And Now For Something Completely Different

Even more memes! I keep thinking I'm getting tired of these but then I make more. I make no promises on quality control.

Human Shields on a National Level

The war in Syria is kind of sort of over. But the people Assad rules haven't gotten a peace dividend.

Will the multi-war ever really be over?

The Assad government is bankrupt because of lost Iranian subsidies and the need to concentrate on paying its security forces rather than rebuilding infrastructure to restore electricity and improve the roads damaged and neglected since 2011. As the Assads seek to regain control over more territory, improving standards of living has low priority. The Assads currently rule sixty percent of pre-war territory and an even higher percentage of the population. Unfortunately for Syrians, the Assads are skilled at running a police state, not an economically strong one.

Most of Syria's military power is concentrated in the northwest, which is the rump Syria that backs Assad. Outside of that area where the Russians are also located at their bases, there are Sunni jihadis, Turks, Iranians and their local allies, ISIL, Kurds and allies, and even an American-led coalition dominating the rest. I see no mention of Iran's proxy Hezbollah, which bled heavily to keep Assad in power. Perhaps they finally went home to Lebanon. 

The multi-war--it is too complicated to call a civil war in my opinion--lives on.

The economic situation is getting worse. Neither the Russians nor the Iranians want to pay to fix that.

God help us, but I assume Assad, Russia, and Iran expect the West to pay to restore the viability of the brutal Assad regime. The suffering people of Syria are just human shields to tug at the hearts of Westerners while the Axis of Assholes keeps their wallets in their pockets.

And I can't say they are delusional.

UPDATE: You may wonder if Syrians won much of anything in their long and ruinous multi-war, but have no doubt that Assad and his closest inner circle supporters who did not die on the battlefields won the war:

He faces no serious rival, and the Syrian opposition and Western nations view the election as a farce to rubber-stamp his grip on power.

Assad's years as president are defined by the conflict that began in 2011 with peaceful protests before spiralling into a multi-sided conflict that has fractured the Middle East country and drawn in foreign friends and enemies alike.

His allies who kept him in power, Russia and Iran, only care about his survival which allows them to station military forces inside Syria for their own purposes. Neither will pay to rebuild Syria beyond their own bases and Assad's personal security.

Still, nearly a decade, untold destruction, and 500,000+ casualties later, thank God we didn't "militarize" the conflict by decisively supporting rebels as the Obama administration warned against doing.

America is Not "Ending" the Afghanistan War

America isn't ending the Afghanistan War by withdrawing. America is just making sure the jihadis have a better chance of winning the war.

Retired Army General Petraeus isn't happy with the American decision to pull out of Afghanistan: 

I fear that we are going to look back and regret this decision. What could happen now and what seems beginning to be happening is Taliban further taking control of different territory, some crumbling of the Afghan security forces as we are drawing down our presence.

And as he said, how long to the maintenance contractors feel safe enough to remain and keep the Afghan security forces an air force-supported army rather than lots of light infantry little different than the Taliban? I opposed Trump's desire to bug out and I still oppose it now.

Is this ominous? 

The expansion of Taliban power in the past three years, even as U.S. and NATO forces were present in the country, is an ominous sign for the future of Afghanistan.

It's hard to say that the doubling of the number of districts "controlled and contested" by the Taliban, as the article states, means the situation is ominous. Remember, contracting the territory the Afghan security forces defend was a deliberate strategy. 

I was worried that this strategy would be a retreat that prompts collapse rather than a means to gather reserves to seize the initiative in the war. The contraction took place. I haven't seen the initiative switch. But then again, a government collapse didn't take place. So perhaps it is ominous. But I don't know. Still, I am worried.

And my worry doesn't require the withdrawal to be completed. As U.S. forces head for the exits in Afghanistan, I worry some of our Afghan allies will violently turn on us (green on blue) to gain favor with the Taliban.

I guess my worries depend on whether our allies think they can keep fighting without our tiny but vital presence. Strategypage offers this basis for hope: 

The current Afghan government is much stronger than it was in the 1990s and the current government sides with the majority of Afghans who oppose the Taliban and the drug gangs.

I don't assume the Taliban will overthrow the Afghan government. I worry our departure makes the overthrow more likely. Nothing more. The same as I worried about leaving Iraq in 2011.

Marine Kill Web

The Marines could field widely distributed anti-ship missiles that would defy Chinese attempts to nullify the threat.

This is awesome:

The Marine Corps took out a moving ship by firing a Navy missile at it from the back of an unmanned vehicle on land -- a new weapon the service's top general says will make "an adversary think twice."

Commandant Gen. David Berger revealed new details about a groundbreaking test announced last month in which Marines in California used a deadly new system to take out a threat at sea. Known as NMESIS, the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System can launch naval strike missiles from the back of a modified Joint Light Tactical Vehicle to destroy targets.

If the Marines can drop these off on islands and coasts by helicopters and link them with satellite or drone communications links to targeting assets, the Chinese would have serious problems breaking through the first island chain.

This ability to drop off and rearm or move the UGV with helicopters should make the Navy and Marines reconsider fully relying on the Light Amphibious Warship.

The LAW is unarmed and designed to move much more than a single vehicle. I question its value:

I'm really not happy with how the proposed LAW ship class is unfolding. How is it possible to think a slow and unarmed vessel can survive, let alone complete their missions? If the threat environment is low enough to do both, the Navy (and Air Force) has already won control of the seas--or it is peacetime still.

If these are supposed to roam around planting small Marine detachments capable of fighting the Chinese navy, I think the World War II model should be the destroyer transport (APD), as I wrote about in Proceedings a few years ago.

If this new Marine weapon is produced in sizable numbers, an armed transport that I advocated in that linked Proceedings article would be perfect to deploy and retrieve them at multiple locations.

The Multi-Generational Genocide

China isn't so crude or bold as to just exterminate Uighurs in massive numbers. China is patient.

China denies it is doing anything wrong and doesn't even seem to care that its lies aren't believed:

The United States has described what is happening to the mostly Muslim Uyghurs as a genocide. Starting in 2016, China launched a campaign of repression, banning Muslim names, forbidding long beards. It transformed the vast Uyghur homeland of Xinjiang into one of the most sophisticated surveillance states in the world, bristling with police checkpoints and facial-recognition cameras. Then people began to disappear. 

Students coming home on break found empty houses. Officials told them their parents had been “infected” by the virus of Islamic radicalism and needed to be quarantined and cured, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. Occasional stories began to emerge from the camps: high-pressure indoctrination classes; forced labor; physical and sexual abuse; a grinding out of Uyghur language, culture, and identity.

Satellite imagery says China is lying.

And if it takes generations to erase minorities with indoctrination, repression, compulsory lower birth rates, and Han migrants from the rest of China, China is fine with that.

The Long War Evolves

I've noted many times that the American-led war on terror is basically a holding action against Islamist terrorists. The holding action protects the West from the collateral damage of an Islamic civil war that is raging. The main combatants are the Islamist jihadi nutballs who want to kill on one side and normal people who prefer to get along with other people on the other. 

Resentment is a deep problem that creates and drives the murderous nuts:

This is a known, and major, flaw with Islam which is the only major religion whose scripture mandates continuous violence against infidels (non-believers). The Islamic scriptures make it clear that the mere existence of infidels is a threat to Islam and must be attacked, no matter what the cost. Most Moslems ignore this aspect of their religion, at the risk of being declared a heretic if conservative Moslems near them who decide to get violent and go jihad (war on) against any Infidels within reach. Many Moslems, including Gulf oil state Arab governments are openly seeking a way to reform Islam and eliminate this flaw which has been crippling Islam and killing Moslems for over a thousand years. This is a serious effort and one reason for making peace with Israel. 

So the war on terror is a supporting role. Luckily, the normals are making progress. So in the long run that is good news.

And in the short run, America doesn't need to wage the major military campaigns to contain the nutballs. Now it is nutball maintenance while the civil war is waged within Islam:

We have the "war on terror" which for a while in the Afghanistan and Iraq theaters was a real war.

But once the direct threats were defeated on the battlefield and whittled down to a size allies can handle with our help, it is something other than a war despite continued American military roles. ...

So the fight goes on. And the real fight is a civil war within the the Islamic world where we are potential collateral damage in the fight over who defines Islam--jihadis or normal people who would rather just get along with non-Moslems or even just Moslems who aren't Islamist fanatics of the proper sect.

We'll see if we can avoid having Afghanistan become a terror haven again after we bug out. Which will make it harder to contain the damage to the West of the Islamic civil war.

The bright side is that Afghanistan is a backwater in the civil war.

It's called the Long War for a reason. Just be grateful that our role is declining in intensity.

Killing Soleimani

The effort to kill Soleimani was pretty broad.

How to take out a key Iranian terror master:

The United States recently revealed details of Israeli and Iraqi Kurd support during the operation to track and kill Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. Both Israel and the Iraqi Kurds wanted Soleimani gone as they knew from experience that he was a key element for organizing attacks on Israel and Kurds in general. The Israelis had agents with access to the supplier of cellphones to Soleimani, who frequently (often every call) changed phones. The Israelis slipped phones with trackers in them and let the Americans know which phones were so equipped. This enabled the Americans to know when Soleimani would fly out of Syria and arrive in Iraq (Baghdad airport). The Kurds had agents throughout Iraq and their Baghdad Airport network was able to confirm what vehicles he and his entourage of local Iran-backed Iraqi militia leaders were as they left the airport. The U.S. already had three armed UAVs circling the airport and three SOCOM (Special Operations Command) sniper teams in position outside the airport. American electronic monitoring teams in Baghdad were also involved. Normally details like this are not released unless the enemy has already figured it out. That provides an opportunity to embarrass the Iranians with details of how many enemies they have in the region and the ability of those enemies to cooperate.

The Iranian rulers had no idea Soleimani was so critical for their foreign military operations.

 

And there were no leaks to undermine the operation. I assume that means the Iraqi government, which is infested by pro-Iran people, was not notified. But despite some loud noises by pro-Iran elements, ultimately the government in practice accepted it. We're still there, after all.

Unreasonable Hate

The global Left seems mighty annoyed that Hitler's genocide failed and seems to wish the Jews in Israel would just die already.

That's way different, I guess:

Two weeks ago Turkish forces launched a military assault in the Duhok region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Villagers were forced to ‘flee in terror’ from raining bombs. It was only the latest bombardment of the beleaguered Kurds by Turkey, NATO member and Western ally. It did not trend online. There were no noisy protests in London or New York. The Turks weren’t talked about in woke circles as crazed, bloodthirsty killers. Tweeters didn’t dream out loud about Turks burning in hell. The Onion didn’t do any close-to-the-bone satire about how Turkish soldiers just love killing children. No, the Duhok attack passed pretty much without comment.

But the reaction is different with Hamas rockets raining down on Israeli civilians. 

People need to face the simple fact that the Palestinians in Gaza have a potential 100% defense against Israeli air strikes--don't try to kill Israelis.

 

But the Left can't accept that. To the Left, Israel's decision to fight back and stop the terrorist attacks rather than just sit and endure the beating they richly deserve is the outrage. 

UPDATE: When there will be a ceasefire:

UPDATE: Sometimes people are just on the other side:

By a vote of 217-209, the House rejected a bid to bring a bill to the floor that would have applied sanctions against the terror group Hamas.

So there's that. 

UPDATE: Please note that this description of Gaza terror tactics is admittedly about increasing the chance to kill civilians--a war crime:

The current cross-border fighting has seen a new tactic by the Gazan militant groups: mass-launches aimed at exploiting the statistical failure rate of Israel's air defences and increasing the chance of causing casualties in its cities.

The article notes that the Israelis are no longer double-tapping the incoming rounds predicted to hit targets to save missiles. Which results in a lower interception success rate.

These are the people some Westerners shamefully side with.

China For a Day? Morality Aside, You Don't Want That

I finally read Michael Beckley's book Unrivaled. I've mentioned him before. It reinforces my sense that while we have to prepare to resist China, that China's rise isn't as significant as it may seem on the surface.

One thing I'd like to highlight is a counter to the envy of the China fanboys in the West (p. 126):

While formal authority is concentrated in Beijing, much policy implementation is delegated to local governments that routinely evade central government mandates. Local autonomy may have spurred growth during the reform years by allowing different regions to experiment with different policies (although this claim is debated among China scholars), but now China's "decentralized authoritarianism" is undermining Beijing's efforts to "rebalance" the economy from investment to domestic consumption and innovation. In November 2013, the Communist Party outlined sixty reform proposals affecting almost every aspect of the economy, but less than 10 percent were implemented.

China for years can't get things done, let alone China for one day. 

And recent years have reminded us that "reasonably enlightened" cannot describe a China that has Orwellian domestic surveillance, crushes Hong Kong in violation of international agreement and human decency, carries out multi-generational ethnic cleansing in Tibet and Xinjiang, and threatens neighbors to expand Chinese territory.

I recommend the book for his power evaluation angle. Those who think the American century is over are premature in that judgment.

But I'd skip the final chapter. The author skates on thinner ice there when he goes into policy judgments and recommendations.

UPDATE: Oh, and about China's supposed long-range planning ability.

Hitting Putin Where It Hurts

The real front in the Russia-Ukraine War is not in the Donbas.

Ukraine touched a nerve in Russia:

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy risks another escalation with Russia after Ukrainian authorities charged a Ukrainian oligarch and a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin with treason.

The start of the legal onslaught against Viktor Medvedchuk in February was reportedly one of the triggers behind Moscow massing the largest concentration of Russian troops at the Ukrainian border since the start of the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Mr Medvedchuk, who counts Mr Putin as the godfather of one of his children, has been a divisive figure in Ukrainian politics, openly courting the Kremlin at a time when Ukrainian troops are battling Russia-backed separatists in the country’s east.

Ukrainian prosecutors on Tuesday evening unveiled the details of the treason charges against the 66-year-old oligarch who flaunts his close friendship with the Russian leader who is loathed in Ukraine for having annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014.

Russia loses more by having its powerful friends in Ukraine defeated than by losing a village here or there in Russian-occupied Donbas. This supports my belief that rather than fighting Russia on a battlefield that Ukraine's best weapon to defeat Russia is to become far less corrupt than Russia. 

You can see how much this hurts by how blindingly stupid Putin's response was:

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that neighbouring Ukraine was becoming 'anti-Russia' and that Moscow would be ready to react to what he said were threats to its own security.

Putin was speaking a day after a Ukrainian court placed Viktor Medvedchuk, a prominent pro-Russian politician who says Putin is godfather to his daughter, under house arrest.

Putin is upset that Ukraine is "becoming 'anti-Russia'"?  

Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, seized and annexed Crimea, pretends it is only supporting oddly well equipped "separatists" in what is Russian-occupied Donbas in the east, effectively blockades Ukraine's Sea of Azov coast, and repeatedly threatens Ukraine with invasion.

What does Putin expect after all that? Is he that vodka-addled, paranoid, and/or ignorant of reality? Or just one of the best liars in Russia?

#WhyRussiaCan'tHaveNiceThings

Cannon Fodder

Hamas uses human shields in its war with Israel. Iran is using Hamas to fight Israel in Gaza and diplomatically.

Israel has to worry that fighting Hamas for too long could hurt the ability of Arab states to form alliances and relations with Israel:

When the United Arab Emirates shocked the Arab world by normalising relations with Israel it said the move would help ease the protracted Arab-Israeli conflict. But nine months later, the wealthy Gulf state finds itself in a difficult position as its newest ally bombards the impoverished Palestinian territory of Gaza.

Iran could be sacrificing Palestinians to hurt Israel-Arab ties to oppose Iran. As I've noted, Iran is willing to fight its enemies to the last dead Arab. 

So the idea that Hamas is "gambling" on a strategy of openly fighting Israel is wrong. In the long discussion of why Hamas started firing rockets at Israel, there is no mention of Iran. Hamas is just obeying Iranian orders and sending their cannon fodder people to die in order to save the Hamas gravy train. And using their own people as human shields.

Yet it could be that other Arabs are too tired of voting for the Palestinians as Queen of the Victim Prom to care any more. If so, Israel has no reason to rescue Hamas from their slavish folly by ending hostilities before ripping Hamas a new one: 

The Israeli security cabinet on Sunday decided to continue the Gaza operation, according to military plans. Israeli officials said a cease-fire is not on the table right now.

Perhaps enough pain will deter Hamas from asking "how high" when Iran next tells them to jump.

UPDATE: Despite the widespread condemnation of Israel for fighting back, the basic truth is that Hamas tries to kill civilians while Israel tries to avoid killing civilians. 

UPDATE: Israel says it will move toward ceasefire after achieving "several military objectives". That includes, I assume: "The Israeli military said air strikes destroyed nine miles of militant tunnels under Gaza early on Monday, claiming that it has taken out 60 miles of the underground network in the past week."

UPDATE: Hamas effed up. They trusted Iran. I guess the major variable is how long does Israel want to hurt Hamas to reinforce that lesson.

Weekend Data Dump

The British Labour Party's appeal at the local level has eroded. A year of the Xi Jinping Flu hasn't revived their fortunes, it seems.

Iran tightens its grip on the Houthi faction in Yemen and orders an intensification of the war effort. Iran is using every point of pressure to get American sanctions lifted. As I've noted, Iran is willing to fight to the last dead Arab. It always amuses me that many decades ago South Yemen was an ally of the Soviets and North Yemen was a Saudi ally. Now it is reversed, with Iran taking over the support role of the USSR.

I suppose it isn't too shocking that the Chinese looked at biological warfare. I imagine a lot of countries have, if not for offensive options then for protective measures. Still, it puts my early post during the Xi Jinping Flu in a different light. I assume this pandemic wasn't deliberate. The ineffectiveness of the Chinese vaccine indicates that (assuming China didn't use an effective vaccine at home while sending a crappy one abroad). And China's boasting about their ability to cope with the COVID-19 virus doesn't make them look good. But have the Chinese learned from this what they'd need to do to launch a biological warfare attack in the future?

Leftist accusations that conservatives are Nazis aren't just outrageous because they are completely and totally false. The false accusations are dangerous because many people who don't know what Nazis really were may think that Nazism isn't so bad. If the people accused of being Nazis obviously aren't bad at all, maybe Nazis are fine, they may reason. The same is true of people who accuse liberals of being communist. Although to be fair BLM and Antifa are communist groups. Although many members of the former are not actual communists and are fooled by the name, the leadership and objectives of the group are communist.

Britain is establishing a ranger unit. This will extend British capabilities to support allies across the combat spectrum globally, especially in support of British intelligence operations that hopefully keep problems from going conventional.

The left screamed that Trump would invade Venezuela. He didn't. And so Venezuela is still a socialist Hell hole ruled by the cruel clown Maduro and his cronies. Oh, and it is a source of drug and terrorism exports. In related news, it took many decades to score a win in Colombia. Let's defend that win, shall we?

The Chinese Communist Party claims that taking Taiwan, much like ethnically cleansing Tibet and Xinjiang, is part of ending their "century of humiliation" at the hands of the West (and Japan). Whether or not that is true or whether it is just a way to keep Chinese people in line behind the CCP control of China is beside the point. If China acts on that, we have problems. Nobody talks much about the huge problems Russia will have if the Chinese revive another front on the war on humiliation.

Hey, perhaps I hung on in defiance of Facebook and Twitter dominance long enough to be an independent refuge in the war on information!

Democrats have long been a party built on anointing victims to be rescued while Republicans have boasted of assimilation and the American dream. As long as America remains a land of opportunity, minorities will shift to Republicans as they succeed or envision success. Unless Democrats manage to destroy that enduring feature of America. Which seems to be their plan in practice if not intent. Tip to Instapundit.

American heavy, medium, and light forces are to get secure and mobile communications gear able to defeat enemy jamming. That is very much needed against peer military foes.

How useless is our media? So useless that I found out on Australian news that the idea that the Xi Jinping Flu might end with summer warm weather came from China. That's what Xi told Trump in a phone call! It wasn't some magical thinking on the part of Trump. The people who we wrongly trusted to give us accurate information told us.

Russian cyber-criminals are apparently responsible for the pipeline hack that has that fuel transport source shut down. Russian cyber gangs work with the Russian government. Biden says "there was no evidence that the Russian government was involved" but that's not how it works. The Russian government wouldn't participate in the hack. But it would let it be known that nothing bad will happen to the gang if it did it. And really, given the capability this gang has, is it better or worse if Putin isn't somehow involved? The Department of Transportation issued an emergency declaration to bolster alternate fuel transportation means. Does Russia get away with this? Or will American hackers seek revenge?

So is this oil field fire in Kuwait an accident?

I'm disappointed that "dogecoin" is pronounced "doje-coin" and not "doggy-coin". 

I remain confused about our dire shortage of icebreakers when all the cool kids tell me the Arctic ice cap will soon be gone because of global warming. Hell, they've been saying that for decades so it must be right. So will there be ice that needs breaking? Or not?

Friends in need: "U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration will consider Ukraine’s expected request to buy American missile defense systems and other weaponry in the wake of a Russian military buildup on its border."

I really don't care what happens to Portland any more. They're getting what they want or accept.

This is amusing but it is a parody account. So don't fall for it as news as much as you might like it to be true.

Our pre-friends the Iranians: "A U.S. Coast Guard cutter fired two volleys of warning shots Monday as a group of 13 Iranian fast boats sped toward U.S. Navy vessels in the Persian Gulf's Strait of Hormuz[.]"

American paratroopers, some flying directly from the United States, will join with NATO allies in planned parachute assaults on Estonia, Bulgaria, and Romania.

I'm confused: "As the Army looks to preserve its budget and advance modernization priorities in the Indo-Pacific region, it tested firing rockets at targets from long distances during exercises near Russia on Wednesday amid tensions with the Kremlin." Long-range fires are useful against Russian land targets without even considering their use against Chinese targets.

Shipbuilding. China does it and America doesn't. Perhaps we could have European and Asian allies build the hulls? And we put in the systems. And modularized auxiliary cruisers might work, too.

Hahahaha!

Subcontracting our constitutional rights to the UN--an organization grossly influenced by its thug members--should not be allowed.

The "Snake" Plisskens of the non-skeletal coral and crinoid world.

The Army has abandoned plans to increase the Army beyond 485,000 active troops. But can it hold that line against reductions? Yes, the troop strength is the inadequate number of troops that we had on September 11, 2001. But the Army shed a lot of Cold War-suited units since then. Does this mean the Army has enough troops for its current force structure, unlike 20 years ago? Or has the Army's needs for new types of units eaten up that troop savings?

Right now the Chinese value their little rogue psycho regime North Korea because it threatens countries China would love to feel threatened. China may not control North Korea. But its influence is good enough for little pet psycho work. But if that country of one fat guy and 25 million skinny people becomes a country of one fight guy with nukes and 25 million skinny people, North Korean hostility toward China might be more freely expressed. Especially if North Korean nukes actually prompt Japan and South Korea to open up relations with North Korea a bit.

Apparently Biden can't find a Democrat who doesn't hate Israel to be the ambassador there.

Journalists are still in a trust death spiral. I recently read an article that addressed this. In a part on Mueller's failure to find Trump-Russia collusion, a famous reporter objected. He said the report showed Russian interference and Trump-Russian "agent" contacts. THOSE ARE THREE DIFFERENT THINGS! Yes, Russia interfered. As they've done since they were Soviets. When they helped Democrats and Democrats didn't mind one bit. As to the tiny and laughable propaganda Russia seeded, Russia clearly worked to sow division rather than help Trump. Mission accomplished thanks to the subsequent Resistance. And "contacts" with Russians are to be expected for a presidential campaign. But the point of the lengthy and well-funded investigation is that there was no actual Trump campaign collusion with the Russian government at all. Yet still, the so-called journalist refuses to see that.

You know how you shake your head in bewilderment when somebody says something blindingly stupid? Well, what do you do when somebody acts on that blindingly stupid statement? May Baltimore enjoy what they voted for. Tip to The Morning Briefing.

The Chinese communists have crushed Hong Kong and likely killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.

Let's hope Biden doesn't have to spring into action when getting that 3:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m. phone call.

French intervention in Mali just held the line against jihadi advances. And nearly a decade later French and allied forces are still trying to hold the line against jihadi advances. But what's the alternative. Giving jihadis a sanctuary and a country to abuse and warp?

The only time I hear about a supposed racist "dog whistle" is when liberals tell me about them. Where on Earth do they hear about them?

Being crushed by an uncaring government. My sympathy for these victims of the government exceeds my frustration that the city residents voted for this uncaring government. This is just the most blatant recent example of how civil infractions are more about generating revenue for cities than enforcing public safety. "Systemic looting" is the problem. Tip to Instapundit.

I find it hard to believe that our diplomats are being subject to "beam" attacks. There is doubt about it. And the discussion certainly makes it seem like a side effects of surveillance, if it exists, rather than a weapon. I know I was warned not to stand in the path of microwave transmitters when I was in the Signal Corps. But perhaps I underestimate the evil of our foes and perhaps enemies.

America should not be interested in preventing a "power vacuum" from developing in Central Asia. One, there is no power vacuum. Russia and China are competing heavily for the former Soviet republics. And two, we should encourage that competition. Now if we are just talking about Afghanistan, I'm all in favor of preventing hostile actors from filling the vacuum created by our withdrawal.

This week my computer is periodically unusable. I assume various software is being updated to prevent hackers from making my computer unusable. I'm hoping that is a good bargain because I have no choice in this deal.

The Biden administration's early decision to be nice to the Houthi to encourage reasonable negotiations has not worked. I noted turning against the Saudis to do this was stupid. It does not bode well for Yemen or dealing with the Houthi paymasters the Iranians on nuclear weapons. God help us, but I think the administration is determined to have a deal with Iran no matter what Iran demands.

While many on the left blame Trump for this, remember that the 2015 nuclear deal didn't prevent Iran from gaining the skill and equipment to reach this nuclear weapon milestone: "Iran has enriched uranium to slightly higher purity than previously thought due to 'fluctuations' in the process, the United Nations' atomic watchdog said Wednesday."

It is shocking how long things like this take: "A new commander has taken charge of a new Marine Corps base on Guam, where 5,000 members of the III Marine Expeditionary Force are set to move over the next five years from Okinawa." I believe I was blogging about the planned move over 15 years ago. And in only five more years it will be done!

Interesting: "The Pentagon has awarded Israeli company Xtend a contract to deliver dozens of small unmanned aerial systems for use indoors and in urban environments by special forces in the Navy, Marine Corps and Army." It will certainly be safer for civilians if you don't have to toss a grenade into a room before entering, just in case.

Perhaps I underestimate Biden. Could inflation and stagnation in America's economy be his plan to convince Central American migrants not to come to America illegally? 

The military wants cheap, hand-held anti-drone weapons to defeat small enemy drones. As I argued for in Army magazine, I think we should have aerial drone fighters to free up combat troops for their primary mission of closing with and destroying the enemy. And such a thing exists: "the Skylord Griffon UAV meant to destroy other drones — a capability recently demonstrated at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. The system is already operational with Israeli special forces."

More MAGA territory self-identifies?  "Antisemitic Attacks Spike in NYC as COVID-19 Fades: A string of violent incidents targeting Jews points to a breakdown in public safety across the five boroughs[.]"

So ... that couple just proved that they think all Asians look alike? Huh. Tip to Insanity Wrap.

Being within reach of Russia naturally breeds worry: "Romania’s president told U.S. counterpart Joe Biden on Monday that more NATO troops are needed on the alliance’s eastern flank given Russia actions that are perceived as threatening by many in the region." Among other things, I think the Black Sea should be a turkey shoot for NATO forces hunting Russian ships there. The Romanians will join in, of course.

Holy f*ck! When did the 1984 Newspeak Dictionary become a how to manual for the left?

The German company Rheinmetall opened a facility in Michigan in preparation for competing to build the replacement for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

At least in the Middle East, Biden seems to have inherited the Obama view that the only way to get negotiated settlements is to balance the forces on either side. That was evident in Syria as I noted here and here as Obama tried to pressure--not defeat--Assad with "calibrated" support for rebels. That seems to be American policy again. Even if it means weakening allies like Israel and the Gulf Arabs to enable a grand bargain with Iran. 

The media could focus on Israeli-Palestinian fighting or Russian hacking of a major pipeline. But that would reflect poorly on Biden and put the pressure on him to act. So instead the media focuses on relatively minor leadership scuffles in the Republican Party. Those clowns in the media can't go bankrupt soon enough for my tastes. We need to figuratively break them up--by not buying their product--and sell them for parts.

Perhaps I "suffer" from not being in those hate circles, but I think the idea that white supremacists are the top security threat to the United States is insane. Whatever threat that represents surely aligns more closely with local gang threats best dealt with by state and local law enforcement. Honestly, I think our government should be embarrassed to inflate the threat that way. And the idea that Antifa/BLM violence last year (and extending into this year) is insignificant because that was such a small percentage of the protests relies on the vast number of protests to dilute the violence. There was perhaps $2 billion in property damage reported to insurance companies and a couple dozen dead from the riots, if memory serves me. If white supremacists were a threat, I'd support harsh measures. But law enforcement under our system will be fine with this problem.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers resumed construction on a 13.4 mile section of wall on the Mexican border.

I don't think retired high-ranking military officers should do this any more than I thought they should have urged the ouster of Trump: "A group of retired U.S. military admirals and generals signed a letter released Tuesday questioning President Biden’s fitness for office and seemingly challenging the outcome of the 2020 presidential election." But the question is will the media welcome this latest letter as much as they did the Trump-era opinions? Of course not. Opposing Trump was patriotic and in defense of democracy. Opposing Biden is treasonous and dangerous to democracy. Mind you, the generals make some good points. But civilians should make those points. And if you don't like their take on the last election, maybe support making the process more secure and transparent, eh? Tip to Instapundit.

Perhaps with the prospect of reduced American support for them, the Saudis are looking to cut a deal with Iran. Iran pulls out of Yemen and Saudi Arabia supports removing American sanctions from Iran. The Saudis are placing a bet that this gets them a win in the Yemen civil war and that a revolution in Iran will save them from strengthening the finances of the Iranian government.

The men behind the curtain: "For the third time in the last month the Guardian Council has changed the rules for who can run for election to parliament. The next vote is June 18^th and determining candidate criteria or blocking any potential candidate is a key tool for the Guardian Council to exercise their dictatorial control over Iran while still pretending Iran is a democracy." It's funny. Many say America shouldn't impose Western-style democracy on other countries. But Iran sure does go out of its way to simulate this "alien" form of government, doesn't it? And in fact countries around the world take great pains to have highly visible democracy forms without having actual rule-of-law democracy. Why don't those countries just proudly have whatever "authentic" governance their culture provides?

Welcome to the air defense party, pal: "The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale to Canada of 4 AEGIS Combat Systems made by Lockheed Martin in a deal valued at up to $1.7 billion, the Pentagon said on Monday."

It is wise to build up counter-mine capabilities--and mine laying capabilities for that matter--as we prepare to contest foes for command of the seas.

Russia really, really needs Western help to build ship engines.

Smart Diplomacy: "Since President Biden announced the United States would leave Afghanistan by Sept. 11, violence has soared. But it isn’t only Afghans who’ll suffer. With the return of the Taliban, a rejuvenated and dangerous al Qaeda will enjoy the same sanctuary it had over two decades ago." I wouldn't claim that a bad outcome is assured. I'll only claim the odds of a bad outcome are higher without American and NATO troops assisting our local allies who fight the jihadis. And just because I issued the same caution about leaving Iraq in 2011 doesn't mean I'll claim certainty now.

Taiwan will build a semi-conductor plant in America--but not in China despite China's wishes. Taiwan is a global leader for semi-conductor design and production.

The Army can now easily upgrade tank software.

Democrats say that a tiny Russian social media ad campaign decisively altered the results of the 2016 election in favor of Trump. But four years of almost universal relentless turn-the-dial-to-11 American media propaganda didn't alter the 2020 election in favor of Biden. Okay.

The Russian hackers who disabled a gas pipeline did a great service to America by reminding a lot of Americans that gasoline doesn't get shipped to gas stations by Unicorns.

Replacing knowledge of cause and effect with "we're smarter and more virtuous, and we want it".

Huh? "US Air Force loads up F-15E fighter jet with a lot of cruise missiles to see if it could be used like a bomber[.]" The F-15E is a bomber. With secondary fighter capability. That's why that version is called a Strike Eagle. That said, good. With limited airfields close to China, each plane should be able to do more.

Scarborough Shoal.

Don't panic about the Xi Jinping Flu variants. 

Greece will send a Patriot battery to Saudi Arabia to help cement relations with Gulf Arab states who also want to counter Turkey.

Republicans pounce! "Conservatives seize on gas crunch to blame Biden, stir base[.]" Wow. "Conservatives seize!" Remember in left-wing news world, if Republicans had been in power when there was a gas crunch, the story would be about the gas crunch. But because Democrats are in power, the story is about Republicans attacking Biden for the gas crunch. Effing amazing. 

The Russians need forces 360 degrees with a regional power military. Why Russia insists on pretending NATO is a threat--and so provoking NATO military preparations in response--is beyond me.

China will attempt a landing on Mars. [And it worked, with a rover in the payload.] Sadly, America's FOB Jezero Crater is only at initial operating capability so can't go meet the Chinese lander and photograph it.

Laugh. But then cry at the reality of it:

Apparently it is "smearing" communists to accurately describe their violence. You learn something new every day.

China is not a "paper dragon" we can dismiss as a threat. This is a reaction to an article claiming just that which I commented on last week: "Is China a "paper dragon"? Certainly they aren't as strong as their shiny weapons portray. Much must go right behind that facade to make it real military power. So sure, don't panic. The author relies on Beckley to reject the scope of the China threat. I addressed that author who made a lot of good points. But Japan caused us enough grief from 1941-1945 despite having a GDP of 1/8 to 1/10 of America's. So no, I would not say that China is a paper dragon. Especially when China gets to initiate war at a time and place nearby of their choosing. Work the problem. And who knows when China's deep internal problems will push the Chinese Communist Party to use its new and shiny military to generate nationalist support. The CCP might believe that not only are they not a paper dragon, but that they are unstoppable.

The Navy's decision to get rid of its small Mk. VI boats and Cyclone-class ships without a replacement is, to say the least, ill advised.

The eastern front of NATO is weakly held. Reducing Russia's temptation to take advantage of that is wise: "National governments, the EU, and NATO are considering how to expand their individual and joint military mobility (MM) efforts across Europe during the next decade, with a broad emphasis on speeding up procedures for transit movement across national borders."

The Army will get rid of the cannon-armed Stryker in favor of a broader upgrade in Stryker lethality to defeat heavy and light armor. 

The Air Force naturally foresees the end of the old but capable small F-22 force as a new plane replaces it.

Left-wing hysteria about an imagined threat of a Trump military coup had the result of muting the military response to protesters flooding Washington, D.C., where some rioted at the Capitol Building.

Ford's shock trial is going forward despite broken weapons elevators. Maybe they'll be ready in time. Perhaps. If past performance is not an indication of future results. The Navy has one shot at this kind of test short of war to see what happens to the systems when a major hit shakes the Hell out of the ship. Tip to Instapundit.

Armenia wants more Russian help to hold off Azerbaijan. Can Russia afford to do that?

Did we reach the tipping point for defeating the Xi Jinping Flu? Tip to Instapundit.

Soldiers need to survive in the Arctic before they can fight there.

That's gotta hurt their social credit score for the rest of their lives, right?

United States, Japan, France, and Australia held naval and amphibious exercises. It's interesting that France is involved.

In my view, Israel isn't "over-reacting" to Hamas rocket attacks as long as Hamas is still firing rockets at Israel.

All that talk of AI, quantum computing, hypersonics, unmanned systems, and cyberwarfare sure sounds so "beyond" mere armies. But when the country needs boots on the ground--even in INDOPACOM--the Army will be the one our leaders call. Just remember that the Army we will have that day is the Army that today we wish to have then.

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.

The Russians really must have competitions amongst themselves to see who can be the biggest annoying bastard toward America, right? Tell me it just isn't a natural talent widespread in the Russian government.

 Yet he's fine with people thinking he is a moron, apparently. 

The Russian and Chinese armies adopt the American-pioneered high tech infantry equipment. If you need more proof that they are no longer the side that prioritizes quantity over quality. Which means that they no longer intend to overwhelm with numbers of troops who die in human wave attacks.

I agree to an extent with the idea that conventional versus irregular warfare/COIN is a false choice. I think well-trained troops can do both as long as the officers know how to use them appropriately for the missions. There is a lot of overlap at the pointy end of the stick. The differences appear more at higher levels of action. Perhaps the Vietnam War should be studied more to learn how our forces had to switch back and forth between COIN and conventional warfare within the same war.

I'm worried that America is more committed to financially supporting the Palestinians fighting Israel than it is to supporting the Afghan government fighting the Taliban: "The Biden administration notified Congress this week that it will send millions of dollars in U.S. assistance to the Palestinians aimed at promoting peace with Israel even as violence between the two sides rages."

Say, which side gets misinformation from their preferred news sources? On issues relating to pandemic risk, police shootings, and global warming, those who watch left-wing news are way more inaccurate.  

Liz Cheney deserved to lose her leadership position in the House Republican caucus. She acts more like she wants a leadership position in the Democratic caucus. This isn't a matter of conservatives defending Trump. It is about a Republican repeatedly attacking Trump. The election is over. She couldn't let it go to focus on what the Democrats in the House are doing right now. That is a lack of leadership ability.

The increasingly influential left within the Democratic Party is increasingly (and, without opposition within the party more vocally) anti-Semitic. And if American Jews think they can avoid that hate by being more leftist than Jewish, they are totally confused about what irrational racial hatred entails. Tip to Instapundit.

Wow! Iran could only turn out crowds that small to defend Iran's proxies? "Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered in cities across Iraq to stand in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and Jerusalem." Iran's influence is weaker than I thought, apparently. Far more significant is that a sizable number of Israeli Arabs are out in the streets supporting Hamas despite being attacked by Hamas rockets.

OMG! I finally figured out how to copy and paste illustrations from military publication PDFs! How was I ignorant of this for so long! Somehow my near-random mouse clicks that simulated a room of monkeys with infinite time typing achieved that.

El Salvador is on the road to self-destruction. And the people seem thrilled with that. For now.

Xi Jinping Flu rages (thanks Xi Jinping!) and now India may face a cyclone.

Some people are upset that Israel tricked the media into saying Israeli troops were invading Gaza? Which may have helped Israel strike Hamas terrorists in underground shelters. But Israel just said they were attacking Gaza. The media assumed this meant crossing the border. And didn't the media essentially act as an early warning system by quickly saying Israel was invading? I'm just satisfied that for once the media worked against the terrorists. Also, I'm unclear about what happened. Did Hamas fighters go into shelters where they were bombed or did they go into fighting positions where they were bombed? Seems like conflicting information out there.

WTactualF? "Military.com reports that Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier has been relieved of his duties pending an investigation after he appeared on a podcast and criticized the rise of Marxism in the United States military." Everybody should be appalled at the rising influence of evil Marxists. Give Lohmeier a medal, for God's sake.

Just when you thought Hamas couldn't be more hate filled because of their jihadi-twisted faith. Tip to Instapundit. Sadly, an increasingly vocal leftists portion of the Democratic Party sides with Iran-backed Hamas over Israel.

To kill the enemy you have to find the enemy. Israel may think it can avoid sending ground troops in to clear out Hezbollah's rocket arsenal and deal a real blow to the Iran-backed terror organization. If so, that Oron capability will be key to letting the air force try again. We need an update to the old JSTARS and Israel provides hope for that: "The main problem is that while [JSTARS] was very popular with the ground forces, the air force puts priority on aircraft needed to maintain control of the air and deliver attacks on surface targets. The Israeli Oron may change their minds because Oron is equipped to detect all sorts of ground targets and instantly pass that data on to airborne or surface-based units that can launch a guided missile at the targets."

The "Indian variant" of the Xi Jinping Flu will likely become dominant in the United Kingdom. Why was it only racist hate to call the original Covid-19 virus the "China" or "Wuhan" virus? Maybe for the same reason Trump was racist for banning travel from China more than a year ago; but Biden is listening to science! when he recently banned travel from India. It's all so complicated.

British and Canadian troops endured much higher casualty rates than American troops? And so America didn't really carry the burden there? The story is BS and the British defense ministry statement added to the article nullifies the point of the article. The fact is, the British and Canadian--and all other contingents--were basically combat units. America supplied the combat support and combat service support that allowed them to fight. The American denominator was much larger, as a result. I never dismissed the Canadian and British efforts. Just as much as the American combat troops, they fought. As did the Dutch, if memory serves me. They all have my thanks. And even the non-fighting elements did useful jobs as much as the restrictions on their use annoyed me.

Germany hopes to spread out the cost for a new European tank. Who knew Germany wanted new tanks?

China is siding against Israel against Hamas, and demanding a "two-state solution"--as if the Palestinians haven't been offered that for twenty-plus years now. Perhaps we should call for a "five-state solution" for China--Communist China, Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

This scares the Hell out of me: "Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said Friday that inflation is going up even faster than he predicted, pushing back against the more rosy economic outlook of the Federal Reserve and the Biden White House." Inflation is the middle class killer. And I don't know if the assurances or warnings are correct.

As if Ukraine doesn't have enough grievances against Russia, the USSR's lovely parting gift keeps on giving.

Israel struck a military target in Gaza. The AP was probably just fine being human shields for Hamas.

The Russian cyber-attack on the Colonial Pipeline system highlights vulnerabilities in our energy infrastructure. This is exactly why I opposed selling Uranium stocks to Russia: "We are improving cyber-war focus but more needs to be done. Supply chain security is one area. Honestly, that is the aspect of the Hillary Clinton-approved uranium deal with Russia that worried me--not putting 20% of our uranium supply under Russian corporate rule. What could Russia do with the inside knowledge of that vital supply chain?" Now we have an idea what Russians could do.

American special forces are looking at Arctic scenarios? That's interesting.