Donald Trump and maga Republicans are enabling failed incompetent foriegn policy, They have fallen in Iran and cannot get up!

Trump’s extended ceasefire shows his desperation to exit his failed and illegal Iran war — but he doesn’t know how. Americans are endangered by Trump's inability to conduct a foreign policy that goes beyond threats and military force. Echo opinion published in the Philadelphia Inquirer by Trudy Rubin.

In 1966, the famous American psychologist Abraham Maslow came up with a description of a mental bias that became known as “Maslow’s hammer.”  “If the only tool you have is a hammer, I suppose it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail,” Maslow contended. Or, as some have reworded his theorem: When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

This is a good diagnosis for how Donald Trump has trapped us all in his unnecessary and illegal war with Tehran. A war from which he can’t find a good exit.

It also explains why he indefinitely extended an April 21, ceasefire deadline with Iran, announced on Tuesday evening, even though he’d just threatened to resume bombing if there was no nuclear deal by then.  (Like Douglas Shields from Pittsburg wrote in a letter to the New York Times: "seen more stable direction from a weather vane — and at least it knows which way the wind is blowing. At this point, the only consistent policy is inconsistency, and even that seems subject to revision.") 

As Maslow would no doubt have diagnosed, Trump is a bully whose modus operandi is to browbeat, insult, and threaten opponents and allies (especially those who respond with timidity). He is impatient and seeks quick hits and big headlines.

Overseas, the military hammer has become his preferred tactic so long as the strike is quick, as in Venezuela and the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities in June.

But, when an adversary is tougher and the fight more complex, with a strategy that outflanks his erratic tactics, POTUS is flummoxed. The illegal Iran war has laid bare how Trump’s strategic and cognitive weaknesses endanger Americans, as well as the entire world.

“Trump did not know what he was getting into,” I was told by Ryan Crocker, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, Syria, and Lebanon, and one of the smartest Mideast analysts in the field. “This is the first real foreign policy crisis he has faced, and he has no idea what he is doing. It’s scary 😱😰😧.”

POTUS swallowed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pitch that Iran’s Islamic regime could quickly be toppled by U.S.-Israeli bombing and replaced by more malleable secular leaders. 

CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) Director John Ratcliffe called such regime-change scenarios “farcical,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio labeled them “bullshit,” according to a New York Times investigation. But given his lack of knowledge about Iran and his conviction that his instincts trump expertise, the president picked up his military hammer.

Trump underestimated Iranian leaders’ tolerance for pain and determination to salvage their Islamic republic (even though their numbers were decimated and their country’s economy was in shambles).

But, most importantly, said Crocker, Trump failed to foresee (even though he was warned) that the Iranians had a critical card to play: the closure of the Strait of Hormuz through which about 20% of the world’s energy resources flow. Iran had never tried to close the strait before, but U.S. and Israeli bombs convinced its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that this was a necessary option.

“Iran now knows they can close the strait,” Crocker said. “Every day that the strait is closed adds to the economic pain of the U.S., Europe, and Asia. This has terrible consequences globally. They have turned the Strait of Hormuz into the Strait of Iran.”

Even Trump, with his unfettered verbosity, has referred to it by that name.

Last week, Iran offered to reopen the strait, but made clear its military would still control traffic in and out and charge tolls to passing tankers. Unsatisfied with this unpleasant option, Trump ordered the U.S. Navy to blockade Iranian ports so its oil exports were also halted.

But, Iran’s current leaders are betting, probably correctly, that they can withstand that pain longer than Trump can, with his eye on rising gas prices and midterm elections. Tehran says it won’t return to talks until the U.S. blockade is lifted.

Faced with this standoff, and the choice whether to resume bombing or extend the ceasefire deadline again,👀 Trump blinked.

Let me be clear, I am glad he backed down. But it revealed his desperation to exit the mess he has made.

“Iran has won the first round,” Crocker contended. “This is not going well.”

Trump’s problem is that he now has only bad options to reopen the strait.



Some right-wing hawks are advocating that he pick up the hammer. Fox News’ Hugh Hewitt actually recommended Trump go “full Sherman,” recalling the famed Civil War general’s scorched-earth march to Atlanta, and proposing POTUS destroy all of Iran’s oil and energy infrastructure.

Not only would this be a war crime affecting civilians and a further blow to global energy prices, but it would be unlikely to move the survival-intent hard-line IRGC, which now appears to be running the show.

Moreover, the worst possible option — which would be totally insane — would be for Trump to launch a land war in Iran to try for real “regime change.”

Iran was not an immediate threat to the United States before Trump started this war, and even he knows that sinking into such a bloody quagmire would probably set him on the path to bipartisan impeachment.

The only way out, said Crocker, is to try to swap a simultaneous end to the U.S. blockade against Iran’s ports for a full Iranian opening of the strait. Ideally, this would mean no IRGC control of shipping or tolls on vessels entering or leaving.

“This will be harder for Trump to do now, when he is weaker,” Crocker said. Especially when the Iranians know he is eager for an offramp, after he extended the deadline.

“But it is pretty apparent to everyone, except Donald Trump,” Crocker added, “that he’s not going to bomb Iran out of anything. The only way he can leave [the war] and save face is to get back to the status quo ante on the Strait of Hormuz.”

As for a return to talks on eliminating Iran’s nuclear program, Crocker believes that “at some point we will go back to the table.” However, he noted, the nuclear deal negotiated by President Barack Obama — which would have halted Iran’s nuclear program for 15 years had Trump not withdrawn from it — took two years to complete.

For future negotiations to have a chance, Trump would have to abandon his “I win, you lose” approach to diplomacy. He would finally have to assemble and listen to an expert team instead of sending his ill-informed real estate buddy and son-in-law.

Hope springs eternal, but this hope requires a suspension of disbelief.

True, Trump is desperate to end his misbegotten Iran venture, but he seems to believe he is winning. On Truth (Fake❗ ) Social, he was posting New York Times clips from 2004, citing the top ratings of “The Last Season of My Apprentice Juggernaut.” In other words, how can such a winner be wrong❓

The best we can hope for is that fear of higher gas prices will keep Trump’s hammer in abeyance — and that he will find a way to negotiate the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, declare a fake victory, and bring the troops home.

Perhaps after this Iran debacle, the U.S. public will grasp the danger of leaving a one-tool 🔨president in charge of foreign policy and the nuclear button when they vote in November — and choose legislators who are willing and able to rein him in.

Strategists do not want to call World War Three what it is!

Illinois- Effingham Daily News echo opinion

Vladimir Putin is violating International Law ... no different than Adolf Hitler. Hundreds of innocent people are being killed every day with illegal weapons by the Russians.

Czar envy: Putin looking at tsarist-era weapons of liberation.

I applaud the actions taken to date, but it is not enough. We need to stop buying Russian oil. We also need to join with our allies to put in place a no fly zone. And if that is not effective then we need to commit military assets.
Yes, stopping the purchase of Russian oil will increase our cost of living. But is it cheaper to experience higher prices today or experience the costs of war and the cost of American lives tomorrow?

I was watching the World Wars three-part series on the History Channel and cannot believe the similarity between today and the Nazi rise to power. Putin is Hitler. But the question now is Biden our Churchill or is he our Chamberlain? And is the U.S. and NATO today walking down the same path Europe took prior to World War II?  Action is the lesser of two evils. Let’s save civilization by action today and not repeat history. (IMO: World War Three began in Syria.)

History taught us, that the world could have stopped Hitler, but did not do so, ... and today we can stop Putin!

Write or call your elected representatives today to urge they take action now!

Darrell Dunteman, Bushnell, IL

(I grew up near Shumway.)

Vladimir Putin: the 21st century evidence of reincarnation of Adolf Hitler?

And this....from The New York Times:

Ilya Matveev is the Russian political scientist who recently described the impact of the West’s sanctions on his country as “30 years of economic development thrown into the bin.”

Matveev is not exaggerating. Economists expect the Russian economy to contract by at least 15 percent of G.D.P. this year. Inflation is spiking. An exodus of Russian professionals is underway. Stories of shortages and long lines for basic consumer goods abound.

The U.S. and its allies have turned to sanctions as a way of taking action against Russia’s atrocities without direct military intervention. But to describe these sanctions as anything short of all-out economic warfare is euphemistic. Measures like these might be cloaked in the technocratic language of finance and economics, but the immiseration they cause is anything but abstract.

Nicholas Mulder is a historian at Cornell University and the author of the terrifyingly relevant new book “The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War.”

In it, Mulder focuses on the last time economic warfare was waged at the scale we’re witnessing today, the period between World War I and World War II. And the book’s central lesson is this: We ultimately don’t know what’s going to happen when sanctions of this magnitude collide with the ideologies, myths and political dynamics of a given country. They could persuade the targeted country to back down. But they could also make it so desperate that it becomes more aggressive or lashes out — as Germany and Japan did on the eve of World War II.

So this is a discussion about what kind of weapon sanctions are, whether they actually achieve their goals and how they might shape the future of the Russia-Ukraine conflict (IMO: aka "war") — and the world. We also explore how sanctions “weaponize inflation,” whether they could lead to Vladimir Putin’s downfall in Russia, the toll they have taken on the Russian economy, how the West can leverage its sanctions to help bring about an end to the war in Ukraine, whether a European energy embargo could backfire, how this economic war is destabilizing countries around the world, the humanitarian crisis U.S. sanctions are helping create in Afghanistan, and what a foreign policy that didn’t rely so heavily on sanctions could look like.

This episode is guest hosted by Rogé Karma, the staff editor for “The Ezra Klein Show.” Rogé has been with the show since July 2019, when it was based at Vox. He works closely with Ezra on everything related to the show, from editing to interview prep to guest selection. 

Listen to the whole conversation by following “The Ezra Klein Show” on Apple, Spotify, Google or wherever you get your podcasts. View a list of book recommendations from our guests here.

(A full transcript of the episode is available here.)

Maine Writer postscript- Ukrainians are fighting for all of Europe and World War Three began in 2015, when Vladimir Putin ordered Russia to intervene and invade in Syria. 

“You saw a guy with blood on his hands.” Killing the ISIS professor

Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, leader of the Islamic State, is dead. President Joe Biden announces the killing of the ISIS leader in Syria.

Echo report published in The Washington Post, written by Joby Warrick, Dan Lamothe, Matt Viser and Karoun Demirjian.

Last fall, a U.S. spy drone moved into position over a house on the edge of an olive grove in northwestern Syria, its camera straining for a glimpse of a bearded man who was said to live inside. 

Biden says ISIS leader is dead after U.S. operation

This man, who was sometimes called “the professor,” had lost a leg in war and rarely left his third-floor apartment. So the drone fixed its lens on the building’s rooftop terrace and waited.

Other intelligence assets with cameras and remote sensors joined the vigil, above and around the house, and eventually the effort was rewarded. On certain days, weather permitting, the man could be seen hobbling onto the terrace with a mat for his daily prayers. At other times he took along a towel and rinsed off in a rooftop shower. Occasionally he would venture outside for a short walk, or just to stand at the door for some fresh air.

The man’s physical disability stood out. He was missing his right leg. It matched precisely the description of the man who was the subject of the intensive search: Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, leader of the Islamic State.

With additional surveillance, U.S. intelligence analysts confirmed the identity. After a two-year manhunt, the elusive Qurayshi had been spotted, first by informants on the ground, and then that tip was confirmed by the drone’s telescopic lens. For U.S. officials involved in the search, two questions remained. One was how to kill or capture him while minimizing risk to U.S. forces and to the more than a dozen women and children who lived in the same building. The other: whether to strike quickly, or to wait and try to gather more information about Qurayshi’s far-flung network of underground terrorist cells.

In fact, the waiting, which ultimately stretched over several months, proved to be worthwhile, according to current and former U.S. and Middle Eastern intelligence officials who described details of the operation that ended the career of one of the world’s most-wanted terrorists. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss highly classified material.

“There was foot traffic: couriers and communication between cells,” said a former senior intelligence official briefed on the events. “They milked it, to collect as much data as they could. They had to see who he was talking to.”

With additional surveillance, U.S. intelligence analysts confirmed the identity. After a two-year manhunt, the elusive Qurayshi had been spotted, first by informants on the ground, and then that tip was confirmed by the drone’s telescopic lens. For U.S. officials involved in the search, two questions remained. One was how to kill or capture him while minimizing risk to U.S. forces and to the more than a dozen women and children who lived in the same building. The other: whether to strike quickly, or to wait and try to gather more information about Qurayshi’s far-flung network of underground terrorist cells.




The waiting, which ultimately stretched over several months, proved to be worthwhile, according to current and former U.S. and Middle Eastern intelligence officials who described details of the operation that ended the career of one of the world’s most-wanted terrorists. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss highly classified material.

“There was foot traffic: couriers and communication between cells,” said a former senior intelligence official briefed on the events. “They milked it, to collect as much data as they could. They had to see who he was talking to.”

The death of Qurayshi was announced by President Biden last week, at the conclusion of an operation in which U.S. Delta Force commandos surrounded the militant’s safe house, which U.S. officials say was rigged with a bomb that detonated as they closed in, killing Qurayshi and his family.

The leader of the Islamic State group who died during a U.S. raid overnight in northwest Syria was largely a mystery, with almost no known photos, never appearing in public.

This account, pieced together from interviews and briefings with officials from multiple U.S. agencies and one foreign government that provided assistance, offers new insight into the methodical search that led to Qurayshi, as well as the weeks of careful surveillance of the terrorist leader, which occurred at a time when the Islamic State was seeking to rebuild its network after six years of setbacks and defeats.

The picture of Qurayshi that emerged from the surveillance is that of a hands-on commander who was firmly in charge of his organization and harbored ambitions for reestablishing the self-declared Islamist caliphate that once controlled a territory the size of England. His intensive involvement in operational planning made Qurayshi especially dangerous, officials said. But over time, it also made him more vulnerable.

Documents reveal that the building’s second-floor dwelling was rented last March by a man who U.S. officials think was Abu Ahmed al-Halabi, a senior Qurayshi lieutenant. The deputy moved in, and two weeks later, he obtained a lease for the top floor as well. Sometime afterward, Qurayshi took up residence in the modest third-floor apartment with a rooftop view of fields and olive trees.

“He was very much in command,” a senior Biden administration official said of Qurayshi, a 45-year-old Iraqi who was born Amir Mohammed al-Mawli al-Salbi. He was known informally as Haji Abdullah, or to his disciples, as Professor Abdullah or simply “the professor,” because of his academic degrees and past role as one of the Islamic State’s official interpreters of sharia, or Islamic law. His lieutenants and couriers were “very active,” the official said, in “making sure that Haji Abdullah’s commands and orders were known.”

Last week’s raid on February 3, 2022, was the culmination of a two-year search that began with Qurayshi’s promotion to leader of the Islamic State. His elevation to “caliph” followed the death of his predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who killed himself with a bomb during a similar raid by U.S. commandos in October 2019. Baghdadi’s dramatic end occurred just 15 miles from the three-story cinder-block house in the farming community of Atma, Syria, that became Qurayshi’s headquarters and final residence.

To evade his many pursuers, the Islamic State leader adopted rigorous security protocols, U.S. officials said. In addition to banning cellphones and Internet connections, he relied on couriers — human messengers are regarded by the Islamic State as safer than cellphones and others electronic communications. But that arrangement ensured visits by strangers to Atma, a town on the Turkish border that’s far removed, physically and culturally, from the terrorist group’s traditional strongholds in the Euphrates Valley.

Many locals view the Islamic State with fear and disdain, and some, officials say, eventually cast a suspicious eye on the mysterious newcomer and his visitors.

The officials said Qurayshi — distinctive because of the leg, which CIA analysts think was amputated after injuries suffered in a 2015, airstrike — was sometimes spotted outside the house, or when taking brief strolls through the olive trees. Word eventually made its way to informants who work for the Syrian Democratic Forces, a mainly Kurdish militia group closely allied to the United States, current and former U.S. officials said. Intensive surveillance began immediately afterward, with Kurdish watchers following the arrivals and departures of armed men who trudged upstairs to meet with Qurayshi.

The surveillance was expanded to include some of the U.S. government’s most sophisticated remote cameras and sensors, most of them on drones operated by the Defense Department, the officials said. Over the following weeks, CIA “targeters” — analysts who sift through raw intelligence to piece together leads about terrorism suspects — devoted hundreds of work hours to the case, adding to efforts by other intelligence and defense analysts who kept watch over the house and neighborhood.

“We worked extensively with the intelligence community to develop a deep understanding of the people located at the building, and the pattern of life of all the occupants that were there,” a senior military official said at a briefing on Thursday.

Moreover, the effort eventually not only confirmed Qurayshi’s identity, officials said, but also touched off an agonizing debate over tactics: whether to launch a “standoff” airstrike that risked killing innocents, or to send U.S. commandos into a turbulent region of Syria controlled by a patchwork of armed groups that includes militants linked to al-Qaeda.

By late September. U.S. Special Forces teams had begun training for a raid on the house, which military planners thought was almost certain to feature booby traps designed to stop assailants. Those preparations entailed regular rehearsals with models, including a full-scale mock-up of the dwelling, two senior military officials closely involved with the operation said.

An airstrike against the house was considered but quickly ruled out, senior military officials said.

There were too many noncombatants,” including a family with children living on the first floor, a military official said.

The alternative, a long-range helicopter raid using commandos, was a “more risky proposition to U.S. forces,” the official added, “but the goal of the mission was to capture the leader of ISIS, gather what intelligence we could, and of course avoid any unnecessary civilian harm.”

On Dec. 20, the president met with his national security team to formally approve the operation against Qurayshi, officials said. The president asked about civilian casualties and whether the house might collapse if the terrorist leader detonated a bomb, potentially killing the families below. Military engineers studied the structure and concluded that it would not.

There appeared to be no cause for urgency in carrying out the raid, several officials said. In addition to the need for planning and training, there were practical considerations, such as weather and the lunar phase, a moonless night being the preferred choice for commando operations. In the meantime, constant monitoring allowed intelligence officials to expand their knowledge of Qurayshi’s underground network, which included dozens of cells scattered across Syria and Iraq.

Because of the intensity of the surveillance, U.S. officials were confident that they could “detect any attempt to leave” the house, the former senior intelligence official said. Such an attempt would in any case provide an opportunity for an airstrike away from the structure and its civilian occupants. The intervening weeks produced a trove of intelligence, the official said, as couriers were tracked and subsequently monitored as they met with contacts in other parts of Iraq and Syria. The flow of messengers to the house in Atma increased further after last month’s massive assault by Islamic State militants on a prison in al-Hasakah, in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria. U.S. officials said Qurayshi was heavily involved in planning for the attack on the prison.

“This guy was working it,” the former senior intelligence official said of Qurayshi, who oversaw the group as it carried out a steady stream of assassinations and bombings across Syria and Iraq. “You saw a guy with blood on his hands.”

By Feb. 1, military planners decided that conditions for a commando raid were nearly perfect. At an Oval Office meeting Biden was briefed on the final plans, and gave his approval. The next day — Feb. 2, at 5 p.m. Washington time, the president was called into the White House Situation Room to monitor the raid through a video connection to the Pentagon.

“It was very quiet and very tense,” a senior administration official said, recalling the mood in the room. “There was not a lot of talking.”

Contributing to the stress, officials said, was the knowledge that U.S. forces would be operating in hostile territory dominated by extremist groups. The commandos also were traveling into and out of airspace controlled by the Russian military. A decision was made to refrain from alerting Moscow ahead of time, and to rely instead on a deconfliction channel to defuse any problems.

By 1 a.m. local time on Feb. 3 — 6 p.m. Feb. 2 in Washington — helicopters carrying two dozen members of the elite force were hovering over the house in Atma. As the Delta team prepared to descend on ropes, Apache helicopter gunships, fighter jets and armed Reaper drones prowled the skies to watch for trouble.




The thrum of helicopter rotors woke neighbors, and people spilled out of their houses to see what was happening. Some described hearing a voice shouting Arabic commands over a loudspeaker.


“Whoever wants to preserve his soul, come out,” the voice said.


Men in body armor emerged from one of the helicopters and scurried down ropes onto the ground below. Using a bullhorn to announce themselves, they rounded up the family on the first floor — a man, a woman and several children — and led them away.


Qurayshi would neither surrender nor allow his family to escape. According to official accounts, buttressed by witnesses and analysts who reviewed photographs of the building’s interior, Qurayshi or his associates had rigged the dwelling with explosives to ensure that he could not be taken alive. It remains unclear who detonated the bomb. Military officials said they think it’s likely he did, but that they haven’t ruled out the possibility it was someone else — perhaps one of his wives. The blast was later judged to be far more powerful that the suicide vest that Baghdadi used to kill himself three years earlier.

The family on the ground floor had just left when an explosion lit up the sky, with a boom that could be heard miles away. The force of the blast blew out several walls and hurled bodies and body parts onto the ground, three floors below.

A pause followed. Wary about the possibility of additional booby traps, the Delta team sent “other capabilities” — presumably a robot probe or small drone — to scan the remains of the apartment, military officials said.

As they searched, the commandos came under fire by Qurayshi’s lieutenant on the second floor, and then by the lieutenant’s wife. Both of them were killed in an exchange of gunfire, and several children on the floor were removed by American troops and turned over to another family nearby, officials said.

Two hours after the start of the mission, it was over. As some members of the Delta team scooped up papers and other potentially valuable intelligence from inside the house, others took fingerprints from Qurayshi’s remains and bagged a biological sample for DNA testing. The body was left there, amid the rubble of the house on the edge of the olive grove.

Just before 7 a.m. Washington time — roughly 12 hours after the raid ended, the tests were completed, and the identity of the Islamic State leader was confirmed. White House officials prepared a formal announcement, which Biden would deliver on live television.

“This horrible terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said.

Kareem Fahim in Istanbul, Sarah Dadouch in Beirut, and Dalton Bennett, Joyce Lee and Elyse Samuels in Washington contributed to this report.

Donald Trump is a Russian plant: illegally elected by Russian hackers

An echo opinion letter published in TribLive.com a Pennsylvania online newspaper affiliated with the city of Pittsburgh. 

Russian's Vladimir Putin was celebrating on November 8, 2016 when Russian election hacking contributed to the illegal election of Donald J. Trump.

Trump is dragging America through unnecceary political anxiety.

Dec. 7, 1941, was a day of infamy when over 2,000 American servicemen were killed at Pearl Harbor, during the Japanese attack. 

Unfortunately, America experienced another day of infamy on Nov. 8, 2016, when Donald Trump was elected president, with less than a majority of total votes.

Meanwhile, Russian's Vladimir Putin was celebrating. From his inauguration on, Trump has enhanced Russia’s military power in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. He successfully weakened NATO by withholding and reducing funds and even indicated that the United States may not adhere to Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which requires all NATO nations to come to the defense of any partner under attack.

Trump’s actions have resulted in Russia owning the sea between Ukraine and Russia. Russia has prevented Ukraine’s military from using the sea to get to its own ports. Since our illustrious president stopped military aid to the Ukrainian military for a number of months, he has materially aided the Russians in their quest to take over all of Ukraine.

Our reality-TV president has also successfully turned over Syria to Russia by pulling our troops out of the Kurdish areas and allowing the Turks to massacre Kurdish men, women and children. He provided Russia with a foothold in Lebanon when he stopped military aid to Lebanon’s military.

The situation in the Middle East is reminiscent of the situation in Ukraine, since the Mediterranean Sea is slowly becoming a Russian lake. To stop this president from continuing in his efforts to make Russia a first-rate military power, the Congress must impeach and convict him and remove him from office.

Richard P. Davis, Saltlick, Pennsylania

Making Israel less safe again- an echo opinion

This is the road to a form of apartheid.

Trump and "Bibi"- creating uncertainty where there had been stability

This echo opinion is critical of how Donald Trump has deliberately played into the Evangelical playbook, just because he could. In so doing, Trump has created an incendiary situation in an politically combustible area of the world where people need calm leadership, rather than political posturing based on extremist religious ideologies.

Trudy Rubin writes an opinion published in the Madison Wisconsin State Journal newspaper. She is a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. 

Donald Trump wanted to give Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu a boost in hotly contested Israeli elections, set for April 9.

So, Donald Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy, by tweet of course: He posted that the United States should recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a rocky plateau that Israel seized from Syria during the 1967 Arab–Israeli war.

This was a purely political gesture to solve a problem that didn’t exist. There was no pressure on Israel from any quarter to return the Golan to Syria, a country wrecked by civil war and penetrated by Iran. Nor will U.S. recognition of Jerusalem’s 1981 annexation of the Golan make Israel any safer.

On the contrary, Trump’s political boon for Bibi will prompt unnecessary new threats to the Jewish state.

To understand why, a little background is helpful. Driving along the western edge of the Golan Heights one can look directly down on towns and villages of northern Israel, practically into the windows of some residential homes. Syrian artillery regularly shelled Israel from the heights between 1948 and 1967.

Since 1974, U.N. observers have patrolled an armistice line on the heights between Israel and Syria. In 1999-2000, Israel offered to return most of the Golan. But peace talks foundered because Syria wanted every inch back.

On my most recent trip to the Golan, 15 months ago, it was apparent why Israel could never return the entire territory in the foreseeable future. Driving along the Israeli side of the armistice line, one could see smoke rising in the distance. The same Iranian-backed militias that helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad essentially win the civil war were trying to seize turf along the Syrian side of the armistice line. Pro-Iranian Hezbollah fighters were joining that fight, arriving in Syria from Lebanon, just to the north of the Golan. Syrian civilians were crossing daily into Israel for medical treatment.

Yet -- let me emphasize again -- there was no pressure on Israel to return the Golan, not from Syria, not from Arab states, not from the international community. Indeed, life on the Israeli side of the Golan was, and still is, relatively prosperous and peaceful. Israeli troops, and Israeli planes had the area under control.

At least 20,000 Israelis have moved to the Golan, many in prosperous agricultural settlements, featuring apple orchards and high end wineries. The bulk of the Syrian population on the Golan are Druze, a small religious sect that was able to reconnect with many of their brethren who live in northern Israel. With heavy investment, the Druze capital Majdal Shams was booming with restaurants and cafes, and young women shop in western-style dress.

I was told by then Majdal Shams mayor Dolan Abu Saleh that, since the Syrian civil war, Druze had change their attitude toward Assad, perceiving him as a puppet of Iran and Russia. 

They were not eager, he said, to return to Syrian control and Russian hegemony -- or to a simmering civil war.

But very few were willing to take Israeli citizenship (as Saleh had done), because of the negative impact that would have for their Druze relatives on the Syrian side of the border.

So to summarize: before Trump’s tweet on the Golan, the internal situation in that region was stable. Assad had no chance to get the heights back, nor were Sunni Arab states raising the issue. Moreover, Russia, in understandings worked out with Israel, had pressed Iran to keep its proxies far back from the armistice line. The Russians, who control much of Syrian air space, were also letting Israel bomb many Iranian military targets in Syria.

All good for Israel.

U.S. recognition of Israel’s annexation of Golan would upset this positive scenario on several fronts.

First, by formally recognizing Israeli annexation, Trump would raise the issue of Israeli violations of international law. 

Most of the world protested Russia’s annexation of Crimea, a part of Ukraine, so how to avoid chastising Israel for annexing land that is a sovereign part of Syria. Nobody was raising the issue before Trump’s tweet, but now Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and Russia may see an opening (or feel the need) to challenge Israel.

The Syrian Druze on the Golan, caught in between, may be forced to protest.

All for no practical Israeli gains.

Equally adverse, a U.S. nod to Israel’s annexation of the Golan has already emboldened Israeli right wing parties that want Jerusalem to formally annex much or all of the West Bank. Knesset (parliament) speaker Yuli Edelstein told a huge crowd in Tel Aviv last week that U.S. shift on Golan was a first step toward U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty there.

Down this annexation path lies a one-state solution to the Palestinian problem in which Israel winds up ruling permanently over a majority of disenfranchised Arabs. 

Forget about any Trump-led peace “deal of the century.” 

This is the road to a form of apartheid.

Trump’s tweet indicates this would cause him no heartburn. His only goal is to help reelect his scandal-plagued counterpart in Israel. Or perhaps to please his evangelical supporters.

Cruel Donald Trump immigration policies- a Biblical view

The stranger is Jesus in disguise

This opinion essay was published in The Conversation written by Mathew Schmalz* and dated January 2017, one year ago. This essay is even more timely in 2018 and the future ahead of us.

Donald Trump signed an executive order that placed a stay on refugees from seven Muslim majority countries. Entrance of refugees from Syria, however, will be banned for the next 120 days.

...look to the Bible for guidance when asking about how to best welcome the stranger. 

Two days prior to that, he committed the United States to building a wall on its border with Mexico. Soon after the order, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto canceled an upcoming trip to the United States.

President Trump has also proposed that Mexican goods be taxed at the rate of 20 percent to provide funds for building the wall. This would fulfill his campaign promise that Mexico would actually pay for the wall’s construction, in spite of America’s southern neighbor’s protests.

For Christians, the questions about building the border wall or permitting immigrants and refugees into the United States involve a host of associated considerations not just about the specifics of immigration law, the economics of cheap labor coming across the border or potential terrorist threats.

At issue are both broader and deeper questions about what it means to welcome the stranger.

As a Roman Catholic scholar who lived in South Asia for a total of four years, I know what it is like to be initially considered a “stranger” but be quickly welcomed with open arms. 

And I, like all Christians, look to the Bible for guidance when asking about how to best welcome the stranger.

So, what does the Bible actually say?

We will all be strangers, sometime The Bible affirms – strongly and unequivocally – the obligation to treat strangers with dignity and hospitality.

In “Love the Stranger,” an article written for the annual meeting of the College Theological Society in 1991, biblical scholar Alice Laffey stated that in the Hebrew Bible, the words “gûr” and “gēr” are the ones most often glossed as referring to the “stranger,” though they are also translated as “newcomer” and “alien” or “resident alien,” respectively.

In the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the word “gēr” appears almost 50 times, and the fifth book, Deuteronomy, delineates a number of specific provisions for treating “the stranger” not just with courtesy but also with active support and provision.

For example, the book of Deuteronomy sets out the requirement that a portion of produce be set aside by farmers every third year for strangers, widows and orphans. In the “temple sermon” attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, the Jewish people are exhorted to “not oppress the sojourner.”

Within the Hebrew Bible the requirements of hospitality are sometimes affirmed in very striking ways, as in the story from the book of Judges in which a host offers his own daughter to ruffians in order to safeguard his guest.

Of course, the Israelites themselves were “strangers” during their enslavement in Egypt and captivity in Babylon. The Hebrew Bible recognizes that every one of us can be a stranger and, for that very reason, we need to overcome our fear of those who live among us whom we do not know.

The stranger is Jesus in disguise

Within the New Testament, which Christians read in continuity with the Hebrew Bible or “The Old Testament,” the most often cited passage dealing with welcoming the stranger is from Matthew 25: 31-40.

This section speaks of the Final Judgment, when the righteous will be granted paradise and unrepentant sinners will be consigned to eternal fire. Christ says to those at his right hand that they are “blessed” because “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

The righteous then ask,

“When did we see you, a stranger, and welcome you?”

Christ replies,

“‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

As Matthew 25 makes clear, the Christians should see everyone as “Christ” in the flesh. Indeed, scholars argue that in the New Testament, “stranger” and “neighbor” are in fact synonymous. Thus the Golden Rule, “love your neighbor as yourself,” refers not just to people whom you know – your “neighbors” in a conventional sense – but also to people whom you do not know.

Beyond this, in the letters written by Paul of Tarsus (one of the most notable of early Christian missionaries), often known as the Pauline “Epistles,” it is made clear that in Christ,

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave[g] nor free, there is no male and female.”

From this perspective, being “one in Christ” should be taken literally as acknowledging no fundamental differences in kind among human beings.

Bible is unambiguous in its message

Of course, in Christianity the strong admonitions toward treating the stranger with dignity have coexisted with actions that would seem to indicate an opposite attitude: pogroms against Jews, slavery, imperialism and colonialism have been sanctioned by Christians who nonetheless would have affirmed biblical principles regarding caring for those who seem “other” or “alien.”

The stranger is Jesus in disguise

Within the New Testament, which Christians read in continuity with the Hebrew Bible or “The Old Testament,” the most often cited passage dealing with welcoming the stranger is from Matthew 25: 31-40.

This section speaks of the Final Judgment, when the righteous will be granted paradise and unrepentant sinners will be consigned to eternal fire. Christ says to those at his right hand that they are “blessed” because

“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

The righteous then ask,

“When did we see you, a stranger, and welcome you?”

Christ replies, “‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me'.”

As Matthew 25 makes clear, the Christians should see everyone as “Christ” in the flesh. Indeed, scholars argue that in the New Testament, “stranger” and “neighbor” are in fact synonymous. Thus the Golden Rule, “love your neighbor as yourself,” refers not just to people whom you know – your “neighbors” in a conventional sense – but also to people whom you do not know.

Beyond this, in the letters written by Paul of Tarsus (one of the most notable of early Christian missionaries), often known as the Pauline “Epistles,” it is made clear that in Christ,

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave[g] nor free, there is no male and female.”

From this perspective, being “one in Christ” should be taken literally as acknowledging no fundamental differences in kind among human beings.

Bible is unambiguous in its message

Of course, in Christianity the strong admonitions toward treating the stranger with dignity have coexisted with actions that would seem to indicate an opposite attitude: pogroms against Jews, slavery, imperialism and colonialism have been sanctioned by Christians who nonetheless would have affirmed biblical principles regarding caring for those who seem “other” or “alien.”

Indeed, when it comes to the specific questions concerning building a wall on America’s border with Mexico or welcoming immigrants and refugees, some Christians would argue that doing so does not violate any biblical precepts concerning hospitality to the stranger, since the issue is one of legality and, of course, a good number of Christians did indeed support Donald Trump’s candidacy for the presidency. Other Christians have taken a diametrically different position, and have called for cities and educational institutions to be set apart as “safe zones” for undocumented immigrants.

It is true that the application of biblical principles to contemporary matters of policy is less than clear to the many Christians who have taken opposing sides regarding how the United States should deal with immigrants, undocumented workers and refugees.

However, in my reading of the Bible, the principles regarding welcoming the stranger are broad-reaching and unambiguous.

*Mathew Schmalz wrote this essay, he is Associate Professor of Religion, College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.

Failed Syrian missile attack "The Tomahawks that Could...." but didn't

$100 million in Tomahawk missiles, but nothing changed....except it's now on to the next diversion.

I'm still baffled about how the news media is so easily distracted by the Trump diversionary "Big Lie" tactics. One of the most egregious lies in Donald Trump's chaotic "anti-everything" foreign policy was the stupid attack on the Syrian airbase. It was the attack that didn't do anything except to wast about 49 or so expensive Tomahawk missels. It was the Tomahawk attack that could, but didn't wipe out an entire Syrian air base (Shayrat air base near Homs). Rather than be brutally honest about criticizing this stupid attack, the news media has moved on to other diversions, like reporting on the potential of a nuclear war with North Korea. In fact, the US can wipe out North Korea with less than half the Tomahawk missals used to attack the Syria, air base.  We know exactly where North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un keeps his arsenal of deadly weapons. Moreover, the US also knows how to eviscerate the threat.  

Trump speaks at his luxury Section 8 housing at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla., Thursday, April 6, 2017, after the U.S. fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria Thursday night in retaliation for this week's gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians.

Nevertheless, Donald Trump wasted money and political capital on a failed Syria attack, an act of aggression that put the US in a dicey position, with no place to go afterward.  Clearly, the US will never invade Syria, so what was the point of firing 49 Tomahawk missiles, if they didn't even destroy one Syrian air base?  And the answer is? There was no point.

Here's an interesting opinion article, published in the Billings Montana "Billings Gazette":

Syria- A magician's hand trick (performed by a man with very small hands?)

A sneak attack on another nation's military base? Sound familiar?When the Japanese did it, they were trying to gain time and fully expected the U.S. to declare war and eventually retaliate. Trump wasn't dumb enough to attack a country that could fight back. His prime objective to distract the public from his many failings — as were his fallacious claims of Obama wiretapping and those regarding Susan Rice, the former U.S. National Security Advisor.

That bombing cost to the U.S. was in the range of $100 million, was largely ineffective and did absolutely nothing for victims of the alleged gas attack. Is this why he wants to increase the military's budget? So he can mount more of these distractions? Or is this just the stage magician’s trick — he gets you to watch one hand, while his other is scamming you?- Billings Montana

And another writer adds (in a letter published on April 13, 2017)..."Trump's Tomahawk missile attack can be viewed in two ways: There was minimal damage to the Syrian airfield and initial photos show minimal damage to Syrian airplanes, and minimal casualties. This leads to the conclusion that it was done with full knowledge and coordination with Russian President Putin and possibly Assad himself. This could have been done to take attention away from the question of Trump associates' involvement with Russia. The other view is that it must have been staged with Russian cooperation to send a warning to North Korea." 

Both of these opinions are interesting and seem to be written with an "insiders" perspectives. Nevertheless, both were unsigned letters.  Hmmm, "curiousier and curiouser" from "The Treasure State".  Leaves on wondering, just who knows what? 

Donald Trump failure grade "0"= first 100 days

Here's my report card on @realdonaldtrump, the handle used to post his Tweets (when he's not impersonating somebody else). Although Mark Cuban gives Donald Trump a "C" for his first 100 days, I'd complete the three-hundred-and-sixty degree angle to create the proper grade of "0".

Here's a report card to support the zero score, deserved for the Donald Trump first 100 days in office (when he's not in Mar-a-lago, FL):

1.  January 21, 2017: Failed communications compromised Seal Team 6 raid in Yemen- Senior Chief Petty Officer Ryan killed and an expensive intelligence helicopter lost, all while newly inaugurated Donald Trump was busy "Tweeting".

2.  Hiring Sean Spicer to be the White House press secretary, the creator of "Spicey facts", a pseudonym for propaganda.

3.  Allowing Lt. General Mike Flynn to sit in on White House security briefings when he was being paid to work for Turkey, without registering as an agent of a foreign government, and who also had clandestine ties to Russia. (This information puts cold shivers up my spine!)

4.  Not shaking the hand of world leader Chancellor Angela Merkel, of Germany, during her visit to the White House. 

5.  April attack on Syria air base, but runways didn't sustain damage; in fact, the airport's runways were operational the next day! Donald Trump claimed his 59-missile strike on Assad’s Syrian air base missed their targets, saying he ‘didn’t want to hit the runways’. In fact, the Sharyat Air Base was back up-and-running with military jets using it as usual. HELLO? 59 Tomahawks?

6. Bombing Afghanistan with a Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB pronounced /ˈmoʊ.æb/, commonly known as the Mother of All Bombs) without killing the ISIS leaders or anybody of importance, that we're aware of- like ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, for example.

7.  Misrepresenting the location of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and the armada, in the Pacific, as being directed to prevent a nuclear attack against the US by North Korea. In fact, the naval operations were, instead, headed to Australia!

8.  Appointing "Ken and Barbie" his daughter Ivanka and son in law Jared Kushner, to be his advisers when neither one of them has any diplomatic or political experience. Frankly, their role is to keep Donald Trump's erratic behavior under control. Obviously, Donald Trump isn't allowed to be alone and unsupervised, because it's proven he's a danger to himself and others.

9.  Accusing President Barack Obama of wiretapping the Donald Trump Towers in New York City, without any proof whatsoever (a proven Trump lie).

10.  Putting the world at risk for nuclear war for the purpose of diverting attention away from the Trump-Russia clandestine connections and the infamously salacious "dossier".

Report card for Donald Trump and his failed administration during the first 100 days is ZERO.  In fact, the Trump failures are lower than an F grade and his leadership demonstrates incompetence.  

At least one Tomahawk could've aimed at Syria runway ya' think?

Tomahawk Cruise Missle made by Raytheon

It's impossible to understand how a volley of expensive Tomahawk missles were directed to destroy air base hangers without also destroying the runways where President Assad launched bombing attacks against his own people.

What was the point of the Syria attack? Morover, what now?

Although I know virtually nothing about Tomahawk missles, the fact is, they are capable of hitting airport runways.  Here's the descritpion of the sophisticated capabilities of the Ratheon Tomahawk.  

Modern, Mature, Powerful- Today's Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile can circle for hours, shift course instantly on command and beam a picture of its target to controllers halfway around the world before striking with pinpoint accuracy.

Tomahawks can be launched from a ship or submarine and can fly into heavily defended airspace more than 1,000 miles away to conduct precise strikes on high-value targets with minimal collateral damage. Launching the weapon from such a long distance helps to keep sailors out of harm's way.

The Tomahawk is a highly accurate, GPS enabled precision weapon that has been used over 2,000 times in combat, and flight tested more than 500 times.

During the NATO-led effort against the regime of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, Tomahawk played an instrumental role in the operation. One submarine fired more than 90 missiles at a variety of targets, and the USS Barry fired the 2,000th Tomahawk in combat.

As the battlespace and needs of the warfighter evolve, Raytheon is doing what it has always done: supporting the military with the world's most advanced cruise missile – Tomahawk.

MaineWriter- Although the Tomahawk is obviously a deadly weapon, it's only as effective as the direction programmed into its delivery. Donald Trump wasted the expensive military weapons, while the attack accomplished nothing. Even worse, the useless Syrian attack has now boxed the USA response for future operations.  In as much as those Syrian air fields are still operational, the evil Assad regime can use the runways to launch air strikes in defense of any future US military operations in the area. It's unbelievable incompetence. 

Blaming the wrong people- Donald Trump is where the buck stops

Syria- Trump's moment of terrible truth- where the buck stops.
Wake up Donald Trump! You are now in charge. No more grandstanding, beer hall rallies or screaming rhetorical slogans. In fact, you are where the buck stops.

"The buck stops here" was a phrase popularized by U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who kept a sign, with that phrase, on his desk in the White House Oval Office. 

It's become proverbial, in that the phrase means the President makes the decisions and accept the ultimate responsibility for decisions made and directed, by him.

Certainly, when UN Ambassador Nikki Haley raised the pictures of Syrian children struggling to breath because they were attacked by nerve gas, she raised the "red line" expectations bar very high for Donald Trump and his administration. Certainly, it was her clarion call to respond! Of course, in the past Donald Trump has opposed US interventions in Syria, just because he was opposed to everything, when he was campaigning to win the election regardless of the consequences.  Now, of course, Donald Trump must govern and Ambassador Nikki Haley has called him to act- by showing the world the consequences of inaction.

Syria never disposed of toxic chemical weapons, as Russia said they would do. Proof of it was in the renewed nerve gas attacks.

As a result, Donald Trump is being tested to react to the Assad regime's heinous war crimes, attacking his own Syrian citizens with nerve gas.  He must be removed from power - tried for war crimes and publicly executed.  Taking out Assad with a drone or missile isn't enough. In fact, the world must witness justice. 

In fact, Assad must suffer, by forcing him to confront the genocide he inflicted on his own people and be brought to justice.

This is the red line for Donald Trump.  He must respond. It's like a deadly roulette game. If his reaction fails, his regime will never recover (that's one bet).  On the other hand, if Assad is captured or killed, the consequences of that outcome are yet to be determined (an other bet).  And the third option?  Well, if Assad is removed from power (and he certainly will be) the power struggle for control of Syria will be between Russia and the USA.  In other words, all three roulette options are loaded with risks. Nevertheless, the risk of doing nothing will be equated with weakness and failure.

So, Donald Trump - guess what?  "The Buck Stops With You".

No more "blame the other person", as you're so apt to do.  

Your failed Seal Team 6 Yemen raid was a disaster, yet you blamed it on President Obama, because it flopped.  If Seal Team 6 in Yemen had succeeded, and the Muslim women had never taken up arms on the rooftops to fight the incoming assault, then the Trump horns would've touted success.  But Yemen failed.

Syria cannot be blamed or credited with anyone but Donald Trump.

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