Calling for a Return to the Doctrinal Ideals and Kingdom Ethics of the First Reformation
https://www.politico.eu/article/abdullah-ocalan-pkk-recep-tayyip-erdogan-turkey-kurdistan/
Erdogan has been in power for over twenty years and his tenure has been transformative - breaking with decades of Kemalism and Ataturk's secular vision for a modern Western-leaning state. Erdogan has shifted Türkiye to a presidential system, securing his power and while he is certainly a strong-man and authoritarian, his rule and word are not absolute.
Atlanticism represents a historical anomaly – Europe under subjugation from an outside power. For many decades this was limited to Western Europe but with the collapse of the USSR, the United States extended its reach through NATO and other mechanisms to include all the former Warsaw Pact nations and portions of the former Soviet Union itself.
The hypocritical and frankly spurious ICC indictment of Putin for war crimes was timed perfectly to coincide with Xi's recent trip to Moscow, and meant to embarrass the Asian leader who got to claim the credit for the Riyadh-Tehran agreement. Washington's posture regarding the ICC is hypocritical, self-serving, and even ridiculous as the American government consistently claims the court (which it helped to create) has no jurisdiction over either the United States or Israel because they are not signatories to the treaty. However, when it comes to non-signatories such as Russia (who also refuses to acknowledge the court), the ICC has full jurisdiction – or so it is argued.
In light of current events Moldova and Georgia have applied for EU membership. For its part, Moldova has been engaged in a tug-of-war between the West and Moscow and yet unlike Ukraine and Georgia it has been able thus far to avoid violence.
As stated before, there are plenty of reasons to doubt the government and the Covid episode is no exception. Over many years the government and media have destroyed their own credibility and so in some respects they have brought this on themselves. And yet as also stated, conspiracies (to be judged as viable) have to make some kind of sense and they have to operate within the framework of reality. Many of the conspiracies floated by today's Right are divorced from reality and in other cases indicate a pervasive unfamiliarity with basic concepts, how institutions work, history and the like.
https://theaquilareport.com/archbishop-viganos-startling-warning-to-the-american-people/
The fact that the Calvinist-affiliated Aquila Report
published this piece by Roman Catholic Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano is both
interesting and informative in and of itself. That a publication such as
'American Thinker' found Vigano's comments profound is not too surprising.
The Central Asian states which were run by former Soviet apparatchiks (turned into authoritarian capitalists) relied upon energy revenue and the extraction of natural resources – and in the post-Soviet setting Western corporations flooded into the region to develop these sectors. Wall Street scored major victories and wealthy oligarchies developed in the Central Asian states. Needless to say corruption is endemic. This new post-Cold War political order and economic development in part explains the ongoing tensions with Russia, Iran, and Afghanistan. The logistics of getting resources out of landlocked Central Asia proved daunting and were never resolved. The ruling oligarchies were plugged into the energy economy and these countries rely on this money to function and pay the bills as it were.
The panicked reaction to Trump's planned troop withdrawal from both Iraq and Afghanistan has been palpable. The media and the US Establishment in general are hostile to the move and trying to sound the alarm. And yet at the same time they struggle with providing solid reasons for remaining in these seemingly endless conflicts – both of which have gone sideways and evolved into something other than what they originally were purported to be.