Category Archives: International Relations

America for International Readers

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Note: This essay is aimed at readers outside the USA who may not be up to speed on the present political mechanics of how US government operates. Fellow Americans, for you this is old news.

The entire world is aware that America is under the control of a wealthy property developer with a focus on golf resorts and gold leaf. His malignant world view is on a long held transactional footing. He may not be suffering from an actual mental illness, but he certainly has multiple, overlapping personality disorders. He is widely viewed as a dangerous a$$hole, but in America this is not a legal or practical barrier to elected office.

President Trump is a walking, talking monument to “Greed is Good”. The man is intelligent, but he does have negative personality traits that have been amplified and sustained by his wealth and election as President. The man has over time developed a reputation for having an uncanny knack for business deals and the accumulation of hotels and resorts, all aggrevated by his successful reality TV show. Afterall, he is a billionaire, isn’t he?

That wealth facilitates power should not surprise anyone. It exists everywhere. In America children are taught that anyone can grow up to be president. You just need to study hard and achieve. Anything is possible, it is often said. In reality, this is only approximately impossible, not completely.

America is a stratified society with the ultra-rich occupying the top social layer with the dirt poor and criminals at the bottom. In between are layers of the highly educated and the poorly educated. Upward mobility across the layers is sometimes possible, but transition to the millionaire and billionaire layers is difficult and highly reliant on luck. Your own good luck may depend on the bad luck of others.

As a group, Americans are inclined to believe that the wealthy are imbued with superior abilities but manage to discount the effect of luck. A large bank balance is enough math needed to measure a person’s overall merit. Whether or not wealth was achieved without having committed hard or soft crimes or keeping your sanity is not a metric. To many voters, merit stands on wealth accumulated where wealth stands for cash, credit or real estate.

The judgement of a person’s merit is neither inherently right nor wrong since such determination is subjective. A person’s lifetime merit is the sum of their actions and intentions and is inherently qualitative. However, if the operating policy of your life is transactional like our President’s, then the barrier to offensive behavior and ill-gotten gains is much diminished. A charitable person may claim that there is goodness in everyone, but if “goodness” only rests on the avoidance of a heinous crime as with our President, then I beg to differ. In his 2016 campaign Trump admitted in public that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue in New York City and get away with it. This was a revelation about him, but nobody took it seriously.

In America, there is the common view that wealthy people are deserving of our fascination for having achieved their wealth. Add this to the support of certain religious groups and you can win elections. In the early years of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, a concentrated effort was made to recruit religious groups, namely southern conservative protestant denominations, into the fold of the Republican Party. Decades of harping about abortion and moral majorities was a political strategy that diminished liberal candidates and brought throngs of single-issue voters to vote Republican. It worked and continues to be a strength of the GOP.

Today the hot-button issue is not so much abortion as the lurking specter of socialism and even communism. Socialism is presently found in the form of local fire and police departments, utilities, schools, Medicare, social security and more. Take away any of these services from conservatives and the howling will begin. I suppose they are against your socialism, but not theirs.

At present, the United States is functionally unable to control President Trump. The Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party or GOP, has a majority of votes in the House, the Senate, owns the Presidency and has a majority of life-time justices in the Supreme Court. Trump is party leader and is supposed to be balanced by the Supreme Court, two houses of Congress. These are the much praised “checks and balances”. The US Constitution was designed to prevent a chief executive from becoming a dictator. Regrettably the Constitution did not anticipate the present circumstance and is inadequate to provide a remedy. The Republican members of the Congress are deathly afraid of being subjected to a primary vote where candidates are selected for the later vote directly into Congress. They have refused to apply their checks and balances, so here we are.

Besides the constitutional branches of government is the so-called 4th Estate, the news media. Historically, newspapers unofficially held some amount of influence over politicians by virtue of fear of bad publicity. Until Trump came along, this fear was quite influential. His habit of continuous complaining about the media led to the formation of media businesses based on his every utterance. This has greatly diminished the influence of the 4th estate.

If you intend on starting a new democratic nation, pay attention to the manner in which the US is self-immolating on the global scale. Note how a malevolent political party took control of the government by simply getting elected. The conditions under which a Trump-like person is elected along with his party being in total control of Congress calls for an official body that can physically remove him from office if Congress finally gets around to voting him out in case he refuses to relinquish power. Electing a malevolent president supported by an ineffectual congress and cabinet is a dangerous condition requiring preplanning. America has to endure this situation by law.

The seemingly ideal condition of citizens electing candidate as president by a simple majority is hobbled by the electoral college. This college consists of electors designated by each state whose number is based on population and who unanimously cast their votes for a presidential candidate. This was put in place at the demand of southern slave states whose populations were greatly increased by slave populations. The result was a system that compensated slave states with an increased number of votes for the white population.

The US is locked into a terrible condition where a minority of neoliberal ideologues who, from in the shadows of Trump, are forcing their malignant theories of capitalism on the nation. No one voted for a libertarian society. Malignant because it seeks to transfer much more wealth and power to a small caste of oligarchs at the expense of the majority of the public.

Look at the rise of Elon Musk. He controls a space program, a media empire called “X”, an electric vehicle manufacturing enterprise, a large orbital telecommunications constellation and has the ear of Trump. He recently exercised his own foreign policy by shutting down access to his telecom satellites to Ukraine, thereby crippling Ukraine’s access to satellite telecommunications and much to the detriment of Ukraine’s war effort.

US President Trump must be reined in for many reasons, but here I refer to his support of Putin. Offering to back off sanctions on Russian oil exports, Trump has thus given aid to the Russian war effort in Ukraine. Trump’s strange affinity for Putin remains unexplained.

The Wicked Mr. Trump’s UN Speech

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Today’s address to the general assembly of the United Nations by the wicked Mr. Trump is yet another lurch in the psychotic breakdown of foreign policy of the United States of America. Trump’s speech further reinforces the spectacle of America’s moral collapse and declining status in the international community.

The adjective wicked is a bit antiquated but nicely fits for Trump. The word evil has supernatural connotations that might actually confer superhuman abilities which would flatter him and thereby be undeserved.

The current version of the Republican Party has led America into a disaster the likes of which are heretofore unseen. Trump has driven away our closest allies. He has deeply offended and threatened Canada, arguably the nicest country in the world. The citizens who voted for Trump own this festering boil and should be made to make amends. Idiots are elected by idiots.

Perhaps the USA could be excused for the first election of Trump. But to elect him twice and then make a show of failing to restrain him in his misdeeds is unforgivable. We have lost allies and trading partners in the international community and many of those states have already forged agreements and trade relationships leaving the US behind. There will be no return to past alliances.

It is as if the USA does not understand what a great position we have held since the end of WWII. American influence is already disappearing on many fronts.

Even when the time comes that Trump is out of the picture, the EU, trading partners and NATO will remain skeptical due to our 4-year election cycle that can abruptly reverse policies. America’s flip-flopping of policy with the election cycle has long been a source of consternation for the EU.

TRUMP IS A DISASTER AND MUST BE PHYSICALLY REMOVED FROM OFFICE TO STOP THIS DAMAGE TO OUR NATION. THERE IS NO INDICATION THAT HE WILL VOLUNTARILY VACATE THE OFFICE WHEN THAT TIME COMES. AN AGENCY OR COMMITTEE WITH THE AUTHORITY TO REMOVE TRUMP MUST BE DEVISED TO ACT UNDER THE FORCE OF LAW TO DO THIS OUTSIDE OF HIS ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL.

Trump, Vance, the cabinet, Speaker Johnson and the congressional MAGA Republican caucus are burrowed deeply beneath the skin of government and must be voted out for the continuity of our democratic republic.

The majority of voting Americans who oppose Trump are obligated by law to respect the election schedule imposed by the constitution in regard to elected office holders. While we follow the law in this regard, the congressional majority has declined to apply the built in checks and balances allowed by the constitution, thereby allowing Trump’s actions.

So far Trump opponents have been peaceful in their protests and general conduct. We have declined to storm government buildings, breaking in doors, injuring police officers and using bear spray in protest. It is because we, the loyal opposition, understand that it would be wrong.

How to be patriotic to Trump’s America? That’s a tough question. My tattered patriotism remains with pre-2016 America.

Who gave you the authority … ?

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Copied from a source whose name may be off-putting to MAGA Americans. The words of the UAE businessman should stand apart from sanctimonious misperceptions burrowed under the skin of MAGA supporters.

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“One of the UAE’s top businessmen, Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, just lashed out at Trump over the Iran War.

His Excellency President Donald Trump,

A direct question: Who gave you the authority to drag our region into a war with #Iran? And on what basis did you make this dangerous decision?

Did you calculate the collateral damage before pulling the trigger? And did you consider that the first to suffer from this escalation will be the countries of the region itself!

The peoples of this region have the right to ask as well: Was this your decision alone? Or did it come as a result of pressures from #Netanyahu and his government?

You have placed the countries of the #GulfCooperationCouncil and the Arab countries at the heart of a danger they did not choose. Thank God, we are strong and capable of defending ourselves, and we have armies and defenses that protect our homelands, but the question remains: Who gave you permission to turn our region into a battlefield?

For before the ink has dried on the #BoardOfPeace initiative that you announced in the name of peace and stability, we find ourselves facing a military escalation that endangers the entire region. So where did those initiatives go? And what is the fate of the commitments made in the name of peace?

Most of the funding proposed in those initiatives came from the countries of the region themselves, and from Arab Gulf countries that contributed billions of dollars on the basis of supporting stability and development. And these countries have the right to ask today: Where did this money go? And are we funding peace initiatives or funding a war that exposes us to danger?

More dangerous than that, your decision does not threaten only the peoples of the region, but also reaches the American people whom you promised peace and prosperity. And here they are today, finding themselves in a war funded from their money and taxes, with costs ranging, according to the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), between 40-65 billion dollars for direct military operations, and could reach 210 billion dollars including economic impacts and indirect losses if it lasts four to five weeks, not to mention the sacrifice of Americans themselves in a war in which they have neither camel nor she-camel.

You have even broken your promises not to get involved in wars and to focus only on America and put it at the top of your priorities, as you ordered foreign military interventions during your second term that included seven countries: Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, Nigeria, Syria, Iran, and Venezuela, in addition to naval operations in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean. You directed more than 658 foreign airstrikes in your first year in office, which equals the total strikes in Biden’s entire term, for which you directed your arrows of criticism for involving the United States in foreign wars.

Your Excellency the President, these numbers have severely reflected on your approval ratings among Americans, which have declined since your inauguration for the second term, by about 9% in just 400 days.

These numbers say something clear: Even within #TheUnitedStates, there is growing concern about being dragged into a new war, and about exposing the lives of Americans, their economy, and their future to unnecessary risks.

True leadership is not measured by war decisions, but by wisdom, respect for others, and pushing toward achieving peace. And if these initiatives were launched in the name of peace, then we have the right today to demand full transparency and clear accountability.”

Apology to the World

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I hope that peoples of the world understand that America’s president, Mr. Trump, is mightily disliked in the US and his opposition is only growing. His behavior at Davos in particular was humiliating for a growing majority of my countrymen. On behalf of the millions of Trump opponents, please understand that this won’t last forever and that we regret that our friends and allies have been exposed to this blithering idiot.

The Republican party has surrounded him in exchange for political protection and votes, but lately Republican congresspeople have been jumping off the MAGA barge like rats in a fire. While he crosses over every red line and is excused by his party, the rest of the country is obeying the laws and norms of our national heritage. While he wreaks havoc on everything he touches, he tries to rule by decree. This is dictator behavior.

Alienating America’s friends and NATO allies while threatening annexation of sovereign nations can only be the work of a greedy and deeply ignorant man. On top of that he fancies that certain dictators in the world are his friends. His voters were primarily interested in a candidate who would “kick ass and take names”. They wanted someone who could eliminate what they called the “deep state”. Trump has a persistent group of about 1/3 of the conservative voters who support him through thick and thin, but they don’t sound very educated.

Now the hidden brainwaves working in the Trump White House have dreamed up the idea of the “Board of Peace“. Accepted are the countries of UAE, Bahrain, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Morocco and Vietnam have already signed up. Rootin’ tootin’ Putin too.

It is plain to see that the American Constitution is inadequate for this and other circumstances. What if he is removed by the 25th Amendment but refuses to acknowledge it? His executive branch controls the major law enforcement agencies. If they refuse to remove Trump from office, who will do it? Foremost is needed a mechanism for the physical removal of a president from the White House and confiscation of the nuclear codes that follow him. Such authority and mechanism should be defined in the US Constitution. The current US Supreme Court’s conservative majority has adopted a legal theory called “originalism” at least since Justice Scalia’s time.

Originalism is a legal theory in the United States which bases constitutional, judicial, and statutory interpretation of text on the original understanding at the time of its adoption. Wikipedia

This philosophy seeks to limit interpretation of the Constitution to the language and meanings as well as the original intent of the 18th century document. In other words, it is frozen in time. Nobody believes that another amendment to the constitution will be supported by the required number of states. America needs a living document relating to 21st century American life.

Trump has an Edifice Complex. Apologies to Sigmond Freud.

Vice President JD “Gilligan” Vance is next in the line of succession and his inclinations as the next president are unclear. Ok, so we get rid of Trump only to have Gilligan take his place. Will he mindlessly continue the efforts of Trump”? Stay tuned.

Russia Fires Hypersonic Oreshnik Missiles at Ukraine

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At a time when the Trump administration is making enemies in the EU with talk of a military adventure in Greenland, Putin has unleashed Oreshnik hypersonic intermediate range missiles at Ukrainian civilians. The targeting of civilians is nothing new for the Russians, but the Oreshnik missiles travel at up to Mach 10 (7610 mph) which makes shooting them down problematic. Russia has held back this missile system until now., though in 2024 it apparently had fired a test shot absent explosive warheads. According to Wikipedia the Oreshnik ballistic missile system is still in the experimental stage.

The Russians have gotten quite peevish lately, claiming that Ukraine targeted the sprawling home of Putin. Targeting civilians in Kyiv as well as Lviv in western Ukraine serves the dual purpose of reminding the NATO and the EU of the threat Russia poses to them. Golly. Imagine a warring state trying to decapitate the leader of its opponent. According to reports Russia has been trying to assassinate Zelinski, so a reciprocal decapitation effort should be expected.

While Russia burns through military resources and personnel, and while the Russian economy teeters on the edge of total collapse, the conventional military threat to Europe should weaken more by the day. They are taking roughly 1000 casualties per day while their recruitment effort is falling short of that number. However, the nuclear threat remains. It is an open question as to whether Putin refrains from releasing nuclear weapons as his tenure becomes endangered. The Oreshnik missile is capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads- a fact that is lost on nobody.

It’s not in the nature of Putin or his Kremlin to admit even the slightest amount of damage or discomfort caused by Ukraine. One fine day the west will learn that Putin has disappeared and a successor has surfaced. What will Russia do then? A gesture of humanity, perhaps? That would be out of character. A Russian leader could never admit mistakes or defeat. Krushchev did it, but his tenure was cut short by the politburo with Brezhnev taking his place.

Good Lord, It’s The Greenland Thing Again.

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The Fearless Overlord of the American Oligarchy, DJT, has resurfaced the Greenland question again. Louisiana’s Republican governor Jeff Landry has been anointed by Trump to a volunteer position as Special Envoy to Greenland. This move was promptly condemned by both the EU President and Denmark, unsurprisingly.

Resembling the many tragic leaders in history, Trump keeps nattering on about the need to annex Greenland for national security. The claim of national security is a kind of universal excuse that is solemnly expressed but rarely explained. We understand that an explanation might reveal the poker hand we are playing- We get it. But like a when a hammer looks around and sees only nails, what does a property developer see when he pans his orange face across a large, underdeveloped island? Bingo!!

We shouldn’t forget that Trump has been in the business of selling his name as a brand for a long time. He knows the value of an attractive brand and is not the least bit shy about plastering his family name as far and wide as possible. Look at the recently renamed “Trump Kennedy” Center in DC where he is the CEO. His coterie of sycophants are constantly trying to outdo each other with ever increasing levels of ass-kissing. Whatever shame there might have been in self-promotion is long gone.

The thing is that when a businessman who was in the business of promoting his brand begins to label government property with that brand, isn’t that a conflict of interest? His escape must be that others are slapping the brand on buildings, not him. There isn’t a single milligram of shame in him that would request that such naming happen only after he passes.

An interesting thing is that while the Trump administration is officially contemptuous of global climate change, a particular result of climate change must come about. In order to extract mineral wealth from below the ice –whatever that might be– global warming will be needed to melt the Greenland ice cap to expose that mineral wealth.

However, the motivation goes far beyond minerals. Access to the Arctic Ocean and whatever crude oil that may be pumped out from below the ocean floor is up for grabs. A US shoreline on the Arctic Ocean supports arctic military access as well as access to the new Northwest Passage that is opening up to commerce.

A surprise to precisely no one, annexing Greenland is about a new phase of American hegemony and extending the reach of military power. Perhaps Greenland is the new Manifest Destiny in the eyes of the rancid White House clique running American government just now.

I previously mentioned American hegemony. The USA has been a leading world power since the conclusion of WWII. There are presently two other powers who desire this status and are happy to help the USA to topple over as hegemon. The post WWII track record of the American hegemon is spotty at best and since the election of Trump, has begun an abrupt nosedive.

Trump’s slogan “America First” is catchy and patriotic-sounding and appeals to us as citizens of an isolated country bounded by two expansive oceans. Unlike a great many other countries, the USA has a temperate climate, warm deepwater ports, and abundant fertile farmland, minerals and lumber. Importantly, the USA had a capitalistic economic establishment favoring industrialization as a mostly democratic republic. In combination, all of this allowed the USA to rapidly tool-up after Pearl Harbor and back its fighting forces with massive quantities of war materiel and enter WWII cocked and loaded for bear. Fascism was defeated in Europe and the Pacific, and we even helped our defeated enemies get back on their feet.

In my lifetime, I’ve heard many fellow citizens try to explain our victories in WWII as the result of some unique attribute of American clean living and superior moral fiber. Never mentioned are the countries who also had clean living and high moral fiber but were unable to summon the resources to assemble a powerful war machine. American successes in WWII greatly relied on abundant natural resources, an existing industrial base and oceans that prevented tanks and troops from marching across our borders.

Today, the tell-tale voices of fascism are surfacing around the USA. People who had previously voted republican and strutted around claiming to be patriotic citizens are now saying that maybe democracy doesn’t work and an authoritarian government is needed. Let Trump be Trump!

WWII veterans and their offspring have come, passed away or retired by now in 2025. They brought a kind of optimism and energy to the growth of the USA. Technological modernism was the answer to all the ills of society. What was needed was an electrified, push button life of convenience.

If you look deep enough into virtually any peacetime period of American history, you’ll find reports of conflict, malfeasance, criminality and a myriad of dirty political dealings for the time. This represents the true baseline, ground state of America. This is bumpy ground but normal. My point is that before we indulge in self-flagellation and unrealistic expectations of our society, we should have a good think about what “normal” is actually comprised of. The inability to deal with exponential growth, uncertainty and a bit of disorder only cripples us.

Who on God’s Green Earth Wants to Invade Russia?

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Putin has said on numerous occasions that the West wants what Russia has. Seriously? You mean permafrost? -61 oF winters. A border with China? A multiethnic and antagonistic population? A shortage of warm, deepwater ports? A long history of brutal authoritarianism?? Its gleaming history with nuclear energy and vast stretches of land contaminated with radioactive soil. Yes, we in the West stare longingly at Russia for this from time to time … NOT!

Oh yes, Pootie-Poot (nickname by George W. Bush) must mean natural resources like petroleum, platinum group metals, gold, titanium, uranium, diamonds, etc. These are valuable natural resources but at what cost for a conquering power. Too high by half would be the conclusion by rational people. Recall the problems Hitler had with Operation Barbarossa. Or the disaster Napolean fell upon with his ill-conceived invasion of Russia. Like any modern state, Russia has much in the way of weapons to bear upon its enemies. But what Russia has in great abundance are brutal winters and a muddy spring season to immobilize invaders.

Like any authoritarian worth his salt, Putin continues to make the case for tightening personal liberty in exchange for layers of “state security”. Citizens have been conditioned to avoid politics in exchange for politics avoiding citizens. It seems to work.

Like nearly everywhere else, Russia is populated by good and decent folks. I’ve been there and have experienced generous hospitality from ordinary citizens in their cramped apartments. How we could be mortal enemies is beyond me.

The people we now call Russians are descended from tough people who survived conquest and occupation by many hostile invaders over the many centuries. Somehow, they even chased out the Mongols and later overcame the mechanized invasion of Nazis. As the Red Army chased the Nazis westward in WWII, they burned down their own villages and even executed Russian citizens who failed to fight and die. My Russian language professor was a Ukrainian kid whose family evacuated Ukraine for Europe in WWII to flee the advancing Red Army.

The title of this post asks, “Who on God’s Green Earth Wants to Invade Russia?” I’d offer that to try would be at best to invite a nuclear exchange, terrible hardships and losses for any invasion force. It would be a supremely bad decision. And even if an invader prevails, what have they gained? A population dedicated to guerrilla warfare and civil disobedience. Sounds like a nightmare.

The consequences of invasion and occupation of any large region would produce guerrilla warfare and civil disobedience by the surviving conquered population.

The West could benefit by making it known out loud to the Russian people and the Kremlin that we understand that an invasion or occupation of Russia by a foreign power would be a suicidal calamity for any invader. The usual rancid Kremlin propaganda must be countered with words of strength, peace and prosperity for all people. We invite Russia to be a member in the community of peaceful states who participate in open commerce and tourism.

Yes, it’s bloody obvious and is itself a kind of propaganda we should be repeating loudly and endlessly. Effective propaganda must be repeated and drummed into people’s thought processes. The US and Europe should be repeating the message of friendship and peace in order to knock down Kremlin doors, grab the bastards by the throat and give them a big wet kiss. It would be a peace and love offensive. It is the one thing we haven’t tried yet.

The Latest Crusades

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You’ve probably heard that #47 has asked the Pentagon to be ready for action. According to an article in The Hill, President #47 has labeled Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern”, or CPC. This designation stems from news that Islamic terrorists are allegedly attacking Nigerian Christians. A group of approximately 30 American Christian religious leaders and a few politicians like Ted Cruz and Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) as well as the entertainers Nicki Minaj and Bill Maher have made a convincing enough case for the President to make the CPC declaration.

The [CPC] designation compels the president to consult with the designated government, draft up a foreign policy action plan, and consult with Congress about implementation.  [H.R.2431 — 105th Congress (1997-1998) within 90 days.]  –Laura Kelly – 11/03/25, The Hill

If you read H.R. 2431 (2018), you’ll find:

Title IV: Presidential Actions – Subtitle I: Targeted Responses to Violations of Religious Freedom Abroad – Directs the President, for each foreign country in which the government engages in or tolerates violations of religious freedom (including particularly severe violations), to oppose such violations by taking certain actions and promoting the right to freedom of religion in that country. [emphasis mine]

(Sec. 405) Specifies among the actions the President may take: (1) public condemnation; (2) delay or cancellation of scientific and cultural exchanges; (3) withdrawal, limitation, or suspension of U.S. development assistance and U.S. security assistance; (4) instruction of U.S. executive directors of international financial institutions to vote against loans primarily benefiting the foreign government responsible for such violations; (5) restrictions on the issuance of licenses to export any goods or technology to such foreign government; (6) prohibition against the making, guaranteeing, or insuring of loans, or extension of credit by certain U.S. financial institutions to the violating government; and (7) prohibition of U.S. Government procurement of goods or services from such government. Provides for: (1) commensurate actions in substitution for any of the above presidential actions; and (2) binding agreements with foreign governments obliging them to cease, or take substantial steps to address and phase out, the acts, policies, or practices constituting violations of religious freedom.

(Sec. 407) Authorizes the President to waive the requirements of this Act if certain conditions are met.

(Sec. 410) Prohibits judicial review of presidential actions or agency actions taken under this Act.

My reading of Title IV of H.R. 2431 is that the President is compelled to take certain actions against Nigeria. While taking no action does not seem to be specifically barred, I didn’t see it listed as an option.

The potential threat by the President is in sending an expeditionary military force to Nigeria to stop the violence on Christians. According to Wikipedia, the population (2023) of Nigeria is estimated at 236,747,130 people. Unless the terrorists are wearing military uniforms, how will our troops find them and what’s to prevent a guerrilla war with the terrorists gradually taking bites out of our soldiers as they did in Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan? Guerilla warfare has time and again proven successful against superior military forces.

America does not need another distant land war … this time in west-central Africa with guerilla fighters in the jungle. Peace through superior firepower only works if you can find the targets. Perhaps we should call in favors from Israeli special forces?

Finally, conflict between religions is a conflict between ideas. When both sides believe that they have authority based on the supernatural, short of religious conversion or death how do you decisively win such a war? A war of attrition, perhaps?

As a military conflict progresses, what is to prevent escalation on the part of US forces. Or is this just to be the work of a few military advisors? Remember, that is how the US stumbled into the Viet Nam war.

Despite a Public A$$ Kicking, Putin Fights On

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The history of Ukraine’s abuse from Russia is a sad tale of starvation (Holodomor), banishment to the gulags and ethnic cleansing (1947). Newsletters are available from The Kyiv Independent and try to connect the present Putin-Ukraine war with regional history. This is an email publication that originates in Ukraine and is written by Ukrainians. They try to explain “WTF is wrong with Russia.”

One eastern European scholar, Timothy Snyder, has written extensively about Russia and its influence on Ukraine. The Bloodlands is especially enlightening. After much civil conflict with Ukrainians after the Bolshevik revolution, Lenin relented and allowed Ukrainians to have their “own” state with the proviso that the new Ukraine must be part of the newly forming Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR (or CCCP in Cyrillic alphabet).

Ukraine has a bad history with neighboring Russia dating back to near the beginning of the USSR. Putin’s goal is reclaiming the territory of the former USSR. including Ukraine, Because Ukraine has considerable productive farmland and minerals, and because it provides a land barrier to Moscow, Putin very much wants the land back.

Where are the Nazis that Putin claimed to be running Ukraine?

As of this date, Oct. 21, 2025, the Putin-Ukraine war is no longer dominated by Putin’s army on the Ukrainian battlefield. While Ukraine continues to gather sympathies from NATO countries and elsewhere, Putin has turned Russia into an international red-headed stepchild. Sanctioned into bankruptcy and pounded by the Ukrainian military, Putin continues to put on a brave face to the Russian people. The hybrid warfare conducted by Russia continues and is especially problematic for NATO states, USA included.

Even though Putin has won presidential elections in the past, the transfer of power remains very murky to those outside the Kremlin walls. Yes, a new Russian president could conceivably win an election but detaching Putin and the layers upon layers of nervous sycophants as well as his dark income streams will be a problem. It is a stretch to believe that Putin will leave office alive. Maybe they’ll find an apartment for him in Pyong Yang, North Korea?

Adding to the political complexity, there is considerable distrust between the Russian military and the security services, two of which in particular are the FSB and GRU. Some have claimed that the FSB would not allow a military coup owing to past animosity and distrust. Putin’s authoritarian state, while extensive, still is subject to the frigid winds of economics.

Hamas Will Survive but Must Disarm

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Well, it seems that the Trump administration landed some kind of deal with Netanyahu and Hamas. Kudos to Trump. It took the intervention of a bigger a$$hole than the a$$hole Netanyahu to move the dial. In an opinion article by Shira Efron of the Rand Corporation in her opinion piece in the New York Times lays out some high-level thinking on the deal. (A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 13, 2025, Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump’s Peace Plan Dismantled Netanyahu’s Vision for Gaza).

From a Rand Corporation newsletter: “In Foreign Affairs, Efron says that the “tactical brilliance” of the U.S. plan is that its ambiguity affords each side a narrative of triumph. However, that deliberate vagueness cuts both ways. Sustained pressure on all parties will be required moving forward, she writes: “The most demanding work begins now.”

In the NYT piece, Efron concludes: “… that Israel’s longest major war in history, hostages held captive for over two years in unbearable conditions and many dying in captivity, some 2,000 Israeli casualties, more than 67,000 Palestinian deaths according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, Gaza reduced to rubble, Israel’s international isolation — all of it led not to the promised vision but to a negotiated settlement resurrecting the very ideas Mr. Netanyahu spent his career opposing. Their defeat is a victory for Israelis, Palestinians and others in the region who seek an alternative to prolonged bloodshed.” Shira Efron, New York Times, 10/13/25.

Shira Efron is the distinguished Israel policy chair and a senior fellow at RAND.