Winston Churchill was right when he said that “it is better to Jaw Jaw that war war.” However, he was referring to relations between rational Western actors or perhaps even semi-rational native chiefs when the choice was to negotiate before resorting to bloodshed. If negotiations, rather than fighting, can serve the national interest, they should be the first line of effort. That is not the case with Afghanistan where the fighting has already taken place. That is why I disagree with the Washington Post Editorial Board’s recommendation that we diplomatically engage with the Taliban in the near term. The recent devastating earthquakes would seem to lend support the Post editorial, but there are many reasons that it is too early for re-engagement. As was the case with Vietnam, a cooling off period is in order before we consider anything like establishing normal relations with the Taliban. To be brutally frank, the Afghan people — not just the Taliban — are not worthy of our attention at his point. We are not     contemplating resuming fighting in Afghanistan, so it is not an “either-or” choice. They got themselves into the             situation they are in and they should be allowed to stew in their own juices. At this point, there is no national                 interest involved in engaging with their current government. The Afghans got themselves into the situation they are in. We spent billions in treasure and thousands in lives              trying to help them to no avail. Afghanistan is not worth any more effort on our part. I am not speaking of the              those Afghans who fought on our side in the late conflict and were relocated to the United States. They made the        difficult choices that their cousins who remain in the country did not. I found out the hard way as a State                      Department governance advisor that the rural population, which largely supported the Taliban, wasn’t buying what        we were selling in the way of nation-building and democratization. Most of the people in the remote agricultural district where I led an interagency support team were perfectly happy living in the 14th century and wanted nothing to do with equal opportunity for women, much less letting girls be educated. They didn’t mind boys learning to read if it did not interfere with the melon harvest; which it usually did. They may not have openly supported the local Taliban, but they did not go out of their way to help the government forces or the U.S.-led coalition. Most simply didn’t care who was in charge as long as they were left alone. Although they would take any free stuff that we handed out, it certainly did not buy loyalty. At least they were honest about it. The Taliban gave them what they wanted. If that includes a degree of poverty, ignorance, natural disasters, and disease as part of the package, so be it. My greatest disdain is reserved for the urban elites and the senior military leaders who professed to be working toward Western-style democracy while lining their own pockets. They were the first to start cutting backroom deals with the Taliban when it became obvious that we were really going to leave. The poster children for this group is the Karzai family, which is doing just as well under the Taliban as they ever did partnered with the American-led coalition. The Afghan knack for treachery and double-dealing runs deep in the culture. Of the four reasons the Post editorial board gives for re-engaging with the Taliban, only one passes anything like the common sense test. That is the ability to facilitate the search for missing Americans. But there are no MIA service personnel that I know of. Those Americans who remained behind generally did so for their own personal reasons. These are better identified through non-governmental efforts than any American partnership with the Taliban. The Post editorial board cites counter-terrorism as a U.S. reason for some re-engagement. The Taliban are fighting the Islamic State-Khorasan or ISIS-K for control of the country. It is true that ISIS-K is a transnational threat while the Taliban confine themselves to Afghanistan. But that is not enough of a national interest for us to actively seek counter-terror cooperation. If the Taliban get in enough trouble to come to the U.S. for help, we can always consider the merits of some assistance. But that day is a long way off. The availability of natural resources is also cited as a reason for re-engagement. This is another area where I have some experience, most of it negative. To get at these resources, roads are needed. The resistance of locals to road construction under the last regime had less to do with support for the Taliban than it did with ensuring that security forces could not disrupt the poppy trade. Given that a large Taliban faction — the Haqqani Network — is heavily into the poppy business, it is unlikely that they will support resource exploitation unless they get a healthy cut. There are easier sources of rare earth metals than that. Perhaps the weakest of the Post‘s arguments for re-engagement is humanitarian aid. There is absolutely no assurance that the Taliban will be any more competent to deliver aid to those really needing it than was Karzai or any of his successors. Corruption ranks with treachery as foremost Afghan cultural challenges. Any U.S. financial aid to recent earthquake victims will likely stay in Kabul. Even if U.S. relief workers were allowed into the country, they would immediately become targets for ISIS-K. Let the NGOs try to unwind that ball of string. Both the editorial board and President Trump are correct in stating that we need have no permanent enemies, but neither should we rush to heal old wounds from the late war. As was the case with Vietnam, a cooling off period is in order before we consider anything like establishing normal relations with the Taliban. READ MORE from Gary Anderson: The Case Against the Marine Corps Commandant It Is Time to Give Putin a ‘B-2 Moment’ Gary Anderson is a retired Marine Corps Colonel who served as a Special Advisor to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and did tours  as a civilian State Department Senior Governance Advisor in Iraq and Afghanistan and a tour as a Defense Department instructor in Kabul.  

That’s the question Nigel Farage, leader of Britain’s Reform UK Party, asked last week at a U.S. House hearing on the censorship of free speech in the UK. Mr. Farage, who is probably the most interesting person in English-speaking politics, asked, “At what point did we become North Korea?” President Trump should immediately condemn the arrest of Mr. Linehan and the attempts by the UK and EU to censor what we say and write in the U.S. Mr. Farage was speaking of the arrest at Heathrow airport of Graham Linehan, an Irish citizen, who was detained by five police officers for something he wrote and posted on the internet while he was outside the UK, probably in the U.S. According to the Associated Press, “Linehan, who is well known for posts asserting that trans women are men, said in April that trans women were violent criminals if they used women-only facilities. He advocated hitting them if calling police and other measures failed to stop them from using such facilities.” Which seems fairly reasonable considering that several U.S. fathers have taken such action in response to their daughters being subjected to men in women’s bathrooms or locker rooms. What that means, of course, is that Americans can be arrested in the UK or the European Union for something they write anywhere, including inside the U.S. This censorship is separate and apart from the EU’s war on U.S. tech companies, exemplified by the EU’s imposition of a fine of $3.5 billion on Google for the supposed antitrust violation of favoring its own advertising. President Trump had warned against targeting U.S. tech companies. The UK’s Communications Act is the problem, and they are paralleled by EU statutes. The Communications Act of 2003 makes it an offense to send messages of a grossly offensive or indecent character, to send false messages to cause annoyance, or to use a public electronic communications network for those purposes. The Linehan arrest is perhaps the first time that someone was arrested for something they wrote outside the UK. What is “grossly offensive” is left to the determination of the police who seem to be more interested in punishing violations of the Communications Act than in arresting real criminals who commit real offenses. The Communications Act is, under U.S. law, void for vagueness under the Constitution. No such law could possibly pass muster in the U.S. In the House hearing, Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), said (according to a report in the Washington Times) that laws such as these force social media companies to change or content-moderate (i.e., censor) their rules globally because of the impracticality of trying to enforce standards based on the user’s location. Jordan added that this means the laws affect “what we see, what we read, and what we say online here in America.” This is obviously intolerable for U.S. news sources and commentators and not just because the UK law is both inapplicable in the U.S. and void for vagueness under our Constitution. We have the right to free speech under our Constitution and, contrary to what Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said last week, that right doesn’t come from government action. It is preserved by the Constitution which can only be limited by the government in extreme circumstances. (Such as shouting “fire” in a crowded theater when there is no fire.) So are we supposed to self-censor? That ain’t gonna happen. What we say or write in the U.S. is not subject to any UK or European law. But what we say or write may make us subject to arrest in the UK or Europe. There have been massive demonstrations against the government of Sir Keir Starmer in the UK. They point to the unpopularity of the Starmer regime and may cause it to be toppled soon. Illegal immigration and censorship top the list of complaints by demonstrators. The new UK Home Secretary is Shabana Mahmood who won’t limit illegal immigration into the UK, one of her chief duties. A new deputy prime minister, David Lammy, another hyper-liberal, is also not going to even try to do that. All this points to a new UK government which — possibly under Mr. Farage — will do what it takes both to limit the censorship under the Communications Act and limit illegal immigration into the UK. There is hope for the UK. Another UK government is badly needed and may result from the 2029 elections which are too far away to be of any help. Mr. Farage’s strength is growing and he may be able to push through a no-confidence vote to cause a new UK election sooner. Our own 2028 elections will be here sooner than we think. The UK’s and EU’s attempts at censorship, as Mr. Jordan pointed out in last week’s hearing, were the subject of a letter from the EU to X owner Elon Musk that pointed to “harmful” content in violation of the EU’s Digital Services Act, which is also Constitutionally void for vagueness. Musk will certainly ignore the so-called “harmful” content in 2028. He — and we — cannot afford for him to do otherwise. President Trump should immediately condemn the arrest of Mr. Linehan and the attempts by the UK and EU to censor what we say and write in the U.S. We have the fundamental right to free speech and it cannot be limited by the back-door maneuverings of either government. READ MORE from Jed Babbin: Trump and the Ownership of Intel The Bolton Searches Putin’s War Proceeds

Novelist Stephen King told the U.K. Sunday Times that some of President Donald Trump’s supporters will deny ever voting for him in the coming decades. King acknowledged that many of his readers are Trump supporters but said he has an “obligation to say what I think and be clear about it” because it is important to state “which side you are on.” King is apparently a “prolific Trump critic” on social media. Since I don’t go on social media and frankly couldn’t care less what Stephen King thinks about anything, the fact that Fox News featured an article on King’s politics surprised me. Someday, perhaps the many Trump supporters who read King’s books … will deny that they ever did so. Celebrities — for that is what Stephen King is — apparently think that their wealth and celebrity status make them people who should be listened to about politics or political issues. We have seen this movie (or book) before — with actress Jane Fonda supporting our North Vietnamese enemies during wartime; or with actor Tom Hanks shilling for Hillary Clinton and the dreadful Biden administration. Hollywood celebrities and famous fiction authors overwhelmingly support liberal causes and therefore the Democratic Party. That a horror novelist influences anyone on political issues is doubtful — even one who claims that his book The Dead Zone foreshadowed the rise of Trump. King calls courageous and dutiful Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents the “Gestapo.” He also claims that Trump is trying to “rig the 2026 election,” perhaps by ensuring that only American citizens vote in American elections and by lessening election fraud by limiting or doing away with mail-in ballots. “Americans,” King says, “are wising up to the fact that Trump is turning the American dream into a nightmare.” Trump, he told The Guardian, is a “horror story.” King, like many of his liberal colleagues and fellow celebrities, suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome. He appeared recently on MSNBC where he again bashed Trump, calling the president “dangerous” and an “idiot.” It’s a wonder he doesn’t appear regularly on MSNBC, where TDS seems to be a requirement for hosts and guests on their “news” programs. I confess to never having read any of King’s books, but I have an idea for his next horror novel. A liberal New England writer obsessed with the immigration policies of his government decides to take into his beautiful home three illegal aliens about whom he knows nothing. The writer does this to show his disdain for the government’s immigration policies and to show solidarity with what he perceives as the “victims” of those policies. The writer believes that Immigration agents are just like the Gestapo in Nazi Germany. He thinks that he is acting bravely to shield the illegal aliens — just as righteous Gentiles did for many Jews during World War II. When ICE agents come to his residence because they received a tip that illegal aliens might be present there, the writer lies to them and refuses their request to search his residence and land. Unlike the real Gestapo, the ICE agents simply leave the residence because, although they have a tip that aliens are there, they don’t have probable cause that the aliens are there, In other words, they follow the law as they are sworn to do. At first, the three illegal aliens seem okay and appreciative of the writer’s hospitality, and the fact that he is effectively harboring criminals. Soon, however, some strange things begin to happen in the writer’s home. Valuable things go missing. The three men begin taking an interest in the writer’s young, pretty granddaughter who is staying with the writer for the summer before returning to school in the fall. The writer’s granddaughter appears to like all the attention she receives from the men. Unbeknownst to her and her grandfather — because he wouldn’t dare think of checking on the backgrounds of the aliens — one of the men previously committed a rape in his country, while another of the aliens previously committed a violent assault in his own country. The writer is not pleased with how the men act towards his granddaughter so he tells them, apologetically, that they must leave his home. The men refuse to leave. Thus begins weeks of horror as the three illegal aliens effectively hold the writer and his granddaughter hostage in their own home. They take turns raping the writer’s granddaughter, and when the writer attempts to protect her they violently assault him. Eventually, the men commit a grisly murder of the writer and bury him on his own vast property. They keep the granddaughter alive to satisfy their sexual appetites. But before the men killed him, the writer made a pact with the Devil — he would give the Devil his soul as long as the Devil allowed him to get revenge and to free his granddaughter. The Devil agrees. One night, the writer rises from his grave, vampire like, enters his former home, kills the three men, and saves his granddaughter’s life. Then he carries out his bargain with Satan and descends into Hell. The writer’s granddaughter finds a diary that the writer kept up to the time he was murdered. In the diary, the writer introspectively questions how he could have been so stupid and so naïve. He realized that he had effectively written his last horror novel — about the horror that was inflicted on him and his granddaughter because his liberalism turned away those ICE agents when they came to his home on a tip that illegal aliens were there. The ICE agents, you see, had run background checks on the three men that the writer took into his home. They warned the writer that the men were dangerous — with two having criminal backgrounds. But the writer wouldn’t listen to the “Gestapo.” That is a fictional story that Stephen King probably would never write. His liberal ideology and TDS wouldn’t stand for it. Someday, perhaps the many Trump supporters who read King’s books and go to the movies based on those books, will deny that they ever did so. That is far more likely than King’s prediction that they will deny ever voting for Trump. READ MORE from Francis P. Sempa: MacArthur Lands at Atsugi Airfield: August 30, 1945 August 23, 1939: Another Date That Should Live in Infamy The Organizer of Victory: Frank S. Meyer  

A recent essay in America Magazine caught my attention for all the wrong reasons. It argued that Donald Trump’s DEI “crackdown” is an assault on religious freedom. That claim is not only false but dangerously inverted. If anything stands in opposition to the Gospel, it’s the ideology of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Too often, critics dismiss DEI with the easy label of “woke.” The reality is deeper and more dangerous. It’s not simply a trend in language or culture, but a rival creed that collides head-on with Christian truth. The Jesuits once defended the universality of the Gospel. Now they defend the universality of administrative policies. The professors at Georgetown believe Jesuit schools should be free to pursue DEI as an expression of their mission. But DEI is not a mission. Not a holy one, anyway. It’s a secular creed, imported from the university bureaucracy, with little resemblance to Christianity. One may dress it up in Jesuit robes, but the substance remains foreign. Unless you have been living under a rock in Yemen for the past decade, you’re no doubt aware that DEI elevates categories of identity — race, sex, sexual orientation — above the person. Christianity, by contrast, recognizes the individual soul as the irreducible unit of worth. The Gospel insists that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. This doesn’t erase those identities, nor deny their existence and differences. It means that before God, none of them determines a person’s worth or salvation. DEI insists on the very opposite. It keeps those divisions alive, rehearsing them endlessly. It demands that people be sorted by grievance and privilege rather than seen as souls equal before God. Then, there’s Equity, the central “E” in DEI. In my opinion, it’s the most obvious violation of Christian teaching. Equity is not equality before God or the law. It’s a boardroom buzzword. Borrowed from business, a realm not exactly famous for heavenly values, equity means the forced equalization of outcomes, regardless of merit, effort, or calling. Christianity preaches the exact opposite. Talents differ. God grants gifts unequally. Justice rests not in leveling but in love. Christ’s own teaching makes this clear. In the parable of the talents, the master entrusts one servant with five talents, another with two, and another with one. Each is judged not by what he lacked, but by how he stewarded what he was given. The faithful servants who doubled their talents were commended. The one who buried his talent was condemned. Nowhere in Christ’s words is there redistribution to ensure all end with the same amount. To preach equity is to deny providence and trade it for paperwork, as if heaven itself could be managed by human resources. Inclusion, the gentlest-sounding of the three, is nearly as insidious. In DEI language, inclusion doesn’t mean welcoming the stranger or feeding the hungry. It means blanket affirmation of lifestyles and ideologies that clash with Christian truth. A Christian can’t bless abortion as healthcare. A Christian can’t redefine traditional marriage. A Christian can’t erase the God-given distinctions of male and female. What DEI calls inclusion is, in reality, coercion, compelling believers to nod along with what their faith demands they resist. Yet, under DEI, refusal to affirm is branded as exclusion, and exclusion is treated as a sin. Morality is turned upside down. Resistance becomes the offense; conformity to secular orthodoxy becomes the new righteousness. And then there’s Diversity. Not diversity of thought or spirit, but a curated collage of appearances. It is politics by optics. True Christian diversity is universal in the fullest sense. Open to every nation, every people, every tongue. It finds unity not in demographic balance but in Christ. DEI’s version of diversity is far narrower. It assigns worth to skin color or gender identity, while often treating theological diversity as a threat. The Georgetown professors frame Trump’s policy as an intrusion into religious freedom. The opposite is true. DEI has already been used to erode religious freedom, punishing believers who dissent from its dictates. Bakers, florists, teachers, and chaplains have all been targeted under the logic of “inclusion.” It’s not the government that threatens Jesuit schools, but the ideology these schools have embraced. By insisting that all must bend the knee to identity politics, DEI leaves no space for authentic Christian witness. The danger is sharper still at Catholic institutions. For centuries, the Church has clashed with the state over the freedom to practice its faith. Now, under DEI, Catholic schools themselves invite the state’s ideology into their core. They baptize it in Jesuit language, then claim any challenge to it is persecution. This is a sleight of hand. True persecution is when Christians are forbidden to teach the faith, not when they are told they cannot enforce a secular dogma under the guise of religion. The irony of Jesuit schools invoking religious liberty in defense of DEI really needs to be highlighted. The Jesuits once defended the universality of the Gospel. Now they defend the universality of administrative policies. They invoke conscience to justify capitulation. They claim continuity with Ignatius while aligning with ivory tower ideologies. The shift is profound. It shows just how far some Catholic institutions have drifted from their foundations. The professors at Georgetown suggest Trump’s policies threaten Catholic identity. But Catholic identity doesn’t need DEI. It needs truth. It needs fidelity. It requires courage to resist the fashionable lies of the moment. When Catholic schools substitute delusional dogma for doctrine, they don’t expand their mission. If anything, they abandon it. And when they then call this abandonment “religious freedom,” they trade the faith for a counterfeit. The arguments made in America Magazine aren’t simply misguided. They’re a glimpse into the weakening of Christian influence in education. DEI is a Godless creed that seeks to silence faith whenever faith stands in its way. To defend it in the name of the Gospel is to trade Christ for Caesar. Christians should see it clearly, and resist it without hesitation. READ MORE from John Mac Ghlionn: Big Tech’s Political Takeover Threatens All Americans Saudi Arabia’s Sick Joke Should Trans People Be Banned From Owning Guns?

President Donald Trump is expected to watch the men’s singles final of the U.S. Open, played at the Billie Jean King National tennis Center’s Ashe Stadium in the American president’s native Queens. There is nothing extraordinary about this, seeing as how presidents long have been known to attend sporting events, and Mr. Trump himself was a regular fan of many years at New York’s major tennis tournament prior to his first presidency. This will, however, be his first visit since 2015. It was always understood that at tennis matches … the spectators remain quiet during play…. These ordinary rules of behavior have been allowed to lapse. The tournament owner, the USTA, took the precaution of advising broadcast media not to show negative audience reactions to the president, whose image is likely to be on the big screen that is regularly used to show celebrities watching the show, as well as unsuspecting normal fans, who almost always react, when they see themselves, with a mix of fist pumps and dance moves as well as broad smiles and excited waves. “With respect to broadcast coverage, the President will be shown on the World Feed and the Ashe Court Feed during the opening anthem ceremony,” the USTA memo sent to attending broadcast media reads, referring to the video feeds for use in reporting.  “We ask all broadcasters to refrain from showcasing any disruptions or reactions  in response to the President’s attendance in any capacity, including ENG [electronic news gathering] coverage.” This does not apply to TAS, still in the pencil-and-notebook age. We did receive a message that, additional to “regular screening at the gates there will be TSA-style security screening for all individuals as they enter Ashe Stadium. Every bag and piece of equipment,” etc. etc. and “you should also expect some delays moving around in some public areas,” etc. In other words, they would prefer not to have malcontents shown yelling mean words at the president of the United States, and there is heightened security, which seems uncontroversial considering that the president has been targeted by assassins. He is not the first one, either, and also there have been cases in recent memory, not only in the U.S., of deranged individuals attacking fans and spectators at large sporting and music events. The request to refrain from reporting boos is a somewhat different matter, but is not counter to what was once understood USTA policy about noise during the matches and the ceremonies and introductions before play. At the finals, there is always a military honor guard unfurling a oversized flag, there is usually a USAF fly over, and there is always a rendition of the national anthem, either by a well-known vocalist or, I seem to recall, a special guest, typically a child who has shown remarkable talent or exceptional courage, fighting an illness for example. Do not quote me on the latter, I am a patsy for that sort of thing, but it would not be outside the USTA custom. Which is not to say insisting on spiking the boos is a particularly wise idea. Most people respect, or want to respect, the presidential office and the individual occupying it; it is a normal and natural extension of their faith in their country’s institutions. To be sure, the American political class does its best to undercut the respect and trust of the people it allegedly works for, but that is not news, and if it is true there is no point in hiding it. Still, many fans would agree with Carlos Alcaraz — one of the players they are watching in the finals — when he says it is an honor to himself, to his opponent and friend Jannik Sinner, and to the sport of tennis, to have a head of state in attendance at a major event.  True, as a Spaniard, his attitude may be shaped by his country’s monarchial traditions.  But even in a democratic republic based on the principle that government does not exist to restrict liberty but to let it thrive, it does seem reasonable to expect a show of courtesy that would imply leaving politics outside the grounds of the tennis center. However, the USTA helped bring on this matter, and in this regard the organization is holding up a mirror to much of what is wrong with American mores these days. There would be no need to ask the broadcast media to engage in self-censorship if, first of all, the media were responsible and decent. But apart from that — which is by no means a lost cause — the USTA allowed its own behavior rules to deteriorate. It was always understood that at tennis matches, unlike in such sports as baseball and football, the spectators remain quiet during play. By extension, if a fan is late, he must wait at the gate to take his seat except when the competitors take a minute or two to change sides. These ordinary rules of behavior have been allowed to lapse, with the result that players are annoyed and distracted, which annoys and distracts fans who are behaving, which in turn, but you get my point. And this is nothing next to the inordinate amount of alcohol that flows during the matches. People come to the U.S. Open, and in particular to the big matches at the large stadia (20 thousand capacity at Ashe, 15 thousand at Armstrong), to drink, talk on their cell phones, yak with their friends, and see themselves on those big screens. Apparently this is good for business. Also good for business, at least in the short term, are skyrocketing ticket prices that many sports fans cannot afford, which means the venues are filled with the very rich who, to assuage their guilt — did they really earn the money they have? — assail the president of the U.S. as a racist bully, which is sort of hypocritical when you know how these people treat their maids and chauffeurs, who may well be illegals. Note that this is a remark based on anecdotal observation, not reporting, so don’t quote me. Still, you know what I mean. The tennis players are as talented as ever, athletes who have worked extremely hard to reach the top ranks of a difficult and beautiful sport that requires years of dedication to even begin to master. They are well compensated, and no one can begrudge them their earnings. But their rewards, which contribute, as in other sports, to the higher prices of tickets, are unavoidable symptoms, no less than the way the well-heeled fans behave, of a society that is overvaluing money because it undervalues virtue. READ MORE from Roger Kaplan: Gutsy Gals Taylor Townsend Holds Her Ground Rhythm and Serves and Songs and Swings

The late singer/entertainment icon received an all-star tribute Sunday (9/7) during the MTV Video Music Awards at the UBS Arena in Elmont, NY.   Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt and Yungblud honor the recently departed Prince Of Darkness. The musicians joined forces for a “once-in-a-lifetime” medley of Ozzy’s greatest hits. Ozzy Osbourne The tribute opened with Yungblud singing “Crazy Train” and “Changes” with Bettencourt on guitar. Then, the Aerosmith members performed “Mama, I’m Coming Home” with Yungblud adding vocals. Ozzy Tribute With more than 120 million albums sold, Osbourne was a five-time Grammy winner, two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee – with Black Sabbath in 2006 and as a solo artist in 2024 – and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Osbourne died on July 22nd at age 76 just weeks after taking the stage for the final time at the all-star “Back To The Beginning” concert in his native Birmingham, U.K. ### The post Ozzy Osbourne Tribute At The VMAs appeared first on RockinTown.

Remember these days, because these are the days when global leaders could have reversed course before it was too late.  2025 has certainly been a year of war, and it appears that things are poised to go to an entirely new level in the months ahead.  If we do not choose to step back from the brink, eventually we will be pushed over the edge.  Sadly, we just continue to see escalation after escalation as we tumble toward the unthinkable. Meanwhile, ominous signs continue to appear in the heavens. On Sunday night, a “blood moon” eclipse will be visible in both the Middle East and Ukraine.  In fact, it will be clearly visible over very large portions of Europe, Africa and Asia… Stargazers, including in Israel, will have a chance to see a “Blood Moon” on Sunday night during a total lunar eclipse visible across Asia and swaths of Europe, Australia and Africa. When the Sun, Earth and Moon line up, the shadow cast by the planet on its satellite makes the latter appear an eerie, deep red color that has astounded humans for millennia. People in Asia, including India and China, will be best placed to see Sunday’s total eclipse, which will also be visible on the eastern edge of Africa as well as in western Australia. I have written much about the unprecedented series of blood moons that we have been witnessing in recent years. But most of the population still doesn’t seem to be getting the message. We really are living at a time of “wars and rumors of wars”, and the fate of our society really is hanging in the balance. Just days after sending a massive barrage of more than 500 drones into Ukraine, Russia just conducted “the largest aerial attack” of the war in Ukraine so far… Russia attacked Ukraine with 810 drones and decoys – the largest aerial attack on the country since the war began, Ukraine’s Air Force said. “Such killings now, when real diplomacy would have started long ago, are a deliberate crime and a prolongation of the war,” Zelenskyy said in a statement online. He called for sanctions and for strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses. Up until now, the Russians have avoided attacking government buildings in Ukraine. Unfortunately, that era of restraint is apparently over… The government facility that appeared to be struck in the attack was the Cabinet of Ministers building. Russian forces have previously refrained from targeting government buildings in Ukraine’s capital. The building is the home of Ukraine’s Cabinet, housing the offices of its ministers. Police blocked access to the building as fire trucks and ambulances arrived. “For the first time, the government building was damaged by an enemy attack, including the roof and upper floors,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said in a statement. “We will restore the buildings, but lost lives cannot be returned.” This attack deeply alarmed me, because this was definitely a major escalation. We are being told that so much damage was done to the Cabinet of Ministers building that helicopters had to come in to drop water on the flames… AFP has said that one of its correspondents witnessed flames engulfing the roof of the cabinet building, verified in emerging photos, with thick smoke rising above the center part of the capital. Several high-rise apartment buildings also were reportedly struck and suffered damage. The same report noted that for the first time of the conflict, emergency crews are battling blazes at a central government complex, with helicopters seen overhead doing water-drop runs. This government area of the city is typically well-guarded by anti-air defenses, and it looks like the Russians overwhelmed these systems. The Russians had to know that this attack would enrage western leaders. And that is precisely what happened. In fact, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is saying that it is time for the U.S. and Europe to “force Russia into an immediate ceasefire”… Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said efforts to appease Vladimir Putin are pointless. “Russia’s attack on government buildings in Kyiv is yet another reminder that further delays in giving Putin a firm response and attempts to appease him are senseless,” Tusk wrote. According to him, the United States and Europe must “jointly force Russia into an immediate ceasefire.” He emphasized: “We have all the tools we need.” Exactly what did he mean by that? Is he talking about hitting Russia with more sanctions, or is he suggesting that NATO should take direct military action? Hopefully he is not talking about direct military action by NATO, because that would put us just one step away from nuclear war. Vladimir Putin has once again warned that if western troops are deployed in Ukraine at any point they will be “legitimate targets” for the Russian military… Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that any Western troops in Ukraine would be considered “legitimate targets for defeat,” a day after it was announced that dozens of Western countries have pledged to contribute to a potential peacekeeping force there if a ceasefire deal is agreed. “This is one of the root causes (of the war): trying to involve Ukraine in NATO,” Putin said, speaking at an economic forum in Russia’s Far East on Friday. “So if any troops appear there, especially during the ongoing hostilities, we assume they will be legitimate targets for defeat.” For now, I think that it is likely that we will see western leaders impose another round of sanctions on Russia. On Sunday, President Trump told the press that he is ready to take action in that regard… President Donald Trump signaled on Sunday that his administration is ready to move to the second phase of sanctions against Russia. “Are you ready to move to the second phase of sanctions against Russia?” a reporter asked the president as he left the White House to head to the US Open in New York. “Yeah, I am,” the president responded. Of course imposing more sanctions will not help anything. We have been imposing sanctions on Russia for more than three years and that has not caused the Russians to back down one bit. What we really need is for the Ukrainians to accept that they have lost the war and to agree to a fair deal with the Russians. But that is never going to happen. The Ukrainians still appear to be convinced that they will ultimately be successful in dragging NATO into the conflict, and if that happens nothing will ever be the same again. As the war in Ukraine escalates, so does the war in the Middle East. The IDF has initiated an operation that is designed to take full control of Gaza City, and so far they have taken control of 40 percent of it… Israel has 40% control of Gaza City as the Israel Defense Forces are now preparing to seize the entire area, an Israeli military spokesperson confirmed Thursday. Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin told reporters at a news briefing that his forces had already secured large neighborhoods in its latest offensive. Israel really does intend for this to be a final showdown with Hamas, and the IDF is not holding anything back. In fact, for the second day in a row a high-rise tower in Gaza City has been completely leveled by airstrikes… The Israeli military has destroyed a second major high-rise tower in Gaza City in as many days, after Benjamin Netanyahu’s forces warned people to flee south ahead of a planned offensive to capture the area. Residents of Sousi Tower, a 15-storey building and well-known landmark, said they were given just 20 minutes to pack what they could and evacuate before warplanes reduced the tower to rubble. Hamas is being so foolish. There is no way that they can win this fight. But they would rather see everything destroyed rather than surrender to Israel. President Trump has been trying very hard to broker a deal, but so far Hamas does not seem to be inclined to accept what Trump is offering, and now time is running out. In fact, Trump just posted his “last warning” to Hamas on Truth Social… Everyone wants the Hostages HOME. Everyone wants this War to end! The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well. I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one! Thank you for your attention to this matter. Meanwhile, Iranian forces have been placed on a heightened state of alert because apparently they believe that there is a very strong possibility that war with Israel could erupt again very soon… Iranian officials have warned that their armed forces are on heightened alert and have prepared a significantly strengthened military posture, emphasizing that the likelihood of a conflict with Israel is very high. Newsweek has reached out to the Israel Defense Force (IDF) for comment. Why do I write about war so much? There are some people that feel that I am being too “negative” by focusing on the horrifying death and destruction that we have been witnessing. But that is not the case at all. I am actually trying to save lives. We live in a world that is absolutely teeming with nuclear weapons, and if they are actually used billions of people could die. People that you know could die. People that you love could die. Over the past year, global events have taken us closer to nuclear war than we have ever been before. Our window of opportunity to avoid the unthinkable is steadily closing, and we desperately need millions upon millions of voices to demand peace from our leaders before things get completely out of control. Sadly, most of the population seems to think that this is a great time to party as our leaders continue to drag us in a direction that we should not want to go. Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com. About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today. The post A Blood Moon Rises As “Wars And Rumors Of Wars” Intensify appeared first on End Of The American Dream.

Trump puts fake news MSM reporter in their place #news #oan #trump #chicago

President Trump says Washington, D.C. is now safe and thriving, with crime nearly eliminated