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THE FORGOTTEN PART OF THE CONTEST: ARMY LOGISTICS IN THE PACIFIC
CARMELIA SCOTT-SKILLERN AND PETER SINGER
APRIL 29, 2024

Army vessel departs in support of Pacific Pathways
As Gen. Omar Bradley is credited as saying, “Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics.” Indeed, from the American Revolution to modern-day conflicts in Afghanistan and Ukraine, the U.S. Army’s ability to effectively manage resources, transport troops and supplies, and adapt to changing circumstances has been not just instrumental, but a core allied advantage over its foes that proved to be the difference between defeat and victory.

Unfortunately, when it comes to how the American defense community plans for and talks about the future of competition and conflict in the Pacific, it isn’t measuring up to Bradley’s metric. For instance, at the Army’s annual meeting, the secretary of the Army gave a powerful speech on how “we have got to ask the tough questions and make the hard decisions on what our force needs to fight in the future.” Yet, there was no mention of “logistics,” and the only discussion of “sustainment” was of barracks repair.

This is no anomaly, but the norm of the literally thousands of leader speeches, congressional testimonies, vision statements, and interviews on the future of war and competition and conflict with China. If logistics is mentioned at all, which is rare, it is a toss-off line.

https://warontherocks.com/2024/04/the-forgotten-part-of-the-contest-army-logistics-in-the-pacific/
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Whether a pre-planned Hate-Trump set-up or just Hate-Trump opportunism, it's pretty obvious why Smithyroo tried to suppress this exculpating, almost certainly Brady, evidence. Chooo-ooo-choooooooo!

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/397/742/

Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742 (1970)
Granted:   June 23, 1969
Argued:    November 18, 1969
Decided:   May 4, 1970

The only situations in which a (guilty) plea may be involuntary
and unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment
are if it is the product of physical harm, a threat of physical harm, or mental coercion.
Misrepresentations or bribes may make a plea invalid.
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Just as it did with Nazi Germany!
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Military/Defense News / Coddling Iran Brings War to the Middle East
« Last post by rangerrebew on Today at 05:19:02 pm »
Coddling Iran Brings War to the Middle East
Obama's deference to the Mullahs finds us fighting proxy wars against them.
by FRANCIS P. SEMPA
April 28, 2024, 10:36 PM
Libin Jose/Shutterstock

It cannot be stated too frequently that during Donald Trump’s presidency the Middle East was at relative peace and the Abraham Accords charted a new course for U.S. foreign policy there. This accord removed the irreconcilable Israeli-Palestinian conflict from center stage and replaced it with a realism that hadn’t been seen since the Nixon administration. In Trump, America had a president who didn’t care what Thomas Friedman wrote about the region in the New York Times, and who was determined to break through the bureaucratic inertia of the State Department (like Nixon and Kissinger did) to make deals that would benefit U.S. interests.

Meanwhile, Thomas Friedman, who people in the Biden administration undoubtedly read, keeps calling for regime change in Israel.

Trump’s approach, as Edward Luttwak points out in an insightful essay in Unherd, broke with the “delusional” policies of the Obama administration, which unfortunately have reappeared under Biden. As a result, Iran has been emboldened, launching proxy wars against Israel, supplying the Houthis with weapons to cause havoc in and around the Red Sea, and most recently attacking Israel directly with ballistic missiles and drones. Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian forces within the United States hold public anti-Israeli/anti-American demonstrations on college campuses and elsewhere. The world is reaping what Obama sowed. (READ MORE from Francis P. Sempa: What Will Happen to Russia After Putin?)

Luttwak notes that Obama’s Iran policy “has achieved the exact opposite of what he had wanted.” The U.S. and Iran, instead of reconciling, are fighting a proxy war in the Middle East. The Obama apology tour of the region in 2009, his nuclear deals with Iran, and the removal of sanctions against the regime have reaped a foul and dangerous harvest. Obama’s policies, Luttwak explains, gave Iran’s leaders “the time and the oil revenues to recruit Shi’a militias from Lebanon to Yemen now holding the Middle East to ransom.” Luttwak writes that it was delusional of Obama to believe that he could persuade the Mullahs to abandon their “‘death to America’ hostility.” And while Luttwak gives Obama credit for refraining from following the advice of some neoconservatives to attack Iran militarily (Trump, too, wisely rejected similar advice), the overall approach to the region during his eight years was a combination of Wilsonian imprudence regarding the so-called Arab Spring, hostility to Israel, and deference to the region’s Islamic regimes.

https://spectator.org/coddling-iran-brings-war-to-the-middle-east/
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  neglects the real strategic threat: China

Intentionally, I have to believe. :pondering:
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 :rolling:

The Daily Republic, Mitchell, S.D.

Trump confirms Gov. Kristi Noem a potential VP selection

Updated February 21, 2024


Feb. 21—South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is on former President Donald Trump's shortlist as a potential running mate in the general election.

During a Tuesday night, Feb. 20 town hall on Fox News, Trump confirmed Noem is on the list of vice president candidates during an interview with host Laura Ingraham.

Ingraham listed high-profile Republicans Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy, Byron Donalds, Noem and former Democratic presidential primary candidate Tulsi Gabbard as the six names, and Trump confirmed they are possible running mates.

<..snip..>

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-confirms-gov-kristi-noem-153600297.html
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Biden’s massive military aid package neglects the real strategic threat: China
BY BRAHMA CHELLANEY, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 04/29/24 3:30 PM ET
 

MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/AFP via Getty Images
 

The congressional breakthrough on the $95 billion foreign assistance package after months of political wrangling provides President Joe Biden’s administration with arms outlays that are larger than the defense budget of every country other than the United States, China and Russia. Biden now has considerable leverage to further conflict or deterrence across three large geographic regions encompassing more than half of the world — Europe, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific.

The package effectively opens the floodgates to the greater flow of sophisticated American weapons, especially to Ukraine. In fact, even before Biden signed the foreign assistance bill into law, Ukraine began using longer-range ATACMS missiles against Russian forces that the U.S. had secretly supplied. And as the law took effect, the Pentagon immediately rushed $1 billion worth of American weapons to Ukraine.


The package reflects the Biden administration’s skewed strategic priorities: It provides $60.8 billion for Ukraine in its war of attrition with Russia, with much of the funding going to U.S. defense contractors and the Pentagon; $26.4 billion for Israel and America’s supporting military operations in the Middle East; and a relatively miserly $8.1 billion for Taiwan and other security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region — the world’s center of gravity where America’s main rival, China, is incrementally changing the territorial and maritime status quo.

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4629302-bidens-massive-military-aid-package-neglects-the-real-strategic-threat-china/
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Politics/Government / McConnell’s exit isn’t going to be a quiet one
« Last post by corbe on Today at 05:12:47 pm »
McConnell’s exit isn’t going to be a quiet one

BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 04/30/24 6:00 AM ET


Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) is on the way out. But he’s not going quietly.

A GOP free agent of sorts, McConnell helped convince Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to back aid to Ukraine despite opposition from House Republicans. The effort led to another win in a long list of big legislative victories for the Kentuckian.

McConnell, who is nearing the end of his days as the Senate Republican leader, is speaking more freely, too.

He sharply criticized conservative pundit Tucker Carlson this month, saying he’d found a home in interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He’s also gone after Republicans opposed to aiding Ukraine, accusing them of being on the wrong side of history.

There’s no doubt that McConnell has lost a lot of influence in the GOP to former President Trump, who is poised for a return to the White House if he can defeat President Biden in November.

Even in McConnell’s own Senate GOP caucus, the Trump forces are growing. If Republicans win back the Senate in the fall, the number of Republicans aligned with Trump — and those who may oppose McConnell’s brand of foreign policy — seems likely to grow.

But that is tomorrow, not today.

<..snip..>

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4630773-mcconnells-exit-isnt-going-to-be-a-quiet-one/
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Marine unit found metal shavings in F-35 fuel, plastic tool in wing
By Stephen Losey
 Apr 29, 12:56 PM
 
U.S. Navy Under Secretary Erik Raven learns about the F-35C from a pilot with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 311 during a visit to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California. The squadron found multiple problems with five newly delivered F-35C Joint Strike Fighters late last year, according to a memo obtained exclusively by Defense News. (Sgt. Joshua Brittenham/U.S. Marine Corps)
Metal shavings in contaminated fuel, incorrectly assembled parts, and a plastic scraper protruding from a wing fold were among the faults discovered in five new F-35C Joint Strike Fighters delivered to a U.S. Marine Corps fighter squadron in California in 2023, according to a memo obtained by Defense News.

Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 311, or VMFA-311, at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego discovered an array of problems with its Lockheed Martin-made F-35s that ultimately required more than 700 hours of work to fix and wasted more than 169,000 pounds of fuel, the Jan. 7 memo said.


On Dec. 7, for instance, a plastic scraper was discovered protruding from the wing fold of one of the squadron’s jets, after the jet had flown, the memo noted. The 5.5-inch scraper was discovered during a post-flight inspection on the jet and fell to the ground.

The F-35C is the Joint Strike Fighter variant flown by the Navy and Marine Corps, and each plane costs $94.4 million. It can take off from and land on aircraft carriers, and its wingtips are able to fold up to allow more compact storage on aircraft carriers.

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2024/04/29/marine-unit-found-metal-shavings-in-f-35-fuel-plastic-tool-in-wing/
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Malicious people are well aware of this.  They use it to conceal their malice.

"I would never INTENTIONALLY do that!  It was totally an accident!"
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