Conspiracy?

If one were to indulge in conspiracy theories surrounding the current coronavirus pandemic, one would have to wander into the mind of Xi Jinping. There one might find his realization that President Trump is playing for keeps .... and has managed in just a few short years to slow the juggernaught that was his China. And this needs to be reversed before China’s quest for world domination is sidetracked.

Now the Chinese are used to thinking in terms of big ideas and centuries, not years ... and so the Wuhan virus might fit such long-term thinking very neatly.

For what asset does China have that neither the U.s. nor Russia can duplicate? People. And, other than a thermonuclear war, how could China best utilize this resource to deplete its adversaries of their human resources ... even at the cost of big chunks out of its own population?

You got it pilgrim ...

Cartoon of the Day

A Difficult Recipe

How will the world (mainly the U.S., Russia, China and India) suppress the radical Muslim movement before it becomes too large to deal with within their criminal justice systems? Whatever the answer, I don't believe it will be accomplished with "containment" and half measures. The brutality being displayed by these jihadis will need to be matched and even exceeded by the rest of the world to cause this existential evil to be squashed. This will not be pretty. It will cause outrage and gnashing of teeth within the pacifist class ... those naive ones who choose to believe that they could not be touched by this metastasizing menace.

I can't predict exactly what measures might be required to  effect this ultimate victory over the caliphatists ... but, be assured that, if it were here known, it might turn the stomachs of the squeamish. Just as the incredible brutality of the last days of the Second World War finally humbled the Axis aggressors, such mayhem will realistically need to be repeated or even exceeded to triumph over these radical Muslims. I would wish this need not happen, but the flaming fanaticism now being displayed by the jihad movement does not give me much optimism.

Can all this bloodshed be avoided? Yes, I believe that it might ... but only through a radical reformation of Islam ... one equivalent to what occurred in Christianity in the 1500's. This would require the zealots within the jihadi movement to adopt modernity from a world that is itself rotting from within ... rife with sinfulness, self-indulgence and sloth.

This is a  very difficult recipe with lots of bitter herbs.

Afterward: Russia's Putin has already suggested using atomic weapons against ISIS ... see: UK Express Story. I realize it is uncomfortable to discuss or even think about such solutions to this Islamic extremism ... but when Iran goes nuclear or if the crazies take over in Pakistan, then the apocalyptic desires of the jihadis need to be reckoned with realistically. Then the Putin solution may be the only answer.

The Grasshoppers

I know that John Hinderaker is generally my go-to guy at the Powerline blog, but Paul Mirengoff has a very pity entry on the debt debacle in Greece ... see: Greek Farce Explained. In this posting, Paul quotes a lot of the inside skinny about how the Greek poobahs misplayed their hands at the financing negotiations with the rest of the European Economic Community (EEC). Talk about the JV playing against the L.A. Lakers. This arrogant bunch of lefties from Athens carried with them there the grasshopper's attitude that the world owed them a living. They may have learned a very hard lesson ... which I don't think is over yet.

I myself have a few comments on these Mirengoff revelations:

- How can Finland be made to adsorb such of heavy burden of this Greek indebtedness? This posting reveals that this country is being asked to pay out 10% of its annual budget and 2.5% of its GDP to hold Greece's head above water. This can't be fair. If the rest of the EEC ponied up the same relative amounts, I suspect that this would cover Greece's shortfall many times over.

- How can the EEC or the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lend Greece any more money when they know that they are not going to repay what has already been lent? Yes I know that the formation of the Euro has benefited Northern Europe, mainly Germany, greatly ... GNP growth-wise. But nevertheless, if you have to lend someone money to buy your products ... and you know that this debt will never be repaid ... this seems a silly commercial strategy.

- The U.S. generally has assumed an attitude that all this European economic kerfuffle does not affect us. But we forget that we contribute something like 18% to the IMF funding ... so what the IMF loses, we also partly lose.

Isn't rather ironic that present-day Greeks seem to have forgotten Aesop's lesson from "The Grasshopper and the Ant?"

AWOL

President Obama skipped his National Security Meeting today which dealt with the current and critical emergency in the Crimea and the Ukraine ... caused by the movement of a large number of Russian troops into this region … see: Weekly Standard Item. Is Obama our Commander in Chief or not? I believe he is and, as such, I can't fathom any possible reason for such a clear dereliction of duty. 

Or perhaps Joe Biden was prophetic when he was overheard on an open mic early in 2012 … speaking to the then President of the Russian Federation, Demitry Medvedev, confiding that, once Obama was re-elected, he would have much more flexibility in dealing with Russia. Medvedev nodded and responded by saying he would pass the message on to Vladimir Putin, the next (and current) President of Russia.

President Obama could not be any more "flexible" or detached than the behavior he is currently exhibiting. (Perhaps he was doing his all-important March Madness brackets?) This shameful indifference in this time of international crisis (see: Washington Pos Story), were he an actual member of the armed services, would most likely cause a general court martial hearing to be convened.

But this won’t happen because, as we all know, we are now living in a Liberal vortex ...

Peace

The U.S. has been voted by far the biggest threat to peace in a worldwide Gallup poll … see: RT Storry.  On a related note from Hawaii, a chagrined Barack Obama has decided to return his Nobel Peace Prize medal to Oslo … when he and his extended family next enjoy a leisurely vacation in Scandinavia.  The prize money he has decided to keep.

Where were the WMDs?

Victims of Chemical Attack in Syria

Now we know what Saddam Hussein did with his weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in the multi-month run-up to the United States's war in Iraq ...

Afterward: Here is some verification about the fate of Saddam Hussein's chemical weaponry prior to the U.S. invasion: The Diplomad's Firsthand Account.