Will the U.S. Start a War Against Iran?

On Sunday, May 5, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton announced that the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force had begun to make their way from the Mediterranean Sea toward the coastline of Iran. Iran, Bolton said, had made “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings.” He was, characteristically, not specific. It was enough that Bolton—who has a history of making hazardous statements—had made these comments from the perch of the White House in Washington, D.C. “The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime,” he said rather incredulously. After all, what is the arrival of a massive war fleet on the coastline of a country but a declaration of war?

The Only Viable Response to Global Terror is Democracy

More than 250 people were killed in a series of coordinated terrorist attacks in churches and hotels in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 20 April during Easter Sunday. Local Islamic orgasnisations NJT and JMI are held responsible for the attack. Islamic State has also claimed responsibility. Sri Lanka has had a long history of majoritarian Buddhist and state violence against religious and ethnic minorities. During the civil war, the Tamil group LTTE too had attacked Muslims in its Eastern province. However, there have been no cases of inter-ethnic clashes between Muslims and Christians in the island nation. Motivation for these attacks apparently came from what is seen as persecution of Muslims in other countries.Multi religious and multi-ethnic countries of South Asia are especially in danger of being sucked into global terror spawned by imitations of the Islamic State and its virulent ideology. Before Colombo, there was the Dhaka attack on a café in which 29 people were killed. Signs from Pakistan and Afghanistan are not propitious where IS inspired terror groups have deeper base. Like Sri Lanka, India toois not immune from this kind of terror.

Global jihadists increasingly strike at religious targets

TWO DECADES ago al-Qaeda made its name by mounting a succession of bombings against America across the world. These included the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998; an American destroyer moored in Yemen in 2000; and, most bloodily of all, the attacks of September 11th 2001 on American soil. Though Osama bin Laden, the group’s founder, had long railed against “Jews and Crusaders”, so giving a religious sectarian dimension to his global jihad, his central target was clear: “kill the Americans and their allies”.

The Difficult Road to Defense

  • Ronald Reagan expressed opposition to the policy of détente, and stated that Soviet leaders “reserve unto themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat… and we operate on a different set of standards.”
  • “Missile defense is now seen as a key, critical part of strategic deterrence,” because it is imperative to place uncertainty in the mind of an enemy force about its ability to achieve its objectives. — U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General (ret.) Henry (“Trey”) Obering, former director of the Missile Defense Agency
  • Taken as a whole, missile defense today not only defends America’s homeland, but protects U.S. allies, assets and military forces abroad.

SISI CONSOLIDATES POWER IN EGYPT

Bottom Line Up Front:

On April 16, Egypt’s parliament passed amendments to the Constitution that provide President al-Sisi with a path forward to maintain power until 2030.

There is little observable public opposition to the constitutional changes, likely a result of the oppressive nature of the Egyptian government.

More Arms, More Problems

Bottom Line Up Front:

Global arms sales are booming, with a spike caused by a years-long increase in spending from countries in the MENA region.

Countries exporting arms cite the link between deterrence and stability to justify these sales, while often downplaying the role these weapons play in helping autocrats oppress their populations and often prolong wars and insurgencies.

German Government: Anti-Israel, Pro-Iran

Supporting one-sided resolutions against Israel is not Germany’s only unfriendly act against the Jewish state. Chancellor Angela Merkel has put pressure on other European Union states so that they do not transfer their embassies to Israel’s capital. Stopping the murder of Israelis is also not on the German government’s agenda.

LIBYA DEVOLVES FURTHER INTO ANARCHY

Bottom Line Up Front:

A serious military escalation is underway in Libya as General Khalifa Haftar and his forces move to take Tripoli.

The battle is now unifying a range of violent non-state actors with the recognized interim government against Haftar, who is receiving significant external state support.