Nineteenth Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks

Nineteen years ago today, al-Qaeda Islamist terrorists massacred nearly 3,000 people in America in the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on New York, Washington and over Pennsylvania. After the United States overthrew the Taliban regime of Afghanistan that was harboring them. American forces have remained to prevent their return to power. Although there have been many deadly terrorist attacks and attacks on military targets since then, the U.S. success in the War on Terrorism in thwarting al-Qaeda and its offshoot, the Islamic State, from committing any attacks nearly on the same scale as September 11 has freed Americans and others around the globe from constant fear. This success, combined with the rise of other threats, such as cyberattacks and the worst pandemic in a century, make the scourge of terrorism and Islamism seem relatively less dangerous and causes some to lower their guard or urge the abandonment of the fight, which would be foolish. Islamists are determined to continue violent holy war. Indeed, seeing the greater potential of using cyberattacks in new ways or learning from the pandemic how possibly to make biological warfare more effective, terrorists will exploit vulnerabilities and shift to more dangerous methods. Constant deterrence is vital. Defeating particular Islamist leaders who claim the favor of Allah is essential, but defeating Islamism is a longer-term endeavor that relies on persistence. As we recall and honor the dead and the heroes of September 11, may we continue to be ever-vigilant against Islamism and terrorism.

Montenegro Elections Update: A Pro-European Coalition is Formed

After gaining a one-seat majority in the Montenegrin parliamentary elections last week, the opposition parties have formed a coalition for a new government to replace the party that has ruled for 30 years through independence from Serbia in 2007. The ruling party won the most votes and seats, but even with its coalition allies, fell just shy of the necessary parliamentary majority, although it retains the presidency, as the President is chosen in separate direct elections. Despite the second-place party being pro-Serbian and pro-Russian, the new coalition pledges no changes to NATO member Montenegro’s pro-European and pro-Western foreign policy and no adoption of Serbian identity over Montenegrin identity, which were the major issues in the election, along with concerns about public corruption. Serbs are a significant minority in the Slavic former Yugoslav Republic. There are also Albanians, Bosniaks and Croats. Montenegro, which maintains sanctions on Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine, is expected to seek admission to the European Union.

More Protests and Arrests in Belarus Because of the Rigged Election

There continue to be protests and mass arrests in Belarus after the rigged election last month that gave another term in office to the “Last Dictator of Europe,” who has ruled the former Soviet Republic since independence. There have also been labor strikes.

More Protests Against Communist China’s Violations of in Hong Kong’s Autonomy and Liberty

There continue to be protests and arrests in Hong Kong after the imposition of a security law earlier this summer by Communist China that has violated the city-state’s autonomy and liberty, despite Peking’s pledge to respect the territory’s different systems when it reverted from British rule in 1997. The latest protests were particularly because of China’s delay of legislative elections in Hong Kong.

Slade Gorton, In Memoriam

Former United States Senator Slade Gorton of Washington, a conservative Republican who opposed Donald Trump, died last month at the age of 92 in a suburb of Seattle. Born in Chicago in 1928 and raised in Evanston, he served in the U.S. Army and later in the Air Force and Air Force reserves, attaining the rank of Colonel. After graduating from Dartmouth College and Columbia University of Law, Gorton practiced law and then entered politics. He was elected to the Washington State Legislature, serving from 1959 to 1969, then elected to three terms as State Attorney General. Gorton was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1980, serving until 1987 and then again from 1989-2001, compiling a moderately conservative voting record. Afterwards, he served on the September 11 Commission and for various political committees or organization and on the Board of Trustees for the National Constitution Center. Gorton endorsed former Central Intelligence Agency agent and House Republican policy director Evan McMullin for President, running as an independent against the GOP nominee, Trump, in 2016 and continued to speak out against Trump and Trumpism.

Blog Notes: Glitch With The New Interface

The Blog host, Blogger, has adopted a new interface. I was unable to post anything other than a title by using it, so I reverted to the old interface, but now my posts no longer allow spacing or indenting. Although I have requested help from the host and am awaiting a response, I am not certain if I would ever be able to post again when the old interface would no longer be available. For now, I shall continue to try to post conservative, Christian thoughts in defense of liberty and representative government amid these troubling times and shall continue to explore workarounds and other options.

NATO Confirms that Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny Was Poisoned by a Chemical WMD

The Russian Federation regime of tyrant Vladimir Putin, an ex-Soviet intelligence officer, poisoned the leader of the democratic opposition, Alexei Navalny. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has confirmed the finding of the German Government that a nerve agent was used to try to kill him. The possession and use of the nerve agent, which had been developed by the Soviets, is banned by chemical weapons treaties. The same chemical weapon of mass destruction was used to attempt to murder an exiled former Russian intelligence officer in the United Kingdom two years ago. Germany and other Western States are demanding Russian cooperation with the Navalny poisoning investigation. Last year, a Russian exile was murdered in Germany. Germany and the U.K. are both members of NATO. Navalny, who has been comatose for two weeks since the poisoning, had been transferred to Germany for treatment. The previous opposition leader was shot to death near the Kremlin in 2015. Another prominent member of the opposition has twice been poisoned. Numerous Putin critics, opposition members or journalists have been arrested, charged and convicted on questionable pretenses, driven into exile or murdered, both in Russia and abroad, using a variety of techniques and poisons. A radioactive isotope was used in the U.K fourteen years ago to kill a former Russian intelligence officer who had made accusations against Putin, for example. Navalny has been arrested several times for organizing peaceful protests, which Putin does not tolerate. In addition to attempting to murder expatriate regime opponents, the Kremlin abuses Interpol with arrest demands unsupported by adequate evidence. The Kremlin denies the allegations with its usual tactic of trying to create doubts that anything is knowable, and the Western professional media publishes the denials, sometimes even without context of the history of Putin’s lies and evil deeds. Russian disinformation efforts can be expected next to make the contradictory argument, which the media will report, that it is certain that one or another of various Putin opponents were really behind the poisoning. Such efforts effectively allow those sympathetic to Putin to find excuses to continue to support him. And Westerners and others in free States will continue foolishly to believe there might be rogues controlling stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in a tyranny whose leader relies politically upon the portrayal of himself as a strongman who is the only one who can keep people safe. Putin rose to power in 1999 under a democratic pretense, but has governed as an authoritarian and has rigged elections while deriving his support from the oligarchy that looted Russia of its assets after the collapse of Communism. He has lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union. Putin aids rogue regimes, including terrorists sponsors, has invaded two former Soviet Republics, interferes heavily in European and American politics and elections, and engages in various other machinations.

The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the End of the Second World War

            Today is the 75^th anniversary of signing by the Japanese of their formal surrender to the Allied Powers, known as the United Nations, which ended the Second World War, the largest and bloodiest in history. 

A peace treaty between the United States and Japan was signed in 1953.  Japan and the Russian Federation, the successor of the Soviet Union, remain legally at war, as they have not concluded a peace treaty because of a dispute over certain islands occupied by Russia north of Japan.

            The war began in 1939 with Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland, although the Empire of Japan had already been at war with China since 1937; the Sino-Japanese War was subsumed in the Second World War.  Japan was one of the members, with Germany, of the Axis Powers, which sought global conquest.  Imperial Japan had already conquered considerable territories beyond its present homeland before the war as appeasement by the Great Powers and a lack of American leadership, which had not joined the post-First World War League of Nations, which left it powerless, had allowed the Axis to continue to commit aggression.  The Japanese fascist government conquered in the name of their Emperor, whom they revered as a god, committing some of the worst atrocities in history.  The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other territories in 1941 and the declarations of war by the other Axis Powers against the U.S. brought the Americans into the war on the side of the Allies, which proved to be a decisive factor in the defeat of the Axis.

The Japanese surrender was unconditional, except for being allowed to keep their Emperor as only a ceremonial figure.  Emperor Hirohito had urged surrender to the Allies to spare the destruction of Japan, particularly after the dropping of atomic bombs.  Surrender was unprecedented to the Japanese, who considered it dishonorable, but they generally obeyed their Emperor, except for a small-scale attempted military coup.  Some isolated Japanese forces who were unaware of the surrender continued to hold out, with combat lasting in the Philippines until the mid-1970s until the surrender of the last Japanese holdout.

The post-war U.S. benign occupation of Japan led to the end of feudalism, liberal democratic reforms and a pacifist constitution as the Japanese rebuilt successfully.  Japan has since been a close American ally, dependent on the U.S. for security, but maintaining significant defense forces and contributing other support.  The defeat of the Axis accelerated the end of colonialism with the independence of scores of states, although one territory liberated by the Americans from the Empire of Japan, the Northern Marianas, opted to become a U.S. commonwealth in 1986.

American leadership has led to a Pax Americana for three quarters of a century, especially in the Pacific, much of which was liberated from the Japanese by the Allies.  There have been no general conflagrations involving the Great Powers since the Second World War, after a three hundred-year period of regular general wars and numerous major wars between some of the Great Powers.  Although there were proxy battles during the Cold War, even major wars involving the Great Powers have been few and of limited direct engagement.  Despite Communism, Islamism and other continued threats, such as a recent surge in fascist-like ideologies, the world has increasingly experienced an unprecedented degree of peace and prosperity, especially since the mostly bloodless American and allied victory in the Cold War.  In contrast to isolationism, which failed to protect the U.S. from the fascist threat from the Axis Powers, American leadership has gained the U.S. increased security and prosperity.

We ought to be grateful for the great sacrifices by the Allied soldiers and their countrymen on the home front that led to victory and continue to honor their accomplishments by opposing aggression with a strong military deterrence and by promoting peace, freedom and prosperity.