The View from Right Field

North Macedonia Joins @NATO – And That’s Good.

As we all focus on Covid-19, there are other things happening in the world, some of them good.  One happened in late March, when North Macedonia became the 30th nation to join NATO.¹

I am sure that Russia either will object or has already objected to North Macedonia joining NATO.²  They will give the normal “reasons”: Russia is being surrounded by enemies.  These are lands in which Russia has a natural and historical interest.

Coronavirus. Europe Travel Ban. What Kind of a Country Do We Want to Be?

On Wednesday evening, I tweeted my thoughts about President Trump’s address to the nation on the coronavirus situation.  What I’d like to do here is look at his address, and the ban on travel from Europe (technically, the Schengen zone), from a different point of view.

The Economist publishes an annual installment of “The World If” articles.  The articles are about things that could happen in the future (or might have happened in the past), some good, some bad, and what might be (or have been) the consequences.  Alternate history articles, in a manner of speaking.  One of the articles in 2017 was about the risk that the United States, and other countries, face from a prolonged loss of electricity.  It’s low risk, but if it happens … wow.  Here are some excerpts from the article:

“On March 13th 1989 a surge of energy from the sun, from a ‘coronal mass ejection’, had a startling impact on Canada.  Within 92 seconds, the resulting geomagnetic storm took down Quebec’s electricity grid for nine hours.  It could have been worse.  On July 23rd 2012 particles from a much larger solar ejection blew across the orbital path of Earth, missing it by days.  Had it hit America, the resulting geomagnetic storm would have destroyed perhaps a quarter of high-voltage transformers ….

Bernie and Fidel

Like a lot of people on the left, though possibly more than most, Bernie Sanders has a Fidel Castro problem.  The problem is that Senator Sanders likes him – or, at least, he wants to like him.  Fidel said all the right things.  And he supposedly did all the right things: educating the kids, providing health care to everyone, transforming society.  (There was the lack of freedom, political prisoners, etc., but some people on the left sort of skip over that.) 

The difficulty for this view is that, regardless of what may have happened before 1990, things have gone downhill since the Soviet Union collapsed and money from Moscow stopped coming in.¹  But that apparently hasn’t stopped Senator Sanders from believing, as he said on “60 Minutes” last month:

Joe Biden’s Big Problem: “Why Is Joe Biden’s Son Working For a Ukrainian Energy Company?”

Actually, former Vice President Biden has a number of problems in his campaign, but then so does Donald Trump.  I have made my thoughts about President Trump pretty clear over the last several years, so I won’t go over them again.  Other than to say: Would you trust President Trump if he said he had your back in a fight?

But back to former Vice President Biden.  One of the big brouhahas regarding the former Vice President’s campaign is the job and money that his son, Hunter, got from a Ukrainian gas company while Vice President Biden was in office.  Some people may think this is a manufactured controversy, dug up only now to embarrass former Vice President Biden and hurt his campaign.

Well, it’s not.  It was a problem when it happened.  See this post, “Why Is Joe Biden’s Son Working For a Ukrainian Energy Company?”, from May 14, 2014.  It should have been dealt then, but neither former Vice President Biden nor the Obama administration did anything about it.  And now, former Vice President Biden has to deal with it today – or lose to President Trump in November.
----------
UPDATE (3/10/20 9:20 am): Cleaned up the wording in the last sentence. 

Leaving Afghanistan – This Time It’s Probably for Real

Last weekend, negotiators for the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement which, if implemented, will result in some US forces leaving Afghanistan this year and the rest next year.  I had a few comments, but instead of writing a long post on the agreement and whether it is good or not, etc., I’m just going to list those comments:

1. While some reports called this a “peace agreement,” peace seems unlikely.  The only way there is going to be “peace,” in the sense of no fighting, is if the Taliban wins – and that would not be a peace worth the name.

Where Are the Syrian Refugees Going to Go?

While Joe Biden’s comeback on Super Tuesday and Covid-19 (aka Coronavirus) take up all of the available media space in the United States,¹ a serious problem is developing in Syria/Turkey/Greece.  As Syria, with Russia’s help, tries to regain the territory around Idlib (the last bit of Syria that the Syrian government doesn’t control), Syrians who have been displaced by the civil war in Syria and who have taken refuge in Idlib province have no place to go except Turkey.  But Turkey already has upwards of four million Syrian refugees, and they don’t want any more. 

I realize that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish government are not nice people and that democracy/freedom is slowly disappearing in Turkey, but it’s hard not to appreciate, at least to some extent, Turkey’s position. Turkey already has millions of Syrian refugees.  How many more are they supposed to take?  In 2016, after the flood of Middle Eastern and other refugees into Europe, Turkey and the EU entered into an agreement whereby Turkey would limit the number of irregular immigrants and asylum seekers going into Greece and the EU would provide funding to care for the refugees.  In other words, the EU has been paying (bribing-?) Turkey to keep Syrian refugees in Turkey, instead of allowing them to pass through to Europe.

The Killing of Qassem Soleimani and the Dog That Didn’t Bark

“The Adventure of Sliver Blaze,” one of the most popular Sherlock Holmes stories, involves the theft of a famous race horse, Silver Blaze, and the killing of its trainer, just before an important racer.  In a conversation with a Scotland Yard detective, Sherlock Holmes explains a key clue:

“Gregory: Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?
Holmes: To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.
Gregory: The dog did nothing in the night-time.
Holmes: That was the curious incident.”

A Few Thoughts on the Killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani

1. It seems to me that, with a proper plan and an appropriate long-term strategy, the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani could work out well for the United States and other people and countries opposed to the theocratic and totalitarian policies of Iran’s government, especially their external aspects.  Whether the Trump administration has the people to come up with such a plan and strategy and whether Donald Trump has the experience, patience, and long-term commitment to follow through on such a plan and strategy is a real question and concern.¹

2. As for the criticisms about killing, or assassinating, a general of a country with which we are not at war, I would say that what constitutes “war” is a lot different today than what it was in even the first half of the twentieth century.  General Soleimani organized a lot of attacks on United States soldiers and our friends and allies.  He seemed to think he was at war with us.  In today’s world, that may be enough.

Is This the Afghanistan Bug-Out I Have Been Worried About?

While he was in Afghanistan for Thanksgiving last week, Donald Trump said that peace talks would resume with the Taliban.  But, as normal for President Trump, things about the resumption of talks are a little unclear.  According to The Wall Street Journal, President Trump said:

“The Taliban wants to make a deal – we’ll see if they make a deal.  If they do they do, and if they don’t they don’t.  That’s fine.”

The Washington Post quoted the President as saying:

“The Taliban wants to make a deal and we’re meeting with them and we’re saying it has to be a cease-fire and they didn’t want to do a cease-fire, and now they do want to do a cease-fire.  I believe it’ll probably work out that way.”

Hong Kong: Freedom’s Light Still Shines

Three weeks ago, on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, people were wondering what went wrong.  Democracy is on the decline in eastern Europe and elsewhere, while nasty populism is rising all over the world, including the United States.

But then, when things seem dark, a tiny ray of light shines, a delicate little flower blooms.  In 1977, it was Vaclav Havel and Charter ’77 in Communist East Europe.  In the 1970s, it was Spain, Portugal and Greece leaving dictatorships behind and becoming free.  Next were Taiwan and South Korea.  In 1994, it was Nelson Mandela in the South Africa of apartheid.