Secure Freedom Minute

President Trump recently proposed to meet with Russian and Chinese dictators Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping to agree to cut the three nations’ military expenditures by half.
At a time when Xi’s regime is engaged in a whole-of-society People’s War against the United States – and rapidly building up the means of making it a shooting one – dramatic reductions in such spending would clearly be desirable. Ditto its subsidizing of Russia’s war in Ukraine and Putin’s resulting weapons binge.
Fortunately, we don’t have to gut our own national security to achieve these laudable goals. Fox Nation’s Maria Bartiromo just confirmed that Wall Street is “underwriting the enemy” by investing in Chinese companies – including many working for the CCP’s military. Such funds also enable the PRC to buy Russian energy.
We can, and must, cut off this insane underwriting unilaterally –and now.
This is Frank Gaffney.

President Trump has long insisted that our European allies need to pay more for their own defense, most recently by allocating fully five percent of Gross Domestic Product.Therefore, the Europeans have spent with impunity on “butter” while letting us largely pay for the “guns.” Most balked at honoring even their NATO commitment to spend two percent.Mr. Trump’s unilateral negotiations with Russia on ending the Ukraine war, however, are concentrating the Europeans’ minds. They fear Vladimir Putin’s territorial ambitions will not be satisfied by a deal legitimating his seizure of much of Ukraine and that America’s announced re-focus on the growing Chinese threat risks a security vacuum on the continent.TBD is whether the allies will opt for appeasing Russia or take more responsibility for their own security – sensibly inside NATO or via a duplicative and inevitably inadequate European military structure.This is Frank Gaffney.

U.S. government and business leaders have long promoted the glories of “globalization.” With its reliance on low-cost foreign producers, notably in Communist China, to supply critical materials, components, and equipment, the integration of markets and national interests seemed not only desirable economically but strategically sound.In fact, this model resulted in the wholesale destruction of America’s industrial base and a dangerous dependence on a hostile power for everything from medicine to advanced electronic products. An alarming webinar on Friday documented that even the U.S. military now is critically reliant on our enemy, the Chinese Communist Party.The Wall Street Journal reports today that many businesses are finally moving en masse to production facilities outside of China. Unfortunately, so are the Chinese. We must actually decouple from the CCP, not simply transfer our fraught dependencies to its companies doing business in new locations.This is Frank Gaffney.

The deadline President Trump created for the release of all hostages seized by the terrorist organization Hamas is less than twenty-four hours away. He suspects they may have been starved, tortured and raped to death.Mr. Trump left up to Israel the decision to let “all hell break loose” if Hamas doesn’t comply. Its government has agreed to do so. Predictably, the jihadists and their enablers will do everything possible to buy more time on humanitarian grounds.Actually, the humane thing is for Israel to be allowed finally to “finish the job.” The decisive defeat of Hamas and the recovery of the remaining hostages, dead or alive, will foreclose the idea of effectively permanently incarcerating all Gazans in a “demolition zone” and ensure their swift relocation to far better lives elsewhere.Secure Israel’s victory – and ours, starting at high noon onSaturday.This is Frank Gaffney.

President Trump hosts Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today. They will seek to rekindle their personal, very special relationship, overcome bilateral disputes about trade, tariffs, and immigration, and forge a strategic bulwark against the two countries’ mutual enemy: the Chinese Communist Party.Topical as all those agenda items are, one may be of surpassing importance: the systematic persecution of Christians and others by the Prime Minister’s Hindu nationalist base and its party, the BJP.Mr. Trump has rightly made a personal priority of protecting Christians and promoting religious tolerance. Seven years ago, he challenged then-Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari over his government’s failure to stop the genocidal murder of Christians. It made a difference, at least for a time.A real Indo-American strategic partnership must be founded on an enduring respect for non-Hindu minorities and lower-caste Indians. Let it begin today.This is Frank Gaffney.

The adage that “elections have consequences” certainly applies to the Middle East and America’s vital interests there following ours in 2020.Donald Trump bequeathed to Joe Biden a region as tranquil as it had ever been, with Israel prosperous, powerful, and secure, a growing number of Muslim nations making peace with the Jewish State and her enemies and ours – especially Iran and its terrorist proxies – in check.Today, the legacy of the third, pro-Iran Obama-Biden administration is appalling. Most of the Mideast is effectively at war with Israel. And her “cold peace” partner, Egypt, seems ready to pile on with Sharia-supremacist regimes and the jihadist organizations they support.Mr. Trump has warned that “all hell will break loose” if Hamas refuses to release its remaining Israeli hostages. The truth is, thanks in no small measure to Biden and Company, it already has.This is Frank Gaffney.