USA: Leader of the Freed World
He’s only been on the job 14 days, but there aren’t a lot of people making more history than Mike Pompeo. In just two weeks, the new secretary of state has made some blockbuster headlines — and even more admirers. Yesterday, he was on an Air Force jet with three of them: American hostages released from North Korea.
He’s only been on the job 14 days, but there aren’t a lot of people making more history than Mike Pompeo. In just two weeks, the new secretary of state has made some blockbuster headlines — and even more admirers. Yesterday, he was on an Air Force jet with three of them: American hostages released from North Korea.
“We have been asking for the release of these detainees for … 17 months,” Pompeo told reporters, who were as surprised as the rest of the world to hear that he was on his way to meet with Kim Jong Un. Like his April visit, this one was kept under wraps. While he was in the air, President Trump was on-air, making the announcement that he was withdrawing America from the Iran nuclear agreement. Outlets like The New York Times wondered why Pompeo wasn’t there for the press conference. Now they know — he was bringing our prisoners home.
For the Trump administration, it was a busy day — shredding one deal and inching closer to another. For the president and Pompeo, the last 24 hours were significant ones in cementing America’s resolve, not only in holding Iran accountable but in bringing North Korea to the table. As far as the White House is concerned, Kim’s gesture of goodwill — releasing three innocent Americans — is another sign that its tough approach is working. “I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is … on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting,” the president celebrated. “They seem to be in good health. Also, good meeting with Kim Jong Un. Date & Place set.”
For the prisoners, who were grabbed and detained for supposed crimes against the North Korean government, the sight of Mike Pompeo must have been emotional. U.S. doctors gave all three men the green light to travel but hinted that their captivity had taken a toll. Kim Dong Chul, who was arrested in 2015, was accused of espionage and sentenced to a hard labor camp. The image of him wiping his eyes at his sentencing is still heartbreaking. Tony Kim and Kim Hak-song were snatched by North Korean officials two weeks apart. Both of them were charged with “hostile acts” while working at a university that’s run by a Korean Christian. After years of wondering whether they would ever see him again, the family of Tony Kim rejoiced in the news that he was finally coming home. “We also want to thank the President for engaging directly with North Korea. Mostly, we thank God for Tony’s safe return,” they said in a statement.
While the plans for a Trump-Kim meeting move forward, the Iranian backdrop is a meaningful one. “The message to North Korea,” national security advisor John Bolton said, “is [that] the president wants a real deal.” In both cases, President Trump has made it clear that he won’t let up until the two nations — which share information and a nuclear physicist — agree to “full denuclearization.” The countries’ close ties make Tuesday’s announcements a warning shot to both.
In the meantime, security experts continue to cheer the administration’s decision to pull the plug on a pact that did more to encourage Iran’s nuclear program than deter it. Thanks to Israeli intelligence, the White House had tens of thousands of pages of proof that President Hassan Rouhani has been lying about the country’s activities for years. “At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program,” the president told the press. “Today, we have definitive proof that this Iranian promise was a lie.”
Over at NRO, Andrew McCarthy says that Americans everywhere should be thrilled that this White House is canceling the blank check Obama gave to a nation of terrorist-backers. “President Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal is the greatest boost for American and global security in decades,” he wrote jubilantly.
Obama said the mullahs would use the windfall to rebuild their country (while Kerry grudgingly confessed that a slice would still be diverted to the jihad). Instead, billions of dollars poured into Iran by Obama’s deal promptly poured out to Syria, where it funded both sides of the war. Cash flowed to the Taliban, where it funded the war on the American-backed government. It flowed to Hamas and Hezbollah for the war on Israel. It flowed to Yemen, funding a proxy war against Saudi Arabia… The [deal] made Iran better at war than it has ever been — and that’s saying something.
President Trump isn’t isolating the U.S., he points out. He’s proving that America “is the indispensable nation.” Other countries will be put to a choice: “You can have access to the U.S. economy or you can have commerce with Iran — not both. Our European allies know this is not a real choice: They can’t isolate us — they need us, our markets, and the umbrella of our protection. They’re angry because they’d like to pocket the benefits they get from us while cutting profitable deals with our enemies. That’s not ‘isolating us;’ that’s a tantrum. They will get over it…”
When they do, America will be ready to move forward — not from a position of weakness, like the last eight years, but of strength.
Originally published here.
A Readiness Ready-Mess for U.S. Soldiers
Nothing the Pentagon can say would make the loss of four American soldiers easier on any family. But in the case of last October’s deadly Niger ambush, it can certainly make things worse.
For the parents and wives of Staff Sgts. Bryan Black, Dustin Wright, Jeremiah Johnson, and Sgt. La David Johnson, the flag-draped coffins that arrived from West Africa last fall was their worst nightmare. The young heroes, who were part of a 12-man task force, were supposed to be doing a routine reconnaissance mission. Months later, investigators are saying the operation was anything but routine.
A 6,000-page report released this week reveals that two captains intentionally filed an incorrect mission plan. Hoping to capture a high-value target, they moved forward with a plan to hunt down an ISIS terrorist at a nearby village in Niger. The plan was approved, and commanders assumed the team was just going to meet with local leaders and gather information. “The assessment by U.S. military leaders on the ground was that contact with the enemy was unlikely, according to an October briefing by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford. But that assessment was based on the belief the team would be conducting a reconnaissance mission, not the mission the team was actually pursuing — trying to capture or kill a terrorist.”
On their way back from the search, they stopped at a village to do what their paperwork implied they were doing all along. But when they left Tongo Tongo, they wandered straight into an ISIS kill zone. The enemy drew them in and then overwhelmed them with firepower. Black, Wright, Johnson, and Johnson died instantly, along with five Nigerian soldiers. Other members of the team tried to intervene, but it was too late. Not all of the Americans had their protective gear on, either because they were kept in the dark about the mission or because they were just ill-prepared. “They were armed with small arms, machine guns, and a single-shot grenade launcher,” investigators wrote.
After interviewing 140 people, the Pentagon has concluded that the soldiers didn’t have enough training before they left for Africa or their mission. And while officials say “no single failure” led to the loss of lives, the tragedy could have almost certainly been prevented if these soldiers had been better prepared.
Readiness has been a major focus of this administration, and after eight years of Barack Obama, it’s obvious that there’s still work to do. FRC’s Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin (Ret.), who once commanded the Army’s Special Forces, can’t help but think that the politically correct agenda of the last commander-in-chief is partially to blame. Thanks to the deep-state leadership situation, there are still men and women inside the military demanding that these soldiers spend precious time learning about diversity and tolerance when they should be getting ready for battle.
“Talk to any service member today,” he says, “and you’ll find that a majority of them will express great frustration with the amount of time that they spend in these lectures on inclusion or sexuality at the expense of preparing for war. Every hour our troops waste on these sensitivity exercises is time they could have been on the range or practicing combat maneuvers. When do you train for battle when you’re bogged down with these politically-correct mandates? You don’t. You go out and crash ships or get captured by Iranians, because you were never prepared for war. Policies like that degrade individual and unit readiness.”
These four men didn’t die because they sat in a diversity lecture, but those are the kinds of distractions that detract from the real training our troops need. For more than a year, President Trump has been trying to restore the proud warrior culture of the military that existed before Barack Obama’s eight years of social experimentation. Unfortunately, the tentacles of his progressive agenda have anchored themselves deep inside the Pentagon. In other cases, like Obama’s transgender policy, military leaders are ready to correct the situation only to have the decision taken out of their hands by the courts. Until these activist judges are reined in, and the forces of political correctness are ferreted out, the lives of the brave men and women who defend this country will be at higher risk.
Originally published here.
Turnout: The GOP’s Primaries Objective
The buildup to November’s midterms got its latest jolt Tuesday in a string of races across the Midwest. Tuesday was the biggest day so far of the 2018 primaries, and conservatives had plenty to be happy about. For all the talk about Democrats’ enthusiasm, Republican turnout in Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, and North Carolina seemed to tell a different story.
In positive news for concerned GOP leaders, the base is engaging at just the right time. Tuesday’s primaries were a major reversal in the turnout trends earlier in the year. To a lot of people’s surprise, Republican turnout was up 61 percent in West Virginia from 2014, compared to the Democrats’ modest 14 percent jump. In Indiana, the trend continued, with GOP turnout 43 percent higher than four years ago. In Ohio, the GOP actually outperformed Democrats in every single statewide race, which is saying something in a state as evenly divided as the Buckeyes’. Turnout there also jumped 48 percent from the last midterm election.
Three of the states heading to the polls Tuesday had primaries for U.S. Senate seats that are currently held by Democrats — and all three (West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana) are states that Trump won. So it’s significant that the GOP has finally solidified who its candidates will be in the race against Democrat incumbents. In West Virginia, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey defeated the establishment’s Rep. Evan Jenkins (R) and coal businessman Don Blankenship, which was a huge victory for values voters. Hoosiers picked businessman Mike Braun in the Indiana Senate Republican primary over two current GOP congressmen. In North Carolina, Rep. Walter Jones (R) escaped a challenge by Scott Dacey.
Obviously, both parties understand the significance of these Senate races. If President Trump wants to continue his record-setting pace on judges, he’ll need all the Republican votes he can get. In a chamber where the margin of control is razor-thin, the GOP would be in a much better position for things like defunding Planned Parenthood and repealing Obamacare if it had even one more conservative.
Of course, there were also a lot of primaries for open House seats. Interestingly, voters’ exasperation with the current Congress seemed to have played a big role in North Carolina, where a competitive race between Mark Harris and Rep. Robert Pittenger (R) went down to the wire. Harris, one of FRC’s Watchmen pastors who was critical in FRC Action’s highly successful effort in the 2016 general election, prevailed. Interestingly, in a pattern that might play out elsewhere, reporter Katie Glueck tweeted, “On the ground in #NC9, I heard a lot of Mark Harris voters express frustration over the omnibus spending bill/that it didn’t defund Planned Parenthood, something national evangelical leaders have worried about, including how it affects conservative turnout.”
If House and Senate leaders want to keep their majority, they’ll have to prove their sincerity on these issues and more leading up to November. Voters don’t want talk — they want action on Planned Parenthood and out-of-control spending. Let’s hope that message was received on Capitol Hill, where there’s a lot of work left to be done.
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
