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Operation Pastorius was a failed German intelligence plan for sabotage inside the United States during World War II. The operation was staged in June 1942 and was to be directed against strategic American economic targets.
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Thursday, January 18, 2018
Operation Pastorius via Historium...
Mattis FINALLY states the obvious. China is our top threat!
via Breaking Defense.
Terrorism remains a concern for the US military but it is no longer its primary focus. (The strategy is a Pentagon document that builds on the earlier White House-led National Security Strategy. The official version will be released tomorrow).Story here.
The strategy reserves its strongest language for China, accusing it of wielding predatory economics in combination with building its fake islands in the South China Sea to intimidate neighboring countries.
What is America’s response? We will build a force designed to work with our allies that will “compete, deter and win.” This comes after what the strategy calls a period of strategic atrophy, during which our global military advantage has slipped. While American forces could deploy anywhere they wanted and whenever they wanted, today every domain is contested. In addition to China and Russia, the strategy also mentions North Korea and Iran as part of the inter-state strategic competition which is now the primary challenge to American interests.
Absolutely awesome.
It looks like Mattis is finally deciding to face the threat. The forever Terror War Mafia Set is going to go bananas and it will take putting them and SOCOM (to include 5th columnist in the Marine Corps) back in their cage thru reductions in funding but overall this is good news.
To win a fight you must first identify the threat.
We're finally doing that.
I am pleased.
Border Security Force is getting a serious response from Turkey...they send even more armor to the region!
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| Turkish armored vehicles are transported to the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay Province, Turkey, Jan. 18, 2018. Turkish army dispatched tanks and armored vehicles to its southern border province Hatay on Thursday as preparation of a possible military action into Syria's Afrin, state-run Anadolu Agency reported. (Xinhua) |
via xinhuanet.com
Turkish army dispatched nine reinforcement tanks to its southern border province Hatay on Thursday as preparation of a possible military action into Syria's Afrin, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.Story here.
The army has ordered troops on the border for highest-level measures for a possible Afrin offensive which will target Syrian Kurdish militia here.
Turkish Armed Forces have retaliated to attacks made by the Kurdish militia in northern Syria in early Thursday.
The National Security Council convened on Wednesday and decided to take "all necessary precautions" against the U.S. backed Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, an official statement said.
Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist group for its links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Turkey has long been warning for a military incursion in Afrin, but it has taken serious measures as a preparation for a military operation after Washington said it would help the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by the YPG militia, set up a new 30,000-strong border force.
Turkey might be bluffing but they really look like they're getting ready to make a move into Northern Syria.
Have you noticed it? McMaster's has disappeared!
I keep reading stories about how all is well and diplomacy is working with regard to the N. Korea nuke issue. But I've also been trying to look between the headlines. Tillerson is cautious but optimistic. He is saying that we're willing to talk anytime, anywhere. Mattis is also cautious but a bit wary. He says that diplomacy will continue but that the military must be prepared to strike.
Japan is Japan.
They're continuing down the road to militarism and stating flatout that N. Korea is simply playing for time and that the S. Koreans should be wary.
That's all the players right?
Wrong.
Where is McMaster's? He's been totally off the radar for the past couple of weeks (if not longer). That should be an ominous sign for those that are watching this issue.
McMaster sees himself as a tactical genius. That is why I was so surprised to see him tapped as National Security Advisor. Tactically the dude is aggressive and at the very least efficient (his fans would say brilliant). So what is he doing?
My guess?
I believe that this diplomatic stuff is just that. Spinning of the wheel that the polite society demands before war is declared. I'd bet McMaster is deep inside the bowels of the Pentagon dusting off war plans, modifying them and getting ready to do the deed.
Furthermore I'm thinking that he and Dunford are forehead to forehead looking over maps, disposition of forces and getting everything lined up for a strike that they hope will be limited in scope but could spiral.
Stop looking at the heads.
Mattis, Trump, Tillerson and Haley will give you very little indication of where we're really going. My recommendation is start watching the Joint Chiefs of Staff, McMaster and follow their daily schedule.
When they start visiting units on a weekly if not daily basis then consider that go time. The General's Club requires that leadership give a pep talk, small talk while doing informal inspections and look their troops in the eye before they send them into combat.
Japan is Japan.
They're continuing down the road to militarism and stating flatout that N. Korea is simply playing for time and that the S. Koreans should be wary.
That's all the players right?
Wrong.
Where is McMaster's? He's been totally off the radar for the past couple of weeks (if not longer). That should be an ominous sign for those that are watching this issue.
McMaster sees himself as a tactical genius. That is why I was so surprised to see him tapped as National Security Advisor. Tactically the dude is aggressive and at the very least efficient (his fans would say brilliant). So what is he doing?
My guess?
I believe that this diplomatic stuff is just that. Spinning of the wheel that the polite society demands before war is declared. I'd bet McMaster is deep inside the bowels of the Pentagon dusting off war plans, modifying them and getting ready to do the deed.
Furthermore I'm thinking that he and Dunford are forehead to forehead looking over maps, disposition of forces and getting everything lined up for a strike that they hope will be limited in scope but could spiral.
Stop looking at the heads.
Mattis, Trump, Tillerson and Haley will give you very little indication of where we're really going. My recommendation is start watching the Joint Chiefs of Staff, McMaster and follow their daily schedule.
When they start visiting units on a weekly if not daily basis then consider that go time. The General's Club requires that leadership give a pep talk, small talk while doing informal inspections and look their troops in the eye before they send them into combat.
Troubling news for the US strategy in Syria. Turkey asks Russia & Iran permission for airstrikes...
via Bloomberg.
Turkey drew closer to its threatened offensive against Kurdish separatist fighters in northwest Syria, sending top security chiefs to Russia to seek permission to use Syrian airspace for strikes.Story here.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu dismissed U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s attempts to allay Turkey’s fears about a border security force incorporating thousands of Kurdish fighters that the American-led coalition against Islamic State has said will be formed. The concept of such a force has outraged Turkey, which says the Kurdish fighters have designs on Turkish territory.
Turkey’s top general, Hulusi Akar, and intelligence agency chief Hakan Fidan flew to Moscow on Thursday to discuss regional security issues and developments and Syria with General Valery Gerasimov, head of Russia’s General Staff, the Turkish military said on its website. Turkey is holding talks with Russia and Iran -- whose militaries are supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in that country’s civil war -- about using Syrian airspace for the operation in the city of Afrin, Cavusoglu told CNN-Turk television in an interview on Thursday.
“We are under attack from Afrin every day, we have to make an intervention,” Cavusoglu told CNN-Turk. “The U.S. must stop cooperating with this terrorist organization,” he said of the Kurdish fighters. “We have to establish coordination for intervention from the air” so that military observers in the area are not harmed, he added, referring to those countries’ military advisers in Syria.
This isn't surprising, but its still jarring.
Don't get me wrong. I still don't see the sense in US policy in the Middle East especially Syria but to see the world's super power relegated to the sidelines still takes getting used to.
But you know what's worse than being outmaneuvered by Russia, Iran and Turkey (probably have to include Iraq and Syria) is the fact that we're about to see the always reliable Kurds thrown under the bus.
Make no mistake about it. The Kurds are gonna get crushed. They're just squabbling about who gets to do the deed.
China is marshalling forces/establishing new infrastructure on India's border...
Thanks to Sarabvir for the link!
via ThePrint.IN
New visuals show PLA deployment is close to last year’s face-off point and hasn’t thinned down as Indian Army chief Gen. Rawat claimed last week.Story here.
New Delhi: Almost five months after India and China agreed to end their tense military face-off in the Himalayan region of Doklam, Beijing has almost completely taken control of the northern side of the disputed plateau, latest satellite images accessed by ThePrint show.
The new images show concrete posts, seven helipads, new trenches and several dozen armoured vehicles close to the point where the Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops were locked in a 72-day confrontation last year.
The discovery comes days after Army chief General Bipin Rawat said that China continues to have troops in North Doklam but also added that the deployment had thinned down recently.
However, new satellite imagery accessed by ThePrint from 10 December 2017 shows that the Chinese side is now well entrenched in the area, with heavy road building machinery still present close to the stand-off point.
This is beyond interesting. First you have an Indian news organization that DIRECTLY contradicts the Army Chief. Next you have some pretty credible and compelling sat imagery to back up the point.
I don't know China's endgame with regard to India but one of the comments that was made to the article (I always read the comments of foreign publications to get the feelings of the locales) struck me as being especially wise. To paraphrase....
The Chinese are relentless when they seek weakness in others...While it would be in both India's and the US best interest to establish some type of mutual defense treaty I just don't see that happening.
India is about to be caught in a geographic kill box.
A hostile Pakistan on one border and an opportunistic China on the other.
Is this part of the silk road concept? If it is then fighting might break out here before they get around to the US.
Tiger I heavy tank
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| Tiger I heavy tank of the German 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler in Northern France, spring 1944. wrhstol.com/2mOEKQ2 |
Open Comment Post. Jan 18, 2018
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| DINNER FOR THE PRIDE OF LIONS. Photo by @levkphoto This is a shot of hippo killed by a lion earlier.The rest of the pride was waiting for the permission to join across the dirt road in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania |
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Marines aboard the French BPC (LHD) conduct helo ops...pics by French Navy Master Chief Petty Officer Serge Charmoillaux
Note. I've been critical of this concept. I'm a stubborn bastard so I won't back off that stance. But I have to admit that it's pretty cool for Marines to familiarize themselves in an operational setting with allied aircraft.
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