Tag: Armed Forces

Thinking Of Enlisting In the Military?

The airways are full of the opportunities out there for those thinking of making the jump to military service. “Be All You Can Be” sort of thing.

They even brain wash our children into thinking that it is something special by teaching them with ROTC.

Before anyone is considering the jump to the military to broaden their horizons maybe they should read this….written by someone who made the jump and their experiences….

Though the war in Afghanistan is over, its grim history is filled with hard truths about what it really means to serve in the American military.

Those truths are particularly relevant to anyone contemplating enlistment or commissioning in the armed forces. With that in mind, here’s a warning label informed by the grim lessons of Operation Enduring Freedom—the failed and futile 20-year war in Afghanistan.

After 9/11, the U.S. government was right to lash out at Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. However, that mission was largely accomplished by the end of 2001. As Scott Horton wrote in Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan, within three months of 9/11, “there were not enough (al Qaeda) left alive to fill a seventeenth-century pirate ship.”

The balance of the war was a futile effort to replace the Taliban with a government more palatable to western powers. Today, after more than 2,400 U.S. service members were killed and more than 20,000 wounded, Afghanistan is ruled by the Taliban, just as it was two decades years ago.

https://starkrealities.substack.com/p/thinking-of-enlisting-read-this-afghan

I admit it…after serving as a combat grunt I am antiwar all the way….our children need a better education than war.

Please anyone contemplating joining the military please read this and then make an informed decision….for the decision will change your life in so many ways and not always for the better.

Think Before You Sign!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Space Force

Not the Netflix sit-com…the real life Space Force that will take the US military into the next century.

Our very first Space Force LTs have graduated….

Eighty-six graduates from the United States Air Force Academy celebrated receiving their diplomas April 18 and moved directly into the U.S. Space Force, marking the first infusion of commissioned personnel into the new service since its creation last year.

“As our nation’s first Space Force lieutenants, these leaders will defend democracy and protect the ultimate high ground of space,” said Barrett. “As they depart the Academy today, they will join the ranks of air and space power pioneers. They will be instrumental in building a lean, agile and forward-looking Space Force defending our nation, our allies and our American interests in space.”

While approximately 16,000 military and civilians from the former Air Force Space Command are now assigned to the Space Force, the arrival of these newest officers signals that the new service is taking a significant step toward filling its ranks.

The 86 newest members of the Space Force will fill a variety of roles, the majority of whom are assigned to the space operations career field and will be moving to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, to begin undergraduate space training. The remaining members are assigned to a variety of career fields, such as cyberspace operations, intelligence, developmental engineer and acquisitions manager, and will go to their respective initial skills training locations across the country. Upon completion of training, all 86 will be assigned to a Space Force unit.

Question!

If they are educated by the Air Force and the Air Force already has a Space Command….why do we need a separate Space Force?

A few more questions about our newest military…..Is the Space Force built for war?

If I were a Russian or Chinese space warfare theorist, thinking about a future war with the United States, it might be reasonable to bet that the newly-minted U.S. Space Force was planning for a kinetic space conflict, starting on Day 1.

Understandably, the Space Force keeps a tight lid on broader discussions of its capabilities. There isn’t a lot of direct information one way or another. Without a clear understanding of what the U.S. can do, an analyst might start trying to figure out U.S. intentions.

The culture of the Space Force might still be unformed and changing; it does bear at least a family resemblance to its sister services in at least one significant respect. In the services, the purveyors of kinetic mayhem — the shooters and the killers — tend to be culturally dominant within their respective services. The Space Force has been no exception to this.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2020/10/16/us_space_force_built_for_war_580985.html

To me this Space Force sounds more like an invasion and occupation force….more so than some vague defense force.

WE even have an orbiting drone just for the future of war.

The fledgling U.S. Space Force’s Space Delta 9 is tasked with performing a mission set that the service describes as orbital warfare. This includes keeping an eye out for potentially hostile activity in space, as well as deterring those threats and even potentially defeating them, according to the unit’s official website. Publicly, it provides this support primarily through various space-based surveillance and communications systems, but, interestingly, it is also responsible for overseeing the operations of the experimental X-37B mini space shuttle, the exact mission and capabilities of which remain obscure.

Space Force highlighted the intriguing orbital warfare mission of Space Delta 9, as part of the larger array of capabilities within its new Space Operations Command (SpOC), in a Tweet earlier this week. The unit had first come into existence in July and had previously been known as the Air Force’s 750th Operations Group, which had only been activated and assigned to that service’s 50th Space Wing the month before. 50th Space Wing, headquartered at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado, was also transferred to the newest branch of America’s armed forces that month, at which time it was rebranded as the Peterson-Schriever Garrison.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/37361/space-force-has-a-unit-dedicated-to-orbital-warfare-that-now-operates-the-x-37b-spaceplane

When and we will engage in space battles in the future…what will they be like?

As countries around the world continue to militarize space, experts are beginning to envision what an actual off-world clash might look like.

Unfortunately, dogfights among spacecraft zipping around like in Star Wars are out, Ars Technica reports. Rather, according to a new report published by the Aerospace Corporation, space battle is likely to be way slower, more deliberate, and even a little clunky.

The challenge, the report says, is that space operations need to be planned well in advance. And once a satellite is in orbit, it can’t just change direction or careen around like a fighter plane. That makes the likelihood of a spontaneous skirmish in space much less likely than on Earth.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/experts-actual-space-battles

Last year after the announcement of the creation of the Space Force I wrote and asked the question….Do we need a Space Force?

https://lobotero.com/2019/12/24/does-america-need-a-space-force/

Could the US Space Force be the prelude to the establishment of a Space Empire?

It’s easy to get swept up by the tide of excitement for space exploration and perhaps someday even settling on another world — just think about what a moment of national pride each “first” was during the Cold War-era Space Race.

But that excitement, taken too far into fanaticism, could give rise to a disastrous future in which space is controlled by a totalitarian empire, warns Johns Hopkins University political scientist Daniel Deudney. In a review of Deudney’s new book about those concerns, University of Leicester international relations lecturer Bleddyn Bowen argues that Deudney might be a touch pessimistic — but makes a compelling case that space exploration poses several oft-overlooked threats to our future.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/johns-hopkins-professor-warns-totalitarian-military-space-empire

And you thought the Galactic Empire of Star Wars was fiction.

These are all questions and issues that future international relations people will have to face in the near future…..best not ignore them now or they will bite you in the ass soon rather than later.

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

US Military–The Collapse

Most of us have our opinions on what climate change will do or not do to the planet……but has anyone really considered what it could possibly do to our military?

About here someone is thinking that I am losing my ever loving mind….am I right?

The Climate and the military?

All you Neocons that are also climate deniers….then maybe you need to pay attention…

The idea looks feasible if you read a report by the Pentagon…..

Faced with the challenges of global climate change as well as the refugee crisis and armed conflicts it will create, the U.S. military may very well collapse.

That’s the dire conclusion of a Pentagon-commissioned report about the future of the military, first published online in August with little fanfare and recently surfaced by Motherboard. The takeaway is clear: if humanity continues to destroy the environment, American infrastructure could collapse and the military would be so ill-equipped to respond that it too would fall apart.

In a cruel twist of irony, the U.S. Department of Defense was recently shown to have the largest carbon footprint in the world — the military does more to exacerbate climate change than do entire developed nations.

“Most of the critical infrastructures identified by the Department of Homeland Security are not built to withstand these altered conditions,” reads the report. It says that increased energy demands caused by increased heat waves and droughts could destroy the power grid, which it describes as “an already fragile system.”

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mbmkz8/us-military-could-collapse-within-20-years-due-to-climate-change-report-commissioned-by-pentagon-says

The report paints a frightening portrait of a country falling apart over the next 20 years due to the impacts of climate change on “natural systems such as oceans, lakes, rivers, ground water, reefs, and forests.”

Current infrastructure in the US, the report says, is woefully underprepared: “Most of the critical infrastructures identified by the Department of Homeland Security are not built to withstand these altered conditions.”

It is just not the temperatures that will be effected…..every part of the economy/society will face a bleak future if the next 20 years do not find a cure.

Just thought you should know.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

State Of Defense–2019

We all are aware of the speech the president delivers to a join session of Congress, the State of the Union……but there is also a report on the condition of our armed forces…..

As an analyst of international situations I am always watching the major arm of our foreign policy the military…..there is an annual report on the condition of our armed forces (prepared by a defense industry site so it is skewed a bit)…..

I you are interested in our armed forces and would like to read about the preparedness then pick a service and learn stuff…..

If we had written this State of Defense report two months ago, it would have been almost entirely different. For better or worse, President Trump brings the nation into 2019 with a new attitude and new attention to the U.S. military’s ground wars. 

By presidential order, this will be the year the U.S. ground war in Syria ends. Trump also reportedly wants a drawdown in Afghanistan, but hasn’t started planning for one, and was looking into restricting U.S. special operations forces fighting across Africa, though U.S. combat in Somalia appears to be escalating. In fact, in 2019, the sprawling footprint of the U.S. military from southwest Asia to north Africa may not change much at all.

So in the upcoming budget hearings, expect service leaders to argue that too much is being asked of too-few troops with too-few resources. That means some hard choices and some exciting ones. Read on, in Defense One’s 2019 State of Defense:

Again….pick a branch and see what is what for 2019…..remember we are still fighting on many fronts….how will that effect or services?

 

Space And Space Rangers

Apparently I am the only blogger that has an opinion on the new “Space Force” being offered by Trump and some of his minions.  But first this idea is NOT Pres, Trump’s….it was also offered up by Pres. Obama in 2009……https://lobotero.com/2009/01/06/militarization-of-space/  So if follow the accepted logic and Trump hates everything Obama then he should back away from this immediately. (that was my small humor for this post)

I have been following this story since it first broke and have been writing about it as often as I can…..but just a reminder of my talents (that was humor also)….https://lobotero.com/2018/09/27/space-the-final-frontier-again/

Now that the idea is firmly set in the Pentagon there is a scramble to see where it falls in the ranking of the military…..then there is the Guard…….

President Donald Trump’s recent decision to seek congressional support for a separate Space Force is reminiscent of President Harry Truman’s similar action after World War II, when the nation contemplated a separate Air Force.

President Trump, similar to President Truman, reached the decision based on his judgment that change is necessary for national security. Space is critical to our national security on multiple levels. And consistent with the Constitution, Congress and the president must agree to form any new service.

As lawmakers began their deliberations, the Trump administration directed the Defense Department to develop a plan presuming congressional concurrence. The Air Force, which has the lead on the effort, offered its advice in a Sept. 14 memo outlining the path to creating a separate Space Force.

The memo is astonishing and disappointing in its recommendations for one of the nation’s most valuable military assets. It would fold “any” current National Guard space units into a federal Space Force Reserve.

https://www.airforcetimes.com/opinion/commentary/2018/09/30/the-nation-needs-the-guard-in-space/

More thoughts for the new “Space Force”……will it patrol the Moon after we build bases there?

Leading military space strategy experts are pondering the role of cislunar space in the context of President Donald Trump’s plan to establish a U.S. Space Force.

Just how valuable is that stretch of space between Earth and the moon’s orbit? Might this celestial real estate become hot property as an extension of military arenas in low Earth orbit, medium Earth orbit, and geosynchronous orbit?

Given forecasts of 21st-century activity on and around the moon by both private and government entities, could this be an economic area of development that needs protection in sthe years and decades to come? [In Photos: President Donald Trump and NASA]

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/would-trumps-space-force-patrol-the-moon/

China has been a competitor of the US for decades……and it appears that the competition may extend into Space…..

The Chinese military seems to agree that the current U.S. approach to space is hindered by some serious shortcomings.

If the United States is to maintain military advantage in space, as President Trump has promised – and as his new Space Force is meant to do –  U.S. policy and strategic decisions should be informed by an understanding of China’s ambitions to become an “aerospace superpower” (航天强国) – and how the Chinese military has reorganized itself to seek dominance in space (制天权).

Start with the way space is characterized in China’s military strategy: the “new commanding heights in strategic competition.” Once a sanctuary for U.S. satellites that have fostered unparalleled military capability, space is now recognized by Chinese military strategists as a critical U.S. vulnerability. Without reliable space support, U.S. capabilities for global C4ISR and precision strike will fail, and the U.S. military could be reduced to a level of merely mechanized warfare, by the assessment of one Chinese defense academic.

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2018/09/china-has-space-force-what-are-its-lessons-pentagon/151665/

There we have as much information as I can find at this time about a new and approved way for the Pentagon to waste taxpayer money.

 

Trade And National Security

Our Dear Leader has decided that the way to extend what is left of his legacy is by declaring a trade war on allies and foes alike……but what does this do to our national security?

The US has a military advantage around the world……if so then what will these trade wars do to that advantage?

Is the United States undermining the foundations of its military advantage by initiating trade wars with most of the known world?

The connections between trade and innovation are complicated, but generally speaking freer trade tends to generate more technological innovation than autarky, although much depends on the specific legal and structural conditions under which trade is conducted. During the Cold War, the United States derived immense military advantage from the global trade system that it constructed. This trade system tied the world’s most powerful economies to the United States with private and public binds, and also ensured that American producers would find consumers. While the system had drawbacks (exposure to international shocks, limitations on national economic policy) it provided a sounder basis for long-run economic growth than the autarkic policies undertaken by the Soviet Union and its Eastern European subject states.

https://thediplomat.com/2018/07/trade-wars-are-not-good-for-the-us-military-advantage/

Alright let’s say that you agree with Dear Leader’s stand on trade wars and tariffs……can we justify tariffs from a national security point of view?

Economists nearly unanimously support open and free trade among nations.1 The arguments for free trade are not new, dating back at least to Adam Smith’s famous book An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in 1776 and David Hume’s series of essays, On Commerce and On the Balance of Trade in 1752. Free trade increases wealth in a nation by promoting the division of labor, thereby increasing the quantity of goods and services in the economy. This increased division of labor benefits people in two main ways. First, it expands the range of goods and services available to people. For example, many spices that are not native to the United States would be unavailable without international trade. Second, it allows people in a nation to buy goods of a given quality that are made more cheaply—that is, produced with fewer or cheaper resources. In short, free trade allows people to minimize their own use of scarce resources to achieve their desired ends.

https://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2018/MurphyJtariffs.html

Let me hear what my readers think……both pro and con on tariffs are welcome.

That Byzantine Strategy

There are many strategies for fighting wars….reason they begin and how they end…..and I try to use IST to help my readers understand war in all its incarnations.

Many of us have been scratching our heads and writing about the wars that the US is fighting and the endless skirmishes that we know very little about.  We have been looking for what is the strategy of the Pentagon in all these wars.

I found an interesting article written from the US War College…..it seems that the US is using a similar strategy that the old Byzantine Empire used in its hay day…..

To face its enemies effectively, the Byzantine Empire employed a strategy that used diplomacy as the primary instrument of power for engaging its enemies, while using intelligence and its strong, innovative, military element of power only when necessary. Luttwak, in his conclusion of The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire, argues that the Byzantines’ strategy was based on the following principles:

  1. Avoid war by every possible means, in all possible circumstances, but always act as if it might start at any time.
  2. Gather intelligence on the enemy and his mentality, and monitor his movements continuously.
  3. Campaign vigorously, both offensively and defensively, but attack mostly with small units. Emphasize patrolling, raiding, and skirmishing rather than all-out attacks.
  4. Replace battles of attrition with evasive maneuver.
  5. Strive to end wars successfully by recruiting allies to change the overall balance of power.
  6. Use subversion as the best path to victory.
  7. Fight smart: when diplomacy and subversion fall short, employ ‘relational’ operational methods and tactics which circumvent enemies’ strengths, but exploit their weaknesses.

https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/the-u-s-byzantine-strategy/

I do not see that the US is using any of the characteristics above….#3 is about the only one that the US is actively using….at least as far as us mere mortals can see.  #6 is how you win elections especially in 2016….but that is a domestic thing….and can be used internationally.

History can teach us a lot about war…..for war is no different than when the combatants used stones……the only thing that changed is the weapons of choice.  Peace is just a word to describe the period between all out combat.

Sounds like they may have indeed hit upon the strategy the US is employing…..who knew?

What is needed is a strategy to cease all these wars of adventurism….and use our military power more wisely….PERIOD!

Knee jerk policies formulated on Twitter are not the way to handle international relations.

Enter “Starship Troopers”

We all remember the scifi classic and the subsequent movie….but our dear fearless leader has proposed just such a part of our armed forces…..a Space Corps.

There has been many to crap on the idea to include me and there are some that see the need for such a force…..so to be fair I want to give that point of view……

President Trump’s recent declaration of a new Space Force was met with ridicule in many quarters. Yet, the reality is that the United States does urgently need a dedicated military space branch that is separate from its Air Force.

While the United States has somewhat neglected its space program over the past twenty-five years, China has escalated its efforts in this area, including launching numerous manned space flights, landed a rover on the moon, and deployed multiple unmanned space stations. This has spurred a regional space race with India, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Taiwan, and Iran and more besides. The goal for the most ambitious of these states is not merely to equal American accomplishments, but to push past them, including establishing permanently manned space stations, landing astronauts on the Moon and Mars, and building lunar habitations. If achieved, these feats could knock the United States out of the lead in space for the first time since Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth in 1961.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/07/11/why_america_needs_an_independent_space_force_113595.html

Okay then if we need this new “Force” where will the funds come from?  Will it expand the budget of the Pentagon or will they work within their large amount of funds already?  Which programs will suffer to pay for this new “Force”?

Lies And War

For twenty five years or more the US has been listening to the damnable lies told by Israel about Iran and its capabilities to attack Israel.  Most of these lies were wild accusations that he cowards in Congress ate up along with the cash that Israel was offering….

But since a minority of Americans went to the polls and voted the sleazy of Wall street into the presidency those lies have been getting louder and more outrageous…

It is bad enough that Fearless Leader is thumping his chest over North Korea he also is lying his ass off about Iran….

A decade and a half ago, in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush’s administration conjured up not only terrifying images of nuclear mushroom clouds but also of Saddam Hussein plotting with Osama bin Laden to attack the United States.

Mr. Bush himself declared that Mr. Hussein “aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al Qaeda” while Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called links between Iraq and Al Qaeda “accurate and not debatable.”

It wasn’t true, of course. But it helped make the case for war.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/opinion/is-trump-going-to-lie-our-way-into-war-with-iran.html

For many years, major U.S. institutions ranging from the Pentagon to the 9/11 Commission have been pushing the line that Iran secretly cooperated with Al Qaeda both before and after the 9/11 terror attacks. But the evidence for those claims remained either secret or sketchy, and always highly questionable.

In early November, however, the mainstream media claimed to have its “smoking gun” — a CIA document written by an unidentified Al Qaeda official and released in conjunction with 47,000 never-before-seen documents seized from Osama bin Laden’s house in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The Associated Press reported that the Al Qaeda document “appears to bolster U.S. claims that Iran supported the extremist network leading up to the September 11 terror attacks.” The Wall Street Journalsaid the document “provides new insights into Al Qaeda’s relationship with Iran, suggesting a pragmatic alliance that emerged out of shared hatred of the United States and Saudi Arabia.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/11/23/how-us-ties-to-link-iran-to-al-qaeda/

After all that effort….the debunking began……

For many years, major U.S. institutions ranging from the Pentagon to the 9/11 Commission have been pushing the line that Iran secretly cooperated with Al Qaeda both before and after the 9/11 terror attacks. But the evidence for those claims remained either secret or sketchy, and always highly questionable.

In early November, however, the mainstream media claimed to have its “smoking gun”—a CIA document written by an unidentified Al Qaeda official and released in conjunction with 47,000 never-before-seen documents seized from Osama bin Laden’s house in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/translated-doc-debunks-narrative-of-al-qaeda-iran-alliance/

But o amount of debunking will shut up the lying of pea-brains like Sen. Cotton of Arkansas or the lip service of a weak minded president….

Israel has considered Iran to be Israel’s major enemy since the end of the Gulf War of 1991. But why, it might be asked, did the neocons promote war with Iraq, rather than Iran, in 2003? The neocons were in accord with Israeli thinking but planned to begin with Saddam’s Iraq, the elimination of which, they believed, would pave the way for regime change elsewhere in the Middle East. This especially included Iran, which bordered Iraq. Despite all-out efforts by the neocons to have the U.S. attack Iran after occupying Iraq, this failed to materialize, and later President Obama moved in the opposite direction, overriding strong opposition from Israel and its American supporters, and made a deal with Iran that precluded its development of a nuclear weapon, which had been the professed main concern of Israel.

Now with the Islamic State’s significant loss of territory, which the U.S. helped to bring about, Israel and its American supporters are expressing deep concern that the void left by its defeat is being filled by Iran, which supposedly threatens to attain regional hegemony. President Trump, who takes a very negative view of the nuclear deal and describes Iran as a terrorist state, is promoting a tougher line toward Iran. However, Israel and its American myrmidons see Trump’s hard-line position as insufficient, contending that much more must be done to effectively counter the Iranian threat.

http://www.unz.com/article/trumps-anti-iranian-foreign-policy-not-enough-for-neocons-and-other-israelophiles/

The Empire Is Collapsing

Since the end of World War 2 the US has been the pinnacle of military power….not surpassed by any other country or power…..

The Pentagon is worried that their power base is diminishing in today’s world…..so they had a think tank issue a report that would help their case for more and resources…..

An extraordinary new Pentagon study has concluded that the US-backed framework of international order established after World War II is “fraying” and may even be “collapsing,” leading the United States to lose its position of “primacy” in world affairs.

The solution proposed to protect US power in this new “post-primacy” environment is, however, more of the same: more surveillance, more propaganda (“strategic manipulation of perceptions”) and more military expansionism.

Source: Pentagon Study Declares American Empire Is ‘Collapsing’ | Alternet

If you would like to read this war mongers diatribe then below link will help…..

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) faces persistent fundamental change in its strategic and operating environments. This report suggests this reality is the product of the United States entering or being in the midst of a new, more competitive, post-U.S. primacy environment. Post-primacy conditions promise far-reaching impacts on U.S. national security and defense strategy. Consequently, there is an urgent requirement for DoD to examine and adapt how it develops strategy and describes, identifies, assesses, and communicates corporate-level risk. This report takes on the latter risk challenge. It argues for a new post-primacy risk concept and its four governing principles of diversity, dynamism, persistent dialogue, and adaptation. The authors suggest that this approach is critical to maintaining U.S. military advantage into the future. Absent change in current risk convention, the report suggests DoD exposes current and future military performance to potential failure or gross under-performance.

Source: At Our Own Peril: DoD Risk Assessment in a Post-Primacy World

The perfect recipe to incite fear and dread and eventually get all the cash they want….

Everyone needs to read and understand what the Pentagon has planned for the nation in the years to come.