Fox urges arms supplies for Ukraine
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21 February 2015
Dr Fox warned that the credibility of the entire Nato alliance was at stake as the Russian-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine had raised the "shadow of conflict" in Europe for the first time since the end of the Cold War.
He said it was essential that the government in Kiev had the means to defend itself against the separatists who had used state-of-the-art Russian weapons systems to overrun the key town of Debaltseve despite a ceasefire brokered by Germany and France.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry for talks in London, stressed the need to maintain "US-European alignment" in the face of "continued aggression" by Russia.
Mr Kerry said Russia's conduct was "simply unacceptable" and indicated that the US would be pressing for further sanctions in the coming days.
"Russia has engaged in an absolutely brazen and cynical process over these last days. We know to a certainty what Russia has been providing to the separatists, how Russia is involved with the separatists," he told reporters.
"This is behaviour that is completely counter to everything that the global community has worked to achieve and to put in place ever since World War II."
However, Dr Fox - who remains an influential figure in Conservative Party circles - said the West needed to go further and provide arms and other military equipment to the hard-pressed Ukrainian forces.
"Specifically what we should be giving them is encrypted communications because at the moment the old systems that they are using make them a sitting target for the Russians whose technology is much bigger," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
"Secondly, they need anti-tank weapons because the Russians are using new, better-armoured vehicles against which the Ukrainians have no defence. Thirdly they need UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) for targeting.
"We should be giving them the weapons they need to defend themselves against an external threat. This is about their territorial integrity."
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Britain and other European powers have so far drawn back from arming Kiev, fearing it would simply fuel the conflict, although US president Barack Obama has indicated he would consider supplying weapons to Ukraine if the Russians do not pull back.
Dr Fox echoed a warning by current Defence Secretary Michael Fallon that Russian president Vladimir Putin could now use the same tactics to destabilise the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - which, unlike Ukraine, are members of Nato - unless the alliance showed it was prepared to stand up to him.
"It has actually brought the shadow of conflict to the European continent, certainly for the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall. This is a very serious issue. It is also about the credibility of Nato and the Western alliance. I think the defence of the Baltic, for example, begins in Ukraine," Dr Fox said.
"Here is an alliance where only four of its members meet its defence obligations in terms of spending. They all want to have the insurance policy but they don't want to pay the premiums.
"I think that we now need to examine exactly what Nato is going to be doing in this crisis, what its credibility is.
"Will we now step up to the mark, will we put a military presence in the Baltic states, beef up the Baltic air patrols and recognise that we are getting close to a position where Russia is now going threaten Nato in its own territory?"
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The foundation launched by former President Bill Clinton more than a decade ago has battled HIV and AIDS in Africa, educated millions of children and fed the poor and hungry around the globe. It also has the potential to become a political risk for Hillary Rodham Clinton as she moves toward a second presidential campaign....
Решение США по поставкам оружия Украине и санкциям против России будет принято в ближайшие дни
Газета.Ru Администрация президента США Барака Обамы в течение нескольких дней примет решение по дальнейшим действиям в связи с конфликтом на Украине, передает Agence France-Presse. Как заявил госсекретарь Джон Керри, американские власти рассматривают введение новых ... и другие » |
Yesterday’s live coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here. An archive of our liveblogs can be found here. For an overview and analysis of this developing story see our latest podcast.
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For links to individual updates click on the timestamps.
For the latest summary of evidence surrounding the shooting down of flight MH17 see our separate article: Evidence Review: Who Shot Down MH17?
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 BBC Russian |
Взрыв во время шествия в Харькове: трое погибших
BBC Russian Три человека погибли и более 10 получили ранения в результате взрыва на демонстрации сторонников единства Украины, которая проходила в Харькове. Об этом сообщает пресс-служба прокуратуры Харькова, опираясь на предварительные данные. По данным прокуратуры, два ... В Харькове при взрыве погибли два человека, около 10 пострадалиРоссийская Газета Служба безопасности Украины заявила о задержании подозреваемых в совершении теракта в ХарьковеРадиостанция ЭХО МОСКВЫ На марше в Харькове прогремел взрывРБК Газета.Ru -РИА Новости -Комсомольская правда Все похожие статьи: 274 » |
Exchange kicks off process to implement peace agreement
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Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebels exchange dozens of prisoners in east Ukraine late on Saturday evening near Luhansk, in the village of Zholobok. The exchange is one of the first moves to implement the peace deal reached on 12 February in the Belarussian capital Minsk after the French, German, Russian and Ukrainian leaders met Continue reading...
Both Sides Claim Weapons Pullout Ordered In Eastern Ukraineby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL)
The Ukrainian military and Russia-backed rebels each said they had given orders to pull back heavy weapons from the front line in eastern Ukraine in accordance with the recent cease-fire agreement. But each also continued to accuse the other of violations of the truce as reports of shelling persisted.
Police said suspects have been detained on suspicion of carrying out the attack, which struck a demonstration in Kharkiv marking the first anniversary of the overthrow of former President Viktor Yanukovych.
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"The EU and Member States lacked good intelligence-gathering capacity on the ground. The lack of an integrated and co-ordinated foreign policy was also evident." - The EU and Russia: before and beyond the crisis in UkraineThe EU and Russia:before and beyondthe crisis in Ukraine SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS p. 96: 22. The first step is for the EU to distinguish between the legitimate and theillegitimate security interests of Russia. Moscow has a right not to ...
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» DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Bullying Vladimir Putin feeds on West's weakness - Daily Mail 21/02/15 15:45 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
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Online video purports to show Islamic extremists seizing armored vehicles, dozens of weapons from Iraq's military
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AP Photo/Petr David Josek
NATO officials say they believe Russia’s aggressive tactics may not be limited to just Ukraine, considering that countries bordering Ukraine were once Soviet or Soviet satellite states.
General Sir Adrian Bradshaw, NATO’s deputy commander of forces in Europe, told an audience at the Royal United Services Institute that Moscow’s ambitions are “an obvious existential threat to our whole being.” He also said NATO must develop plans “in order to convince Russia, or any other state adversary, that any attack on one NATO member will inevitably lead them into a conflict with the whole alliance.”
After Putin officially annexed Crimea from Ukraine last March, NATO and the EU jumped to Ukraine’s defense, even though Russian diplomats made veiled threats against the Baltics. One diplomat told the United Nations that Moscow is “concerned” over treatment of ethnic Russian speakers in Estonia. The Russian ambassador to Latvia told a Russian radio station that Moscow is ready to grant citizenship to any ethnic Russians in the country. In September, Konstantin Dolgov, Russia’s foreign ministry chief monitor of human rights overseas, said Russia’s top priority is to protect ethnic Russians all over the world. NATO also intercepted numerous Russian aircraft and ships in 2014, a huge jump from 2013.
Putin also organized tens of thousands of Russian troops and equipment along the Russia-Ukraine border. The Telegraph reports:
He [Bradshaw] said Russia had shown last year it could generate large conventional forces at short notice for snap exercises along its borders. There was a danger these could be used “not only for intimidation and coercion but potentially to seize Nato territory, after which the threat of escalation might be used to prevent re-establishment of territorial integrity. This use of so called escalation dominance was of course a classic Soviet technique.”He went on to say that “the threat from Russia, together with the risk it brings of a miscalculation resulting in a strategic conflict, however unlikely we see it as being right now, represents an existential threat to our whole being.”
Poland recently announced a massive upgrade to their military in response to the crisis in Ukraine. The government will invest over $42 billion on military equipment and training to strengthen their forces. NATO member Poland, the country ripped apart by the Nazis and Soviet Union’s Red Army, no longer believes “peace in Europe is a given.” The $42 billion upgrade is the first in a decade,which includes “a missile shield and anti-aircraft systems as well as combat drones.” If the government purchases cruise missiles, then the air force can “attack targets in Russia without having to leave their own air force base.” Warsaw admits the crisis in Ukraine is the reason why the country needs to boost their defenses.
“The key to a political and military solution lies in Moscow,” announced President Bronislaw Komorowski. “The possibility of a lasting peace still isn’t close.”
Lithuania, a member of the Baltics, is one of the only outspoken allies of Ukraine, sending troops and weapons to combat Russian forces. President Dalia Grybauskaite called Russia a “terrorist state” and urged the EU to do more to help Ukraine.
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A federal judge appointed by President Obama has blocked detainment of Central American women and children on the U.S.-Mexico border who allege they are seeking asylum. The judge enjoined the government “from detaining class members for the purpose of deterring future immigration to the United States and from considering deterrence of such immigration as a factor in such custody determinations.”
The judge issued his preliminary injunction order on Friday, ruling that “[t]he policy causes irreparable harm to mothers and children seeking asylum.” The judge, James E. Boasberg, serves on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
A lawsuit was filed in December 2014 by ten mothers from Central America. They crossed the border in the fall of 2014. The women did not have documentation and were detained by agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law, sued U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, and officials in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department. The detainees were allegedly kept for several weeks or months at facilities in Karnes City and Dilley, Texas, and Berks County, Pennsylvania.
The judge issued a 40-page opinion which included a finding that this detainment was inappropriate and was done “to send a message that such immigrants, coming en masse, are unwelcome.”
The jurist rejected the government’s claims that the detainment was necessary to national security. He also opined that government officials have “presented little empirical evidence, moreover, that their detention policy even achieves its only desired effect – i.e., that it actually deters potential immigrants from Central America.”
Judy Rabinovitz, Deputy Director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, issued a statement saying “The court held that it was illegal to detain families based on deterrence. It made clear that the government cannot deprive individuals of their liberty merely to send a message to others.” She continued, “[t]his ruling means that the government cannot continue to lock up families without an individualized determination that they pose a danger or flight risk that requires their detention.”
Breitbart News reported last June that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Johnson issued an op-ed warning in Spanish-language news outlets to the parents of children illegally crossing the border. He wrote: “To the parents of these children I have one simple message: Sending your child to travel illegally into the United States is not the solution.” He continued:
“Rather, under current U.S. laws and policies, anyone who is apprehended crossing our border illegally is a priority for deportation, regardless of age. That means that if your child is caught crossing the border illegally, he or she will be charged with violating United States immigration laws, and placed in deportation proceedings – a situation no one wants,” he wrote. “The document issued to your child is not a ‘permiso,’ but a Notice To Appear in a deportation proceeding before an immigration judge.”
The Judge who issued the injunction on Friday received media attention in April of 2012 for his controversial ruling blocking public viewing access of a deceased Osama Bin Laden. Judge Boasberg also serves on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. He was appointed to that position by Chief Justice John G. Roberts in 2014.
A status conference on the case is scheduled for March 6, 2015 at 10:00 a.m.
Lana Shadwick is a contributing writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. Follow her on Twitter@LanaShadwick2.
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Democrats acknowledged in the party’s autopsy report of the 2014 midterm election that the party must win back white voters, particularly white Southern voters, after getting walloped in midterm elections that saw Republicans regain control of Congress.
Amnesty legislation is not mentioned in the DNC autopsy report though opposition to President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty threat helped Republicans take back control of Congress. Obama even delayed his executive amnesty until after the midterms after Democrat incumbents in red states begged him to give them a better chance of winning reelection. One poll of the midterm electorate found that 75 percent of voters rejected Obama’s executive amnesty and 80 percent did not want foreign workers taking jobs over Americans and legal immigrants already here.
The report, put together by a task force created after the 2014 midterms, was released during the Democratic National Committee’s Winter Meeting on Saturday. Democrats also conceded in it that because the party is seen as a collection of special interest groups, Democrats have also “suffered devastating losses at all levels of government since 2008 including,” 69 House Seats, 13 Senate Seats, 901 State Legislative Seats, 30 State Legislative Chambers, and 11 Governorships.
Nowhere have the party’s losses been more “devastating” than in the South. After Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) lost her reelection bid to Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) last year, the New York Times, in an article title, “Demise of the Southern Democrat is Now Nearly Complete,” observed that “in a region stretching from the high plains of Texas to the Atlantic coast of the Carolinas, Republicans control not only every Senate seat, but every governor’s mansion and every state legislative body.”
“In order to win elections, the Democratic Party must reclaim voters that we’ve lost including white Southern voters, excite key constituencies such as African American women and Latinas, and mobilize the broadest coalition of voters possible to not only recapture state houses but also Congress,” the report concludes. “In order to better understand how to bring this large coalition together, the Task Force recommends — in tandem with the National Narrative Project — that the DNC’s research delve more deeply into the barriers that keep people from identifying with, and supporting, Democratic candidates. This also includes working to better understand drop off and independent voters.”
But issues that “excite” key constituencies like amnesty legislation may ultimately turn off white voters even more. Gallup polling has found, for instance, that Obama’s approval ratings with working-class whites has hit a record low after the midterms while white voters are, on the whole, aligning themselves more solidly with Republicans. But Americans opposed to illegal immigration may not feel completely at home in a GOP that called for comprehensive amnesty legislation in its autopsy report of the 2012 presidential election.
To combat the “current GOP stranglehold on state houses, governorships, and congressional seats,” Democrats must, according to the report, “develop – and accelerate – programs at the state and local level to ensure that the next redistricting and reapportionment projects encourage Democratic growth” so Democrats can “reclaim state houses, win governorships, take back the House and Senate and protect the White House.” More detailed recommendations are expected in another report in May of 2015.
The report acknowledges that Democrats have a branding problem and the party’s lack of a “cohesive narrative” impedes the party from making more inroads with voters.
“No area of this review caused more debate or solicited more ideas than the belief that there is no single narrative that unites all of our work and the issues that we care about as a community of Democrats. It is strongly believed that the Democratic Party is loosely understood as a long list of policy statements and not as people with a common set of core values (fairness, equality, opportunity),” the report reads, acknowledging that Democrats are a collection of salad-bowl special-interest groups. “This lack of cohesive narrative impedes the party’s ability to develop and maintain a lifelong dialogue and partnership with voters.”
The report recommended creating “a National Narrative Project to work with party leaders,activists, and messaging and narrative experts to create a strong values-based national narrativethat will engage, inspire and motivate voters to identify with and support Democrats.”
The report opens by quoting the late Rep. Barbara Jordan (D-TX), but the late Texas Democrat’s views on immigration may be more reflective of the party’s problems with working-class white voters and inability to find that “cohesive” national narrative. In Congress, Democrats have been united in putting Obama’s executive amnesty over homeland security. They have united to filibuster a Homeland Security funding bill that would defund President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty while funding everything else.
Jordan, the late Texas Congresswoman who said that “deportation is crucial” for America’s immigration laws to be taken seriously, said that “it is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest.”
“Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave,” Jordan said during a Congressional hearing in the 1990s when she chaired the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. “The top priorities for detention and removal, of course, are criminal aliens. But for the system to be credible, people actually have to be deported at the end of the process.”
Perhaps because working-class Americans of al backgrounds are linking unchecked immigration to wage stagnation, a Paragon Insights poll recently found that a majority of Americans, including a majority of Hispanics, want tougher laws against employers illegally hiring illegal immigrants. A Galluppoll recently found that a majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the country’s immigration levels, and just seven percent of Americans even want more immigration.
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The Pope received a large group of pilgrims on Saturday from the southern Italian Diocese of Cassano all’Jonio, where he visited last June. During that visit, he had extremely harsh words for the members of the local Mafia, telling his hearers that the ‘ndrangheta—the Calabrese Mafia—is the “adoration of evil.”
Referring back to that visit, Pope Francis once again zeroed in on the Mafia Saturday, urging them to convert and insisting that no one can claim to be a Christian while participating in organized crime.
“Whoever loves Jesus,” the Pope said, “whoever hears Him and receives His Word and sincerely responds to the Lord’s call cannot in any way give himself over to the works of evil. Either Jesus or evil!”
Though a great advocate of dialogue, Francis recognized that dialogue has its limits. “Jesus did not take devils to lunch,” he said. “He cast them out, because they were evil. Either Jesus or evil!”
The Pope repeatedly stated that a choice has to be made between good and evil, asserting that one cannot have it both ways. He seemed especially interested in underscoring the absolute incompatibility of Christian faith and criminal activity.
“You cannot call yourselves Christians and violate the dignity of persons,” he said. “Those who belong to the Christian community cannot plan and carry out acts of violence against others.”
Francis also said that external gestures of religiosity that are not accompanied by real and public conversion “are not enough to be considered in communion with Christ and his Church.” Likewise, these external gestures “are not enough to qualify people as believers” who “have chosen illegality as their lifestyle.”
The Pope also addressed Mafia members directly, appealing to them to convert before it’s too late.
“To those who have chosen the path of evil and are affiliated to criminal organizations,” he said, “I renew my urgent invitation to conversion. Open your hearts to the Lord! Open your hearts to the Lord!”
To be real, however, this conversion must be public, the Pope said.
“The Lord is waiting for you, and the Church welcomes you,” he said, on condition that your change of life is evident and public, “just as your choice to serve evil was public.”
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter @tdwilliamsrome.
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On Friday’s broadcast of PBS’s “NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks weighed in on the argument the Obama administration has repeatedly made on whether or not to address Islamic component of ISIS and instead calling it a perversion of Islam.
Brooks questioned the wisdom of the interpreting religion and suggested that the Obama administration is viewing this through a secular prism.
“Well, are we allowed to called the Islamic State Islamic?” Brooks said. “They are. In some sense, it’s a stupid debate, because is it true Islam, is it perverted Islam? The fact is, religion is all interpretation. God doesn’t come down here and tell us exactly what he means. We have interpretations within Christianity, within Judaism and within Islam. If you call yourself a Muslim, you’re a Muslim. They have different interpretations, but it’s all interpretations. So, one is a perverted or a sick form of Islam. A lot of people fortunately have a much more peaceful form of Islam, but it’s all an interpretation of a faith. What’s the real one? It’s all a matter of interpretation. I think they should probably call it Islamic extremism. It is Islamic extremism. The second, I think, and more important issue is how we diagnose the problem. And there are three elements to this sort of terrorism, as we just saw in the segment about that Egyptian young man.”
“First, there’s economic and political dysfunction,” he continued. “So that young man wanted to be a personal trainer and he couldn’t. So he was alienated from that and marginalized from society. But, second, there’s a spiritual ardor. A guy wants to be a hero. The guy wants to be seen as strong and a hero, like that young man. And, third, there’s theological conviction. And Islamic State has theology to it, real, substantive theology. We’re comfortable talking about the economics and the politics because we live in a secular society and we’re comfortable talking about that stuff. But if we don’t talk about the spiritual call that they feel and the theological content, then we’re missing the core of the thing. And if we’re going to fight it, you can’t just say we’re going to give you a higher standard of living. You don’t need to go to the Islamic State. That isn’t going to work. You have to have a spiritual, better alternative.”
Without acknowledging what motivates the religious aspect, Brooks said, is missing the point.
“I think it’s a perversion because they’re so inhumane,” Brooks added. “What’s the Pascal phrase, they try to be higher than the angels, they end up lower than the beast. And so that’s clearly what is happening to them. They have turned themselves into monsters. But there was lot of monstrosity in the wars of religion in the 15th century in Europe. They were certainly religious wars. And so I do think you have to take the religion seriously, that these people are — it’s not like they can’t get what we want. They want something they think is higher than what we want. Their souls are involved. And I’m saying you have to conceive of them as moving, as acting in a religious way. And you have to have religious alternatives. And they are driven by an end times ideology. They think there’s going to be some cataclysm battle and Mohammed will come down. And if you ignore that part of it, write it off as sort of marginal, that they are being produced by economic dysfunction, I just think you’re missing the main deal.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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McALLEN, Texas — According to a Texas border television station, when about 2,000 illegal aliens engage in a mass riot, yelling, overturning tents, and setting fires, it is only a “demonstration.”
“Approximately 2,000 federal inmates were involved in a demonstration at a prison facility in Willacy County,” begins the report by television station KGBT.
The riot took place on Friday at a private prison facility in the city of Raymondville, about 40 miles north of the Texas border with Mexico, as Breitbart Texas reported. The private facility is under contract with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and holds primarily illegal aliens, as well as other inmates facing federal charges. The facility can hold a total of around 2,900 detainees.
In their reporting of the riot, KGBT gave a detailed report about the massive mobilization needed to quell the rioters and mentioned that three local schools had been placed on lockdown as a response to the “demonstration.”
“Multiple agencies, including federal and state authorities, were called to secure the perimeter of the Willacy County Correctional Center, a privately owned prison contracted through the federal government,” KGBT staff reported.
The station then provided a detailed account of the rioting.
“Some inmates broke out of the housing area and made their way into the recreational yard prompting a lockdown of the prison. Some inmates were seen shaking the fence. Tear gas was used in an attempt to break up the disturbance…Small fires broke out in three of the units, and the Raymondville Fire Department is on scene for precautionary measures,” KGBT reported.
While the story is a chilling account of events, KGBT chose to minimize the seriousness of the situation by calling it a “demonstration,” rather than a prison riot by illegal aliens.
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Bolton, a leading voice in advancing public debate on U.S. foreign and national security policies, believes his new organization “will provide the necessary platform, resources, and leadership to demonstrate to the world that we will recognize American exceptionalism not only in rhetoric, but also in deeds.”
The Yale Law School graduate appeared on the show airing on Sirius XM Patriot Radio, channel 125, hosted by Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow and Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon. The not-for-profit 501(c)(4) organization, explained Bolton, “is intended to educate the public on the significance of the national security threats that we face around the world.”
The staunchly pro-American diplomat explained that the FASF was designed to help America avoid the mistake of electing a president who doesn’t care that much about America’s national security, as it did when electing Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. Bolton characterized Obama as a subscriber to the notion that “America’s strength and success in the world is part of the problem, not part of the solution.”
Bolton also heads up the John Bolton PAC and Bolton SuperPACs, which Bannon referred to as “enormously successful in the 2014 election in actually getting national security into that entire debate.” According to a release from the foundation on Thursday, the PACs raised a combined amount of $7.5 million and made contributions of almost $500,000 to Republican candidates who are strong on national security policies.
The foundation’s goals are more educationally oriented than the usual role of PACs, explained the former Ambassador. Americans are not going to get real information or analysis about the attacks in Paris, about Islamic terrorism, the beheading of Christians by ISIS, etc. from the administration or the media. The FASF will shed light and bring to the surface these kinds of issues, he explained.
Ambassador Bolton’s aim is to make National Security issues one of the top two or three issues in the upcoming 2016 election. He strongly believes that Barack Obama has done his best to marginalize the discussion, and the Foundation’s mission will be to elevate it. “Getting people ready for the 2016 debate is a critical function,” he maintains.
Bolton agreed with Marlow, who suggested that it is “surreal” and a “bit of a regression… that we have to actually make a case to the American people that it is beneficial that we have a strong America.”
Bolton attributes this development in “substantial part to President Obama.” He noted that unlike president’s dating all the way back to FDR after Pearl Harbor, “Obama doesn’t wake up in the morning with his very first thoughts thinking ‘What threats does America face in the world today?’” Bolton asserts that “he doesn’t believe that American strength in the world is beneficial to protecting our way of life here at home. He really is an isolationist.”
Blame can also be cast on the Republicans, he explained, for not doing their job as the opposition. Republicans failed to explain to citizens that “not talking about foreign threats and challenges” doesn’t make it easier to resolve the problems abroad; it makes it more difficult.
The ambassador predicts a series of threats to the United States over the next couple years. Because America’s enemies know that Obama is going to be in office only two more years and his successor may prove to be more formidable, “this is the time to do it,” he argues.
A run in 2016, to correct the Obama mistakes on national security and reopen the debate on these issues, may be in the cards for the former ambassador. He and Bannon agreed that the American people, unlike the way they are often portrayed, crave the discussion and care deeply about foreign policy issues.
Obama’s snuggling up to Iran, whom Bolton refers to as the “main banker” for thirty five years of both Shia and Sunni terrorist attacks, may lead to a nuclear armed Iran and destabilize the Middle-East. Moreover, Bolton would not put it past the Iranians to shuffle one of the nukes off to a terrorist group to sail into an American harbor.
Bolton added that he doesn’t blame Prime Minister of Israel Bibi Netanyahu in coming over to speak with Congress and circumventing the president next week, because “Israel faces a legitimately-labeled existential threat,” he said. Bolton described Obama’s behavior of objecting to the meeting as that of a “petulant high school student.”
Marlow pointed out that in an AP article on Friday night about Obama’s response to Netanyahu coming to speak with Congress, Obama astonishingly boasted that a nuclear deal with Iran will be his signature accomplishment for the next two years. Bolton responded that this “puts Obama in a category worse than Neville Chamberlain.” He asserted that Chamberlain didn’t consider that his appeasing Germany in the leadup to WW II was a stabilizing factor. Obama’s belief, on the other hand, that allowing Iran to be a nuclear world leader will help stabilize the Middle-East is “ludicrous,” Bolton said.
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