General Robert Neller, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, is in the news since he told Marines to get ready for a big fight. This doesn’t really alarm me. A military exists to be ready to fight, and the Marines place a premium on combat readiness. No –...
On May 2, 2017, before becoming Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, as Minister of Defense, spoke about the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen, a war he orchestrated since March of 2015. "A long war is in our interest," he said, explaining that...
Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise visit to Bagram air base in Afghanistan, reassuring the assembled troops that they are winning the war there, despite evidence to the contrary. For the occasion he donned a spiffy-looking leather military flight jacket,...
After opposing escalation with Russia over Ukraine as a candidate, President Trump made the surprising decision to begin supplying Ukraine with lethal arms this week. The neocons are pleased but urge him to allow even more weapons. What's the reason for the flip-flop?...
A week after Secretary of State Tillerson made -- then retracted -- an offer to talk with North Korea without preconditions, President Trump's National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster, told the media yesterday that the US was ready to "compel" North Korea to give up...
US Ambassador to the UN made a big show of holding a press conference to demonstrate an "Iranian" missile that the Houthis in Yemen fired onto Saudi territory as an example of Iran's violation of the JPCOA agreement. It was a scene reminiscent of then-Secretary of...
Specialists on North Korea have cited many reasons over the years for why China cannot be relied on to stop the DPRK from continuing its nuclear and missile buildup. The reasons are by now quite familiar, and have mostly to do with China’s fear that pressuring Kim...
Got the return letter from Sen. Mike Crapo's office – lots of data, lots of text. Impressed by the time it took to put together, if it was written just for me. Maybe it was. Nevertheless, the letter was a compilation of facts and views compiled to ignore the...
The "European Defense Initiative" was launched after the US-backed coup in Ukraine to counter Russian "aggression" in the region. Its budget has quintupled to nearly $5 billion next year. Hundreds of millions will be spent to rebuild military bases in eastern Europe....
