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Religion has played an increasing role in U.S foreign policy and diplomacy for more than a decade. During the Bush Presidency, the United States government focused on building capacity within federal agencies to involve religious leaders and faith based communities to reach domestic and international policy goals. By an executive order, Bush established the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnership in 2001.  In 2013, the State Department set up the Office of Religion and Global Affairs (RGA), with a Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (0IC) and Special Representatives to Muslim Communities. Before the creation of these agencies, the State Department worked solely on the basis of the International Religious Freedom Act, established in 1998.President Trump has indicated that dealing with radical Islamic terror groups is a top foreign policy, saying, “Defeating ISIS and other radical Islamic terror groups will be our highest priority.” This policy sees religious ideology as the root of the problem and recommends comprehensive efforts to defeat the ideology. President Donald Trump’s first foreign trip to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the Vatican acts on this underpinning since these sites host some of the holiest places in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. The question is can President Trump use religious diplomacy to bring peace and unite people of all faiths around the common vision of peace and prosperity? Could he focus on what a united America would look like? Can President Trump turn a new page for Middle Eastern ties with the U.S to repair relations that were strained during the Obama administration? Can Donald Trump make leaders in the Middle East believe his message? Using his negotiation skills, President Trump is trying to unite conflicting parties. Continue reading →

The politicization of American intelligence by the left is dangerous and will have very serious consequences for American national interests. Politicization also destroys trust and relations between policymakers and the intelligence community.When Donald Trump said he did not trust the U.S intelligence community, his concerns were well founded. Politicization of America’s intelligence agencies by the left was worse during the Obama administration; that is why Russia took charge in Syria and the Middle East. Now Democrats with their left wing fake news alongside of some of the intelligence officers are accusing Donald Trump of disclosing highly classified information about planned Islamic State operations to the Russian foreign minister during their meeting last week. Actually to keep charging Russia and Putin with interference into the American political system shows a decline of American values, an emphasis on American weaknesses, and the strength of Russia. Actually, Donald Trump was the one who has plans to destroy the ISIS, and he is the one who calculated that Obama created ISIS by not removing Assad on time and not putting troops on the ground, but allowing Russia to come in to be in charge of Syria and the Middle East. The Democratic leadership are cowards and had no guts to go after the ISIS. In the case of FBI former director James Comey, intelligence agencies that affiliate with the Democrat and wished that Hilary had become President deliberately altered the assessment to support the policy outcomes.  Policy makers use this process and procedural rules to influence output intelligence work. As a clear example of this, when Trump’s former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, resigned from the post, first the intelligence community leaked the information, even forged the information, and repeated negative reactions to Michael Flynn. The case of firing former FBI Director James Comey is a clear example of cherry picking or subjectively choosing among competing assessments to further their policy agendas and to mitigate dissenting views.  Before the former Director Comey got fired, they were calling on him to resign, but when he got fired, they started to defend him not because they cared or had respect for the American Constitution, but because they just wanted to politicize the issue. Donald Trump wanted to fix the intelligence community to get objective, accurate information so he could make decisions for the interest of the United States. Continue reading →

On Sunday the Turkish people approved a referendum with a 51.41 percent vote for the constitutional changes that will marshal Turkey into a presidential system. In a historic constitutional referendum, more than 50 million Turkish citizens voted on a series of amendments that extended the presidential powers to include those of the prime minister, thereby, replacing what some perceive to be a flawed parliamentary system. Others see this change as jeopardizing the judicial and legislative independence as presidential powers increase. An estimated 85.3 percent of all registered voters in the country participated in the contest, according to the Daily Sabah newspaper in Turkey.Sunday's vote represents an important milestone in Turkish political, social, and economic history. Every election results in winners and losers. Since 2003, the Justice and Development Party, the AKP, keeps winning the popular vote in Turkey because of a lack of good oppositional leader to stand against Recep Tayip Erdogan. In this election the losers were the Gulenist religious cult, secularists, and the Kurdish guerilla PKK. The Gulenists religious cult could not defeat Erdogan democratically, so it staged a coup on July 15^th to use military force to assassinate him in order to take over the democratically elected government. The Gulenists failed in their attempt. Continue reading →

Last week six church leaders from one of the leading Christian churches in Singapore were sent to prison for embezzling 34 millions US dollars in church funds to promote the leader‘s pop star wife. The mix of faith and corruption has fascinated people in Singapore, from where we seldom here news. No wonder people are getting fed up with religion when things like this are happening. No wonder people make jokes quipping, “If you want to become rich, build a church.” The same thing took place in the Unification Church of Reverend Sun Yung Moon, who became incredibly wealthy, while his followers gave up all of their earthly goods in order to follow him. Two things that all these cult religious leaders have in common are that they all claim that they are the chosen one and that they are constantly talking to God. For example, there was another very wealthy Muslim religious leader who does not have a college degree but is an old reclusive imam now operating a multi-billion-dollar global network of Islamic schools, including in the Philippines. He has three educational facilities here: the Turkish Tolerance High School in Zamboanga City, the Fountain International School in Manila, and the Tuskon Chamber of Commerce, but his schools are being closed by the Turkish government because he led a coup in Turkey on July 15 2016, in spite of his news media outlets, businesses, and sports teams that he manages from his compound in the United States. Gulen had become too powerful because it seems his followers have taken over key positions in the Turkish government and politics. Millions of his followers believe he is the chosen one and that he talks to Allah. In the view of those who believe him and follow him, they all will go to heaven. If Gulen tells his follower to jump, his devotees will jump; that is why they killed more than 245 people in Turkey during the attempted coup. Even President Duterte said that he is a dangerous person and that corrupt mullahs are his biggest concern because they are the ones corrupting young minds. Continue reading →

When we talk about economic development, we often start with Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, which explains modern economic growth. According to Adam Smith’s economic growth theory, individuals have a rational proclivity to maximize wealth. To make this process of individual self-maximization and subsequent market growth viable, Smith argues, individual self-maximization and subsequent market growth can happen. According to Smith, there should be no force, not even state intervention, disrupting the market, since intervention would only harm the market. Smith ‘s economic growth happens when the “invisible hand,” the unobservable market force, helps the demand and supply of goods in a free market to reach equilibrium automatically.Asian economies that were under the influence of Communist regimes during the Cold War, and that are still governed by Communist regimes, are now the number one defenders of globalization and free global trade, whereas Western countries, which had been the champion of liberalization are now raising their voices for protectionism. The European Projects was supposed to be a civilization project, but now they are almost on the verge of collapse. The great world civilizations used to have separate identities; now they have increasingly overlapping commonality, that is, becoming a global community. Everyone around the world has the same aspirations as the people who live in the West or in the Untied States. They want their kids to have a good education, obtain better jobs, and live in peaceful communities. Granted, they have gone about obtaining those goals in different ways. Continue reading →

President Rodrigo Duterte lashed out against the European Parliament for demanding that the Philippines stop efforts in Congress to reinstate the death penalty, monitor rights abuses in the country, and call for the immediate release of detained Senator Leila de Lima.  On March 19, during a gathering of some of the 1,800 Filipinos residing in Myanmar, President Duterte cursed the critics and admonished them, “Do not impose your culture or your belief in what would be a government in this planet; why don’t you mind your own business?” He rightly criticized the issue of how the West does not seem to respect Asian countries in their decision to continue to impose the death penalty. Currently, the Philippines House of Representatives approved its version of the death penalty bill that allows execution of drug convicts through hanging, firing squad, or lethal injections. The counterpart bill still has to go through Senate. The world struggles to balance the democratic promise of human rights protection against its historically Western identification. Western attitudes toward human rights and the Philippine are riddled with contradictions. The West gives aid to poor countries, but then takes back four times as much in debt repayments through the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, rather than forgiving the debts. The West protests about Duterte‘s war on drug in a faraway place, ignoring the fact that the weapons used were probably made closer to home. The West talks about eradicating poverty but for more than fifty years has not eliminated it. Western policies regarding human rights are carefully planned and staged, yet are often managed hypocrisy. These policies --and the violations that result from them -- are not charges against President Duterte only but also are official directives “legally” enacted and implemented over centuries. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been a great example used to shore up oppression against the developing countries, such as the Philippines and nations in Africa and the Middle East, such as where Western countries bungled affairs in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Libya.  Continue reading →

TWO OF Donald Trump’s most effective slogans during the presidential campaign were “America First” and “Make America Great Again.” This underscores the contrast between seeking globalist interests versus fighting for American interests. President Trump promised his supporters he would give priority to national interests. Currently, we are witnessing the same sentiment in Europe, with some asserting that fascism is on the rise there, and that President Donald Trump is an American example of fascism. This is a false assumption.The nation-state is reasserting itself as the primary vehicle of political life. In Europe, the refugees and immigrants from conflict-torn countries are challenging the European Union’s institutions. Some European citizens see the immigrant policy as not being in the national interest. Even though some of these refugees and immigrants go against European national interests, accusing the nations of being racist or fascists when they guard their borders and beliefs is wrong. Continue reading →