And because we live in an age of judgmental, deliberately stupid, douche bags, let me say again that of course Black lives matter. They must matter because of our Constitution, laws, and human decency. But Black Lives Matter is a Marxist group and I'll not have anything to do with that group of haters and racists. Perhaps I'm best called Super Anti-Racist. Because I won't have a discussion on race relations with any race haters, no matter what their race is. Nor do I have to go along with insane notions that those who support the group BLM offer.
Improving inertial navigation systems to replace space-based GPS navigation. I guess confidence in defending the constellation of GPS satellites--from jamming or direct attack--isn't high.
A hard but needed reminder that they weren't just college students, but Army officers in training.
I don't know why there is a sub set of Westerners fanatically promoting insects as food. People inother places eat them, it is argued. I refuse to eat insects. Everybody should refuse. I mean, isn't it cultural appropriation?
The left rightly looks down on the Salem witch trials and the Spanish Inquisition. We all should. They were horrible actions by primitive and savage people. But what--in their logic if not body count--is the current woke cancel culture of identifying and purging alleged Nazis, if not a modern form of those kinds of primitive savagery? When will this fever break? And what will the price our society pays ultimately be before it ends?
Yes. It really does annoy me when I see somebody walking alone outside with a mask on. It is even more annoying when someone without a mask puts one on when I approach when I am walking alone outside. I try to remember that in Michigan our cases are high so people may be more worried than in other states. So I really shouldn't be annoyed. I don't know their health or worries. I should be more tolerant. And mind you, I'm pro-mask where appropriate! I have been even when the government was telling us masks didn't work too well (but really they were trying to save masks for health workers). I owned N-95 masks well before the Xi Jinping Flu pandemic, just in case. But still, outside and alone is pretty darn safe. And here I thought I was the anti-science denier in these parts. Tip to Instapundit.
I officially don't care if Democratic cities are torn apart in riots. Apparently the pain to Democrats isn't high enough to change policies. When Democrats want to restore order rather than make excuses for violence, I'll care again. Detroit has not even hit rock bottom after the 1967 riots no matter how many times over the decades I've read about the city's latest "comeback." This is what Democrats are doing to their own voters but on a national scale. But Democrats "care." The real monsters are well disguised.
Cheese is racist, now. If "we" want to eat "their" food, it's racist. If "we" want to eat "our" food in our own country, it's racist.
Also, I'm tired of caring about men-who-sort-of-become-women competing against women in sports. If the women don't care enough to stand up to the woke pushing this on them, who am I to care? I'm just not taking point on this fight.
I don't believe that half of Trump supporters won't get vaccinated, as one poll says. I believe half of Trump supporters told pollsters that. For spite. Because pollsters and the media in general are viewed as on the other side. With good reason, I'll add. If nearly half of the country has gotten at least one dose already, I don't believe non-Trump supporters represent 3/4 of the vaccinated.
I've mentioned this issue before. Leadership does not involve doing what gets our allies to publicly praise us. Because really, weaker powers will praise to the high heavens if America does what they want and if America never asks them to sacrifice for common goals. Many NATO allies disliked Trump. But Trump made NATO stronger.
Oops. It never occurred to me that this could be a problem. Is it? Or is it being overly sensitive to the complaints of a few? That said, I'd have no problem moving the rank insignia.
Yes, Trump jumped in at the head of the existing parade.
Rwanda blames France for "significant responsibility" for enabling and allowing Rwandans to kill 800,000 other Rwandans in the 1994 massacres. Rwandans didn't commit that genocide attempt? France should have acted like a colonial power to stop the violence? So when does Rwanda give up its UN seat and request France become a true colonial power in order to prevent a future genocide?
It looks like Putin will achieve his slow-motion assassination of dissident Navalny.
Making a blanket charge that the military is riddled with racists and in need of political commissars to root them out sounds like a good way to destroy our military's cohesion. Silly me, the Army taught me that all its soldiers are green.
Yes, if we leave Afghanistan it will require a surge of troops to pull out what we want and have combat troops leaving last to cover the rest.
Israel will bolster Greece's air power over a 22-year period. Oddly, that story recycles the address of another story.
Rebels are trying to capture the capital of Chad. And what kind of 18th century field command is this? "Chad's President Idriss Déby has died of his injuries following clashes with rebels in the north of the country at the weekend, the army has said."
I'm not interested in transforming Afghanistan. I just don't want it to be a jihadi terrorist training haven. My goals in Afghanistan were never very high. And I consider building a government there willing and able to kill jihadis quite the achievement. One worthy of defending.
Well, we flew a helicopter on Mars for the first time. FOB Mars now has initial operating capability.
Woe, Canada. No wonder liberals didn't flee to Canada during the Trump years. I like Canada. But I only visit and don't have to endure living there.
So another thing I'm supposed to worry about? Question: Do children actually eat their gloriously healthy cafeteria food ration? Or does the study just measure what was put on their trays?
Iraq is under pressure to battle corruption, which destabilizes Iraq and provides inroads for Iran to infiltrate the country. Sanctions on Iran reduced the ability of Iran to exploit that weakness. The end of sanctions will be a threat to Iraq. The battle against corruption will take time to reform the culture. I've long been concerned about that problem.
The Air Force got its first updated F-15--8 F-15EX models. Continental air defense, non-stealth missions against less capable enemies, and flying magazines for stealth fighters make the planes worth the price.
Well, most Biden voters cast their ballot because he was not Trump. A Ham Sandwich (D) would have gotten their votes. The four years of relentless media propaganda was effective in that regard. Now that isn't enough. And his voters are finding that Biden is not Biden, either. Not any more. Instead he is a shifting kaleidoscope of left-wing factions that put pieces of paper in front of him to sign.
Please elevate you pucker factor now: "The four U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jets that recently flew a mission over the highly contested South China Sea were photographed landing at Yokota Air Base in Japan, en route to their home base at Misawa. The images confirm that these jets were armed for counter-air operations with a heavy load of live air-to-air missiles." We must really worry that China is leaning forward on attacking Taiwan. Or Biden doesn't want to appear to be vulnerable to Chinese pressure from past business dealings. I really have no idea which is closer to the truth.
The sad truth is that 13-year old Adam Toledo was killed years before he was out at 2:30 a.m.--armed--with a known gang member, and was pursued by police, one of whom shot him. If Toledo didn't die that night, he would have died another night soon enough. Perhaps by a gang member. If that had happened, we wouldn't know his name. He'd just be a statistic as one of very many young dead males in that lifestyle and career path. Who do we blame for that?
Hard target: "USAF F-15s, F-16s, and C-130s are training in Poland in an agile combat employment exercise that comes as Russia executes a massive buildup on the border with neighboring Ukraine, though U.S. officials say the exercise was long-planned."
My memory of Obama's "bitter clinger" remarks is that Obama was referring to 2008 Democratic primary voters in Pennsylvania who seemed to be more comfortable with white Hillary Clinton over him. Is it progress that Democrats went on to attack Republicans in 2016 and now all of America to the beginning of time for racism?
The most disturbing aspect of the January 6th Capitol Building riot--the apparent killing of a police officer by Trump supporters--did not happen. So a few hours of trespass and some theft. Portland and Seattle should be so lucky to have just endured that at the hands of communist street thugs tolerated by leftist local politicians.
Renewed civil war in Somalia? Why we don't admit that Somalia isn't a country and simply allow the pieces to declare independence and negotiate or fight inter-state wars over borders is beyond me. Well, sure, the African Union--itself a term based on hope rather than reality--doesn't want to set that kind of precedent for all of Africa. But still. An exception was made for South Sudan. Hasn't defending the concept of Somalia done enough damage for another exception?
More on Turkey's dual drone carrier/amphibious warfare ship. We have that flexibility. I suggested something similar for the Ford hull. But the problems with the Ford and the disaggregation of the Marines in an anti-ship role in support of the Navy tends to make that notion obsolete.
In practice, Russia and China are testing America. So is Iran. And so is North Korea. But is this an intentional effort because Biden is president? Or is this business as usual for hostile states that we're noticing more because we have a new president?
I'm so old I remember when limiting travel between America and other countries was racist. Tip to The Morning Briefing.
I pulled two long non-defense paragraphs from here and made them Landfill posts. I guess I'm in a somewhat foul mood. I may be optimistic about the long run. But we have to live during this short run. You've been warned. Avoid them if you prefer my national security efforts rather than forays outside my lanes.
It hadn't occurred to me that the creation of Space Force would have this effect: "U.S. Army leaders have signed off on plans to explore the use of satellites in low Earth orbit to give soldiers dedicated surveillance, navigation and imaging capabilities." The Army has a theoretical deal with the Air Force on the air space over Army units and what the Army can fly. With elbow throwing over the decades, naturally, over application. And now the "tactical space layer" opens the discussions with the Space Force on the same basic issue. That should have been blindingly obvious to me from the beginning.
I mentioned that America would build military facilities in Norway, if approved by Norway's parliament. The intent is to support NATO anti-submarine assets. Make sure some NATO fighter aircraft are available, of course.
I've been in a foul mood about a company which hosts some of my photos on the cloud for free. I liked them because I frequently used their printing services. It used to be unlimited free but I reduced my holdings there by over 90% to meet their new limit, made when they split off from the printing business. Since then they've been occasionally bugging me about hosting photos with links from other sites. I don't do that and never have. To add injury to insult, 80% of my photos on their site disappeared. In my correspondence I denied hosting and brought up the loss of photos. The company actually found and restored those photos. So I'll give credit where credit is due. We'll see if they stop prodding me to pay for their service by making vague accusations of hosting. Just in case I copied all the photos to a thumb drive. And since I can't easily use photos there for the similarly named but now separate printing company, my incentive to use the printing service is lower.
Oh Hell: "Indonesia's navy is searching for a submarine that went missing north of
the resort island of Bali with 53 people on board, the military said
Wednesday." Australia, India, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States are helping with the search. Saturday morning a watched a report that the sub sank in waters much deeper than its hull can withstand and that the air would have run out by now. Crap.
It's funny how much despots like the legitimacy of the illusion of Western democracy: "President Bashar Assad formally announced Wednesday he will run for
reelection in war-torn Syria, and was expected to win a fourth
seven-year term in the largely symbolic May 26 vote." Western activists keep saying we shouldn't "impose" Western democracy on Third World countries. But those countries sure do love to pretend they have Western-style democracy.
Putin sees that Biden won't defend the American border. Why would Putin think Biden would help Ukraine defend its border?
There seems to something wrong with our bloody elites today. James Lindsay isn't the first to make this observation, but he's right about our credentialed class in universities: "I
don't think a lot of people realize how much resentment gets boiled up
in people who are smart but too impractical to know how to make money,
especially when they see 'dumb' people making more money. Overproducing
these bourgeois types is very dangerous to any society." There is more
in the thread. I guess I'm weird. I'm educated. I think I'm smart. (And
I'm handsome, witty, and charming, to boot, as long as I'm on a roll.)
But I don't resent anyone who makes more money than I do. Nor do I think
I'm inferior as a person because I don't make more money than other
people. I just don't get the resentment.
Disinformation.Tip to Insanity Wrap.
I wasn't on the Chauvin trial jury over the death of George Floyd. Did the jury give their verdict so fast because the officer's guilt was so obvious? Or because his innocence was so obvious that they knew they could convict--and so save themselves from the mob--and count on appeal to provide justice? On the bright side, given time I think we'll know.
China's naval base in Djibouti (where America and France also have bases) will be able to handle an aircraft carrier.
It's about time that the FBI infiltrated the communist scum who continue to riot and started arresting them.
A friend of China. Well, Four Eyes is still pretty good.
Race strife activists loved this police response. It could have ended with a police officer shooting a young African-American girl or with a police officer letting a young African-American girl get stabbed. With any "luck," both could have been injured or killed. How could the activists lose with that set-up?
A refusal to see a hate crime.
Up to 80 Polish troops were assigned to Turkey for NATO missions over the eastern Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea. Hopefully the Byrza plane in use has the anti-submarine equipment.
Did Iran attempt to retaliate for Israel's successful sabotage of their Natanz nuclear enrichment facility by firing a missile from Syria at Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor. If so, Iran shows they are willing to fight Israel to the last dead Arab. But the Israelis say it was a SAM gone astray. Was it? The Israelis retaliated just in case, apparently.
Trust in the FBI is another thing Democrats have wrecked. No wonder the agency hid this.
Ukraine is asking Western countries to deter Russia from renewing its invasion of Ukraine. Putin says the massing of troops he ordered is over and that the troops will return to their home bases. Is that true? And was Western reaction key to this, if true?
BLM is an awful Marxist, racist group that has succeeded in dividing America over race.
Not that the Russians aren't big enough bastards to do such a thing, but I'm skeptical. Getting "flu-like symptoms" in the Middle East is what happens any given afternoon to those who didn't grow up in that environment. And my best guess for past events--if the reports of harm are accurate--is some type of surveillance system in use against us with harmful side effects.
George Floyd should not have died while in police control. Let me be clear about that. Passing a counterfeit $20 bill and using illegal drugs are not death penalty offenses. His police record does not change that fact. And it was difficult to watch the videos. You know what will happen and you see nothing done to stop that from happening. But leftists make criminals like George Floyd saint-like martyrs. Yet on the other hand, a single flaw from other people makes them left-wing cancel culture candidates--including Abraham Lincoln. Who freed the slaves and waged a bloody war to achieve that. How do we reconcile these divergent impulses from the left? Or is it as simple as hatred of America and a determination to harm America regardless of the issue?
Apparently the Biden administration isn't sure we'll be allowed to celebrate Independence Day:
Well that's going to be interesting. Perhaps moving the American embassy to Jerusalem with so little trouble despite predictions of doom has provided a false sense of reassurance. And maybe it provides cover for not mentioning the Chinese Communist Party's ongoing genocide against Uighurs.
The U.S. certified that Italy's carrier can operate F-35Bs.
Why not give the Post Office an Orwellian task? It's not like they aren't already mistrusted and in danger of going broke trying to carry out their core task of delivering mail.
India is being hammered by the Xi Jinping Flu, including an India variant. Different countries have their own trajectories, making it difficult to compare country efforts until this thing is over.
Shocking news from the world of cause and effect. Tip to Instapundit.
"News." As the Soviets understood it. If I didn't know better I'd think NBC wants riots in our cities. Tip to Instapundit.
Forty years of actual data shows that the climate panic porn displayed in the Senate on June 23, 1988 was not data. I missed that event. I was busy. Look, the climate has warmed since the 1970s. Before that it cooled. And before that it warmed. And all this variability within a general rise in temperature since the end of the Little Ice Age. Sure, people have an effect on the climate. We do produce CO2, which has a warming effect. But we don't know the relative effect. And we should know that socialist policies aren't the solution to any problem that does develop.
This is an assault on the very foundation of our country. Tip to Instapundit.
We really don't know what a hero is if we can't agree that the Columbus cop who saved a girl from being stabbed is one. A lot of decisions by a lot of people over years led to that moment in time. That officer couldn't go back in time to make sure past decisions were better. All he could do was make the least bad decision. He'll have to live what he needed to do to save someone. Yet somehow a lot of woke people sleep well at night after turning our cities into riot-filled crime scenes. Perhaps something will come out that makes me change my mind. I do that when more information comes out. But right now that cop should get a medal. And out thanks. Or at least our silence if we can't manage that.
Let's get off this planet that we seem too eager to wreck with our circular firing squad politics.
I was settling in the other night to watch TV. As I set the remote on the lamp base to keep it from getting wet if I spill a drink sitting on that table, I knocked over a tall 16-ounce drink. This was the first time I'd spilled anything on my new carpet since I got it two years ago. On the bright side, I spilled 16 ounces of soda water with a splash of lime juice. Which is pretty much what you'd put on a carpet to clean an actual spill, if I'm not mistaken. My life really does work out for me. Not in "hit the lottery" ways. But in enough to make it remarkably good. Oh, and the remote emerged dry as a bone.
China isn't good at making friends. Thankfully we just have to be less bad than China.
I grew up in Detroit. I never saw a child knife fight. Friendly or otherwise.
Duh: "The top general of U.S. Africa Command told a Senate panel on Thursday that the Trump administration’s decision to reposition troops outside of Somalia has created fresh challenges in the fight against al-Shabab terrorists." I mentioned that when Trump ordered it and I've mentioned it as Biden has ratified it.
Each of those moron students could simply declare they will never call 911 when they need police help if they want to cut ties between the university and police. Also, they should proclaim they have no firearms. And that they do not lock their doors or windows. Because guns and walls are bad.
I don't believe I've ever said AOC is "dumb." If I did I was both wrong and unkind. What I've said is that she shows no evidence of benefiting from a college education. I believe that is true.
I recently heard someone say that every time a new camera is added to the world, we think the world is a worse place. I think that is fundamentally true and is a broader application of something Jean-Paul Sartre said that I've noted about war: "A victory described in detail is indistinguishable from defeat." A normal world has all kinds of bad things happening all the time that before cameras we didn't see if they didn't happen near us. And since only bad news is news, we see only good things near us but see increasing amounts of bad things all over the world. That kind of ratio has to have an effect on a lot of people. Not me, mind you. Thank God. But a lot of people.
Heavy use to support ground troops has worn out the swing-wing B-1 bomber. Could we turn the plane into a long-range fighter support aircraft that functions as an aerial battery for other sensors to fire? The long range would surely help in the western Pacific. And by scaling back usage to training, could the platform's life be extended for decades?
Pro-Iranian armed groups continue to target Americans in Iraq. American commanders don't anticipate withdrawing prematurely from Iraq as we did once in 2011 and as we seem prepared to do in Afghanistan. But I don't believe there are really up to 10,000 ISIL fighters in Iraq and Syria now. Unless you count part-timers and family members of full-time fighters. Honestly, if there are a thousand full-timers I wouldn't be too surprised. Although even that seems high given the lack of enemy action. You'd think a thousand terrorists could generate more attacks per day than I see reported in our media sporadically.
That's fine, I suppose. I know the Navy needs help and the Army needs help defending budget share: "The Army, primarily a land force, is looking to optimize its forthcoming electronic warfare equipment to operate in the Indo-Pacific theater against maritime targets, according to an Army official." But make sure that EW equipment has a robust "secondary" role against ground forces if the Army is sent ashore in force.
It's nice that the Philippines has protested China's actions in the South China Sea that threaten Manila's control of land and sea territory. But at some point the Philippines has to act to stop China. Bases need to be established, reinforced, and expanded. And by protecting such actions, the Philippines may need to dare China to fight a significant battle to get Peking's way.
People think that other people are more partisan and hostile than they are. I assume this study doesn't apply to the minority of Twitter users who dominate that platform with partisan hostility.
The internal refugee flow begins? It can take half a century for hundreds of thousands to flee the effects of urban violence, as Detroit has demonstrated. But the people will flee.
The most polite dictatorial thought police the world has ever seen? Tip to Instapundit.
If morons in America don't try to replicate China's centralized top-down bureaucracy to "compete" with them we'll be fine in the long run.
Well, yes. Trump's effort to contain North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions failed. As did Obama's, Bush 43's, and Clinton's. As did South Korea's past efforts to bribe North Korea. The problem seems to be that North Korea wants nukes. Talk, talk, die, die is the best option--while building up missile defenses and rapid strike capabilities.
I'm skeptical that the sickness of American troops in Syria is the result of a Russian directed-energy weapon. On the other hand, the Russians are bastards.
This is silly. And dangerous. Of course a land-based nuclear deterrent in America makes sense. Without them enemies have a simpler dilemma to disarm us. Air defenses in theory can tackle aircraft. Few submarines are at sea at any one time, meaning it makes sense to make a bigger effort to take them out. We need land-based nukes. Consider that with them an enemy that wants to try to launch a disarming first strike has to consider that it will be sending thousands of nukes at our homeland. No president is going to think, oh well, it's just our nukes under attack. Without ICBMs in America, enemies can attack our SSBNs at sea with conventional weapons and dare our president to fire nukes in retaliation for conventional attacks. All while the enemy holds our cities hostage with the threat of nuclear attack. Don't make our enemies' dilemmas easier.
America and European states are increasingly worried about Russia. It isn't that Russia is very powerful. It's that Russia is more powerful than weaker neighbors, that Russia would determine when the war begins, and that NATO power is far away from the eastern frontiers despite Russian claims that NATO is a threat to Russia. Russia has five years to restore relations with NATO. Unless Russia is going to accept its vassal status under China forever.
I noted this before. It bears noting again. The FBI has forfeited the trust for professionalism it built over many decades. If it isn't just the secret police for the left now, explain the difference to me. Tip to Instapundit.
The only person in the world who isn't cancelled by the woke left for one "problematic" act in his past:
For all the talk of a "forever war" against jihadi terrorists, you'd think that we were still losing 100 troops per month fighting them in pitched campaigns. The fact is, after two decades of fighting we have allies on the ground who kill jihadis and endure the casualties. Our fight is limited and mostly one of supporting those willing to fight and die against our common enemy. We didn't have these allies when we started the campaigns. We have them now. These allies just need our support to back them up. And as far as no end being in sight for that fight, that's hardly America's fault. That is the fault of sick Islamist ideology that has inspired fanatics to kill for their god. We can hardly stop fighting that and expect good results.It's a sad day when conservatives believe that rot about war needing "two sides to fight." From the jihadi point of view, it's great if we think we can tap out. They won't. I think we need to shift our outlook that sees a "forever war" and recognize we are in the "global troubles" of a lower level but no less persistent struggle against killers who would kill more if we let up the pressure.
Unless I read otherwise, I'm going to assume that burning tanker off of Syria was struck by Israel. The subliminal Iran-Israel War sometimes is more visible.
Worries about the survivability of small, unarmed Light Amphibious Warships. I'm not impressed with the concept as it stands.
If Congress guts the F-35 program it will be the most amazing anti-aircraft weapon that Russia or China will ever deploy against American air power. If Congress wants to have a role, mend the program--and there are problems to fix--don't end the program.
Palestinians are ready for another round against Israel, it seems. Iran is perfectly willing to fight Israel to the last Arab, after all.
Europe needs to admit that Russia is waging war. That's been my complaint. Too many still go along with the Russian fiction that "separatists" hold parts of Ukraine's Donbas when we should have the decency and respect for reality to proclaim that land is "Russian-occupied Donbas."
Biden pulled the trigger on recognizing the Armenian genocide. I can't say it is unjust. But Turkey is at least a technical NATO ally while Armenia is an ally of Russia. We'll see how Erdogan reacts.
Paul Krugman apparently believes that if a city wasn't burned down in its entirety (and the earth salted?) then it did not in fact suffer large-scale rioting, arson, and looting over the last year because of BLM and Antifa. Well, can we say there has been an "epidemic" of violence, killing, arson, and looting over the last year in cities across the country? What about that word?
Pakistan effed itself. But on the bright side it has an imaginary enemy intent on destroying it. Although as I've mentioned before, if our Iran policy could get us an Iran as good as our "black sheep" ally Pakistan has been, it would be a fantastic success.
Let's not be hasty in dismissing Mayor Wheeler's declaration that he will defeat the rioting BLM/Antifa scum in his city. Perhaps a year of being whacked by the clue bat finally had an effect.
Well that's not suspicious virus-research activity by the Chinese Communist Party at all.
How is this not straight-up racism?!
After decades of assuming air supremacy over its units, the Army has an armored low-level air defense vehicle again. It's funny. The Air Force doesn't object when the Army recognizes that enemy air power makes timely air superiority--let alone supremacy--much harder.So now comment on Army air defense. But when the Army recognizes that the Air Force can't provide timely ground support while fighting to control the air, the Air Force goes all "mean girls".
Under cover of a pandemic it unleashed on the world, the Chinese Communist Party is crushing democracy activists in Hong Kong: "Legal experts and government critics say the arduous proceedings are part of a campaign to crush Hong Kong’s democracy movement after the protests in 2019, which shook the city and presented China’s Communist Party rulers with the most serious popular challenge since the Tiananmen uprising in 1989." The world has moved on. I had to search for Hong Kong news. But hey, even genocide of the Uighurs by the CCP gets much attention these days.
Wait. What? "Sir Isaac Newton has been labelled as a potential beneficiary of 'colonial-era activity' in draft plans to 'decolonise' the engineering curriculum at Sheffield University." Is Sheffield University saying that racism helped promote our understanding of the "three laws of motion, the core of modern physics"? Is that what the university is saying? Sounds pretty racist-adjacent of the university administrators to me. No engineer with a degree from that school should ever get a job as an engineer. Tip to Instapundit.
The UN seat with a clusterfuck attached continues to be all clustery. We seriously need to break it up and sell it for parts.
ALERT! Charlie Brown is lining up for the big kick as Lucy holds the football. The only question is how much stuff will South Korea give North Korea before North Korea stops pretending it will do anything for it. I didn't think Trump's efforts were likely to bear fruit. South Korea's have less of a chance.
Could a lengthened Burke hull provide the basis for a replacement major surface combatant?
Taiwan wargamed a Chinese invasion attempt. I just don't see how story details about how China could be ready to invade in 6-7 years fits with this assessment: "It is widely believed that without outside help, Taiwan could only withstand a full attack for days not weeks." Why would China wait 6 years if it could win within days? The war would be over before our ships raised anchors to intervene. Regardless, Taiwan should triple its defense spending. It clearly spends too little.
FOB Mars continues to deploy its air power. Tip to Instapundit.
