By Daniel Nardini
While America is fixated on the whole presidential drama, there are two things taking place that is affecting the United States. The first one is the refugee crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border. No, I refuse to use the term “undocumented” or “illegals” because those peoples coming to the U.S. border are desperate, suffering masses who are trying to find a better life. Most of the refugees are from four countries. These countries are Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua. In the case of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, these are failing nation states due to the left wing regimes that (mis)govern them. These leftist regimes are responsible for extreme political repression, supply shortages (mostly food and medicine), and an almost complete infrastructural breakdown.
Things are so bad in Cuba that the Cuban government cannot supply enough paper to print newspapers and magazines to a range of publications (one example is the cultural magazine La Gaceta de Cuba. On the other hand, the Communist Party of Cuba makes sure that there is enough paper to print the Party’s newspaper Granma). For many Cubans, one route of escape is taking a boat to Florida. But since the Cuban government has been making sure all sea vessels are not so easily taken, a growing number of Cubans have opted to go to Venezuela since no visas are required for Cubans to travel there. Ecuador has now become another source of refugees due to the country experiencing political and social violence, economic instability and lack of job opportunities. Nicaragua has been under an ever growing repressive dictatorship where many innocent people have been imprisoned or killed.
All of these peoples have been fleeing through other Central American countries like Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala where they end up in Mexico trying to reach the U.S. border. Mexico does not want these peoples either, and has made attempts to try and stem the flow of these refugees with limited results. The real problem are the countries where these refugees come from, and how bad the conditions are in these countries I have mentioned. This is more than anything driving several million people to risk their lives walking through thousands of miles of mountains, dense jungle swamp lands, and arid deserts to reach what they hope will be a better life. Truth be told, securing the border of the United States will not stop this flow. The only way to really stop this refugee crisis will be to deal with those regimes where the refugees are coming from in the first place.
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Meanwhile, my good friend Russ, who still lives in Taiwan, told me that the Chinese People’s Liberation Navy had been continually carrying out live fire drills near Taiwan in international waters and also military maneuvers on how to blockade the island. The Chinese People’s Air Force has also been testing Taiwan’s air defense perimeter on a daily basis. It has become clear that China is trying to make Taiwan a zone of conflict in order to destabilize Taiwan’s government and military. But where is the U.S. Seventh Fleet? Isn’t it supposed to be keeping China’s forces away from Taiwan? Apparently the U.S. Seventh Fleet continues to have some of its ships go through the Taiwan Strait cutting directly in the path of the Chinese Navy. Talk about a dangerous cat and mouse game! While the Chinese clearly have more vessels in the area, the U.S. Navy clearly have a far better class of frigates and battleships. At this point an American ship would be able to outmatch any Chinese vessel.
Then there is Taiwan’s ships which are too few in number to match the numbers of China’s fleet. Still, in combination with America’s and Japan’s naval fleets, this could to be more than a match for what China has. With all of these opposing ships so close to each other the danger is that a violent clash between China on the one hand and Taiwan, the United States and Japan on the other could easily explode into a war. This is happening now as I speak. Yes, all of this seems so far away and not of any relevance to the average American. Yet it has relevance. If something happens in the Taiwan Strait, we could be sending our sons and daughters into a very major conflict. And what if China chooses to invade Taiwan sooner or later? We really have no clue what current Chinese premier Xi Jinping is thinking. Could he be preparing an invasion of Taiwan? Could he also be preparing for an attack against the United States armed forces in Japan, Guam, and maybe even Hawaii?
While the refugee crisis and what is happening in the Taiwan Strait are in two different parts of the world, these two things could easily test U.S. resolve in how we as a nation and people try to handle them. These two issues are obviously not getting the attention in the news media that they should. Our internal politics has pushed out these important subjects as Americans are becoming too concerned about the age of both presidential candidates (the attacks seem to be more against current President Joe Biden than anything else). No matter who becomes president, these issues will not go away, and may in fact get worse. I wish the U.S. news media would cover these things instead of acting like a circus ring for political intrigue with this presidential campaign cycle.
Two Things Happening at the Same Time
By Daniel Nardini
Things are so bad in Cuba that the Cuban government cannot supply enough paper to print newspapers and magazines to a range of publications (one example is the cultural magazine La Gaceta de Cuba. On the other hand, the Communist Party of Cuba makes sure that there is enough paper to print the Party’s newspaper Granma). For many Cubans, one route of escape is taking a boat to Florida. But since the Cuban government has been making sure all sea vessels are not so easily taken, a growing number of Cubans have opted to go to Venezuela since no visas are required for Cubans to travel there. Ecuador has now become another source of refugees due to the country experiencing political and social violence, economic instability and lack of job opportunities. Nicaragua has been under an ever growing repressive dictatorship where many innocent people have been imprisoned or killed.
All of these peoples have been fleeing through other Central American countries like Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala where they end up in Mexico trying to reach the U.S. border. Mexico does not want these peoples either, and has made attempts to try and stem the flow of these refugees with limited results. The real problem are the countries where these refugees come from, and how bad the conditions are in these countries I have mentioned. This is more than anything driving several million people to risk their lives walking through thousands of miles of mountains, dense jungle swamp lands, and arid deserts to reach what they hope will be a better life. Truth be told, securing the border of the United States will not stop this flow. The only way to really stop this refugee crisis will be to deal with those regimes where the refugees are coming from in the first place.
****************************************
Meanwhile, my good friend Russ, who still lives in Taiwan, told me that the Chinese People’s Liberation Navy had been continually carrying out live fire drills near Taiwan in international waters and also military maneuvers on how to blockade the island. The Chinese People’s Air Force has also been testing Taiwan’s air defense perimeter on a daily basis. It has become clear that China is trying to make Taiwan a zone of conflict in order to destabilize Taiwan’s government and military. But where is the U.S. Seventh Fleet? Isn’t it supposed to be keeping China’s forces away from Taiwan? Apparently the U.S. Seventh Fleet continues to have some of its ships go through the Taiwan Strait cutting directly in the path of the Chinese Navy. Talk about a dangerous cat and mouse game! While the Chinese clearly have more vessels in the area, the U.S. Navy clearly have a far better class of frigates and battleships. At this point an American ship would be able to outmatch any Chinese vessel.
Then there is Taiwan’s ships which are too few in number to match the numbers of China’s fleet. Still, in combination with America’s and Japan’s naval fleets, this could to be more than a match for what China has. With all of these opposing ships so close to each other the danger is that a violent clash between China on the one hand and Taiwan, the United States and Japan on the other could easily explode into a war. This is happening now as I speak. Yes, all of this seems so far away and not of any relevance to the average American. Yet it has relevance. If something happens in the Taiwan Strait, we could be sending our sons and daughters into a very major conflict. And what if China chooses to invade Taiwan sooner or later? We really have no clue what current Chinese premier Xi Jinping is thinking. Could he be preparing an invasion of Taiwan? Could he also be preparing for an attack against the United States armed forces in Japan, Guam, and maybe even Hawaii?
While the refugee crisis and what is happening in the Taiwan Strait are in two different parts of the world, these two things could easily test U.S. resolve in how we as a nation and people try to handle them. These two issues are obviously not getting the attention in the news media that they should. Our internal politics has pushed out these important subjects as Americans are becoming too concerned about the age of both presidential candidates (the attacks seem to be more against current President Joe Biden than anything else). No matter who becomes president, these issues will not go away, and may in fact get worse. I wish the U.S. news media would cover these things instead of acting like a circus ring for political intrigue with this presidential campaign cycle.