Sunday, October 29, 2017

More Syrian Regime Chemical Weapons Attacks; Russia Defends Syria


           The Russian Federation vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution last week to investigate the latest accusation of the use of chemical weapons of mass destruction by the Baathist Syrian regime of Bashar Assad against the Syrian people in that country’s civil war.

In the meantime, a separate UN investigative body determined that both the Assad regime and the “Islamic State” used chemical weapons in Syria earlier this year.  The Syrian government has repeatedly used chemical weapons against civilian targets, in addition to bombing civilian areas indiscriminately with conventional weapons.  It has also deliberately targeted civilian targets, such as hospitals and aid convoys.

Russia’s Security Council latest veto is the ninth time it has blocked a measure to investigate the use of such weapons in Syria.  It attempts to cast doubt on the allegations as an excuse to oppose taking any meaningful action to stop the chemical attacks.  Russia supports terrorist sponsor Assad because Syria hosts a Russian military base on the Mediterranean Sea and in order to oppose the interests of the United States.  

Syria’s five-year old civil war has claimed at least a half million lives and produced millions of refugees, which has caused the largest refugee crisis since the Second World War.  Both non-Islamist Muslim rebels, such as Syrian Arabs and Kurds, who are opposed to the tyranny of the Assad regime and Islamists like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, who are attempting to take advantage of the chaos are fighting the Syrian government.  The non-Islamists are backed by an international coalition led by the U.S., while the Assad regime is supported by Russian and Iranian forces, as well as by the Iranian-sponsored Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist organization, Hezbollah.  

Sunday, October 22, 2017

Foreign Digest: Netherlands, Japan, Syria, Spain and Italy


Netherlands: conservatives formed a government
            After nearly seven months, the leading center-right Dutch parties were able to form a coalition government last week, thereby keeping the Netherlands under conservative rule.  The North Atlantic Treaty Organization member is an ally of the United States.

Japan: center-right wins the parliamentary elections
           The ruling conservative party has won a majority of seats in the Japanese parliamentary elections this weekend.  Japan is an ally of the United States

Syria: Raqqa is liberated
           Raqqa, the de facto capital of the “Islamic State’s” self-declared caliphate, has been liberated by Syrian democratic and Kurdish forces, backed by the United States, in another major victory over the Islamist terrorist organization.  With the loss of Islamic State strongholds in Iraq and Syria, there remain only scattered pockets of territory under the Islamist terrorists’ control.  Some violent jihadi organizations around the Islamic world remain allied to the al-Qaeda offshoot and the organization continues to Muslims everywhere to engage in violent jihad. 

Spain: no independence for Catalonia
           Catalonia’s government did not announce independence after the referendum earlier this month I had posted about, after pressure from the Spanish government and the European Union, opposition from Catalans and economic uncertainty.  Spain revoked Catalonia’s autonomy late last week, thereby terminating the mandate of the separatist Catalan government.  The northeastern province will have an appointed Catalan government, followed by elections for a new government within six months.  The European Union announced that neither the EU nor any member state would recognize Catalonia’s independence.  Prosperous Catalonia has been losing many businesses during the independence effort.

Italy: autonomy referendums in Lombardy and Veneto 
           Referendums for autonomy were conducted today in Italy’s two wealthiest Regions: Lombardy and Veneto.  Voter turnout reached the required quorum in both Regions, with Yes overwhelmingly winning the non-binding votes.  The turnout was much higher in Veneto, where there has long been strong support for greater autonomy or even independence for the former Venetian Republic, which has maintained its cultural heritage.  Negotiations will take place between the two Regions and the State on transferring certain powers to the Region, while the State will retain certain powers to maintain national unity.  Five of Italy’s Regions, particularly those with especially distinctive ethnic identities, are already autonomous to various degrees.  Venetians speak a distinct Romance language, while Lombard is a Northern Italian dialect; both tongues are in the Gallo-Italian subfamily.  In recent years, there has been a movement, especially on the right, toward greater federalism and less centralized power.  Part of the support for the referenda in Lombardy and Veneto was in opposition to regional tax dollars being sent to poorer, less-developed Southern Italy.  The populists also supported the referenda to devolve more central powers to the Regions.  The ruling center-left party opposes more autonomy.  

Monday, October 9, 2017

Celebrate Columbus Day as the Holiday for Multiculturalism


           Today is the federal and state holiday of Columbus Day, which is observed by the United States of America and the fifty American States on the Monday closest to the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the New World on October 12, 1492.  Although I would prefer the day be observed only on the anniversary, it is nonetheless appropriate to celebrate this day, a holiday that was intended not only to acknowledge the event that led to the many blessings enjoyed by several hundred million Americans, but the cultural and religious diversity of the U.S.A. in particular. 

            In past years for Columbus Day, I have made several observations in my blog posts.  I have explained how Columbus’ discovery, which was the result of his great observational and navigational skills, truly met the definition of discovery, with no slight whatsoever to the First Americans, as his accomplishment effectively removed the cover that was the Ocean Sea that had been dividing the two Hemispheres of the Earth, thus permanently bridging the two worlds.  Although the Genovese discover who was working for Spain did not ever see the territory that now comprises the U.S., Columbus’ achievement eventually led to its founding, as he had begun founding European colonies in the Western Hemisphere.  Note: the holiday honors Columbus’ discovery, not his whole life. 

I have observed in previous posts how Columbus brought Christianity and Western European Civilization with him, with its cultural contributions, such as modern science and the concepts of equality and liberty that developed more fully, including into representative government, the rule of law and the separation of powers—ideas that led to the recognition of slavery as immoral and to its eventual abolition.  I noted, for example, how Columbus liberated the Native Americans of the Caribbean Sea from the viciously cannibalistic Carib tribe.  Later Christian European colonists would end other abominable practices, such as human sacrifice committed on a massive scale.  I have also noted the exchange of goods and people between the Old and New Worlds that continues today. 

I have also acknowledged in posts about Columbus Day the bad consequences of the meeting of the peoples of the two Hemispheres, whether intentional or not, such as the exposure to diseases for which the other population had no immunity, as well as the mistreatment by some of the Europeans after Columbus of the Native Americans and the suppression of Native cultures.  The attacks by some Natives on the colonists are noteworthy, but because of the technological advantage of the Europeans, these were dwarfed by the atrocities, oppression and enslavement committed by the Europeans.  Columbus himself had discouraged the mistreatment of Native Americans and it ought to be considered how there have been good relations between many Natives and Europeans over the centuries.

Columbus and the holiday that honors his discovery have been for decades the main target of the recent wave of iconoclasm because of his introduction of Christianity and Western European Civilization to the New World, against which some on the Far Left and others are unappreciative or even hostile.  The opposition to Columbus has been based on ignorance, the judgment of historic figures by more developed modern standards, the unfairness of focusing only on the bad while ignoring the good, and certain biases. 

The celebration of Columbus Day as a state and federal holiday was first advocated for in the late Nineteenth Century by Catholics, particularly by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization, as a way to counter anti-Catholic bigotry by the majority Protestant Christians through the acknowledgement of the essential contribution to America of a Catholic.  The point of the holiday, therefore, was to celebrate the diversity of America, as immigrants could maintain their faith and the positive aspects of their culture while accepting the American creed and thereby fully become Americans.  I note how this idea is in total opposition to the current idea of “white” European Nationalism.  Columbus Day, therefore, was intended as a celebration of the Western concept of multiculturalism.  Indeed, its original celebrations and those of the 500th Anniversary of the Discovery of the New World in 1992 were culturally inclusive, which is the manner in which its celebration ought to continue.  Although other days should focus on Native Americans more particularly, they ought not to be excluded from the celebrations of Columbus Day.

Columbus Day is, nonetheless, a holiday of affirmation particularly not only for Catholic Americans, but also for Italian Americans.  The celebration of a Catholic Italian with an American holiday was opposed by some bigoted Protestant Northern Europeans, such as the Ku Klux Klan, who hates Catholics and non-Northern (“white”) Europeans, such as Italians.  Therefore, the opposition to the celebration of Columbus Day is contradictory if it is based on some mistaken notion of cultural diversity.  Indeed, the celebration of this holiday is the act of religious and cultural diversity its current opponents claim to support.  

Happy Columbus Day!  God bless America.

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Representative Steven Scalise’s Return to Congress Is a Triumph for the Republic


           The return to work earlier this month of United States Representative Steven Scalise, Republican of Louisiana, the House Majority Whip, was a triumph of representative government over violence. 

Scalise had been shot, along with two others, in June at the baseball practice of the Republican Congressional team in Virginia by a leftist.  His return to the House was greeted in the chamber by much bipartisan applause.  The saving of Scalise’s and other members’ lives by his security detail, his treatment and recovery and his return to Congress thwarted the attempted assassination and the attempt to alter policy by force, instead of by liberty and representative government through public debate and free and fair elections, which is the American way.  

May God bless America and may God save the Republic.  

Foreign Digest: Spain, Iraq and Russia


Spain: Catalonian independence referendum
            A referendum on independence from Spain was held last week in the Spanish province of Catalonia.  The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of independence, but voter participation was well under 50%.  Spain does not recognize the referendum’s validity and insists that the actions by Catalonian authorities to advance independence have been illegal.  Alas, Spanish authorities acted in a heavy-handed manner in attempting to thwart the vote.

            Catalan-speaking Catalonia is the most prosperous province of Spain.  Catalan is a Romance language between Spanish and French.  Spain is a diverse country with both non-Romance speakers (the Basques) and other Romance-languages, such as Aragonese and Galician.  It has maintained its unity since the marriage of Isabel of Castile and Leon and Ferdinand of Aragon in the Fifteenth Century.
           
            Hundreds of thousands of Catalonians rallied today in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, for unity with Spain, while there were rallies in support of Spanish unity in other European cities.  The European Union is concerned about the possible breakup of Spain.  The Russian Federation has engaged in active measures in support of splitting up Spain, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to weaken the West.  Spain is an ally of the United States in the War on Terrorism.

Iraqis defeat the Islamic State
            The “Islamic State” violent jihadis were ousted last week from their last stronghold in Iraq by Iraqi government forces.  The terrorist organization, which is an offshoot of al-Qaeda, holds only some dwindling swaths of territory in Syria while a few scattered former al-Qaeda organizations throughout the Islamic world remain loyal to the its self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate.  Like al-Qaeda, the Islamic State remains a threat where they are based and inspires Islamist militancy and terrorism around the globe.

Russian democratic opposition protests
            More protests by the democratic opposition have been occurring across Russia against the corrupt, authoritarian regime.  These protests were timed for the birthday of Russian Federation tyrant Vladimir Putin.  Each time, there are arrests of demonstrators, including of the opposition leader, as the dictatorship does not tolerate dissent, including the freedom to assemble peacefully.  

           The United States Congress over two months ago approved increased economic sanctions on the Russian Federation for human rights violations, which were also widely perceived as punishment for Russian interference in the American presidential election.  Donald Trump, who signed the sanctions into law, despite his opposition to the sanctions and the diminishment of presidential authority to lift them, has missed the first 60-day deadline in the process of their imposition.