The "brown skies" above the Army, as I coined in this article about fighting drone swarms, are getting crowded: "Army aviators and ground commanders face challenges of farther distances to travel, enemy systems that can strike aircraft and ground forces and a very crowded airspace."
I'm not against this: "Attempts by some lawmakers to dismantle the military’s DEI programs has reached a flash point as the House and Senate struggle to come to terms on the Fiscal Year 2024 Defense Department Appropriations Act, which Congress must pass annually to determine military spending." But the programs are a symptom of problems and not the cause.
Related: "Army officials say NATO’s largest land force is making progress when it comes to defending troops from drones. But service leaders have yet to make definitive plans for their future counter-drone force, even as they field far fewer defenses than analysts suggest will be needed." I want fighter drones to sweep the brown skies to hunt enemy drones.
I mentioned this objective: "The U.S. Army said it awarded $1.5 billion in contracts to nine companies in the U.S., Canada, India and Poland to boost global production of 155mm artillery rounds." And now Israel is a customer for artillery rounds.
I'm not sure how a shift to "high-intensity warfare" justifies this claim: "This force structure emphasises (sic) independent and mobile infantry units able to operate with little logistical support." Little logistical support? In "high-intensity warfare"? Complicated machines will need little support for maintenance, resupply, repair, and replacement? FFS.
Gallup: "Three in five (60%) Ukrainians interviewed in July and August said they want Ukraine to keep fighting until it wins, twice as many as those who want Ukraine to negotiate to end the war as soon as possible (31%)."
War in the Middle East and Europe. Defeat in Afghanistan. Tensions in Asia. Violence in Africa. Inflation, censorship, and criminalizing dissent at home. An open border with no way to keep out terrorists and criminals. Crime rampant in blue cities. Pity America doesn't at least have an administration with a "Drill, baby, drill" philosophy. Might be a bright spot, eh?
Exactly: "Is it a coincidence that Hamas launched its terror invasion on the anniversary of the 1571 Battle of Lepanto when Christians were 'slowly flayed alive' for refusing to submit to Allah? Probably. Then again, there are so many such anniversaries that Hamas was likely to strike historical paydirt whenever they had chosen to strike." And if not an anniversary of a past killing-fest, the killers would be happy to establish a new one for future jihadis.
The 2015 Iran nuclear deal was designed to help Iran get nuclear weapons. Yeah, the awful deal had that obvious purpose, in my view. In fact, the deal expired in stages. After 15 years of shielding Iran from attack, it enabled Iranian cheating by giving Iran benefits up front and caving in to Iranian threats to leave the deal if called on their cheating. The incentives to ignore cheating were clear. And the deal actually helped Iran with basic nuclear technology, as I noted when I first looked at the nuclear deal[.] The Iran-Democrat collusion on that is astounding in its brazen lying. God help us, but Obama expected a nuclear-armed, mullah-run Iran to become a responsible regional power. It's a miracle Iran doesn't have nukes yet. They don't, right??!!
The fanboys (and girls!) of evil.
Russia invades Ukraine. Iran's hand puppet Hamas invades Israel. If North Korea starts shelling across the DMZ, I'm going to worry China will make it four-of-a-kind in the Axis of Deplorables by attacking Taiwan--even if only nominally.
So the only immigrants Biden deports are Venezuelans fleeing leftist tyranny? Huh. Tip to Instapundit.
The CBC painted Canadian truck drivers protesting Covid lockdowns as Nazis. But they don't want to be hasty by calling Hamas murderers "terrorists". Ef these people. Swear to God, if Putin made Islam the Russian state religion instead of the Russian Orthodox Church, Western progressives would swoon and honor him, excusing any outrage in Ukraine. We will see that Democrats have far fewer Israeli flags than Ukrainian flags. And definitely more Palestinian flags. Tip to PJ Media.
The Army is faltering on active protection systems on its armored vehicles. To be fair, it's much easier to let them blow up. Because that's the most obvious alternative.
Allies and pre-positioned equipment to sustain the Army across the Pacific. It would be nice to get the Navy on board, too.
I wonder how that will work out: "The U.S. Army is using years’ worth of experimentation with robots and emerging technology to develop integrated fighting formations of both humans and robots, according to service officials in charge of modernization efforts."
The Army enters the budget battle.
The Chinese subliminal war to control the South China Sea continues even as the Philippines--with allied backing--openly resists: "In 2016 an international court ruled against China and stated that occupying uninhabitable rocks and building artificial islands did not confer an EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone). Ownership of 'rocks' gets, at best, 22 kilometers of territorial waters from the edge of each rock rather than 360 kilometers for EEZ rights."
I expect my call for Israel to fight hard and destroy Hamas will get the far left to attack me; and that elements of the right will attack me for refusing to accept near-genocidal tactics to decisively destroy Hamas. I write what I think is best--not to get approval.
Huh: "China’s Ministry of Natural Resources recently released the new 'standard' official map that lays claim to almost all the South China Sea and parts of land that are currently in India and Russia." This is news to me. I did not realize that China was that open about Russian territory. To be fair, Russia is the largest reminder of the Century of Humiliation. Is Putin foolish enough to ignore this growing threat?
Play bloody stupid policies, get bloody and stupid results. But creased pants, or something.
That's actually a relief: "New analysis of the remains of victims of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, contradicts the widespread belief the flu disproportionately impacted healthy young adults." One of the bright spots of the Covid pandemic was that it was more likely to strike me than my children. Tip to Instapundit.
I have a long-time opposition to state-level sanctions on foreign countries. That's a federal job. I won't change my mind for a target I despise.
Hmmm: "Finland is on alert as it suspects a gas pipeline leak in the Baltic Sea was caused by a deliberate act of destruction, fueling concerns about the safety of Europe’s energy infrastructure."
You don't want peacekeepers to suddenly find themselves outgunned in a war: "A NATO top commander said Tuesday the alliance equipped its peacekeeping force in Kosovo with weapons of 'combat power' following a recent shootout between masked Serb gunmen and Kosovo police that left four people dead and sent tensions soaring in the region."
A really long-range 155mm cannon round. Using a long barrel, too. And a big price tag.
Meanwhile in China: "Country Garden, once viewed as a 'model developer,' now thinks it will miss its foreign debt payments, two years after China’s real estate crisis began." Tip to Instapundit.
The B-52 flies into the future.
The Eisenhower strike group will sail to European waters where it could back up Ford in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Democrats constantly claim they hear Nazi dog whistles from Republicans. But as the Left's reaction to the Hamas slaughter and kidnapping raid--that Hamas proudly shared with the world rather than hide--shows, the Nazi calls were coming from inside their own house. Tip to Instapundit.
Is PTSD (combat fatigue) rampant among Russian soldiers at the front? That's not surprising. It's a combat wound. Ukraine seems to do a better job rotating troops to put it off. But it hits almost everyone eventually (if you don't die or suffer a major wound that sends you home in combat first, of course) even if you take steps to delay onset. Soldiers can do jobs off the front but are a potential disaster at the front. If Ukraine can keep pushing, this might be an area of hollowing out the Russian defenders that finally snaps their resolve.
Germany announced a new aid package for Ukraine. As did America.
Note that Egypt is keeping its border with Gaza closed and isn't letting more than a trickle of screened Gazan Palestinians flee into Egyptian territory. I bet Egypt wants monetary support before letting refugees temporarily sit inside the Sinai until Israel is finished destroying Hamas.
I will say that Biden's words on the Hamas terror surge were good. But I worry that the constellation of leftists that are part of the coalition that rules through him will undermine that support for Israeli action when they get the chance.
The global population will plateau and not collapse absent an external catastrophe. Well, that's good. Although the plateau includes a big decline--I assume mostly by the death of the bulge of elderly in our populations (bye y'all). But it says nothing of individual countries within that average. Let's hope Western values spread before Western influence by population heft declines.
From the "Well, Duh" files: "The main lesson for Israel from the hideous Hamas attacks suffered over
the weekend is a simple one: Terrorists can’t be managed." Well, it should be from the "Well, Duh" files. "Understanding" terrorists should be for the purpose of killing more of them. Too many want to persuade jihadi killers not to kill. Ef that. My view is that only ineffective use of force creates more jihadis. When it comes to jihadis, I say Shoot on sight. Shoot to kill. Keep on shooting.
FFS: "The U.S. Army has warehouses packed with weapons its soldiers no longer need. But the service doesn't know where they all are, nor what condition they’re in." Allies could use them. If we had a clue.
The search for an analogy for the Israeli reaction to the large-scale Hamas terror assault seems to fall short. Let me suggest a combination of 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and Task Force Smith.
As people condemn Israel for not providing electricity and water to their killers, consider the folly of Hamas attacking the source of their electricity and water. And consider the apparent lack of Gazan Palestinian effort to spend resources on their own electricity and water sources rather than for their relentless focus on killing Israeli Jews.
Cultural changes in Israel require reshaping Israel's reserve system? We'll see if the shock of this terrorist invasion changes the culture back to one that can sustain the original model.
Very accurate "suicide drone" assessment: "In some ways, loitering munitions are not as useful as artillery or bullets. Many artillery shells and bullets are not fired at a specific target or with the intent of causing casualties. This is what happens with suppressive fire, artillery or rifle fire is directed at an area to discourage the enemy from entering or moving into position to fire at your troops. You can consider a loitering munition overhead as a form of suppressive fire on the troops below. In this respect loitering munitions do what snipers have been doing for over a century, forcing troops to stay out of sight or the enemy sniper will get you." I will only say that cheap drones--that are ammo more than an aircraft--have the edge because the innovation for defeating them is lagging. That will change.
She was pro-Palestinian. Hamas didn't care when they came for her. She was a fool to play the game of "why do they hate us?" My advice about controlled ruthlessness written when 9/11 ground zero was still smoldering. And I'll add my question of "why do we hate us?"
That seems prudent: "South Korea’s defense minister said Tuesday he would push to suspend a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement in order to resume frontline surveillance on rival North Korea, as the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas militants raised concerns in South Korea about similar assaults by the North." Don't forget the "Second Korean War."
Is the CCP's foundation for their legitimacy of their monopoly of power eroding to critical levels? "For most Chinese, the state of the economy is their major concern. China is currently dealing with a housing bubble debt crisis, rising unemployment and inflation and continued slowing of economic growth. Economic growth continues to decline - it is now under two percent a year and getting worse. That means more unemployment and lower living standards for most Chinese. A decade ago it became clear that the purported years of ten percent GDP growth were ending, assuming they were ever true at all."
As we reflect on the unfolding results of Obama's virtual third term via Biden, let's recall some of the Smart Diplomacy® record of Obama's first two.
I did not realize Israel of all places had restrictive laws on private gun ownership. There is sudden interest in changing that.
Yes, I believe Milley over-stepped the bounds of civilian control of the military. I wrote something similar in a data dump a couple weeks ago. And then add his failure to resign in disgrace after the Afghanistan skedaddle debacle to salvage some honor. Tip to Instapundit.
America's Erdogan problem sadly continues: "Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday criticised the United States for moving a carrier strike group closer to Israel, saying that it would commit 'serious massacres' in Gaza." I guess he isn't fully committed to getting new F-16s. I hoped he'd lose his last election. He remains in power.
Conservatives should get over aid to Ukraine, which is fighting our enemy; and get worked up over American efforts to fund Iran, which is fighting our ally. Tip to Instapundit.
It is interesting that the Russian tank commander is criticized for not fighting "buttoned up" when decades ago the advocated method for situational awareness was fighting the tank standing up in the open commander's hatch. Despite the danger to the commander, the danger to the tank and entire crew was greater not seeing a threat that would get off the first shot. The loss of the newest T-90 is no shock. Tanks can be destroyed. That isn't new.
Ya think our presence is a little awkward, now? "The U.S. mission in Niger is in a holding pattern following Tuesday’s announcement that the removal of the country’s democratically elected president is now designated a coup by the State Department, prompting official suspension of U.S. aid, including equipment and training." Place that in the "Well, Duh" files.
More for the "Well, Duh" files: Yes, the M10 Booker is a tank. A light tank. Or as I like to call it, a FBOH.
Biden drained our Strategic Petroleum Reserve for fleeting opinion poll support only to find it is too low when we may soon have a strategic reason to draw from it.
I'm just going to point out that if a terror group murdered 25 (and counting?) Americans without over a thousand murdered Israelis obscuring that fact, we'd directly retaliate. I hope we are looking for places away from Gaza to kill Hamas members. [LATER: I heard a reporter ask that question in a White House briefing. Excellent question.]
Another thing our country is effing up: "The class of 2023 had the worst ACT performance in more than three decades, according to newly released data from the nonprofit that administers the college admissions test." May the teacher unions die. With festering boils. Tip to Instapundit.
The Army's future Switchblade 600 loitering anti-tank suicide drone.
Could China be tempted by European and Middle East wars demanding our attention to strike Taiwan? Well, I expressed that worry earlier in this data dump.
Thoughts on Israel's intelligence failure. Also, Palestinian Islamic Jihad was the red herring active threat that concealed Hamas preparations and intent.
One can only hope that a university system that inculcates such monstrous ideologies will largely collapse in shame as enough parents refuse to pay for such expensive indoctrination. I actually wonder why China pays to undermine our college system when it hates everything America stands for on its own. Still, China may view the terror fanboy (and girl) groups as their model for what they aspire to achieve. How many of those credentialed future concentration camp guards are getting their loans "forgiven" on the backs of taxpayers? I'm starting to think we should bulldoze those colleges and "return" the land to Native Americans as so many progressives claim to want.
I suppose: "Finland’s relationship with Russia has significantly deteriorated due to the Nordic country’s membership in NATO and over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions. Moscow now views its western neighbor as a hostile country, the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service said Thursday." But that's hardly the underlying cause of Russia's view. Because Russia views Finland as a small former part of the Russian Empire, the Russians would eventually get around to it if not stopped in more immediate targets for expansion. And Georgia and Ukraine show the danger of waiting too long to get NATO's security guarantee.
While some Americans want to reduce American military aid to Ukraine--with a strong sense of "why isn't Europe doing more?"--Europeans are doing more: "The EU has become Ukraine’s largest donor in 2023, having already disbursed EUR 13.5 billion (USD 14.266 billion) through the macro-financial assistance instrument. The 4.5 billion EUR would be in addition to this sum."
America's Ford carrier in the Mediterranean Sea should have a small Marine contingent. And I assume special forces could be on it by now. And perhaps Eisenhower will quietly load special equipment and personnel to increase special operations capabilities to rescue hostages held by Hamas.
Turkey continues to deny Sweden's application to join NATO. While I assume Hungary won't hold out if Turkey finally approves, what if Turkey is stubborn? Is it an alternative for every NATO member that surrounds Sweden to forge mutual defense treaties with Sweden to make sure Russia will face the dilemma of attacking NATO states to get at Sweden?
The U.S. seems to have unofficially frozen Iran's $6 billion account in Qatar.
The Hamas terror attack is a trap for Israeli ground troops? I think that worry might apply to a precision Israeli incursion. I raised the issue. But Israel is figuratively going to reduce Gaza's position relative to sea level by a measurable amount. I recall that some people said al Qaeda's 9/11 attack was intended to bait America into invading. Biden ultimately decided to lose the Afghanistan War, but al Qaeda got messed up quite a bit in that campaign.
America's FrankenSAM program to stitch together air defense systems for Ukraine.
ISW looks at Russia's regular ground combat organization. It's as of January 2023 so is more for general information and not a SITREP for right now.
I think 75% of our colleges should close their doors. Too many are just progressive finishing schools where the professors and administration inculcate hate. The term "Islamo-fascist" went out of fashion. But it sure deserves to be revived as we watch our college students. Not that I didn't witness this sort of thing on campus when I was in school many decades ago. It seems much worse. But maybe it is just better publicized. Or maybe it has moved from the ignorable students to the "adult" administrators. Tip to Instapundit.
As we worry about Islamo-fascist terrorists hitting us at home despite "ending" the war on terror by retreating from Afghanistan, our own federal government might score a mass killing with its slowness in fixing air traffic control problems. Don't say they weren't warned. Tip to Instapundit.
Admit it, Hamas and Iran might have drawn the conclusion from the evidence that America would kind of support anything they do to hurt Israel. Tip to Instapundit.
The first two terms of Obama plus his third via the husk of Biden explains (via Instapundit) the Democrats' bizarre unrequited love for mullah-run Iran and its proxies and allies.
Harvard students unaware their pro-Hamas student groups signed a letter supporting terrorists are worried they will be unfairly tagged by potential employers as pro-terrorist? Oh well. Your gentle host was once accused of being an "Islamophobe" and siding with Nazis because on TDR I use the term "Moslem" instead of "Muslim." Which is an effing transliteration issue! By somebody I thought was a friend. You guys wrote the rules. They suck, don't they? Tip to Instapundit.
Yeah, I wish this was just a clever joke. We Deplorables are the ones expected to fight and die. It's all fun and pronouns until the shit approaches the fan. Yeah, I'm too old now. And my college degrees were supposed to elevate me. But that's where I came from and I didn't catch a fatal case of nuance. I enlisted prior to starting my MA program. Tip to Instapundit.
Putin: "Russian President Vladimir Putin, on his first trip abroad [to Kyrgyzstan] since being indicted by the International Criminal Court in March, on Friday called on an alliance of former Soviet states to expand relations with non-Western countries." I assume that advice doesn't include more trade with China, eh?
I have to wonder if the Hamas murder and hostage terror raid into Israel plus the spectacle of a Day of Rage to defend Hamas around the world--including within the West--will lead Europeans to end and reverse the flow of the cheering masses from that part of the world into Europe. Trump had a point about suspending immigration from a list of problematic Islamic countries that the Obama administration compiled, eh?
A lot of truth to that: "A keffiyeh on an American college campus is just a hipster swastika."
A Chinese blockade of Taiwan as an alternative to a risky invasion is likely to be defeated by Taiwanese and American weapons available. Yeah. And I think a Chinese blockade is riskier than invasion because even if a blockade can work, it takes time and lets Taiwan mobilize and psychologically prepare; and allows America to gather forces from around the globe as well as mobilize allies.
Like much of the softer sciences, I bet this is reversing cause and effect: "'Super-agers,' or people over the age of 80 whose cognitive abilities are on par with those 20 to 30 years younger, reported having more warm, trusting, high-quality relationships with other people than cognitively normal participants, investigators at Northwestern University found. 'Keeping in good relationships could be one key to healthspan[.]'" I think the idea that people with better cognitive abilities will have a better relationship status should be put in the "Well, Duh" files. Tip to Instapundit.
As we watched the "Day of Rage" in American cities and campuses where progressives and their inter-sectional allies celebrated Hamas mass murder, perhaps we should recalculate who the "Deplorables" really are in America. Ditto regarding the Democratic elected leaders who won't condemn these pro-terrorist voices. Why isn't the media constantly asking Democrats if they disassociate themselves from the fanatics? Isn't that what they do? I mean, I've seen that done to Republicans routinely. Tip to Instapundit.
Another Goldilocks warrior has revealed himself: "'Israel is facing an existential threat. Any funding for Ukraine should be redirected to Israel immediately,' Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) posted on social media." This used to be standard operating procedure for leftists. Et tu, conservatives? "Peace" with Russia while it holds Ukrainian territory is actually just Russia "reloading." How far west does Russia have to go before the West thinks it should defend itself? FFS, when the Russians were on the Elbe River in the middle of Germany there were Americans (on the left, then) who didn't think we should resist them!
Yeah, despite its limitations--that any air defense system would have--Iron Dome is good. It's no silver bullet. Ultimately, the best air defense is your soldier standing on the enemy launch site (or air field).
Ah, I did say I wanted confirmation. China did not recently lose a nuclear-powered sub.
I saw a pro-Hamas march where the people in it were doing a horn-voice chant of "[Honk, honk], Palestine!" Didn't one of the greatest Canadian minds tell us that "honk, honk" is a "coded message" for "heil Hitler"? Just asking for a friend.
Yeah: "Israel is facing a crisis on multiple fronts, battling back from a surprise attack by Hamas that began last week while continuing efforts to prevent a nuclear armed Iran." And I worry it isn't a mere unfortunate coincidence.
Weird. I just notice that my statistics counter has dropped by nearly 40,000. I don't pay close attention to the counter, so I don't know when that happened. Odd.
I heard that Hamas planned their October 7th attack for a year. I can't remember when the recent movement toward Saudi-Israeli diplomatic normalization re-started. If real movement has been happening for less than a year, wrecking the normalization can't be the reason commonly given for the terror attack, no? If not that, why?
Laughing at the nuclear-powered cruise missile: "This is your regular reminder that, first, Russia can't afford any of its super weapons, and second, the weapons are often pretty dumb anyway. And so it is with a bellyful of laughter that we heard Vladimir Putin claim, again, to have a game-changing nuclear cruise missile." Yeah, Russia has a history of this sort of puffery. Although I think the Kraken rivals the cruise missile for dumbest.
WTF? "More than two-thirds of active duty service members are within the overweight or obese ranges of the body mass index, according to a report by the American Security Project released Thursday." Sure, maybe BMI is flawed. But the direction is alarming.
Egypt fears letting Palestinians flee Gaza even "temporarily" will result in their permanent exile? Given Arab world experience with Palestinian refugees and Egypt's experience with Hamas supporting terrorism inside Egypt, I think it is more accurate to say Egypt doesn't care if Gazans are exiled as much as Egypt fears Gazans will be exiled in Egypt. And given what Gazans do when the break into Israel, the idea that Israel itself should host Gazans trying to escape an Israeli ground offensive is frankly suicidally insane.
Axis of Evil: "The White House said on Friday that North Korea has delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia for its ongoing war in Ukraine."
Hamas supporters held a Day of Rage on the 13th around the world. Yawn. Chest-beating and flinging poo looks scary. But it should not deter us from taking action. Actually, the real day was held on October 7th inside Israel.
Leon Panetta should feel ashamed of himself. No media should have him on for any reason other than to admit his role--wither wittingly or unwitttingly--in the disinformation he spread on the very real Hunter laptop and its contents. Tip to Instapundit.
The shock of "success": "Iran, which has long sponsored Hamas, did not want Hamas to commit suicide. The years of Iranian support for Hamas was expensive and they expected Hamas to keep attacking Israel without triggering a massive response. Now Hamas will be gone and the base area in Gaza, where Iranian supplied rockets had, for years proved useful for Iran, will be gone as well." Iran doesn't want Hezbollah to join Hamas in its Viking funeral ride, they say. But does Iran have the leverage to insist? And would Lebanon's government really take the opportunity to help Israel crush Hezbollah's state-within-a-state in Lebanon?
It is easier to by sympathetic to Hamas the farther away you are from them: "Bedouins once sympathetic to Palestinian cause ‘seek vengeance’ after being targeted during Hamas’ assault on Israel, member says[.]" As I've long said, other Moslems are the biggest victim of Islamist jihadis by volume.
The enemy within (tip to Instapundit): "France will mobilize up to 7,000 soldiers to increase security around the country after a teacher was fatally stabbed and three other people wounded in a school attack by a former student suspected of Islamic radicalization, the president’s office said Saturday." How much longer to Le Xington and Concorde? What are France's option when Iran can make "huge earthquake" threats against Paris?
In other circumstances, Israel could afford to be less ruthless in putting down armed attacks and protests. But Israel needs to make sure West Bank residents fear death more than they desire to join in the Hamas Jew-killing fun: "Fifty-six Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the Hamas attack last Saturday in clashes with Israeli troops and attacks by Jewish settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry."
Thoughts on unity of command and unity of effort, and whether the former is required for the latter. I worry unity of command is a recipe for top-down micromanagement of battle to get a "tidy" battefield--which is folly.
