Foreign Digest: Philippines, Syria, Persian Gulf States, Ukraine and Iran

Philippines: Two United States citizens were among 19 Communist guerillas killed in a raid by the Filipino armed forces earlier this month. Communists have been conducted a long-time insurgency in the Philippines. The Filipino Government warned Americans not to join the insurgency through left-wing recruiters in America. Marxists believe in advancing socialism and dictatorship through any means necessary, including violence. Since the end of the Cold War in 1991, several Marxist insurgencies have been put down, but the Philippines and Colombia are the two battlegrounds in the world where Communists and Marxists remain engaged in armed conflict. Syria: The first trial of Syria’s Assad regime members for human rights violations have begun. The Baathist tyrant Bashar Assad was overthrown in September 2024, after his family had ruled for 24 years before Turkish-backed Islamist rebels overthrew him, after an eleven-year civil war. As I have posted, the new Syrian Government has begun a transition to an elective parliamentary government that includes religious and ethnic minorities and women, and has been unifying autonomous provinces ruled by minorities, has dismantled the state-run Captagon narcotic industry, is making peace with Lebanon and other neighbors, and is cooperating with the United States against Islamist terrorists like the Islamic State, the offshoot of al-Qaeda that had committed the deadliest terrorist attacks in history in the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America. Assad was a terrorist-sponsoring ally of Iran who was backed by the Islamic Republic and the Russian Federation, which still maintains a naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean Coast. Syria is engaging Ukraine diplomatically, as Iran has been supplying Russia with missiles used in its aggression against Ukraine. Persian Gulf States, Ukraine and Iran: Ukraine has negotiated security agreements with several Arab States in the Persian Gulf to defend them against Iranian missiles, based on Ukrainian experience defending against Russian-launched Iranian missiles with drones. The Islamic Republic of Iran launched missiles last week at several Arab States, Cyprus, Turkey and Israel after Israel and the United States launched attacks against the Iranian nuclear warhead and missile programs. American bases were among the targets of Iran. Ukraine is thus supplanting America’s role as the protectress of the Gulf. Ukraine, which is emerging as the leader of the Free World, recognizes the geopolitical security need to confront Russia and its allies, like Iran, around the globe. Since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Iran has been fomenting Islamist revolutionary, especially among fellow Shi’ites around the Islamic world, and is the worst state sponsor of terrorism. The Islamic Republic has been in conflict with the U.S. from its inception, when it tolerated the takeover and hostage-taking of the American Embassy in late 1979, had clashed with American forces in the Persian Gulf in the 1980s, and has sponsored terrorists and guerillas who have killed hundreds of Americans around the Middle East over decades. Iran has sponsored terrorist attacks Muslims and Jews throughout the Middle East, and even as far away as Argentina.

Update on the Hungarian Center-Right Parliamentary Election Victory

The center-right opposition party, TISZA, won a two-thirds supermajority in last week’s Hungarian parliamentary election, in which the far-right authoritarian anti-migrant pro-Russian party that has ruled for 16 years was ousted. Not only will they be able to govern without having to form a coaltion with the center-left or any other parties, but they will be able to enact reforms and investigate corruption. TISZA’s Prime Minister-designate, Peter Magyar, has already announced that they will cut off funding of far-right think tanks and the American Conservative Political Action Committee that has turned from principled conservatism to far-right populist Trumpism (protectionism, nativism and isolationism, with support or tolerance for authoritarianism, corruption and cruelty). Hungary's autocratic Government, led by Viktor Orban, who was regarded as a model by the European and American far-right, had taken over Hungarian cultural institutions, compromised academic freedom, undermined the independence of the judiciary and limited the freedom of the press. As I had posted in my last post, many far-right leaders, including Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, had openly backed Orban in his losing cause. Orban's Fedesz party turned Hungary into the least prosperous and most corrupt member of the European Union. His anti-migrant policies, instead of guaranteeing Hungarian prosperity, contributed to its economic decline, while reamaining dependent on Russian energy and thus subject to the demands of Russian tyrant and ex-Soviet intelligence officer Vladimir Putin, who is trying to restore the Soviet Union and Russian Empire. Magyar also announced that he will unblock the European Union’s loan to Ukraine to defend against Russian aggression against the former Soviet Republic. Hungary is an ally of the United States as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Foreign Digest: Moldova and Hungary

Moldova: The former Soviet Republic of Moldova has left the Commonwealth of Independent States, the post-Soviet organization formed by the Russian Federation for its former Soviet Republics after the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991. The move underscores the turn by Moldova away from Russia, like other Eastern European States and former Soviet Republics, and toward Europe and the West. As I have posted, Russia keeps troops against Moldova’s wishes in the breakaway Transnistria region, inhabited by ethnic Russians. Under Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, a former Soviet intelligence officer who has been trying to reconstitute the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire, the Russians have invaded the former Soviet Republics of Georgia and Ukraine. Hungary: The center-right TISZA party, led by conservative Peter Magyar, has won the majority of votes and seats in the high-turnout Hungarian parliamentary elections today, ending 16 years of rule by the far-right Fidesz party, led by Viktor Orban. The anti-migrant pro-Russian Orban ruled autocratically and corruptly and was an icon of the nationalist movement in Europe. Despite open election interference on his behalf by Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, who campaigned in Hungary for Orban, and being the darling of far-right isolationists, xenophobes and Trumpists, Magyar’s party won in a landslide. He will form a government that he will lead as premier. As I have posted, Hungary, a former Soviet satellite state, is a member of the European Union and is an ally of the United States as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but has been an obstacle to EU decisions that require unanimity, particularly in support of Ukraine against Russian aggression, and even to NATO defense buildups to counter the Russian threat, and Fidesz had been forced out of the center-right European Peoples’ Party parliamentary group in the European Parliament. Orban, who had nationalized universities, undermined the independence of the judiciary, ruled by decree, compromised the freedoms of association and the press, and kept out migrants and refugees seeking asylum from persecution, was seen as a model for America by Trump and the authoritarian far right, as I have posted. Orban’s authoritarianism had made it difficult for opposition candidates, but a scandal inspired Magyar, a government official, to break with Fidesz. Hungary was the poorest member of the EU, in part because of its anti-migrant policy. The far right in Europe and America openly preferred Orban even over the conservative opposition, whose victory today is a major blow to them and to Russian tyrant Putin. Hungary now joins Poland, Romania, Austria, Germany, and the EU where, within the last two years, the center right has defeated the far right in elections, which suggests a center-right party in America could defeat the Trumpist Republican Party, if the GOP fails to return to its conservative principles.

Happy Easter, 2026!

Happy Easter! The Hope that Jesus Christ gives us by redeeming us with his passion and death on the Cross, then rising from the dead and destroying death, is especially appreciated in times when there is much death or temptation to despair. This year, like the last several, has been especially difficult around the world, with contagion, economic difficulty and supply disruptions, bitter political division, authoritarianism, corruption, violence, terrorism, aggression and war, but we always have Hope in the next world. And we have confidence from the knowledge that God has led humanity through even worse times than today. May your celebration of the Resurrection of Our Lord be filled with hope and joy. God bless.