Month: August 2021

The Trump years were good for many reasons but chief among them from an Orthodox Christian standpoint was the fact that Trump wanted better relations with Russia. Unfortunately, the Democrats blocked his administration from working with the Russians in matters of common interest. The neocons are working overtime to promote hysteria in the aftermath of Biden’s stupidity.

Commentators on FOX News, talk radio, and neocon publications such as National Review have been warning about the evil Russians and the “fascist” Putin. The anti Russian hysteria that the Democrats carried for four years is being taken up by the neocons in the Republican Party. The Republicans were good for a while serving as an opposition to the Marxist lunatics in the Democratic Party.

While the Republicans are on target on cultural issues, the rising anti Russian and pro war sentiments are problematic and one has to wonder if the Republicans are reverting away from Trump’s policies to the Bush-Cheney policies. Time will tell, but from an Orthodox Christian standpoint Russophobia is a threat to all of Orthodoxy (Greece and Cyprus included).

The neocons were never entirely dislodged from the Republican Party. They even served in the Trump administration. Mike Pompeo, an otherwise good Secretary of State stuck his noise in Orthodox Church affairs by asking the Church of Greece to recognize the Ukrainian schismatic entity. Washington wants to ensure that Greece remains under Washington’s influence and wants Greece to be anti Russian.

“Ambassador” Geoffrey Pyatt contributed to the chaos with his own meddling in Orthodox Church affairs by backing Patriarch Bartholomew’s actions in recognizing a schismatic entity in Ukraine. The anti Russian policies of Washington are likely to make Washington tilt toward Turkey in the event of a Greek-Turkish war.

When the British Empire was anti Russian in previous centuries, London backed the Ottoman Empire. As long as NATO exists, Turkey will get preferential treatment over Greece. Athens appealed to NATO to restrain Turkey in its aggressive actions against Athens and Nicosia, and NATO refused to do so.

The lamentation from so many “conservatives” for the possible demise of the anti Orthodox NATO is sickening. NATO member Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 and has never left. NATO bombed Serbia and took Kosovo from that Orthodox nation. NATO instigated the brief war that occurred in Ukraine 2014 by trying to absorb Ukraine and move to the Russian border.

Make no mistake about it, NATO is a threat to Orthodox countries. Good riddance to this nefarious alliance. And good riddance to the Russophobes of both political parties.

I am not now and have never been a supporter of Joe Biden. I loathe the Democratic Party. But I also happen to loathe the neoconservative warmongers who have found new life in the midst of the chaos of Afghanistan. The neoconservatives have been very carefully exploiting Afghanistan and will no doubt over the long term try to push American foreign policy into a renewed pro war direction.

Neocon Mark Levine in a diatribe regarding the events in Kabul brought up Vladimir Putin and called him a “fascist”. One of the major reasons for my contempt for the Democratic Party has been the anti Russian hysteria of the past five years. Levine sounds like Hillary Clinton who once compared Putin to Hitler. But then neocons by the dozens (if not Levine) supported Hillary’s candidacy for President in 2016.

Vladimir Putin was born in Leningrad in 1952. During the war, over one million Russians died from starvation during the Nazi siege of the city. Vladimir Putin’s brother died from starvation and two of his uncles were killed in defense of the city. The neocons who call Putin a fascist have conveniently ignored the the glorification in Ukraine of Nazi collaborators and the terror campaigns conducted by Neo-Nazi militias.

The Democrats and the neoconservatives have much in common starting with Russophobia. Other commentators in the media have been bringing up Ukraine and alleged Russian “aggression”. Let it not be forgotten that neoconservative warmongers Geoffrey Pyatt and Victoria Nuland were instrumental in overthrowing the democratic government of Ukraine in 2014. The Russians were not going to have NATO at their border and were not going to permit a stooge government to pursue anti Russian policies right next door.

It is very clear that President Biden has made a horrendous mistake by withdrawing troops all at once from Afghanistan. Joe Biden is clearly a very sick man who shot not have run for President. The man slurs his words and looks awful when he makes public appearances. He needs to step down or Congress should impeach him.

Now, as disastrous as the situation is regarding Afghanistan context is in order. Biden is being universally denounced as if his actions were worse than those of the Bush-Cheney administration which triggered the disastrous Iraq war. It was the neocon influenced Bush-Cheney regime that believed the rest of the world wanted to be like America. Neocons and liberals alike have no understanding of religion, culture, or nationalism.

The goal of going to war in Afghanistan was to smash Al Quada and to punish the Taliban for giving them sanctuary. That goal was achieved early on. It was the Bush administration that deserves blame for the unending war in Afghanistan. The Bush-Cheney government did not win the war in the seven plus years before leaving office and had no exit strategy and left the war for other administrations to conduct.

The Trump administration looks very good in comparison to both the Bush and Biden administrations. The Trump administration did what had to be done to smash ISIS which it properly considered a threat and sought friendly relations with Russia. The Trump administration (with difficulty) also resisted neoconservative demands to go to war with Iran.

The Trump administration correctly sought to withdraw from Afghanistan and was planning to leave in a manner that would have avoided the destruction and misery that the world is now witnessing. Let it be remembered that the liberal media greatly influenced the outcome of the 2020 elections. Liberal media outlets such as National Public Radio and Sixty Minutes openly said that they would not report on the scandals involving Hunter Biden.

The media downplayed early reports of the nursing home deaths of elderly people as a result of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s policies because they did not want Donald Trump to benefit politically in any way. The media has now turned on the sick and elderly Joe Biden who should not be President. The media and the Democrats downplayed concerns about Biden’s declining mental heath because they wanted Donald Trump out of the White House at all costs.

Joe Biden is a sick man and has now demonstrated that he is incapable of making good decisions. Compassion necessitates that he be removed from office immediately and that the media back off should he leave office. The media is largely responsible for his ascension to power and it is hypocritical for them now to pretend to be shocked by his inability to comprehend what is happening.

The main lesson to be learned is that nation building leads to disaster. The neocons would have us believe that all countries irrespective of religion, history, and national interests want to be like America. The neocons fellow travelers the liberals suffer from the same delusions. The war in Iraq, the overthrow of the Libyan government in 2011, the intervention in Ukraine, and the subsequent warmongering led to unnecessary human suffering.

The best way to avoid the horror show playing out in Afghanistan in the future is to avoid all unnecessary wars. I am reminded of the hysteria against Syria a few years ago. Liberals and neocons were outraged at atrocities occurring in Syria. A reality check is in order. Atrocities are perpetrated in wars.

War mongers and interventionists need to understand that if they wish to avoid atrocities and massacres they need to stop instigating wars and overthrowing governments that they do not like. It is possible that the Republican Party that Trump rescued is going to be reclaimed by the neocons. It that happens then the Republican Party will be just as evil as the Democratic Party is.

Neoconservatives have joined with liberals over the past several years to demonize Orthodox Russia. At present, the neocons and liberals are demonizing the Roman Catholic nation of Hungary. The Hungarian government has passed a law forbidding the teaching of gay and transgender propaganda to children. Normal people think this law is quite reasonable which affirms that neocons and liberals have estranged themselves from normal people.

Poland has also come under enormous international criticism. The EU has been bullying the Hungarians because of the law forbidding LGBT propaganda to children. The Russians started coming under attack after the women of “pussy riot” were properly jailed for desecrating the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow and after blocking the dissemination of gay propaganda in Russian schools.

The neoconservative Geoffrey Pyatt who did so much damage when he served as “Ambassador” to Ukraine is now the defacto Governor of Greece where he serves under the guise of being an Ambassador. Pyatt played a major role in fomenting the schism in Orthodoxy by meddling the affairs of the Greek Church. For the neocons, the Orthodox Church is just another institution to be influenced and controlled.

As the Democrats are pagans, the neoconservatives are atheists. All of them have wrought nothing but misery throughout the world from Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan.

The question of withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan is quite complex. With the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban two historical events come to mind. First, the Turkish conquest of Smyrna in September 1922 which led to the final genocide and mass exterminations of the Greek and Armenian Christian populations of that city. As with the Taliban today, there was a sense of dread that preceded the Kemalist entry in Smyrna in 1922.

The second example that comes to mind is the rise of ISIS in 2014 when they took over Mosul and over one third of Iraq. The Iraqi army retreated before the armies of ISIS which would go on to take over one third of territory in Syria and would institute policies of genocide and would create slave markets that sold Yazidi women. Both the Turks and ISIS committed crimes against humanity.

The President made a decision on Afghanistan. Whether it was right or wrong is open to debate and interpretation. The major blame for the war in Afghanistan which has dragged on for twenty years lies with the Bush administration. Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld could not win the war in eight years and the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations inherited this war. Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld invaded Iraq in which they badly miscalculated what would happen.

One can not avoid being moved by the prospect of what might happen to the people of Afghanistan when American forces withdraw. As a Greek fully cognizant of what happened to the Greeks and the Armenians after the Turkish victories of 1922, I am sympathetic to the people who might be massacred following an American withdrawal. The situation is complicated by the fact that after twenty years, the Afghani government and military cannot stand on its own two feet.

The major failure of the Biden administration is not the decision to withdraw, but the manner in which it has chosen to withdraw. It has proceeded to withdraw without taking into consideration the horrors awaiting many innocent people when the Taliban takes over the whole country. The political decision to withdraw is the correct one. The indifference to the humanitarian crisis that is beginning to take shape is what may condemn the Biden administration’s legacy.

On the other hand, the neocons are expressing anger at the Biden administration and are prepared to blame Biden for the mess in Afghanistan. The neocons have never seen a war they did not like. Afghanistan, Iraq, and Crimea are the results of neo con warmongering.

Much evil resulted from the neocons invasion of Iraq. Inter religious bloodletting and civil war resulted from the Bush-Cheney war. The civil war led ultimately to genocide against Shiite Muslims and the subsequent rise of Mesopotamia in Iraq, an Al-Quada affiliate that was the forerunner of ISIS. From Iraq came the war in Syria and the greater tensions with Russia.

As a result of the war in Iraq, Greece and Europe were flooded with refugees that destabilized those societies with the rise of fascist extremist groups. Most of us agreed that the intervention in Afghanistan was justified on the grounds that the Taliban gave refuge to Al Quada which planned the 9/11 attacks from its soil. Al Quada was quickly destroyed. The desire of the Bush administration to pursue a policy of “nation building” has turned out to be madness.

It is the Bush administration that failed to win the war in Afghanistan and it is the neocons who bear the greatest responsibility for Afghanistan. The neocons live in a make believe world where the rest of the world desires to be westernized and to be like America and Europe. Such a view is based in fantasy and demonstrates that the neocons do not understand religion or nationalism.

Biden and his foreign policy team can be held responsible for the manner in which they have chosen to withdraw. The greater responsibility for losing the war lies with the criminal administration of Bush-Cheney. The neocons have not wasted any time in denouncing the Biden administration while totally ignoring their own responsibilities regarding Afghanistan and Iraq.

If at all possible, the Biden administration should seek to delay the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The goal now is what it should have been previously. Humanitarianism to prevent mass slaughter and a refugee crisis, and not nation building.

Neo con hysterics have been on the airwaves discussing the effectiveness of the Afghani military. This despite the fact that after twenty years, the Afghani military cannot stand alone against the Taliban. The victory of the Taliban is not the Biden administration’s fault.

There is also a good deal of hypocrisy from the neocons and others who are castigating the Biden administration. When the Trump administration (and I am a Trump supporter) abandoned the Syrian Kurds to their fate against the Turks there was no similar outrage compared to that in response to the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Ultimately, there were no good choices regarding Afghanistan. There is one moral lesson to take away from both Afghanistan and Iraq. Avoid unnecessary wars and give up the whole idea of nation building.