Headlines:
- Navy Chief Tramps Latest Victim
- Iraq Protests Continue as Regime Fights Back
- Further Leaks Reveal China’s Concentration Camps
- China Affirms its Desire to Avoid Trade War with America
- US Pressures South Korea over Japanese Relations to Maintain Pressure on China
- American Puppet Regime in Kabul Obfuscates Election Results
Navy Chief Tramps Latest Victim
Navy Secretary Richard Spencer is now the latest victim of the Trump regime. Numerous officials have left office during Trump’s presidency due to his disregard for their advice and his constant overruling of them. The Navy Chief quit under pressure from the Defence Secretary Mark Esper who faulted him for clumsy and underhand conversations with the White House. Trump demanded that the Navy cancel a disciplinary proceeding for Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a SEAL who had been convicted of posing with the body of a deceased civilian in Iraq. Trump had railed for days on Twitter about the Navy’s treatment of Gallagher, whose trial on war-crimes charges had drawn support from many of the president’s conservative backers. Outgoing Secretary of the Navy Spencer’s acknowledgment-of-termination letter said that he “cannot in good conscience” obey an order he believes “violates the sacred oath” he took and that he and POTUS disagree on the “key principle of good order and discipline.” Trump defended his intervention in the cases of the elite troops, telling reporters that he is protecting America’s warriors against “very unfair” proceedings. “There’s never been a president that’s going to stick up for them, and has. like I have,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Iraq Protests Continue as Regime Fights Back
With the Iraqi government’s attempt to keep a lid on public protests by censoring large portions of the Internet having shown little sign of working, Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission (CMC) has announced they are closing 12 TV stations and four radio stations. Officially, the stations are accused of “inciting violence,” which in practice means they are believed to be functioning as mouthpieces for the protest movement, which the CMC says violates licensing regulations. In addition to closing these stations, the CMC also submitted warnings to five other TV channels warning them that they are also in violation for their coverage of the protests, and would face closure if they don’t correct their behavior. This almost certainly isn’t going to have any substantial negative impact on the protests, anymore than firing live ammunition into the crowds did. Officials seem to be hoping they can wait the protests out with vague, empty promises of reform, but so far the violence and censorship seems to be making the protesters all the angrier at them. The unique aspect about these protests are that they are taking place in the majority Shi’ah areas against the regime. Like much of the Muslim world, the rulers have failed the people and people are taking to the streets.
Further Leaks Reveal China’s Concentration Camps
The internal workings of a vast chain of Chinese internment camps used to detain at least a million people from the nation’s Muslim minorities are laid out in leaked Communist Party documents. The China Cables, a cache of classified government papers, appear to provide the first official glimpse into the structure, daily life and ideological framework behind centres in north-western Xinjiang region that have provoked international condemnation. Obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and shared with the Guardian, the BBC and 15 other media partners, the documents have been independently assessed by experts who have concluded they are authentic. The document makes clear that as the internment camps went up, authorities were already worried about the scale of their incarceration programme becoming known, even inside Chinese official hierarchies. The document demands “strict secrecy”, and in addition to a predictable ban on videos and cameras, staff are also ordered not to aggregate important data, preventing even those inside the system from understanding its full extent.
China Affirms its Desire to Avoid Trade War with America
According to Newsweek:
China wants to work out an initial trade pact with the United States and has been trying to avoid a trade war, President Xi Jinping said on Friday, but is not afraid to retaliate when necessary.
Economists warn that a prolonged dispute between the world’s two largest economies is elevating risks to the global economy by disrupting supply chains, curtailing investment and curbing business confidence.
“We want to work for a ‘phase one’ agreement on the basis of mutual respect and equality,” Xi told representatives of an international forum, according to a pool report.
“When necessary we will fight back, but we have been working actively to try not to have a trade war. We did not initiate this trade war and this is not something we want.”
China is confronted with the same dilemma that any rising nation finds itself in; how to navigate its entry into the ranks of great powers without creating a backlash from the existing great powers in the world and, in particular, the foremost world power, which at this time is the United States.
US Pressures South Korea over Japanese Relations to Maintain Pressure on China
According to the New York Times:
Under intense pressure from the United States, South Korea reversed itself at the last minute Friday and extended an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, a sign that the Seoul government wanted to halt fraying relations with the two countries.
The decision to remain in the intelligence pact, which South Korea had vowed to abandon just three months ago, appeared to be at least a short-term victory for Trump administration officials. They pressed to preserve the pact, and have been angered over an impasse with South Korea in a separate dispute over the costs of maintaining American troops in the country as a deterrent to North Korea…
American officials have attached great importance to the alliance as a principal way for the United States to exert its influence in Asia, particularly because of China’s rapidly expanding military and economic footprints…
Western countries use their relations with foreign governments only to advance their own narrow national interests, caring little for the concerns of others. America is engaged in a major strategic project from its side to orchestrate China’s rise in such a manner as to minimise its effects on American strategic power. The US considers the Pacific Ocean to be part of its core interests and cannot tolerate any Chinese intrusion. To this end, America uses Japan, Taiwan and South Korea as primary defences against Chinese expansion. America’s pressurising South Korea is just one small element in this far-reaching US strategy. Also, this week, America again undertook freedom of navigation movements in the South China Sea. According to Newsweek:
The Chinese armed forces dispatched warships and warplanes to intercept two U.S. Navy vessels that entered the disputed waters of the South China Sea in the latest confrontation between the two powers over trade ties and Beijing’s jurisdiction over other contested territories, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
In a statement Friday issued by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Southern Theater Command spokesperson Sen. Col. Li Huamin reacted to the recent presence of Independence-class littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords and Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer near the Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands. The two South China Sea land formations were the subject of international disputes, but Beijing claimed exclusive rights to them.
“The Chinese PLA sent ships and aircraft to conduct the whole-process monitoring and verification on the two US warships and warned them to leave,” the statement said, saying Li has accused the U.S. of trying “to stir up trouble in the South China Sea under the pretext of freedom of navigation.”
As Muslims, it is necessary that we follow and study these events carefully as, with Allah’s permission, our Ummah shall soon re-establish the righteous Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophet ﷺ and we shall soon have to pass through similar challenges.
American Puppet Regime in Kabul Obfuscates Election Results
Despite American promises of restoring democracy in Afghanistan, the Americans have actually backed a regime that repeatedly fails to win the popular vote. In the last election in Kabul, America had to intervene to impose, by force, a compromise between the two contenders. It seems that some sort of intervention will be needed in the current election as well. According to the New York Times:
Nearly two months after Afghans braved hundreds of Taliban attacks to cast ballots in a vote for president, the results have been repeatedly delayed, and protests have blocked election officials from auditing and recounting problematic votes in several provinces.
No clear date has been set to release results, and opposition candidates have threatened to reject any figures announced by an election body that they say has made questionable decisions that favor the incumbent, Ashraf Ghani.
With no solution in sight, the dispute threatens to erupt into a full-blown political crisis, straining the tenuous bonds holding together a country riven by ethnic fault-lines. It has also deepened doubts about a democracy that has been propped up at the cost of tens of thousands of Afghan lives and billions of dollars in international aid.
The fragility of the system is being exposed again at a time when the stakes are particularly high: The war with the Taliban is intensifying, and the Trump administration appears determined, 18 years after the United States invaded Afghanistan, to significantly reduce the number of troops at all costs.
Meanwhile, the American President has revealed that negotiations with the Taliban continue despite his previous assertion that they had been broken off. It appears that America is awaiting some breakthrough in these discussions before resolving the election impasse in Kabul. According to CNN:
President Donald Trump on Friday seemed to suggest that formal negotiations with the Taliban were back on — months after the peace talks with the militant group collapsed.
“We’re working on an agreement now with the Taliban,” Trump said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.” “Let’s see what happens.”
His comments come several days after the Taliban released an American and Australian professor in exchange for the release of three Taliban prisoners by the Afghan government. The Taliban also released 10 Afghan soldiers this week.
The US praised the release of the professors, American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks, with Trump tweeting on Tuesday, “Let’s hope this leads to more good things on the peace front like a ceasefire that will help end this long war.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Tuesday, “We see these developments as hopeful signs that the Afghan war, a terrible and costly conflict that has lasted 40 years, may soon conclude through a political settlement.”
In truth, whether in Afghanistan or even in America itself, democracy is a fantastical façade to conceal oligopolistic rule by a narrow elite. America entered Afghanistan not to bestow democracy but to obtain permanent military bases there. The Khorasan region is a veritable sky fortress ringed by mountains providing America with an unparalleled strategic military advantage and an elevated position over West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia as well as a land-based forward operating position against both China and Russia. America will never leave Afghanistan of its own will; only sincere jihad can eject it, backed by the re-established righteous Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophet ﷺ that will liberate all occupied Islamic lands and unify Muslims under a single general leadership.