<div>
In 2009, constitutional lawyer and syndicated radio host Mark Levin published Liberty &amp; Tyranny, a runaway bestseller that galvanized the conservative movement. Now, he has published American Marxism, putting a name to — and tracing the ancestry of — the movement that is sweeping away our rights and freedoms.
As he admits, this is Levin&#8217;s longest book because it is his most comprehensive. The reader is taken through the evolution of the nefarious, anti-democratic ideals that have seized control of America&#8217;s institutions and are tearing down society.
Reading the philosophers of totalitarianism of yesteryear — Rousseau, Hegel, and Marx — seems like an exercise in tedium. Yet their reasoning has echoed through time — even if the (in Levin’s phrase) “zombie-like ’woke’ drones” don’t know where their dogma came from. &#8220;Ultimately,&#8221; Levin writes:
<div>
<blockquote>these arguments for collective identity, collective beliefs, and class consciousness, in support of mass movements, wittingly or otherwise &#8230; form the basis not only for peaceful protests but violence, riots, and revolution—of the sort we have seen in our cities and towns with the likes of Antifa, BLM, and other violent radical groups. In fact, they attempt to provide the veneer of an expertise or scholarly approach to societal disruption, the undermining of civil institutions, and flat-out rebellion.</blockquote>
</div>
The Marxists’ disdain for individualism is omnipresent throughout its history. The same is true of attitudes toward the common man. Levin points out the similarities in the way the American Marxist speaks of the hard working, blue collar American and the way the Soviet Union in the time of Stalin spoke of the “backward” Russian and Ukrainian peasant (who would suffer a genocide in the name of collectivization). Like its Soviet counterpart, American Marxism is &#8220;laced throughout with raw bigotry, antagonism, and hate.&#8221;
One of Levin&#8217;s favorite sayings is that even as Communism was defeated in the Soviet Union, it is thriving in American universities. It was from his perch in academia that Marxist pseudo-intellectual Herbert Marcuse &#8220;hatch[ed] the Critical Theory ideology from which the racial, gender, and other Critical Theory–based movements were launched in America.&#8221;
Marcuse, Levin writes, argued that &#8220;tolerance is actually a ploy instituted by the powerful and conniving forces of the bourgeoisie against the unsuspecting proletariat, in which the masses are duped and programmed to support their oppressors. In short, tolerance is used to suppress the people &#8230; if American society does not tolerate its own demise or overthrow at the hands of Marxist ideologues and movements, it cannot be said to be truly tolerant. Therefore, Marcuse insists that a society is not truly tolerant if it does not sow the seeds of its own demise by Marxist revolutionaries &#8230; since a republic would not consent to its own subversion and dissolution, thereby rejecting true tolerance, Marxists must resort to other means to overthrow it, including violence.&#8221;
In sum, &#8220;Marcuse was urging the violent overthrow of American society in which the &#8216;established hierarchy&#8217; was using tolerance to perpetuate oppression against the minority.&#8221; It&#8217;s nonsense, and yet it is the root of Critical Race Theory (CRT).
In discussing Critical Race Theory, Levin borrows a description from Professor George R. La Noue:
<blockquote>CRT begins with the presumption that race is the primary way to identify and analyze people and consequently posits a racial hierarchy that supposedly exists with whites on top and blacks at the bottom. Individual behavior is insignificant because everyone in America functions within a society of systemic racism, structural racism, and institutional racism. &#8230; According to this perspective, efforts by public and private organizations to enforce civil rights laws in employment, housing, contracting, education, etc. are either insufficient or pointless.</blockquote>
Levin explains:
<blockquote>
<div>In other words, CRT undermines and exploits America&#8217;s unique and very successful fusion of diversity and cultural assimilation, and considers all issues in the context of past societal imperfections—regardless of enormous struggles and efforts in creating a more perfect society, including a civil war, massive economic redistribution, and groundbreaking legal changes. Even more, it incorporates and advances an increasing list of causes as new or additional reasons for eradicating society and transforming the country. Indeed, CRT repositions what is the most tolerant and beneficent society on earth as a miserably dark and impoverished nation, from its beginning to today. </div>
</blockquote>
Furthermore, &#8220;For CRT advocates, counter-speech, more speech, and the marketplace of ideas are all poisoned by white dominance and privilege. Of course, this leads to repression, censorship, and today&#8217;s &#8216;cancel culture.'&#8221;
Levin does not mince words: &#8220;Having laid the foundation for revolutionary change in multiple areas of our society and culture, the banning, canceling, and silencing have begun in earnest. Repression, not engagement; compliance, not speech; conformity, not independence; and subjugation, not liberty, are all hallmarks of American Marxism.&#8221;
Yet for all the grim straight talk, American Marxism also offers a message of hope. Levin closes the book with a call to action. Boycott the enemy&#8217;s businesses, pressure institutions to withdraw investments in woke movements, have your state and local governments end all funds for or involvement in wokeness. And most importantly, never, ever give up. In the final pages, Levin returns, as he often does, to America&#8217;s founding for inspiration — citing the words of Thomas Paine:
<blockquote>THESE are the times that try men&#8217;s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.</blockquote>
<div>
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
</div>
</div>

US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS

Book Review: American Marxism, By Mark Levin 

Mark Levin

Marxism

On April 25, 2014, Lucasfilm Ltd. — under the new leadership of Kathleen Kennedy and Disney — stunned the science fiction community by announcing that the Star Wars Expanded Universe (the books, games, comics, and other related content that continued the story outside the six Star Wars films) would be discontinued. To the Star Wars faithful, the Expanded Universe contained many of their most beloved stories, including the great Knights of the Old Republic video game series.
It was a sad day. Yet, it may have been for the best.
Since that time, social justice has rampaged through all of sci-fi and fantasy’s most popular series. Star Trek, Doctor Who, the Marvel comic universe. One by one, their continuities were destroyed in a bloodbath of left-wing identity politics. Disney’s cheap Star Wars imitation was hardest hit with the catastrophe known as The Last Jedi.
But the real Star Wars is being spared from destruction. Frozen in carbonite, it is — to quote Lando Calrissian — “alive&#8230;and in perfect hibernation.” It is protected from the vandalism that has befallen the other sci-fi universes. And when the dark times pass, it can be brought back to life.
The distinction between the opposing Star Wars continuities can be seen in Wookieepedia, the fan wiki dedicated to Star Wars.
Almost every Wookieepedia page has two tags, “Legends” (the pre-2014 Star Wars Expanded Universe) and “Canon” (Disney’s version of Star Wars). The Wookieepedia page dedicated to Luke Skywalker shows the divide most starkly. The “Canon” page has a biography of Luke where he becomes the loser, hermit, and <a href="https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Luke_Skywalker">quitter</a> from The Last Jedi, who Mark Hamill derisively <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd_jyaFejhg">called</a> “Jake” Skywalker. But click on the “Legends” tag and the <a href="https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Luke_Skywalker/Legends">heroic</a> Luke Skywalker of the expanded universe emerges. “Jake” Skywalker was a disgrace, an insult to the fans who preferred the old Star Wars to the new, woke stories and characters. Luke Skywalker of “Legends” inspired millions, and still exists in the hearts of the Star Wars faithful — as proven by the excitement generated by Luke’s brief appearance in The Mandalorian. The same cannot be said of other universes. The Star Trek continuity is a perfect example
It is true that Star Trek tended to lean toward a liberal point of view, but as with all great art, there were universal themes that appealed to everyone. Ronald Reagan’s eldest son, Michael, once <a href="http://www.startrekpropauthority.com/2012/04/president-reagan-and-star-trek.html">wrote</a> this about the former president:
<blockquote>“Even after he left office, Dad was fascinated by dreams of a bright future for humanity. In 1991, he stopped by Paramount Studios and watched the filming of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Between takes, Dad chatted with actor Patrick Stewart and producer Gene Roddenberry about the show and Roddenberry’s optimistic vision of the future — an optimism that was in many ways similar to his own.”</blockquote>
When Jean-Luc Picard (played by Patrick Stewart) came face-to-face with the totalitarian Borg collective, he responded to their threats and demands in a style worthy of Reagan:
<blockquote>BORG: Captain Jean Luc Picard, you lead the strongest ship of the Federation fleet. You speak for your people.
PICARD: I have nothing to say to you, and I will resist you with my last ounce of strength.
BORG: Strength is irrelevant. Resistance is futile. We wish to improve ourselves. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service ours.
PICARD: Impossible. My culture is based on freedom and self determination.
BORG: Freedom is irrelevant. Self determination is irrelevant. You must comply.
PICARD: We would rather die.</blockquote>
Fast forward to today, to the Star Trek that show runner Alex Kurtzman <a href="https://www.comicsbeat.com/sdcc-20-star-trek-virtual-panel/">calls</a> a “platform” for social justice politics, and that actress Marina Sirtis has <a href="https://www.bigissue.com/culture/marina-sirtis-its-an-oxymoron-a-star-trek-fan-does-not-equal-a-republican/">said</a> is not for Republicans.
Kurtzman, Stewart and crew teamed up to create Star Trek: Picard. The strong, proud Jean Luc Picard had to have his privilege checked. (An essay published on StarTrek.com actually <a href="https://www.startrek.com/news/the-humbling-of-admiral-picard">says</a> “On Star Trek: Picard our beloved admiral is forced to reckon with his privilege as a Starfleet officer from a planetary superpower.”) The entire show is Picard going around the galaxy being dressed down over and over again, and groveling before his accusers — apologizing for the arrogance of the Federation (which represents the West, and the United States in particular). It’s hard to watch The Next Generation now, knowing what becomes of Picard.
There is no other Picard, only the sorry character we see before us — debased for political reasons. And he is not the only character this was done to. It is now part of Star Trek lore that Spock owes his greatness to his adopted human sister that nobody ever heard of before. All the plot holes this presents — apparent to anyone familiar with Vulcan culture and Spock’s history — are ignored.
Point being: Political agenda is now a stand in for good storytelling. And no franchise is safe. None except Star Wars “Legends.” Thanks to the 2014 de-canonization, the real Star Wars cannot be desecrated by the wokesters who hate (or are ignorant of) Luke, Han, Revan, Rendar, Jacen, Mara, Abeloth, and many more.
In the ongoing debate among Star Wars fans on how to correct the damage done to our beloved series, the 2 strongest camps are (1) put our faith in Jon Favreau, who has inherited the mess that is “Canon,” but has proven he can create good Star Wars content and resist the pressure to go woke; or (2) scrap all of “Canon” and bring back “Legends.”
The strongest argument for the latter is that Star Wars can never be made truly great again as long as The Last Jedi and “Jake” Skywalker still exist. I agree, but it has to wait. If Lucasfilm can refuse to pay the amazing Alan Dean Foster — but hire the unremarkable, divisive, racist, Howard Zinn-acolyte, SJW Justina Ireland to write “The High Republic” — then it is not yet a safe environment for “Legends.”
But, with the help of dedicated fans, “Legends” will not be thrown down the memory hole. If we keep talking about it, and sharing those stories, the real Star Wars can be preserved until it is safe to bring out of hibernation.
Follow Spyridon on Twitter<a href="https://twitter.com/SpyridonM"> @SpyridonM</a>.

Star Wars

The Case Against Reviving The Star Wars Expanded Universe, At Least For Now

Readers Pass

Woke Culture

In addition to being a civil rights champion, Bayard Rustin was a <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.queermusicheritage.com_nov2006br.html&amp;d=DwMFaQ&amp;c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&amp;r=79-7Ymz8uEOybZ4Cp9cDXw&amp;m=kmKpTIg7_H2IQp0gxirfj5KR1GSFTRseYOgj9bwB5l4&amp;s=8MBiumW1i2-hHfWTR89PaShrujYsR2VfwAE5gJqL3FQ&amp;e=">singer</a> of Christian Spirituals. His personal favorite was &#8220;Oh, Freedom!&#8221;
Before singing this <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.queermusicheritage.com_BLOG_Rustin_rustin-2Doh-2520freedom.mp3&amp;d=DwMFaQ&amp;c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&amp;r=79-7Ymz8uEOybZ4Cp9cDXw&amp;m=kmKpTIg7_H2IQp0gxirfj5KR1GSFTRseYOgj9bwB5l4&amp;s=U4Ns6Pcvw4Uoq9KsoBthO6T-UvZmDBbpizlJ-lQ_RYs&amp;e=">song</a> at a live concert on February 15, 1973, he took a minute to fill in his audience on the history of Juneteenth Day:
<blockquote>Now quite contrary to what people think, this next song proves without any question that the idea that blacks sat around submissively liking slavery is just silly. There were over 100 slave revolts! None very well planned – how could they have been? But what those slave revolts proved was the same thing that the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto proved. Nobody in the Warsaw ghetto and nobody in those slave revolts thought they could win. What they were expressing was the will to win and their manhood. And therefor we honor the slaves who revolted. &#8230;
This song that I am now about to sing is related to Juneteenth Day. How many people know what Juneteenth Day is? Well let me enlighten you. The Emancipation Proclamation was on the 1st of January [1863]. But such was transportation and communication at the time, that the last slaves were not freed until June 16th [19th, 1865] in Texas. All over the South, black people celebrate not the Emancipation Day, but Juneteenth Day, the 16th [19th] of June. This song, that I am now singing, was sung all over Texas on Juneteenth Day.
But more importantly: when the Union army was obviously winning, slaves began to desert their plantations and follow the army. And the soldiers were marching, and they marched, and this is the song they sang.
Oh freedom, oh freedom, oh freedom over me.
And before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave.
And go home to my Lord and be free.
No more master, no more master, no more master calling me.
And before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave.
And go home to my Lord and be free.
No more misery, no more misery, no more misery over me.
And before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave.
And go home to my Lord and be free.
Oh freedom, oh freedom, oh freedom over me.
And before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave.
And go home to my Lord and be free.</blockquote>
Some of the historical  details in Rustin&#8217;s speech need clarification.
Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger announced the Emancipation of the slaves of Texas in Galveston on June 19, 1865. As Henry Louis Gates, Jr., <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.theroot.com_what-2Dis-2Djuneteenth-2D1790896900&amp;d=DwMFaQ&amp;c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&amp;r=79-7Ymz8uEOybZ4Cp9cDXw&amp;m=kmKpTIg7_H2IQp0gxirfj5KR1GSFTRseYOgj9bwB5l4&amp;s=0yqCRaBSMaKlO1cyJ8ZVHt2l9jsXxs1scBaZCeXI5_E&amp;e=">wrote</a>: &#8220;Granger wasn&#8217;t just a few months late. The Emancipation Proclamation itself, ending slavery in the Confederacy (at least on paper), had taken effect two-and-a-half years before, and in the interim, close to 200,000 black men had enlisted in the fight. So, formalities aside, wasn&#8217;t it all over, literally, but the shouting? It would be easy to think so in our world of immediate communication, but as Granger and the 1,800 bluecoats under him soon found out, news traveled slowly in Texas. Whatever Gen. Robert E. Lee had surrendered in Virginia, the Army of the Trans-Mississippi had held out until late May, and even with its formal surrender on June 2, a number of ex-rebels in the region took to bushwhacking and plunder.&#8221;
&#8220;Those who acted on the news did so at their peril,&#8221; Gates wrote. &#8220;Defying confusion and delay, terror and violence, the newly ‘freed’ black men and women of Texas, with the aid of the Freedmen’s Bureau (itself delayed from arriving until September 1865), now had a date to rally around. In one of the most inspiring grassroots efforts of the post-Civil War period, they transformed June 19 from a day of unheeded military orders into their own annual rite, &#8216;Juneteenth,&#8217; beginning one year later in 1866.&#8221;
These two stories, of &#8220;Oh, Freedom!&#8221; and Juneteenth Day, form an indelible story of freedom.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Bayard Rustin

MITSOTAKIS: Juneteenth Day: ‘Before I’ll Be A Slave, I’ll Be Buried In My Grave’

Juneteenth

Slavery

Rik Mehta, a pharmacist and former FDA consumer safety officer from New Jersey, is seeking to replace failed presidential candidate Cory Booker as Senator from New Jersey. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, he feels his experience as a healthcare professional would benefit the nation if elected to public office.  He took the time to answer a few questions.
I was watching an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReI6ROZNbkk">interview</a> with Taiwan’s Vice President (and leading epidemiologist), Chen Chien-jen, with his alma mater the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. One of the things they said is that having elected officials with healthcare education and experience made a big difference in why Taiwan was so exceptionally successful in handling the COVID-19 outbreak. What is your take on that?
I agree 100%. Right now, we have a bunch of career politicians, like my opponent Senator Cory Booker, who do not understand the delivery of healthcare, the practice of medicine and are completely unequipped to deal with these issues. Senator Booker cares more about what sounds good on Twitter, than what policies actually work when dealing with a pandemic.
As a pharmacist and former public health official, I have tackled health crises firsthand. We need to get away from the partisan nonsense and do what is right by and for our citizens to control the pandemic and get Americans working again.
New Jersey&#8217;s former Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno says that NJ &#8220;has a long and proud history as the medicine chest of the world.&#8221; What is the situation today?
Unfortunately, the anti-business, anti-taxpayer policies in New Jersey have driven many of these businesses and jobs away. Senator Booker and his cronies in the NJ Legislature have made New Jersey non-competitive with our neighbors both here in the U.S. and globally. How can we expect companies to settle in our state when all they do is push higher taxes, more regulation, and make the state unaffordable for employees to live near their place of employment?
As New Jersey’s next U.S. senator, I will put America first and bring our medical manufacturing from overseas back to New Jersey. At the same time my policies will create thousands of jobs, reduce our tax appropriations spent on foreign manufacturing and lower the price of prescription drugs all while strengthening our national security.
You have been vocal about bringing the medical supply chain back to the United States. How? What about your opponent? Where does Senator Booker stand on this?
As I wrote in a recent <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/chinas-dominance-of-the-pharma-supply-chain-is-highly-dangerous-to-the-us">op-ed</a> on this subject, more than 80% of the ingredients necessary to make your medicine is sourced from China and other foreign countries. As unbelievable as it may sound, our factories have not made antibiotics in the United States in decades; it’s a far cry from World War II, when our plants produced life-saving penicillin helping our soldiers win the war. So, America’s reliance on foreign drug manufacturing has become a very real national security concern.
Under the Obama administration, China doubled its drug manufacturing facilities, while we closed ours. And, to make matters worse, Cory Booker supported legislation that would crush medical innovation in America. Months ago, I predicted that if China was forced to close itself down to combat the coronavirus pandemic, or at some point decided to interrupt the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain, it would create a major shortage of life-saving medicines. And indeed, last month, the FDA reported the first supply chain disruption.
My plan would streamline the FDA approval process, reduce redundant manufacturing regulations, prioritize the use of tax appropriations for America-first manufacturing and use incentive programs, like FDA priority-review vouchers, for companies that manufacture innovative life-saving drugs in America. We need a change &#8211; and fast.
What will you do to hold China to account?
First off, let us make no mistake &#8211; China covered up. They silenced their own scientists that tried to give us early warnings about COVID-19 resulting in the quicker spread of the disease to America and globally. The United States and our allies need to sanction those Chinese nationals involved in this cover-up &#8211; we must hold individuals responsible.
I also support President Trump&#8217;s efforts to get tougher on China, slap them with tariffs and sue them to recover the trillions of dollars lost. Our lawmakers, like Senator Booker, worry more about playing identity politics, than they do dealing with the very serious threat China poses.
Just a few days ago, Cory Booker touted legislation to return funding to the World Health Organization, while at the same time neglected to secure funding for one-fifth of the counties in New Jersey, leaving our proud small-business owners in the lurch.
For several weeks now you have been talking about the need to reopen the US and NJ economy. How do you propose rolling that out?
Listen, this virus is very serious and people need to be cautious but our federal and state governments need to balance that public health risk with the economic damage and mental health anguish these broad, sweeping lockdowns are causing. I have urged state officials to allow businesses to reopen on an evidence-based approach that includes consideration for the total burden of disease, doubling time of the infection rates, and the parts of our population with preexisting health conditions, while encouraging New Jerseyeans to continue with smart social distancing and precautionary measures.
Our Governor here in New Jersey, Phil Murphy, seems bent on keeping the state shutdown for several more months, not weeks.  In the process, he is destroying our economy &#8211; particularly our Jersey Shore and South Jersey &#8211; while at the same time begging the federal government for bailouts.
Everyday Americans are facing food insecurity due to their inability to work and this shutdown is growing our economic depression and increasing the incident rate of mental health issues; the scope and breadth of which remain to be seen. Add to this the fact that NJ gets less federal funding from Washington than we send thanks to ineffective and failed Senators like Cory Booker. This crisis needs to be a wakeup call for a new era of fiscal discipline in the state. We have been lacking this for far too long.
In a nutshell, what will you do to tackle COVID-19 and how can we do better in the future?
In the short term, we need to incrementally reopen our economy and trust our small businesses to self-regulate smart public health measures. The long-term question, however, is the key. We can&#8217;t be caught flat-footed again. To hear Joe Biden criticize President Trump on COVID-19 is outrageous.
For eight years the Obama-Biden administration did very little to prepare us for the eventuality of a pandemic.  Supply chains are a disaster, medical manufacturing moved overseas, and our healthcare system was simply not equipped to deal with this. I credit the moves made early on by the President and his team to remedy this, but moving forward I expect a complete overhaul of our readiness capabilities.
As Senator, I would be a leader in that effort given my background as a health professional, and certainly would bring more to the table in my first year in office than Cory Booker has done his entire term.

Virginia Primary Election

MITSOTAKIS: An Interview With Rik Mehta, The Conservative Pharmacist Taking On Cory Booker For Senate In New Jersey

Cory Booker

Donald Trump

New Jersey

The other Final Fantasy classics deserve some love
The remake of Final Fantasy VII has been among the most anticipated games for over a decade. While the series always enjoyed success, FFVII was the first Final Fantasy to gain a mass following outside Japan.
<a href="http://xenon.stanford.edu/~geksiong/papers/sts145/Squaresoft%20and%20FF7.htm">A history of Final Fantasy</a> states that: “Sony spared no expense in marketing Final Fantasy VII in the US, allocating a budget of up to US$100 million just for marketing alone. Three 30-second commercials were made highlighting the graphics and gameplay and aired on prime-time slots on all the major networks. There were also major print campaigns in popular publications such as Rolling Stone, Spin and even Playboy, and the gaming magazines. Sony even teamed up with Pepsi for a major holiday promotion featuring the game&#8230;Squaresoft finally managed to crack the US market. Altogether, over 6 million copies of Final Fantasy VII were sold worldwide.”
Those familiar with the Final Fantasy, however, would agree that many of the other installments in the series have been tragically overshadowed.
Consider:
<ul>
<li>Final Fantasy IV, the first real epic of the series, with it&#8217;s themes of duty, betrayal and redemption.</li>
<li>Final Fantasy VI, which explored the question: &#8220;Why do people insist on creating things that will inevitably be destroyed? Why do people cling to life, knowing that they must someday die? &#8230;Knowing that none of it will have meant anything once they do?&#8221;</li>
<li>Final Fantasy IX, the action-packed swan song of the FF old guard (and my personal favorite), dealing with nurture vs nature and the despair of facing one&#8217;s mortality.</li>
</ul>
And lest it be forgotten, what about Chrono Trigger? If there is a central theme to the Final Fantasy series (of which Chrono Trigger is an honorary part) it is defiance &#8211; to challenge one&#8217;s fate against overwhelming odds. The time travel story of Chrono and his companions is a classic in the genre.
With any luck, Square Enix will consider looking into remaking some of these classics for a new generation.
Let&#8217;s Mosey.

final fantasy

MITSOTAKIS: For Your Quarantine Gaming: The Final Fantasy Classics Deserve Some Love

Technology

Those countries with the closest ties to China are the ones suffering the most from Coronavirus. This may seem elementary, as it follows common sense. And yet, those countries failed to predict the consequences of working with such a corrupt and negligent power as the Chinese Communist Party. This despite the fact that doing business with communists has come back to harm us &#8211; in one form or another &#8211; time and again for a century.
In 1922, Samuel Gompers, founder of the American Federation of Labor, condemned those in Europe who, at a conference in Italy, were hoping to profit from business with Lenin&#8217;s new slave society. &#8220;The truth is that predatory international finance has its appetite up and believes it sees loot in Russia,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I know of nothing more cynical than the attitude of European statesmen and financiers toward the Russian muddle. Essentially it is their purpose, as laid down at Genoa, to place Russia in economic vassalage and give political recognition in exchange. Recognition in exchange for concessions.&#8221;
Soon, persuaded by propagandists like Armand Hammer and the New York Times&#8217;s Walter Duranty that it was a good idea, the United States followed suit. Stalin would later tell W. Averell Harriman that &#8220;about two-thirds of all the large industrial enterprises in the Soviet Union had been built with United States help or technical assistance.”
Unbeknownst to the West, their business partners Lenin and Stalin had secretly agreed to let militarist Germany rebuild its military machine inside Russia, out of sight of the powers that at Versailles had forbidden them from doing so. This arrangement remained intact until the early 1930s, when the rebuilt might of the German armed forces was inherited by Hitler. It would soon lay waste to the cities of Europe, at first with Stalin&#8217;s approval before it turned on the USSR.
After the war, the AFL published a detailed map of Stalin&#8217;s Gulag system, in order to remind the West that &#8220;Uncle Joe&#8221; and his successors weren&#8217;t to be trusted. It was not long before the Soviet industries &#8220;built with United States help or technical assistance” were producing the weapons and vehicles used against American troops in Korea (and later, in Vietnam). Still, there was money to be made, so many businesses just pretended it wasn&#8217;t happening.
35 years ago, the exiled Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spoke to a gathering of the AFL-CIO. &#8220;Brothers!&#8221; the Gulag forced labor survivor opened, &#8220;Brothers in Labor!&#8221; After thanking them for having always spoken out against Soviet tyranny, he told the gathered workers &#8220;just as we feel ourselves your allies here, there also exists another alliance &#8211; at first glance a strange one, a surprising one &#8211; but if you think about it, in fact, one which is well-grounded and easy to understand: this is the alliance between our Communist leaders and your capitalists.&#8221;
He gave an example: &#8220;Certain of your businessmen, on their own initiative, established an exhibition of criminological technology in Moscow. This was the most recent and elaborate technology, which here, in your country, is used to catch criminals, to bug them, to spy on them, to photograph them, to tail them, to identify criminals. This was taken to Moscow to an exhibition in order that the Soviet KGB agents could study it, as if not understanding what sort of criminals, who would be hunted by the KGB.&#8221;
Times haven&#8217;t changed much. The Wall Street Journal reported last year that &#8220;Some of the biggest names in U.S. technology have provided components, financing and know-how to China’s multibillion-dollar surveillance industry. The country’s authoritarian government uses those tools to track ethnic minorities, political dissidents and others it sees as a threat to its power.&#8221;
The Coronavirus outbreak isn&#8217;t even the first time Americans&#8217; health and wellbeing was threatened by doing business with China. How many children&#8217;s toys and animal products have had to be recalled because of safety concerns? And this extends to our food. Pre-peeled Garlic had to have been peeled somewhere, and that somewhere is in unsanitary Chinese prisons where prisoners have to use their teeth because their fingernails have fallen off.
Solzhenitsyn said it best: &#8220;This is something which is almost incomprehensible to the human mind: that burning greed for profit which goes beyond all reason, all self-control, all conscience, only to get money.&#8221;

xi jinping

MITSOTAKIS: Communist Blood Money Always Had A High Price

China

COVID

During my recent trip to Israel, an Orthodox rabbi took me to see something that most outsiders do not usually see. It was Friday night (Shabbos, the Jewish Sabbath), and he wanted to go to pray at the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem. Before that, he took me to see Kotel Katan — an older, smaller, less well known section of the Western Wall located within the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem&#8217;s Old City — and from there we went to one of the gates that serve as an entrance to the Temple Mount.
Walking through the Muslim Quarter, the air was thick with tension. Since I am a Christian, nobody bothered me. But there were people who went out of their way to bump into and shove my friend, who is easily identifiable as a Jewish rabbi. They were trying to start a fight. So I was surprised, upon arriving at the gate to the Temple Mount, to find a large gathering of Jewish students. There, deep within the Muslim Quarter, these Jewish students were protesting about how they are not allowed to pray at Judaism&#8217;s holiest site. Armed guards were there to keep Jews out. This is what he wanted me to see.
The Temple Mount, of course, was the site of the first and second Jewish Temples and where — according to the faithful — the third Temple will be built. I had some understanding about the rules governing the Temple Mount. According to the Times of Israel, &#8220;Under the current 52-year-old status quo at the site, Muslims can pray at the site while Jews are allowed to visit — under heavy restrictions, in a predetermined route and only for several hours on weekdays — but not pray there.&#8221;
I wanted to know more about these students, who are brave enough to fight for change. So I was told to contact Tom Nisani, the Israeli-born leader of &#8220;Students for the Temple Mount&#8221; and head of campus activity in the <a href="https://imti.org.il/en/about-us/movement/">Im Tirtzu</a> organization. I interviewed him briefly:
Mitsotakis (SM): What is happening on the Temple Mount and why?
Nisani (TN): The Temple Mount was liberated by the Israel Defense Forces in 1967. [There was] a total lack of interest among the Israeli public, and due to various historical realities that caused the national consciousness among the average Israeli, and even among the political leaders and military personnel of Israel, to be drawn simply to the Kotel (Western Wall) — despite it being only a retaining wall for the Temple Mount. The Mount itself was forgotten and the Jordanian Waqf that abandoned it during the battles was brought back to administer it by the State of Israel itself! Today, more than even 50 years later, basic freedoms such as prayer and freedom of movement are still ignored for all those ascending the Mount who are not Muslim. The Temple Mount is a place where these basic human rights and others are trampled on in the most outright and direct way. And this is happening in the holiest place for the Jewish people in the Jewish state! And just like in the other holy places for Jews in Israel, improvement is a process we are trying to hasten — but at this stage on the Temple Mount, there are clear human rights violations and infringements of the rights of all non-Muslims.
SM: What is your organization, why do you do what you do, and what do you hope to change?  
TN: Our organization was established about five years ago and includes students and young Israeli adults — secular, religious, and so forth. We are from all over the nation of Israel. We want to return the Temple Mount to its fitting place in Israeli society. This means, practically, that we work towards normalizing the Temple Mount under full Israeli sovereignty and once it is, all other challenges, problems, and difficulties will cease. It would be beneficial to all involved parties for the Temple Mount to be under complete Israeli sovereignty. Today, as the Jordanians, Qataris, Hamas, and so many more, all attempt to influence what happens on the Temple Mount, we all lose. Peaceful tourists are routinely assaulted, Jewish worshippers are restricted and oppressed, and even the Muslims suffer from the corruption of their leaders — including the Jordanians and the senior Waqf members. We will not rest until we change this situation, and we have already begun seeing change.
SM: I am told that your group is secular. Yet this is an issue of enormous religious significance. Is the religious community supporting you?
TN: In our movement, we have members who are from all the types and stripes of Israel. And this is the beauty in our movement, &#8220;Students for the Temple Mount.&#8221; We reflect the Israeli public and understand the import of our mission. The Temple Mount is a place for all of the nation of Israel and so too will it be in the future. Even the most secular among us, or those who would be considered less religious, are connected to our faith and Jewish nationality and see those as important aspects of our identities. In fact, it is the Temple Mount that connects us the most.

ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT-US-JERUSALEM

MITSOTAKIS: Meeting The Jewish Students Fighting For Freedom On The Temple Mount

Islam

Israel

Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

Jerusalem

Judaism

Palestinians

Religion

Zionism

On a recent trip to Israel, I met a Palestinian student who studies at a diverse international school. I asked her if any of the Palestinian groups believe in Gandhian non-violence to redress their grievances. She knew of only one group — the small communist party to which she belonged. Only one.
If this sounds like an exaggeration, it is not by much. Nor is it surprising. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) has inculcated a culture of violence and hatred of Jews in each successive generation of Palestinians since it was founded by Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1964.
Israeli journalist Eliezer Whartman <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/When-Egypt-was-in-Gaza">wrote</a> that when he visited Gaza in 1967, after Israel had driven out the Egyptian army, he found that:
<blockquote>&#8220;Indoctrination to hatred of Israel started at the very tenderest years. I saw pictures which children had drawn, with the encouragement of their teachers, depicting themselves killing Israeli children. The textbooks dripped venom. One text for the third grade, entitled Arabic Islamic History read: &#8216;The Jews are always the same, in every time, every place. They live only in darkness. They secretly plan to do evil; they fight only from hidden places because they are cowards. We must purify holy Palestine from their filth in order to bring peace back to the Arab homeland.'&#8221;</blockquote>
This trend has continued, unbroken, to the present day.
In Lebanon in 1982, Israel encountered hundreds of preteen and early teenage Palestinian boys specially trained by the PLO to use rocket-propelled grenades.
In 2016, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of this phenomenon:
<blockquote>&#8220;I want you to imagine a day in the life of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy, I&#8217;ll call him Ali. Ali wakes up before school, he goes to practice with a soccer team named after Dalal Mughrabi, a Palestinian terrorist responsible for the murder of a busload of 37 Israelis. At school, Ali attends an event sponsored by the Palestinian Ministry of Education honoring Baha Alyan, who last year murdered three Israeli civilians. On his walk home, Ali looks up at a towering statue erected just a few weeks ago by the Palestinian Authority to honor Abu Sukar, who detonated a bomb in the center of Jerusalem, killing 15 Israelis.&#8221;</blockquote>
&#8220;Imagine your child undergoing this brainwashing,&#8221; Netanyahu said. &#8220;Imagine what it takes for a young boy or girl to break free out of this culture of hate. Some do but far too many don&#8217;t. How can any of us expect young Palestinians to support peace when their leaders poison their minds against peace?&#8221;
The PLO has signed peace agreements before, each time with forked tongue. One notable occasion was the 1993 Oslo peace process, which earned PLO head Yasser Arafat the Nobel Peace Prize. While he spoke of peaceful coexistence at the White House, he was singing a very different tune to Arab and Muslim audiences. On May 10, 1994, Arafat was secretly recorded speaking at a mosque in Johannesburg, South Africa. He <a href="https://iris.org.il/arafats-johannesburg-speech/">said</a>:
<blockquote>&#8220;This agreement, I am not considering it more than the agreement which had been signed between our prophet Mohammed and Koraish, and you remember the Caliph Omar had refused this agreement and [considered] it a despicable truce.
But Mohammed had accepted it and we are accepting now this peace offer. But to continue our way to Jerusalem, to the first shrine together and not alone. We are in need of you as Moslems, as warriors of Jihad.&#8221;</blockquote>
(The treaty with the Koraish, known as the Treaty of Hudaybiya, was a peace treaty Mohammed signed with the Koraish tribe of Mecca at a time when his army was not strong enough to conquer the city. Two years later, however, Mohammed&#8217;s forces had gained in strength, so he abrogated the treaty and conquered Mecca.)
A few years later, when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Arafat everything he asked for as part of the agreement, Arafat rejected the offer and subsequently launched one of the bloodiest waves of terrorism in modern Israeli history.
In 2015, Palestinan Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas said: &#8220;We welcome every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem. This is pure blood, clean blood, blood on its way to Allah. With the help of Allah, every shaheed (martyr) will be in heaven, and every wounded will get his reward.  &#8230; Al-Aqsa is ours, and the (Church of the) Holy Sepulcher is ours, everything is ours, all ours. They (the Jews) have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet and we won&#8217;t allow them to.&#8221;
The PLO is poison. It has destroyed the prospect of peace and it holds hostage the aspirations of the Palestinians. If there is to be peace someday, it will be when the legacy of the PLO is undone.

Mahmoud Abbas at U.N.

MITSOTAKIS: The PLO’s Poison

Benjamin Netanyahu

Foreign Policy

Mahmoud Abbas

Middle East

Yasser Arafat

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has been doing some impressive bipartisan lobbying. Politicians from across the spectrum, from Former Secretary of State <a href="https://en.radiofarda.com/a/kerry-met-iran-zarif-several-times/29488152.html">John Kerry</a> to Sen. <a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/mark-levin-rips-into-rand-paul-over-iran/">Rand Paul</a> (R-KY), are all taking their turns to meet with him. Their common goal: Get President Donald Trump to end his “maximum pressure” campaign against the hostile Tehran regime.
Last year, this leftist-libertarian alliance was codified into a new &#8220;non-interventionist&#8221; think tank, the Quincy Institute. On its board is Trita Parsi, a man who has for decades worked behind the scenes — often in tandem with Iranian officials, including Javad Zarif — to weaken America&#8217;s resistance to Iranian aggression and nuclear ambitions.
In the weeks since the killing of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-just-and-proper-strike-of-mastermind-iranian-jihadist-qassem-soleimani">terrorist mastermind</a> Qassem Soleimani, agitation by the Iranian regime&#8217;s apologists has reached a crescendo. In response, I asked <a href="https://twitter.com/AdelleNaz">Adelle Nazarian</a>, senior media fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy in Washington, D.C. and fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, India, to tell us more.
What follows is a question-and-answer interview with Nazarian.
Who is Trita Parsi?
Nazarian: Trita Parsi is the Iranian-born founder of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that is <a href="https://freebeacon.com/national-security/congress-seeks-investigation-into-pro-iran-lobby-group-tied-to-tehran-regime/">allegedly the lobbying extension</a> and arm of the Iranian regime. That would be the same Iranian regime rife with corruption, terrorism, and the murder of its own people. Parsi and NIAC’s support for the Iranian regime is <a href="https://twitter.com/AdelleNaz/status/1217693851890126848?s=20">in violation of FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act ] law</a> and they were instrumental in helping pass the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal. Parsi is an activist who has <a href="https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/03/the_ayatollahs_lobby_on_k_street.html">maintained a close relationship</a> with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2015-03-31/iran-s-charmer-in-chief-wins-again">Javad Zarif</a> and was a lead advisor to the Obama administration throughout the process of executing the JCPOA. NIAC falsely claims it supports the full spectrum of Iranian interests, but it actually only cares about pushing the regime’s interests. NIAC is at odds with Iran’s Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, his supporters, and any Iranians who do not share the dictatorial vision of the Iranian regime. If Iran’s regime falls, it will be seen as the failure of Trita Parsi.
What is the Quincy Institute?
Nazarian: Trita Parsi is the executive vice president and co-founder of the Quincy Institute, which is funded by both Charles Koch and George Soros. It is also co-founded by Iran deal advocates. This think tank aims to compel American politicians to adopt a non-interventionist foreign policy by actively funneling misinformation and propaganda to the media and, by extension, the American people. The think tank’s board is anti-Israel, with fellows having written books very critical of America’s close alliance with Israel. John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt — both co-authors of “The Israel Lobby&#8221; and fellows at the Quincy Institute — have an issue with the so-called &#8220;Israel lobby,&#8221; but have no issue working with the Iran lobby. While on the surface, the organization presents itself with the noble aim of ending endless wars in the pursuit of international peace, its co-founders — namely Andrew Bacevich, Stephen Wertheim, Eli Clifton, and Suzanne DiMaggio — are Iran deal advocates. The group also boasts Gary Sick as a “distinguished fellow.” In 1980, Mr. Sick infamously and falsely accused officials in Ronald Reagan&#8217;s presidential campaign of making a secret deal with Iran to delay the release of the American hostages until after the election.
What are Iranians and Iranian-Americans saying? 
Nazarian: Iranians and Iranian-Americans know the Quincy Institute pushes misinformation. Parsi’s move from NIAC to the Quincy Institute is an attempt to further his lobbying and propagandizing efforts. Due to funding from Soros and Koch, Parsi has been able to shield his anti-American and pro-Iranian views and actions. Iranians do not want war with America and President Donald Trump’s neutralization of IRGC-Quds Forces Commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani pushed Iran to stop its antagonistic and provocative behavior that was swiftly deteriorating U.S.-Iran relations and leading us to war.
Though Parsi claims to speak on behalf of the full spectrum of Iranian-Americans, <a href="https://twitter.com/AdelleNaz/status/1139620277396987905?s=20">a poll conducted in June</a> shows an overwhelming 85% of participants see NIAC and its affiliates as the “enemy.” Due to President Trump’s decisive actions, the machinations and manipulations of Trita Parsi have been undone. Regardless of the future, it is clear that Trita Parsi is a menace.

Javad Zarif

MITSOTAKIS: Iran Apologists, Left And Right, Have A New Think Tank

Iran

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

John Kerry

Koch Brothers

Nuclear Weapons

Rand Paul

&#8220;In the Soviet Union, the important thing was to overcome the fear.&#8221; That is what former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky told me over tea in a Jerusalem cafe.
In the totalitarian, atheist Soviet Union, Jewish identity was forcibly submerged. &#8220;The only Jewish thing that was in my life,&#8221; Sharansky says, &#8220;was anti-Semitism!&#8221; That was until 1967. Israel&#8217;s victory in the Six-Day War, Sharansky says, changed the way the Soviets viewed Jews, and changed the way Soviet Jews viewed themselves. They were now, to friend and foe alike, part of something larger than themselves, connected to the Jewish state and to Jews the world over. With this knowledge, Soviet Jewish dissidents were no longer afraid and had the courage to confront the Evil Empire.
Sharansky has told this story many times before, but faced with the rising tide of anti-Semitic attacks and libels against Jews worldwide, I asked him about an often forgotten aspect of the crusade for human rights in the Soviet Union. There were many dissident groups with different goals, but the group that was best organized and had the most reliable contacts with the outside world were the Jewish “Refuseniks” (Soviet Jews who were denied the right to emigrate to Israel).
Sharansky, their spokesperson, was happy to help others. And that included many, many persecuted Christians.
Reports about the abuses suffered by Christians in the Soviet Union made their way through Sharansky&#8217;s network to the Western press and human rights groups. With each new revelation, demands on the Soviets to respect freedom of religion increased.
The importance of this channel wasn&#8217;t lost on Christians. &#8220;A group that I helped to establish their first contacts to reach the foreign press and to speak to the world were Pentecostals. I was very pleased later to find out that when I was arrested, there were tens of thousands of Pentecostals in Siberia who were fasting in solidarity with me.&#8221;
When the Soviets arrested Sharansky and sent him to the Gulag, his communist tormentors thought they might break him by placing him in a cell with a Christian activist. A religious Jew and a religious Christian would surely tear each other apart, they thought. But it did not turn out that way.
&#8220;You discover in prison [that] you can never know who is an informer and who is not. (That&#8217;s what you discover in general in Soviet life.) But what you discover is that with people with strong identities, there is less chance that they will be informers. Because, exactly as you have other values than physical survival — you have your identity you want to be a part of — they also have their own identities.&#8221; Strong identities give people values worth fighting for. &#8220;And that&#8217;s why if he was [an] activist, like Pentecostal or Christian activist, you knew that the chance that he [was] KGB [was] much less.&#8221;
Sharansky&#8217;s closest friend in the Gulag was a Christian activist named Vladimir Poresh. &#8220;I describe in this book,&#8221; he says, pointing to my copy of his 1988 memoir Fear No Evil, &#8220;ecumenical readings of the Bible, which we called &#8216;Reagan&#8217;s readings.&#8217; Because in 1983 it was in the Soviet press that Reagan called it the &#8216;Year of the Bible.'&#8221;
I recalled that in Fear No Evil, he describes going on a hunger strike so his friend can get back his Christian Bible. &#8220;Oh yeah! It was a very long hunger strike!&#8221; he said. When I expressed my amazement at this, he said that the fact that they were of different faiths was not an issue. &#8220;It was all about our rights to be free people and live in accordance with our conscience. And then you feel at this critical moment that, after all, we all have one God.&#8221;
The Soviet Union was a regime that depended on fear and control. When people found the courage to speak out, control would slip a little more, and more people would then find their courage. It was a death spiral, and the strain became too much for the regime to bear.
Here in the United States, the land of the free, Jews should not have to live in fear of being attacked. Christians must stand with them. The bonds of brotherhood between Jews and Gentiles should not require the Gulag to bring to the surface.

Natan Sharansky

EXCLUSIVE: Soviet Dissident Recalls Jews And Christians Stood United Against Fear

Anti-Semitism

Communism

Russia

Soviet Union

One of the central complaints of Donald Trump&#8217;s presidential campaign and subsequent presidency is that America&#8217;s NATO allies (Turkey included) don&#8217;t pay their share for the protection they enjoy from the United States military. Yet in the Middle East, there is a group that has paid its share in blood — blood that they shed to minimize our losses while defeating our enemies — and Trump threw them away.
It is often said that the Kurds are pro-American, but that is an understatement. To say that the Kurds love America is still an understatement. The Bible says &#8220;Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends&#8221; (John 15:13 KJV), and in this case that love is multiplied more than a thousand fold.
According to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-to-pull-troops-from-northern-syria-as-turkey-readies-offensive/2019/10/07/a965e466-e8b3-11e9-bafb-da248f8d5734_story.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-to-pull-troops-from-northern-syria-as-turkey-readies-offensive/2019/10/07/a965e466-e8b3-11e9-bafb-da248f8d5734_story.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1570847289196000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEpePltki-YB75BHIV7LhmYA7UEtA">The Washington Post</a>, in the battle against ISIS: &#8220;Syrian Kurdish fighters have served as the primary ground force against the Islamic State, with the United States providing logistical and air support. The Kurds have suffered more than 10,000 casualties in the fight. Four American service members have been killed in combat in Syria since 2014.&#8221; The loss of any American soldier breaks the heart of every patriot, but ISIS wants to kill every American man, woman, or child who will not bow to their dictates. If we are to continue to live safe and free, ISIS had to be defeated sooner or later — and it was done with very few American casualties, thanks to the sacrifices of the Kurds.
The president likes to say that there were only 50 troops in northern Syria supporting the Kurds. For those 50 troops, the United States had a battle-tested fighting force of 100,000 reliable friends — something quite rare in the Middle East — that the U.S. could call upon in case of an ISIS resurgence.
Terrorists arise, thrive, and can resurface in areas of instability. Until a few days ago, the threat of such a resurfacing of ISIS was low — thanks to the stability of the area governed by the Kurds. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-not-too-late-for-trump-to-rethink-a-dangerous-betrayal-of-us-allies-in-syria/2019/01/03/fb86739c-0f69-11e9-84fc-d58c33d6c8c7_story.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-not-too-late-for-trump-to-rethink-a-dangerous-betrayal-of-us-allies-in-syria/2019/01/03/fb86739c-0f69-11e9-84fc-d58c33d6c8c7_story.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1570847289196000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGPKDNNyGOo5L94GZo171hKXOvnGg">According</a> to Thomas S. Kaplan and Bernard-Henri Lévy, who work directly with the Kurds, &#8220;Even as they [the Kurds] have waged a years-long war against the Islamic State in northeastern Syria, they have governed a population of about 2 million people with a degree of respect for religious freedom, gender equality and minority rights unknown in that part of the world.&#8221; (Last year, former Daily Wire correspondent Kassy Dillon, traveled to northern Iraq and saw first-hand what an area governed by the Kurds looks like. &#8220;I spent several day[s] with the Kurds last year and I was the only woman,&#8221; she <a href="https://twitter.com/KassyDillon/status/1181220006341705729" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/KassyDillon/status/1181220006341705729&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1570847289196000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEQxGJ5XwKVQcEy841U0--C8t207A">tweeted</a>. &#8220;I was treated respectfully and had the opportunity to visit their front lines.&#8221; One of the Kurdish fighters she met, Mo, <a href="https://twitter.com/KassyDillon/status/1181191030097338368" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/KassyDillon/status/1181191030097338368&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1570847289196000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGrUZnvmA7hlZLdU0vUGOegr3y9uQ">wears</a> an American flag on his uniform &#8220;to honor all of the Americans who fought beside him against ISIS.&#8221;)
All of this is now being squandered by the president — and for what? What national security benefits did the unreliable, unstable, anti-American dictator of Turkey promise that convinced the president to abandon some of America&#8217;s most stalwart allies in the Middle East?
It&#8217;s a real shame. Alliances are built on trust. The Kurds trusted us and did their part. Next time the president complains about allies who don&#8217;t do their part, he should take a long, hard look in the mirror.

Donald Trump speaking

MITSOTAKIS: Trump’s Alliance Hypocrisy

Islamic State (ISIS)

Kurds

NATO

Syria

Turkey

In trying to defend herself against <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50165/tulsi-gabbard-responds-kamala-harris-calling-her-frank-camp">accusations</a> of being an &#8220;apologist&#8221; for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, 2020 Democratic Party presidential contender Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) turned to history. As a possible riposte, she quipped to Anderson Cooper that President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) worked with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin during the Second World War.
&#8220;But I&#8217;m sure, you know, Roosevelt would have acknowledged that Stalin murdered millions of people,&#8221; Cooper initially responded, before (eventually) getting Gabbard to concede that she doesn&#8217;t dispute Assad tortures and murders countless Syrians.
It has long been a subject of controversy whether FDR was too restrained on his criticisms of Stalin. Ronald Reagan would often criticize the infamous Yalta agreement as a bad deal. Yet one of Roosevelt&#8217;s last major actions was to replace Henry Wallace with Harry Truman as his vice president.
His reason: Wallace was an apologist for Stalin. And after the war, Wallace ran as a &#8220;peace candidate&#8221; in the 1948 presidential election — a campaign dedicated to defending everything Stalin did and attacking Harry Truman as a &#8220;warmonger&#8221; in league with global fascism.
The lengths to which Wallace would go for Stalin&#8217;s sake were remarkable. When taken on tour of the Kolyma Gulag, Wallace met one person after another who told him how great it was there — reports he relayed with much enthusiasm. When Truman wanted to give aid to the government of Greece so that the Greeks could defeat a Communist insurrection, Wallace said Truman was trying to prop up fascism. When Stalin orchestrated a Communist coup in Czechoslovakia, Wallace said it was Truman&#8217;s fault and accused the U.S. ambassador of trying to orchestrate a fascist coup that Stalin needed to put down.
Likewise, today we have Gabbard touring Aleppo with people walking up to her to tell her how grateful they are for Assad and the Russians who carpet bombed the city. We have Gabbard blaming National Security Advisor John Bolton for Iran attacking tankers in the Persian Gulf, and we have her assurances that all resistance to team Iran/Assad/Putin anywhere in the Middle East takes the form of U.S.-funded al-Qaeda terrorists. Iran/Assad/Putin seem incapable of telling a lie, in Gabbard&#8217;s eyes.
Gabbard&#8217;s base of Code Pink-ers — the irksome blame-America-first crowd — are up in arms that she is being called out. Well, so be it. As with Henry Wallace, whose only support came from pawns of an evil empire, the baying of the beast betrays its presence.

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Spyridon Mitsotakis