Responding to Iran

He is, indeed, being tested, and the world is, indeed, watching carefully. The editors over at The Wall Street Journal made a point of emphasizing that Tuesday, regarding the rocket attack on a military base the US and our coalition partners use in Erbil, Iraq.

But then the editors said this:

Mr Biden doesn’t need to escalate to Mr Trump’s level….

Yes, he does, and more. Every Iranian attack needs to be answered with a response more severe than the Iranian attack, and more severe than our prior response to a prior Iranian attack.

Thugs understand only force, and their force and force capability must be crushed.

The Obama-Biden finger wagging didn’t work then, and the Built Back The Same current Biden administration’s finger wagging won’t work any better.

“Different Norms”

That’s how President Joe Biden described the People’s Republic of China’s treatment of the people under PRC President Xi Jinping’s control and those Xi wants under his control, compared to how American citizens are treated by ourselves and the government we hire.

Culturally, there are different norms….

The treatment of Hong Kong citizens, who only are struggling for the freedoms they used to be allowed under the PRC’s handover agreement with Great Britain is just the PRC’s different norm. Because jailing some protesters, kidnapping others and sending them to the mainland, seizing escapees on the high seas—isn’t at all rank despotism. It’s just the PRC’s different way of doing things, it’s their different norm.

The treatment of the Uighurs in, as Biden put it, “the western mountains of China,” who only want the freedoms nominally promised in the PRC’s own 31-page, 138 Article …constitution…, much less actual liberties, is just the PRC’s different norm. Because jailing millions of Uighurs in Maoist “reeducation” camps, forcing abortions and sterilizations on Uighur women, attempting genocide against the Uighurs at large isn’t at all a demonstration of the intrinsic evil of the PRC’s government and the men and women populating it. It’s just the PRC’s different way of doing things, it’s their different norm.

The threats of war against the Republic of China, which only wants to be left alone to make its own way in the world is just the PRC’s different norm. Because conquering and occupying the island nation isn’t at all rank invasion, occupation, and destruction. It’s just the PRC’s different way of doing things, it’s their different norm.

Still, Biden did say that the PRC would face repercussions for those things. But all Biden has done and is doing is spout vapid rhetoric. For instance, here’s what he said through his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on Blinken’s telecon with “a senior Chinese official:”

I made clear the US will defend our national interests, stand up for our democratic values, and hold Beijing accountable for its abuses of the international system[.]

Not a word about those PRC domestic and PRC wannabe domestic crimes.

And here’s a claim more directly from Biden, a statement following his own telecon with Xi:

Biden underscored his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices, crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan.

Finger-wagging, nothing to be taken seriously, by anyone.

Correction: Originally misnamed the Republic of China in the paragraph regarding threats of war. Bad mistake.

A Survey of Southeast Asian Nations

This one was done by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute a research institute established by the government of Singapore.

Organizers sent the survey late last year to government officials, academics, and other stakeholders from the 10 countries comprising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Here are some interesting tidbits from the report. First, the nations’ overall concern about the situation in the South China Sea:

Notice that—even concerns about a US-PRC confrontation are a distant 3rd to concerns about the PRC’s misbehaviors. And of those 12.5% concerned about our own military presence, Singapore (6.3% [of those 12.5%]), Vietnam (4.6%), and the Philippines (4.5%) have little qualms about it. These are the nations most directly threatened by the PRC’s acquisitive adventurism.

Next, the nations’ preferred response:

The vastly preferred solutions are the nations’ enforcement of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which aligns to a large degree with the US’ position on freedom of the seas, and the conclusion of a Code of Conduct with the PRC, which agreement would severely hamstring the PRC’s seizures since the nations’ view of a legitimate COC would have it align tightly with the UNCOS.

And this:

The left pie chart reflects the view of the nations concerning who has the largest economic influence in the region: 76.3% view the PRC as havng the largest influence. The right pie chart shows that nearly ¾ of the nations are concerned about that economic dominance.

These results, excerpted from a broader-reaching report, show the opportunities that former President Donald Trump was working to exploit, and that remain for President Joe Biden to exploit.

The entire report is worth reading, and it can be read here.

h/t to Just the News

What’re You Going to Do, Joe?

Iran has begun accumulating the immediate precursor to weapons grade uranium metal.

…report was given by UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency to its members and states Iran had on Monday produced a small amount of uranium metal, after importing new equipment into a nuclear facility that is under IAEA inspection[.]

To be sure,

The material produced was a small amount of natural uranium metal…meaning it wasn’t enriched. To use uranium metal for a nuclear weapon’s core, Iran would need around half a kilogram, or slightly more than one pound, of highly enriched uranium metal….

However. There’s always a however.

This is the big step, in difficulty right below getting uranium out of the yellow cake in the first place. Now it’s a simple, if tedious, matter of combining the uranium metal with fluorine to get a gaseous salt, and passing the gas through several centrifuge cycles to get to a weapons grade level of enrichment.

It’s your move, President Biden. Israel’s existence is in the balance. As are those of cities across Europe and the US. We’re waiting.

A Clue Bat

…just struck. Colorado’s Progressive-Democrats want to censure their US Senator John Hickenlooper (D, CO) for the crime of voting to keep illegal aliens from receiving Wuhan Virus situation stimulus checks.

(Apparently, censure is becoming a thing as, just in the last month or so, Republicans moved to censure Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R, WY), Senator Ben Sasse (R, NE), and a brief low key effort was made to substitute censure for impeachment regarding ex-President Donald Trump.)

That’s not the item of interest here, though. The real clue to Progressive-Democrat intentions with their no-border, no-vetting, come-one-come-all immigration policy is this statement regarding censuring Hickenlooper by State Senator Julie Gonzales (D):

Usually politicians don’t slam the door shut on Latino voters so abruptly[.]

And a confirming clue:

Background below. The party platform opposes laws that make immigrants ineligible for assistance. https://t.co/kysMhSRxNi— Justin Wingerter (@JustinWingerter) February 8, 2021

Illegal aliens are immigrants—and these same illegal aliens are voters.

Be very heads up.