Courage Under Fire

Posted on 12 October 2019 by eehines

Republic of China’s President Tsai Ing-wen, against the background of the People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping’s abuse of Hong Kong citizens through his Hong Kong police, his functional abrogation of the solemnly agreed treaty with Great Britain governing the handover of Hong Kong to the PRC, and his parallel functional reneging on his government’s “one country, two systems” pretense vis-à-vis that city, has spoken against the PRC’s pretense of that toward her nation.

That framework, she noted, has brought Hong Kong to the brink of disorder.

This is a preview of Courage Under Fire. Read the full post (256 words, estimated 1:01 mins reading time)

“Rioting”

Posted on 6 October 2019 by eehines

Recall the teenage protestor in the Hong Kong protests earlier this week, the one who was shot in the chest at point blank range by a Hong Kong cop who thought he was being threatened by the boy.

A Hong Kong court charged 18-year-old student, Tsang (Tony) Chi-Kin, with rioting, a charge carrying a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Tsang was among seven people charged with rioting on Thursday.
The secondary school student also faces two additional counts of attacking two police officers, punishable by up to six months in prison.

This is a preview of “Rioting”. Read the full post (196 words, estimated 47 secs reading time)

Aid for Ukraine

Posted on 28 September 2019 by eehines

One of the topics discussed by President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelenskiy in “that telecon,” was the degree of aid Germany has provided Ukraine in the latter’s on-going struggle against Russia’s invasion and occupation of Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Neither considered Germany’s actions anywhere near adequate.

Deutsche Welle demurs from that position.

[A]ccording to the latest OECD figures, Germany is the third largest donor to Ukraine after the European Union as a whole and the US.

Those amounts?

This is a preview of Aid for Ukraine. Read the full post (422 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Pressure

Posted on 26 September 2019 by eehines

Here’s an excerpt from the Trump-Zelenskiy telecon transcript [the odd characters at the beginning of each President’s remarks are lined out classification markings: (S/NF)]:

This is a preview of Pressure. Read the full post (387 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Political Tactics

Posted on 25 September 2019 by eehines

The Wall Street Journal says the “Ukraine call” will

leak eventually, so Trump might as well get it out.

No. Telecons between American and foreign heads of state must, necessarily, remain strictly between heads of state, else it’ll be impossible for an American President to engage in “frank and open” dialog and polylog with foreign leaders or to conduct serious foreign policy in general. No transcript should be released.

Alternatively, and in second place in the order of priorities for such things, let the leak(s) occur. Then release the transcript and let the truth burn the leaker(s) and those who jumped onto the leak-related opprobrium bandwagon knowing they didn’t have the facts.

This is a preview of Political Tactics. Read the full post (279 words, estimated 1:07 mins reading time)

Intransigence

Posted on 13 September 2019 by eehines

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that if he’s reelected later this month, he’ll begin annexing territories in the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea. Naturally, the Palestine Liberation Organization and its European Union apologists are in a snoot over it. An anonymously presented EU spokesperson says

The policy of settlement construction and expansion…is illegal under international law and its continuation, and actions taken in this context, undermine the viability of the two-state solution and the prospects for a lasting peace[.]

The PLO’s Hanan Ashrawi says that

This is a preview of Intransigence. Read the full post (198 words, estimated 48 secs reading time)

A Different Sort of National Security Threat

Posted on 11 September 2019 by eehines

This one demographic; it’s the potential for population collapse in the People’s Republic of China. Most of the nations of the world outside Africa face population declines, but none seem as severe as the PRC’s is looking to be.

In 2016, after the one-child policy was abandoned, there were 17.86 million births. This dropped to 17.2 million in 2017 and 15.2 million in 2018—the third-lowest rate since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

That might be an accelerating drop, although three data points don’t make for a strongly measured trend.

This is a preview of A Different Sort of National Security Threat. Read the full post (481 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

Surrender, Or Else

Posted on 5 September 2019 by eehines

That’s Teheran’s latest demand regarding the nuclear weapons deal that the European signatories have shown themselves so desperate to preserve.

Iran will “take a strong step” away from its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers if Europe cannot offer the country new terms by a deadline at the end of this week, a government spokesman said Monday as top Iranian diplomats traveled to France and Russia for last-minute talks.

Never mind that those European nations hold all the cards that we don’t hold, and that Iran is in no position to make demands on anyone. Iran has Europe thoroughly cowed.

This is a preview of Surrender, Or Else. Read the full post (263 words, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)

“Bow Respectfully”

Posted on 29 August 2019 by eehines

That’s the latest demand from Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, which he made in response to rumors that President Donald Trump might be open to direct talks with the Iranian government. Rouhani has said,

If you lifted all the sanctions, bowed respectfully to the Iranian nation, well then the conditions are different.

Conditions certainly would be different, but they would be even less productive. The men of Iran’s government aren’t interested in discussions, serious or otherwise. Nor do they care about the people over whom they reign. They just want nuclear weapons so they can destroy Israel.

This is a preview of “Bow Respectfully”. Read the full post (241 words, estimated 58 secs reading time)

Decisions

Posted on 12 August 2019 by eehines

Hong Kong’s 34,000 policemen and the force as a whole are approaching a decision point—or perhaps, the People’s Republic of China’s President Xi Jinping is about to force a decision on them.

With Hong Kong’s summer of unrest escalating, its police are in a bind. The local population increasingly accuses them of inflaming protester rage by using excessive force, while mainland Chinese authorities are exhorting them to get tougher to resolve the crisis.

Violence? With the Hong Kong police, it’s becoming fairly routine to use tear gas and truncheons. Protestor-originated violence has remained isolated and rare.

This is a preview of Decisions. Read the full post (316 words, estimated 1:16 mins reading time)

A Plebe's Site

Quam bene vivas referre, non quam diu.

Category Archives: defense policy