Religion and Geopolitics Review: Saturday, June 4

by Dr. David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch 

I. ISLAM AND THE MIDDLE EAST

KOSOVO AND SAUDI FUNDING OF JIHAD: Kosovo has become a center of Jihadists with easy access to European cities because of Saudi-funded mosques. The New York Times is waking from its own slumber on this issue. How the Saudis funded Kosovo mosques. The author, Carlotta Gall, is the British reporter who explained in her excellent book on Afghanistan that we have been fighting The Wrong Enemy. Now she has exposed the other twin tower of the Sunni Salafists - the Saudi Wahhabis. Here is our review of her book and several others on Pakistan as a source of jihad. It is very encouraging that the mainstream media is employing their freedom and resources to uncover this story for the benefit of the country.

UNDERSTANDING THE REAL ENEMY - PROFESSOR RABIL AT NATIONAL INTEREST: It really is the Salafist Sunnis - the Professor modifies Petraeus and Trump.

MESSAGE TO PAKISTAN: The drone strike against Taliban chief in Baluchistan could mean an end to negotiations with Taliban and de facto state of war with Pakistan.

II. PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS

MRS. CLINTON, NEOCONS, AND FOREIGN FUNDERS OF THE FOUNDATION: Neoconservative intellectuals at the Weekly Standard, National Review and talk radio have lost their mojo on the Republican side of the presidential race. Every Republican candidate except Senator Paul and Mr. Trump was talking their interventionist game (John Kasich was arming Ukrainians when last seen). Their view is still very prevalent in the “foreign policy establishment” ("the Blob" as President Obama and Ben Rhodes call them). They still have a candidate and her name is Hillary Clinton.

The Clinton Foundation is at the center of a peculiar kind of laundering scheme. The questions asked in 2015 about their foundation donors are answered here. The Clinton Foundation released a list of million-dollar-and-up gifts. The Saudis found many ways to give.

ANTI-TRUMP CONSERVATIVES STAY IN A FANTASY WORLD: I have always respected Hugh Hewitt as a conservative but open intellectual. However, facing the failure of neocon foreign policy and the candidacy of Donald Trump, he seems to have lost it. Here he advises Mr. Trump to quiet his establishment critics by installing a foreign policy team that Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio would agree on. Didn’t Mr Trump beat those two men rather soundly while advocating substantive disagreements about foreign policy?

It was a brilliant tactic and substantially very important that Trump put pro-life and judicial conservatives at ease with his disclosure of possible Supreme Court judges. Given the increasingly narrow vision of the pro-life movement, this should settle them. It is too bad they aren’t equally encouraged by Trump’s advocacy of a possible alliance with Orthodox Russia in protecting Christians in the Mideast and destroying ISIS. Sadly, the myopic ideological Catholics in Republican politics have missed all this. Mr. Trump is not sad when Christians are beheaded in the Mideast. He is angered, and he is ready to offer them real protection which to our shame has not yet been done.

USA - MALE VS FEMALES IN ELECTION BUT WE ARE ONLY AT THE START: Disconnected males finally have a voice.

III. NATIONS ROUND UP

CHINA AND CHRISTIANS - THE PROJECT TO BUILD CHINESE IDENTITY IS NOT HOSPITABLE TO TRANSCENDENT CLAIMS: Crosses come down in Zhejiang province - a Christian heartland. There are 60 million Christians in the Chinese population of 1.35 billion.

SURROUNDING CHINA: Pat Buchanan asks what are our strategic interests in supporting Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia in disputes with China in the South China Sea. AOA’s  attempt to make sense of the situation with 'Map on Monday: China, the Philippines, Vietnam and the Geopolitics of the Sea.’ is coming Monday.

THE PHILIPPINES' NEW PRESIDENT - A MILITANT NATIONALIST PROTECTOR BUT READY TO TALK WITH CHINA: Duterte wins -- tough on crime and brash of tongue.

INDIA, IRAN, AFGHANISTAN: The alliance that will help end our longest war.

AUSTRIA - THE NATION VS EU: 60% of men and rural voters defeated by 60% females and big cities.

IV. MASCULINE CHARACTER OF PUBLIC LIFE

AMERICA IS TRIBALIZED AND ONE OF THE TRIBES IS A PAGAN MASCULINITY: This is a long article with several interesting references starting with violence against a Mr. Trump rally, and shut-down violence at a college talk by Milo Yiannopoulos. Scroll down for the very informative comparison of pagan Jack Donovan and his tribal masculinity vs. Brad Wilcox, a good Catholic man at UVA. In their appeal to men there is no contest as Donovan scores a first round knock out.

JACK DONOVAN AND TRIBAL MASCULINITY: Mr. Donovan is man who is very much worth reading. A Sky Without Eagles and The Way of Men are good introductions. This is his website. Let’s say upfront there are problems, but he is consistent and eloquent. What if we had a few bishops and seminarians who spoke as he does about brotherhood? We would renew the Church in America. We should learn from him and try to convert him. A few Donovan quotes:

"[Something] doesn't need to be 'nice' in order for it to be true. Reality doesn't bend over to accommodate fantasy or sentimentality."

"The horizontally oriented person sees the sickly rabbit suffer, and to save that rabbit, he... would shoot every single eagle out of the sky."

"The bound rods of the fasces represent strength and the authority of a unified male collective… True unity can't be imposed from above. It’s an organic phenomenon. Profound unity comes from men bound together by a red ribbon of blood."

"What kind of a man must ask women 'what kind of man may I be?' Not a man, but a boy—a mere child picking flowers for a kiss on the cheek and a pat on the head."

"When you have a power base, women are easy enough to attain—one way or another."

THE AOA CORRECTIVE: RELIGION TO UNIVERSALIZE AND TERRITORIAL LIMITS TO DEFINE THE MALE BOND OF CITIZENSHIP:
What is missing in Donovan’s tribal masculinity and many of the neo-pagan European movements are the transcendent dictates of religion and the universalizing truth of a common human nature. The territorial definition of citizenship is another antidote to extended kin and racial solidarity as the sole  basis of the nation. Religious and civic nationalism are correctives to ethnic social organization. This lesson was learned in the bloody battles of the last three centuries. This is a troubling blind spot in the writing of both Mr. Donovan and Pat Buchanan. Christian civilization is a public brotherhood project which does not eliminate the kinship of family and tribe but extends it to the men of a common territory. The model is the twelve kinship tribes of Jacob being forged after a wrestling with G-d, by a common law and land into the nation of Israel.

REPUBLICANS AND THE FEMALE DRAFT: Duncan Hunter, the California congressman, put women into a selective service bill to show the absurdity of the present attempt to integrate women into all levels of military training and fighting. Representative Hunter believes gender roles are essential in certain fundamental societal tasks, but that puts him out of sync with the Republican establishment. Not surprisingly, Washington’s favorite Republican warrior soldier John McCain is all for women in the draft. Duncan Hunter is a great example of a male protector but the Republicans have been getting this part of the culture war wrong for a long time.