Secure Freedom Minute

The ancient Chinese strategist, Sun Tse, had profound insights about The Art of War, including these: 
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
The question of whether America risks succumbing to what are, in fact, mortal enemies arises as we consider deals in the works with Communist China and with Qatar and Turkey.
All three adhere to ideologies and agendas requiring our destruction. None seeks to coexist with us in the long run, or honor commitments predicated on that goal. 
Americans must know these enemies – and know that our nation is actually at war with them, and proceed accordingly.
This is Frank Gaffney.

The China Matrix is a brilliant, and very timely, new book by Lee Smith. It chronicles how successive presidents of both parties and countless leaders of America’s business, political and other elites have subordinated national security and economic strength to the benefit of the Chinese Communist Party, and often their personal enrichment.  
Mr. Smith documents how Donald Trump started warning about this sell-out pioneered by Henry Kissinger decades ago, and how as a presidential candidate and in office he has worked to put America First, instead. 
President Trump will be tempted this week to ignore the “unrestricted warfare” the CCP has long waged against us by approving yet another “trade deal” that props up that mortal enemy. A generation ago, Ronald Reagan faced a similar choice at Reykjavik – and declined. 
Will Mr. Trump do the same, or join the China Class? 
This is Frank Gaffney.

President Trump told Time Magazine that he will soon decide whether to press Israel to release Marwan Barghouti from prison. Doing so is being portrayed as a step towards an alternative to Hamas and consistent with our interests and efforts to promote peace in Gaza and regionally.
In fact, unleashing Barghouti – a jihadist serving multiple life sentences for his involvement in the murder of five Israelis – would add immeasurably to the narrative that those who are, like him, committed to the destruction of Israel have won. 
A truth-telling briefing by American and Israeli experts yesterday warned of the already-great dangers for both our countries of reinforcing that perception. 
Sharia-supremacists, notably the leaders of so-called “allies” Qatar and Turkey, will simply intensify their double-game of using the President’s “20 Points” deal to pursue what is, in fact, a truly “endless war” against Western civilization. 
This is Frank Gaffney.

Last week, President Trump struck a blow for freedom against “global governance.” He rallied fifty-seven members of the International Maritime Organization to prevent for at least a year the imposition of “international taxation” on this and other sovereign nations.
That’s the very good news. 
The bad news is that, to date, the United States has not acted to oppose the creation of another, ominous instrument of globalist domination – namely, the institution of surveillance, data aggregation and AI algorithms to monitor and control populations worldwide. 
We must not tolerate the imposition here of digital platforms, like “Real IDs,” that can serve as the information infrastructure for Chinese-style “social credit systems.” Ditto a central bank digital currency, like the so-called “Stable Coin,” that would enable the state to punish its perceived enemies by cutting off their access to funds.
This is Frank Gaffney.

The so-called Fourth Plenum of the Chinese Communist Party now underway in Beijing may determine whether its dictator, Xi Jinping, retains absolute control – or is removed from power by the large numbers of Chinese military leaders and those of political factions who have suffered at his hands.
Grounds for Xi’s removal include: his relentless purges of the CCP rivals and senior officers; his successive economic policy failures; the resulting widespread popular discontent; and his preparations for a shooting war with the United States and its allies.  
Unfortunately, initiating such a war may offer Xi the best hope of shoring up his position. Political jockeying in that case would be portrayed as treason, justifying far more extensive and lethal purges. 
We should be rooting – and working – for the demise of the Chinese Communist Party, especially if Xi Jinping remains its emperor.
This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute. 
When is a deal not a deal? That question looms large in Israel at a moment when American envoys are pressing their hosts to comply with an agreement to cease fire in Gaza. 
That agreement, however, required Hamas to stop hostilities, disarm and give up power. It isn’t happening. Hamas is attacking Israeli forces and trying to take some hostage. It’s massacring perceived political opponents and seizing their weapons. 
And Hamas leaders insist they have no intention of surrendering, let alone ending their efforts to destroy Israel. Rather, they declare the ceasefire is, in the tradition of Mohammed, but a temporary pause to regroup, rearm and then resume the fighting under more favorable circumstances.
Intense American pressure on Israel not to respond to Hamas  violations and evident bad faith is a formula for more endless war, not peace for our time.  `
This is Frank Gaffney.