North Korea – The Conservative-Patriot Christian Right

The World Holds Its Breath

Justin Smith quite correctly alerts readers that nuclear peace in our time with North Korea is unlikely without trustworthy verification of any signed agreement. I concur, and you should too.

JRH 5/8/18 [updated 4:23 PM CT – again updated 7:47 PM CT with added source links Justin Smith]

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The World Holds Its Breath

Kim’s Word Means Nothing

By Justin O. Smith

Sent 5/5/2018 11:00 PM

North Korea and Kim Jong Un are far from “honorable”, and President Trump’s administration and everybody else must not lose their minds in a premature adulation and singing Trump’s praises, in anticipation of a Nobel Peace Prize, before they taste the proof in the pudding. Yes, it is true that President Trump’s tough talk and his tight economic sanctions on North Korea have captured Kim’s attention and seemingly renewed his interest in playing nice in the realm of international affairs and abandoning his nuclear weapons program; but, further success is highly unlikely as the historical record shows, despite the short memories of the American people and their hopes that this president and the U.S. will not “get played” once more.

Kim Jong Un is far from an ordinary dictator. He has murdered his own senior military officers for the slightest of perceived insults, he executed his uncle and he had his brother assassinated. And just a few short months ago, he was threatening U.S. cities and territories with nuclear annihilation.

In a surreal moment, America witnessed North Korea’s evil Little Dictator and South Korean President Moon Jae In shake hands on April 27th in Panmunjom, as Kim first stepped across the demarcation line into South Korea and Moon reciprocated and stepped into North Korea; and, they later signed the ‘Panmunjom Agreement’ this day, that stated in part, “there will be no more war on the Korean Peninsula and thus a new era of peace has begun.”

Who could have imagined six months ago, that the world would see the leaders of North and South Korea embrace or hear South Korean President Moon Jae In recommend President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize?

President Trump does deserve credit for taking North Korea to task for its evil acts and malfeasance, such as the horrific torture that resulted in Otto Warmbier’s death — a slow murder that culminated weeks after the torture hollowed out the mind of this young man, whose only “crime” was seeking a souvenir of his visit. He also ordered the U.S Treasury Department to clamp down on North Korea through economic sanctions, and he motivated the United Nations Security Council to do the same, in response to an assortment of aggressive North Korean missile tests.

However, President Trump’s negotiators, the American people and the international coalition overseeing this matter of North Korean denuclearization should not fool itself with high expectations and see successes where none exist, until they are in fact verified. The world has been here with North Korea on numerous other occasions.

In May of 1972, a similar agreement was reached between the Korean Bureau CIA director, Lee Hu Rak, and Kim Family Regime cadre members in Pyongyang, but nothing came from it. In 1989, Pyongyang held out the hope of a nuclear free Korean Peninsula, and afterwards, it began requiring conditions from the George H.W. Bush administration and won one concession after another, sending the message that America could be played.

There was also the Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in 1992, which was obviously discarded by North Korea. North Korea ultimately refused to sign a “safeguards” agreement, and it perpetrated mass deception, as it designated its nuclear plants as something they were not.

The Clinton administration essentially abandoned all efforts towards inspections. Under Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the United States gave away the farm, appeasing North Korea [PDF pages 15,16 & 20] through shipments of food and oil, essentially speaking softly and carrying a big carrot.

Trump’s team must deal with the facts that North Korea’s production of fissile material is continuing at a furious pace, and according to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, North Korea is producing enough material for twelve nuclear weapons a year, also detailed by Adam Mount and Ankit Panda on April 21^st in The Atlantic. Also, the U.S. must note that in 2012, North Korea simply reclassified its nuclear missile tests as space launches to circumvent its 2012 agreement. Even now, there are indications that North Korea is continuing work on its most advanced ICBM, the Hwasong-15.

Although Kim did state that nuclear missile tests would be suspended for the foreseeable future, Western media missed the core of Kim’s message. Kim’s moratorium is, in his mind, the next logical step to a fully operational nuclear weapons program, not a concession to the United States before any comprehensive negotiations over his nuclear program. Not once has Kim uttered the word “denuclearization”.

Even President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Defense, William Perry was wary of any North Korean promises, telling the New York Times: “I’d rather [face the risk] of war than face the risk of even greater catastrophe two or three years from now.

Just as with past regimes, Kim’s word and signature on paper mean absolutely nothing. He can break any moratorium or any agreement and treaty, just as Pyongyang did in 2006, when it broke a 1999 moratorium on missile launches. His pledge to a temporary moratorium on his nuclear program and halting the proliferation of nuclear technology is not worth the paper it is printed on without any verification, and Pres. Trump and his negotiators cannot lose sight of this fact, going forward.

In short, America can look for North Korea to continue trying to separate South Korea from its alliance with the U.S. and eventually absorbing South Korea under Pyongyang’s hardcore communist rule, while North Korea will also continue to produce and test more nuclear missiles of multiple range capabilities and warheads. And, despite vague statements from North Korean state media and optimism from South Korea’s leaders, there is little hard evidence that North Korea is truly interested in abandoning its nuclear weapons program for security, economic and political concessions.

The reunification of the two Korea’s would hold even more significant regional and global geopolitical ramifications, that would heavily bear on U.S. vital national security interests, already on National Security Advisor John Bolton’s radar and contingency plans. The U.S. would most certainly be asked to withdraw from Korea, which would coincide with China and their current efforts aimed at expelling the U.S. from the Pacific Theater, as such movements are also ongoing in both the Philippines and Okinawa. The withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Korea would be a strategic grand slam for China, an emerging and expanding totalitarian nation that views America’s presence in the Pacific as an impediment to their long-term agenda to become a regional, and then global, hegemon.

These are interesting and dangerous times, and the only good solution to this entire mess is actual regime change in North Korea or the reunification of a non-nuclear Korea under South Korea’s auspices, guidance and democratic republic form of government. Whatever President Trump and his team of negotiators do, Trump must hold the line and protect America’s vital security interests first and foremost, wherever those interests are found, and he must be prepared to walk away from any deal that does not have North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons program in a matter of months. This is the time for strong, clear, no-nonsense meaning in America’s message to all parties concerned, as the world holds its breath, watches and waits.

By Justin O. Smith

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Edited by John R. Houk

Text embraced by brackets and all source links by J.O. Smith and the Editor.

© Justin O. Smith

The Hardest of Choices

Justin Smith writes about the nuclear tensions between North Korea and the United States. The Leftist MSM is quick to blame President Trump for escalating the tensions EVEN THOUGH the entire escalation threat is from Communist dictator Kim Jong Un.

JRH 8/14/17

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The Hardest of Choices

By Justin O. Smith

Sent 8/13/2017 4:40 PM

America is left only the hardest of choices to deal with a nuclear armed and belligerent North Korea, that recently fired another intercontinental ballistic missile on July 28th (10:45 pm EST) from Jagang province, the latest in a score of tests over the past year, with an approximate range of 6000 miles. America cannot tolerate an ever expanding and improving nuclear arsenal, under Kim Jong Un, an irrational and unstable dictator, who murdered his uncle in December 2013 and his half-brother in February of this year: and, while a bloody conventional war isn’t sought by America and South Korea, America cannot afford to do nothing and risk a massive loss of life in a future nuclear conflagration.

On August 7th, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs released a new poll, that revealed 90 percent of Americans “reject the idea that North Korea should be allowed to produce nuclear weapons”, 75 percent view North Korea’s nuclear weapons systems as a “critical threat facing the United States”, and 62 percent would support the use of U.S. troops to defend South Korea from North Korea. They are right to be concerned.

North Korea has a long history of brash, reckless chutzpah and violent aggression towards the United States and South Korea, long after the Armistice was signed on July 27th, 1953. In some of the more recent cases, the world saw the North Korean navy fire on the South Korean navy in South Korea’s own territorial waters on November 10th, 2009; North Korea fired over 170 artillery shells and rockets at Yeonpyeong Island that injured 19 and killed four South Koreans, on November 23rd, 2010, and they even sneaked across the border in 2015 and planted land-mines that maimed two South Korean soldiers.

Ryan Mauro’s August 9th article for the Clarion Project revisits reports that detail North Korea’s alliance with Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamofascists in general. In 2009, two thousand detonators and 35 tons of rockets, shoulder-fired missiles and equipment for surface-to-air-missiles were intercepted on two separate occasions. They were coming from North Korea to Iran for distribution to Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups in Thailand. North Korea states that it “fully supports” the Palestinian jihad, and North Korea has also regularly armed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines for many decades.

It is also worth noting that the USS Pueblo, a Banner-class environmental ship attached to Navy Intelligence, was attacked and captured by the North Korean navy on January 23rd, 1968. The USS Pueblo still sits on the Taedong River near Pyongyang, North Korea, as a tool for anti-American propaganda and a monument to North Korea’s ” courage and bravery”.

Once North Korea’s nuclear weapons systems are fully capable, what happens when North Korea threatens to nuke a U.S. city or one of our allies, unless some unreasonable demand is met, like reunifying Korea under their control? If they threaten us with nuclear destruction, unless we stay out of the South China Sea, an international trade route, what are we to do? Prepare for nuclear war?

Reports from Japan’s annual defense review and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency’s analysis last month indicate that North Korea has succeeded in miniaturizing nuclear warheads enough to mount them on their missiles, including its long-range missiles that are now able to hit America’s mainland. This has been North Korea’s goal from day one of the Armistice, and the pace of their breakthroughs hold far reaching consequences and threatens to bring war.

To date, North Korea has not perfected reentry of its missiles, and its latest missile launch caught fire and disintegrated, as it plummeted to earth. Most U.S. analysts and experts believe they will have this problem solved by next year.

After the July 28th ICBM test, President Donald Trump presented a case for sanctions to the United Nations, because he has warned North Korea numerous times, and he is unwilling to tolerate this situation. China, Russia and the entire United Nations Security Council voted unanimously, 15-0, to place strong economic and trade sanctions on this rogue nation, but North Korea has remained ever defiant and threatened to take revenge on the United States, illustrating sanctions won’t work.

In one of their first statements, the North Korean Army described Andersen Air Force Base on Guam as a “beachhead” for a potential U.S. invasion of North Korea, that would be one of their targets. While this sounds like a defensive tact, it also suggests that they have obviously considered a first strike on America, her allies and her territories. They proclaimed that they will create an “enveloping fire” in areas around Guam.

Sitting next to Melania, his wife, at his golf course in Bedminster, N.J. on August 8th, President Trump stated (reported by Associated Press): “North Korea had best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

This warning is not worrying the upper echelons of North Korea’s military, who seem to be fully on board with Kim Jong Un’s malevolent and maniacal vision, as General Kim Rak Gyom suggested that President Trump was “getting on (their) nerves”. They are unwilling or unable to accurately assess the risks of their actions. It’s as if they have no sense of America’s alarm over their actions or any belief that America will retaliate with force.

North Korea has even threatened to sell nuclear weapons to America’s enemies and international terrorist groups. They could easily sell off a few, since they will have nearly 100 by 2020.And it is not out of the realm of possibility that they could facilitate a nuclear attack on America, by an Islamic terrorist group, and claim it wasn’t them.

Will our government still be trying to negotiate on the day that one or more nuclear devices, stamped “Made in North Korea”, make America’s horizon a glowing inferno?

The time for talking and negotiating has long passed, and the hardest of choices lies ahead, while an irrational Kim Jong Un becomes increasingly bellicose with each significant nuclear armament success. Seventeen years of talk from feckless American leaders has placed this choice before us. Rather than accept nuclear weapons capable of striking the heart of America, in the hands of an American-hating rogue nation with a history of arming terrorists, President Donald Trump must resort to a lightening swift preemptive strike at the heart of North Korea, utilizing the Mother of All Bombs and tactical nuclear weapons on every military position, nuclear facility and Pyongyang too…

By Justin O. Smith

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Edited by John R. Houk

Source links by both Justin Smith and the Editor.

© Justin O. Smith

Flight of the Hwasong-14

Justin Smith discusses the acts of war conducted by North Korea that includes nuclear ICBM nuclear provocations.

JRH 7/10/17

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Flight of the Hwasong-14

By Justin O. Smith

Sent 7/9/2017 3:50 PM

Hwasong-14 & Kim Jong UN

America can no longer afford to hurl ineffective economic sanctions at North Korea, that are too often violated by nations like China, while North Korea and its malevolent dictator, Kim Jong Un, prepare to let nuclear armed missiles fly at their leisure. The United States government and President Donald Trump must give some hard, serious and real consideration on striking at the heart of Pyongyang North Korea, Kim Jong Un’s regime and all North Korean missile launch sites and nuclear facilities, since placing our country’s fate in the hands of a murderous and unstable dictator, who has murdered senior officials and family members on a whim, and a regime capable of reckless behavior would be beyond egregious and a monumental mistake.

On July 4th 2017, North Korea conducted a missile test of the Hwasong-14 that was a success in many ways. There is little reason to question North Korea’s claim that the missile reached an altitude of over 1700 miles and hit a target 580 miles away, in light of the fact that North Korea placed two satellites in space in 2012. This demonstrated that, at a lower altitude and straighter trajectory, Anchorage Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Japan and even Queensland Australia are within range of Pyongyang’s nuclear missiles, once it perfects the process of miniaturizing the nuclear warheads. Washington was also served a warning.

An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launched from North Korea would hit Los Angeles within thirty minutes. Riki Ellison, chairman of the nonprofit Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, asserts that North Korea already has miniaturized warheads capable of delivering 20 kilotons of destruction, similar to the bomb detonated over Nagasaki during WWII, and many other experts predict that Kim Jong Un will have the capability to hit America’s West Coast before President Trump completes his first term.

A nuclear armed and unpredictable rogue state, North Korea will not be deterred along similar lines as the former Soviet Union and China have been. They have less to lose than any previous nuclear power, and Pyongyang will most certainly attempt nuclear blackmail at best. In the worst case scenario, Pyongyang will give nukes to our Islamic enemies and third party terrorists, to insert in our harbors and cities.

North Korea has pursued nuclear weapons, since the day it acquired nuclear technology from the Soviet Union in the 1950s. It is too close to success to stop. And besides, Kim Jong Un’s survival depends on a viable nuclear weapons system.

According to Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst, who met with North Koreans and a group of Western experts last month in Sweden, at the Asia Society, “The North Koreans emphasize over and over, denuclearization is completely off the table … they say it’s not negotiable.”

Last month, Michael Auslin, from the Hoover Institute, bluntly told a group of journalists in Washington, “Negotiations won’t work“.

This rogue nation knows no bounds, when it comes to committing acts of evil. Not only did they slowly murder [HERE and HERE] Otto Warmbier, a U.S. citizen and college student, over an eighteen month period, the Kim Family regime has committed numerous flagrant violations of the July 7th 1953 Korean War Armistice. This regime killed thirty-one U.S. Airmen, when it shot them down in South Korean airspace in 1969, and thirty-five North Korean soldiers hacked U.S. Captain Arthur Bonifas and First Lieutenant Mark Barrett to death in 1976, near the Demilitarized Zone. Also, in 1968, this regime captured the USS Pueblo in international waters and held 82 Navy crewmen for eleven months. And North Korea has never met with any meaningful consequences for their acts of war.

North Korea was already blatantly defiant and violently aggressive without nukes and a missile delivery system. Just imagine how far Kim Jong Un will go, once he has a fully operational nuclear arsenal at his fingertips.

Does anyone really believe a nuclear armed North Korea won’t exact a heavy price from the free world?

An April 15th 2017 editorial in the Chinese Communist newspaper, the ‘Global Times‘, essentially stated that Beijing would not militarily intervene, if Washington conducts a preemptive strike against North Korean nuclear facilities. However, China won’t accept a non-communist regime in North Korea or U.S. troops crossing the 38th Parallel. If the U.S. strikes the Kim regime, China would likely focus on instituting a pro-China regime and possibly seizing North Korea’s missile and nuclear sites, rather than a war with U.S.-South Korea joint military forces.

The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is less than forty miles from Seoul’s 25 million inhabitants and lined with 8,000 pieces of North Korean artillery and rocket launchers. Within the first hour of any renewed conventional war between the two Koreas, North Korea has the ability to unleash the equivalent of 300,000 tons of TNT on Seoul, possibly killing as many as 100,000 people. For this reason, during a May 2017 press conference, Secretary of Defense James Mattis stated, “If this goes to a military solution, it’s going to be tragic on an unbelievable scale”.

Seoul has much to lose, however, any military move against North Korea doesn’t necessarily have to be the tragedy some U.S. officials have suggested it would be. And while America may be bound by treaty to defend South Korea, our leaders and President Trump cannot allow South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s conciliatory policy towards North Korea to place the U.S. in the untenable position of accepting a capable nuclear armed North Korea and any consequences that follow.

On Wednesday, the Fifth of July, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the U.N. Security Council that our “considerable military forces” were an option. Continuing, Nikki Haley stated, “We will use them if we must, but we prefer not to go in that direction”.

A preemptive strike is not a good option, and nobody assumes it would be easy. People will die on both sides, but North Korea’s nuclear threat is one that must be destroyed, before it grows too much stronger, or exponentially more lives will be lost in its wake years hence. America can do it without near the tragic results for Seoul that Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis states, if the U.S. will resolve to drop tactical nukes and MOABs on the nuclear facilities, the launch sites at Sohae and Tonghae [aka Donghae] and the eight thousand pieces of artillery and military units along the Demilitarized Zone simultaneously.

One should note that prior to the signing of the Armistice in 1953 and the cease-fire that followed, President Dwight D. Eisenhower considered using nukes against North Korea to end the war. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles agreed that the United States should not shrink from using nuclear weapons, especially if their use prevented a greater loss of life over time, but he did favor limited use.

Kim Jong Un arrogantly fired Hwasong-14 on America’s Independence Day, in utter contempt of any objections from either China or the Free World. America answered with U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers and South Korean and Japanese jet fighters joint flights over the Korean Peninsula on July 7th 2017, the sixty-fourth anniversary of the signing of the Korean War Armistice.

Is it not apparent to the world that America is one of the last nations standing between tyrants and freedom?

War should never be a first, second or even third choice. The Land of the Free, America cannot and must not tolerate a nation that enslaves and murders its own people and citizens from other nations. The Home of the Brave, America cannot and must not lapse into a fool-hardy and cowardly repose in the face of a fat boy tyrant, who called the Hwasong-14 test a “gift to the American bastards”. America must not find Herself firing off more sanctions on the day Kim Jong Un detonates a bright glowing nuke over one of our cities. Stopping North Korea requires war.

By Justin O. Smith

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Edited by John R. Houk

Text within brackets and all source links by the Editor.

© Justin O. Smith

Americans Support Israel then Foment Modern Crusade

John R. Houk

© August 1, 2014

Yesterday a 72 hour “humanitarian” ceasefire was agreed upon between Hamas and Israel. Within hours of the ceasefire Hamas kidnapped an Israeli soldier. This is yet another portrait of the deceit used by Muslim to honor Allah yet lie about treaties and truces. Israel cannot trust ANY words of peace – whether temporary or permanent – spoken by a Muslim entity.

The negotiated truce began at 8:00 AM. Israel says the soldier was kidnapped at 9:30 AM. Astoundingly Hamas justified the kidnapping by claiming the soldier was kidnapped before 8:00 AM.

Even if Hamas is telling the truth, which I absolutely doubt due to the Muslim penchant to lie and deceive, the Islamic terrorist organization allegedly entered into a good faith negotiations while at the same time perpetrating a kidnapping. Freaking kidnapping by Hamas was the fuse that ignited this altercation in the first place!

It is my prayer that Israel continues to dismantle Hamas even if casualties occur among the Islamic terrorist’s supporter who make zero effort to expose how Hamas hides weapons cache and missiles in Mosques, schools, Day Care Centers and whatever place civilians congregate to make Israel look bad as Hamas is dismantled.

Hamas built an intricate tunnel system in Gaza stretch from Egypt into Israeli sovereign territory. Why do you think the religion of peace built these tunnels? Perhaps Hamas wanted to protect Gaza Arabs who call themselves Palestinians by placing them in the tunnel system from the lying accusation unwarranted Israel butchery and slaughter of civilian. NOT!

Hamas launched missiles into Israel because the Jewish State took umbrage that three teenage Jews were kidnapped, executed and unceremoniously buried in shallow graves. Evidently the ~~cough~~ justice-minded Hamas terrorists did not appreciate the IDF going from house to house looking for murderous terrorists and the bull dozing of homes of family members that supported the heinous murders of Jews. Who would-a-thunk the Israeli government would leave no crazy Muslim stone unturned until actual justice could be accomplished?

It appears Hamas thunk-it. They began their firestorm of missiles into Israeli cities.

America and European nations had the gall to tell Israel not to overreact to hundreds of missiles fired at Israeli civilian centers. After all in America’s case President Barack Hussein Obama refuses to close the U.S.-Mexican as illegal aliens flow – some looking for a better life, but a remarkably large amount representing Latino gang members and Drug Cartel members. The Drug Cartels protect their conduits into the USA as fiefdoms even crossing the border to murder recalcitrant Americans and law enforcement. Shoot the Mexican army under Drug Cartel payroll have fired upon American Border Patrol Agents. Obama doesn’t care! So why in the world would Obama be concerned that our ally Israel is fending off Hamas on the Gaza-Israeli border? A Hamas I might add that is being armed by America’s enemies Iran, Qatar, Turkey and North Korea.

Rather than joining Israel in taking an effective effort to hunt down the arms dealers supplying weapons and missiles to Islamic terrorists like Hamas, the Obama Administration does nothing and joins the unenlightened European governments, as well as the United Nations, in denouncing Israel for a disproportional response because Israel’s Iron Dome Defense is more effective than Hamas’ Human Shield defensive system.

There is no such thing as a disproportionate response to constant attacks followed by truces and ceasefires that allow Hamas to regroup and rearm to simply attack all over again. Hamas needs to be destroyed in the same way Nazi Germany was eradicated in WWII to make sure the superior race of German ideology did not enslave other Europeans.

I know modern historians, Muslim apologists, Jews (with very good reason) and one-sighted Leftists have demonized the Crusades that began to liberate the Holy Land from Muslim control. NOW IS THE TIME for the Western World to eschew political correctness and unite all sides of the political spectrum. This is to say the Left, Right, Christian, Jew and other non-Muslim religions to understand that Radical Islam is gaining a toe-hold of political control in the Middle East. This toe-hold has emboldened transnational terrorist organizations to actually acquire a Caliphate Islamic State as a base to do to the world that which Hamas currently does to Israel. What is that “to do”? It is to maim, kill or convert non-Muslims to Islam or if a non-Muslim group is lucky under a Radical Islamic victory – to live as intentionally humiliated people forced to pay a poll-tax that Islam calls jizya. The humiliated people are called the dhimmi class and must live under the legal code of Sharia Law even their own faith or ideology disagrees with that kind of oppression.

Currently the global concept of political correctness and multicultural diversity brings horror to Western governments and Western Leftists. Frankly when the day comes that jihad ideology provokes holes in the National Security and National Interests in Russia and the People’s Republic of China (i.e. Communist China), those two nations will have no problem in eviscerating Islam at least within their borders. Between Russia and China in the still recent 20^th century their genocidal predilections were quite evident to maintain despotic political control. The current irony is both Russia and China are exploiting Muslim hatred of the West (particularly America and Israel) to destabilize the geopolitical status to swing the pendulum to favor Russian and Chinese National Interests.

There will be a day that purist or radical Muslims will stab their Russian and Chinese benefactors in the back. Some Imam or Cleric will decide that Russia and China are unholy infidel that need to convert or die. The USA received such a stab in the back from the Taliban when American arms and covert U.S. insurgents aided the Afghans to repel Russian occupation. Soon after the Afghan victory Muslim anti-Soviet jihadis became displeased with American support for Israel and the fatwas were delivered to punish the USA for its infidel ways.

Muslims ONLY unite with non-Muslims when there is a benefit to an Islamic agenda. Once the goals are met, the Muslims will always turn on their non-Muslim former allies.

DO NOT TRUST HAMAS! Allow Israel to obliterate the Islamic terrorists. Then the USA should study the Israeli strategy and prepare to obliterate Muslim hate-mongers whether they be transnational terrorists or Islamic States in the only Crusade that will bring at least a respite of global peace until circumstance deteriorate that brings the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to complete the Redemption began on the Cross nearly 2000 years ago.

JRH 8/1/14 (Hat tip for initiating these thoughts – Scott Torino)

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Religious Freedom Report June 2014

Sudan: Daniel Wani & Mariem Yahya Ibrahim – Condemned to death for converting and marrying a Christian while pregnant.

I subscribe to a monthly e-newsletter entitled Religious Freedom Report. The report is sent out by the Institute on Religion and Democracy which partners with the Acton Institute. I might usually pick one article and cross post it, but all the links should pique the interests of Christians worldwide. Christians are being persecuted in huge numbers and the primary perpetrators are Muslims.

JRH 6/4/14

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Religious Freedom Report June 2014

Sent: 6/3/2014 3:25 PM

The Religious Freedom Report is a monthly update about the persecution of the Church worldwide. It is a joint project of The Institute on Religion & Democracy in Washington D.C., and the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty in Grand Rapids, Mich. If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, simply click the unsubscribe button on the bottom of the page. Thanks for reading.

Time Running Out for Condemned Christian Woman After Giving Birth in Sudanese Prison

Mariem Yahya Ibrahim, the 27-year old Sudanese Christian doctor who was sentenced to death for apostasy, gave birth to a baby girl in Omdurman Women’s Prison in Khartoum on May 27, 2014. The baby, the daughter of Ibrahim and her husband, South Sudanese naturalized American citizen Daniel Wani, may be the first American citizen to be born in a Sudanese prison.

Boko Haram: We are at War with Christianity

The reason that Boko Haram believes its kidnapping of over 200 Nigerian girls is justified is because of Islamist teachings that the taking of female slaves is justified during jihad. And this jihad is not limited Nigeria. In a recent video, its leader said it is at war with Christianity and democracy.

Girls Held by Boko Haram Face Auction, Life as Sex Slaves if Rescue Fails

The hundreds of Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram could face a life of misery, as slaves or child brides sold for a pittance in the markets across the globe if they are not rescued soon, humanitarian experts say.

Group Frees Pakistan Christian Slaves From Brick Kiln

Five Christian families have been freed after being held for more than two decades as slaves in a Muslim-run brick kiln in eastern Pakistan, Christian officials involved in the rescue operation told BosNewsLife.

South Korean Missionary Sentenced to Life of Hard Labour by North Korea

North Korea has sentenced a South Korean Baptist missionary to hard labour for life for allegedly spying and trying to set up underground churches.

Egypt: Christian Arrested for Using Home as Church

A Coptic Christian man in Egypt has been arrested on complaints from local Muslims that, without a permit, he has converted his home into a church and is supposedly even holding religious rituals.

Persecuted Christians Flee Iran, Find Hope and Homes in Germany

Iranian-born Muslims who converted to Christianity are breathing new spiritual life into communities across Germany, where they are fleeing to in increasing numbers to escape persecution back home.

‘Iran Tortures Christian Prisoners’

At least three evangelical Christians jailed in Iran, including a wellknown Iranian American Christian pastor, were recovering from injuries Friday, May 23, after they were mistreated by Iranian security forces, several sources confirmed.

Brunei Christians Fear Harsh Islamic Law

Brunei’s devoted Christians face a potential crackdown after the sultan introduced harsh Islamic punishments, including flogging and stoning to death, but Western nations appear reluctant to intervene.

Key Leader of Somalia’s Underground Church Slain

Underground Christians in Somalia are struggling to recover from the loss of a prominent church leader gunned down in March.

Convert from Islam in Kenya Beaten, Arrested

Within three weeks of putting his faith in Christ, a 26-year-old former Muslim in western Kenya was beaten in a mosque and later arrested without charges, Christian leaders said.

China’s Religious Persecution: How Will The World Respond?

Bob Fu, a former pastor from China and founder of ChinaAid, discusses the increasing persecution of religion, especially Christianity, in China.

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The Institute on Religion & Democracy – Who We Are

Welcome to the website for the Institute on Religion & Democracy. We are a watchdog of the religious and evangelical left, disputing their claims to represent millions of church members when espousing a liberal or far-left political agenda. We believe the Church should be the Church, proclaiming the Gospel, discipling believers, assisting the needy, and teaching broad principles for a better society without becoming narrowly political. Our unity as Christians is based on our faith in Jesus Christ, not positions on secular legislation.

IRD is especially committed to reforming the social witness of the churches. In 1981, IRD was founded by concerned United Methodists and other Christians distressed that denominational and ecumenical officials were openly supporting Marxist causes and opposing democracy and human rights.

We continue to monitor and report on similar egregious political shenanigans. Many church elites, often claiming to speak on our behalf, lobby for abortion rights, homosexual rights, big government, extreme environmentalism, pacifism, and anti-Americanism. IRD strives to be a voice for church members whom church bureaucrats would prefer to ignore. We connect church members with renewal groups who believe in biblical and historic Christianity. And we teach them how to work for change in their denominations—with a focus on the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the Anglican Communion.

The IRD also has a strong commitment to international religious liberty. If the churches will not defend international religious freedom and will not speak on behalf of persecuted Christians and others around the world, then who will? Too often, church elites in the U.S. are silent about Marxist, Islamist, or other repression of religion and human rights, in favor of dialogue and accommodation. IRD believes Christians and their church leaders should be bold on behalf of those persecuted believers who cannot speak from behind their prison walls.

Finally, the IRD does … READ THE REST

What if Japan became a Military Power Again?

John R. Houk

Japan embarked on military campaigns in the 1930s to become an Asian political hegemon and to obtain the natural resources to maintain hegemony. The beginning of the end for Japan’s hegemonic agenda occurred when the Japanese Imperial Military attacked the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor Hawaii with the design to cripple the U.S. Navy in the Pacific. Military aggression was bad enough; however even worse things than aggression took place against innocent civilians and Prisoner of War (POW) personnel. Civilians of China, Korea, Philippines and other Asian peoples were rampaged, put into slave labor, raped, murdered, tortured and a lot of Korean gals were drafted to be pleasure girl prostitutes for the Japanese Imperial Military personnel. The American, British and the Asian nations lucky enough to have any kind of military were also tortured and brutalized as POWs.

Because of European Theatre of WWII and the NAZI implemented Holocaust, most Americans are cognizant of the atrocities particularly against the Jews and other groups of people that were considered genetically inferior to the NAZI super race. The Nuremberg War Crimes trials of NAZIS is prominent on documentary channels such as the History Channel and in American entertainment motion pictures. BUT did you know the Japanese treatment of conquered people may have been more brutal in its nature of execution than the Holocaust. Perhaps not as many people died as in the Holocaust (Approximately 6 million Jews and 6 million other people by race and physical limitations).

Apparently the Japanese Imperial Military was better at covering their tracks than the NAZIS. Genocide expert R.J. Rummel produces the number genocide victims at the hands of the Japanese to be between 3 MILLION and 10 MILLION. You can find Rummel’s research on Japan’s acts of genocide at “STATISTICS OF DEMOCIDE: Chapter 3; Statistics Of Japanese Democide Estimates, Calculations, And Sources”. Rummel uses the word “Democide” rather genocide. He defines Democide thus:

Democide is the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide and mass murder. Democide is not necessarily the elimination of entire cultural groups but rather groups within the country that the government feels need to be eradicated for political reasons and due to claimed future threats. According to Rummel, genocide has three different meanings. The ordinary meaning is murder by government of people due to their national, ethnic, racial or religious group membership. The legal meaning of genocide refers to the international treaty on genocide, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This also includes nonlethal acts that in the end eliminate or greatly hinder the group. Looking back on history, one can see the different variations of democides that have occurred, but it still consists of acts of killing or mass murder. A generalized meaning of genocide is similar to the ordinary meaning but also includes government killings of political opponents or otherwise intentional murder. In order to avoid confusion over which meaning is intended, Rummel created the term democide for the third meaning.^[7]

The objectives of such a plan of democide include the disintegration of the political and social institutions of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups; the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity; and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.^[8]

Rummel defines democide as “the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder”. For example, government-sponsored killings for political reasons would be considered democide. Democide can also include deaths arising from “intentionally or knowingly reckless and depraved disregard for life”; this brings into account many deaths arising through various neglects and abuses, such as forced mass starvation. Rummel explicitly excludes battle deaths in his definition. Capital punishment, actions taken against armed civilians during mob action or riot, and the deaths of noncombatants killed during attacks on military targets so long as the primary target is military, are not considered democide.^[9]

You can read the entire article from Wikipedia (Democide; Wikipedia)

With this information in hand I have to ask you. Did you know that Japan has a National Shrine dedicated to their war dead that reaches back to 1867? The place honoring Japan’s war dead is called the Yasukuni Shrine.

Yasukuni Shrine … is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was founded by Emperor Meiji to commemorate individuals who had died in service of the Empire of Japan during the Meiji Restoration.^[1] The shrine’s purpose has been expanded over the years; the deities enshrined at the Honden shrine within Yasukuni currently include more than 2,466,000 individuals who died in conflicts spanning from the Boshin War of 1867 to the end of World War II,^[2] and the adjacent Chinreisha “spirit-pacifying” shrine commemorates all of the dead from all wars fought worldwide throughout history.^[3]The shrine also includes a war museum, Yushukan, which honors Japan’s war dead and presents a pro-Japanese narrative of World War II.^[4] (Yasukuni Shrine; Wikipedia)

As Americans we can understand honoring our war dead for we do that as well (we just don’t deify our war dead as the Japanese do). That is what Arlington National Cemetery is for in Virginia near Washington DC. The thing that bothers the billion or so Chinese and the Koreans (North and South) and to a certain extent the U.S. government is that Japan buried notorious war criminals at Yasukuni Shrine. The big dog himself, the Japanese Premier during WWII – Hideki Tojo.

Here comes the most recent controversy over the Yasukuni Shrine. Yesterday Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe went to the shrine to honor Japan’s war dead in a Shinto religious ritual. On the diplomatic front the official governments of Communist China and South Korea formerly protested vehemently that the highest representative of the Japanese government essentially honored all the Japanese war dead INCLUDING WWII war criminals. The Obama Administration joined his displeasure with the Chinese and South Koreans expressing disappointment with Prime Minister Abe’s display of honor.

The AEI organization posted an essay on this situation entitled, “Japan officially enters Cold War with China and Korea”. That article explains that antagonism between these nations (which included nuclear armed North Korea) has been brewing for some time.

Here is a snapshot to look at about a brewing new military paradigm emerging among the Asian nations of the Pacific Ocean.

Abe’s finance minister Taro Aso, a former prime minister, declared in 2006 that there was nothing wrong with discussing whether Japan should possess nuclear arms. A Japan Times article last month, entitled “Nuclear arms card for Japan,” noted that politicians who had advocated nuclear weapons, officially and unofficially, included former prime ministers—Nobusuke Kishi (Abe’s grandfather), Hayato Ikeda, Eisato Sato, Yasuo Fukuda and Aso.

During the election campaign last year, Shintaro Ishihara, who was an LDP member until last year and now leads the extreme nationalist Japan Restoration Party, declared: “It’s high time Japan made simulations of possessing nuclear arms,” saying that it would be a form of deterrent against China. He has previously insisted that Japan had to have nuclear weapons.

The same Japan Times article reported that the Japanese government in September 2006 compiled an internal report examining “the possibility of domestically producing nuclear weapons.” A Defence Ministry source told the newspaper that the secret document had been produced by the Foreign Ministry and had aroused serious concerns in the US State Department.

According to the article, the report found that it would take three to five years and 200 to 300 billion yen ($US2.2 to 3.3 billion) for Japan to manufacture nuclear weapons. A significant obstacle was the impurity of the plutonium produced in Japan’s commercial power reactors. The Rokkasho reprocessing facility, which has taken more than $US21 billion and two decades to build, would be able to provide weapons-grade plutonium. No date has been set for its start up but the Japan Atomic Energy Commission and the plant’s operator, Japan Nuclear Fuel, say it could be as early as October. However, the Nuclear Regulation Authority has indicated that safety guidelines will not be ready until December.

…

In March and April, Washington deliberately inflamed tensions on the Korean Peninsula, provocatively sending nuclear-capable strategic bombers to South Korea, supposedly to counter North Korean threats. The US sought to use the crisis to put pressure on China for economic and strategic concessions, including to rein in Pyongyang.

However, the Abe government also exploited the North Korean “threat” to deploy anti-missile systems in Japan, and establish a political climate of fear to justify military rearmament—including potentially with nuclear weapons. The US is directly responsible for creating the conditions for a nuclear arms race in Asia that would enormously heighten the danger of conflict and war. (READ ENTIRETY – Is Japan Developing a Nuclear Weapons Program? By Peter Symonds; Global Research; 5/7/13)

And Here

It became clear at the 28th Annual Conference of the Council on U.S.-Korean Security Studies in Seoul this past week that the DPRK’s recent escalatory rhetoric and other provocations has reinforced the concerns of some South Korean strategists about the credibility of U.S. extended deterrence guarantees in Asia.

As the United States becomes vulnerable to a North Korean nuclear strike, the credibility of its extended deterrence guarantees to its Asian allies is called into question. Some South Koreans, including some of the former ROK general officers at the conference, already doubt that the U.S. officials would defend them against a DPRK attack if North Korea could destroy Los Angeles in retaliation. They want to acquire their own national nuclear deterrent, whose use in response to an attack against them would be much more credible than that of a third party.

If more South Koreans lose faith in the U.S. willingness or capacity to defend them, or they come to fear that potential foreign aggressors doubt the credibility of U.S. assurances, then South Korea might pursue alternative security policies, including possibly seeking their own nuclear weapons. Such a move could easily prove counterproductive by harming the ROK’s relations with the United States and other countries, resulting in a net decrement to the country’s security.

… READ THE REST (North Korean Threats Deepen Southern Nuclear Insecurities; By Richard Weitz; The Diplomat; 7/4/13)

And Here

As China rattles sabers over its newly claimed airspace in the East China Sea directly over Japanese sovereign soil, as reported by the Israeli news portal Arutz Sheva on Dec. 2, 2013, one thing that many international watchers agree would rattle China’s cage would be a militarily-allied and nuclear-armed Japan and Republic of Korea (ROK).

Especially a nuclear Japan and ROK independent of U.S. military control.

Tensions are still running high since China claimed international airspace over Japan’s Senkaku Islands, the southernmost of the 3,000 islands comprising the Japanese archipelago.

… READ THE REST (Getting China’s attention: A nuclear-armed Japan and South Korea; Examiner.com; 12/2/13)

The picture here is that of a lot of Asian mistrust including the mistrust of U.S. Military capabilities to protect Japan and South Korea from an aggressive China and North Korea. AND YET due to history neither is South Korea entirely trusting with a Japan independent of the USA arming itself with nuclear weapons.

I see two things that could happen affecting American National Security Interests.

The positive: A nuclear armed Japan and South Korea means a decrease in military defense deterrence as a buffer between South Korea versus China and North Korea as well as a buffer between Japan versus China and North Korea. Lessening the commitment means lessening the U.S. budget as it pertains to the Military policing the Pacific due to our National Interests.

The negative: A nuclear armed Japan would flex muscles over land disputes with China and Russia and undoubted retaliate against North Korean adventurism that was not well thought out; such as the sinking of a Japanese commercial or naval vessel. Or perhaps North Korea shooting an airline pertaining to Japanese commercial or military interests. Amazingly a global war could start that has very little to do with Muslim psycho-Caliphate supporters.

In essence, any path the USA chooses would be a gamble, hopefully an informed and educated gamble.

JRH 12/27/13

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Japan officially enters Cold War with China and Korea

By Michael Auslin

December 26, 2013

Originally National Review Online

American Enterprise Institute

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (C) is led by a Shinto priest as he visits Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo December 26, 2013.

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe (pronounced “Ah-bay”) has just visited Yasukuni Shrine, Ground Zero for political controversy with China and Seoul. In doing so, he has all but acknowledged that a cold war exists between Japan and its northeast-Asian neighbors China and South Korea. It’s a shot across the bow of both countries, boldly, perhaps recklessly, announcing that Japan will no longer seek better relations on their terms. Nor does he have the support of the United States. Abe is putting Japan on a path of increasing diplomatic self-reliance, but doing so with the belief that it is the right response to continued tensions with Beijing and Seoul. That it will inflame those tensions, he is well aware.

Yasukuni Shrine is somewhat analogous to Arlington National Cemetery, being the religious site where the spirits of Japan’s war dead since 1867 are commemorated. Founded in 1869 across from the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, there are nearly 2.5 million individuals enshrined there. Among them are 14 Class A war criminals from World War II, including wartime premier Hideki Tojo. These individuals were enshrined in 1978, nearly two decades after the first Class B and C war criminals were included in the shrine. Emperor Hirohito, who reigned during the war, refused to visit the shrine after 1978 and the inclusion of Tojo and others.

There was little international controversy about the shrine until 1985, when then–prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone paid an official visit to offer prayers for the dead. The outcry forced him to abandon plans for future visits, but annual visits by popular prime minister Junichiro Koizumi between 2001 and 2006 again fanned the flames of diplomatic protest. Both Beijing and South Korea have heatedly and vehemently condemned visits to the shrine by any serving Japanese cabinet official, and especially the prime minister. While no doubt feeling true outrage over what they see as attempts to whitewash the memory of the atrocities committed by the Class A war criminals, Chinese and Korean officials have also used the shrine visits as a means of pressuring Japan and keeping it diplomatically isolated in Asia. Contemporary politics have as much to do with the furor over Yasukuni as does the historical record.

Since 2006 no serving Japanese prime minister visited Yasukuni, in part to try and stabilize relations with China and South Korea. Yesterday, a year after taking office and refraining from going to the shrine, Prime Minister Abe made an official visit. The reaction from Beijing and Seoul was swift and expected. According to the BBC, “China called the visit ‘absolutely unacceptable to the Chinese people’, and Seoul expressed ‘regret and anger’.” More surprisingly, and worryingly, the BBC reports that “the US embassy in Tokyo said in a statement it was ‘disappointed’ and that Mr. Abe’s actions would ‘exacerbate tensions’ with Japan’s neighbors.” It was a clear message that Washington doesn’t trust Abe’s judgment and may not see him as a responsible ally.

Both Beijing and Seoul will undoubtedly take comfort in the U.S. pronouncement, seeing it as a signal to pressure Tokyo and continue with their relentless attempts to isolate Japan. South Korean president Park Geun Hye has been particularly vociferous in her anti-Japanese statements, taking the opportunity during the visits of Vice President Biden and Defense Secretary Hagel to publicly chastise, if not embarrass, Japan. For those concerned over Washington’s repeated attempts to restrain Tokyo’s response to China’s provocations in the waters around the disputed Senkaku Islands, the embassy statement will seem yet another instance of the U.S. government undercutting its ally.

The real question is not what China and South Korea will do in response to Abe’s visit. The question is, rather: Why now? Abe is regularly labeled a nationalist and right-winger, by political opponents at home and anti-Japanese voices abroad, in both Asia and America. His plans to increase Japan’s defense budget and lift some of the remaining post-war restrictions on Tokyo’s ability to engage in collective self-defense, as well as undertake some controversial constitutional reforms related to civil liberties, has alarmed critics at home and abroad.

From Abe’s perspective, the trend line in northeast Asia is getting worse. He has been rebuffed for nearly a year by the South Korean president, who has met with the Chinese. Last month, China established a controversial air defense identification zone in the East China Sea that partly overlaps Japan’s own zone over the Senkaku Islands. Instead of a firm American response, Tokyo saw Vice President Biden fail to demand a repeal of the zone during his visit to Beijing. China’s military modernization and growth plan shows no sign of abating, and it is starting to develop sophisticated offensive weapons such as aircraft carriers and stealth fighters.

Thus, rather than start 2014 on the defensive, Abe seems to have decided to take the bit between his teeth. It shows he’s willing to buck his only ally, the United States, and pursue a more independent path. His visit was a message that his administration will not continue to apologize for its history, having done so numerous times in the past. It is also a signal that he will not supplicate for better relations with China and Korea at the expense of what he thinks is in Japan’s best interests. At the outer edge of interpretation, that may well mean a more muscular response to China’s interloping around the Senkaku Islands or moving ahead on strike capabilities that could target North Korea. Combining this with a push for high-level diplomatic talks with Beijing and Seoul could possibly blunt the impact of his visit, but for the foreseeable future, Japan’s relations with China and South Korea will be in a deep freeze.

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What if Japan became a Military Power Again?

John R. Houk

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Japan officially enters Cold War with China and Korea

22 Signs That Barack Obama Is Transforming America Into A Larger Version Of North Korea

Thanks to Coffee and Sleepless Nights here is an essay highlighting 22 reasons Barack Obama’s Presidency is transforming the USA into a North Korea-like nation.

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