexey Arestovich said on Thursday.
Both Russia and Ukraine consider Crimea to be their own territory.
Putin promises to retaliate against US / NATO cities
If Ukraine uses the US-provided HIMARS weapons to strike Russian territory, then Russia will respond by deploying new long-range weapons against new targets which may include US or NATO cities or military bases. This was reported by The Epoch Times over the weekend in a story entitled, “Putin Warns Russia Will Strike New Targets If the US Gives New Missiles to Ukraine.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 5 warned that Russia would strike new targets if the United States were to supply longer-range missiles to Ukraine.
“If they are supplied, we will draw appropriate conclusions from this and use our own weapons, of which we have enough, in order to strike at those facilities we are not targeting yet,” says one translation of Putin’s remarks. That translation, however, is at odds with another translation that clarifies Putin means “new weaponry” will be used to strike targets “that have not yet been struck,” which seems to mean beyond Ukraine.
Putin is potentially leaving his comments somewhat vague, and translations may vary. You can see the Fox News pro-war interpretation of Putin’s warning here:
Keep in mind that with a few exceptions, Fox News is just a mouthpiece of the military-industrial complex, just like CNN.
Putin is likely not bluffing
Joe Biden is a cognitively retarded puppet. Putin is a high-IQ strategic genius. It’s not difficult to see where this goes if Biden keeps poking the bear. First, Putin isn’t bluffing. Furthermore, Putin can strike targets across Western Europe at will, as all of NATO has zero effectiveness at defending against Putin’s hypersonic missiles, hyperglide reentry vehicles, and Sarmat II ICBM missiles.
To anyone who thinks NATO can stop Russia’s missiles, they must be asked: Why hasn’t NATO stopped Russia’s missiles in Ukraine, then?
Using these platforms, Putin can potentially unleash fuel-air explosives (sometimes called thermobaric bombs), EMP weapons or even tactical nuclear weapons against targets in Poland, Germany, France, the UK, or even the United States.
By delivering HIMARS weapons to Ukraine and watching Ukraine use them to attack Russia, Biden is handing Putin the military justification he needs to escalate his retaliatory attacks against NATO targets since NATO would be directly involved in the war against Russia if Ukraine uses NATO weapons to attack Russian territory.
Remember, too, this is on top of America’s military leaders openly bragging about providing the satellite imagery and targeting solutions that allowed Ukraine to sink a Russian flagship in the Black Sea.
Is achieving World War III Biden’s real goal? Is he deliberately attempting to provoke Putin into a retaliatory escalation in order to unleash a true world war before the midterm elections in the USA where democrats are widely expected to be politically clobbered? We think so, but that’s just the current assessment, and it’s subject to change as circumstances warrant.
In today’s Situation Update, I bring you more details on this and other important news:
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
Among the providential results of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been the reawakening of the West to the value of its mutual defense pact, NATO, whose 30 members are all pledged to come to the defense of any member threatened with aggression. And the Ukraine war has led to a spectacular development: the desire expressed by both Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO.
Before the invasion of Ukraine, most Finns and Swedes were lukewarm about joining NATO. All that has changed: 76% of Finns now want Finland in NATO, and so do more than 60% of Swedes. Finland has already declared its intention to seek NATO membership; Sweden is just about to follow suit. NATO’s Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, has announced that both countries would be “welcomed with open arms.”
Well, not quite. One set of arms that will remain resolutely closed belongs to the Turkish President, the dour and difficult Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He has already announced that he will oppose membership in NATO for both countries. Since approval of new members of NATO requires a unanimous vote, Turkey by itself can keep both Sweden and Finland out.
Why would Erdogan do this? He is angry that there are Kurds – 15,000 of them – living in Sweden and that some of them, unsurprisingly, support the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which favors greater autonomy for the 15 million Kurds living in Turkey. The PKK is recognized by Turkey, the US, and the EU as a terrorist organization, although this designation has become increasingly controversial as the PKK has greatly decreased its acts of terrorism. “Erdogan says Turkey does not support Finland and Sweden joining NATO,” by Dylan Stableford, Yahoo News, May 13, 2022:
Dylan Stableford
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that his country does not support plans by Finland and Sweden to join NATO, claiming they are home to “terrorist organizations.”
This is rich, coming from someone who in 2020 gave refuge, and Turkish citizenship and passports, to dozens of members of the terror group Hamas. Furthermore, Sweden does not support but outlaws the PKK. What Erdogan really objects to is Sweden not also outlawing members of the YPG, which Turkey regards as the Syrian branch of the PKK. The YPG, which was America’s most useful ally in the fight against the Islamic State, continues to receive American military and financial support. Should Turkey be allowed to keep Sweden and Finland out of NATO just because the Swedes – like the Americans – have supported, or at least not banned, the YPG?
“We are following the developments regarding Sweden and Finland, but we don’t hold positive views,” Erdogan told reporters at a press conference in Istanbul. “Scandinavian countries are guesthouses for terrorist organizations.”
There is only one “guesthouse for terrorist organizations” in Europe – Turkey itself, where until recently the welcome mat was always out for Hamas.
“They are even members of the parliament in some countries,” Erdogan added, without offering evidence. “It is not possible for us to be in favor.”
His comments came a day after Finland’s leaders said they intended to apply for NATO membership “without delay.”
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin and President Sauli Niinistö released a joint statement announcing that Finland — which shares an 810-mile border with Russia — intends to join the alliance.
“NATO membership would strengthen Finland’s security,” their statement said. “As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defense alliance.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg had said the Finns would be “warmly welcomed” into the pact. The United States and United Kingdom back the move as well.
Sweden is also expected to announce its decision to join the alliance in the coming days.
For a country to be accepted into NATO, there is a list of minimum requirements. This includes having a functioning democracy, treating minority populations fairly and having the ability to make military contributions to NATO operations.
Does Turkey still have a “functioning democracy”? It holds elections, but Erdogan is an authoritarian — a despot — who does not brook dissent. During his time in power, first as prime minister and since then as president, Erdogan has been purging his military of the Kemalist officer corps, replacing them with Islamists. The purge in the military of secularists, bizarrely accused of being supporters of Fethulleh Gulen, a rival of Erdogan who was absurdly charged with directing the 2016 attempted coup in Turkey from his exile in Pennsylvania, became much wider following that failed coup. Nor were military men the only ones to be discharged or imprisoned. After the coup, more than 100,000 professors, university rectors, lawyers, doctors, teachers, civil servants, and journalists all lost their jobs for supposedly “supporting the Gulenist coup,” but really for harboring secularist views that Erdogan feared and despised. An estimated 150,000 state employees were suspended or dismissed, and more than 50,000 were jailed. Turkey a few years ago had jailed more journalists than any other country. Now it has slightly improved and is #6 on the list of countries that jail the most journalists.. Is any of that a sign of a “functioning democracy”?
And does Turkey treat its minority populations fairly, as is required of NATO members? Fifteen million Kurds apparently do not think so; that is why the PKK has attracted such support during the last few decades. Are Christians – the Greek Orthodox – treated “fairly” when Erdogan’s government has continued to keep closed the only seminary for Greek Orthodox priests left in Turkey, the Halki Theological School? This seminary, which was closed in 1971 on the pretext that privately run institutions were no longer legal, was the only school in the country for the training of Orthodox clergy. The continued closure means the Greek Orthodox Church in Turkey is unable to train new clergy in-country. Erdogan’s government has also confiscated valuable church property, including an historic orphanage on the island of Pringipo, and the expropriation of 152 properties of the Balukli Hospital in Istanbul. Neither the very large number – 15 million — of Kurds, nor the very small number – 3,000 – of Greeks, are treated fairly in Turkey. Treating minorities” fairly” is one of the most basic requirements that must be met to be a member of NATO. On this score, too, Turkey fails.
Turkey joined NATO in 1952. The country was clearly the odd man out in what was a military alliance of anti-Communist Western states that shared Christian heritage. The Americans wanted to reward Turkey for sending troops to fight in the Korean War and, of course, Turkey was also useful as an intelligence base for monitoring events in the Soviet Union. But the Turkey which joined NATO in 1952 was still run by secularists in the Kemalist mode. Turkey has become much more Islam-oriented since Erdogan first became president in 2003. He warned the Austrian prime minister Sebastian Kurz in 2018, whose closure of some mosques had angered him, about a potential future conflict “between the crescent and the cross,” and left no doubt as to which side Turkey would be on. In his neo-Ottoman dreams, Turkey would be the natural leader of the forces of the “crescent” — the Muslim states — against the states of “the cross,” which would include all the other members of NATO.
Erdogan also had published in Yeni Safak, the newspaper that reflects his views, a plan for an “Army of Islam” that would combine the men and weaponry of many Muslim countries into one vast army that would be able to destroy Israel. Apparently, none of that was enough for NATO’s other members to begin thinking about expelling Turkey from NATO.
This expansion of NATO – with Sweden and Finland as its two new members — would be an enormous blow to Putin. Preventing NATO’s expansion was one of the main reasons the Russian President launched his military invasion of Ukraine. Instead, his invasion has had the opposite effect, in finally pushing two once-reluctant Scandinavian states into the arms of NATO. But as long as Turkey is allowed to exercise its veto, that blow will not be delivered. Two countries that are part of the West will be kept out of NATO by a country that is neither a truly “functioning democracy” nor a state that “treats its minorities fairly,” as NATO members are required to be, and that has now cast aside Kemalism, to again become part of the East or, more exactly, part of the Islamic East.
Erdogan must not be allowed to exercise that veto.
Here is what the other NATO countries could do to bring Erdogan to heel:
First, the stick: NATO members could threaten to end all financial assistance to Turkey. The U.S. alone gives $125 million to Turkey annually. It allows Turkey to buy advanced weaponry. Both the money and that access to weapons could be ended. So could loans to Turkey from the IMF, if the U.S. and other major economic powers opposed them. Turkey’s economy is just now in free fall; it is desperate for help. That help can be denied unless Erdogan withdraws his opposition to Finland and Sweden joining NATO.
Second, instead of the stick, the carrot. If Erdogan drops his objections to Finland and Sweden joining NATO, he might find the Americans willing to increase their aid. And Sweden itself might promise, in order to obtain Turkey’s approval of its admission to NATO, that it will closely monitor the Kurdish exiles in Sweden, to make sure they do not engage in political or military plots against Turkey.
Third, it might be time for neither carrot nor stick, but for something that has been a long time coming: a simple parting of the ways. A number of NATO members have been angered by Erdogan’s attacks on them as “Nazis”; they are tired of his antics; his trying to block Sweden and Finland from membership should be the last straw. Now is the time to end permanently the problem of Erdogan’s Turkey in NATO, by calling an extraordinary meeting of NATO to discuss ending Turkey’s membership in the defense pact. It could be pointed out that Turkey no longer satisfies the requirement that it be a “functioning democracy” and will not do so as long as the authoritarian, autocratic, despotic Erdogan, sitting in his 1,150-room White Palace (Ak Saray), continues to keep so many of his political enemies locked up and the “country’s free press” has become a joke. Turkey is not a “functioning democracy,” but a “despotism-plus-elections.” For NATO, that won’t do.
Furthermore, the 15 million Kurds in Turkey have been subjected to severe mistreatment. Violence has been widely reported against ordinary Kurdish citizens and the headquarters and branches of the pro-Kurdish rights Peoples’ Democratic Party have been attacked by mobs. The European Court of Human Rights and many other international human rights organizations have condemned Turkey for thousands of human rights abuses against Kurds. Many judgments are related to systematic executions of civilians, torture, forced displacements, destroyed villages, arbitrary arrests, and murdered and disappeared journalists, activists, and politicians. The use of the Kurdish language is forbidden in schools; officials who use Kurdish have been given long prison sentences. Can the treatment of Turkey’s Kurdish minority be considered to meet NATO’s requirement that “minorities be treated fairly”? Absolutely not.
Now the issue is squarely before NATO. Choose between A) Turkey stays in NATO, while Sweden and Finland are kept out and B) Sweden and Finland are admitted to NATO, and Turkey is expelled. How hard a choice is that?
DR. STEVE TURLEY REPORTS: Turkey is blocking Sweden and Finland from joining NATO all as the globalist world crumbles with the rise of civilization states! We’re going to look at Turkey’s opposition to NATO expansion, we’re going to see how even Sweden and Finland are putting some brakes on their membership, and stick with me to the very end of this video when I’ll show you how the rise of civilization states explains the tensions between Turkey and NATO; you are NOT going to want to miss this!
Donald Trump doubled down Sunday on hard-line campaign pledges to impose trade tariffs and carry out mass deportations, while dangling the idea that the United States could withdraw from NATO.
