The Watchman On The Wall

The Watchman On The Wall
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Verse 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

The Empire Is Fighting Too Many Wars; O Império está lutando demais guerras

Image result for map of Manbij Syria
Turkey has been complaining about US support for the Kurdish YPG for years, and this week, that has boiled down to an overt ultimatum, with Turkey’s Foreign Ministry demanding the US immediately withdraw from the Syrian city of Manbij.

The US helped the YPG capture Manbij early last year, and Turkey has been mad because their position is the Kurds can have no territory west of the Euphrates River. Though Manbij is on the river, it is primarily on the western bank.

With Turkey’s recent invasion of the Afrin District, they’ve made it clear that Manbij will be their second target in the invasion. This could be a potential problem, since the US has troops in the city, which were put there in the first place to preclude a Turkish invasion.

In recent days, Turkish officials have suggested they are willing to not only invade whether the US leaves or not, but suggested that US troops 
would be targeted if they continue to help the Kurds in the city.

This risks being a long-term issue for the US beyond Manbij, however, as Turkey has said all of Syrian Kurdistan is a target, and all US troops in Syria are deployed into Kurdish territory, meaning this could boil down to Turkey forcing a US pullout.

Turkey is claiming a US concession already made, in that the US supposedly has pledged a halt to all arms for the Kurds. This is a long-standing Turkish demand, but the US has yet to confirm that this indeed will be the case.

If Turkey is not bluffing, U.S. troops in Manbij, Syria, could be under fire by week's end, and NATO engulfed in the worst crisis in its history.

If the Turks attack Manbij, the U.S. will face a choice: Stand by our Kurdish allies and resist the Turks, or abandon the Kurds.

Should the U.S. let the Turks drive the Kurds out of Manbij and the entire Syrian border area with Turkey, as Erdogan threatens, U.S. credibility would suffer a blow from which it would not soon recover.

But to stand with the Kurds and oppose Erdogan's forces could mean a crackup of NATO and loss of U.S. bases inside Turkey, including the air base at Incirlik.

Turkey also sits astride the Dardanelles entrance to the Black Sea. NATO's loss of Turkey would thus be a triumph for Vladimir Putin, who gave Ankara the green light to cleanse the Kurds from Afrin.

Yet Syria is but one of many challenges to U.S. foreign policy.

The Winter Olympics in South Korea may have taken the threat of a North Korean ICBM that could hit the U.S. out of the news. But no one believes that threat is behind us.

Last week, China charged that the USS Hopper, a guided missile destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles of Scarborough Shoal, a reef in the South China Sea claimed by Beijing, though it is far closer to Luzon in the Philippines. The destroyer, says China, was chased off by one of her frigates. If we continue to contest China's territorial claims with U.S. warships, a clash is inevitable.

In a similar incident Monday, a Russian military jet came within five feet of a U.S. Navy EP-3 Orion surveillance plane in international airspace over the Black Sea, forcing the Navy plane to end its mission.

U.S. relations with Cold War ally Pakistan are at rock bottom. In his first tweet of 2018, President Trump charged Pakistan with being a duplicitous and false friend.

"The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"


As for America's longest war, in Afghanistan, now in its 17th year, the end is nowhere on the horizon.

A week ago, the International Hotel in Kabul was attacked and held for 13 hours by Taliban gunmen who killed 40. Midweek, a Save the Children facility in Jalalabad was attacked by ISIS, creating panic among aid workers across the country.

Saturday, an ambulance exploded in Kabul, killing 103 people and wounding 235. Monday, Islamic State militants attacked Afghan soldiers guarding a military academy in Kabul. With the fighting season two months off, U.S. troops will not soon be departing.

If Pakistan is indeed providing sanctuary for the terrorists of the Haqqani network, how does this war end successfully for the United States?

Last week, in a friendly fire incident, the U.S.-led coalition killed 10 Iraqi soldiers. The Iraq war began 15 years ago.

Yet another war, where the humanitarian crisis rivals Syria, continues on the Arabian Peninsula. There, a Saudi air, sea and land blockade that threatens the Yemeni people with starvation has failed to dislodge Houthi rebels who seized the capital Sanaa three years ago.

This weekend brought news that secessionist rebels, backed by the United Arab Emirates, have seized power in Yemen's southern port of Aden, from the Saudi-backed Hadi regime fighting the Houthis.

These rebels seek to split the country, as it was before 1990.

Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE appear to be backing different horses in this tribal-civil-sectarian war into which America has been drawn.

There are other wars — Somalia, Libya, Ukraine — where the U.S. is taking sides, sending arms, training troops, flying missions.

Like the Romans, we have become an empire, committed to fight for scores of nations, with troops on every continent, and forces in combat operations of which the American people are only vaguely aware.

"I didn't know there were 1,000 troops in Niger," said Sen. Lindsey Graham when four Green Berets were killed there. "We don't know exactly where we're at in the world, militarily, and what we're doing."

No, we don't, Senator.

As in all empires, power is passing to the generals.

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Putin Discusses Faith and The Religion of Communism; Putin discute fé e a religião do comunismo

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt5OfyvPiSk&t=0s

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Democracy vs. Nationalism; Démocratie vs. Nationalisme

By Pat Buchanan

"The Western democratic system is hailed by the developed world as near perfect and the most superior political system to run a country," mocked China's official new agency.

"However, what's happening in the United States today will make more people worldwide reflect on the viability and legitimacy of such a chaotic political system."

There is a worldwide audience for what Beijing had to say about the shutdown of the U.S. government, for there is truth in it.

According to Freedom House, democracy has been in decline for a dozen years. Less and less do nations look to the world's greatest democracy, the United States, as a model of the system to best preserve and protect what is most precious to them.

China may be a single-party Communist state that restricts freedom of speech, religion and the press, the defining marks of democracy. Yet Beijing has delivered what makes the Chinese people proud — a superpower nation to rival the mighty United States.

Chinese citizens appear willing to pay, in restricted freedoms, the price of national greatness no modern Chinese generation had ever known.

The same appears true of the Russian people.

After the humiliation of the Boris Yeltsin era, Russians rallied to Vladimir Putin, an autocrat 18 years in power, for having retrieved Crimea and restored Russia to a great power that can stand up to the Americans.

Consider those "illiberal" democracies of Central and Eastern Europe — the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Hungary.

To preserve their national character and identity, all have chosen to refuse refugees from Africa and the Middle East. And if this does not comport with the liberal democratic values of the EU, so be it.

President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that if the French had voted at the time Britain did, for Brexit, France, too, might have voted to get out of the European Union.

Why? One reason, and, no, it's not the economy, stupid.

It is the tribe. As the English wished to remain English, and voted to regain control of their borders, so the French wish to remain who they were and are — whether ruled by a Louis XIV, Napoleon, General de Gaulle or the Fifth Republic.

In these countries, the common denominator is that the nation comes first, and that political system is best which best protects and preserves the unique character of the nation.

Nationalism trumps democratism.

Recall. Donald Trump was not elected because he promised to make America more democratic, but to "make America great again."

As for the sacred First Amendment right to democratic protest, Trump got a roaring ovation for declaring that NFL players who "take a knee" during the national anthem should be kicked off the field and off the team.

Circling back to the government shutdown, what, at root, was that all about, if not national identity.

The Democrats who refused to vote to keep the government open did not object to anything in the Republican bill. They objected to what was not in the bill: amnesty for the illegal immigrants known as "dreamers." It was all about who gets to become an American.

And what is the divisive issue of "open borders" immigration all about, if not the future ethnic composition of the United States?

Consider a few of the issues that have convulsed our country in recent months. White cops. The NFL players' protests. Desecration and removal of statues of Columbus, Lee, Jackson. The Charlottesville battle of antifa versus the "alt-right." The "s—-hole countries" crack of the president. The weeklong TV tirade of rants against the "racist" Trump.


Are they not all really issues of race, culture and identity?

On campuses, leftist students and faculty protest the presence of right-wing speakers, whom they identify as fascists, racists and homophobes. To radicals, there is no right to preach hate, as they see it, for to permit that is to ensure that hate spreads and flourishes.

What the left is saying is this. Our idea of a moral society is one of maximum ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, and, in the burying of the old wicked America, and the creation of a new better America, we will not accord evil ideas equal rights.

In the old rendering, "Error has no rights!"

That fifth of mankind that is Islamic follows a similar logic.

As there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet, why would we allow inside our societies and nations the propagation of false faiths like Christianity that must inevitably lead to the damnation of many of our children?

"The best test of truth," said Oliver Wendell Holmes, "is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market."

But in our world, more and more people believe, and rightly so, that truth exists independent of whether people accept or reject it.

And there are matters, like the preservation of a unique people and nation, that are too important to be left to temporary majorities to decide.

Even The Critics Concede That Hundreds of People Saw Yeshua After His Resurrection; גם המבקרים התווכחו כי מאות אנשים ראו את ישוע לאחר תחייתו

Image result for Yeshua appears to people after the resurrection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBtIPGg2vK0

It's War Between Turkey and the Kurds; Türkiye ve Kürtler Arası Savaş

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US warnings and calls for restraint have failed, and Turkey has invaded Syria’s Afrin District, beginning what could be a protracted battle with the US-backed Kurdish YPG. Two major US allies are in open conflict.
US allies have often clashed in the course of the Syrian War, but this is shaping up to be a long military campaign by Turkey, which has been looking to push against the Kurds for quite some time.
The US is so far just calling for “restraint,” but their involvement in the fight could come quite quickly, as Turkish officials have repeatedly said after Afrin, they’ll be attacking the YPG-held city of Manbij, a city that has US troops embedded within.
The US initially sent troops to Manbij to try to deter a Turkish invasion,betting they wouldn’t want to risk causing casualties to a fellow NATO member. That the fight is already ongoing now may change that calculation.
Moreover, Turkey has been complaining about US support for the Kurds for years, and is now demanding that the US totally end all connections with the YPG if they want to “work together,” something the US is unlikely to do.

US intentions to keep troops in Syria for the long-term depend heavily on the idea of the YPG retaining a lot of territory to host those US troops within. Finding a way to retain that territory while still giving Turkey the major anti-Kurdish offensive they want is going to be a struggle, and one which could do long-term harm to US-Turkey relations.

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

A Rogue Chinese Sub launched a missile over Hawaii! Разбойник китайского Sub запустил ракету над Гавайями! Razboynik kitayskogo Sub zapustil raketu nad Gavayyami!

Image result for clinton crime syndicate

Greg Hunter interviews Dr. Dave Janda about the missile flap in Hawaii; the global crime syndicate aka Clinton Foundation, the swamp, Assange; a damning inspector general delivered 1.2 million pages to key congressional and senate chairmen; first indictment in the Uranium One scandal;
Michael Horowitz going after the Clintons; the EO of December 21st, including martical law in a national emergency; military tribunals; January - national end human trafficking and slavery month; 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIO4vWYtk6s&t=2720s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRcUCNExJws

Why Is Israel Taking Over The Internet? Pourquoi Israël prend-il le contrôle d'Internet?


Image result for social media memes
Users of social media have been increasingly reporting that their accounts have been either censored, blocked or suspended during the past year. Initially, some believed that the incidents might be technical in nature, with overloaded servers struggling to keep up with the large and growing number of accounts, but it eventually emerged that the interference was deliberate and was focused on individuals and groups that were involved in political or social activities considered to be controversial.
At the end of last year a number of Russian accounts on Facebook and elsewhere were suspended over the allegations that social media had been used to spread so-called false news that had possibly materially affected the 2016 presidential election in the United States. Even though it proved impossible to demonstrate that the relatively innocuous Russian efforts had any impact in comparison to the huge investment in advertising and propaganda engaged in by the two major parties, social media quickly responded to the negative publicity.
Now it has been learned that major social media and internet service providers have, throughout the past year, been meeting secretly with the United States and Israeli governments to remove content as well as ban account holders from their sites. The United States and Israel have no legal right to tell private companies what to do but it is clearly understood that the two governments can make things very difficult for those service providers that do not fall in line. Israel has threatened to limit access to sites like Facebook or to ban it altogether while the U.S. Justice Department can use terrorist legislation, even if implausible, to force compliance. Washington recently forced Facebook to cancel the account of the Chechen Republic’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a Putin loyalist that the White House has recently “sanctioned.”
Israel is not surprisingly most active in patrolling the Internet as it is keen to keep out any material sympathetic to the Palestinian cause or critical of Israeli treatment of Arabs. Its security services scan the stories being surfaced and go to the service providers to ask that material be deleted or blocked based on the questionable proposition that it constitutes “incitement” to violence. Facebook reportedly cooperates 95% of the time to delete material or shut down accounts. Palestinian groups, which use social networking on the internet to communicate, have been especially hard hit, with ten leading administrators’ accounts being removed in 2017. Israeli accounts including material threatening to kill Arabs are not censored.
Microsoft, Google, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are all also under pressure to cooperate with pro-Israel private groups in the United States, to include the powerful Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The ADL seeks “to engineer new solutions to stop cyberhate” by blocking “hate language,” which includes any criticism of Israel that might even implausibly be construed as anti-Semitism. Expanding restrictions on what is being defined as “hate speech” will undoubtedly become common in social media and more generally all across the internet in 2018.
The internet, widely seen as a highway where everyone could communicate and share ideas freely, is actually a toll road that is increasingly managed by a group of very large corporations that, when acting in unison, control what is seen and not seen. Search engines already are set up to prioritize information from paid “sponsors,” which come up prominently but often have nothing to do with what material is most relevant. And the role of intrusive governments in dictating to Facebook and other sites who will be heard and who will be silenced should also be troubling, as it means that information that would benefit the public might never be seen, particularly if it is embarrassing to powerful interests. And speaking of powerful interests, groups like the ADL with partisan agendas will undoubtedly be able to dictate norms of behavior to the service providers, leading to still more loss of content and relevancy for those who are looking for information.

All things considered, the year 2018 will be a rough one for those who are struggling to maintain the internet as a source of relatively free information. Governments and interest groups have seen the threat posed by such liberty and are reacting to it. They will do their best to bring it under control.