Ukraine war: Russia warns West of 'unpredictable consequences'

Moscow formally warns of "unpredictable consequences" if the US and allies keep supplying weapons to Ukraine

Read more at: Ukraine war latest news: Russia warns West of 'unpredictable consequences' - BBC News

USA: America is falling apart at the seams -by David Brooks

In June a statistic floated across my desk that startled me. In 2020, the number of miles Americans drove fell 13% because of the pandemic, but the number of traffic deaths rose 7%.

I couldn’t figure it out. Why would Americans be driving so much more recklessly during the pandemic? But then in the first half of 2021, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, motor vehicle deaths were up 18.4% even over 2020. Contributing factors, according to the agency, included driving under the influence, speeding and failure to wear a seat belt.

Why are so many Americans driving irresponsibly?

While gloomy numbers like these were rattling around in my brain, a Substack article from Matthew Yglesias hit my inbox this week. It was titled “All Kinds of Bad Behavior Is on the Rise.” Not only is reckless driving on the rise, Yglesias pointed out, but the number of altercations on airplanes has exploded, the murder rate is surging in cities, drug overdoses are increasing, Americans are drinking more, nurses say patients are getting more abusive, and so on and so on.

Read more at: David Brooks: America is falling apart at the seams | Commentary | myheraldreview.com

Afghanistan: After 18 bloody years, U.S. signs deal to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan. It's not over yet

With the exception of the wars with American Indians from 1788-1890, the Afghan war has been America’s longest. For the Afghans, the war stretches back four decades to the Soviet invasion and the internecine fighting that followed Moscow’s withdrawal in 1988. Estimates of the U.S. cost of the war range widely because there is no uniform way the White House or Congress tallies or allocates the money. One estimate puts it at about $1 trillion while another puts it at $2 trillion. But neither of those numbers include future interest on debt incurred to pay for the wars, estimated by one researcher at an additional $7.9 trillion by the 2050s. Nor does it cover the cost to the Department of Veterans Affairs for caring for injured U.S. veterans, including tens of thousands who have suffered traumatic brain injuries.

Said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Doha for the ceremony: “The future of Afghanistan is for Afghans to determine. The U.S.-Taliban deal creates the conditions for Afghans to do just that.”  On Friday, Donald Trump said, “If the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home.”

Just getting the Taliban to the table with the nation’s leaders was a difficult step. The Taliban have rejected the legitimacy of the Kabul government, calling it a “puppet regime” that they would not negotiate with. On Friday, however, Taliban leaders were taking a victory lap over the certainty of the signing in Doha. The Taliban has agreed to break off all ties to international terror groups, including al Queda, whose attacks on the United States in 2001 spurred the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, which, at the time was controlled by the Taliban. But it has not agreed to any adjustment of its ultra-strict interpretation of Islam, profound oppression of women and girls, and harsh punishments of both women and men for the pettiest of offenses. 

The United States had a choice in 2001. It could have gone into Afghanistan and done what was needed to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and kneecap al Qaeda, then bring the troops home. Instead, lives and treasure were poured into a fight that generals and neoconservative politicians said the U.S. could win and historians warned it couldn’t. Has the lesson been learned? Rather doubtful.

Read more at: After 18 bloody years, U.S. signs deal to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan. It's not over yet

The Philippines: World War 2: They Fought and Died for America. Then America Turned Its Back - by Allison Griner

Patrick Ganio had lived to see his country invaded, its defenses smashed, and his comrades fall on the battlefield. But he had lived, and that was no small feat – not after the Allied surrender and the torturous march that followed, 60 miles inland from their defeat on the Bataan peninsula, all the way to the Japanese prisoner-of-war camps. Battered, wounded and starving, the soldiers who stumbled along the way were swiftly dispatched, run through with the blade of a Japanese bayonet. There would be no slowing down. To falter meant certain death. 

Still, Ganio had survived. In a war that claimed nearly 57,000 Filipino soldiers and untold numbers of civilians, Ganio lived to see the dawn of the Philippine liberation. He was freed, allowed to go home to his family and rejoin the fight on behalf of the Philippine resistance. By 1945, three years of Japanese occupation were at a close, and the end of World War II was mere months away. All it would take would be one final push to effectively expel the Japanese Army from the Philippine Islands.

That’s how Ganio found himself once again in the battlefield, this time pinched between two mountain ranges on the rugged slopes of Balete Pass. Sniper fire whistled down from the peaks, where enemy fighters had barricaded themselves inside caves and pillbox bunkers. Control over Luzon, the Philippines’ main island, was at stake.

Read more at: They Fought and Died for America. Then America Turned Its Back.

EU-US Relations: Trump Administration simply can not be trusted by its Allies anymore

Last December, Trump abruptly announced that he was pulling all U.S. troops out of Syria, prompting Defense Secretary James N. Mattis to resign in protest. “You’re going to have to get the next secretary of Defense to lose to ISIS,” he told Trump.

This summer, the president blocked nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine, a U.S. ally fighting a Russian-backed insurgency. House Democrats are examining whether he withheld the arms to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on a potential 2020 political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

In Europe, Trump has repeatedly questioned why the United States is still in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the 29-nation defense alliance that has protected the continent for 70 years — and which rushed to America’s aid in Afghanistan after 9/11.

Trump even questioned the U.S. military alliance with Japan, complaining that Japan exports cars to the United States but isn’t required to defend our shores.

“Our allies take advantage of us far greater than our enemies,” he said en route to a recent summit — with our allies.
 
In reference to the above, it must also be noted that the US has been one of the strongest advocates in promoting the admission of former Eastern European Bloc countries for membership in the EU.

Unfortunately many of these Eastern European countries admitted as members into the EU, including Poland and Hungary, have shown a complete disrespect for the impartiality of their Judicial system, freedom of the Press,, and other democratic institutions, to which they, as members of the EU must subscribe to. Many of these Eastern bloc countries have also become strongholds for nationalist and populist movements.

Yes indeed, it is high time the EU Commission starts putting  "their money where their mouth is" and stop "pussy footing" around with the US and start developing its own independent course,. in conjunction, and in unity with all the member states re: foreign policy, military development and international policy.

The lesson we should learn from all this probably is from what German Chancellor Angela Merkel said last year: "Europe can no longer rely on the United States as a partner".

EU-Digest 

USA - Freedom of the Press: Trump Allies Target Journalists Over Coverage Deemed Hostile to White House - by Kenneth P. Vogel and Jeremy W. Peters

A loose network of conservative operatives allied with the White House is pursuing what they say will be an aggressive operation to discredit news organizations deemed hostile to President Trump by publicizing damaging information about journalists.

It is the latest step in a long-running effort by Mr. Trump and his allies to undercut the influence of legitimate news reporting. Four people familiar with the operation described how it works, asserting that it has compiled dossiers of potentially embarrassing social media posts and other public statements by hundreds of people who work at some of the country’s most prominent news organizations.

The group has already released information about journalists at CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times — three outlets that have aggressively investigated Mr. Trump — in response to reporting or commentary that the White House’s allies consider unfair to Mr. Trump and his team or harmful to his re-election prospects.

Operatives have closely examined more than a decade’s worth of public posts and statements by journalists, the people familiar with the operation said. Only a fraction of what the network claims to have uncovered has been made public, the people said, with more to be disclosed as the 2020 election heats up. The research is said to extend to members of journalists’ families who are active in politics, as well as liberal activists and other political opponents of the president.

It is not possible to independently assess the claims about the quantity or potential significance of the material the pro-Trump network has assembled. Some involved in the operation have histories of bluster and exaggeration. And those willing to describe its techniques and goals may be trying to intimidate journalists or their employers.

It is clear from the cases to date that among the central players in the operation is Arthur Schwartz, a combative 47-year-old conservative consultant who is a friend and informal adviser to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son. Mr. Schwartz has worked with some of the right’s most aggressive operatives, including the former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon.

Read more at: Trump Allies Target Journalists Over Coverage Deemed Hostile to White House - The New York Times: 

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USA: The Careless Superpower

President Donald Trump has made the United States into an unreliable ally, a loose cannon on turbulent terrain, and a careless superpower—careless in both senses of the word, meaning reckless and without care, oblivious to the consequences of its conduct. 

Four incidents, just this past week, clinch the case. First, and most notorious, was Trump’s comment, during a state visit by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, about the war in Afghanistan. “If I wanted to win that war,” Trump said, “Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the earth.” He added, “I could win that war in a week. I just don’t want to kill 10 million people.” 

On an obvious level, the remark was merely stupid and callous. On a deeper level, it reflects a profound ignorance about war in general and the war in Afghanistan in particular—and should give ulcers to the leader of any country that depends on the U.S. for its security. 

“This is a bad regime,” Pompeo said. The recent back-and-forth, involving seized tankers and shot-down drones, is happening not because of Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and his imposition of sanctions, but rather “because the theocracy, the leadership in Iran, their revolutionary zeal to conduct terror around the world, for now four decades, continues.” He added, “I am ultimately convinced that the Iranian people will get the leadership behavior that they so richly deserve.” 

If anyone still needed proof that regime change is the true policy of the Trump administration—or at least of its top diplomat—there it was. 

As long as Pompeo’s message is regime-change-or-nothing (and as long as Trump says nothing to contradict this), the Iranians will have no incentive to return to the talks, and EU nations will keep seeking ways to circumvent Washington’s policies. Allies are good to have in wars and diplomatic confrontations; by alienating them, Trump and Pompeo are thus weakening their own position.

Read more at: Trump’s Afghanistan remarks were one more example of his utter carelessness.

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Iran-US relations:Trump Blew Up The Iran Nuclear Deal. Now He Wants Allies To Help Him Get An Iran Nuclear Deal. - by S.V. Date

 Having estranged allies with threats and false accusations, President Donald Trump now faces dealing with the latest crisis he has generated, Iran, without any allies at all.

Trump prepares to meet Thursday and Friday with leaders of the world’s largest industrial economies at the G-20 summit in Japan with the idea, according to the White House, of gaining their cooperation in lowering tensions with Iran. “This is a chance for the president to engage with a number of different international leaders, among our closest partners and allies, to obtain their support and to have discussions about how we can encourage Iran to enter into negotiations,” a senior administration official said this week on condition of anonymity.

Read moreTrump Blew Up The Iran Nuclear Deal. Now He Wants Allies To Help Him Get An Iran Nuclear Deal. | HuffPost

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Employment Opportunities in Saudi Arabia: an ally of the US and the EU in the Middle East - by Everton Gayle

The job may also involve amputations for those convicted of lesser offences, the advert said, and no special qualifications are needed.

According to Saudi Arabia’s official press agency, the country beheaded its 85th victim on Sunday. This compares with more than 90 for the whole of last year, according to an Amnesty International report on the death penalty in 2014.

Most were executed for murder but 38 had committed drug offences. Half were from Saudi Arabia and the others were from Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, India, Indonesia, Burma, Chad, Eritrea, the Philippines and Sudan.

Diplomats have put the increase in the number of executions down to more judges being appointed, allowing for a backlog of appeal cases to be heard.

A downloadable PDF form for the job says the successful applicants would be paid at the lower end of the civil service pay scale.

Read more: Wanted: Saudi Arabia seeks eight executioners as beheadings soar | euronews, world news