2/8/19, “Hungary Shows the West the Path to Survival,” Scott McConnell, The American Conservative
Hungary Pres. Orban: “Mass migration is a slow stream of water persistently eroding the shores. It is masquerading as a humanitarian cause, but its true nature is the occupation of territory. And what is gaining territory for them is losing territory for us. Flocks of obsessed human rights defenders feel the overwhelming urge to reprimand us…. [A]llegedly we are hostile xenophobes but the truth is that the history of our nation is also one of inclusion, of the intertwining of cultures. Those who have sought to come here as new family members, as allies, or as displaced persons fearing for their lives have been let in to make a new home for themselves. But those who have come here with the intention of changing our country, of shaping our nation in their own image, have been met with resistance.””...[full article at end of this post]
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Added: Pompeo travels all the way to Hungary where President Orban is showing the West the path to survival but Pompeo chooses to use some of his precious time there meeting with so-called “leaders” of so-called “non-governmental organizations.” In other words, Pompeo spends US taxpayers’ time meeting with cancerous parasites who oppose the elected representative of the people of Hungary.
This article says the US claims it’s “committed to a strong, united, and capable transatlantic alliance?“ Impossible. The United States has no basis for making such a commitment since the US refuses to have an “alliance” with the American people on whose alleged behalf and with whose tax dollars “transatlantic commitments” are made. President Orban represents and respects his country and its people. Pompeo doesn’t represent a country or its people because a land mass that doesn’t have an enforced border isn’t a country. With a wide open 2000 mile southern border every day thousands of unvetted people and diseases cross into the US thereby becoming lifelong responsibilities of US taxpayers. Unlike Hungary, the US has no basis for collecting taxes, having a military, holding elections, or any other federal function. We are sick to death of hearing Pompeo incite hatred against Russia and its people. Absolutely nothing matters except closing the 2000 mile US southern border.
…………………………………
No, Pompeo, it’s you who “try to divide.” More “engagement in East Europe” means more US taxpayer cash to your bloody Endless Unwinnable War Industry:
2/11/2019, “Pompeo Says U.S. To Be More Engaged In East Europe, Warns Russia Trying To Divide West,“ Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty with reporting by AP and AFP
“Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the United States must be more engaged in Central and Eastern Europe as Russia tries to divide the West. [No link to substantiate this claim. What exactly is “Russia” doing to “divide” the so-called West?]
On the first day of a five-country European tour that will focus on opposition to the growing influence of Russia and China in Central Europe, Pompeo met with Hungary’s [so-called] right-wing populist prime minister, Viktor Orban, on February 11 to stress the importance of promoting democracy and the rule of law. [A joke! The US has neither!]
Washington sees those issues as key to countering Russian and Chinese moves to sow discord in the European Union and NATO. [The US has zero credibility on “democracy and the rule of law.” Please.]
“We must not let Putin drive wedges between friends in NATO,” Pompeo told a joint news conference in Budapest with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
Pompeo specifically pointed to Central Europe’s reliance on Russian energy as well as the presence of the Chinese telecom firm Huawei, particularly in Hungary.
But Szijjarto parried any criticism of his country’s energy policy, noting many European countries have deals with Moscow in the sector.
“There is an enormous hypocrisy and political correctness in the European political arena,” he said.
U.S. officials are concerned by Huawei’s expansion in Europe, especially in NATO member states where they believe the Chinese firm poses significant information-security threats.
Orban, a vocal admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump, is an outspoken critic of mass immigration to Europe from areas [that send Islamic terrorists] such as the Middle East.
On February 10, Orban launched a program to encourage women to have more children and reverse Hungary’s population decline. He said the initiative was meant to “ensure the survival of the Hungarian nation.”
“This is the Hungarians’ answer, not immigration,” he said.
His stance against migrants and refusal to join a new European Union public prosecutor’s office focusing on fraud and corruption have also raised concerns [“concerns” among whom?].
In the past, Hungary had been ranked by Freedom House [ignore meddling parasite “Freedom House,” instead heed Hungary’s voters] as politically “free,” but it was reclassified in the Freedom In The World 2019 report as “partly free” because of “sustained attacks” by Orban’s Fidesz party on the media, courts, religious groups, academia, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector.
Orban’s government has also been targeted for criticism, including from Washington [from whom in “Washington?”], for forcing a Budapest-based university founded by Hungarian-born U.S. [currency manipulator] billionaire [so-called] philanthropist [and convicted felon] George Soros to move most of its programs out of the country.
Pompeo will “express support for civil society” in Hungary and that he will meet with leaders of nongovernmental organizations, [Pompeo travels all the way to Hungary and chooses to spend precious time meeting with so-called “leaders” of so-called “nongovernmental organizations.” Not in our name. This is mob behavior. Let's see, which NGO’s, which “leaders” and why?] the officials said.
Human rights groups [such as?] and others [such as?] have lamented Pompeo’s plans to meet with Orban and urged him to take a strong stance against his policies.
Pompeo’s visit to Hungary comes as the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner said on February 11 that Hungary was facing “many interconnected human rights challenges,” including legislation targeting civil society [there’s that “civil society” again. Isn’t that decided by Hungary’s voters?], backsliding on women’s rights, and the detention of asylum seekers.
Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic [Commissioner of what and why should anyone care?], who visited Hungary last week, also voiced concern about the independence of the media and the judiciary.
Last year, Budapest approved legislation that provides for jail sentences for people convicted of aiding asylum seekers. [Hungary cares about its own people.]
Mijatovic said that “the space for the work of NGOs, human rights defenders, and journalists critical of the government has become very narrow and restricted,” [Hungary isn’t a large country, why should it be swamped with unelected parasite groups? Are the lives of members of these groups so empty that their only interest is being a cancer on Hungary’s voters?] and called on Orban’s government to “reverse its worrying course” on human rights.
The State Department said that Pompeo’s visit to Central Europe marked 30 years since the peoples of the region “tore down the Iron Curtain to reclaim their freedom and sovereignty, choosing the path of Western democracy [“Western democracy?” What’s the difference between “democracy” and “Western democracy?“] denied to them for decades, and solidifying that commitment by joining NATO and the European Union.”
The United States was “committed to a strong, united, and capable transatlantic alliance rooted in the principles of common defense, democracy, and fundamental freedoms,” a February 10 statement said.
It said that Washington was also committed to increasing its “diplomatic, military, commercial, and cultural engagement with Central Europe in order to strengthen this region’s ties with the West as it faces increased pressure from Russia [“pressure” such as what?] and China.”
Pompeo is also due to visit Slovakia and Poland, and is set to complete his journey with stops in Brussels and Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, on February 15.
In Poland, Pompeo will attend a conference on the Middle East on February 13-14 that is expected to focus on Iran. [Why? How many thousands of Iranians with communicable diseases have illegally crossed the US border in the past year?]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior adviser on the Middle East and son-in-law [and Soros business partner], and Jason Greenblatt, the special U.S. envoy for international negotiations, are also expected to attend.”
“With reporting by AP and AFP”
In the past, Hungary had been ranked by Freedom House [ignore meddling parasite “Freedom House,” instead heed Hungary’s voters] as politically “free,” but it was reclassified in the Freedom In The World 2019 report as “partly free” because of “sustained attacks” by Orban’s Fidesz party on the media, courts, religious groups, academia, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector.
Orban’s government has also been targeted for criticism, including from Washington [from whom in “Washington?”], for forcing a Budapest-based university founded by Hungarian-born U.S. [currency manipulator] billionaire [so-called] philanthropist [and convicted felon] George Soros to move most of its programs out of the country.
Pompeo will “express support for civil society” in Hungary and that he will meet with leaders of nongovernmental organizations, [Pompeo travels all the way to Hungary and chooses to spend precious time meeting with so-called “leaders” of so-called “nongovernmental organizations.” Not in our name. This is mob behavior. Let's see, which NGO’s, which “leaders” and why?] the officials said.
Human rights groups [such as?] and others [such as?] have lamented Pompeo’s plans to meet with Orban and urged him to take a strong stance against his policies.
Pompeo’s visit to Hungary comes as the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner said on February 11 that Hungary was facing “many interconnected human rights challenges,” including legislation targeting civil society [there’s that “civil society” again. Isn’t that decided by Hungary’s voters?], backsliding on women’s rights, and the detention of asylum seekers.
Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic [Commissioner of what and why should anyone care?], who visited Hungary last week, also voiced concern about the independence of the media and the judiciary.
Last year, Budapest approved legislation that provides for jail sentences for people convicted of aiding asylum seekers. [Hungary cares about its own people.]
Mijatovic said that “the space for the work of NGOs, human rights defenders, and journalists critical of the government has become very narrow and restricted,” [Hungary isn’t a large country, why should it be swamped with unelected parasite groups? Are the lives of members of these groups so empty that their only interest is being a cancer on Hungary’s voters?] and called on Orban’s government to “reverse its worrying course” on human rights.
The State Department said that Pompeo’s visit to Central Europe marked 30 years since the peoples of the region “tore down the Iron Curtain to reclaim their freedom and sovereignty, choosing the path of Western democracy [“Western democracy?” What’s the difference between “democracy” and “Western democracy?“] denied to them for decades, and solidifying that commitment by joining NATO and the European Union.”
The United States was “committed to a strong, united, and capable transatlantic alliance rooted in the principles of common defense, democracy, and fundamental freedoms,” a February 10 statement said.
It said that Washington was also committed to increasing its “diplomatic, military, commercial, and cultural engagement with Central Europe in order to strengthen this region’s ties with the West as it faces increased pressure from Russia [“pressure” such as what?] and China.”
Pompeo is also due to visit Slovakia and Poland, and is set to complete his journey with stops in Brussels and Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, on February 15.
In Poland, Pompeo will attend a conference on the Middle East on February 13-14 that is expected to focus on Iran. [Why? How many thousands of Iranians with communicable diseases have illegally crossed the US border in the past year?]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior adviser on the Middle East and son-in-law [and Soros business partner], and Jason Greenblatt, the special U.S. envoy for international negotiations, are also expected to attend.”
“With reporting by AP and AFP”
Among comments to this article at Free Republic
……………………………………..
“My nation is being destroyed HERE, not in Eastern Europe.
This type of thinking is what brought us to this point.
2 posted on 2/11/2019, 9:53:29 PM by Trumpisourlastchance”
2 posted on 2/11/2019, 9:53:29 PM by Trumpisourlastchance”
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“Who wants to fight and die in Ukraine..?
“Who wants to fight and die in Ukraine..?
Not me.
2,000 Mexicans cross EVERY NIGHT.
Ya know..?
I’m starting to hate Generals.
Never thought I’d say that.
People simplistically think “military = Conservative”. In many cases, that’s just not so.
4 posted on 2/11/2019, 10:06:27 PM by gaijin”
2,000 Mexicans cross EVERY NIGHT.
Ya know..?
I’m starting to hate Generals.
Never thought I’d say that.
People simplistically think “military = Conservative”. In many cases, that’s just not so.
4 posted on 2/11/2019, 10:06:27 PM by gaijin”
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“It sure isn’t Russians illegally crossing the southern border of my country.
5 posted on 2/11/2019, 10:15:41 PM by escapefromboston (Free Assange)”
“It sure isn’t Russians illegally crossing the southern border of my country.
5 posted on 2/11/2019, 10:15:41 PM by escapefromboston (Free Assange)”
………………………………
“People simplistically think “military = Conservative”. In many cases, that’s just not so….
The vast majority are not constitutional conservatives. They have been schooled and groomed in the globalist neocon military education system. The few who reach flag rank are overwhelmingly dyed in the wool swamp critters.
7 posted on 2/11/2019, 10:57:01 PM by TADSLOS (The trouble wth political jokes is that they get elected.)”
“People simplistically think “military = Conservative”. In many cases, that’s just not so….
The vast majority are not constitutional conservatives. They have been schooled and groomed in the globalist neocon military education system. The few who reach flag rank are overwhelmingly dyed in the wool swamp critters.
7 posted on 2/11/2019, 10:57:01 PM by TADSLOS (The trouble wth political jokes is that they get elected.)”
……………………………
Added:
Hungary’s President Orban “addresses, in language stunningly clear for a politician, the key civilizational questions facing Europe...Faced with the Merkel Million Man Migration, Orbán ordered Hungary’s army to build a fence.”
Added:
Hungary’s President Orban “addresses, in language stunningly clear for a politician, the key civilizational questions facing Europe...Faced with the Merkel Million Man Migration, Orbán ordered Hungary’s army to build a fence.”
………..
2.8.19, “Hungary Shows the West the Path to Survival,” Scott McConnell, The American Conservative
“Just as they resisted communism, so too are they leading the charge against the radical open-borders project.”
“A specter is haunting the European Union—the specter of Eastern Europe. Hungary is a country slightly more populous than Virginia, and its population diminishes slightly every year. It receives substantial subsidies from richer EU countries, produces nice wines, but has little industry not tied to German auto plants. Its military has roughly zero external intervention capability.
And yet in Europe, Hungary is always in the headlines. The glossy French center-right weekly Le Point warns with alarm that Hungary’s president Viktor Orbán “outlines the shape of another Europe.” A few months ago, the European Parliament subjected Orbán’s government to a sort of trial under “Article 7,” a process that could lead to Hungary being denied its parliamentary voting rights. Le Point (again) speaks ominously of a menacing “axis” between Poland, Hungary, and the new populist government of Italy.
It might be difficult to place Orbán’s government precisely on a political freedom scale. It has taken measures against Hungary’s judiciary and opposition, which have enhanced the power of the ruling party. But people still vote in meaningful elections. Political opponents are not killed or jailed. Unlike France, it is not using brutal measures against demonstrators, though also unlike France, it is not faced with persistent and sometimes violent demonstrations. If you visit Budapest, you will hear soon enough that Orbán has a weakness for crony capitalism: his government’s recent effort to raise the limits on overtime work a company could demand produced some vocal and vigorous opposition. Overall, I would conclude that Orbán isn’t a model democrat or technocratic open economy exemplar, but he also isn’t any sort of aspiring dictator.
Orbán’s notoriety ultimately has little to do with his arcane transgressions against what Western Europe’s rulers consider good government. It exists because he addresses, in language stunningly clear for a politician, the key civilizational questions facing Europe, those that richer countries are loathe to hear.
For starters, he talks about demography. Like many countries in Europe, Hungary’s birthrates have plummeted. Orbán has commenced a campaign to raise them, with measures including generous maternity and paternity leave stipends, subsidies of up to 50 euros a month per child, tax write-offs, and housing assistance for couples that have three or more children. The government has also sent out questionnaires asking Hungarians whether they think the solution to Hungary’s demographic crisis is stronger support for families or higher immigration. Katalin Novak, Orbán’s minister of family and youth, explained unabashedly that the purpose of this was “to send a clear message to Brussels: the renovation of Europe is impossible without support for families and Hungary wants neither immigration nor a modification of its population.” This sort of frankness from leaders in the wealthier West is inconceivable. At a press gathering I recently attended, a Macron minister holding a comparable post focused most of the conversation on the expansion of gay rights.
Of course, the other half of the demography subject is immigration. In an address during the fall of 2016 that still resonates, Orbán proclaimed that Europe is “in mortal danger”:
“The danger is “not attacking us the way wars and natural disasters do…mass migration is a slow stream of water persistently eroding the shores. It is masquerading as a humanitarian cause, but its true nature is the occupation of territory. And what is gaining territory for them is losing territory for us. Flocks of obsessed human rights defenders feel the overwhelming urge to reprimand us…. [A]llegedly we are hostile xenophobes but the truth is that the history of our nation is also one of inclusion, of the intertwining of cultures. Those who have sought to come here as new family members, as allies, or as displaced persons fearing for their lives have been let in to make a new home for themselves. But those who have come here with the intention of changing our country, of shaping our nation in their own image, have been met with resistance.””
Faced with the Merkel Million Man Migration, Orbán ordered Hungary’s army to build a fence.
Slovakia similarly refused to take in a quota of migrants dictated by Brussels and Berlin. The former president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, wrote a short but excellent book, Europe All Inclusive, about the migration crisis in which he charged that Europe’s western elites were supporting mass immigration explicitly to smash the remaining power of nation states so full European unification could be achieved. Poland has likewise refused EU demands to resettle refugees from the Mideast and North Africa.
It is clear that on immigration, Eastern Europe differs from the rest of the continent—attitudes represented politically only through the populist right in the west are thoroughly mainstream in the east. This difference in political culture is so vast, it can be traced to many sources. A similar divergence surfaced before, during the Cold War, when Eastern Europeans stubbornly refused to allow Western European intellectuals to forget or ignore that communism was a malign and murderous system. Today, Eastern Europeans note that they have been already been the subjects of utopian projects to remake society according to a progressive vision–and they have no desire for a repeat.
Encountering Eastern European resistance to progressive dogma for the first time is a bracing experience. I first had it during the mid-’70s, in a grad school lecture class at Columbia. A charming and generally well-liked democratic socialist professor would take admiring students through various sophisticated Marxist readings, leading inexorably to the conclusion that the collapse of “late capitalism” was inevitable and to be welcomed.
This semester, there happened to be two Poles taking the class, one of whom was a woman who had been an imprisoned dissident. They seemed to know their Marx as well as the prof did: they were smart, they were vocal, and they were having absolutely none of it. It made for an exciting several months, and for me a memorable demonstration that Eastern Europeans were more or less immune to the guilt and self-hatred permeating much of the West.
Perhaps we are in for a reprise, when the people of the west learn once again from the east what is true and essential about their own societies. Of course, there are parallels between the communists’ aspirations and the open borders diversity project.
Both are genuinely revolutionary in their desire to destroy and remake Western societies according to models that have little viable precedent in human experience. Under this logic, the ’60s and ’70s can be seen as a kind of transitional phase, during which Western socialists looked longingly towards various Third World models—China, Cuba, Vietnam, Nicaragua—after they gave up on the Soviet Union and their own proletariats as viable revolutionary agents. Now progressives hope that social justice will bloom from the political chaos generated by demographic shifts.
Without the voices of Eastern Europe, the West might not have successfully resisted the first progressive onslaught. Once again, it needs the voices of the east to illuminate its path to survival.”
“Scott McConnell is a founding editor of The American Conservative and the author of Ex-Neocon: Dispatches From the Post-9/11 Ideological Wars.”
.....................
“Just as they resisted communism, so too are they leading the charge against the radical open-borders project.”
“A specter is haunting the European Union—the specter of Eastern Europe. Hungary is a country slightly more populous than Virginia, and its population diminishes slightly every year. It receives substantial subsidies from richer EU countries, produces nice wines, but has little industry not tied to German auto plants. Its military has roughly zero external intervention capability.
And yet in Europe, Hungary is always in the headlines. The glossy French center-right weekly Le Point warns with alarm that Hungary’s president Viktor Orbán “outlines the shape of another Europe.” A few months ago, the European Parliament subjected Orbán’s government to a sort of trial under “Article 7,” a process that could lead to Hungary being denied its parliamentary voting rights. Le Point (again) speaks ominously of a menacing “axis” between Poland, Hungary, and the new populist government of Italy.
It might be difficult to place Orbán’s government precisely on a political freedom scale. It has taken measures against Hungary’s judiciary and opposition, which have enhanced the power of the ruling party. But people still vote in meaningful elections. Political opponents are not killed or jailed. Unlike France, it is not using brutal measures against demonstrators, though also unlike France, it is not faced with persistent and sometimes violent demonstrations. If you visit Budapest, you will hear soon enough that Orbán has a weakness for crony capitalism: his government’s recent effort to raise the limits on overtime work a company could demand produced some vocal and vigorous opposition. Overall, I would conclude that Orbán isn’t a model democrat or technocratic open economy exemplar, but he also isn’t any sort of aspiring dictator.
Orbán’s notoriety ultimately has little to do with his arcane transgressions against what Western Europe’s rulers consider good government. It exists because he addresses, in language stunningly clear for a politician, the key civilizational questions facing Europe, those that richer countries are loathe to hear.
For starters, he talks about demography. Like many countries in Europe, Hungary’s birthrates have plummeted. Orbán has commenced a campaign to raise them, with measures including generous maternity and paternity leave stipends, subsidies of up to 50 euros a month per child, tax write-offs, and housing assistance for couples that have three or more children. The government has also sent out questionnaires asking Hungarians whether they think the solution to Hungary’s demographic crisis is stronger support for families or higher immigration. Katalin Novak, Orbán’s minister of family and youth, explained unabashedly that the purpose of this was “to send a clear message to Brussels: the renovation of Europe is impossible without support for families and Hungary wants neither immigration nor a modification of its population.” This sort of frankness from leaders in the wealthier West is inconceivable. At a press gathering I recently attended, a Macron minister holding a comparable post focused most of the conversation on the expansion of gay rights.
Of course, the other half of the demography subject is immigration. In an address during the fall of 2016 that still resonates, Orbán proclaimed that Europe is “in mortal danger”:
“The danger is “not attacking us the way wars and natural disasters do…mass migration is a slow stream of water persistently eroding the shores. It is masquerading as a humanitarian cause, but its true nature is the occupation of territory. And what is gaining territory for them is losing territory for us. Flocks of obsessed human rights defenders feel the overwhelming urge to reprimand us…. [A]llegedly we are hostile xenophobes but the truth is that the history of our nation is also one of inclusion, of the intertwining of cultures. Those who have sought to come here as new family members, as allies, or as displaced persons fearing for their lives have been let in to make a new home for themselves. But those who have come here with the intention of changing our country, of shaping our nation in their own image, have been met with resistance.””
Faced with the Merkel Million Man Migration, Orbán ordered Hungary’s army to build a fence.
Slovakia similarly refused to take in a quota of migrants dictated by Brussels and Berlin. The former president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, wrote a short but excellent book, Europe All Inclusive, about the migration crisis in which he charged that Europe’s western elites were supporting mass immigration explicitly to smash the remaining power of nation states so full European unification could be achieved. Poland has likewise refused EU demands to resettle refugees from the Mideast and North Africa.
It is clear that on immigration, Eastern Europe differs from the rest of the continent—attitudes represented politically only through the populist right in the west are thoroughly mainstream in the east. This difference in political culture is so vast, it can be traced to many sources. A similar divergence surfaced before, during the Cold War, when Eastern Europeans stubbornly refused to allow Western European intellectuals to forget or ignore that communism was a malign and murderous system. Today, Eastern Europeans note that they have been already been the subjects of utopian projects to remake society according to a progressive vision–and they have no desire for a repeat.
Encountering Eastern European resistance to progressive dogma for the first time is a bracing experience. I first had it during the mid-’70s, in a grad school lecture class at Columbia. A charming and generally well-liked democratic socialist professor would take admiring students through various sophisticated Marxist readings, leading inexorably to the conclusion that the collapse of “late capitalism” was inevitable and to be welcomed.
This semester, there happened to be two Poles taking the class, one of whom was a woman who had been an imprisoned dissident. They seemed to know their Marx as well as the prof did: they were smart, they were vocal, and they were having absolutely none of it. It made for an exciting several months, and for me a memorable demonstration that Eastern Europeans were more or less immune to the guilt and self-hatred permeating much of the West.
Perhaps we are in for a reprise, when the people of the west learn once again from the east what is true and essential about their own societies. Of course, there are parallels between the communists’ aspirations and the open borders diversity project.
Both are genuinely revolutionary in their desire to destroy and remake Western societies according to models that have little viable precedent in human experience. Under this logic, the ’60s and ’70s can be seen as a kind of transitional phase, during which Western socialists looked longingly towards various Third World models—China, Cuba, Vietnam, Nicaragua—after they gave up on the Soviet Union and their own proletariats as viable revolutionary agents. Now progressives hope that social justice will bloom from the political chaos generated by demographic shifts.
Without the voices of Eastern Europe, the West might not have successfully resisted the first progressive onslaught. Once again, it needs the voices of the east to illuminate its path to survival.”
“Scott McConnell is a founding editor of The American Conservative and the author of Ex-Neocon: Dispatches From the Post-9/11 Ideological Wars.”
.....................
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