Many in uniform have died to protect us and help people in distant lands. Remember them.
I was lucky. My service was minimal and never put me at risk. I'm grateful to those who took that risk and in debt to those who did not come home.
UPDATE: Thoughts.
Apparently the threat of a Trumpist/white nationalist/Nazi/Confederate insurrection isn't the threat that was claimed all year. Via Instapundit.
The dominance of the Islamic State faction among their Islamists is the least of Nigeria's problems.
Don't fly over Belarus. This seems symbolic of closer submission to Russia. I don't buy that Russian silence indicates that Lukashenko is a "troublesome partner" for Putin. Alienating the West from Belarus with that airliner stunt is absolutely in Putin's interest. I don't buy that Putin didn't approve of the move even if Putin somehow wasn't consulted prior to the interception.
Is another round of BRAC worth it? In my career I wrote legislative resolutions arguing to keep Michigan military installations intact during previous rounds.
Don't disparage the Chinese navy as less than it appears and so not a real threat to the U.S. Navy with its long history of defeating naval enemies. One, even if China's ships aren't as good as they look because of lack of crew quality and leadership experience, China's navy just has to be good enough. Two, China has the edge of being concentrated at the theater of battle on day one. Three, China chooses day one. Four, China also has air and missile forces nearby to support it. And five, our Navy may not be as good as it appears or we think it is. It's been a long time since the Navy had to fight and shoot for naval superiority. Respect potential enemies. If they start a war they think they can win it on the terms they define as victory. They may be wrong. But they may be right.
The person checking for the vaccine passport should have their head down looking at their record-keeping sheet while the person entering holds up their "passport". Just like those TV shows where a person flashes their "badge" to pretend they're a cop. Then the checker can check off that person as clear. If the cops raid the place, the worshipper/patron could say they just lost their passport in a tragic boating accident.
I used to be happy that potential enemies had crippled military forces because of political or religious commissars second-guessing every unit commander's action based on purity of political/religious obedience. Perhaps we're on the way to woke commissars to even the field.
Biden tweeted opposition to anti-Semitic attacks. A commentator noted that if Trump had waited this long to condemn the violence, the media would have relentlessly hammered the president and claimed his delay was caused by latent anti-Semitism.
"Fact checker" says National Socialist Party isn't a party of national socialists.
White supremacy is a BS threat to focus the national effort on. At worst it is a state and local law enforcement responsibility. Maybe the federal government could focus on external threats. Tip to Instapundit.
A French philosopher: "“Democratic civilization is the first in history to blame itself because another power is trying to destroy it.” Too many in the West are honored to be the victims of brutal Islamist killers. Our military efforts to defeat that threat have taken place over the objections of those proud wannabe victims. I don't wonder why brutal killers hate us. No, I wonder why so many in the West hate us.
Well, sure. I imagine one's chance of gaining a job or living in poverty is affected by the unemployment rate during your early adult years, too. And perhaps your chance of being killed in action goes up during a war. Tip to Instapundit.
The headline does not match the story. Flynn didn't say the pandemic was fabricated. He said the coverage of it was slanted to enable government control. Even that goes too far, I think, if the intent is to say it was done to gain government powers. But the statist impulses of Democrats ("never let a crisis go to waste") was clearly strengthened by the pandemic panic porn we were fed through 2020. To the detriment of Trump's chances in the November election.
Democrats have always been at war with Eastasia believed the Wuhan Flu lab origin theory.
America's birth rate during the Xi Jinping pandemic has dropped--although declines go back to the Great Recession of 2008-09--but "the latest population data and projections suggests that there is no immediate reason to be alarmed about the country’s prospective international standing. The United States will remain in a strong demographic position with respect to its competitors for decades to come." It's all relative, even if not ideal. I suspect the long-lasting effects of the Great Recession did not have enough time to restore birth rates during Trump's expansion. It was too short before the pandemic screwed things up again. We may yet recover. Still, no mention of child car seat requirements for the lower family sizes. Limiting children to the two back seats in the most affordable vehicles is a real limit to family size.
A separate note on that the prior article's statement that by 2050 Nigeria will likely be the third largest country, surpassing America. If Nigeria's population goes up that much, there is no way Nigeria will be a single country.
BALTOPS: "The U.S. Navy announced plans on Monday for the 50th Baltic Operations, a 13-day multinational exercise in the Baltic Region, to begin on June 6." Amphibious operations are part of it. In the Cold War, keeping the Soviets from hitting Denmark and breaking out into the North Sea was the main NATO job there. Now offensive operations are possible if the Russians begin a war.
OMG! When I woke up Tuesday morning my grocery store had sent me an email saying masks are optional if you are vaccinated. I walked in without a mask. Staff wore masks. And while the store early in the morning was not crowded, only two other people did not wear masks. So maybe 15-20% of customers without. It felt great. And nobody bugged me. If crowded I might have worn a mask anyway. We'll see.
Pakistan remains its own and most dangerous worst enemy. On the bright side for Afghanistan post-America, Pakistan no longer supports the Taliban gaining power. The end of American arms sales hurt, it seems.
Democrats claimed Trump caused anti-Asian violence and discrimination by calling COVID-19 the "China Virus", as past viruses were identified by geographic location. But Democrats seem to be doing fine with anti-Asian violence and discrimination without any alleged prodding from Trump. Of course, sensitive man that I am, I adapted to the Democratic charges of racism by calling it the Xi Jinping Flu.
The Russians brutally beat down the Chechen Islamists a generation ago, nor caring one bit about hearts and minds, and radical Islam is regaining its strength in the region. The pain wore off. Now it is back to business as usual for the jihad-prone.
Chinese commercial interests and American strategic and economic interests in the Panama Canal. China would not be unhappy if the canal stopped working during a U.S-Chinese crisis or war.
If the Russians truly oppose American efforts to rally opposition to China--as opposed to pretending they don't like American efforts--the Russians are complete morons.
Huh: "Ratings from Neilsen Media Research reported Tuesday indicated that CNN
lost 67% of its total viewers since January, when Donald Trump left the
White House."
Heartily endorsed: Even if you individually aren't a murderous scumball kind of communist and really believe you can make the lives of people better, communism encourages the rise of murderous communist scumballs who will kill everyone in their way to total power--even the "nice" communists.
China's military strategy: Increased Chinese emphasis on joint warfare conducted away from China's coast makes sense given increased military capabilities to fight away from the coast. And will ensuring the loyalty of the PLA harm its effectiveness as a military rather than as pillars of the CCP monopoly on power? The author notes but does not discuss new thoughts on the People's Armed Police. They have an internal security role and also are supposed to help the PLA in war. What are the new roles? Rear area security? Logistics support? Infantry for city fights? Occupation forces after conquest?
I may have been hasty in blaming Firefox for all its crashes the last week. Every browser I have tried with Yahoo! sites has crashed or failed to launch. What's up with Yahoo? But in Firefox, other sites are freezing up and crashing, too. And my wallpaper was erased. Scans show no threats. Time to shut down the computer and see if that helps.
South Korea will be able to act against North Korean nuclear threats without American permission: "The governments of the United States and South Korea announced on 21 May that they have agreed to scrap the 'Revised Missile Guidelines' agreement that had limited the range of South Korean ballistic missiles to 800 km." Nor will North Korea be able to escape South Korean action if America is deterred from acting.
Baltic state NATO members will cooperate on rocket artillery: "The governments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have agreed to tighten their defense cooperation, vowing to explore the joint acquisition of new rocket launchers amid fears of Russian military moves in their neighborhood, the countries said in a joint declaration."
The proposed sale of F-35s to the UAE is endangered by UAE ties to China. Given that Iran is the only likely enemy, I don't know why the UAE needs the stealthy F-35.
Russia says a lot of things that aren't true. So, okay: "The head of a Russian defense contractor recently said the U.S. Air Force’s unmanned X-37B spaceplane is a secret space bomber that can drop nuclear warheads from orbit. It isn’t, and it can’t."
Apparently, the UAE is building an air base on Yemen's Mayun Island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Aircraft could dominate sea traffic going in and out of the Red Sea, for one thing. But the UAE isn't talking. Later, the Saudi-led coalition said it is their stuff, but no country was identified.
Not as Science! as one might hope. GIGO comes to mind. Tip to Instapundit.
Well, fingers crossed that refreshing Firefox and unintalling/reinstalling Chrome stopped the unstable browser problem that cropped up after the latest Windows update. Edge was less wobbly so I didn't kill that and reinstall, too. We'll see.
Voter fraud and corruption in Iraq. Plus Iran's downsizing of its PMF militia proxies inside Iraq from lack of money and growing hostility by Iraqis and slow government actions to rein in the PMF militias. Killing Soleimani, the Iranian terror mastermind, was very important to shaking Iran's hold inside Iraq. I fear Biden will rescue Iran's finances and send Iraq back into violent chaos.
I don't buy the idea that Russia has a growing list of nuclear super weapons. Very little works there. But they've got these super weapons? Really? And why bother when Russia has so many strategic nukes already? Or do their ICBMs work any more?
While I am fully on board escorting convoys across the Atlantic, I do not believe Russia could sustain more than a token "Battle of the Atlantic" to disrupt American and Canadian forces crossing the Atlantic to reinforce NATO in Europe. On the other hand, the Russians might have a chance to do some damage: "The Russian fleet that might threaten our line of supply is in a bit better shape today in terms of readiness (even as it shrinks in numbers and tonnage) than when it was a joke, but our ability to escort logistics vessels is kind of a joke now, too. So we are being totally sporting."
Thinking about the Polar regions to succeed there. I've often written that it is hard to survive there let alone fight there. Equipment that can survive there is part of the problem. I've long thought we need a POLARCOM.
There was no insurrection for Congress to investigate: "At least not in Washington, D.C. Now, in places like Portland and Seattle, there were and are insurrections, actual ongoing occupations of actual territory by actual criminals where the government is expressly told it’s not in charge and to stay out. And, of course, the government tolerates those insurrections. It does so because the Democrats in charge – this nonsense never happens in Florida with DeSantis in charge – perceives the actual insurrectionists as political allies, so they do nothing. Some insurrections, it appears, are more insurrectiony than others."
The European Union has frozen a investment pact with China that Xi really wanted. This seems almost too good to be true given my contempt for the anti-democratic proto-imperial EU: "At this rate, not many Western leaders are likely to phone or telegraph congratulatory messages to Beijing for the party's 100th birthday." Although tellingly the author says--without saying it--that the EU's motive for the pact was to spite Trump.
Look, ask any Bernie Sanders supporter if the Democratic Party and their media allies pulled strings in 2016 to drag Hillary Clinton's corrupt and black hole of charisma carcass across the finish line during the Democratic primaries (and for Biden in 2020, too). And then tell me that the Axis of Weasels was literally incapable of doing the same in 2020 against Trump. As I've said, the real rigging was likely four years of relentless, turn-the-dial-to-11 Orange Man Bad propaganda rather than illegal election shenanigans, but I don't rule that out. And with our sudden lack of election transparency that was engineered for 2020, I don't think we can rule it out any more than it can be proven. But hey, the Wuhan lab leak theory went from forbidden Q Anon conspiracy theory to accepted possibility. And the Hunter Biden laptop went from Russian plot to real. So who knows what might change?
Will the madness of 2020 last? I hoped it would fade after the election. It did not. And the vindictiveness of the winners seemed ominous in ways the left hadn't seemed ominous to me before. Which is why I started making memes to combat the left's dangerous influence among Democrats at some basic level. But maybe this will be peak stupid. I hope so. But I'm also prepared for another decade of this.
Not everything is poisoned by politics. Tip to The Morning Briefing.
It's bad enough that we seem to have political commissars in our military units to prevent badthink. But do we have to put our enemies' commissars in them? Tip to Instapundit.
Social media shouldn't be censoring badthink. The First Amendment, and all that. And aside from that, which should be the end of the argument, they shouldn't pretend they are only defending against "misinformation" because they are not qualified to determine that. And is nobody in the media ashamed that they promoted a lie that protected the Chinese Communist Party's role in throwing the world into chaos and killing millions? None at all? Really?
You can't trust the New York Times to provide accurate information that violates its biases. Tip to Instapundit.
Cuomo did a lot of work even before 2020 to give New York City its massive increase in crime. Via Instapundit.
We're still trying to get the desperately needed KC-46 to work. Our refueling planes were old a couple decades ago when we wanted a replacement. I couldn't understand how this could be effed up for so long. Now I know. Apparently Boeing suffered from "a management decision to change the selection criteria for senior management to deemphasize an engineering background. That meant upper management had fewer and fewer people with career experience with designing, developing and manufacturing aircraft." Who knew you couldn't engineer a complicated flying machine that refuels planes, carries passengers, and moves cargo with liberal arts and business majors calling the shots? Oh, and the toilet leaks now. A toilet that works well in other aircraft. As the Chinese seek military superiority it is very sporting of us to give them a fair shot, eh?
How violence becomes mostly peaceful protest.
Oops. Oh well. The regulating class meant well, you see. They believed they understood cause and effect. And their regulations highlighted how much they care. That's all that really matters. Tip to Instapundit.
"Some (me) are more equal than others, comrades!"
You wonder why the Chinese Communist Party hits America on BLM talking points about alleged "systemic racism" in America? Because the false accusation conceals China's sins: "China has always seen non-Chinese as lesser creatures, a designation many neighbors and adversaries do not appreciate. As the old saying goes, make a lot of enemies on the way up and you can expect others to hurt rather than help you when you are on the way down. That is what China faces now." Fortunately, even if leftist activists hate America actual immigrants come here because they know America is a welcoming society. Especially compared to other countries.
Sure, Lukashenko is alienating the West and pushing him to rely more on Russia. That's good for Putin's ambitions to reclaim Belarus. But I don't see how Lukashenko's hijacking of an airliner to kidnap a journalist has any "on the other hand" problems for Putin. Putin doesn't care that the world doesn't like what Putin does. Why would it be a problem for Putin if Lukashenko acts like Putin?
I mistrust any analysis talking about global economic heft that relies on PPP to compare countries rather than GDP. In my view, PPP is useful for comparing sub-categories under certain circumstances--like weighting for lower troop personnel costs when comparing military spending. And shockingly the analysis is used to promote Chinese investments in Europe. Huh.
I wonder if Israel's AI-driven fires-only campaign against Hamas and other terrorists in Gaza inflicted more key damage in 11 days than the last war of 40 days (if memory serves me--NOTE: does not, 7-week war) that included limited ground operations: "The military believes using AI helped shorten the length of the fighting, having been effective and quick in gathering targets using super-cognition."
I find it amazing that an American actor publicly groveled to China for calling Taiwan a "country." The funny thing is, Taiwan is a country in every sense except the legal one; while China is a dictatorial party living off the husk of the territory formally called mainland "China".
Wow, some people just can't wise up even after being hit with the clue bat.
Mali Coup III: This Time It's Serious? Of course, the dilemma is that punishing the coup leaders could undermine the fight against jihadis. Yet could accepting the coup make jihadis look more appealing? France threatens to pull its troops out in response. I'd say that's a bluff but America is doing the same thing in Afghanistan despite my worries it will just empower jihadis.
The Russian hackers who hit our government are at it again, having not learned the lesson of getting away with their attack. Wait. What? JDAMs, people. Think JDAMs. Or less dramatic means of death for those waging war on us. Really, start killing the hackers who target our infrastructure. We're forced to harden our infrastructure against cyber attacks when we should be hardening it to withstand a solar storm or EMP attack. But no, everything but actual infrastructure is set to get flooded with money under Biden's proposed "infrastructure" spending spree.
Seven months after the ship sailed, the Russians claim to have chased a British destroyer out of waters off of Crimea. Britain rejected the silly Russian boast. The U.S. was not so worked up over a Russian intelligence-gathering ship off of Hawaii.
The Army is learning about cyber and electromagnetic warfare from Russia's continuing operations against Ukraine in the Donbas region. Highly related.
Huh. What kind of screeching dog whistle is this to racists?
Heh:
I'm happy these ships are finally getting pushed into the South China Sea: "Today, there are two LCS deployed to the western Pacific – USS Tulsa (LCS-16) and USS Charleston (LCS-18) . By the end of the year there’ll be four and the end of 2022 there could be eight, the commander of U.S. Japan-based 7th Fleet said on Thursday." Not because they are great. But because if the Chinese start a war, it is likely our forward-deployed ships sailing on peacetime presence missions will be knocked out. And the LCS is the ship we can most afford to lose in the opening hours of war. On the flip side of the coin, the Chinese won't be tempted to start a war because such ships are dangled in front of them.
Oh what fresh Hell is this?! After enduring and recovering from a Windows update my computer is doing that again!
Looks like the president's "lid" on appearances for the day needs to be a little earlier (Tip to Instapundit). Seriously, what is Biden's major malfunction.
Marine squads are evolving as the Marine Corps sheds its role as a "second Army".
Good Lord. I've been hearing about those "schools" for a long time.
It was the cleanest and most secure election in history, you conspiracy theorist.
Oh, FFS: "American soldiers have mistakenly revealed the exact locations of US nuclear weapons in Europe by uploading details as part of revision exercises that were publicly available to view, a report claims." And it gets worse because in learning security procedures the troops "appeared to show the positions of cameras, the frequency of patrols around the vaults, secret duress words that signal when a guard is being threatened and the unique identifiers that a restricted area badge needs to have, Bellingcat said."
The Philippines is getting more vocal about China's subliminal conquest of Filipino territory: "The Philippines has demanded that China withdraw its ships and fishing vessels from the vicinity of a Philippine-occupied island in the South China Sea, where the Chinese military has asserted its sovereignty and vowed to 'unswervingly safeguard” the disputed territory.'" The Philippines needs to occupy their territory. And America can help with the logistics.
Developing War Plan Orange and OPLAN Orange. Funny, I'm reading a book about the Navy's inter-war work on a Pacific war with Japan.
The European Union is banning flights from Belarus after the air hijacking by Belarus of an Irish plane. That makes it harder for dissidents to get out of Belarus. Is that good or bad for Lukashenko?
Iran is using drones to try to kill American troops in Iraq. Naturally this article uses that as an excuse to run from Iraq rather than a reason to remember that Iran is America's enemy and that we should defeat Iran--not strengthen them with a new Iran nuclear deal that lifts sanctions. Islamists of both the Shia and Sunni variety can be forgiven for believing God is on their side, eh?
James Carville is still around? "Democratic consultant James Carville decided to write an absurd opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal titled, “Democrats Are the Anticrime Party.”
Wow, the news media is just one endless fluffing session for Biden, isn't it? Portraying him as a hard worker can't be easy. Bravo Nick Allen. Nice journalism.
Well congratulations to you race-obsessed racist haters on the woke left. We were building a post-race society that judges on the content of your character. And then you effed it up. I don't want to be defined by my race. But leftists accept no other way of categorizing. Maybe I should just self-identify as "purple" on all government forms. Hmm. Maybe everyone should. Ef the haters who can't see beneath skin tone. Via Instapundit.
When will the Chinese Communist Party just buy our media outlets instead of just renting them? "The L. A. Times regularly runs a paid insert in its Sunday Edition called China Watch which is characterized by other news agencies as being Beijing-Funded Propaganda with the latest edition of China Watch shown below." They aren't the only paper to do that. Although the Chinese got a lot of free--and enthusiastic--media work with that whole CCP denial of a lab leak theory for the Xi Jinping Flu Covid-19 pandemic. Perhaps purchase isn't cost effective.
Really unclear on the concept.
If you are wondering what the recruiting pool for guards for political prisoners looks like.
I'm betting swing and a miss for this plan: "President Biden on Sunday said that he plans to make human rights abuses a priority in his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva next month, CNN reports." Putin will just hurl back BLM charges against America and Biden will meekly agree.
This article condemns the Abraham Accords because it failed to stop Hamas from attacking Israel:
[The] the 11-day Israel-Gaza conflict has tested the limits of Trump-era accords that had ushered in a geopolitical shift in the region, promising the "dawn of a new Middle East."Where's the peace if the accords were a new dawn in the Middle East? Really?
That argument is, to use a technical term, "stupid." The accords were
peace between non-Palestinian states and Israel. Why would the accords stop all war?
Oh sure, nobody with relations with Israel publicly condemned Hamas and the other radical groups shooting at Israel. But those governments were silent as Israel went about destroying their attackers; and the dread Arab "street" did not erupt.
Further, Hamas is backed and directed at least in part by Iran, which is a Persian state and not an Arab state. More reason for Arab states to avoid siding with Hamas against Israel, which also opposes Iran.
Those two things indeed are a reflection of the geopolitical shift in the region that the Abraham Accords built on. The accords and past peace treaties are a fire break. The Israel-Hamas war did not even remotely threaten to escalate to a regional war because Arab and Moslem states did not rally to the Hamas cause.
That's a big effing deal, to quote a certain past vice president.
And let's recall that by the definition used to condemn the very new Abraham Accords, decades of a peace deal between Egypt and Israel also didn't stop the 2021 Hamas-Israel War. Nor did more recent peace with Jordan. Are those peace deals fraudulent? Where were the stupid articles making that stupid argument the last several decades for earlier wars that those peace deals "failed to stop"?
A new dawn takes time to become a new day. And the Biden administration undercut the basis for the Abraham Accords from day one by sucking up to Iran and declaring the Palestinians the queen of the victims prom again.
UPDATE: The stupidity has limits even in the Middle East if not in American liberal circles:
During the recent military conflict between Israel and Hamas, Levine joined me on a special edition of a podcast I sometimes join called The Red Whine. During our hour-long conversation, he provided insight and information that indicate the Abraham Accords are durable and relations between the Arab nations and the Palestinians are changing.
Levine noted that condemnation and reprisals are predictable anytime Israel and Hamas have an armed conflict. This time he said, it was strangely quiet. While there was some criticism, direct statements against Israel did not come out of the leadership in Dubai or even Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Prominent Emirati in the UAE even condemned Hamas as terrorists. At least one also confirmed the durability of the Accords[.]
Fingers crossed. It would be huge if Saudi Arabia made official peace with Israel. How that would fit with the Saudis hedging their bets by reaching out to Iran in the face of Biden's pro-Iran views is unclear to me.
China doesn't want to be blamed for the pandemic and our media has been happy to cooperate.
The media is nothing if not flexible:
For the past year, our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters in the press have insisted it’s a lunatic conspiracy theory to speculate that COVID-19 might have originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. But suddenly they’ve all reversed themselves, and now they’re admitting that a lab leak is not only possible but probable.
And of course:
We’ve been scolded for calling it “the Wuhan virus” or “the Chinese virus,” which is what everybody on the news was calling it in the early days of the pandemic, until somebody told them to stop[.]"
China insisted that identifying the location of the origin, as has been routinely done since we started identifying virus sources, was racist when applied to them. I wonder why? Especially when all the variants of the pandemic virus are identified by country. Why is one country treated so differently?
I actually don't wonder why that is true so much. What I wonder about is why our media went along.
Oh:
[Everything] the Chinese Communist Party has said and done since that initial outbreak has been dishonest. It’s not racist to say so, and you’re not a conspiracy theorist for paying attention. The only people who tell you so, Hollywood and the media, are literally getting paid by China.
Optimist that I am, apparently the CCP can only rent our news and entertainment industries. And the lease expires after about 15 months, it seems:
The Biden administration has called on the World Health Organization to conduct a second investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic amid a renewed push for one from both scientists and politicians.
Fingers crossed. Still, I worry that letting the China-compliant WHO investigate is just a way of subcontracting ignoring the true origin to a group less likely to blow the whistle on the CCP.
Socialism with Chinese characteristics has always claimed to be a superior version of the ideology and in the last 30 years might even have seemed so. As we learn more about the realities rather than the fiction Beijing and its enablers in the West want us to believe, who would be so confident that Chinese Marxism will manage a better fate?
You wonder why I've called this the Xi Jinping Flu? China's role in turning an epidemic into a pandemic was disturbing even if we can't verify the lab leak.
And again, let me note that I do not think China set out to deliberately attack the world. It was likely the result of incompetence and secrecy in the CCP system. Although I can't rule out the possibility that the CCP actively decided that it wasn't going to suffer alone once it realized it was loose in China.
The Navy can't just think of logistics as moving the tonnage to established hubs in northeast Asia.
The Pacific is huge, but the Navy had the luxury during the post-Cold War world of shrinking that world to Japan and South Korea. No more:
A future contested battlefield and the need for resilience could mean a change from “hub and spoke” delivery of supplies – in which logistics forces build a so-called iron mountain at a forward port and from there move troops and materiel into a theater. That would require a distributed command and control approach to theater logistics to increase survivability of forces, he said.
That is a much more difficult mission. Of course, in INDOPACOM a lot of the distributed assets will be small for a kill web and also in need of frequent relocation to avoid enemy action.
Spreading out the logistics assets to support moving assets across a wide theater will require Navy protection under more demanding conditions. Protection the Navy isn't eager to provide given its other duties.
Spreading out the logistics ships requires a means of protecting them that doesn't spread the fleet out too much to fight for control of the seas. But I don't believe we can count on the Chinese not finding those logistics assets.
We won't assume that America itself is a sanctuary--as the Colonial Pipeline hack demonstrated. But will we assume the oceans between America and our forward units in combat will be sanctuaries?
The Japanese idea of defending their East China Sea islands by planning to retake them is ridiculous.
Japan's description of their strategy to counter Chinese island claims is worrisome:
In General Bansho’s telling this adds up to a “Southwestern Wall Strategy” meant to keep the island chain under Japanese sovereignty and make it a barrier to Chinese maritime movement. This all sounds good. Yet recapturing is a telling and troubling word. If it faithfully reflects strategic thinking in Tokyo, the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) expect to undertake reactive rather than proactive strategy and operations along the first island chain. Tokyo will await an attack. China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will seize ground, then the JSDF will respond and take it back.
I have long expressed my displeasure at Japan's idea of deterring Chinese conquest:
Japan is foolish to rely on the ability to race to the contested Senkaku Islands ahead of the Chinese.
Yes, I know that Japan is buying V-22s (but China may think they have an answer to that) and building a small marine corps with amphibious assets to beat China to occupy the Senkaku Islands (which China claims to own, too) in a crisis.
But since China will initiate any such race, China will have the advantage in timing the race while Japan is unready (perhaps because of weather alone).
And while Japan may not be able to deploy troops permanently on these islands, Japan could defend them with "robots" where troops can't stand on the ground for long.
The idea that a new nuclear deal with Iran is in America's interest because it will help Iran "keep Russia and China at bay" is so monumentally stupid that I have trouble accepting that sentient beings wrote that.
This is something special in the annals of bizarre reasoning:
Reviving the nuclear deal will loosen the grip of [China and Russia] on Tehran. Factions within Iran’s political system would then become less amenable to foreign pressure and more mindful of Iran’s geopolitical autonomy.
Reviving the horrible Iran nuclear deal will not change Iran's hatred of America, Israel, and the West. The original deal enabled Iran to act on that hatred with more money notwithstanding the Obama administration's laughable reassurances that under the deal Iran wouldn't "dramatically" increase their funding for aggression. Russia and China will continue to supply arms and Security Council protection to Iran if a new deal is signed. In what world of the sane is American sales of weapons or American money in trade that enabled that aggression anew somehow a good thing?
And the deal required its deal partners to assist Iran in nuclear technology. The authors point out that Iran has demonstrated advances since Trump pulled America out of the deal. But that doesn't condemn the ending of the deal. That requires you to believe Iran went from zero to nuke in a couple years. The fact is that the deal simply allowed us to pretend Iran wasn't working under the cover of the deal to advance their nuclear technology and production capacity. Explain to me why the 2015 deal didn't actually roll back Iran's nuclear technology?
The authors include this gem, "The Iran nuclear deal was an arms control agreement designed to abridge Tehran’s nuclear ambitions."
The
primary definition of "abridge" is to "shorten the length of" or
"condense". The 2015 nuclear deal absolutely shortened the path to an
Iranian nuclear arsenal by protecting Iran's facilities from attack as
it gains nuclear missile technology and manufacturing capabilities.
You know a new deal will be no better no matter how much the authors fluff up how great a new and improved deal could be.
Rather than cut short Iran's nuclear ambitions, a new deal will just mean Iran goes back to working on nukes quietly without telling us all the dangerous things they are doing. And we'll pretend this is Smart Diplomacy. Let's not live in Nuclear Fantasyland.
Have a super sparkly day.
The Army has its own air force of tiny fixed wing bomber/recon craft allowable because the pilot is on the ground.
AeroVironment, the company that developed the original, and very popular Switchblade in 2005 for the U.S. Army, had it ready for combat testing by 2009. This was very successful and the troops demanded more, and more, and more. Switchblade completed development in 2009 and was initially thought useful only for special operations troops. Some were secretly sent to Afghanistan in 2009 so army Special Forces troops could test it a combat zone. That was very successful and in 2011 the army ordered over a hundred Switchblades for troop use and since then has ordered several thousand. The army asked AeroVironment to develop a larger version of Switchblade to replace the original model. This was called Switchblade 300 and development was completed in 2017. By 2020 Switchblade 300 had replaced the original Switchblade and, as expected, was more capable and popular with users than the original Switchblade.
The rules about what the Army can fly are getting so strange when the Air Force has to focus on air superiority missions so much that the Army worries about getting air support.
The Marines, special forces, and Navy like them, too. And they're getting better, with some bigger and able to take out tanks. Others are smaller and available to even infantry squads. Make them reusable, too, and that will be something big. Do read it all.
The British carrier task force will advertise the advantages of trade and defense relations with Britain.
Britain is about to embark on a world tour - in the shape of the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by a fleet of warships.
The Royal Navy says it will be the most powerful UK naval deployment in a generation.
The government sees the fleet, named the Carrier Strike Group, as a potent symbol of "Global Britain" - and as proof of Boris Johnson's promise to restore the Royal Navy as Europe's foremost naval power and end what he called an "era of retreat".
The task force will carry out combat missions. It includes an American and Dutch escort warship along with more American F-35Bs than the British will deploy on this maiden global voyage.
In my view the tour is to highlight that post-EU Britain is no longer tied to the European continent. Britain is a global force.
Britain's tour will promote British trade with the symbol of how Britain can support militarily those trade partners.
And the NATO additions are a symbol of Britain's ability to pull in more power than their task force if the going gets rough. Although yes, the allied role may be a symbol of British naval weakness for now, as the article raises.
UPDATE: This fits with the push to support allies anywhere:
Britain confirmed that at some point during its carrier task force deployment in the western Pacific and South China Sea it expects naval forces from the UAE, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Israel, India, Oman and South Korea, to participate in exercises with the task force.
The more the merrier.
Is Russia on a path to admitting only China is a threat to Russian territory? If so, trust but verify. And don't pay.
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Moscow would "knock out the teeth" of any power that tried to take a chunk of Russia's territory.
The Russian leader, in televised remarks during a virtual meeting with senior officials, cited what he said were foreign remarks questioning Russia's control of energy-rich Siberia.
It's funny that "China" isn't in the article. But only China has claims on Siberia. Which is a major place where China's "century of humiliation" continues:
China's communists take pride in restoring China from their nadir of humiliation at the hands of the Europeans. Western enclaves in China's ports where Western law was supreme and actual formal loss of territory to Europeans like at Macao and Hong Kong added to the pain.
But China has regained control of their coasts, including the former colonies. China has no actual territorial disputes with America or Europe.
That is not the case with Russia, the last European state to control territory seized from China when it was weak. China isn't shy about claiming other land. Why would Russia be the exception?
Is it really out of line for me to speculate--especially after their military redistrict reorganization--that China might really think of Russia as their prime military target?
Back in December, Russia extended their quiet appeasement of China for another five years.
Does Putin figure that's the last time China will extend the truce? If so, is Putin ready to stop pointlessly pissing off NATO to allow a Russian shift to the eastern front?
Russia took advantage of easing tensions between Moscow and Washington to raise €1.5bn euros from investors in its first international bond sale of the year on Thursday.
Could this actually be a Russian cry to come in from the cold?
The Group of Seven is playing a "dangerous game" by making aggressive and baseless criticism of the Kremlin because it pushes Russia closer to China, Russia's ambassador to London Andrei Kelin told Reuters on Thursday.
If Russian-Chinese ties are so good for Russia, why complain about closer ties? You never once hear America warning China that their threats to neighbors regrettably forges closer ties by those worried victims to America.
The next five years could be interesting. But remember, Russia needs our friendship more than we need Russia's friendship. Don't pay for a Russian realignment that Russia desperately needs.
Iran sure loves the deal that the administration, the Russians, the Chinese, and our European allies say prevents Iran from getting nuclear weapons.
In order to put pressure on the West to restore the horrible 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Iran wants to stop releasing camera images to the International Atomic Energy Agency.:
Iran’s parliament speaker said Sunday that international inspectors may no longer access surveillance images of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites, escalating tensions amid diplomatic efforts in Vienna to save Tehran’s atomic accord with world powers ...
Under what is called an “Additional Protocol” with Iran, the IAEA “collects and analyzes hundreds of thousands of images captured daily by its sophisticated surveillance cameras,” the agency said in 2017. The agency also said then that it had placed “2,000 tamper-proof seals on nuclear material and equipment.”
Iran really wants sanctions lifted. So Iran is saying it will no longer let the IAEA have images from cameras that Iran was allowed to aim in Iranian nuclear facilities that Iran allows cameras to be placed in?
And is it significant that Iran doesn't use some nuclear material and equipment that is now 6 years old when Iran could use newer and improved material and equipment that the 2015 nuclear deal enables by requiring the West to help Iran with basic nuclear technology?
Huh. It sounds kind of silly to have expected much information from these provisions when you put it that way.
The 2015 nuclear deal was simple and a new one will be just as simple. Iran pretends it doesn't want nuclear weapons. The West pretends to believe Iran.
And I guess based on experience from the original deal, I should add a third point based on a side deal outside of the 2015 nuclear deal. The West pretends that the IAEA is verifying that Iran is trying to get nuclear weapons.
It's almost cute that American diplomats pretend to be taking a hard line on Iran and nukes:
"Iran, I think, knows what it needs to do to come back into compliance on the nuclear side, and what we haven't yet seen is whether Iran is ready and willing to make a decision to do what it has to do. That's the test and we don't yet have an answer," [Secretary of State] Blinken told ABC News' "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" program.
All we're taking a hard line on is insisting that Iran pretend harder to not have nuclear weapons programs.
Have a super sparkly day.
Iran agreed on Monday to preserve surveillance footage from its nuclear sites for another month, extending a temporary arrangement with the United Nations’ atomic watchdog agency that is seen as essential to eventually salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal.
Do we really believe this arrangement is a victory?
The Biden administration likes to say it is "restoring" frayed relations with allies. Because "you know who" allegedly wrecked them. But when we just submit to their objectives, why wouldn't allies like us more?
So bravo you Smart Diplomacy geniuses at the State Department! You got the Germans to agree to what they want:
Germany and the United States are in talks to intensify their economic ties after the Biden administration waived sanctions on the company behind Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.
"President Biden has now moved toward us a bit on the Nord Stream 2 conflict, where we have different views but where we will now talk further about what are the necessary commonalities in relation to Russia," Merkel said in an interview with public broadcaster WDR.
"We are in talks with each other in many areas ... we are also in bilateral talks, for example, especially with regard to intensifying our economic cooperation," she added.
Biden "moved toward" the Germans? Seriously? I guess that's polite of Merkel to put it that way. But Biden caved completely! The Russian pipeline to Germany will be there--under the Baltic Sea no less!--and Russia will gain the ability to blackmail Germany or Ukraine on energy supplies without harming the other! Nice divide and conquer, there. And we gave our stamp of approval for it.
Despite their pledge to spend more on defense during the Obama administration, the Germans want trade and don't want to pay for NATO defenses. And that's what we've given them. Those mean tweets about Germany not carrying their weight are gone.
Naturally the Germans are delighted to not be reminded that they have no realistic plans to reach spending 2% of GDP on defense by 2024, as NATO agreed to in 2014.
Lord, we're not even trying to "lead from behind" any more.
The Turks, Iranians, and Qataris unite to back their man in Somalia. I think the UN should break it up and sell it for parts. Puntland and Somaliland should be recognized as UN and AU members. Their people have shown they can organize and vote. The rest of the territory of Somalia should be de-recognized if that is possible and told to organize and request membership, or join another existing country. Somalia was a failed state walking from day one. Admit it.
Could Republicans grab a state senate seat in a Pennsylvania special election? If they do, it may indicate a major reaction to Democrats going woke up and down the line.
Canadians hated Trump. I bear witness to that. Imagine their relief when Biden won! Yay! No more mean tweets! And then the Canadians got a load of how Biden can screw over Canada with hardly a thought. No whackjob leftist vocal interest group is too small to have higher priority for Biden (or whoever controls his signing hand that day) than Canada. A lot of people are getting a lesson in getting what you wished for--good and hard. Although Canada may have asked for it (tip to Instapundit).
Well sure, Putin isn't a one-man dictatorship whose will is propagated through the system. There are centers of power that resist. But the point is that Putin doesn't have formal checks and balances. The checks and balances arise from rival concentrations of equally non-rule of law power. That's close enough for autocratic government work as far as I'm concerned.
A mach 6 bomber? Is it really more important to have a high-speed bomber than to have high-speed missiles? It seems like trolling for R & D dollars and not a real weapon.
The anxious and insecure hegemon.
The New York Times says Trump's boast of a new Middle East is undermined by the Hamas-Israel fighting. Huh? One, Hamas and Iran didn't make peace with Israel in the Trump initiative. Two, the Biden administration is undermining the new Middle East Trump started. Trump said the Abraham Accords were the "dawn" of a new Middle East. That is, the beginning. The simple fact that Moslem states made peace with Israel undermined the old left-wing claim that no other peace could be achieved until there is peace between Israel and the Palestinians. But by reaching out to Iran and its proxies while stiff-arming Israel, Biden undermined that dawn. Biden wants the Palestinians to be the Queen of the Victim Prom again. Maybe that is the real cause and effect here, eh? Amazing. Expect more violence supported by Iran in the Middle East. Trump should have had an Operation Warp Speed for a TDS vaccine in addition to the one for the Xi Jinping Flu that Trump handed off to Biden to take credit for.
If the Colonial Pipeline ransom hack was carried out by the white supremacist Unicorn that liberals claim are everywhere, the White House would call it a terrorist attack. It's really pretty amazing. Democrats went full Jack (D) Ripper in 2016 in their hatred of Russia. But now that Democrats have power in Washington, D.C., a Russian hack that disabled a major fuel pipeline for about a week is just business.
This poll shouldn't be too shocking. Harris couldn't get Democrats to like her in the primaries. Tip to Instapundit.
Oh good. Maybe Pope Francis could tell us how many carbon atoms fit on Kerry's head. I wish the Pope had other things to do, like defending Christians in Moslem-majority countries from individual deaths, abuse, discrimination, and demographic extinction.
A few fries short of a happy meal: "A top Russian admiral complained Thursday about increased U.S. military presence and NATO military activities near the country’s borders, describing them as a threat to regional security." Russia has spent over twenty years claiming NATO is a threat and threatening NATO states with nuclear weapons. And NATO is reacting. Somehow this reason for NATO to increase readiness escapes the admiral. #WhyRussiaCan'tHaveNiceThings.
Republicans need to step up their get-out-the-vote ground game. I wonder how much of the polling inaccuracies we've started to see in elections stem from this effort.
Science! I dare Democrats to call her a Neanderthal. Seriously, if she was Republican she would be the well-publicized and ridiculed "face of the Republican Party." But since she's a Democrat? Crickets from the media. Oh, hah! Great minds pound their heads into walls in frustration ... alike? I'm woozy. Word-choosing gone now.
Putin calls America "unfriendly." And he has no idea why that is so? Seriously, Putin isn't drunk all the time, is he? Will an advisor ever tell Putin he is effing up royally?
More on tightening US-Greece relations. I mentioned this trend in the last data dump: "The Greek defense minister said Greece is modernizing its naval and air power as well as the defense agreement with America. And "[the minister] described Greece as the United States’ and NATO’s 'anchor state' in the Eastern Mediterranean." I did mention that."
I think it represents a threat because China can build it--not that the station itself will be a threat (via Instapundit): "The US Director of National Intelligence released a report last month claiming China’s upcoming space station poses a threat to national security." Of course, that's why we need SMOD.
Is it just me, or are "life coaches" just psychics without a crystal ball and robe? If I'm paying the money, I want the whole show.
The Israelis are inflicting far more damage on Hamas--and other groups--from the air (and with artillery) than I thought they could. And much faster. But Gaza is a small target more easily observed. Could Israel replicate this firepower success against the much larger Hezbollah target area in Lebanon? Can Iron Dome operate long enough to shield Israel while air power goes after the far larger Hezbollah rocket and missile arsenal?
As I've argued from the beginning, compare and contrast the responses of countries to the Xi Jinping Flu pandemic when it is all over. Using uniform definitions.
Hmmm: "Taiwan will reorganize its Army’s command structure to emphasize joint operations between its services and give regional commanders more operational flexibility in the event of a conflict, the country’s defense minister told lawmakers." That helps respond to initial attacks despite any Chinese disruption of command, control, and communications. But how does it work when one "combat theater command" has to reinforce another one that is under attack? Who commands to make sure the Chinese main effort is met with massed Taiwanese effects?
Signs of the cleanest and most secure election evah! Tip to Instapundit.
F-16 production is starting in South Carolina for export markets. I like having hot production lines for a proven if old fighter in case we need wartime replacements faster than we could build F-35s.
At this point Portland can just die, as far as I'm concerned. They wanted what they got. Enjoy. Via Instapundit.
Russia is trying to claim huge portions of the Arctic Sea. Pretty soon they'll say Santa is a fascist exploiting ethnic Russian elves.
Well, if the administration isn't going to wage a war on Islamist terrorists, I guess I want to eliminate the administration to have war powers it might only use against Americans. Hey, time to wage the Global Troubles, I suppose.
And yet Hillary Clinton is still free after her massive violation of State Department communications security requirements that just begin with her bathroom server for her private email account. But we're to believe that effort was made for yoga scheduling and planning Princess Chelsea's wedding.
This seems too odd to be true as reported. I'm certain that we have people like that. And maybe 60,000 is all the people who have participated in this--perhaps for a day only--since it started. But this seems ridiculous, as reported. I'll need to see something other than Arkin's article.
Note to self: Don't use Venmo. Tip to Instapundit.
Europe: After the Xi Jinping Flu, the deluge. I guess the pandemic is over enough.
Biden finally found a pipeline he likes: "The Biden administration will waive sanctions on the corporate entity and CEO overseeing the construction of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline into Germany, according to two sources briefed on the decision." Can you even imagine the media obsession if Trump had done something like that? Via Instapundit.
Good point? Beats me. But perhaps mask mandates are like loyalty oaths to "science"--as defined by the left. Mind you, I've been pro-mask even when "science" was telling us they are counter-productive. I'd have warn them with no advice one way or another. Free man that I am. But I am so ready to ditch them. Via Instapundit.
Oh, and in addition to Firefox taking up all my computer memory for updates the last week, Windows did it, too. Why don't they do these downloads in the middle of the night when I sleep?! Bastards.
Turkey's Russia infatuation seems so over.
Has Russia fixed their air transport problem?
Why has this statue escaped cancel culture? It's a mystery wrapped in an enigma, I suppose. Tip to Instapundit.
Low-recoil howitzer mounted on a HMMWV.
Out: nation building. In: planet building. Oh FFS. This is just embarrassing for the Army. It's bad enough lawyers scrutinize every fires strike. Will every strike now be judged for its carbon footprint, too? It's getting to the point where our government defends Antifa/BLM violence to undermine America more than the military's use of violence to defend America.
There was no deleted database in the Arizona recount. I probably mentioned that original charge so I should mention the correction. Which is good news if you want election integrity. If efforts like this broadly bolster the 2020 election result, I'll be satisfied.
A mystery wrapped in an enigma. But we have no mean tweets going for us. Which is nice?
I don't believe all the news about military videos of UFOs are actually aliens. Heck, news of life on Mars may just have found life that Earth probes took there somehow.
An American destroyer went through the Taiwan Strait--which is completely legal--and China protested.
I suspect Qatar won't accept delivery of that F-15QA. And again, I like having the F-15 production line kept hot, just in case we need cheaper but still good planes to replace losses in war.
I suspect this is narrowly true: "Predictions that the Taliban will quickly overrun Afghan government forces and conquer Kabul once U.S. and coalition forces have fully withdrawn are unduly pessimistic, Washington’s special envoy to Afghanistan said Tuesday." But over time Taliban power will grow. And even if the Taliban can't seize Kabul, the Taliban may take enough territory to have terrorist haven.
As we consider our options about the Russian cyberattack on our pipeline, please remember that if we have their address we don't necessarily need to counterattack in the cyber domain. Just saying. Obviously, there are limits to what we can do inside Russia itself. But what are those limits when America was attacked at home? And Russia's government didn't stop the attack?
Madnesss: "World powers met Wednesday for a new round of high-level talks on bringing the United States back into the nuclear deal with Iran amid growing hopes that an agreement might soon be within reach." It boggles my mind that Western leaders have "hopes" that America will fund Iran's regional aggression and terrorism while enabling and shielding Iran's drive for nuclear weapons.
Well, that certainly seems racist.
No! Way! "New evidence has emerged that China’s state-owned fishing fleet may be a front for covert intelligence operations in the disputed waters of the South China Sea."
I don't get this at all: "Many find return to 'normal' after COVID-19 unsettling, experts say[.]" Maybe if the media hadn't spent the last 14 months terrifying Americans in order to defeat the Bad Orange Man and supporting Biden's massive government spending plans people wouldn't be unreasonably unsettled about the end of the pandemic. The pandemic that started in China and that was spread globally by Xi Jinping.
The cogs in the CCP are unhappy: The "involuted" generation in China seeks a way out of the glorious machine they are yoked to, as "many tech workers, having scaled and optimized their lives, sense that they have become just like their devices: interchangeable and emblazoned with a sheen of productivity, for no real higher purpose." Really, their purpose is to be high-tech peasants toiling all their waking hours for the glory of the CCP. Sucks to be the broken eggs. Especially when the sacrifice is likely futile.
When Amazon took sides in the political battles against conservatives last December, I stopped buying from them. I've returned to buying things. But ordering is now rare rather than a routine habit. That's what Amazon did to me. I wonder if that is common?
How much would it take for Armenia and Azerbaijan to resume fighting? And with Turkey and Russia backing opposite sides, how would that work? There have been a lot of wars between Russia and Turkey over the centuries.
Asset forfeiture--which doesn't even require a guilty verdict--is legalized theft. But even if it is kept, the entities that seize the assets should not keep them. All money should go to the general fund. Tip to Instapundit.
Wow! The Navy has put a freaking C-47 into service: "The C-47 was a legend in the U.S. military and many are still encountered overseas where they still serve as civilian or military transport. The BT-67 got two new engines, a modern glass cockpit and replacements to airframe components that needed it. There are a lot of suppliers for DC-3/C-47 replacement parts, which meant no expensive custom-made components were required." Over 300 are still in service around the world despite production ending in 1944.
Massive government spending is an assault on honest, law-abiding Americans. It isn't just the prospect of the government taking money from blue collar workers to pay the loans of upper middle class students that outrages me. When the government shovels money out the door, the crooks have more to steal in that target-rich environment. The rest of us make do with the checks sent to us. And get to feel like suckers for only getting that. Tip to Instapundit.
Democrats are trying to exploit the Capitol Building riot. Which is worse than the riot. The incident was not an insurrection as Democrats dishonestly claim. It was deeply disturbing but it was never a threat to our democracy. And honestly, as I read more, I am starting to think the unarmed actions shouldn't even be called a riot. It seems somewhere between a riot and selfie-taking trespass with some theft and vandalism. And for a lot it just might have been tourism. Face it, if those people were leftists and chanted "This is what democracy looks like," Congress would be building statues to honor them by now. But instead, it's a new Red (State) Scare.
If Democrats are serious about fighting hate they might want to look in their own ranks
rather than scouring the Internet for proof of a non-existent vast
white-wing conspiracy that oddly can only manage "dog whistle" proof of
their existence--and even that is stupid. Really? the "okay" sign is
racist? But maybe the modern Democratic Party is just fine with hating
Jews. The reasons are as repulsive as they are mystifying.
The real worst-case scenario for global warming is that we believe the global warming activists and implement their hair-brained socialist policies in response.
Egad. Will AI hackers push us to de-network our infrastructure with only local networks not connected to the Internet? I already don't trust the Internet-of-things.
I reported the Arizona database was partly deleted. Then that it was not. And now that it was deleted but recovered. The news media has one job ...
Ukraine is upset with Europe: "Ukraine's leader said Thursday that France and Germany have recently softened their stance in talks with Moscow on settling a conflict with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine." Oh come on, Ukraine! It's been like seven whole years now since Russia invaded you and took your territory! And they kill you at a pretty low rate now. You really expect European leaders to feign outrage forever? Seven years is pretty damned good for Europeans! Except when it comes to reviling America, of course.
Huh: "Secretary of State Tony Blinken met with his Russian counterpart in Iceland on Wednesday, telling Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the United States seeks to cooperate with Russia to make the world “safer”[.]" I guess the Democrats are over their sudden and unnatural hatred of Russia. Reset! The remarkable thing is that it took Democrats four whole months to get over being mad at Russia. Yet somehow this is all normal?
A star cruiser for Space Force? No, that's for the future Space Navy beyond the Earth-Moon system.
Nice try. But I still want the Army's damned armored cavalry regiments back. Jennings is admirably persistent in pushing for the cavalry role.
Pollsters don't know why they can't seem to poll these days.
Look, adding "democratic" in front of "socialist" doesn't make it any less socialist. Tip to Insanity Wrap.
That is mighty inconvenient for Democrats. Which probably means their anti-Asian hate crime bill will never become law.
As the Biden administration spares no effort to find the mythical vast white-wing conspiracy of hate in America. Tip to Instapundit.
Lockdowns were a long assault on blue collar and conservative people.
Chinese maritime patrol aircraft.
Let's see. Democrats want you to wear a mask in case you lie that you have had the vaccine. But they aren't worried you might not be eligible to vote or already voted if you don't show picture ID. Got it.
Any Russian aggression against the Baltic states won't look like its 2014 takeover of Crimea. Well, yeah. There were unique factors that enabled Russia's 2014 conquest that will not be present in the Baltics. Maybe Russia just openly invades NATO and rolls the nuclear dice that it can prevent a counterattack. Or maybe it looks like Pakistan's Kargil invasion. But a Crimea 2.0? No.
Will Singapore or Taiwan have a late surge in the Xi Jinping Flu? I'd think that delaying the toll until vaccines are available will mean not they won't. But it really is out of my lane.
Thank God Obama and Trump didn't wait for the UN investigation on ISIL's genocidal crime against the Yazidi to destroy the terror state. Hell, maybe in a hundred years the Chinese will pay for what they are doing to Tibetans and the Uighurs.
She checked every box but "trust" and "likability."
I have to say it, whatever cognitive problems Biden has, it isn't visibly as bad as I feared. A low bar, I know. One day when it won't hurt Democrats, the media might look into this and share what is going on now.
Seriously, what the Hell is the Post Office doing running an online surveillance network to spy on Americans? Isn't this like a Fire Department burning books? I assumed Seinfeld was a joke:
NATO says it will continue training Afghan forces outside of the country after pulling out. Good luck with getting the Afghan troops back home after seeing another country.
The Navy denied a Chinese claim that it chased off an American destroyer conducting a freedom of navigation operation in the Paracel Islands region. I worry that this telegraphs eventual Chinese intent.
It might have been nice to have this before bugging out: "The top U.S. commander for the Middle East said Wednesday he will make recommendations to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in early June on how to monitor and fight terrorist groups in Afghanistan from beyond its borders after all American forces withdraw." You know, in case the planning determines that we can't do that.
The Air Force now defends its air base in Qatar with anti-drone systems.
The National Guard has been in WDC way too long already for the Insurrection Theater the Democrats have been playing.
Every Marine a rifleman ship-killer? The infantry would have a raiding mission with armed transports, which I advocated in Proceedings. And the anti-ship focus is likely just a Pacific feature that Marines in the Western hemisphere, Europe, and the Middle East won't follow. Those Marines will miss their tanks.
The British are cutting their tracked infantry fighting vehicles because they don't anticipate heavy forces combat in Europe. They want vehicles able to be transported long distances more easily for a global role. Which is silly. Few can be transported by air and if by sea, moving heavier vehicles isn't significantly harder than moving lighter wheeled vehicles.
Quality and not quantity for Iran's puppets in Iraq. This seems like progress in rolling back Iranian influence to me.
Well this is a lot of media fluffing, eh? "The White House cast the cease-fire announcement Thursday between Israel and Hamas as a victory for what it had dubbed 'quiet, intensive diplomacy' led by Biden." Any time something good happens after the White House "calls a lid" on Biden's appearances for the day, Biden's "quiet, intensive diplomacy" can be credited. Heck after an earthquake doesn't happen, his "quiet, intensive geology" can be credited. If Chicago goes a weekend without double-digit shootings (as if), it will be his "quiet, intensive law enforcement" that gets the credit. We already know Biden's tenure will be a triumph of the media's will, eh?
Oh, I believe in science. I have my doubts about a lot of the scientists however. And I'm highly suspicious of the activists and reporters who tell us what the science is. And I absolutely reject until proven otherwise the big-spending responses that our politicians tell us is necessary because of the science. But there will be no child-like pledge from me. Tip to Instapundit.
How highly "educated" do you have to be to twist reality that much? Tip to The Morning Briefing.
Army rockets are very useful in Europe, as I mentioned last week.
I do not believe North Korea's nuclear weapons have doubled in the last four years. I question whether North Korea has any nuclear weapons--as in warheads that can be launched at enemies with an expectation that they will detonate. They have material. They can make nuclear devices that can explode under laboratory conditions surrounded by thousands of technicians and scientists. But nuclear weapons? I've read no evidence of that. But it is true that if North Korea gets nukes we are unlikely to do anything about them. I think we should fear a policy of deterring North Korea from launching nukes (option 1).
I don't think an Egyptian threat to attack Ethiopia's GERD Nile River dam is credible. But Egypt sure wants to make it look like an option absent an agreement on the dam: "Egyptian military forces arrived in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum ahead of a joint drill amid mounting tensions with Ethiopia over a decade-long Nile water dispute, Sudan's state-run news agency reported Friday."
Portland is going to become Fallujah circa 2004, isn't it? "There are only a few places on earth where radicals and their children ritualistically burn the American flag and chant “Death to America”: Tehran, Baghdad, Beirut, Kabul, Ramallah—and Portland, Oregon." I'm truly sick of Portland. Let them destroy themselves. And Oregon itself might be going slowly insane with their hate, too. Why are some of us so intent on ripping America apart? Tip to Instapundit.
Democrats made a career of (wrongly) complaining that Bush 43 had no post-war plan for Iraq. The PLAN became a fetish. Now it is clear Biden has no plan for Afghanistan after withdrawing.
An electric recon vehicle has to be light to be viable. So that's what the Army is looking at. Is this survivable? I'm skeptical of light recon on a conventional battlefield. Does the modern ability to call in remote firepower give light vehicles the firepower I think they need to fight for information? But I worry that the Army is just being eco-trendy to appeal to the powers that be. Sure, the light vehicle is intended for infantry brigades. But you know what I think about supporting infantry brigades (Army magazine).
Trying to fit the AMRAAM-ER in our stealth fighters.
Huh. I guess my sex life is about to get way more exotic:
Squirrels! Very amusing.
Inciting hate. But the media will never make that connection despite their eagerness to draw connections in the past no matter how tenuous the connections. Because reasons.
What we really need are body cams on Antifa and BLM rioters.
I always get confused about some conservatives who praise Democratic politicians who display some signs of sanity on policy. Some conservatives wish there were more like them. Sure, that's good. But some seem to wish those saner Democrats were Republicans. Yet if the saner Democrats were Republican politicians those same conservatives praising the relative sanity of the Democrat would accuse the now-Republican of being a RINO. Why not just save the hassle and work and accept that not all existing Republicans believe the same thing on every issue? Isn't it at least good that the Republican who isn't like you votes for Republican leadership and usually votes for your issues?
I'm sure that the San Francisco police will be happy not to be the initial responders to those cases. But what will the casualty rate be for those kinder and gentler responders? We'll see if entire cities can be too stupid to live.
In a world of space missions and cyber news, volcanoes still cause death and destruction.
Chinese hackers. Don't rule out JDAMs as the proper response. But I'll be happy with any response. Of course, we may never know what our cyber or intelligence people do. I like to think we are better at it than our silence indicates.
"China's Mars rover starts roaming the Red Planet". Immediately runs over dissident. Tip to Instapundit.
Ransomware attacks are more common. How do we stop them? Consider JDAMs.
