ANOTHER NEW CONCERN EMERGES, AND SHOULD BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  North Korea and ISIS could team up.  We haven't seen this before.  From Britain's Express: 

North Korea could use Islamic State (ISIS) fighters to launch terror attacks across the globe, a terrifying report has warned.

Experts said Kim Jong-un’s hermit state would not hesitate to use extremist jihadis to attack their Western enemies.

North Korea would actually find it easier to target their rivals using ISIS than by themselves, a report by Washington-based anti-extremism group Clarion Project said. 

They said North Korea had previously worked with Islamic extremists, selling them weapons in 2003 and 2005, and would not flinch away from a similar partnership in the future. 

The report said: “North Korea could collaborate with Islamist terrorists or criminal elements for an attack in America.

“North Korea is officially a communist, Stalinist dictatorship, but that hasn’t stopped it from crossing the ideological divide to embrace Islamist regimes and, reportedly, even jihadist groups.”

They said, despite a strict anti-religion policy in North Korea, Islam was growing in the hermit state. They added the anti-American nature of society in North Korea would increase the likelihood of extremism. 

The report said: “North Korea is isolated now but don’t assume that Islamists won’t be able to enter the country and make contact with its black market as the regime becomes unstable.

“The extreme anti-Americanism and anti-democracy thought that is instilled in the population means this Muslim population will probably be inclined towards radicalism.”

COMMENT:  An excellent, sophisticated report.  We may well be facing new coalitions in the future, coalitions that at first sound illogical.  But remember that Nazi Germany, a profoundly racist state, had no problem having Japan, populated by people of another race, as an ally. 

Our opponents are growing in power, not weakening.  The negligence of the Obama administration is partly at fault, but so is the relaxed attitude we adopted after defeating the Soviet Union in the cold war.  We may face a struggle, against multiple enemies, of many decades.  I'm not sure we have the will to win.  That will be one of the great question marks of the 21st century.

September 16, 2017