Tag Archives: Defense Matters!

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

Navy vs Pirates

New US-led naval force to battle Somali pirates

At first glance this sounds like a great step in the right direction, at last.

A new international naval force under American command will soon begin patrols to confront escalating attacks by Somali pirates after more than 100 ships came under siege in the past year, the U.S. Navy said Thursday.

But then, at second glance, it’s more of the same ole’ same ole’ pussyfooting around.

But the mission—expected to begin operations next week—appears more of an attempt to sharpen the military focus against piracy rather than a signal of expanded offensives across one of the world’s most crucial shipping lanes.

The force will carry no wider authority to strike at pirate vessels at sea or specific mandates to move against havens on shore—which some maritime experts believe is necessary to weaken the pirate gangs that have taken control of dozens of cargo vessels and an oil tanker.

Ah, so what’s the point if nothing actually changes policy-wise?

The new force underscores the urgency to act after a stunning rise in pirate assaults off the Horn of Africa last year: At least 111 ships targeted and 42 of them commandeered, including a Ukrainian cargo shop loaded with tanks and heavy weapons and a Saudi oil tanker with $100 worth of crude.

At two more ships have been hijacked this month, leaving about 15 vessels and about 300 crew members in pirate hands, according to the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center.

OK – so it “underscores the urgency to act…”, so why isn’t there an actual plan TO ACT? More “symbolism over substance” won’t address the problem.

“This task force does not does have any greater rules of engagement,” said Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a 5th Fleet spokeswoman. “It does, however, bring a greater focus to counter-piracy operations under one command.”

This only reinforces the above noted problem, with an open admission that there is no loosening of the R.O.E.

But it also carries the suggestion that it could one day take stronger measures. The force’s flagship, the USS San Antonio, is an amphibious ship capable of bringing hundreds of Marines ashore. This is the type of action needed to truly rattle the pirates, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center.

THIS would work! (All we’ve got to do is step up to the plate.)

“Right now there is no major deterrent,” he said. “The military maybe chases away the pirates, but they regroup and come back for another attack on another ship. Piracy will continue until their networks and bases are hit.”

Hopefully somebody in Washington will remember that action here would be a renewal of the the Navy’s oldest tradition…overseas suppression of Islamopiracy. It worked against the Barbary States’ pirates, it would work now too.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

“Anchors Aweigh” for ChiCom Naval Deployment

Chinese Warships Set Sail for Pirate Fight

Chinese warships — armed with special forces, guided missiles and helicopters — set sail Friday for anti-piracy duty off Somalia, the first time the communist nation has sent ships on a mission that could involve fighting so far beyond its territorial waters.

The three vessels — two destroyers and a supply ship — may increase worries about growing Chinese military power. The mission will also challenge China’s ability to cooperate with other naval forces patrolling the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.

Warships from India, Russia, NATO and the U.S. are also cruising the Somali waters that have been plagued by pirate attacks in recent months.

This could be good news, or it could be bad news. One thing that it IS, unfortunately, is rational, at least from China’s point of view. The Chief commented in an earlier post that perhaps if the US and other western navies were doing the job, that the ChiComs wouldn’t feel as much of a need to get into the picture. On the other hand…maybe they would do it anyway…just to prove that they can.

Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Hawaii, said countries in the region will view China’s mission off Somalia differently.

“For Japan and some in South Korea, this is another step in the unwelcome growth of the Chinese navy as a capable blue-water force, which has only downsides for Tokyo and Seoul,” said Roy, an expert on China’s military.

But he said most Southeast Asian countries may see China’s involvement in the anti-piracy campaign as a positive thing. It would mean that China was using its greater military might for constructive purposes, rather than challenging the current international order.

However, the analyst added, “The Chinese deployment gets at a question the U.S. and other governments have been asking: ‘Why the big Chinese military buildup when no country threatens China?’ Or more bluntly, ‘Why do the Chinese need a blue-water navy when the U.S. Navy already polices the world’s oceans?”‘

Roy said the answer is that China is unwilling to rely on the U.S. to protect China’s increasingly global interests.

Given what B.O. stated before the election about a desire to radically chop U.S. defense capabilities, perhaps it is only prudence that the ChiComs actively look out for themselves.

Beijing still believes it needs to enter the field, Roy said, and that leaves open the possibility of a China-U.S. naval rivalry in the future.

A rivalry? THAT would be an improvement over the supine attitudes of the current higher US Naval leadership.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

What’s Chinese for “Anchors Aweigh”?

Chinese flag up anti-pirate fleet

China is considering sending ships to fight pirates off the Horn of Africa in what would be the country’s first significant long-range naval combat mission since the 15th century.

Senior Colonel Huang Xueping, spokesman for China’s ministry of national defence, told the FT an anti-piracy mission was “still in the consideration stage”. But he said: “There will be an announcement very soon.”

What’s wrong with this? Nothing in and of itself, but why isn’t the US Navy acting against piracy?

What in the heck do we have the 5th Fleet in the Indian Ocean for?

The U.S. Navy built its first ships in the 1790’s specifically to respond to demands for “tribute” from Islamic pirates operating from North Africa. Prior to the vote, one Congressman proclaimed “MILLIONS FOR DEFENSE! NOT ONE CENT FOR TRIBUTE!”, and Congress voted accordingly to build such historic ships as the frigate USS Constitution (which is still officially commissioned and on the fleet list).

Nowadays we’re saddled with Admirals that apparently couldn’t find their posteriors with assistance from GPS, extra lookouts, along with surface and air-search radars as evidenced by their apparent lack of knowledge of what our naval ships can do.

Admiral Mike Mullen has expressed surprise at the range of action demonstrated by the Islamopirates operating out of Somalia, and has apparently forgotten that navy ships have GUNS that REALLY can shoot, and MISSILES that do a good job at killing enemies and breaking their stuff too. Perhaps India, whose Navy has demonstrated that it remembers this basic knowledge can send us some advisors to refresh the memory of the Pentagon about the capabilities of naval warships.

The Chief would have thought that the US just MIGHT be able to exercise some leadership in dealing with this problem…but not until those in charge manage to rediscover that they have some cojones. Unfortunately, there probably won’t be much, if any, improvement from the incoming B.O. administration. More’s the pity.

Defense Matters!

Arrrrrrgh! Shiver me timbers, mate!

A prisoner in ‘pirate alley’

Sorry about that! The Chief just couldn’t resist the obvious cheap humor, although the reality of the current crop of piracy in the Gulf of Aden has nothing to laugh about any more than there was humor in the original pirates of the Caribbean, who were as evil a pack of scoundrels and murderers as ever walked, or sailed the planet.

The current crop, by all accounts, aren’t much better.

In a startling throwback to 17th century days of Spanish galleons, Barbary pirates and avenging royal navies, pirates attacked a record 17 ships in the Gulf of Aden in the first two weeks of September compared to just 10 in the entire year of 2007, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Center.

Q: How long until official naval anti-piracy patrols are set up?
A: Not soon enough.

Rope. Pirates. Yardarm. Some assembly required.

(Yes, modern naval ships DO still have yardarms – they’re really great at supporting antennae of various sorts!)

Culture Wars, Defense Matters!

Recollections and Reality

Taken from an e-mail correspondence of the Chief…and when I completed my answer to it, I thought there might be some things here that were (a) worth sharing, and (b) IMHO actually relevant to some of our current circumstances as a nation. Personal references have been redacted in the interest of privacy.

Yeah you radio guys had it easy. 1st Div had to be on deck hours before the refueling laying out those lines for you. ha  I had it easy. I was the Visual Signalman on the forward station. Mr. —- was the OIC.  The CO treated him like crap. He seemed to want to mentally destroy the kid. After one refueling the oiler screwed up and when we disconnected the couplings gallons of black fuel went across the deck. The AO had failed to give us the blow-down or the back-suction.

It was the little torpedo deck right under the bridge. We were on our hands and knees wiping up oil and the CO was right above us. We kept looking up to see if he was looking down. He never noticed. After we finished Mr. —- asked me, “Do you think he saw?”  I shook my head and told him, “No sir. He didn’t see it.” I had my differences with Mr. —- but I wasn’t going to make him feel worse than he already did.

Interesting to think back… when I had radio messenger watch, I had a lot of contact with Officer’s Country and its denizens.  Mr. —- wasn’t the only one in that position, but some, like LTjg —-, the — officer were, to be generous, marginally competent at best, and often made their own troubles.  On the other hand, a good leader could/should buck up the weak links in his command… and should be able to get better performance without dragging people through the mud. (Sort of like working with marginal, but capable students in a classroom.)

I remember a lot of stuff like that in CPO Leadership Indoc training after I was selected for RMC, and I have to say that on a lot of this (admittedly much later than our time on USS Sellers) the Navy has its ducks in a row, and the leadership principles and application they taught were on a higher, and more useful level than most of what passes for educational management, etc that I have been exposed to as an educator over the years in interminable (and all too often irrelevant) “In-service” sessions from school(s). Ha ha!

I think the Navy started paying a lot more attention to stuff like that after the 70’s Zumwalt Navy which was warm and fuzzy, but had real problems with really lousy discipline, common drug use, etc.   Some of the Chiefs and senior PO’s I can recall from Sellers days would have been (justifiably) busted out of the Navy by the standards of the mid to late 80’s or later.  Others were really good at their jobs, and did their best to look out for their subordinates, under what were difficult conditions at best, given the difficult command climate at the time.

I remember from radio message traffic that the Atlantic/Med ships seemed to always be “sucking from the hind teat” when it came to personnel, parts, supplies, etc., since we weren’t directly involved in the war of the day, and our alleged betters in Washington were determined to try to fight on the cheap so as to not make anyone in the states feel any economic inconvenience from the effort.  (Hmmmm.  Sound familiar?) Anyway, that attitude possibly (probably?) filtered down from the Pentagon through the Lant/Med Fleets, and it HAD to be tough on the ship drivers to be accountable for performance, while getting semi-adequate logistical support.

People like Eisenhower, and Colin Powell have the right idea… as did others, like WW-II Wehrmacht Generaloberst Heinz Guderian who phrased it “Kick ’em, don’t piss on ’em!” – meaning that if it’s important enough to go to war… half-measures don’t make it.  Apply full force, as fast and hard as possible, so as to minimize the ultimate materiel and personnel costs to the country, and its people.

The alternative, war as practiced by McNamara, LBJ, Nixon, and more recently the Clintonoid generals and admirals under SECDEF Rumsfeld, just drives me crazy.  IMHO it’s fundamentally immoral to ask/expect men to lay their lives on the line in order to score some sort of (domestic or international) political point without coming to a clearly decisive result in the national interest.

Unfortunately, once Rummy et al slapped the Iraqi tar-baby, we were stuck for sure, and a quick withdrawal would have been worse that not having done anything in the first place…so the cut-and-run policy pushed by the left-Dems these days, shows such a poor situational awareness that it supports a case for a form of insanity. (…like one of radio talker Michael Savage’s books: Liberalism is a Mental Disorder)

So, where does that leave us now?  Fortunately, some people like Petraeus, and USMC Commandant Conway (who I knew in H.S. in St Louis – I have his signature in a yearbook!) seem to have a good grasp on reality…so we might get saved from ourselves over there yet.  (From what I have read about Adm Mullen, I wouldn’t give a bucket of spit for his attitude…he apparently doesn’t want to fight hard due to the administrative difficulty of maintaining recruiting and retention if there was a “hard” war!  (Is here ever any other kind of war? NOT! Refer again to the Guderian quote above.)

Oh well… all too many of us these days are so enervated (by – what?  Cultural corrosion? Too much emphasis on our modern “bread and circuses”?) that we don’t want to make the commitments NOW that can avoid a disaster LATER… sort of like the Brits (except Churchill) and Frogs in the 30’s.

Sheesh!  All that from a simple recollection of days of  “haze grey and underway” from 40 years ago.  What a trip!

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

Cold War II: Naval Front Now Open

Soviet Union Russia says to send battleship to Caribbean Sea

First off – it ISN’T a battleship, except perhaps generically as a ship built to participate in battles. Nobody at present has any active battleships (BB types)… we still have a few that in a pinch COULD be reactivated, and there are some reasons why this would be a good idea…but that’s another story, and I digress.

What is being discussed here is effectively a guided missile battlecruser (BCG), and is a very impressive looking package, although it may be subject to some technical and maintenance issues. These ships are significantly larger than the current USN cruiser classes, and for that reason are very effective at “showing the flag” exercises and activities, if not combat.

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Russia will send a nuclear-powered battleship to the Caribbean for a joint naval exercise with Venezuela, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday. The maneuvers later this year will be the first Russia has conducted in Washington’s traditional sphere of influence since the end of the Cold War.

So…Putin figures apparently that turn about is fair play, since the Black Sea has been as much of a Russian “lake” as the Caribbean has been for us.

Russia has heavily criticized the United States for sending a sophisticated command ship and two other naval vessels to Georgia, on its southern border, to deliver aid and show support for President Mikheil Saakashvili after Moscow sent troops into Georgia.

Nothing to be concerned about however, according to the Soviets Russians:

Russia denied that the move amounted to retaliation against the United States over its action Georgia. “We are talking about a planned event not linked with current political circumstances and not in any way connected to events in Georgia,” he told a news briefing. The exercises “will in no way be directed against the interests of a third country.”

You can believe as much of that as you want to, but the Chief isn’t buying it!

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

More Cold War II – Leading to World War III (or is it IV?)

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To one who is able and willing to recall 20th Century history, current events produce that same old deja vu all over again.

Remember? 3rd Reich Glee Club and Marching Society World Tour: 1938- Sudetenland / Czechoslovakia; 1939 – Poland; 1940 – Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, France; 1941 – Yugoslavia, Greece, Albania, North Africa, USSR. ’nuff said.

Russia: Poland risks attack because of US missiles

A top Russian general said Friday that Poland’s agreement to accept a U.S. missile interceptor base exposes the ex-communist nation to attack, possibly by nuclear weapons, the Interfax news agency reported. The statement by Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn is the strongest threat that Russia has issued against the plans to put missile defense elements in former Soviet satellite nations….

“Poland, by deploying (the system) is exposing itself to a strike — 100 percent,” Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of staff, was quoted as saying.

100%!!?? Is this REALLY a war warning? If so…see above note about 1939…

He added, in clear reference to the agreement, that Russia’s military doctrine sanctions the use of nuclear weapons “against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them.” Nogovitsyn said that would include elements of strategic deterrence systems, he said, according to Interfax.

Yikes! Even the Foggy Bottom Boyus at the State Department wouldn’t be able to ignore an attack on Poland…whether or not we were actually ready to act…which we aren’t, at least not much more (psychologically if not militarily) than were Britain and France in 1939.

This leads to a REALLY ugly, bad conclusion… and the Chief at least can’t see a good ending if the Russia keeps its vows.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

Cold War II Update

Georgia on my Mind… (to quote Ray Charles)

Quoted in an e-mail bulletin, but without specifics as to date:

“Russia’s attack on neighboring Georgia over two tiny separatist provinces is really about something much bigger—Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s desire to restore the former USSR’s might. Russia’s ill intentions clearly are on display in Georgia. In a fit of nationalist fury, it wants to teach Georgia and other former satellite countries that once made up the Soviet Bloc that its pro-Western rapprochement days are over. What better way than to invade a former republic, humiliate its leaders and then taunt the West for failing to come to its aid? As if that wasn’t enough, Russia immediately began threatening its other neighbors. A top Russian diplomat ominously warned Monday that Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland would ‘pay’ for criticizing Russia’s ‘imperialist’ policy toward Georgia. Russia’s claim to support independence from Georgia of tiny South Ossetia and even tinier Abkhazia is simply phony. Georgia, with its strategically important oil pipeline, has grown close to the U.S. —even sending troops to Iraq. Putin, furious at growing U.S. and NATO ties with Eastern Europe, wanted to emasculate Georgia’s military while deposing its pro-American President Mikheil Saakashvili. With his attack, it looks like he’s succeeding. The symbolism of the invasion, coming at the start of the Beijing Olympics, is unmistakable. This is Russia’s wake-up call to all of us. Communism may be dead, Putin is saying, but Russia isn’t.” —Investor’s Business Daily

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Thid did encourage the Chief to look at I.B.D. to try to find the specifics, without success. There WERE however, a couple of other relevant op-eds there on the topic:

A Pipeline Runs Through It

Geopolitics: Russia’s aggression is not only about toppling a pro-Western democracy and potential NATO member. It’s about the only pipeline bringing Caspian Sea oil to the West not controlled by Moscow or Iran.

Georgia is only the latest instance of Russia’s plans to reassemble the “evil empire” and neuter NATO expansion, using energy as both a weapon and a means of financing its rapid military expansion. Russia has doubled its military in the past five years, thanks in large part to the “windfall profits” it has reaped from skyrocketing energy prices.

One of the Russian targets in Georgia is a pipeline carrying oil from the Caspian to the West. Georgia was a target of renewed Russian imperialism because it was a democracy, a future NATO member and an energy supplier to the West. Its use would accelerate declining oil prices worldwide and put a serious crimp in Moscow’s plans.

This makes FAR too much sense…is anyone in Washington besides Sen. McCain noticing this? B.O. the Annointed continues to demonstrate his nearly total lack of situational awareness concerning national security issues.

Answering Russia

Energy: Russia’s bloody invasion of a smaller neighbor whose territory includes a vital oil pipeline has left many people wondering: What can we do? Plenty, it turns out — including some things right here at home.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced he was halting Russia’s air and ground attack on Georgia, but someone forgot to tell Russia’s military.

It has continued its brutal assault, with news reports that Russian troops have started looting, raping and savagely attacking Georgian civilians.

It’s clear former President Vladimir Putin, not his handpicked successor Medvedev, is calling the shots. Putin’s made no secret of the fact that he wants to depose Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and set up a pliant puppet regime, giving him de facto control of Georgia’s oil pipeline — the main conduit to Europe from the oil-rich Caspian Sea that’s not on Russian soil.

What to do? Some ideas from I.D.B.:

Start with President Bush’s pledge Wednesday to support Georgia, an ally in the war on terror, and send it aid. Bush warned Russia the U.S. might not support its “aspirations” to join diplomatic, economic and security groups. We’ve already canceled joint NATO-Russia naval exercises, scheduled for this weekend. And we can turn the G-8 nations back into the G-7. Russia has shown that it doesn’t deserve to be counted among democratic, economically free nations.

But there’s more we can do:
• Russia wants badly to join the World Trade Organization. Put that on a back burner until it starts behaving.
• Russia is scheduled to hold the 2014 Winter Olympics at the resort of Sochi, 15 miles from Abkhazia, the other Georgian province that Russia just invaded. Cancel it, and give it to a more deserving host.
• We’re building a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. We should accelerate our plans, and broaden participation.
• Russia took in about $27 billion in foreign investment last year. We should limit capital flows to make sure Western capital and technology aren’t used to build Russia’s military.

In short, if Russia wants a Cold War, we can give them one.

Hoo-rah! The Chief heartily concurs.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

More Notes on Cold War-II

Putin says Russia needs to go back to Cuba

This goes along with previous posting here, talking about Soviet…er…Russian talk about moving nuclear bombers to Cuba and Venezuela.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday said it was time for Russia to rebuild links with former Cold War ally Cuba, news agencies reported.

The Kremlin is angry at U.S. plans for a missile defence system in Eastern Europe, and last month a news report suggested Russia might use Cuba, a thorn in America’s side for half a century, as a refueling stop for nuclear-capable bombers.

Keep your powder dry.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

Betting on Blackjack: Not a Good Gamble!

Cold War II Taking Off with Rus Bombers, Carriers, arms to Venezuela?

This sure makes the decision to keep the B-1 base at Ellsworth AFB open look better and better.

Russia is betting on Blackjack and upping the odds: It may be a bluff, or Kremlin policymakers may believe they already are holding an inside straight.

Russian policymakers Thursday boosted their threat to deploy supersonic Tupolev Tu-160 “White Swan” — NATO designation Blackjack — nuclear bombers in Cuba to say they might put them in Venezuela and Algeria, too.

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Like the original threat, floated three days earlier on July 21, to deploy the Blackjacks in Cuba, this one was reported Thursday in the newspaper Izvestia and was also attributed to unidentified sources in the Russian Defense Ministry.

Q. How close would the proposed single B-1 base be to the enemy – in EITHER Cuba or Venezuela at 2000 km/h?
A. A LOT closer than either is to South Dakota’s Ellsworth AFB!

How much is bluff, and how much is reality? Hard to say…but very much the sort of strategic “great game” played by the Soviets through Cold War I.

The Tu-160 Blackjacks and the more than a half-century old but still very much operational Tu-95MS Bears have gone through extensive refits in recent years. Both aircraft now carry new X-555 cruise missiles that can fly more than 2,200 miles, so that they do not have to fly out of bases close to the United States, or ever risk entering U.S. air space, to fire their nuclear-capable supersonic cruise missiles at almost any city or military target in the entire domestic United States, the report said.

RIA Novosti also noted the bombers could loiter in the air outside Russian territory, equipped with extensive electronic signals intelligence — SIGINT — and replace the capabilities of Russian military intelligence’s SIGINT station at Lourdes outside Havana, which was shut down six years ago.

The proposed policy of opening forward bases for the strategic bombers is not without its skeptics in Russia. RIA Novosti noted that the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta argued Thursday that Russia could not afford the infrastructure costs of building the new bases.

The answer to that is: Even if the idea of an entire network of bases around the world remains an unachievable dream in the immediate future, the Russian treasury, bursting with the windfall profits of being the world’s largest combined oil and gas exporter when oil prices remain at unprecedented high levels of well over $120 a barrel, can easily afford to build two or three of them, at least in countries like Cuba and Venezuela.

Schwartz’s tough comments to the Senate Armed Services Committee on July 22 confirmed how seriously the U.S. Air Force takes the threat of a forward deployment of Tu-160s in Cuba. Schwartz knows that U.S. military planners cannot afford to bet against Blackjack.

Meanwhile, our southern flank isn’t being neglected in other ways also:

Oil-rich Venezuela may have signed off already on another huge arms deal with Russia during President Hugo Chavez’s visit to Moscow last week.

RIA Novosti said Thursday it had received what it called “unofficial reports” that the fiercely anti-American Chavez had closed the deal with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last Wednesday. The news agency said the agreement could include modern T-90 Main Battle Tanks, Ilyushin Il-76 military transport aircraft and man-held surface-to-air missiles — MANPADS in current U.S. parlance.

No doubt Chavez is seeking to protect himself from a feared blitzkrieg attack from Guyana. Yeah, sure.

And finally, our Russian “friends” aren’t neglecting the Naval side, either.

Russia has plans to start constructing at least five to six new aircraft carriers equipped with space-linked communications systems to operate in the Arctic and Pacific oceans, but work on the ambitious new carriers will not even start for at least another four years, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday.

The news agency cited Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky as saying the navy command had decided to build complete systems for the new carriers and not just the ships themselves.

“Everything must work in a system, including aircraft carriers. We have called them sea-borne aircraft carrier systems, which will be based in the Northern and Pacific Fleets. The construction of such systems will begin after 2012,” Vysotsky said in a speech on the Russian holiday known as Navy Day.

All of this recent activity is yet more evidence that Donk Candidate B.O.’s situational awareness concerning national security is virtually non-existent, with his stated intention to gut US defense development and procurement.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

Cold War II?

US general warns Russia on nuclear bombers in Cuba

The Chief has been on the road for about the last 10 days for a summer teachers’ institute for a program called Teaching American History. As part of the program, the group had the chance to visit a number of SD historic sites. One of these was a Minuteman Missile site in western South Dakota, which is preserved (without a live missile, of course) as a site and artifact of historical significance in the context of the Cold War.

Very interesting to see, and contemplate the destructive energy that was (and still is to a lesser degree) ready to be unleased if required by the US and USSR if there was a REALLY bad day.

Now comes this little reminder that those sorts of concerns are, or certainly should be, still part of the international landscape.

Russia would cross “a red line for the United States of America” if it were to base nuclear capable bombers in Cuba, a top US air force officer warned on Tuesday. “If they did I think we should stand strong and indicate that is something that crosses a threshold, crosses a red line for the United States of America,” said General Norton Schwartz, nominated to be the air force’s chief of staff.

He was referring to a Russian news report that said the military is thinking of flying long-range bombers to Cuba on a regular basis. It was unclear from the report whether that would involve permanent basing of nuclear bombers in Cuba, or just use of the island as a refueling stop. In his confirmation hearing to become the air force’s chief of staff, Schwartz was asked what he would recommend if Russia were to base nuclear capable bombers in Cuba.

“I would certainly offer the best military advice that we engage the Russians not to pursue that approach,” he said.

The newspaper Iszvestia on Monday cited an unnamed senior Russian air force official in Moscow as saying that Russia may start regular flights by long-range bombers to Cuba in response to US plans to install a missile defense system in eastern Europe.

A White House spokeswoman declined to comment on the Russian report because there had been no “official response from the Russian government.”

Defense Matters!

ZAP!

Star Wars-style laser technology to reach battlefield

Laser beam technology is being rushed into service to combat the threat of insurgent missiles and mortars raining down on British and American military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you think that big R & D bucks are behind the project…er…not quite:

After decades of delay and billions of pounds spent, it will be simple commercial lasers rather than the hugely expensive US Department of Defence technology that could be used to save hundreds of troops’ lives.

ALL RIGHT! Off-the -shelf stuff!

In just 18 months the American defence firm Raytheon has turned a laser used in the car manufacturing industry into a weapon that can hit incoming rounds at the speed of light, melting the outer casing and detonating the explosive inside.

Yankee ingenuity lives!

Defense Matters!

Charges Dropped in USMC Case

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Military judge dismisses charges in Haditha killings

A military judge dismissed charges Tuesday against a Marine officer accused of failing to investigate the killings of 24 Iraqis. Col. Steven Folsom dismissed charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani after finding that a four-star general overseeing the case was improperly influenced by an investigator probing the November 2005 shootings by a Marine squad in Haditha.

“Unlawful command influence is the mortal enemy of military justice,” Folsom said. “In order to restore the public confidence, we need to take it back. We need to turn the clock back.”

This turned out well. The fix was in against Chessani, and the others…but there was enough of a public flap created about this, that not even Donk Cong. Murtha’s statement of the guilt of the Marines, and the willingness of the USMC top brass of the time to throw some troops under the bus of political correctness was able to prevail.

The Chief isn’t holding his breath waiting for Murtha to apologize for his “rush to judgement” statements against the Marines.

Defense Matters!

Memorial Day: Remember!

Profiles in Valor

As the Chief humbly recalls his own 26 years with the Naval Service, he constantly has the thought…”I wish I could do more”.

The accounts of these Iraq war Medal of Honor recipients illustrates circumstances when there was no more possible to do.

Take a pause, and read them.  (H/T to Patriot Post)

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It is not surprising that many Americans no longer observe Memorial Day with reverence. Schools no longer teach civics, the courts exclude God (officially) from the public square, and the Leftmedia and malls “celebrate” Memorial Day with commercial sales.

Indeed, Memorial Day has been sold out by many.

Founding Patriot John Adams wrote, “I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than all the means…”

But is it?

Indeed it is.

Fortunately, millions of American Patriots still reserve Memorial Day to honor the service and sacrifice of our fallen countrymen, who donned the uniforms of our Armed Forces with honor and under oath to defend of our Constitution and the cherished liberties it embodies.

On 7 August 1782, General George Washington instituted the first formal military award of recognition for “any singularly meritorious action.” It was a purple cloth heart, the predecessor of the now-familiar Purple Heart, which is awarded to any member of our Armed Services who is wounded or killed in combat or combat-related actions. For this reason, the decoration carries the profile of George Washington.

But our nation’s supreme military award was instituted in 1861. That award is the Medal of Honor. (No, it is not the “congressional” Medal of Honor, and, no, it is not “won.”)

Some 3,400 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen have been awarded the Medal of Honor “for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.” Most have received this award posthumously.

On this Memorial Day, four young men who served in Iraq and Afghanistan will not be at the malls, nor will they be at the family barbecue.

These young men are not much different from others who have served in the past or those serving today in our nation’s Armed Forces but for the fact that they responded to extraordinary circumstances with extraordinary courage.

They are Corporal Jason L. Dunham, USMC; Master-at-Arms Second Class Michael A. Monsoor, USN; Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith, USA; and Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, USN.

Their Medal of Honor citations read:

Continue reading →

China Watch, Defense Matters!

ChiCom Crap Stuff Zaps US Troops?

Families demand answers in Iraq electrocutions

Here’s another one to add to the litany of ChiCom garbage foisted off on us, which has ranged from bad ped food, adulterated or faked food additives (for humans), toxic toys, etc.

Three years and three months before Ryan Maseth stepped into a shower Jan. 2 in Baghdad, an Army safety specialist identified electrocution as a “killer of soldiers.”

Still, when the 24-year-old Shaler Green Beret turned on the faucet, water flowed from a pump powered by an improperly grounded electrical system manufactured in China. Borne on water, an electrical current surged through the pipes, out of the shower head and into his body. His heart stopped.

Maseth’s electrocution, the latest of 14 among service personnel in Iraq since 2003, set into motion a series of events to determine how and why these deaths occurred.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

Former Navy secretary says industrial base needs rebuilding

U.S. sea power in crisis

The future of U.S. sea power is threatened by the erosion of the country’s industrial base and its ability to build warships – even if the political will to do so is revived, says former Navy Secretary James, H. Webb Jr., now a Democratic senator from Virginia, according to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

The Chief doesn’t agree with Webb on lots of stuff…but the Virginia Senator / former SECNAV is spot-on here.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

Fallon Falls Out

Fallon Resigns As Mideast Military Chief

The top U.S. military commander for the Middle East resigned Tuesday amid speculation about a rift over U.S. policy in Iran.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that Adm. William J. Fallon had asked for permission to retire and that Gates agreed. Gates said the decision, effective March 31, was entirely Fallon’s and that Gates believed it was “the right thing to do.”

Let’s see…the Chief IMHO is strongly inclined to urge ADM Fallon not to let the doorknob hit him in the butt on the way out.

This is the same ADM Fallon, who as CINCPAC was incessantly engaged in a game of footsie with the ChiComs, to the extent of inviting them aboard to observe, up close and personal, how we prepped and trained for war in the Pacific. Of course there’s no one in the Pacific with any possible inclination to fight the US except those same ChiComs’ PLAN (Peples’ Liberation Army Navy – Hey! That’s what they call it…maybe it loses something in translation.).

Apparently he has had a pattern of undercutting the Iraq “surge”, and General Petraeus, in a not very well concealed effort to channel the administrations policies.

Good riddance. The Fleet, and the nation will be better without Fallon’s sort of accommodationist and contrarian policy games.

China Watch, Defense Matters!

ChiComs NOW Upset about possible A-Sat Shot

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China concerned by U.S. satellite missile plan

China is concerned by U.S. plans to shoot down an ailing spy satellite and is considering what “preventative measures” to take, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

“The Chinese government is paying close attention to how the situation develops and demands the U.S. side fulfill its international obligations and avoids causing damage to security in outer space and of other countries,” spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

What a hoot! The ChiComs are upset about US plans to knock apart an already incoming satellite?

After THEY hit one in full orbit with THEIR A-Sat missile leaving behind an orbiting pile of space junk?

F’ em if they can’t take the joke!

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

State of the War: More (or Less) than Meets the Eye

A couple of long, specifically detailed, and clearly stated proposition that the situation with the US military is NOT all it’s cracked up to be these days.

US MILITARY BREAKS RANKS, Part 1 – A salvo at the White House

US MILITARY BREAKS RANKS, Part 2 – Troops felled by a ‘trust gap’

The Chief has heard it stated that “the difference between the US Navy (and also the rest of the military apparently) and the Boy Scouts, is that the Scouts operate under adult supervision.

This two-part series of articles (unfortunately) would seem to confirm this proposition.

China Watch, Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

WSJ: The importance of a strong Navy

Why T.R. Claimed the Sea

This relates to our current and future circumstances, as well as to an earlier posting concerning the sad decline of the Royal Navy.

On Dec. 16, 1907, the 16 battleships of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet sailed from Hampton Roads, Va., on a 43,000-mile journey around the world. The occasion was immediately understood as Teddy Roosevelt’s way of declaring that the United States, already an economic superpower, was also a military one. Unnoticed by most Americans, this past Sunday marked its centennial.

There is an enduring, bipartisan strain in American politics (think Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich) that wishes to forgo the military role. As wonderfully recounted by Jim Rasenberger in “America 1908,” the voyage of the Great White Fleet, as it was popularly known, was energetically opposed by members of Congress, who sought to cut off its funding when it was halfway around the world. Sound familiar?

Even as many in Congress (and elsewhere) would like to repeal the need for us to be actively engaged and capable of militarily maintaining our proper interests in the world, nothing in our history has repealed the truths noted by Adm. A.T. Mahan and which were known to T.R. as we built and deployed the White Fleet.

Whatever the procurement problems or tactical issues, a supremely powerful Navy is not a luxury the U.S. can safely dispense with. In September, ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy made their first-ever port calls in Germany, France, Britain and Italy, and Chinese admirals are frequent guests on American warships. “The Chinese Great White Fleet is not too far off on the horizon,” says a senior Navy official in a recent conversation.

China’s current rise, like America’s a century ago, is not something anyone can stop. It can be steered. Making sure our vision for the Navy stays true to Teddy Roosevelt’s is one way of ensuring the Chinese don’t make the mistake of steering it our way.

We ignore our history and current situation at our mortal peril.

China Watch, Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

ChiComs Going for new Rope-a-Dope

Pentagon eyes China nuke talks

The Pentagon this week proposed holding a strategic nuclear “dialogue” with China, as Chinese military officials asked that Congress lift its guidelines banning military exchanges with Beijing on nuclear operations.

Defense officials said yesterday that the Chinese military’s request to end the 1999 “Smith guidelines” was made during the two days of meetings between U.S. and Chinese defense and military officials that ended Tuesday.

Hmmmm. Let’s see. maybe we should do this…after all, haven’t the ChiComs been nice lately?

Officials familiar with the talks said they also included a discussion of China’s refusal to permit the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk from docking in Hong Kong for a long-planned Thanksgiving port call.

Oh. Never mind.

If we go for this one, it’ll only prove that something in the Pentagon water turns brains to mush, and we’ll once again take on the role of Charlie Brown trying to kick the football being held by Lucy.

Defense Matters!

Naval News from Across the Pond

British Site Supports R.N. Buildup & Maintenance

The Chief’s posting concerning the current sad state of the UK Royal Navy (no doubt affecting the rest of the British military also) attracted a thoughtful comment from a recently minted website over there called SAVE THE ROYAL NAVY.

Albeit a very sad day indeed when some from the Sceptered Isles find it necessary to proclaim such a need, their site looks like an excellent source of information on the British Front of the long standing struggle against the moonbat sentiments that “all we need is love” to just get along with each other and sing Kumbayah.

The Chief subscribes more to the statement of Lord Charles Beresford: “Battleships are cheaper than battles.”

Anyway, if you’re interested in the state of things over there, this looks to be a good source to check out concerning the state of the Royal Navy in its fight to survive more of the current EngSoc regime.

Defense Matters!

Royal Navy Taking on Water

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Navy would struggle to fight a war – report

As a former naval person, the Chief is saddened to see this, and is concerned over some evident declines in our own naval forces, especially in the face of the ChiCom drive towards a 600 ship fleet of their own.

The Royal Navy can no longer fight a major war because of years of under­funding and cutbacks, a leaked Whitehall report has revealed. With an “under-resourced” fleet composed of “ageing and operationally defective ships”, the Navy would struggle even to repeat its role in the Iraq war and is now “far more vulnerable to unexpected shocks”, the top-level Ministry of Defence document says.

The report was ordered by Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, who had intended to use it to “counter criticism” on the state of the Navy in the media and from opposition parties.

At least that was the plan…but it looks like the Brownian EngSoc regime got mugged by reality instead:

But in a damning conclusion, the report states: “The current material state of the fleet is not good; the Royal Navy would be challenged to mount a medium-scale operation in accordance with current policy against a technologically capable adversary.”

Key findings of Royal Navy report
• Funding shortfall is “eroding” Navy’s fighting capability
• Fleet is “ageing” and ever more “thinly stretched”
• Anti-submarine capability is now below a “prudent minimum level”
• Royal Marines’ ability to conduct amphibious operations is being “eroded”
• Too many ships are putting to sea with “operational defects”
• Navy’s ability to “deliver influence at strategic level” is under threat
• Navy vulnerable to unexpected shocks compared with 20 years ago
• In 1987 35 ships patrolled UK waters, compared with just 10 today
• New aircraft carriers “provide significant global and military leverage”
• Navy’s modern ships are more capable and cost-effective

Admittedly the last two points are hopeful, but there’s far too much that’s not for an island nation (or its friends) to feel comfortable with the current state of affairs.

China Watch, Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

ChiComs to USN: Go away!

Admiral ‘Perplexed’ by Snub at Hong Kong

It was just last week that the Chief commented that in his humble opinion that the US Navy’s top brass was being taken for a ride by their ChiCom counterparts, who effectively were playing them for a bunch of chumps. After this incident, there are signs that this is starting to penetrate their awareness.

The top U.S. military commander in the Pacific said he’s “perplexed and concerned” by China’s last-minute decision to deny a U.S. aircraft carrier entry to Hong Kong for a previously scheduled port visit. The USS Kitty Hawk and its escort ships were due to dock there for a four-day visit Wednesday until they were refused access. Hundreds of family members had flown to Hong Kong to spend Thanksgiving with their sailors.

Nice slap in the chops from our ChiCom “friends”. Commenting further, CinCPAC noted:

“It’s hard to put any kind of positive spin on this,” Adm. Timothy Keating told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday…

Gosh Admiral, d’ya think so? Can you remember something about the ChiComs – Chinese COMMUNISTS – maybe not REALLY having the interest of the world’s leading capitalist power at heart? (Hmmmmmm. Think. Think. THe clue’s right there on the edge of awareness….)

It’s even better that it’s part of a pattern:

It was the second time in a week that China refused to let U.S. Navy ships into the port. Two U.S. minesweepers seeking to refuel and shelter from bad weather in the South China Sea had asked for permission to enter Hong Kong three or four days before the Kitty Hawk. Those ships were denied, Keating said.

And all this unfriendliness came after we extracted our own spinal columns in our effort to be pals and play nice with the ChiComs:

The developments come as the U.S. military has been trying to bolster ties with the Chinese military to prevent misunderstandings and the potential for miscalculation.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Beijing earlier this month and high-level commanders have traveled back and forth between the two Pacific powers. Chinese warships visited U.S. naval bases in Pearl Harbor and San Diego last year, and the two navies have since held basic search-and- rescue exercises together.

Asked if the refusal to let the Kitty Hawk into Hong Kong would hurt the U.S.-China military relationship, Keating said: “We’ll keep working it of course, but it is difficult for me to characterize this in a positive light.”

DUH!

It’s an ill wind indeed that blows no good…and at least now there MAY be an inkling of what we are really up against with what is shaping up to be a significant Communist superpower.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

Brit Commander: Time for Reality Check!

Our forces can’t carry on like this, says General

With the Clintonista administration, indeed, under BOTH Bush administrations there has been a marked tendency to try tu run our military “on the cheap”. This, to any rational mind, must inevitably result in ony one outcome: deterioration of the ability of military forces to successfully perform its mission. This reality is coming home with a vengeance to the Brits after the Blair-Brown EngSoc regime has had its way for years of skimping and shortchanging what remains of the once proud Royal Army.

The head of the Army has warned that years of Government under-funding and overstretch have left troops feeling “devalued, angry and suffering from Iraq fatigue”, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

General Sir Richard Dannatt, the Chief of the General Staff, reveals in a top-level report that the present level of operations is “unsustainable”, the Army is “under-manned” and increasing numbers of troops are “disillusioned” with service life.

Gen Dannatt states that the “military covenant is clearly out of kilter”, and the chain of command needs to improve standards of pay, accommodation and medical care. “We must strive to give individuals and units ample recuperation time between operations, but I do not underestimate how difficult this will be to achieve whilst under-manned and with less robust establishments than I would like.”

This is NOT the way that a nation’s military forces deserve to be treated…whether they are the Brits, or us.

The report, a copy of which has been seen by this newspaper, reveals for the first time the general’s concerns on virtually every aspect of the Army, from levels of pay to the quality of food in canteens.

Defense Matters!

US Attacks on USMC?!

Haditha Video Doctored by Investigators

The Chief has been following this for some time…and has noted with satisfaction that the case against the Marine “boots on the ground” has started to unravel. It looks like this process is continuing, with these reports of doctored video evidence.

A video taped from a Scan Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle – purported to show the action that took place in Haditha when 24 Iraqi civilians and insurgents were killed – was heavily edited by government investigators, a NewsMax investigation reveals. The reason, according to an inside source: to avoid showing anything that exonerates the Marines who were accused of murdering the victims. Four Marines originally faced murder charges stemming from the Haditha incident. Charges against three of them have since been dropped, but Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich is still facing a court martial.

What was actually recorded leaves a very clear history that the Marines’ actions were fully justified by the rules of engagement. What WAS actually recorded?

The Marine intelligence officer who monitored the Scan Eagle’s video transmissions throughout the day told NewsMax that therewas continuous video feed from the Scan Eagle for 8 to 10 hours. Yet barely an hour of it was provided to the Marines’ defense teams by the prosecution or the Naval Criminal Investigation Service. “This 8 to 10 hours, viewed in its entirety, shows men in black, with weapons, fleeing the neighborhood of houses 1, 2, 3 and 4 [the area where the civilians and eight of the insurgents were killed]. It follows their route as they meet up with other insurgents throughout the city. It clearly demonstrates the magnitude of the insurgents’ organization, skill, and timing in attacking Marines.”

The video, he recalled, “shows them parking, exiting the vehicle, and entering the housing complex. It shows Marines assaulting the building, insurgents fleeing out the back of the building, and Marines falling back from the assault as the insurgents defend the house.” Finally, the intelligence officer revealed, the full, undoctored Scan Eagle video “shows an insurgent, at the end of the day, under continuous observation from the air and under continuous pursuit and fire, emerge from a family’s home holding their children hostage, in order to protect himself from further air strikes.”

What was actually used as “evidence” and which was released to CNN, who played thr role of the willing fool in helping the prosecution, was somewhat less that this:

“Someone, under the supervision of NCIS, screened this video feed, and made the conscious decision to preserve only four segments of approximately 15 minutes each – according to the defense attorneys who received it upon discovery release,” our intelligence source confided.

What the Chief really CANNOT wrap his mind around, is an understanding of the attitudes and motivation of any bottom-feeding, slime-sucking, traitorous scum who would do this to our own troops.

Execution is too good for them. One needs to hearken back to the old-style penalty of the British monarchs to APPROACH justice: hung by the neck, taken down while still alive, racked, disembowled, with the innards still attached and then thrown into a fire, and only then beheaded, with the body quartered, and the fragments placed on public display as an instructive lesson.

China Watch, Defense Matters!

Selling our birthright for a mess of pottage…

Genesis 25:
29 And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:
30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.
31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
32 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

Trinkets and treasure: China tames the US

A new version of an old story. All it takes to see this is a quick trip to the local Wal-Mart.

…the real dreadnoughts of modern-day Chinese naval power, the huge containerized cargo ships, some Chinese, most not, full of Chinese manufactured goods, making another one of their visits to the port of Seattle, the same way they do to hundreds of other Western ports every single day….You frequently see containerized cargo ships making their way down Puget Sound to the port facilities in Seattle, completing their two-week high-seas journey from the massive Hong Kong and Shenzhen port complexes in southern China.

And the point is…

Most of the time, as they complete these voyages in from the Pacific, they ride low in the water, right down to the waterline. On these ships, the thousands of containers visible on deck, and the many more you don’t see under the decks (the largest container ship in the world, the Maersk Line’s Emma Maersk, can hold more than 14,000 individual 20-foot container units) are chock full, with TVs, washing machines and appliances, tires, toys and trinkets; the full catalogue of rapidly depreciating disposables over which North America is sacrificing its treasure.

As the containerized cargo ships leave Seattle, or San Francisco, or Long Beach, San Diego, Vancouver, all the way north to the newly bustling port of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, the ships ride a lot higher in the water. Most of the cargo containers are empty; they’re being sent back to China to be refilled. With the Chinese trade surplus with the US now running at about $150 billion a year, there’s a lot more stuff coming into the US west coast than leaving. (And much of the value of what the US does export to China comes from either Boeing jetliners or intellectual properties, such as first-run teen-slasher movies, neither of which gets much transported to China on containerized cargo ships.)

Or maybe it just seems that way. What really is being transported back to China in those empty containers is power.

The gory details of Wally-World (and others’) addiction to “Made in China” are clearly and unambiguously, and depressingly detailed., leading inevitably to this congealed lump of inconvenient truth:

China does not have to lobby US congressional representatives to look after its interests; the US industrial elite does that quite well on its own. In much the same way that Nazi Germany established Vichy France to further its interests without actually occupying the country, the US corporate elite’s desire to use China to enrich its wealth further has allowed China to create Vichy America.

That is a REALLY ugly concept to wrap one’s mind around. And to return to global realpolitik…we approach a potentially more serious consequence: Taiwan.

Here can be seen the true genius of the Chinese plan to subdue the US with trinkets and treasure. To counter the US militarily would be hugely expensive, and probably beyond China’s current technological capacity. Far better to do it the way it has, with trade. The Chinese could have America’s industrial elite, fearing a shutoff of the China wealth spigot, whisper in the ears of American policymakers that they should lay off any military countering of a Chinese move against Taiwan.

Give China 10 days to two weeks of unhindered military access to the Taiwan Strait, and it’ll put the flag of the People’s Republic of China over the Presidential Palace in Taipei. This is the classic “indirect approach” of mid-20th-century English military strategist Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart; instead of facing the US at its strongest, its technological superiority, China has attacked the US at its weakest point, its acquisitive, materialist, greedy soul.

After noting what China has done with two surplus” Soviet mini-carriers (turned them into tourist traps!) the conclusion here notes that

Real power now lies in those cargo ships forever steaming inexorably to the American heartland. In a couple of years, the United States will conclude its (by then) million-death, trillion-dollar misadventure in trying to subdue a few spits of green land between the Tigris and Euphrates. It will discover that, even if General David Petraeus’ “surge” might have won the battle of al-Anbar, back home the US ruling elite has surrendered to China in the battle for the United States, without even firing a single shot.

Someone PLEASE tell me this is all wrong?

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

Pentagon: Hillary Aiding Terr Cause

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Pentagon Rebukes Sen. Clinton on Iraq

The Pentagon told Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton that her questions about how the U.S. plans to eventually withdraw from Iraq boosts enemy propaganda. In a stinging rebuke to a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman responded to questions Clinton raised in May in which she urged the Pentagon to start planning now for the withdrawal of American forces.

A copy of Edelman’s response, dated July 16, was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

“Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia,” Edelman wrote. He added that “such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks.” (emphasis added)

YES! It’s high time this has been highlighted instead of supinely accepting Hil’s seditious (if not treasonous) conduct.

Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines called Edelman’s answer “at once outrageous and dangerous,” and said the senator would respond to his boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Yeah. Dangerous to her image as a responsible candidate for the office of President.

Clinton has privately and publicly pushed Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace two months ago to begin drafting the plans for what she said will be a complicated withdrawal of troops, trucks and equipment. “If we’re not planning for it, it will be difficult to execute it in a safe and efficacious way,” she said then.

First, planning ANY military maneuver is NOT a part of the responsibility of Congress collectively, or any individual member thereof, no matter what sort of demi-god status is granted by the MSM.

Second, there is no way to withdraw from Iraq under current conditions in “a safe and efficacious way” as far as the US national security is concerned, to say nothing of the probable fate of our in-country allies and associates after a US retreat.

Edelman’s letter does offer a passing indication the Pentagon might, in fact, be planning how to withdraw, saying: “We are always evaluating and planning for possible contingencies. As you know, it is long-standing departmental policy that operational plans, including contingency plans, are not released outside of the department.”

Quick! Somebody get the cluebat out and slap her to MAYBE get a clue about a concept she is apparently incapable of understanding: “operational security”.

Of course since she evidently doesn’t care about homeland security, or national security, why should the troops actual operational security be any different.

China Watch, Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

ChiCom Space Militarization

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China’s Space Threat: How Missiles Could Target U.S. Satellites

The Chief has noted these sorts of developments, very often from coverage by Bill Gertz in the Washington Times. Here’s some more from another source – Popular Mechanics, which has lately been covering some serious topics, such as debunking the 9-11 conspiracy theorists that think the buildings came down from internal explosives.

For China, a nation that has already sent humans into space and developed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the technology involved in the test was hardly remarkable. But as a demonstration of a rising military posture, it was a surprisingly aggressive act, especially since China has long pushed for an international treaty banning space weapons. “The move was a dangerous step toward the abyss of weaponizing space,” says Theresa Hitchens, director of the Center for Defense Information, an independent defense research group in Washington, D.C. “China held the moral high ground about space, and that test re-energized the China hawks in Congress. If we’re not careful, space could become the new Wild West. You don’t just go and blow things up there.” In fact, after the Chinese test, India publicly stepped up its development of anti­satellite technology. And some Israeli officials have argued that, given China’s record of selling missile technology to Iran, Israel should develop its own program.

As always, the ChiComs bear close watching.