By Mike Huckabee
August 24, 2021
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Blessings on you and your family, and from all the Huckabee staff!
Today's newsletter includes:
- Bible Verse of the Day - Psalm 83:18
- China cozies up to the Taliban, Iran, Russia
- A follow-up: So, why can't Biden be court-martialed?
- America The Beautiful
- Afghanistan Update
- "Trust Us"
Sincerely,
Mike Huckabee
DAILY BIBLE VERSE
18 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the most high over all the earth.
Psalm 83:18
China cozies up to the Taliban, Iran, Russia
By Mike Huckabee
Investigative reporter Lara Logan made a good point about the fiasco in Afghanistan on last night’s Tucker Carlson show. She said that “this doesn’t just empower al-Qaeda, and the terrorists’ offensive. It empowers every enemy the United States has.”
That observation might apply most specifically to China, which, according to China analyst Gordon Chang, has ties with the Taliban that go back over 20 years, to before 9/11.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/china-taliban-connection-hold-beijing-accountable-gordon-chang
Did anyone think it was odd that the Chinese Embassy in Kabul stayed open as the Taliban took over Afghanistan? The Taliban and the CCP must have had some sort of “understanding.” In contrast, we know what happened to OUR embassy as the Taliban advanced and Biden retreated and, in effect, surrendered. Our State Department abandoned their embassy building, the Taliban sacked it, and they took all the files left behind that identified Afghans who had helped America. God help those Afghans who were our friends.
As Chang reports, on July 28, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with senior Taliban officials in the Chinese city of Tianjin. The next step is for China to officially recognize the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”
This association between the Taliban and China is nothing new. I wonder if we’ll ever know what role, if any, China might have played in the attack on the Twin Towers 20 years ago. Apparently, Huawei, along with another telecommunications company, ZTE, worked on Kabul’s telecom system two years before that. Right after 9/11, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said that China had no “formal relations” with the Taliban, that the only ties they had were on the “working level,” and that reports of China building telecom networks and dams for the Taliban were “unfounded rumors.”
Does anybody buy that? If recent events have brought about one thing, I hope it’s a total lack of patience with being LIED TO, over and over. Seriously, can we believe anything the CCP tells us about the virus? Can we believe anything the Taliban tell us about letting Americans into the airport? For that matter, can we believe anything our own administration tells us? Biden, Harris, Jen Psaki, the Joint Chumps of Staff? Tragically, no. As I said to Sean Hannity on his TV show last night, our administration is lying to us. Allies must assume they’re lying, too.
When Psaki, with a fleeting smile, can “call out” reporter Peter Doocy as “irresponsible” for suggesting that Americans are stranded outside the airport in Kabul, when we know that’s exactly what they are, then we can’t trust anything our leaders are telling us. When Biden assures us he’ll get all Americans out “who want to leave,” his implication that some Americans DON’T want to leave is such a huge whopper, it insults our intelligence. They all want to leave. I’m tired of being lied to.
Anyway, Chang says that ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING TIMES reported in the aftermath of 9/11 that Indian intelligence officials believed Huawei India (yes, there’s a Huawei India!) supplied communications surveillance equipment to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Huawei denied the charge, and a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman called it “misleading.” Not untrue, it should be noted; misleading.
China has also been a main supplier of small arms to the Taliban and insurgents in Iraq, a vast array of weaponry and ammo, some of which were shipped by dirty arms merchants directly from China’s factories. Some weapons were routed through intermediaries in Iran and Pakistan, but central Chinese authorities had to know where they were headed, as there would have been government surveillance every step of the way. Chang singles out a “series” of U.S. Presidents, notably George W. Bush, for looking the other way.
So, why would our leaders just let this go on? Recall that at the time, the thinking was to bring China in to the international system, to “engage” China, to indulge China, to trade with China, to fund Chinese virology labs hard at work studying bat viruses. Well, I made that last part up, sort of.
It turned out we couldn’t trust China, and the optimism is gone when it comes to dealing with that totalitarian state. After what Chang calls “two decades of aggressive, malicious and provocative acts,” we can no longer overlook their dangerous conduct. It’s not just the Taliban who must be held accountable for their terrorist atrocities, but also their #1 sponsor: China.
I have to wonder what Chang, who wrote the book THE COMING COLLAPSE OF CHINA, is thinking of China’s position of power right now. Who, exactly, is collapsing? Our once-dependable power center, the Oval Office, is now a vacuum, a void, a cipher, a blank, a Black Hole in our universe that compares to nothing in our previous experience. So China is sitting in the catbird seat at the moment and will use this time as productively as possible.
China has also said it plans to coordinate with Iran and Russia on joint naval drills in the Persian Gulf, either late this year or early next year. The three countries pulled together for similar exercises in 2019. They plan to make it an annual event.
https://nypost.com/2021/08/23/iran-holding-joint-naval-drills-with-russia-china-in-coming-months/
The Russian ambassador said that these drills are being done “to practice actions to ensure the safety of international shipping and the fight against sea pirates.” Okay……
Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, met with the president of China, Xi Jinging, last week, reportedly to tell Xi that Iran was “ready to cooperate with China in establishing security, stability and peace in Afghanistan.” Ah, so this is who holds influence in the "new" Afghanistan as we depart. Raisi said, “We believe the departure of foreigners [NOTE: by “foreigners,” he means America], as well as past experiences in this country, has highlighted the need for the support and participation of all Afghans to ensure the security and development of Afghanistan more than ever.”
Raisi also spoke to Russian President Putin, saying much the same thing, that they should “make the U.S. withdrawal a turning point for lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan.” He’s also spoken with Japan’s foreign minister, who traveled to Iran for the meeting.
Incidentally, Iran’s nuclear program is chugging right along, with the U.N. confirming that they’ve produced uranium metal enriched to 20 percent for the first time and have upped their production of enriched uranium by 60 percent. Of course, Iran insists this is for its civilian nuclear program; they’re not interested at all in developing a bomb.
I wonder if even Jen Psaki could tell a lie that big. On second thought, sure she could.
China and its growing circle of friends need to know that Americans won’t stand for the current situation and will soon be tossing out our worthless “leaders.” We’d do it today, if we could. Time to admit the biggest national mistake in history. It’s obvious we need leaders like Trump, maybe Trump-to-the-tenth-power, to reassure our allies that we haven't lost our minds and impress upon our adversaries that there are consequences to stepping out of line with us.
A follow-up: So, why can't Biden be court-martialed?
By Mike Huckabee
After Monday’s commentary, “If only we COULD court-martial President Biden,” we received replies from readers essentially asking, “Hey, why can’t we?” Since Biden is Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces, they reasoned, he must be a member of our military, and we should be able to court-martial him. If only!
As the Constitution makes clear, the President of the United States is considered to be a civilian, not a member of the military. Yes, he commands the military, but he is “over” the military, not “of” the military. So he is subject to civilian courts, not military courts. It was important to the framers of the Constitution not to have the military itself in control of the government.
Article II, Section 4, of the Constitution specifies that the President (also the Vice President) shall be removed from office by impeachment and conviction for treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. The President is not subject to court-martial or any other military discipline, much as we might like to see him get thrown in the brig and the door clanged shut.
There’s more information at the link, under the heading, “The Commander-in-Chief is a Civilian Officer.”
By the way, Col. Kemp is a great friend of mine; I’ve been with him in Israel many times. He was Britain’s attache’ to the Israeli Defense Forces. Being British, he might not have the familiarity with our Constitution to know an American President must be tried as a civilian. Personally, in this situation, with the way Biden has misused and humiliated our military, it would be gratifying to see him “dishonorably discharged” from the Oval Office.
Here are a few more letters we received from readers who are as sickened as we are by what is happening.
From Morris S:
As a military Army infantry officer for 21 years that served two tours in Vietnam and one year in Africa, I am totally shocked, mad, hurt, embarrassed and sad for America by the actions or inactions by our supposed Commander-in-Chief. His total lack of leadership and understanding of what he is doing/has done to our country and the free world is absolutely dumbfounding!!!. I am especially sad for the Afghan people and the families of Afghans and Americans who have lost love ones fighting for freedom. The most precious thing in the world. I am one of the lucky ones.
From Carl S:
As a veteran, I'm beyond disgusted! The words I have for the best of the Democrats are not printable on this site. If we had a CIC and not a placeholder, the Embassy would be leveled and our jamming capability employed, and [we’d] open Baghram Air Base with both carrier groups launching a few hundred sorties a day to keep the Inbreds hunkered behind their rocks.
From Sharon:
Thank you for expressing everything that is in the hearts of true Americans. What a total disaster and disgrace this is, and, meanwhile, how many other things are being ignored while this horror is going on? This administration is a disaster for our country. Bring back America and our freedoms and our compassion and our strength. We have always been the greatest country in the World.
America The Beautiful
God's creation is all around us. To learn more about Shenandoah National Park, visit its website here.
Afghanistan Update
By Mike Huckabee
With things moving so quickly in Afghanistan, here’s a link to the regularly-updated Fox News feed:
Here are a few stories of particular interest:
The World Health Organization says there are only enough medical supplies to last for one more week, with deliveries hampered due to the Taliban takeover of Kabul.
In a heartbreaking phone interview, an American mother trapped in Afghanistan begged President Biden for help, saying, “We are in danger, Mr. President. Please help us!” In contradiction of press secretary Jen Psaki’s claim that there are no Americans stranded there, she said, “We are stranded at home. We can’t get to the airport. When we try to get to the airport, we either get beaten up or we are afraid of our lives.”
By this point, you may be used to hearing about monumental errors that the Biden Administration has made, and their cataclysmic consequences. But give them credit: they’re also capable of making smaller, detail-oriented errors that can have cataclysmic consequences.
Since Biden seems unwilling or incapable of admitting how badly he’s botched this, or of doing what’s necessary to fix it, retired Navy SEAL Jocko Willink posted a video on Instagram that’s gone viral, where he imagined he was President and gave Biden a tutorial in exactly what he should be saying and doing RIGHT NOW. This is what it would look like if we had a Commander-in-Chief who owned up to his mistakes, took responsibility, and acted from a position of strength to make things right and protect our people, allies and interests.
I’m sorry, but sadly, I don’t know of any constitutional method by which we can immediately replace Joe Biden with Jocko Willink.
While President Biden tried to blame the loss of Afghanistan on the Afghan military not being willing to fight, Afghan officers are now speaking out. Their response: they fought hard (over 60,000 Afghans gave their lives fighting the Taliban), but “Biden abandoned us.” This article explains how they were left to twist in the wind.
https://www.newsweek.com/afghan-military-officers-we-fought-hard-biden-abandoned-us-1621473
Remember when President Obama drew a “red line” of Syria not using chemical weapons, and they did it anyway? Well, that now looks like a great moment in strong Presidential leadership. These days, our enemies don’t merely ignore our President’s “red line” warnings, they’re issuing them to him.
"Trust Us"
By Mike Huckabee
First, the “Justice” Department cleared the Capitol cop who shot unarmed protester Ashli Babbitt to death, and now the Capitol Hill Police have closed their investigation by finding no wrongdoing on his part. They claim his actions were legal and within department policy, and “potentially saved (Congress) Members and staff from serious injury and possible death.”
I’m a bit unclear on how an unarmed woman crawling through a window was a deadly threat that needed to be eliminated with lethal force, but I’m willing to be convinced that these investigations were honest and above board, if we can just see the evidence and hear the testimony.
Wait, what’s that? We’re not allowed to see it? We’re not even allowed to know the officer’s name so that we can see if he has a record of using deadly force inappropriately? As the article at the link points out, we’ve just gone through several years of targeting police and demanding public investigations and televised trials over every police shooting. This was encouraged by the same Democrats who think deadly force against unarmed protesters is only justified if they’re the ones in harm’s way (and who also defended and released violent rioters who didn’t happen to do their rioting at the Capitol.)
We also now know that the FBI has been unable to find any evidence of an organized insurrection – another finding we had to learn from leaks via Reuters.
Maybe the killing of Ashli Babbitt was a necessary response to an imminent threat, or maybe it was a deadly overreaction to an unarmed protester that’s being covered up for purely political reasons. I can’t say for sure because all the “investigations” have been conducted in secret. Until the cover is lifted and the public is allowed to see all the evidence, there’s no way to tell. And I’m sorry, but we’re long past accepting “Trust us” as a reason for believing anything we hear out of Washington.
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