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Iran and Coronavirus
Iran has acted as a global virus super-spreader. And at least one Iranian commentator has suggested that the regime is doing this deliberately. Pointing out that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently called the virus “a blessing,” Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, president of the International American Council on the Middle East, wrote on the Gatestone Institute website: “Are the ruling mullahs attempting purposefully to spread the coronavirus to other countries as a form of global jihad?” Those who might find this suggestion too fanciful to be believed are those who fail to fathom the regime’s depths of fanaticism and evil. Which means Britain and Europe, along with US Democrats, who reacted with horror when Trump pulled America out of the Iran nuclear deal. Whatever the president’s faults, he deserves enormous credit for doing just that. He thus restored sanctions (and a measure of sanity) against a regime that remains hell-bent on developing nuclear weapons to destroy Israel and the West — an infernal agenda the Iran deal would enable with only a few years’ delay. The International Atomic Energy Authority has reported that Iran is accelerating its production of enriched uranium and is blocking its nuclear inspectors from inspecting Iranian activities. Some analysts suggest that Iran has dramatically shrunk its theoretical “breakout” time to acquire a bomb’s worth of weapons-grade uranium to less than four months. The regime’s failure to protect Iranians against the virus has provided a fresh outbreak of public protests. More ominous still for the regime, the people are openly mocking it. Since mockery is a sign of condign disapproval in Iran, the regime will be well aware that its already fragile hold on power over the public is slipping still further. This all adds to the increasing pressure it has been under through the resumption of sanctions, not to mention the grievous blow it suffered from the US drone killing of its principal military strategist, Gen. Qassem Soleimani. On top of all that, having empowered the Shia from Beirut to Baghdad, the regime is now finding that these people are also turning against it. They are blaming its corruption, ineptitude and foreign adventurism for causing their many woes. In Iraq, the Shia are literally praying for the coronavirus to kill the mullahs. Earlier this month, two Americans and one British soldier were killed after the Taji military camp hosting US and UK troops in Iraq was hit by a rocket attack. No one has claimed responsibility, but the most plausible suspect is Iran. If so, this suggests that the regime really is panicking. For when such fanatics feel cornered, they are likely to lash out on the basis that if they’re going down, they’ll take down with them the enemies they believe it is their Divine mission to destroy. And perhaps that’s also why it’s not fanciful to suggest that the coronavirus is “a blessing” they wish to enhance.
Israel is Using Counterterrorism Tools to Combat Coronavirus Israel plans to deploy electronic counterterrorism measures to track the movements of people who might be infected with the coronavirus, officials said, a confluence of crime fighting and public health that could become more common even as it sparked civil liberty concerns. Officials did not specify the techniques to be used but hinted they would include monitoring individuals’ cellphone locations, presumably without their consent, as well as the more sophisticated electronic intelligence and data analysis that Israel is known to have in its terror-fighting arsenal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who announced the initiative in a televised address Saturday night, acknowledged that applying Israel’s vaunted digital surveillance tools could infringe on privacy. He said it was an acceptable price for slowing the spread of the virus. “We are one of the few countries with this capability, and we will use it,” he said. “We must do everything, as a government and as citizens, to not become infected and not to infect others.” Israel, which has reported 200 cases of the virus and no deaths, has already proved willing to take sweeping measures to stave off a wider outbreak. Netanyahu announced that restaurants, bars and museums across the country would shut down indefinitely. Gatherings of more than 10 people are banned (10 is the minimum number for a minyan, a quorum of adult men required by Orthodox Judaism for certain religious obligations). The country previously closed schools until at least the middle of April and won’t let anyone, citizen or visitor, enter the country without a two-week quarantine. Israel’s digital surveillance technology systems could prove to be an effective health tool, analysts said, because the question in monitoring coronavirus patients and terrorists is largely the same: Who are their contacts?
Guard Personnel & the Coronavirus Crisis As novel coronavirus cases rise, some 2,050 citizen soldiers and airmen have been activated by state governors, and that number will likely double by the weekend, the head of the National Guard Bureau told defense reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday. Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel said he expects tens of thousands of Guardsmen to be called up over the coming weeks. Governors in 27 states have activated parts of their National Guard units to counter the effects of the contagious virus, known as COVID-19, with medical testing, transportation, logistics support and, potentially, law enforcement responsibilities, he said. “It’s hard to tell what the exact requirement will be,” Lengyel added, “but I am expecting tens of thousands [of Guard members] to be used inside the states as this grows, and I think states have the capacity to do those kinds of things.” Lengyel described the pandemic as a “historic event unlike any we have faced in recent years.” “When there is a hurricane, you can see it on a map; you have a sense of how hard the storm will hit and how long the story will last,” he said. “With COVID-19, it’s like we have 54 separate hurricanes, [one] in every state, territory and the District of Columbia.” But for now, there is no plan to federalize Guard personnel on active-duty status, he stressed to reporters.
PONDERABLE A Happy Thought from Michigan. The Detroit Tigers will go Undefeated throughout the month of April.
Features
Our Navy’s Hospital Ships The USNS Comfort and the USNS Mercy are rushing to complete their scheduled maintenance and board teams of medical personnel. Once outfitted, the Comfort will sail to New York Harbor, and the Mercy will head off to the Port of Los Angeles. Despite being ordered to prepare, there isn’t a realistic timeline for the ships’ departure just yet, as they were both undergoing routine maintenance and repairs when the outbreak began. Comfort and Mercy are by no means a silver bullet solution to the growing outbreak. In fact, they won’t be handling anyone infected by the coronavirus, at all. Instead, the ships will treat other cases to take pressure off hospitals dealing with infected patients. The sister ships are the third-largest vessels in the Navy, surpassed only by Nimitz-class and Ford-class aircraft carriers. Both Comfort and Mercy are essentially floating hospitals, each with a 1,000-bed capacity and complete with anything you’d find in a normal hospital, including blood banks, morgues and oxygen-production plants. The ships are designed to specialize in trauma cases, given their mission is to treat wounded troops. They are not designed to handle an infectious disease outbreak for many reasons. The ships have no way of isolating infectious patients; that’s why they will deploy to support only non-COVID-19 cases. Further complicating their support of the outbreak, some of the patient beds aboard are actually stacked atop one another. The berthing beds for the crew are stacked three deep, and the ship uses metal handrails — on which coronavirus can survive for hours. Some question whether the ships should be used at all.
The Dictator isn’t Dictating What happens when the supposed dictator won’t dictate? This is the conundrum confronted by the harshest critics of President Trump, who have gone from warning he is a budding despot to complaining he hasn’t done enough to impose his will during the coronavirus crisis. They can’t believe that he didn’t urge sports leagues to cancel their seasons, call for school systems to close or tell bars and restaurants to shutter before this wave of closures began. As a New York Times report put it, Trump “has essentially become a bystander as school superintendents, sports commissioners, college presidents, governors and business owners across the country take it upon themselves to shut down much of American life.” Ordinarily, tyrants aren’t bystanders. They don’t give other political players and civic institutions wide latitude to make their own decisions. They don’t have to be pushed to declare a national emergency unlocking various powers. They don’t have to be lobbied to call out the military to deal with a domestic problem. Trump declared an emergency last week and has now issued national guidelines against gatherings of more than 10 people, but his initial instinct was to urge people to stay calm and carry on. The reason that Trump’s conduct in this crisis hasn’t tracked with the “incipient-fascist” line of attack is that this criticism never made any sense.
Coronavirus Jokes Stephen Colbert stood in front of his live studio audience – his last for the foreseeable future – and told jokes for roughly 10 minutes about what’s on everyone’s mind. “This coronavirus … it’s making people nervous,” he said. “It’s making people anxious. But I think at a time like this we all need to laugh, to be together,” and then backing away, “from a distance of about 20 feet.” In between blaring headlines about schools shutting their doors, the NBA suspending its season and frantic questions about the future, regular people are turning to the most human of ways to cope: humor.
Troops Coming Home from Overseas It wasn’t the welcome home that US soldiers expected when they returned from war zones in the Middle East this month. When their planes landed at Fort Bliss, Texas, they were herded into buses, denied water and the use of bathrooms, then quarantined in packed barracks, with little food or access to the outdoors. “This is no way to treat Soldiers returning from war,” one soldier told The Associated Press in an email. The soldiers posted notes on social media about the poor conditions. Their complaints got quick attention from senior Army and Pentagon leaders. Now changes are under way at Fort Bliss and at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where the first soldiers placed under quarantine also complained of poor, cramped conditions. Quarantining troops on military bases is becoming a greater challenge for military officials. While continuing missions and training, they also have to try to prevent the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus by enforcing two-week quarantines of soldiers who have spent months overseas. In one of Bragg’s remote training areas, large white tents have popped up over the past few days to house hundreds of 82nd Airborne Division troops returning to the base from Afghanistan and Middle East deployments. The tent city, being called Forward Operating Base Patriot (FOB Patriot), materialized almost overnight, after commanders realized the limits of the barracks when troops began arriving. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said senior leaders were looking into soldiers’ complaints and seeking answers from Fort Bliss. Pentagon chief spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters that Defense Secretary Mark Esper had heard about the problems and “his response is, we can do better and we need to do better.” Hoffman said the commander at Fort Bliss has met with all of the quarantined soldiers and “talked through some of their concerns. The spokesman added, “We are going to do better. This is something unusual for all these bases to be handling, and they are doing the best they can.”
Purple Heart Flag A bill has been introduced in the House that would officially designate a “Purple Heart Flag” and direct that it be flown at federal buildings and memorials on national holidays. The legislation, introduced last November by Rep. Brian Higgins, D-New York, would amend the US Code to allow for the designation of a flag modeled on the insignia of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. If passed by the House and Senate and signed by President Trump, the bill would have the Purple Heart Flag flown at the WWII Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, national cemeteries, selected federal buildings and Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals. The flag should fly on holidays including Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, National POW/MIA Recognition Day and Veterans Day, according to the bill’s language. In a statement, Higgins, whose district includes the Buffalo, New York, area, said, “Raising the Purple Heart Flag would provide a visual reminder of the wounds our warriors endured and the soldiers who have laid down their lives to uphold the liberties this nation was founded on and continues to hold dear.” In an interview, Russ Ward, senior vice commander of Chapter 187 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Buffalo, acknowledged that “the nation has more urgent matters to attend to now,” referring to the novel coronavirus pandemic. But he said the Purple Heart Flag issue eventually deserves the attention of Congress.
NASA Astronaut About to Leave Earth A NASA astronaut who’s about to leave the planet for six months will blast off without any family or fanfare because of the coronavirus. Chris Cassidy said that he won’t have any guests at his April 9 launch from Kazakhstan. He expects to say goodbye in Russia to his wife, three weeks earlier than planned. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, she’s going back home to Houston. One of his three children, meanwhile, is trying to get back to the US from New Zealand. There will be a smaller team than usual at the launch pad, too. “It really is going to be strange,” Cassidy told The AP from cosmonaut headquarters in Star City, Russia. He said he’s already in quarantine ahead of his launch to the International Space Station. “The things that are stressing the rest of the world and the rest of America, are the same things that are stressing me right now,” said Cassidy. “It’s not like any other time in our lives as a generation, really, right?’ said the 50-year-old Navy captain and former Navy SEAL. “I’ll have my own interesting story to tell in years to come.” Cassidy is also dealing with a rare late-in-the-game crew switch. He’ll spend 6 1/2 months on the space station with two Russians assigned to the flight just a month ago, after one of the original cosmonauts suffered an eye injury. While training together to catch up, Cassidy, Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner have been taking precautions to stay germ free, frequently washing their hands and keeping a safe distance from others. The space station crew will drop from six to three a week after his arrival. It will remain at three people until SpaceX launches two NASA astronauts, as early as May, or another crew arrives on a Russian Soyuz capsule in the fall. With only three people on board, it promises to be extraordinarily busy.
VA Cemeteries During This Crisis Veterans cemeteries are open to the public during the novel coronavirus outbreak but are adhering to official guidance on how to avoid spreading COVID-19. In the latest development, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Cemetery Administration (NCA) has limited funeral parties to no more than 10 people. The NCA began discouraging staff from handshakes and “any unnecessary physical contact” last week. It announced that groups of more than 10 people should be avoided. “In light of concerns regarding the community spread of COVID-19, we are strongly urging that all committal services adhere to the CDC guidelines to avoid groups of more than 10 people,” the NCA guidance to funeral directors states. “We suggest you contact cemeteries directly to gain an understanding of the completeness of the committal service in this very fluid situation.” Until further notice, the NCA will stop conducting committal services and the rendering of military funeral honors by military personnel or volunteer organizations. No more than 10 immediate family members will be allowed to watch the interment “from a safe distance” without a service, a new policy states.
Civil War History Here are some questions on the Civil War; we’ll post the answers in the next newsletter. Here are the answers to the last issue’s questions: 1.What was the standard manual on infantry tactics, used by both Confederate and Union armies, written at the request of the Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis? Ans. “Hardee’s Tactics” (1855) written by Confederate LTG William J. Hardee. 2. Most of the senior general officers of both the Union and CSA had experience in Mexico during the Mexican War. One very successful senior USA general, who commanded the Western Theater under LTG Grant and went on after the war to hold senior positions, did not serve in Mexico. Who was he? Ans: LTG Will T. Sherman 3. Who is the only Union commander credited with defeating two of these three CSA commanders (Lee, Jackson, Longstreet)? Ans: Colonel Nathan Kimball
Here are the new questions: 1. What battle had the most casualties in the morning before noon? And, coincidently, had the most casualties on any Sunday in the history of the Unites States? 2. What was the rank of General Jackson’s famous cartographer, Hotchkiss? 3. What are the cylindrical protrusions which permitted a cannon or mortar to be elevated or lowered quickly called?
Military Music Warrior by Kid Rock Frontlines of Freedom Gear If you’d like to have a Frontlines of Freedom shirt or hat or whatever, we do have it for you. Check our store at http://fof.logoshop.com/
Two quotes to consider. The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical treatment. On the contrary, such treatment is far more likely to destroy than to make an army. It is possible to impart instruction and give commands in such a manner and such a tone of voice as to inspire in the soldier no feeling but an intense desire to obey, while the opposite manner and tone of voice cannot fail to excite strong resentment and a desire to disobey. The one mode or the other in dealing with subordinates springs from a corresponding spirit in the breast of the commander. He who feels the respect which is due to others cannot fail to inspire in them respect for himself; while he who feels, and hence manifests, disrespect toward others, especially his subordinates, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself.
In his search to be a great leader, the young centurion sought out the Republic’s veteran warrior. Looking up from his labor, the sage spoke: “I know not what beats beneath your tunic, but what I saw in a leader from foot soldiers to proconsul is thus: One who makes drill bloodless combat and combat bloody drill… This is the one who leads best of all.”
Programming: You’ll want to tune into the show (live or by podcast). 28 March – 3 April: Army vet Mike Miller will discuss living in the Coronavirus environment. Then Steve Snider will discuss his interesting book, Shot Down. Meredith Gremel and Brandi McBride from SpartanNash will discuss the designation as a Top Ten Military Brand, and we’ll review the Movie of the Month with Diane Raver from the Garden State Film Festival. 4-10 April: Professor Matt Mehan from Hillsdale College will return to discuss Socialism from a different perspective. Then we’ll review the amazing book about a female spy in WWII, A Woman of No Importance with the author, Sonia Purcell. And we’ll discuss great annual event that has to be cancelled this year but will be back in strength next year, Armed Forces Thanksgiving.
Advertising on Frontlines of Freedom’s Website and Newsletter: We encourage you to patronize our advertisers; they are keeping Frontlines of Freedom alive and well. You can advertise on-air (as a show sponsor) or only on our website and in this newsletter. If you or someone you know would like to advertise on Frontlines of Freedom please contact me at denny@frontlinesoffreedom.com.
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Humor This was put together by someone smarter than me.
1.Johnny’s mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child’s name? 2. There is a clerk at the butcher shop, he is five feet ten inches tall and he wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh? 3. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world? 4. How much dirt is there in a hole that measures two feet by three feet by four feet? 5. What word in the English Language is always spelled incorrectly? 6. Billy was born on December 28th, yet his birthday is always in the summer. How is this possible? 7. In California, you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not? 8. What was the President’s Name in 1975? 9. If you were running a race, and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now? 10. Which is correct to say, “The yolk of the egg are white” or “The yolk of the egg is white”? 11. If a farmer has 5 haystacks in one field and 4 haystacks in the other field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in another field? Here are the Answers: (No peeking!) 2. There is a clerk at the butcher shop, he is five feet ten inches tall, and he wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh? 3. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world? 4. How much dirt is there in a hole that measures two feet by three feet by four feet? 5. What word in the English Language is always spelled incorrectly? 6. Billy was born on December 28th, yet his birthday is always in the summer. How is this possible? 7. In California, you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not? 8. What was the President’s Name in 1975? 9. If you were running a race, and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in? 10. Which is correct to say, “The yolk of the egg are white” or “The yolk of the egg is white”? 11. If a farmer has 5 haystacks in one field and 4 haystacks in the other field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in another field?
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