“All you nations praise the Lord”
–Psalm 117:1
How Can Some Be So Arrogant Considering--'The View' At Night--Or At Any Other Time?
“…Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons. Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death…”
Warmaster Sun Tzu; Author of ‘The Art Of War’
Fellow Patriot’s,
Many know that I am on a personal and intertwined with it also–professional–quest in search of “the mastery of myself.” Some may say that Mankind is not perfect at anything, yet at the same time admit that there are exception’s to all that is “definable.” But there are some thing’s or instances, and people that defy definition. Things or people that are perfect in some aspect. While rare–like an “Albino in the Heart of the Congo in Africa“–there have been photos taken of ‘Albino’ Human’s on every continent of Earth.
I have sought perfection in certain disciplines of warfare. Collated with that, I have learned, is the control of physiological traits that generally can not be controlled–but have been and still can be, and can be taught to others–therefor the seemingly impossible or rare becomes ‘common knowledge’, once ‘critical mass’ is–achieved.
Even my betrothed admits, despite being a Male–and inherently handicapped because of that prime aspect–I am perfect at a few thing’s;
A) Protection (100% Efficient at time of “retirement”)
B) Destruction
C) Destroying, To Protect [Something]
You Need Not Wonder Why I Am, The Way I Am. Just Be Thankful I Am--A Believer--Since My Mentor's, Did Not Ask...
I seek ‘constants’ (see here {scroll down page for ‘Variable‘ definition} for Mathematical definition, as [Universal Soldier] is a Christian and of the Warrior caste, but a ‘Calculationist‘ at his core as well), stability–balance. This has always been the case–even when a child under Ten years old–although I had no ‘academic’ comprehension of the concepts I ‘felt’, my earliest memories were of the search for a stable environment. I have only felt ‘stable’ less than 3 dozen times in two score and ten–years–making it a rare instance in “my” life experience.
Serenity, is quite a different matter. Compartmentalization is a trait many do to help themselves overcome trauma. In martial art disciplines (pick any ‘style’, from any culture or country), serenity is sought–for balance–for example, as I once did while riding a motorcycle, when it was still [more] safe for me to do so.
Currently, since stability is still out of my reach–consistency–has been “the compromise.” This is not to say that I have had even consistency in my life, I am not always so. But it is personally comforting that it is more rare–that “I” am not–at least consistent in many aspects, albeit, mainly in security-oriented tasks or analysis, even as unconventional as my thought processes are.
Because as I wrote on my webpage “Technology: Know The Language“;
“…As the name implies, the value of a variable can change. Variables that store values that do not change are called constants.”
I said that I seek constants. That is indeed, a hint, to the fact that I have rarely found one. But that does not mean that I should stop my search, quit, or simply give up trying to find my “nirvana”–my “utopia” is quite different than everyone known to exist, or that has been known. And since ‘time’ is not what is important to “me”–only ‘life–I can only search when the environs are in a consistent state for a few seconds. For some, such as Warriors, a few moments is all that is required. For many, it can take a lifetime to understand–let alone perfect–anything…
There are thing’s that I still do not understand, nor can I even comprehend. One example is that many in our current time period are surprised by certain event’s as if those event’s are in fact rare when the opposite is the truth.
Have I ever written–”watch your six”?
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Mexican troop's carrying--very expensive--long-range .50 Caliber Rifles: So just what is the malfunction in Mexico?
Mexico drug wars: 49 headless, dismembered bodies found dumped along highway
Forty-nine headless, dismembered bodies were found along a stretch of highway in Mexico on Sunday.
The mutilated bodies “scattered in a pool of blood”—some with their hands and feet “hacked off,” according to the Associated Press—were discovered by local authorities on the edge of the town of San Juan on a road that connects Monterrey to the Texas border.
The bodies were thought to have been dumped there by a drug cartel, authorities said. A welcome sign near the killing field was filled with graffiti with the message, “100% Zeta.”
Zetas is one of the two largest drug cartels in Mexico. The other is the Sinaloa Cartel.
“This continues to be violence between criminal groups,” Jorge Domene, a state security spokesman, said in a news conference on Sunday. “This is not an attack against the civilian population.”
But the escalating violence between the two cartels has resulted in a recent rash of symbolic slayings.
On April 17, according to the AP, mutilated bodies of 14 men were left in a minivan in downtown Nuevo Laredo. On May 5, the bodies of 23 people were found, some hanging from a bridge and others decapitated and dumped near city hall. On May 9, 18 dismembered bodies were discovered outside Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city.
Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey are considered Zetas territory, while Guadalajara has been controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel.
In September, a Sinaloa drug gang dumped 35 bodies in Veracruz, Mexico. In August, a Zetas attack on a Monterrey casino left 52 dead.
Domene said Sunday’s victims—43 men and 6 women—would be hard to identify because of “the lack of heads, hands and feet.”
Since 2006, when Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon announced a crackdown on cartels, more than 47,500 people have been killed in drug-related violence.
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(Helmet Tip: 'Snoopy') Does a 'picture say a thousand words'? What does this image say...
I pray you caught that so-called fact. The one that stated that “Since 2006…47,500 people have been killed…”–hundreds more killed–than in 10 years of combat by American alongside Coalition forces in Iraq, and N.A.T.O. forces in Afghanistan–combined.
So thus, my search for the truth will forever continue as long as everything must be cross-checked–constantly–as it has been done to me, and for my sake–in the effort of protecting me.
We are moving out, [Universal Soldier] is “on point…”
Just keep your eye’s open and listen to your gut, and for your own sake and mine–watch your step.
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India to purchase US M777 Howitzers from BAE Systems
Nearly 27 years after the controversy over the purchase of howitzers from Swedish-based AB Bofors the Government of India approved today the purchase of 145 M77 155/39-caliber howitzers at a total cost of $650 million from BAE Systems. The decision to go ahead with the procurement of US made howitzers under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route was taken at a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Defence Minister AK Antony. The projects approved by the DAC will now be put up before the Finance Ministry for clearance before they are taken up by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) for final approval.
These lightweight guns are expected to deploy in the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir that have border with China. It is widely believed that the deployment of the M777 in the areas bordering China is a direct reply to China’s forward deployment in these areas for the last 3 years.
The maximum firing range of the gun is 24.7km with unassisted rounds, and 30km with rocket-assisted rounds. The M777A2 can fire the the Raytheon / Bofors XM982 Excalibur GPS/Inertial Navigation-guided (GPS/INS) extended-range 155mm projectiles using the Modular Artillery Charge Systems (MACS). Excalibur has a maximum range of 40km and accuracy of 10m. The M777 matches the firepower of current generation 155mm towed systems at less than half the weight. The Howitzer is equipped with a 39-calibre barrel. The muzzle velocity (at Charge 8 super) is 827m/s. The Towed Artillery Digitization (TAD) artillery improvement package including a digital fire control system with onboard ballistic computation, navigation, pointing and self-location, providing greater accuracy and faster reaction times. TAD also includes a powered projectile rammer, a breech mounted laser ignition system, replacing conventional chemical primers and electric drives for the howitzer’s traverse and elevation.
At an overall weight of 3,745kg the M777 can be transported by helicopter, transport aircraft or ship. On land the howitzer can be towed by standard air-braked 4×4 vehicle greater than 2.5t. The gun is mounted on hydrostrut suspension system provided by Horstman Defence Systems of the UK, allowing travelling on road at a maximum speed of 88km per hour, or towed cross-country at a speed of 50km/h. The load on the towing eye is rated at 60kg. The towing ground clearance is up to 660mm.
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If BAE Systems sounds familiar, it might be that you remember that it was they who built the Bradley Fighting Vehicle for the United States. I had to teach elements of the 1/41ST Infantry Regiment (Mech), of the renowned (Hell On Wheels) 2ND Armored Division (Mech)–the entire system with particular emphasis on the Anti-Armor Weapon system–after a single eve “to learn the book” and be ready to “show and tell” the following day.
It was a good thing I was the resident “Geek/Nerd” of the regiment (my nickname back then was ‘Beast‘ after the ‘X-Men‘ character, that was [Infantry] Blue, but I had {and still retain} animal-like physical features, yet “smart for a Yankee”; this was in Texas at Fort Hood after all!) and was/am a ‘speed-reader’ and able to absorb massive amounts of information very quickly. But the military is a very demanding life to begin with, but I was thanked for my efforts formally with the approval of the entire battalion during an after-training ceremony;
Typically, you might get a single award--for a singular event. Did I say I was in Texas at the time? Can you see the year this was awarded? Enough said...
The ‘beer-fest’ afterward was more of a sincere thanks from others in the unit that normally never spoke to me–but helping someone learn to “…keep themselves from dying…” changed many “heart’s and mind’s” though I was exceedingly hard as a taskmaster, I believed it my Duty to ensure that these returned home to their Mother’s, Wives, Father’s, and children–particularly considering all that was happening on Earth at the time–including the continued battle in Afghanistan by the invading forces of Russia.
Enough about me, we are moving again people…
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Russo-Stealth Fighter: Coming to a Democracy near you?
Farewell to ‘Europe’?
In the space of two weeks, three European governments have fallen, sending seismic shock-waves across the continent and calling into question the experiment that has consumed its elites for decades: the construction of a centralized, socialist superstate known as “Europe.”
It may just be that the foundering of the coalition government in the Netherlands, the repudiation of Nicholas Sarkozy in France and the plunging fortunes of the two main Greek parties represents more than a rejection of austerity measures dictated by Brussels at the behest of the Germans.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, these political developments are probably not going to end the creeping, sovereignty-crushing European venture or even mark the beginning of its demise. But they may just constitute the end of the beginning of the end of “Europe” as a single, transnational political enterprise.
To be sure, French voters elected socialist Francois Hollande, who favors the European Union and reflexively supports the vision of its founders that has seen it evolve from a trade pact to a community to proto-political union. Still, his electorate, like the Greeks and Dutch, wants no part of the EU’s main project at the moment – fiscal discipline and budgetary austerity.
The trouble is that such rebuffs threaten the wholesale unraveling of various financial houses of cards constructed in recent months by Germany’s Angela Merkel with help from her very-much-junior partner, France’s Sarkozy. They have been aimed at giving the appearance of managing the yawning economic crises confronting EU members far beyond Greece – including Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and, yes, France. But as publics across the continent balk at taking the unpalatable medicine ordered up by Berlin and refuse to give up their unaffordable social services, short work-weeks and long vacations, there seems little hope that the patient will recover.
Unfortunately, several other worrying factors are adding to the economic turmoil afflicting Europe at the moment. These include the following:
• In many nations of the European Union, the chickens are coming home to roost as what has been in some nations a decades-long bid to offset declining birthrates among the native population by importing immigrant laborers transforms the host countries. Sarkozy’s fate was ultimately sealed by the decision of supporters of Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Front party not to vote for him in the second round of the French presidential election. Similar sentiments saw Greece’s fascist-sympathizing Golden Dawn party garnering roughly 7% of the polling this weekend at the expense of mainstream conservative and leftist parties.
• Closely tied to concerns about the numbers of immigrants in one European country after another is the sense that many of them are Muslims who seek to impose the Islamic supremacist doctrine known as shariah where they now reside. As authors like Bat Ye’or, Mark Steyn and Bruce Bawer have observed, the trends are in the direction of such populations exerting disproportionate influence politically and establishing no-go zones and other privileged status. Such developments fuel a sense of inequity and outrage on the part of the natives.
• Rising hostility towards “the other” in some parts of Europe is also bringing to the fore once again widespread anti-semitism. Jews are discouraged from wearing their religious garb in public as attacks on them and their synagogues have become more and more frequent and violent. Many are fleeing their native lands and those staying behind are becoming fearful – for good reason – to a degree they have not experienced since World War II.
For all these reasons, Europe may soon be in for another of the horrific cataclysms that have plagued it for nearly all of recorded history. In fact, we have become so accustomed to the tranquility and prosperity the continent has known for the past half-century that most of us forget that such conditions are very much the exception there, rather than the rule.
It is unclear how a new round of disorder or even war might be precipitated in Europe. And the mere threat of such a prospect may – as it has in the past – prompt a redoubled effort to shore up the European Union and its faltering common currency, the Euro. The forces being unleashed at the moment, however, may prove resistant to such exhortations to perpetuate what is increasingly perceived to be a punitive and anti-democratic enterprise.
Needless to say, if Europe once again descends into the vortex of economic privation, religious and/or ethnic “cleansing” and possibly strife that has happened so often there, our own tranquility and prosperity will be jeopardized, as well. We must, however, resist the temptation to try to prop up the European Union as the solution to such prospects and invest, instead, in efforts to work with national governments there to make them more responsible, accountable and disciplined – something the project known as “Europe” has not been to date and can, as a practical matter, never be.
At the very least, we cannot expect that what emerges from the wreckage of profligate spending and subordination of sovereignty that is Europe will provide the reliable partners and robust militaries that we are told will permit us safely to reduce our own capabilities and burden-share with our allies. If history is any guide, it is as likely that we will wind up fighting in Europe again – perhaps catalyzed by an ever-more-bellicose Russia once again formally led by Vladimir Putin – as that we will benefit from substantially greater help from that quarter.
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From our friend’s here, the following:
Middle East/North Africa
Iran
Increasingly hard-pressed to find buyers for its petroleum, Iran has been routinely switching off satellite tracking systems on its sea-bound oil tankers for more than a month, in what U.S. officials and industry analysts describe as a cat-and-mouse game with Western governments seeking to enforce sanctions on Iranian exports. – Washington Post
The lead negotiator for the six-nation group bargaining with Iran over its contentious uranium enrichment program said Friday that she hoped to achieve “the beginnings of the end” of the dispute at the next meeting, to be held in Baghdad on May 23. – New York Times
Iranian crude oil exports fell sharply again in April and could be down by as much as one million barrels a day this quarter as many countries reduce imports ahead of sanctions that come into effect on July 1, the International Energy Agency said Friday. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Henry Sokolski writes: Obama’s 5 percent solution will cease to be dangerous only if it’s rejected by Iran and everyone else. Once that is accomplished, we need to move in a very different direction. – National Review Online
Yuval Porat writes: Our findings demonstrate that Iranian society as a whole is characterized by a pro-liberal value structure that is deeply at odds with the fundamentalist regime. This presents considerable potential for regime change in Iran and for the development of liberal democracy. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Syria
After three decades of persecution that virtually eradicated its presence, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood has resurrected itself to become the dominant group in the fragmented opposition movement pursuing a 14-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. – Washington Post
The organizations, which include groups that teach methods of nonviolent resistance, share a goal of finding a bloodless way out of Syria’s crisis—an aim that has so far eluded protesters on the ground, the political opposition in exile, and world leaders alike. Their founders and members say they are seeking a “third way” that isn’t asking for foreign help or seeking to bring down President Assad in fighting. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
As rallies against the Syrian government broke out across the country after Friday prayers, some marchers turned their anger against the United Nations as well, lamenting that violence has continued despite the presence of blue-helmeted interntational observers. – LA Times’ World Now
North Africa
As Mr. Moussa runs for president in an election that starts this month, he is trying to turn his greatest liability — a long career in government — into a strength. In a race that seems to have come down to a few leading candidates, including Mr. Moussa and two Islamists, the former foreign minister has positioned himself as the experienced, tolerant choice. – New York Times
As Egyptians prepare for what many hope will be their country’s first free presidential elections next week, an impasse between liberal politicians and Islamists over a new constitution means candidates are vying for an ill-defined role. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Coptic Christians, whose forefathers lived in Egypt before the arrival of Islam, had hoped that the 2011 uprising that ousted authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak would give them equal rights. Instead, things have worsened. Egypt’s Christians have been the victims of threats and dramatic violence, and they fear the ascendance of political Islam. – Washington Post
Some [militias] have simply replicated the worst tortures that were carried out under the old regime. More have exercised restraint. Almost all of them have offered victims a chance to confront their former torturers face to face, to test their instincts, to balance the desire for revenge against the will to make Libya into something more than a madman’s playground. – New York Times
Other countries have dealt with the aftermath of large-scale state property seizures — notably after the collapse of the Soviet bloc. But Libya’s challenges are magnified by weak transitional authorities, the absence of a working court system and a flood of weapons in civilian hands. – New York Times
Algeria’s governing party strengthened its rule in parliamentary elections this week, officials announced Friday, dampening hopes that the vote might bolster the standing of opposition voices and eliciting audible gasps of skepticism from many of those who heard the results at a hilltop hotel here. – New York Times
European Union observers on Saturday gave a qualified endorsement to Algerian parliamentary elections that were dominated by the governing party, bucking the trend of the Arab Spring revolts. – Reuters
Gulf States
Saudi Arabia and the tiny, troubled kingdom of Bahrain are expected to push toward a broad security and economic union on Monday, an agreement that regional power Saudi Arabia hopes will spur a similar tightening of ties with other Gulf countries. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Josh Rogin reports: Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa came to Washington this week to attend his son’s college graduation, but he left with hands full of gifts from the U.S. State Department, which announced new arms sales to Bahrain [Friday] – The Cable
Yemen
President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, met with Yemen’s president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, on Sunday, a day after a stepped-up campaign of American airstrikes reportedly killed 11 militants allied with Al Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate. – New York Times
Iraq
In the face of spiraling costs and Iraqi officials who say they never wanted it in the first place, the State Department has slashed — and may jettison entirely by the end of the year — a multibillion-dollar police training program that was to have been the centerpiece of a hugely expanded civilian mission here. – New York Times
[T]he jockeying to succeed [Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani] has quietly begun, and Iran is positioning its own candidate for the post, a hard-line cleric who would give Tehran a direct line of influence over the Iraqi people, heightening fears that Iran’s long-term goal is to transplant its Islamic Revolution to Iraq. – New York Times
Bomb blasts aimed largely at security forces in western and central Iraq killed six people and wounded several more on Sunday, a relatively violent day after a few weeks of calm across the country. – New York Times
Israel
When Netanyahu and the leader of the centrist opposition party Kadima joined forces, they said their first priority would be a law ending widespread military exemptions for full-time religious students. Long-neglected, the issue has spiraled into a public policy nightmare – Washington Post
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority said Saturday that his security forces were struggling because Israel had refused to allow them to import a shipment of weapons, and that he was “very, very, very afraid” of what might happen if one of the Palestinian prisoners on a long-term hunger strike died. – New York Times
Palestinian Authority officials said Saturday that they had arrested the man they believed was responsible for the May 1 shooting at the house of the governor of Jenin, who died hours later after suffering two heart attacks. – New York Times
Interview: Capt. Sassi Hodeda, 47, the senior naval officer in charge of developing electronic combat systems, explained to The Times why Israel’s military is looking increasingly to the seas. – Los Angeles Times
Editorial: If Mr. Abbas or a successor chooses to focus on peace talks rather than internal Palestinian politics, Mr. Netanyahu will have the strength to seriously bargain, if he chooses to. The Obama administration should be pressing Mr. Abbas to put the Israeli leader to the test. – Washington Post
Turkey
Mustafa Akyol writes: If Turkey succeeds in that liberal experiment, and drafts its new constitution-in-the-making accordingly, it can set a promising example for Islamist-led governments in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere. All of these countries desperately need not only procedural democracy, but also liberalism. And there is an Islamic rationale for it as well: Imposed religiosity leads to hypocrisy. Those who hope to nurture genuine religiosity should first establish liberty. – New York Times
Asia
Afghanistan
Faced with an order from President Obama to withdraw 23,000 troops by the end of the summer, and the prospect of further reductions next year, Allen is hastily transforming the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan. – Washington Post
A senior Afghan peace negotiator who once served in the Taliban government was shot dead in Kabul on Sunday, in yet another blow to attempts to find a negotiated end to the war. – Wall Street Journal
International donors called on Sunday for an inquiry into potential mismanagement of the United Nations-administered trust fund that helps pay for Afghanistan’s fledgling police force, even as the U.N. reiterated its support for the program and denied the accusations. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Shimmering more than 1,500 feet up in the daytime haze, or each visible as a single light blinking at night, the balloons, with infrared and color video cameras, are central players in the American military’s shift toward using technology for surveillance and intelligence. – New York Times
As the U.S. military embarks on the task of extracting itself from America’s longest war, the phenomenon of members of the Afghan security forces turning their guns on Western troops is becoming, in the eyes of some commanders, a strategic threat. – Los Angeles Times
The Afghan government on Sunday said it is taking the lead from the U.S.-led coalition for providing security in areas that eventually will make up 75 percent of the country’s population. – Associated Press
David Feith interviews Gen. H.R. McMaster (USA): Gen. McMaster makes clear, in light of Clausewitz’s 200-year-old warning not “to turn war into something that’s alien to its nature—don’t try to define war as you would like it to be.” – Wall Street Journal
South Asia
India’s defense ministry has approved a proposal to buy 145 ultra-light howitzers from U.S.-based BAE Systems Inc. for about 30 billion rupees ($560 million), a senior defense ministry official said Saturday, as the South Asian country continues its efforts to modernize its armed forces. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
India’s intelligence agency sparked outrage in Pakistan and self-deprecatory jokes at home this week after it listed ordinary Pakistani shopkeepers as terrorists on a mission to attack some of India’s landmark institutions. – Washington Post
India’s industrial output unexpectedly slumped in March as high interest rates stifled expansion, deepening worries of an economic slowdown that would pressure the central bank to ease monetary policy further despite inflation risks. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Democratic and Republican leaders of the congressional oversight committees are urging the Obama administration to formally designate Pakistan’s Haqqani Network a terrorist organization, something the lawmakers said the State Department has been reluctant to do while it pursues negotiations with the Taliban. – LA Times’ World Now
China
Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng expressed concern for the safety of his extended family on Friday amid reports that his nephew had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, and said he hadn’t met with Chinese officials since Monday. – Wall Street Journal
Residents said that since Chen fled to Beijing, the reign of fear has expanded beyond Dongshigu to at least three other close-knit villages in the city of Linyi, in the eastern province of Shandong. – Washington Post
If the drama over Mr. Chen’s fate has placed a harsh spotlight on China’s capacity for repression and created a diplomatic migraine for the White House, it has also been something of a boon to Mr. Fu, 44. His organization, ChinaAid, is at the crossroads of a growing movement among American Christians agitating for religious freedom in China and the wider dissident network inside the United States, as well as members of the underground church in China trying to practice their faith in a hostile environment. – New York Times
China’s economy slowed sharply in April—from industrial output to bank lending to foreign trade—throwing cold water on expectations for a rapid recovery in the world’s main growth engine, and putting pressure on Beijing to shift policy decisively into stimulus mode. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
A decision by China’s central bank to loosen monetary policy is not an antidote by itself for emerging weakness in the Chinese economy and is likely to be just the start of a broader program of economic stimulus by the government, economists said on Sunday. – New York Times
China’s leaders started to reach into their economic-stimulus tool kit this weekend to boost flagging growth, but the measures don’t pack the wallop they once had. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Tibet’s spiritual leader told Britain’s Sunday Telegraph that sources inside China’s Tibetan regions had told his entourage that fake female devotees might be coming to try to kill him with poisoned scarves and poisoned hair. – WSJ’s India Real Time
Nicholas Bequelin writes: Rights activists and whistle-blowers like Chen have to endure various degrees of police harassment and suppression, and the government remains hostile to the precondition for any reasonably functional legal system: an independent judiciary. But the fact is that the rule of law has become a central demand of the Chinese citizenry, and grievances are increasingly framed in the language of rights. The law matters. – International Herald Tribune
East Asia
Lee’s moves were initially intended to pressure Pyongyang to liberalize its economy and give up its weapons program…Now, those measures have taken dramatic effect, with South Korean executives vowing never again to do business with the North, fearing vulnerability to Seoul’s policy changes. – Washington Post
With the health of Nambaryn Enkhbayar, the former president, deteriorating rapidly, the government is holding firm, throwing Mongolia’s young democracy into turmoil in a crisis freighted by dueling accusations of corruption and human rights abuses. – New York Times
The South Korean military is on a shopping spree this year. And the biggest deal of all – approximately 60 new fighter jets – is nearing the bidding deadline. – WSJ’s Korea Real Time
The three largest East Asian economies agreed Sunday to find ways to strengthen regional trading ties and to work together to ease political tensions in the area. – Associated Press
Southeast Asia
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak flew to Myanmar on Monday to meet its leaders and discuss greater economic cooperation, becoming the latest international leader to visit the Southeast Asian country after its recent embrace of political liberalization. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
China’s Defense Ministry, apparently responding to online rumors fueled by a standoff with the Philippines in the South China Sea, denied that it was making preparations for war. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
India’s Ministry of External Affairs urged China and the Philippines to “exercise restraint” and resolve their brewing row over ownership of a set of islands in the South China Sea through diplomacy. – WSJ’s India Real Time
Security
Defense
Debate has broken out over the nearly $4 billion in increased defense spending that the Republican-led House Armed Services Committee added to the Obama administration request in the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill, pitting the panel’s chairman, Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), against Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta. – Washington Post
In response to growing concern about problems with its F-22 Raptor fighter jet, the Air Force revealed it has slapped on new safety restrictions to protect its pilots. – Los Angeles Times
The Air Sea Battle (ASB) concept initiated by the U.S. Navy and Air Force is an effort to make the most of the combined military capabilities of the U.S. The objectives are to carry out the strategies of U.S. commanders and defeat those of an enemy — traditional goals to be sure, but the ASB concept brings together a much wider matrix intended to match capabilities and threats in more efficient ways. – Defense News
U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) wants to establish a worldwide network linking special operations forces (SOF) of allied and partner nations to combat terrorism. – Defense News
Gary Schmitt and Thomas Donnelly write: The Budget Control Act was a piece of national-security folly, for which congressional Republicans deserve a good share of the blame. But the relish with which Democrats, including Panetta, are playing a game of political chicken with the U.S. military is inexcusable. – The Weekly Standard
The War
Top U.S. lawmakers called for criminal charges against the person who leaked classified information about a recent foiled Yemeni bomb plot, warning that the intelligence breach posed a danger to national security and ratcheting up scrutiny of its source. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
A former military commander with Al Shabab, the Somali terrorist group with ties to Al Qaeda, has become a cooperating witness and is expected to testify for the United States government in a trial this summer in Manhattan, prosecutors have disclosed in a court filing – New York Times
International Affairs
Kori Schake writes: The president has often said in the context of the wars that we can’t care more about building democracy than they — the country affected — does. The same holds true for budgeting: The Obama administration shouldn’t expect us to care more about building civilian capacity than they do. – Shadow Government
Missile Defense
Anders Fogh Rasmussen writes: NATO missile defense is based on solidarity and cooperation among 28 nations, on both sides of the Atlantic—nations that face a common threat, share common values, and are committed to defending our common security. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Cybersecurity
The Pentagon is expanding and making permanent a trial program that teams the government with Internet service providers to protect defense firms’ computer networks against data theft by foreign adversaries. – Washington Post
Russia/Europe
Russia
In the great tradition of Russian authors as wielders of public authority, a group of prominent writers strolled along a Moscow boulevard Sunday, and thousands of white-ribbon-wearing fans joined in…But the peaceful stroll was all about rigged elections, political corruption and President Vladimir Putin. – Washington Post
As Vladimir V. Putin begins his third term as Russia’s president, it is clear, at least in Moscow, that something in the political atmosphere has changed. Russia’s protest movement appears to have entered a new and unpredictable stage, and Mr. Udaltsov, one of its most prominent leaders, is at the center of a debate about its future. – New York Times
Forget the youthful bloggers, pro-democracy crusaders and TV celebrities who launched Russia’s five-month-old movement of street protests against autocratic rule. The anti-Kremlin crowd has a new unifying symbol: Abai Kunanbayev. – Wall Street Journal
Jackson Diehl writes: As the [Magnitsky Act] moved toward a vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month, senior White House and State Department officials demanded that it be postponed until after Putin’s visit to Camp David. Now that Putin has canceled, maybe it’s time to put human rights in Russia back on the agenda. – Washington Post
Janusz Bugajski writes: The tug of war over the General Assembly presidency illustrates the escalating campaign a resurgent Russia is waging against former satellites that are now an integral part of the European Union and NATO and dependable allies of the United States. – Washington Post
Belarus
ARU TV is one of a number of media and education outlets created and operated by Belarusian dissidents abroad to confront the state-controlled media, promote free speech and challenge the Lukashenko regime’s oppressive hold over the country. – Washington Times
NATO
François Hollande may have pledged on the campaign stump to pull France’s combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of this year, but analysts expect the president-elect to do his utmost to reassure NATO allies that France is a solid partner when the alliance chiefs meet in Chicago later this month. – Defense News
Despite claims by Turkish officials about vetoing Israel’s participation in major NATO summit, a senior U.S. official says the alliance never intended to invite Israeli leaders. – DOTMIL
Americas
United States of America
Mitt Romney’s recent declaration that Russia is America’s top geopolitical adversary drew raised eyebrows and worse from many Democrats, some Republicans and the Russians themselves, all of whom suggested that Mr. Romney was misguidedly stuck in a cold war mind-set. – New York Times
Analysis: Dozens of subtle position papers flow through the candidate’s policy shop and yet seem to have little influence on Mr. Romney’s hawkish-sounding pronouncements, on everything from war to nuclear proliferation to the trade-offs in dealing with China – New York Times
Africa
West Africa
Separate attacks in northeast Nigeria likely carried out by a radical Islamist sect killed at least seven police officers Sunday, witnesses said, the latest violence to shake the bloodied region. – Associated Press
East Africa
The current class of 3,500 Ugandan soldiers, the biggest since the camp opened five years ago, is preparing to deploy to Somalia to join a growing international force composed entirely of African troops but largely financed by Washington. – Washington Post
Ugandan troops captured a top Lords Resistance Army commander, Caesar Achellam, in the jungles of the Central African Republic as the hunt for fugitive rebel leader Joseph Kony enters a decisive stage, the Ugandan army said Sunday. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
South Sudan independence in July has cost Sudan three-quarters of its oil revenue, paralyzing the nation’s economy…Things aren’t any better in South Sudan, which has shut down oil production in a row with Sudan over transit fees. – Los Angeles Times
Andrew Natsios writes: Only redressing the imbalance of military might will convince Bashir and his generals that fighting won’t solve the two countries’ profound political crisis. The Obama administration must arm the South Sudanese with antiaircraft weapons to create a stalemate and get the North back to the negotiating table. – Washington Post
Obama Administration
CIA Director David Petraeus has largely gone dark—and, like most things with the decorated war commander, that is very much a calculated change – DOTMIL
William Inboden writes: The administration’s foreign policy successes have generally come when they have followed Bush administration strategic frameworks, and their greatest missteps have come when they tried to go in different directions. Such a pattern does not necessarily bode well for the administration’s hoped-for second term policy priorities – Shadow Government
Democracy and Human Rights
Eli Lake reports: Davos is an annual European conference where the well-to-do meet to do good. The Oslo Freedom Forum, on the other hand, is a European conference of do-gooders conspiring to stir up trouble. – The Daily Beast
Editorial: Ms. Suu Kyi’s odyssey is, as Havel’s was, a reminder that defeating tyranny is often a lifetime struggle. Kudos to the Human Rights Foundation for inaugurating a prize celebrating those who threaten to bring down the world’s oppressors. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
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Did I say you could take a break? Watch your spacing between yourselves, and watch for movement. We do not want to get ambushed out here…
Do we?
Middle East/North Africa
Iran
As Iran starts a critical round of talks over its nuclear program, its negotiating team may be less interested in reaching a comprehensive settlement than in buying time and establishing the legitimacy of its enrichment program, Iranian officials and analysts said. – New York Times
The Obama administration is moving to remove an Iranian opposition group from the State Department’s terrorism list, say officials briefed on the talks, in an action that could further poison Washington’s relations with Tehran at a time of renewed diplomatic efforts to curtail Iran’s nuclear program. – Wall Street Journal
Iran said on Tuesday it had executed a man accused of being an Israeli intelligence agent responsible for the assassination of one of its nuclear scientists, Iranian state media reported. – New York Times
Opponents of Mr. Najafi are using a recent fatwa by a leading cleric, Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi-Golpayegani, which labels all those insulting the 10th Shiite imam, Ali al-Hadi al-Naqi, also known as Imam Naghi, as apostates. An Islamist Web site then offered a $100,000 bounty to anyone who kills Mr. Najafi, who was born in Iran, raps in Persian but lives in Germany. – New York Times
The United States must team up with Israel to draft a new set of “red lines” on Iran’s growing nuclear program as a way to pressure Tehran into opening up those efforts to the international community. – DEFCON Hill
A U.S. or Israeli military strike on Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons facilities is unlikely this year, but could happen as soon as 2013, say several former senior American officials. – DOTMIL
A close ally of Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad has criticised the Islamic regime’s nuclear talks with world powers in a sign of the president’s rising frustration at being sidelined in the negotiations. – Financial Times
A drawing based on information from inside an Iranian military site shows an explosives containment chamber of the type needed for nuclear arms-related tests that U.N. inspectors suspect Tehran has conducted there. Iran denies such testing and has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of such a chamber. – Associated Press
A senior U.N. nuclear agency official urged Iran on Monday to allow access to sites, people and documents it seeks in its probe of suspicions that Tehran conducted secret research into nuclear weapons development. – Associated Press
Iran’s talks with the U.N. nuclear watchdog about Tehran’s atomic activities are going well, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday, the second day of discussions. – Reuters
The United States is not impressed with India’s efforts to cut its oil imports from Iran, a top U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday, throwing into doubt whether New Delhi would be given a waiver from U.S. financial sanctions before a June deadline. – Reuters
Syria
European Union foreign ministers imposed new sanctions on Syria on Monday, citing continued violence there, while some officials expressed frustration with the time it was taking United Nations mission leader Kofi Annan to establish a cease-fire. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Nearly two dozen Syrian government soldiers were killed in intense clashes with the opposition over control of the central, rebel-held city of Rastan, opposition groups said Monday, deepening questions about the viability of a cease-fire engineered under United Nations auspices. – New York Times
As the violence across Syria reaches a treacherous new phase and the numbers of displaced and injured swell, such individual and ad hoc efforts have grown into an increasingly organized underground network of volunteers willing to brave injury and arrest to deliver relief supplies to those trapped, wounded or displaced by the fighting. – New York Times
Syria’s conflict is increasing instability in Lebanon, which already is grappling with sectarian tensions, a crumbling economy and a weak, divided government, even as it has so far avoided the popular uprisings of its Middle East neighbors. – Washington Times
International efforts to unite Syria’s opposition suffered a fresh blow on Monday when the Syrian National Council, the main umbrella group, said it would boycott a planned Arab League unity conference in Cairo. – Financial Times
When it comes to influencing Syria’s bloody struggle between President Bashar al-Assad and rebels trying to unseat him, the exile opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) seems as helpless an onlooker as world powers groping for a strategy. – Reuters
Firing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, Lebanese gunmen clashed in street battles Monday as sectarian tensions linked to the 14-month-old uprising in Syria bled across the border for a third day. – Associated Press
Damascus wants to manage the delivery of all humanitarian aid to a million people in need of assistance as a result of the 14-month-old conflict in Syria, but the United Nations insists on having some control, envoys say. – Reuters
Kosovo’s Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj voiced strong support on Monday for Syria’s opposition, saying his government had already established diplomatic contacts with Syrians fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad. – Reuters
Foreign Islamist fighters appear to be a fringe element only in the conflict between assorted Syrian rebel groups and Assad’s armed forces. But the fate of this one band of Tunisian friends offers some of the hardest evidence yet that Syria could become a magnet for the kind of young Muslim men from around the world who once sought jihad and martyrdom in Iraq or Afghanistan. – Reuters
Josh Rogin reports: Syrian government forces continue to attack opposition forces, civilians, and aid volunteers, preventing the international community from getting emergency aid to the Syrian people, USAID has detailed in a series of internal reports obtained by The Cable. – The Cable
Egypt
Candidates for Egypt’s highest office have sharpened their anti-Israel rhetoric with barely a week left until voters cast their ballots in the first presidential election since last year’s revolution. – Washington Times
Near the rock-strewn scene of a bloody anti-army protest, Islamist, liberal and other politicians sat with ruling generals this month to haggle over Egypt’s future after its first presidential vote since Hosni Mubarak’s fall. – Reuters
Libya
Diplomats and other observers in Libya say that with elections one month away, the National Transitional Council is struggling to exert control over various militia prominent in the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi. The situation is further complicated by tribal rivalries and a growing presence of Islamist militants in some areas. – CNN’s Security Clearance
At least 72 civilians, a third of them under the age of 18, were killed by NATO airstrikes, according to a report released Monday by Human Rights Watch — one of the most extensive investigations into the issue. – Associated Press
Abdel Hakim Belhadj, one of Libya’s most powerful militia leaders, is quitting to devote himself full-time to politics, an aide said on Monday, in a vote of confidence for the fragile transition from rebellion to democracy. – Reuters
A candidate for Libya’s national elections was killed in the desert south shortly after submitting his registration, security sources said, highlighting the North African country’s volatility a month before the polls. – Reuters
Spat at in public by a fellow Libyan who called him a thief, watching his back on long walks through Vienna, eating poorly; Muammar Gaddafi’s fugitive oil supremo was a troubled man in the months before he was found drowned in the Danube two weeks ago. – Reuters
Gulf States
Saudi Arabia pushed ahead Monday with efforts to forge a single federation with its five Persian Gulf neighbors as the conservative monarchy seeks to build a new bulwark against the waves of change sweeping the Middle East. – New York Times
Gulf leaders balked at Saudi Arabia’s call to confederate their nations in a broad security and economic union, telling the country—the region’s economic and military power—that they needed to hear more specifics first about what such a union would entail, the Saudi foreign minister said on Monday. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Yemen
Obama administration officials were tight-lipped about the weekend visit of counterterrorism advisor John Brennan to Yemen this past weekend. – CNN’s Security Clearance
At least 32 people, including 23 al Qaeda-linked militants were killed in Yemen, officials and residents said on Tuesday, as the government pressed ahead with a new U.S.-backed offensive against insurgents in the south of the country. – Reuters
Suspected Islamist militants blew up a gas pipeline in eastern Yemen on Monday for the third time in recent months and a bomb in Sanaa killed one person, as the government ratcheted up its campaign against al Qaeda linked insurgents in the south. – Reuters
Iraq
A clandestine jail and alleged torture site under the control of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki continues to operate more than a year after the government ordered it shut down, Human Rights Watch claims in a report being released Tuesday. – LA Times’ World Now
Israel
Israeli and Palestinian officials announced Monday that more than 1,600 Palestinian prisoners had agreed to end a nearly month-long hunger strike in exchange for concessions by Israel, including a modification to its practice of detention without charge or trial. – Washington Post
Amb. Michael Oren writes: Israel must confront the acute dangers of delegitimization as it did armies and bombers in the past. Along with celebrating our technology, pioneering science and medicine, we need to stand by the facts of our past. “The Spirit of Israel” has not diminished since 1973—on the contrary, it has flourished. The state that Life once lionized lives even more vibrantly today. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Asia
Afghanistan
Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, the top commander in Afghanistan, is expected to leave his post early next year and take over the U.S. European Command, officials said. – Washington Post
A U.S.-backed program to recruit police in rural Afghanistan has failed to significantly stem the insurgency, with some units becoming deeply entangled in criminal activity, including bribe-taking and extortion, according to a Pentagon-funded study. – Los Angeles Times
One of the most powerful men on the Taliban council, Agha Jan Motasim, nearly lost his life in a hail of bullets for advocating a negotiated settlement that would bring a broad-based government to his beleaguered homeland of Afghanistan. – Associated Press
Intensifying violence as NATO combat troops prepare to leave by end-2014 and a poor economic outlook in the face of shrinking aid could spell a humanitarian disaster for Afghanistan, where a third already live beneath the poverty line. – Reuters
David Meyers writes: As commander in chief, President Obama needs to engage the country in a serious discussion of the issue. And he needs to explain what he would do if faced with a choice between these two unappealing options. The American people should demand no less. – The Daily Caller
Pakistan
Two cases filed last week raise an uncomfortable point for the Pakistani government: Despite three resolutions by Parliament calling for a halt to the drone attacks, they have not only continued but escalated. – Washington Post
Pakistan’s foreign minister suggested Monday that the country should open its Afghan border to NATO troop supplies, saying the government has made its point by closing the route for nearly six months in retaliation for deadly U.S. airstrikes on its troops. – Associated Press
China
[A] visit to this municipality in eastern China, where Mr. Chen and his family most recently spent 20 months as prisoners in their own home, offers no hint of a change in the way China deals with its dissidents. – New York Times
[S]o far, like a four-year-old air-quality monitoring program in Beijing and one in Guangzhou, the U.S.’s Shanghai reading of the situation is worse than what is reported by local authorities. – WSJ’s China Real Time
The United States must ensure that China cannot “do as they please” while smaller Asian countries suffer, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Monday in a Washington speech. – DEFCON Hill
China’s top military newspaper warned officers on Tuesday to remain the ruling Communist Party’s “most loyal” defenders in the face of what it called Western plotting, describing recent cases of ill-discipline and corruption as a “profound warning”. – Reuters
China is beset by a moral crisis, widespread corruption and lawlessness, leading millions of Chinese to seek solace in Buddhism, Tibet’s exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, said on Monday. – Reuters
Analysis: Despite a spectacular political scandal and swirling rumors of high-level infighting, signs are that China’s once-in-a-decade leadership change is still on track for this autumn, according to party insiders and observers. – New York Times
Bob Fu writes: In the Bible, the book of Romans says, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil and cling to what is good and always serve each other in love.” With this kind of message, Christianity will blossom. This is the only way freedom — both individually and nationally — will spread in China. – Foreign Policy
Koreas
Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee are calling for bolstering nuclear and conventional forces in Asia in response to China’s nuclear buildup and missile proliferation to North Korea. – Washington Free Beacon
The Obama administration has no intention of deploying tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea in response to North Korean provocations, the State Department reaffirmed on Monday – The Hill’s Global Affairs
The South Korean armed forces oppose the refielding of U.S. nonstrategic nuclear weapons in their country, a move that was recently hinted at by a key U.S. House of Representatives committee, the Yonhap News Agency reported on Sunday – Global Security Newswire
South Korea, Japan, and China are in agreement that a third North Korean nuclear test or other hostile act would be unacceptable, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said on Sunday – Global Security Newswire
East Asia
The United States should demand that Mongolia, the only functioning democracy in Central Asia and a close U.S. ally, respect its citizens’ legal rights amid a crackdown on political opponents, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said on the House floor Monday. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
The former Mongolian president jailed pending charges of corruption, has been released on bail after a 10-day dry hunger strike, temporarily soothing a dangerous stand-off that has roiled Mongolia’s democratic politics ahead of elections next month. – Financial Times
Taiwan is arming more of its fleet with its new “carrier killer” anti-ship missiles as China conducts further sea trials of its first aircraft carrier, local media said May 14. – AFP
Southeast Asia
Prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Renato C. Corona, the chief justice of the Philippines, presented evidence on Monday that he had deposited $28.7 million into various bank accounts. – New York Times
The news coming out of Myanmar these days is of hope and reconciliation as the country moves from military dictatorship to fledgling democracy. But what is actually coming across Myanmar’s border here is a surge of illicit drugs. – New York Times
Josh Rogin reports: Senators from both parties are now urging the Obama administration to drastically scale back U.S. sanctions on Burma in light of that country’s moves toward reform and democratization. – The Cable
Australia
Funding for Australian land and air programs and naval operations will be reduced under a plan that cuts 971 million Australian dollars ($980.5 million) from Australia’s defense budget to help reverse a growing national deficit and return the budget to surplus. – Defense News
Security
Defense
On Monday, the Pentagon opened for female troops about 14,000 support positions that previously had been withheld from them, allowing women to fill jobs below the brigade level. – Washington Times
A House Armed Services Committee member is taking the obscure concept of “sequestration” to the streets, kicking off a nationwide tour Monday to discuss the potential $1 trillion in automatic cuts threatening the defense budget. – CNN’s Security Clearance
A House GOP plan to cut social welfare programs to stave off automatic defense spending reductions is yet another example of the political “games being played with defense and national security” by Republicans, a top House Democrat said Monday. – DEFCON Hill
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta opted for a familiar ally to pilot the Air Force through its latest period of turbulence and transition, as it searches for a niche with an aging fleet in the post-9/11 era. – DOTMIL
To squeeze the most it can out of every training dollar in an era of shrinking budgets, the Army Reserve will rely more on simulators and long-distance learning to replace traditional drill weekends, outgoing Chief of Army Reserve Lt. Gen. Jack Stulz said – AOL Defense
The Marine Corps is keeping tabs on the Army’s plan to test face shields, some of which can stop 7.62mm rifle rounds. Deployed Marines already see the benefit, some paying out of pocket to wear them in Afghanistan, according to industry sources. – Military Times
Will the U.S. Army soon start blasting incoming rockets and mortars with laser beams to protect its forward operating bases? Not quite, but according to people involved in industry and the Army, that day might not be that far off. – Defense News
Missile Defense
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) writes: President Obama has a responsibility to defend America against all threats. Assuring any nation that our missile-defense systems will be ineffective against their nuclear ballistic missiles is clearly at odds with that responsibility. Mr. Putin must be made to understand that a desire to cooperate is not the same thing as a willingness to trade away our fundamental right to self-defense, and that America will always retain the right to defend itself. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Russia/Europe
Russia
President Obama won’t attend this year’s Asia-Pacific economic summit in Russia because of his reelection bid, White House spokesman Jay Carney confirmed Monday. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
United Kingdom
Britain’s defense budget is in balance for the first time in decades following a two-year effort by the government to eliminate a 38 billion pound ($61.1 billion) black hole in funding, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond told Parliament here. – Defense News
Britain’s Ministry of Defence is considering changes to the way the construction of the Royal Navy’s 65,000-ton aircraft carriers is run, according to defense sources. – Defense News
Ukraine
The European Union has decided against calling for a blocwide boycott of European soccer championship games scheduled to be held next month in Ukraine. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
A Ukrainian court delayed hearings on Tuesday into former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s appeal against last year’s abuse-of-office conviction, a verdict seen by many Western nations as politically motivated. – Reuters
Editorial: During two decades of independence, Ukraine has wavered between the authoritarian model to its east and the democratic model to the west. The United States, its allies and, above all, the Ukrainian people will be best served if Ukraine can escape the temptations of Putinism. – Washington Post
Americas
Latin America
The North American Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect in 1994, has been the key driver of Mexico’s economic and social transformation of the past 20 years, analysts say. – Washington Times
With the July 1 presidential vote only weeks away, Peña Nieto holds a solid double-digit lead in the polls, and yet Mexican voters and U.S. observers confess that they do not really know what the candidate stands for. – Washington Post
The International Committee of the Red Cross was mobilizing vehicles and personnel in southern Colombia on Monday to help facilitate the expected release of a French journalist captured in the jungle more than two weeks ago by Marxist rebels. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Mr. Chavez has been praying for divine intervention during increasingly infrequent appearances on television, holding up a crucifix while vowing to overcome his illness. He says living with cancer has made him “more Christian,” talk that has spurred speculation that cancer might cut short his bid for re-election in October. – Associated Press
Africa
West Africa
West Africa’s 15-nation Ecowas bloc threatened on Monday to impose new sanctions on Mali’s coup leaders and their allies, accusing them of blocking a return to civilian rule and further destabilising the divided nation. – Reuters
West Africa’s regional bloc ECOWAS will deploy troops to Guinea Bissau by Friday to oversee reform of the local army and a gradual one-year transition to civilian rule after an April 12 coup, Nigeria said on Monday. – Reuters
East Africa
American military advisers in Uganda are drawing on lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan to help train African Union soldiers to fight Somalia’s most powerful insurgent group, al-Shabab. – Associated Press
Armin Rosen writes: Ten months into South Sudan’s independence, the hazards of building a Western-leaning country in a region that’s being shaped by conflict, mass migration, and war criminals like Omar al-Bashir are clear. In ten years, South Sudan could be stable and prosperous. It could just as easily become a dysfunctional failed state. – The Weekly Standard
Congo
Seven United Nations peacekeepers in Congo were wounded when gunmen opened fire at a protest in the East of the country on Monday, drawing condemnation from the U.N. Security Council. – Reuters
The Hague war crimes prosecutor announced new charges on Monday against a Democratic Republic of Congo general accused of conscripting child fighters and an arrest warrant for a militia leader. – Reuters
South Africa
Peter Godwin writes: Likewise, all nations that care about countering crimes against humanity should pressure South Africa to accept the court’s decision. By letting this judgment stand, Mr. Zuma’s government has a historic opportunity to show its critics that it has a genuine commitment to human rights. If, however, South Africa seeks to reverse the ruling, it will be a tragedy for Zimbabwe’s many torture victims, past and future. – New York Times
Democracy and Human Rights
Sohrab Ahmari writes: The moral and cultural crisis of Arab liberalism is serious. It threatens nothing less than the future of freedom in the Middle East. Yet, as daunting as it may seem in light of recent developments, there really is no other path than the freedom agenda as far as U.S. policy should be concerned. After the Arab Spring, the U.S.-led order in the region is frayed, but it still stands. If it is to persist and thrive, that order must be decoupled from classical Arab authoritarianism. – Commentary
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A lot is happening out here, so when someone say’s to me, “I’m too busy”–that invariably forces me to [almost] laugh, because what they mean by “busy” is just not the same as being inside a ‘kill-box’, with someone being rude and trying very hard–to kill you. Are you to busy to watch your currency become worthless in the course of a day or less? I would like consistency–but I harbor no illusion’s that I ever will attain it.
From anyone…
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We Shall Never Forget…
Americas' 'Mother' Nation, Staunch Friend, and Fierce Ally...
Would you trust anyone you met in a battle-zone? I was trained to be ready to "Kill Anyone I Met." What about you?
Afghan Police Kill 2 British Troops
Two soldiers shot dead in southern Afghanistan by local police officers were British, the Ministry of Defence confirmed on Sunday a day after the killings.
“Sadly, it is my duty to confirm that a soldier serving with 1st Battalion Welsh Guards and an airman from The Royal Air Force have been shot and killed in the Lashkar Gah district of Helmand province,” said Major Ian Lawrence, spokesman for Task Force Helmand.
The ministry said in a statement that the two were “shot and killed by members of the Afghan police force,” although NATO’s force in Afghanistan had on Saturday indicated they were insurgents dressed as police.
A police spokesman said they were members of the force, however, and a senior security official in the province said they had been in the Afghan police force for about a year.
The two had been working as part of an advisory team and were providing security for a meeting with local officials at the time, the ministry’s statement said.
ISAF said Saturday that one of the attackers had been killed and the other was still being sought.
The killings bring this year’s toll in “green-on-blue” attacks — in which Afghan forces turn their weapons against their Western Allies — to 22, in a total of 16 such incidents.
An increasing number of Afghan troops have turned their weapons on NATO soldiers who are helping Kabul fight a decade-long insurgency by hardline Taliban Islamists.
Some of the assaults are claimed by the Taliban, who say they have infiltrated the ranks of Afghan security forces, but many are attributed to cultural differences and antagonism between the allied forces.
ISAF has taken several security measures in response to the shootings, including assigning “guardian angels” — soldiers who watch over their comrades as they sleep.
The families of the two British soldiers have been informed, the ministry said.
The killings bring the British toll in the more than 10-year Afghan war to 412.
Britain has some 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, mainly based in Helmand.
They form part of a 130,000-strong ISAF force fighting alongside some 350,000 Afghan security personnel against the Taliban-led insurgency, but the foreign troops are due to pull out of the country in 2014.
Two other NATO soldiers died Saturday, one in a bomb blast and the other as a result of a “non-battle related injury”, ISAF said, without giving the nationalities of any of the victims.
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Who Are You Going To Trust With Your Life--Your Family--Or Your Nation?
Muslim Group: Fire Joint Forces College Teacher
A national Islamic civil rights organization called Thursday for the dismissal of an instructor at Norfolk’s Joint Forces Staff College following new allegations about inflammatory anti-Muslim material in a course he taught there.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations acted after Wired magazine published what it said were new details about the course, which was suspended by the Pentagon last month following a complaint from a student about its anti-Islamic content.
On its website, Wired posted what it said were course materials it received from a source familiar with the content of the class. Those materials raise the possibility of “near total war” with Islam, including abandoning the Geneva Conventions and targeting civilian populations as was done in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
That could include such measures as destroying the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, the materials suggest.
“It is imperative that those who taught our future military leaders to wage war not just on our terrorist enemy, but on the faith of Islam itself be held accountable,” Nihad Awad, executive director of the Muslim group, wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. “These shocking revelations are completely out of line with the longstanding values of one of our nation’s most respected institutions.”
Awad also called for retraining all officers who took the course, and he offered to coordinate a meeting between Pentagon officials and national Muslim leaders.
“If left uncorrected, the biased, inaccurate and un-American training previously given to these officers will harm our nation’s security, image and interests for years to come,” he wrote.
The Pentagon halted the course last month after the first class of an eight-week cycle and ordered a broad review of instructional materials across all branches of the military services to ensure “cultural sensitivity, respect for religion and intellectual balance.”
The new Wired report included, for the first time, the name of the officer who taught the course: Army Lt. Col. Matthew A. Dooley.
A Pentagon spokesman authenticated the documents. Dooley still works for the college but is no longer teaching, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said.
Dempsey said the material in the Norfolk course was counter to American “appreciation for religious freedom and cultural awareness.”
“It was just totally objectionable, against our values, and it wasn’t academically sound,” Dempsey said when asked about the matter at a Pentagon news conference.
Among the materials posted on the Wired website is a 28-page document headed “So What Can We Do? A Counter-Jihad Op Design Model,” bearing Dooley’s name and a July 2011 date.
The document includes an acknowledgment that it does not represent official U.S. policy.
“This model asserts Islam has already declared war on the West, and the United States specifically,” the document says. “It is, therefore, illogical to continue along our current global strategy models that presume there are always possible options for common ground.”
The document says the 1949 Geneva Conventions prescribing standards for armed conflict “are now, due to the current common practices of Islamic terrorists, no longer relevant or respected globally. This would leave open the option once again of taking war to a civilian population wherever necessary (the historical precedents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki being applicable to the Mecca and Medina destruction).”
The elective course, which had been offered since 2004, drew about 100 officers a year, typically Navy commanders and captains and Army, Air Force and Marine Corps lieutenant colonels and colonels preparing for high-level joint assignments.
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Is it just your Sentinel that sees the above as giving the ‘password’ to your perimeter to your [arch] enemies, so they can attack you while your asleep at night (although daytime is more the case). Or giving someone that you do not know–the key’s to your family home. If you do not know your enemy, you decrease the possibility of defeating them in combat. It is just that simple–and complex–as that.
Warmaster Sun Tzu is attributed with writing;
“…If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle…”
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From our Elder wise-men at STRATFOR Global Intelligence; for those paying strict attention:
France’s Strategy
By George Friedman
New political leaders do not invent new national strategies. Rather, they adapt enduring national strategies to the moment. On Tuesday, Francois Hollande will be inaugurated as France’s president, and soon after taking the oath of office, he will visit German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. At this moment, the talks are expected to be about austerity and the European Union, but the underlying issue remains constant: France’s struggle for a dominant role in European affairs at a time of German ascendance.
Two events shaped modern French strategy. The first, of course, was the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 and the emergence of Britain as the world’s dominant naval power and Europe’s leading imperial power. This did not eliminate French naval or imperial power, but it profoundly constrained it. France could not afford to challenge Britain any more and had to find a basis for accommodation, ending several centuries of hostility if not distrust.
The second moment came in 1871 when the Prussians defeated France and presided over the unification of German states. After its defeat, France had to accept not only a loss of territory to Germany but also the presence of a substantial, united power on its eastern frontier. From that moment, France’s strategic problem was the existence of a unified Germany.
France had substantial military capabilities, perhaps matching and even exceeding that of Germany. However, France’s strategy for dealing with Germany was to build a structure of alliances against Germany. First, it allied with Britain, less for its land capabilities than for the fact that Britain’s navy could blockade Germany and therefore deter it from going to war. The second ally was Russia, the sheer size of which could threaten Germany with a two-front war if one began. Between its relationships with Britain and Russia, France felt it had dealt with its strategic problem.
This was not altogether correct. The combination of forces facing Germany convinced Berlin that it had to strike first, eliminating one enemy so that it would not be faced with a two-front war. In both the first and second world wars, Germany attempted to eliminate France first. In World War I it came close, France saving itself only at the Second Battle of the Marne. The Germans surprised the French and perhaps even themselves by withstanding the Russians, the French and the British in a two-front war. With the weakening of Russia, Germany had new units available to throw at the French. The intervention of the United States changed the balance of the war and perhaps saved France.
In World War II, the same configuration of forces was in place and the same decisions were made. This time there was no miracle on the Marne, and France was defeated and occupied. It again was saved by an Anglo-American force that invaded and liberated France, effectively bringing to power the man who, in one of those rare instances in history, actually defined French strategy.
Charles de Gaulle recognized that France was incapable of competing with the United States and the Soviet Union on the global stage. At the same time, he wanted France to retain its ability to act independently of the two major powers if necessary. Part of the motivation was nationalism. Part of it was a distrust of the Americans. The foundation of post-war American and European defense policy was the containment of the Soviet Union. The strategy was predicated on the assumption that, in the event of a Soviet invasion, European forces supported by Americans would hold the Soviets while the United States rushed reinforcements to Europe. As a last resort, the United States had guaranteed that it would use nuclear weapons to block the Soviets.
De Gaulle was not convinced of the American guarantees, in part because he simply didn’t see them as rational. The United States had an interest in Europe, but it was not an existential interest. De Gaulle did not believe that an American president would risk a nuclear counterattack on the United States to save Germany or France. It might risk conventional forces, but they may not be enough. De Gaulle believed that if Western Europe simply relied on American hegemony without an independent European force, Europe would ultimately fall to the Soviets. He regarded the American guarantees as a bluff.
This was not because he was pro-Soviet. Quite the contrary, one of his priorities upon taking power in 1945 was blocking the Communists. France had a powerful Communist Party whose members had played an important role in the resistance against the Nazis. De Gaulle thought that a Communist government in France would mean the end of an independent Europe. West Germany, caught between a Communist France supplied with Soviet weapons and the Red Army in the east, would be isolated and helpless. The Soviets would impose hegemony.
For de Gaulle, Soviet or American hegemony was anathema to France’s national interests. A Europe under American hegemony might be more benign, but it was also risky because de Gaulle feared that the Americans could not be trusted to come to Europe’s aid with sufficient force in a conflict. The American interest was to maintain a balance of power in Europe, as the British had. Like the British in the Napoleonic wars, the Americans would not fully commit to the fight until the Europeans had first bled the Soviets dry. From de Gaulle’s point of view, this is what the Americans had done in World War I and again in World War II, invading France in mid-1944 to finish off Nazi Germany. De Gaulle did not blame the United States for this. De Gaulle, above all others, understood national self-interest. But he did not believe that American national self-interest was identical to France’s.
Nonetheless, he understood that France by itself could not withstand the Soviets. He also knew that neither the West Germans nor the British would be easily persuaded to create an alliance with France designed to unite Europe into one alliance structure able to defend itself. De Gaulle settled on the next best strategy, which was developing independent military capabilities sufficient to deter a Soviet attack on French territory without coming to the Americans for help. The key was an independent nuclear force able, in de Gaulle’s words, to “tear an arm off” if the Russians attacked. Mistrustful of the Americans, he hoped that a French nuclear arsenal would deter the Soviets from moving beyond the Rhine River if they invaded West Germany.
But at the core of de Gaulle’s thinking was a deeper idea. Caught between the Americans and the Soviets, with a fragmented Europe in between, half dominated by the Soviets and the other half part of an American-dominated NATO, he saw the fate of France as being in the hands of the two superpowers, and he trusted neither. Nor did he particularly trust the other Europeans, but he was convinced that in order to secure France there had to be a third force in Europe that would limit the power of both Americans and Soviets.
The concept of a European alternative was not rooted solely in de Gaulle’s strategic analysis. Establishing deep ties through a security alliance (possibly under NATO) and some sort of economic union was viewed by Europe in general and France in particular as an appealing way to end the cycle of violent competition that had begun in 1871.
De Gaulle supported economic integration as well as an independent European defense capability. But he objected to any idea that would cost France any element of its sovereignty. Treaties signed by sovereign nations could be defined, redefined and if necessary abandoned. Confederation or federation meant a transfer of sovereignty and the loss of decision-making at a national level, the inability to withdraw from the group and the inability of the whole to expel a part.
De Gaulle objected to NATO’s structure because it effectively limited France’s sovereignty. NATO’s Military Committee was effectively in command of the military forces of the constituent nations, and at a time of war, NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe — always an American — would automatically take command. De Gaulle did not object to the principle of NATO in general, and France remained a member, but he could not accept that French troops were automatically tied to a war plan or were automatically under the command of anyone who wasn’t French. That decision would have to be made by France when the time came. It could not be assumed.
In this sense, de Gaulle differed from the extreme visions of European integrationists, who saw a United States of Europe eventually forming. Like the British, whom he believed would always pursue their interests regardless of any treaty, he was open to an alliance of sovereign European states, but not to the creation of a federation in which France would be a province.
De Gaulle understood the weakness in what would become the European Union, which was that national interests always dominated. No matter how embedded nations became in a wider system, so long as national leaders were answerable to their people, integration would never work in time of crisis and would compound the crisis by turning it from what it originally concerned into a crisis of mixed sovereignty.
However, de Gaulle also wanted France to play a dominant role in European affairs, and he knew that this could be done only in an alliance with Germany. He was confident — perhaps mistakenly — that given the psychological consequences of World War II, France would be the senior partner in this relationship.
The descendants of de Gaulle accept his argument that France has to pursue its own interests, but not his obsession with sovereignty. Or, more precisely, they created a strategy that seemed to flow from de Gaulle’s logic. As de Gaulle had said, France alone could not hope to match the global superpowers. France needed to be allied with other European countries, and above all with Germany. The foundation of this alliance had to be economic and military. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the urgency of the military threat dissolved. France’s presidents since the end of the Cold War, Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, believed that the Gaullist vision could be achieved solely through economic ties.
It is in this context that Hollande is going to Germany. Although Sarkozy went as a committed ally of Germany, Hollande will not necessarily be predisposed to German solutions for Europe’s problems. This is somewhat startling in post-Cold War Franco-German relations, but it is very much what de Gaulle would have accepted. France’s economic needs are different from those of Germany. Harmonization agreements where there is no harmony are dangerous and unenforceable. A strong “non” is sometimes needed. The irony is that Hollande is a Socialist and the ideological enemy of Gaullism. But as we said, most presidents do not make strategy but merely shape an existing national strategy for the moment. It would seem to us that Hollande will now begin, very slowly, to play the Gaullist hand.
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Who? Indeed…
How about a Warrior that never forgot ‘The Vichy’ collaborator’s. That is who…
But they are not the sole detriment–an inherent security liability–to Humanity, then or now.
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Did someone forget--they can, and will--eat you?
False Flag Operation on L.O.S.T.
Here we go again: The usual suspects – the environmentalists, the one-worlder transnationalists, the Obama administration (to the extent that is not redundant) and assorted short-sighted special interests including, regrettably, the United States Navy – are dusting off the hopelessly outdated and inequitable UN Law of the Sea Treaty (better, and more accurately, known as LOST) in the hope of jamming its ratification through the Senate as was done two years ago with the defective New START Treaty.
Amazingly, they are doing so under what intelligence professionals would dub a “false flag” operation – an initiative that presents itself as one thing, in this case “The American Sovereignty Campaign”, when it is actually exactly the opposite. If ever there were an anti-sovereignty treaty it is LOST. It speaks volumes about the lengths to which this accord’s proponents have to go to conceal that reality that they are masquerading as advocates of U.S. sovereignty, not what they really are: champions of an effort greatly to reduce it.
As it happens, the poster child of this bait-and-switch may be former Senator-turned-lobbyist Trent Lott. In October 2007, former Senate Majority Leader Lott actually circulated a letter to his colleagues urging that the Law of the Sea Treaty be withdrawn from consideration by what was once known as “the world’s greatest deliberative body.”
This letter warned that: “To effect the treaty’s broad regime of governance, we are particularly concerned that United States sovereignty could be subjugated in many areas to a supranational government that is chartered by the United Nations under the 1982 Convention. Further, we are troubled thatcompulsory dispute resolution could pertain to public and private activities including law enforcement, maritime security, business operations, and nonmilitary activities performed aboard military vessels.”
Today, however, Sen. Lott represents Shell Oil. His job is to lobby his former colleagues not to sign a letter that has that exact same language in it, word for word. Is that because the treaty is no longer a threat to U.S. sovereignty at the hands of “a supranational government that is chartered by the United Nations under the 1982 Convention”? Or is it simply that Senator Lott is now a gun-for-hire, willing like the campaign he is helping advance to do or say whatever it takes to get a seriously defective treaty ratified?
How defective is LOST? Consider the following illustrative examples of its fatal flaws:
First, as Senator Lott once warned, ratification of LOST would commit the United States to submit to mandatory dispute resolution with respect to U.S. military and industrial operations. While LOST proponents argue that the United States will choose available arbitration mechanisms to avoid legal decisions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), such arbitration panels are no-less perilous for U.S. interests as the decisive, “swing” arbiters would be appointed by generally unfriendly UN-affiliated bureaucrats. The arbitration panels can also be relied upon to look to rulings by the ICJ or ITLOS to inform their own decisions.
Furthermore, while there is a LOST provision exempting “military activity” from such dispute resolution mechanisms, the Treaty makes no attempt to define “military activity,” virtually guaranteeing that such matters will be litigated – in all likelihood to our detriment – before one or another of LOST’s arbitration mechanisms. And the rulings of such arbitrators cannot be appealed.
Subjecting our military to the risks of such mandatory dispute resolution is all the more imprudent given that LOST provides the Navy with no navigational rights and freedoms beyond those it already enjoys under customary international law and the U.S. Freedom of Navigation Program. The Navy has successfully protected American interests on the seas for more than two hundred years without the United States becoming a party to LOST – including during the thirty years since LOST was concluded, in 1982. There is no compelling reason to believe that record will be improved upon by entrusting the job to international legal arrangements.
Second, the Law of the Sea Treaty contains provisions that risk putting sensitive – and in some cases, militarily useful – information and technology in the hands of America’s adversaries and its companies’ commercial competitors. Claims by LOST’s proponents that this problem was fixed by a 1994 agreement that was not signed by all LOST’s parties cry out for close examination by the Senate and the nation.
Third, the Law of the Sea Treaty entails commitments that have far-reaching implications for U.S. businesses, far beyond the possibility of mandatory technology transfers. These include: embroiling this country in treaties bearing on commercial activities to which it is not a party; wide-ranging, intrusive and expensive environmental obligations; creating standing for foreign nationals to pursue alien torts in our courts; and jeopardizing our rights under the World Trade Organization, which was established after 1994.
Of particular concern is the fact that LOST creates an international taxation regime. It does so by empowering the International Seabed Authority (ISA) to tax Americans for the purposes of meeting its ownadministrative costs and of globally redistributing revenue derived from the exploitation of seabed resources.
It is a travesty to portray a treaty with such clearly sovereignty-sapping provisions as an enhancement to our national sovereignty. LOST should be rejected this time – as President Ronald Reagan did thirty years ago and as Senator Lott urged twenty-five years later.
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"A Force For Good", And Keeping The Worlds Shipping Lanes Open. Without Them--What Would Be The Best Alternative? Do You See One?
Soon to be ‘Former‘ Senator Luger, (R), Indiana–found out the hard way–just how many Americans have not forgotten all that has been spent for the sovereignty of these United States of America, and its coastal borders as well. Nor did he calculate, who is really looking out for all sincere friend’s of Democracy.
As ‘we used to say’–in my own era of military service–”that’s what he get’s for thinking.”
Now he will be directed to “the childrens’ table.”
Some decision’s should really only be made by serious adult’s.
If you are contemplating the state of the world, fear not, and look to the Heavens, for you will be uplifted in your [hard]core and Spirit (or as some of ‘us’ call it–our Soul) with a gaze upon the following event;
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NASA Science News for May, 2012
On Sunday, May 20th, the Moon will pass in front of the Sun, producing an annular solar eclipse visible across the Pacific side of Earth from China to the United States.
FULL STORY: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/15may_sunday/
(Or you could look with trepidation at the following)
SOLAR TRANSIT: A photographer in France has caught China’s experimental space station, the Tiangong-1, passing directly in front of the sun. The photo shows the winged spacecraft backlit by hot plasma as it flits across the solar disk in the neighborhood of giant sunspot AR1476. Check it out on today’s edition of http://spaceweather.com.
TIANGONG-1 SIGHTINGS: The Tiangong-1 is much smaller than the International Space Station. Nevertheless, it can be seen with the naked eye shining in the night sky as brightly as the stars of the Big Dipper. Download the Simple Flybys app for sighting opportunities in your neighborhood: http://simpleflybys.com
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Everywhere you look, there will be some miracle or threat happening near us all as I see it, albeit, through the clear vision of a Veteran.
But that is just how “I” roll…
“Those that would die for you–salute you...”
In Deo Speramus
Non Timebo Mala…
In the meantime,
watch your six.
Universal Soldier
†
P.S. Do not despise Veterans just because each would sacrifice themselves for ‘you’.
Free Men Did It First
We Will--"Cover Your Six"
Have To Go Now. I Have A 'Storm' To Watch For...
Holy Spirit, be our guide on this journey toward truth.
