G-d Bless Nikki Haley

What a gem this Nikki Haley is. 

One nation, the United States, speaking truth about the bias and hate of the UNJust, United Nations against the lone democracy in the Middle East, Israel. 

How refreshing to have clarity of foreign policy after 8 years of 

- Disastrous and secretive Iranian deals

- Bending over backwards for Radical Islamist terrorism

- Tension and military escalation with Russia, China, and North Korea

- Meltdown in Crimea, Syria, Yemen, Benghazi, and more

- Rise and proliferation of ISIS across the Middle East

- Weakening of the U.S. Military including our nuclear deterrent

- Shameful UN resolution 2334

All of these, which speaks volumes to the Obama years of foreign policy debacles, one on top of another. 

While the fake news, New York Times, again published utter nonsense about President Trump needing to clarify his foreign policy when nothing could be further from the truth.

President Trump has made absolutely clear his support for Israel, Japan, UK, and other true friends and allies of America are crystal clear. 

The President has also made it clear that he will not tolerate bad behavior towards the United States from rogue terrorist nations like Iran and North Korea. 

Further, the President has made clear that he seeks better relations with Russia and at the same time a more robust NATO that can actually contributes to it's defense and has the muscle to show for it. 

Finally, we have a doctrine of peace through strength and the implementation that is backing it up. 

Anyone wonder why the New York Times isn't following, let alone reporting on the real news?  

And how different could this be than the obscurity and chaos of Obama's disappearing red lines all over the globe. ;-)

G-d Bless Nikki Haley

Drumbeats Of War

My bet is that we are looking at a semi-major international confrontation over the next few years. 

The bend over backwards for our enemies is over. 

Terrible and unenforceable deals are shameful history.

Cyberattacks and hacking will not be treated as the cost of doing business in the 21st century. 

Buzzing of our ships and planes won't be tolerated anymore.

Letting other nations take what they want in Georgia, Crimea, Syria, and the South China Sea is finished. 

Watching helplessly the nuclear proliferation and buildup of the means to deliver weapons of mass destruction by Iran and North Korea won't go unanswered.

Radical Islamic terrorism is not a dirty word anymore and we will bring the fight to the enemy in a bigger and more serious way. 

Our defense and that of our allies won't be treated lightly and we will not retreat in the face of evil. 

No one wants war, everyone wants peace, but unless we stop the aggression against us once and for all, the drumbeats of war will only get louder and more ominous. 

Set the boundaries and enforce them before the all the red lines are crossed and a real and highly dangerous confrontation becomes inevitable. 

Peace through strength is far preferable than war because of disengagement, weakness, and leadership from behind. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Drumbeats Of War

Bombs But No Strategy

So the good news is that we have killed about 45,000 ISIS terrorist fighters.

The bad news is two-fold:

First, there are still roughly 15,000-30,000 remaining and more being recruited all the time. 

Second, it took us 49,315 bombs dropped over two years to do this. 

So we are averaging less than 1 kill per bomb!

Sure, we are also hitting other targets like oil and gas infrastructure and tankers.

But about 20,000 of the munitions dropped are GPS precision-guided (e..g Joint Direct Attack Munitions, Small Diameter Bombs, and Hellfire Missiles) and have cost $2 billion!

That comes out to a cost of around $45,000 just for just 40% the bombs to kill each and every ISIS terrorist, and doesn't even include all the extensive military infrastructure, planes, intelligence, and people. 

And this is just a super tiny drop in the bucket compared to the $4-$6 trillion that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, after 9/11, has cost just through 2013. 

--That represents between 20-30% of our our entire $20 trillion national debt!

At this rate, ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the other terrorists may simply be able to cause irreparable damage and even bankrupt America.

How long can we afford to fight these extended and expensive wars against terrorism and never seem to even win--what's the strategy here? Is there one? 

(Source Photo: here with attribution to vaXzine)

Bombs But No Strategy

Best Bag 2016

Just wanted to share this photo of this great bag that I saw on the street in Downtown, DC.

While it wasn't the largest or most functional...

I really liked the design, colors, and all the pockets. 

A little military looking, contrasted by the rips, peace sign, and swirl made it even cooler. 

For some reason, I don't think you can get away with wearing it to the office though. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Best Bag 2016

Russia's Iron Fist

Russia is enormously resurgent (as is China), and they are modernizing their military, while we are "busy" and distracted with ridiculous dysfunctional political infighting here in the U.S.

- Between Republicans and Democrats. 

- Between Trump and Hillary.

- Between running mouths and utter corruption. 

- Between what our values are and aren't.

- Between racism and cop killings. 

- Between sequestrations, filibusters, and government shutdowns. 

- Between fighting terrorism and not even being able to say it's name and origin. 

- Between support for NATO and our allies and abandoning them. 

- Between invading Iraq and Afghanistan and then hasty and wasty retreats. 

- Between capturing terrorists and locking them away in Gitmo and then throwing them back out on the streets to plot and attack again. 

- Between calls for a strong military, policing the world, and keeping the peace and that being replaced by leadership from behind, disengagement, appeasement, and weakness.

- Between a healthy, vibrant economy and a shallow recession, failing Obamacare, slowing innovation, and ballooning national debt and welfare state. 

In the meantime, the Russians, if no one has noticed is moving critically forward in the world. 

- Ukraine's Crimea has been gone since 2014, separatists are fighting in the east, and tens of thousands of troops are massing on the border. 

- Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia was  occupied by Russia in the war in 2008

- Chechnya was taken by Russia in 1999 and Grozny, the capital, was completely leveled. 

- Bases around Damascus and in Iran have been built up and are in active use in the civil war in Syria going on today, and Aleppo, the largest city in Syria is becoming apocalyptic. 

- The Baltics are under threat by encroaching Russian forces. 

- U.S. military ships and planes and being regularly "buzzed" and Russia is flying mock nuclear bombing runs on the U.S.A. and Europe. 

- Russia is proposing a counter-alliance to NATO by them, China, India, and arch enemy, Iran. 

So while the U.S. spends more on military than the next 8 nations combined, with the U.S. at $610 billion to Russia's much more modest $85 billion, nevertheless, we are falling over our own feet, while Russia is clearly on a determined march.

We can't afford to play politics and suck our thumbs here at home, while Russia is determined and strategic in their moves geopolitically advancing their interests.

We are playing a losing hand and wasting valuable blood and treasure unless we get our democratic house in much needed order, focus, and resolve. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Russia's Iron Fist

A New Diplomacy In Town

A wonderful colleague sent me this really impressive photo.

This was one of my favorite of 3 aircraft carrier strike groups taken together (Abraham Lincoln, Kitty Hawk, and Ronald Reagan)--the 1st and the 3rd of which are Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarriers. 

According to the slides, there were literally 4 four nuclear submarines standing guard in the waters beneath, as well as a B-2 stealth bomber flying overhead.  

What I really liked the most though wasn't even the photos, but rather the motto for the carriers of:

"Over 90,000 tons of diplomacy...wherever... whenever..."

Diplomacy can be listening, negotiating, and compromise, but it can also be through the projection of the ultimate national and human strength. 

With a staggering rise in global terrorism, militaristic adventurism, and the proliferation of dangerous weapons of mass destruction, perhaps it's time to harden up on some of the soft power, and demonstrate as well the very credible hard power and resolve we have for protecting American lives, freedom, and human rights. ;-)

(Source Photo: here)

A New Diplomacy In Town

Standing Down

So there is a funny term used in government, which is to "Stand down."

Basically, it comes from the military where it has traditionally been used to denote relaxing (or "at ease") after a prior state of alert or readiness.

Since then it has become more broadly adopted to mean abruptly ceasing activity--and usually even all further discussion--on something. 

For example, if someone is working on a project, task, or issue, but you want them to completely halt all activities on this, you may tell them to stand down.

This happens when something, usually significant, has changed or the activity has become OBE (another military term for Overcome By Events).

Basically, something has unexpectedly transpired and the strategy and orders have now changed (maybe a complete 180). 

Often, someone up the chain has put the kabbash on whatever it was.

Either way, you go from a full-on sprint to a complete halt and you might as well stand on your head for all anyone cares, because the run to the finish line, on this matter at least, is over now. 

Standing down is very different from standing up--but you aren't sitting down either. 

Sitting would imply doing nothing at all, while standing down implies you do something else instead--like move on in the meantime to your next order of priority business. 

Still standing down, because of it's abruptness and completeness is a big deal--and when everything and everyone was prior in motion like a moving freight train--and someone now stands in front of it and yells "All stop!"--the rest of the train cars, all the way to caboose, can essentially ram right up into the butt of the engine causing a real mess of things (productivity-wise and from a morale perspective). 

So now everyone untangle yourself and "calm the h*ll down"--there's a new sheriff in town or new way ahead and you better get your standing down under control and stop doing whatever it is you were doing, okay there sonny boy? ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Standing Down

Why Would ANYONE Close Gitmo?

So over and over again, we read about the desire and promise by some to close Guantanamo Bay ("Gitmo")--the prison for terrorists against the U.S. 

What are the reasons given and do they make any sense?

1) It's costly--Yeah, it's costly to house prisoners, especially incredibly dangerous ones like terrorists who commit mass murder like in 9/11, but what is the cost of letting them go free, especially when the known recidivism rate of the released detainees is close to 29%!

2) It inspires other terrorists--Really, since when does imprisoning bad apples inspire other bad apples. Isn't one of the well-recognized and intended purposes of incarceration is to dissuade and deter bad behavior, as well as to rehabilitate. Even according to those who question the effectivenss of the deterrent capability of prison, studies show that it should be used to "incapacitate offendors (particularly, those of a chronic, higer risk nature)." In other words, we need to take and keep the terrorists off the battlefield!

Can an argument be made to bring the terrorists into prisons on American soil? Sure, but it makes a lot more common sense not to bring terrorists into the American heartland and risk further violence and danger to our citizens from known terrorists and their jihadist associates. 

Additionally, after 9/11 and the loss of almost 3,000 people, our brave U.S. serviceman and women spent a lot of time and hard work and risked their own lives to capture these dangerous terrorists...why would we want to release the terrorists endangering our military and our citizens all over again (especially when the threat has not abated--see below)?

Has the threat of terrorism gone away that we can say the war on terror is over and so let's send the terrorists home (the question itself almost sounds ludicrous for anyone living in the age of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Boko Haram, and more)?  Well, according to the RAND research experts, "there has been an INCREASE in the number of Salafi-Jihadist groups, fighters, and attacks." 

And after the recent attacks in Paris, San Bernardino, the downing of the Russia airliner, and many other terror strikes, it is no surpurse that "Americans name terrorism as the No. 1 U.S. problem."

Perhaps, this helps us understand why Congress is blocking the closing of Gitmo, and why none of us should be able to understand why violent, dangerous terrorist detainees are continuing to be released to hurt U.S. citizens again.

(Source Photo: here with attribution to JBrazito)

Why Would ANYONE Close Gitmo?

Iran Outsmarts And Humiliates

Iran so far continues to outsmart us at every turn...

Take just last week:

We released 7 Iranians for 5 Americans hostages plus a $1.7 billion settlement to Iran, even though our victims of terrorism haven't received their settlement money from Iran. 

Good deal?

Well after Iran released the 5 Americans, the Shitte militias in Iraq "whose funding and direction come from Iran" immediately took 3 new Americans hostage.

Oh well.

How about with the nuke deal with Iran?

We got short-term commitments from the Iranians to restrain their nuke program in return for $100+ billion and a removal of sanctions.

Good deal?

Well after Iran agreed to this, they immediately tested 2 ballistic missiles capable of carrying nukes in violation of UN resolutions, and then Iran threatens to pull out of the deal if we impose any new sanctions. 

Oh well. 

Then again, what about our naval vessels seized?

Iran took 2 US naval vessels and 10 American servicemen/women and after releasing them, we profusely thank Iran. 

Good deal?

Well after we thank them, Iran broadcasts humiliating images of the Americans on their knees captured, and it is reported that Iran kept SIM cards from the sailors handheld satellite phones presumably to hack these communications in the future. 

Oh well. 

They win some and win some more--AND--we lose some and lose some more. 

Ready for the next humiliating round? ;-)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Scott Joseph)

Iran Outsmarts And Humiliates

Thank You To Our Warfighters

I took a photo of this wonderful sign on this construction truck. 

It says:

"To All The Men And Women Of Our Armed Forces

Thank You!

United We Stand."

Next week on Wednesday is Veterans Day, but feeling gratitude to those who stand and fight for our freedom is not just a one day a year message. 

Let's always remember that freedom is not free! ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Thank You To Our Warfighters

A Blooper With Our Blimps

Oops, so this is one for the books...

The multi-billion dollar Raytheon-built military JLENS surveillance blimps are pictured above.

They are supposed to sense and alert us to a possible devastating surprise cruise missile attack on the U.S. eastern seaboard.

However, one of them lost its tethering and went sailing into the skies and had to itself be tracked by NORAD and two scrambled F-16 fighter jets. 

What was designed to surveil instead needed surveillance. 

The JLENS crashed landed in Amish country, Pennsylvania and took out the power to 20,000 people.

We need a strong, capable, and ready military!

If we are trying to improve our posturing with the Russians, Chinese, and Iranians--this is not the way to put our best blimp forward. ;-)

(Source photo: here with attribution to Bill Dickinson)

A Blooper With Our Blimps

Fantastic Drone Capabilities Coming

Exciting video by Futurism on what drones can and will do. 

Swarming.

Wall landings.

Acrobatics.

Drone on drone landings.

Playing catch.

Juggling.

Building a rope bridge. 

These little drones are so versatile and dexterous that perhaps what they can do is only limited by our imagination. 

Soon drones will do everything from caring for people's personal needs to building our cities, fighting diseases from within our very bodies, and conducting open warfare on the battlefield and behind enemy lines. 

Small and many is big and powerful! ;-)

Fantastic Drone Capabilities Coming

The Merkava IV With Anti-Missile System

I came across this video and photo online of the Israeli Mekava IV Tank with the Trophy Anti-Missile System. 

This tank looks so cool--a little fortress on treads. 

And with the Trophy system it can track and take out incoming missiles with a shotgun like blast. 

For a small country like Israel in the middle of a pretty bad and dangerous neighborhood--this is a necessity. 

Great for defending the Holy Land! ;-)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Michael Shvadron)

The Merkava IV With Anti-Missile System

Losing Deadly Control

So today we hear that there was a horrible mistake in which at least 52 sites (in 18 states here and 3 other countries) were inadvertently sent LIVE anthrax!!!

This after a prior incident in December where ebola had been mishandled and a technician potentially exposed. 

Again last August, they announced that a lab had accidentally cross-contaminated benign bird flu virus with a deadly strain of it. 

And there are at least five other major mishaps just since 2009 including more with anthrax and bird flu as well as with Brucella and botulism--these involved everything from using improper sterilization and handling techniques to inadvertent shipments of deadly live germs. 

Also in July, the CDC discovered six vials of LIVE smallpox in an unused storage room at the NIH.

This is reminiscent of similar gaffes by the military with an inadvertent shipment in 2007 by the Air Force of six nuclear warheads while the crew was unaware that they were even carrying it.

And here we go again (a doozy this time), information was disclosed in 2013 that we nearly nuked ourselves (specifically North Carolina) with 2 hydrogen bombs (260 times more powerful than that exploded on Hiroshima) in 1961. 

Yes, mistakes happen, but for weapons of mass destructions that we are talking about here, there are layers of safeguards that are supposed to be strictly in place. 

After each incident, it seems that some official acknowledges the mistakes made, says sorry, and claims things are going to be cleaned up now. 

But if the same or similar mistakes are made over and over again, then what are we really to believe, especially when millions of lives are at stake?

We have too much faith in the large bureaucratic system called government that despite how well it could be run, very often it isn't and is prone to large and dangerous errors and miscalculations.

With all due respect for our experts in these areas, we need to spend a lot more time and effort to ensure the safety of our most dangerous stockpiles--be it of nuclear, chemical, biological, or radiological origin. 

We can't afford any more mistakes--or the next one could be more than just a simple (not) embarrassment.

What good is all the preparation to win against our enemies, if we are our own worst enemy or we have meet the enemy and it is us! ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Losing Deadly Control

From Vintage to Modern Threats

Just wanted to share this short video captured of vintage fighter planes flying over the Washington Monument in D.C. on Friday, May 8.

This was in commemoration of 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. 

My father (A'H) used to tell me about when he was in England during the war and the Nazi bombers would fly over and carpet bomb them in a blitzkrieg.

This happened night after night, and so adaptive as people are, they sort of got used to the bombardment, if that is possible to say. 

After a while, instead of taking safety behind closed doors at home, people returned to go to the movies and dancing at night, even while the buildings next door were still being blown up--to the right and the left of them. 

In the morning, those who survived would get up, and see what was knocked down and what still standing. 

Hard to imagine living that way!

Now with new more destructive weapons (WMD, ICBMs, EMPs, etc.), we can only imagine that the destructive aftermath of WW II would be nothing in comparison to what a round III would be like.

It is crucial that we maintain our innovativeness and military superiority and not only offensively to defeat the enemy, but defensively so that we can stop whatever is coming at us whether a dirty bomb in suitcase, an ebola-type virus in an infected person or food, a drone carrying anthrax, or malware over the network.

We have come a long way in the last 70 years technologically, but the risk and stakes have also never been higher. ;-)

(Source Video: Minna Blumenthal)

From Vintage to Modern Threats

Everyday, A Catch-22

I took this photo of this guys' cool Catch-22 bag on the Metro in Washington, D.C. yesterday. 

Catch-22 was made famous in the book of the said name by Joseph Heller.

Essentially a Catch-22 is an unsolvable problem.

In the book for example, military servicemen in WWII can apply for a discharge if they are verifiably crazy, but the sheer act of applying for a discharge shows you are not crazy. 

Other examples of a Catch-22 are locking your keys in the car and you can't unlock the door to get them or losing your glasses but now you can't look for them.

In life, it seems like we are constantly facing Catch-22's, however not solving them is not an option...we must come up with a workable solution.

At work and in school, we compete to get ahead, yet we must team, cooperate, and collaborate with those very same folks that we are competing with. 

At home with children, we need to teach our children often difficult lessons of right and wrong, patience, discipline, and safety, even while we have overflowing feelings of love for them and just want to hug them and give in to them. 

With spouses, as our love and lives build over the years, we grow together and become ever more interdependent on our partners, yet we need to maintain some healthy independence and self at the same time. 

With career, are we advance ourselves so that we can provide well for our families, we must balance work-life, so that we aren't just bringing home a paycheck, but are actually emotionally there for our loved ones. 

The list of life's conundrums goes on and on, but rather than throw up our hands in defeat, we have to fight on and come up with solutions that are best fit to the challenges we face...there is no discharge just because you feel crazed or need to confront something hard...you need to solve the dilema and then you can go home. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Everyday, A Catch-22

Stop The Nuclear Threat

Before we get too rosy on the State of the Union...

Fascinating article in Forbes on the threat from nuclear armageddon. 

- The Russians nuclear missile survivability is improving with missiles "equiped with four warheads that can be independently targeted."

- Typical yield is 500 kilotons--"equivalent to half a million tons of conventional explosives."

- The impact of a single nuclear explosion is that it heats the targeted areas to a "few thousand degrees."

- If/when exploded over a major city, "everything within a one-mile radius is destroyed, heavy damage extends to three miles, and fires will be widespread out to five miles."

- People at ground zero will be annihilated immediately "by the blast effects or a wind-spread firestorm...(initial wind speed 700 mph)" 

- Those father from the epicenter will "linger longer before succumbing to the effects of prompt and delayed radiation."

- Due to the magnetic pulse, "electronic devices will be shut down for a hundred miles in every direction."

- How many long range nuclear missiles does Russia have? Over 2,000 (that are known)!

- Just 50, would leave every American city with over half a million people, "uninhabitable."

Now think about the Mullahs of Iran targeting, America, "The Great Satan," should they get this capability.

And do you think a Congressionally, bipartison endorsed, deadline-triggered sanctions on Iran should be vetoed or championed by the administration to stop this threat? 

May G-d bless us with the wisdom and strength of character to see through the delay tactics and subterfuge of our enemies and remove this real threat from us.

As to the Russians' strategic nuclear arsenal, we better get moving along on Reagan's Star Wars Strategic Defense Initiative--because 2,000 is a heck of a lot of incoming! ;-)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to CX15)

Stop The Nuclear Threat

Laser Defense Offense

Similar to the U.S.'s new laser defense being deployed aboard the USS Ponce in the Gulf, there is a promising new missile defense technology--"Iron Beam"--using lasers from Rafael in Israel. 

This augments Israel's "Iron Dome" anti-missile defense system using intercept missiles. 

Iron Beam functions with air defense radars and thermal camera tracking that identifies incoming targets and uses 2 lasers with 100's of kilowatts of directed energy to destroy the attacking projectiles with 90% success rate. 

For a more surgical, faster, and economically capable military--next up laser defense goes offense. 

It's got to, we've all seen the movie. ;-)

Laser Defense Offense

Peace To All Mankind

I liked this post in downtown Washington, D.C. inscribed with the following:

"May Peace Prevail On Earth."

It left me wondering, if Earth includes:

1) ISIS advances into large swathes of Syria and Iraq
2) Taliban attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan including the one that left 132 children dead in a Peshawar school last week.
3) Boko Haram kidnappings and killings in Nigeria including the hundreds of children taken and given as wives to their captors 
4) Al-Shabaab fighting in Somalia including attacks in the capital, Mogadishu
5) Hamas in Gaza and their barrage of rocket attacks on and terror tunnels into Israel
6) Hezbolah in Lebanon as a proxy for Iran-sponsored terror
7) Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and threats to annihilate Israel off the face of the map.
8) Russia in Ukraine and Georgia and ongoing threats to Eastern Europe/NATO.
9) China's military build-up, including nukes, submarines, and anti-satellite weapons.
10) North Korea cyber attack on Sony and threatening "the White House, the Pentagon, and the whole U.S. mainland."

Peace is more than a wish, right now it seems like a dream. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Peace To All Mankind

Drones Neighbor Against Neighbor

Fascinating perspective in the New York Times today on the future diabolical use of drones.

Yes, drones can be used for defense, law enforcement, search and rescue, neighborhood watch, agriculture, and even Amazon or Pizza Hut deliveries. 

But what about the darker side of drones--used neighbor against neighbor, where anyone can buy a fairly sophisticated drone for merely hundreds of dollars and use it against others in the community.

- Want to use the (surveillance) camera to spy on your neighbor?

- Want to use its claws to pick up and steal something?

- Want to airlift and plant evidence or contraband and frame someone unjustly?

- Want to distract someone or cause an accident or fatality?

Ok, I am going a lot further than the NYT article...but really what prevents people from doing these things and more?

The article does mention new FAA policies "prohibiting drones from flying [over stadiums] near major sporting events."

But think about a drone in the hands of a terrorist with a dirty bomb or G-d forbid, even a WMD, and the drone swooping into a densely populated area like a stadium or even Times Square...what would prevent this--perhaps, nothing?

Think about it...this is about to become a lot more dangerous world because drones are not just for the good guys anymore, and the bad guys may not care about FAA regulations and penalties. 

(Source Photo: here with attribution to outacontext)

Drones Neighbor Against Neighbor