Category: US Military
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Soothing East Asia's Nerves as Trump's Administration Reaffirms US Power in Asia-Pacific / Politics / US Military
By: STRATFOR
Forecast
- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's 10-day tour of East Asia will focus primarily on easing uncertainty among U.S. allies about the administration's policies in the region.
- U.S. moves to contain North Korea and compel China toward cooperation will dominate discussions in Seoul and Tokyo, though tension over the Trump administration's trade policies will loom large in both visits.
- Indonesia and Australia will remain wary of joining U.S. initiatives that risk provoking China but also receptive to U.S. efforts to lay the groundwork for more robust defense cooperation.
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Russia, China... Will They Ever Learn? / Politics / US Military
By: DeviantInvestor
In the 1960s Peter, Paul and Mary popularized a song written by Pete Seeger – “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”
The short version is:
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, April 14, 2017
MOAB - US Military Madness / Politics / US Military
By: Stephen_Lendman
WW I French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau was right, saying: “War is too important to be left to the generals.”
Trump delegated warmaking to neocon hawkish generals, favoring belligerence over diplomacy - heading toward escalated war on Syria along with possibly striking North Korea preemptively.
Trump’s geopolitical agenda risks confrontation with multiple countries. It risks nuclear war in Europe and East Asia.
Russia warned it’ll down US warplanes and missiles if its personnel in Syria are endangered. US policymakers and Pentagon officials know it.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, April 07, 2017
Trump to Fire 50 US Cruise Missiles To Erase Syrian Chemical Attack Air Base, China Next? / Politics / US Military
By: Nadeem_Walayat
It appears President Trump is to authorise the imminent launch of air strikes on Syria towards helping break the narrative that he is an 'Manchurian candidate' working for Putin who played a significant hand in getting Trump elected last year. Perhaps Putin failed to properly calculate whether it really is be better for Russia to have an erratic 70 year old toddler in the White House than a rational continuation of the Obama regime in Hillary Clinton.
Saturday, March 25, 2017
Unaccountable Military Industrial Complex Is Destroying America and the Rest Of The World Too / Politics / US Military
By: Jeff_Berwick
On Jan. 17, 1961, US President Eisenhower gave the nation a dire warning about what he described as a threat to democratic government. He called it the military-industrial complex.
He warned, "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist."
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, March 07, 2017
Here’s All You Need to Know About US Strategy In Asia-Pacific / Politics / US Military
By: John_Mauldin
BY XANDER SNYDER AND CHEYENNE LIGON : On a recent trip to the Pacific, US Defense Secretary James Mattis reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to guard Japan against foreign threats. Both the US and Japan have interests in the South China Sea. Geopolitical expert George Friedman has written extensively about this shared interest in This Week in Geopolitics (subscribe here for free).
Wednesday, March 01, 2017
Trump Ramps Up US Military Debt Spending In Preparations for China War / Politics / US Military
By: Nadeem_Walayat
President Trump's announcement to request Congress to increase annual US 'defense' spending by $54 billion (10%) to over $650 billion, some ten times that of the likes of Russia or Britain and approximately 40% of total global military spending. Which underscores the reality that there is nothing defensive about the scale of US military spending as the US is a global military empire that far out spends any other nation, where whilst the establishment media makes much of the Russian military threat in reality is a mere smoke and mirrors propaganda exercise as my 'Trump Reset' series of articles illustrates :
Friday, February 10, 2017
NATO Is Obsolete for the US / Politics / US Military
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : Donald Trump deeply upset the Europeans when he raised the possibility that NATO is obsolete and that the European Union is failing.
But this isn’t the first time these issues have been discussed. I wrote about it last year, and the conversation has only continued.
What Trump has done is simply bring into the open the question of Europe’s relationship with the US.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Disturbing US Anti-China Saber Rattling / Politics / US Military
By: Stephen_Lendman
Saber rattling by Trump administration officials on China give pause for concern, continuing Obama’s hostile approach, risking direct confrontation if not curbed.
At his Senate confirmation hearing, Secretary of State designee Rex Tillerson recklessly said “(w)e are going to have to send China a clear signal that, first, the island-building stops and second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed.”
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, November 14, 2016
Memo to the Next US Administration: Defense Spending Must Be For Actual Defense / Politics / US Military
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
In a disturbing indication of how difficult it would be to bring military spending in line with actual threats overseas, House Armed Services Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R – TX) told President Obama last week that his war funding request of $11.6 billion for the rest of the year was far too low. That figure for the last two months of 2016 is larger than Spain's budget for the entire year! And this is just a "war-fighting" supplemental, not actual "defense" spending! More US troops are being sent to Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and elsewhere and the supplemental request is a way to pay for them without falling afoul of the "sequestration" limits.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Russia’s UN Envoy Blasts US Mass Murder in Syria / Politics / US Military
By: Stephen_Lendman
All US wars kill many more civilians than combatants - the ugly truth Washington wants suppressed. America considers everyone in war theaters legitimate targets while claiming otherwise.
Since summer 2014, US warplanes illegally bombed Syrian and Iraqi targets on the phony pretext of combating terrorism, killing unknown numbers of civilians, hundreds, maybe thousands - all the while disingenuously claiming to go all-out to avoid so-called collateral damage.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, May 16, 2016
Defense Bill Coming This Week: A Boost for War and Tyranny / Politics / US Military
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
For many of us concerned with liberty, the letters "NDAA" have come to symbolize Washington's ongoing effort to undermine the US Constitution in the pursuit of constant war overseas. It was the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2012 that introduced into law the idea that American citizens could be indefinitely detained without warrant or charge if a government bureaucrat decides they had assisted al-Qaeda or "associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States." No charges, no trial, just disappeared Americans.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, May 02, 2016
U.S. Military Drafting Women Means Equality in Slavery / Politics / US Military
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week the House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act requiring women to register with Selective Service. This means that if Congress ever brings back the draft, women will be forcibly sent to war.
The amendment is a response to the Pentagon's decision to allow women to serve in combat. Supporters of drafting women point out that the ban on women in combat was the reason the Supreme Court upheld a male-only draft. Therefore, they argue, it is only logical to now force women to register for Selective Service. Besides, supporters of extending the draft point out, not all draftees are sent into combat.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Obama Syria, Iraq 'No Boots on the Ground' Backpedaling Begins / Politics / US Military
By: Mike_Shedlock
President Obama's "no boots on the ground" pledges have been broken so many times it's hard to keep track.
Today the president is back at it. Another 200 boots are on their way to the Mideast.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, March 07, 2016
Do We Need To 'Rebuild The US Military'? / ElectionOracle / US Military
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
The Republican presidential debates have become so heated and filled with insults, it almost seems we are watching a pro wrestling match. There is no civility, and I wonder whether the candidates are about to come to blows. But despite what appears to be total disagreement among them, there is one area where they all agree. They all promise that if elected they will "rebuild the military."
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 22, 2016
Ron Paul on U.S. Intervention Failure: Back to Libya / Politics / US Military
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
The use of the US military overseas seems to have become so commonplace that the Obama Administration can bomb a country with no Congressional input and very little media interest at all. Such was the case on Friday, when the US military killed some 49 people in a bombing run near Tripoli, Libya.
We had to bomb Libya, we are told, because Libya has become a hotbed of ISIS activity. The group has been moving training facilities into the country, taking advantage of the chaos. Ironically, it was five years ago this week that the "Arab Spring" uprising began in Libya -- an uprising that was supported by US military force and led to the overthrow of the Libyan government and the murder of its leader, Gaddafi.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II Boondoggle / Companies / US Military
By: Stephen_Lendman
At an estimated lifetime development, production, operational and maintenance cost of $2 trillion or more (adjusted for inflation), the F-35 perhaps most of all symbolizes notorious Pentagon waste, fraud and abuse - ripping off taxpayers, using the nation’s resources irresponsibly, at the expense of vital homeland needs.
Pentagon hype calls the F-35 “a 5th Generation fighter, combining advanced stealth with fighter speed and agility, fully fused sensor information, network-enabled operations and advanced sustainment” - for Army, Navy and Marine Corps use, as well as for selected allies.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, December 28, 2015
What Are The Chances For Peace in 2016? / Politics / US Military
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Each year more than one trillion dollars goes up in smoke. More accurately, it is stolen from the middle and working classes and shipped off to the one percent. I am talking about the massive yearly bill to maintain the US empire. Washington's warmongers have sold the lie that the military budget has been gutted under President Obama, but even when the "Sequester" was in effect military spending continued to increase. Only the pace of increase was reduced, not actual spending.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, November 15, 2015
No, the U.S. Military Has Not Withered Away Under Obama / Politics / US Military
By: MISES
Ryan McMaken writes: It is common to see articles and columns in the Conservative media claiming that President Obama is engaging in “historic defense cuts.” There are claims that not in decades has the military ever endured such budget slashing. “Romney blasts Obama over military cutbacks” one headline blares.
Upon closer examination of these claims, one notes that the authors are careful to never mention actual dollar amounts in context, or any meaningful historical context beyond single recent year-over-year comparisons.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, October 05, 2015
Kunduz Afghanistan’s Hospital Bombing - Pentagon Lies Covering Up Its Latest War Crime / Politics / US Military
By: Stephen_Lendman
US warplanes deliberately and maliciously terror bombed Kunduz, Afghanistan’s hospital, the only one in the area - striking it multiple times for over an hour, despite knowing it was not involved in ongoing fighting in the city.
The death toll stands at 22, dozens more injured, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF) physicians, other medical staff and patients. Those unable to be moved were immolated in their beds.
US General in charge of Pentagon operations in Afghanistan John F. Campbell lied, claiming the Kunduz hospital was “accidentally struck.”
Read full article... Read full article...