Weekend Data Dump

Britain's long gamble that they wouldn't need carrier air power is coming to an end.

Good, we have a US-Mexico-Canada trade deal. Assuming Congress approves USMCA within 60 days and that Mexico and Canada approve it.

I'm sure it is just a coincidence that this milestone in well being was accomplished under Western-style capitalist free market systems. So we can totally afford to risk it all with socialism that promises equality but only delivers it by impoverishing all of the bottom 99%, as Venezuela has managed to do.

Good. Britain needs to get out on schedule no matter what. And deal with that reality after getting out. Britain has a large economy, a big role in finance, and a real (if small) military. The rest of Europe will deal with Britain once the EU no longer has a hope of keeping Britain in by being intransigent a-holes. It is shameful that the EU is more eager to be nice to Iran and Russia than to Britain outside of the EU.

Well that's great. Jihadis are bad enough. Now Germany has "far right" terrorists forming in response to jihadi-inspired violence? Well I did warn that failure of states to fight non-state jihadis could lead to Westerners to act when their states won't. Maybe if Germany did a better job of resisting jihadi violence, groups of German people wouldn't decide to be vigilantes.

American and Filipino forces are working more together. Good. If the Philippines wants the ability to win a small battle against Chinese territorial encroachment, they need to get better and know America is a safety net if China wants to escalate to reverse a defeat in a small-scale fight.

I don't think Trump wants to dismantle the post-World War II system we built. I think he wants to amend it for changed times when we are no longer the only healthy economy in a world recovering from World War II. Remember, NAFTA wasn't destroyed--it became USMCA. So unless this deal is over-hyped--and that is outside my lane to judge--this is a victory for America within the existing system. Heck, even if there is no substantive change, opponents of Trump should be relieved, eh? Still, the defense of what we built is justified.

It's a small victory for democracy, but the Maldives did provide a victory. The West (and I include India as a proto-Western member) should support this victory for rule of law.

This rifle seems really neat, but unless it is married to smart rifle capabilities would it really provide overmatch capabilities for our infantry?

This objective to lessen the soldier load has long been pursued, which I suspect means it will never succeed. Better to build cheap exo-skeletons to help carry a load that never gets lightened, eh?

Well that's ominously odd.

Chile will not cede territory to Bolivia which Bolivia lost in a 19th century war, and the world court won't make Chile negotiate. Would Bolivia go to war to take territory when Chile grants trade access? But then there is that Bolivian river that could be diverted to Chile's detriment.

You may now salute SSG Shurer.

Our ambassador to NATO should be fired for making this threat to Russia. It is insane or ignorant. Not that NATO doesn't need answers from Russia about their apparent violations of the INF treaty that limits nuclear missiles that will threaten Europe. And America will respond with new weapons or diplomacy if the Russian answers don't satisfy us. Our ambassador walked back her threat, as the second article notes. But still, how could she make that threat in the first place?

Britain will retain a military presence in Germany (although without maneuver units) after Brexit. Which shouldn't be a shock given that Britain had troops in Germany before Britain joined the EU. The link is NATO--not the EU.

China risked a collision when they opposed our recent freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea near one of their artificial islands. I do hope we provide sufficient overwatch on our vessels demonstrating freedom of navigation lest the Chinese ram our ship and try to tow it to port. One day China will do more than protest.

Iran is apparently using a cargo ship as a command and logistics ship in the Red Sea to support Houthi rebels in Yemen.  So will the Saudi coalition capture the ship?

The US seems to leaning toward helping the Syrian Kurds post-ISIL. We should show some gratitude for their help and we should be interested in having a reputation for helping those who help America. But how we protect the Syrian Kurds without seeking, post-ISIL, to overthrow Assad is going to be tough. And our actions since 2014 have forfeited a path to overthrowing Assad. We rely on Assad being bloodied enough from his win to not be able to regain the east if there is serious resistance.

Grievance studies are wrecking so much. With my MA in history still retaining its new car smell, I went to an American Historical Association annual meeting in Chicago and was horrified at how little my professional organization cared about my field of traditional military and diplomatic history. I quickly let my membership lapse and signed up for Army, Navy, and Air Force associations. It hasn't gotten better.

I wonder if the Chinese leaders feel like their Fentanyl exports that kill so many Americans is some type of revenge for Western European forced exports of Opium to China in the 19th century?

Australia continues to crawl toward a submarine capability. Will manning the subs be less of a problem for their future subs than for their current subs?

Envelopes with the poison ricin were intercepted before reaching their SecDef and CNO targets. My understanding is that it would be unlikely to work with that delivery system. So it may be a stupid person or perhaps just a message from someone who knew it wouldn't work. Subsequent news is that while ricin was detected, and that the person sent a letter to Trump and others too, ricin wasn't present. A stupid person is looking more likely at this point. A former sailor was arrested. The issue of stupidity remains open.

Twenty-five years ago the Battle of Mogadishu was fought. It should at least get some respect as a tactical victory against tremendous odds, which I argued in 1996 in an article on the fleeting concept of "peace enforcement" as an Army mission: "The Somalia raid of October 1993, which should have been considered a heroic and brave stand by isolated and outnumbered Rangers, was instead viewed as a disaster in the context of operations other than war (OOTW)."Time changes perceptions. When once the Korean War was viewed as a "tie," can anyone doubt when looking at South Korea today that we won that war?

America will continue to provide intelligence and logistics support to the French military effort in Mali to combat jihadis.

Given recent Russian experience with "little green men," the Russians should consider they have suspects in the space sabotage.

Belgium stopped an Iranian bomb plot in France back in June.

Russia should spend more time worrying about how to keep a potentially hostile China out of Central Asia where the USSR's former republics are pulled into China's orbit; rather than trying to regain eastern European states from the potentially friendly West which has no desire to take Russian territory.

It's almost cute that the ICJ thinks we give a rat's ass about their opinion. In related news, buh bye. That amity thing sailed a long time ago under an Iranian skipper.

China's infantry is getting Westernized and pursuing sniper capabilities.

Penny wise but pound foolish. Mind the supply chain.

Russian exploration of "pre-nuclear deterrence" seems basically like the past American realization that precision weapons erased the need for a lot of tactical and theater nukes that were once needed to destroy targets that you really needed to destroy but couldn't really hit--so a close miss with a nuke did the job. Which is good. The idea that Russia's armed forces are so weak that any incursion into Russian territory needs nukes to repel is horrifying.

Russian forces based in Syria will have something of value to destroy. Russia no doubt doesn't want an alternative to Russian energy going to Europe.

Indonesia was slow to approve foreign offers of help after the tsunami.

Would the Navy carry out a big exercise to warn China away from claiming territory in excess of international law? Note the article writes about the Wasp amphibious group carrying out live fire exercises in the South China Sea--which is nothing like innocent passage that does not challenge Chinese claims. That was a freedom of navigation operation.

Erdogan says Turkey won't withdraw troops from Syria until Syria has an election. I suppose Assad could say he is at least grateful that Turkey won't withdraw until after Turkey has an election.

Deploying our stealth fighters at higher speeds is faster (duh) and saves fuel (huh). Good to know.

Speaking of fast: the X-60A.

Look, Palestinians in Gaza aren't "protesting." They're attacking the Israeli border. At what point do Palestinian mothers think that taking their children to this event is a bad idea?

China goes out for Italian. I guess we'll find out if you can essentially buy a country if it is broke enough. With Turkey trending Islamist and Italy too broke not to reach out to China, Greece is improbably looking like a rock of NATO stability in the region.

Brazil is the country of the future! And always will be, at this rate.

While the article stresses the industrial angle, Japan's submarines with better batteries will have greater range allowing them to extend Japan's reach to fight China and/or allow Japan's subs to remain on station longer.

There are a lot of anti-military service (butnot necessarily anti-military) "influencers" out there. Which harms recruiting, naturally. Which is one reason I proposed a program to get the Army story into areas that traditionally don't provide recruits.