Tag: pentagon

US Dept Of War Suspends Permanent Joint Board On Defense With Canada

Remarkably, many news articles are citing confusion in trying to understand why U.S. Undersecretary of War, Elbridge Colby, announced the suspension of U.S. participation in the Permanent Joint Board on Defense with Canada.

However, the announcement comes immediately after his meeting with U.S. ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, at the Pentagon and the comment, “we’re working closely to ensure every NATO partner, including Canada, reaches the Hague Summit’s 3.5% GDP defense spending target, a vital investment for North American and Arctic defense.”

The issue, as outlined by Undersecretary Colby, centers around Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent statements in antagonism toward the U.S., a public announcement that Canada would not be purchasing U.S. military equipment and the biggest issue of all, that Canada is not living up to the NATO defense spending agreements.

It was in December of 2024, immediately after the November election where Donald Trump won, when then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew to Mar-a-Lago for dinner with President Trump and told him there’s no way that Canada could meet their NATO obligations. 

Canada had relied on the USA to provide all national defense and was 16th in defense spending at 1.1% of GDP.

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Pentagon quietly shut legally required program to prevent civilian deaths by military, watchdog finds

The Pentagon has quietly dismantled a program it is legally required to operate to prevent and respond to civilian deaths in US military operations, according to its internal watchdog.

A report released by the department’s inspector general concluded the US military no longer has the people, tools or infrastructure needed to comply with two federal statutes requiring it to maintain a functioning civilian casualty policy, and operate a Civilian Protection Center of Excellence (CP CoE).

Donald Trump’s administration has been accused of making deep cuts to the Pentagon’s civilian harm mitigation and response (CHMR) program, designed to handle training and procedures critical in limiting civilian harm in theaters of war.

While the program has not been officially canceled, the inspector general’s report said that funding had ended for a data management platform; committee meetings had halted; and many dedicated personnel had been lost or reassigned.

“As a result, the DoW may not comply with its civilian casualties and harm policy,” the report read. “A policy required by federal law.”

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.

The program was created by Lloyd Austin, then defense secretary, in January 2022, under Joe Biden, following years of deadly US bombing campaigns in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Airwars, a civilian harm monitor, estimated that US drone and airstrikes killed at least 22,000 civilians – and perhaps as many as 48,000 – in the 20 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon chief, has recently come under fire over deadly attacks on Iran, including a US strike in Minab that killed at least 175 people, a majority of them children, at an all-girls school.

Limiting casualties has not been a top priority under Hegseth’s tenure at the Department of War, rebranded on his watch from Department of Defense last September. When pressed on civilian casualties in Iran, he has pivoted to blame the country’s regime for placing rocket launchers in civilian areas, and also claimed no nation in history had taken more precautions than the US to avoid civilian deaths.

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Pentagon Draws Up Strike Plans as Trump Weighs Renewed Iran Assault

The Pentagon has prepared plans for a possible renewed military campaign against Iran as President Donald Trump weighs whether to resume strikes following stalled negotiations and mounting tensions in the Middle East.

According to The New York Times, U.S. and Israeli officials have intensified military preparations for the possible return of combat operations as early as next week if diplomatic efforts fail.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signaled the administration is prepared to escalate.

“We have a plan to escalate if necessary,” Hegseth told lawmakers this week.

Trump, returning from China on Friday, indicated Tehran’s latest peace proposal was a non-starter.

“I looked at it, and if I don’t like the first sentence, I just throw it away,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

The president has repeatedly warned Iran against dragging out negotiations.

“They’re either going to make a deal, or they’re going to be decimated,” Trump said earlier this week. “So, one way or another, we win.”

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Awkward moment an aging Mitch McConnell needs help from staff during hearing with Pete Hegseth

Mitch McConnell appeared confused when a staffer interrupted him because he tried to end a Senate hearing with Pete Hegseth before it was set to conclude.

The former Majority Leader, 84, was part of a hearing of the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Defense that had been questioning the defense secretary regarding the War in Iran. 

As McConnell was given the floor again after questioning by Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, he tried to end the hearing with Hegseth, much to his colleagues’ confusion.

‘Here’s where we are, the vote is about over, the secretary has to get with the President on the China trip, I’m gonna’ ask Senator Murkowski to wrap up and thank you all for being here.’

Before finishing, he was interrupted by a younger, male staffer who could be heard whispering into his ear. 

‘Baldwin, Shaheen, and Kennedy still have questions,’ the staffer said.

He was referring to Wisconsin Democrat Senator Tammy Baldwin, New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican John Kennedy. 

The staffer can then be heard clarifying that the hearing should ‘wrap up after’ those questions. 

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US war in Iran has cost $36.9 billion so far: Pentagon

The US’ war in Iran has cost US$29 billion (S$36.9 billion) so far, a senior Pentagon official said on May 12, an increase of US$4 billion from an estimate provided in late April.

With just six months before the mid-term elections, in which US President Donald Trump’s Republicans may face an uphill battle to keep their House majority, Democrats are riding high in public opinion polls as they attempt to link the war to cost-of-living issues.

On April 29, the Pentagon said the war at that point had cost US$25 billion.

Mr Jules Hurst, who is performing the duties of the comptroller, told lawmakers on May 12 that the new cost included updated repair and replacement of equipment and operational costs.

“The joint staff team and the comptroller team are constantly looking at that estimate,” he said.

He was speaking alongside Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine.

It is unclear how the Pentagon arrived at the US$29 billion figure. A source told Reuters in March that the Trump administration estimated that the first six days of the war had cost at least US$11.3 billion. REUTERS

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As Hegseth Spars With Congress Over Iran War, Trump Decries Criticism As ‘Virtual Treason’

There was a bit of a narrative shift on display in Congress as back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill with top defense and Trump admin officials played out Tuesday, with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth repeatedly on the defensive as he and the administration face intensified scrutiny over the Iran war.

And the growing frustration vented in Congress is not just being sounded by Democrats. As Washington Post’s Tuesday headline aptly described: Hegseth, Caine encounter intense bipartisan frustration with Iran war. It seems President Trump has been made keenly aware of potential growing rebellion among GOP ranks, and biting criticisms over how the conflict and Strait of Hormuz standoff is going, given he decided to level the word “treason” in an afternoon Truth Social Post. It seemed also aimed at a series of apparent recent sensitive or classified info leaks within the administration and Pentagon to the media, related to the conflict…

Trump stated while en route to China: “When the Fake News says that the Iranian enemy is doing well, Militarily, against us, it’s virtual TREASON” – and he went on to charge that “they are aiding and abetting the enemy!”

“Only Losers, Ingrates, and Fools are able to make a case against America!” he also wrote.

This moment might remind the American public of another key turning point in US history when past president cast all criticisms of wars of choice in the Middle East: When President George W. Bush was gearing up to launch new forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks, he declared, “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.”

This week also saw arch-neoconservative Robert Kagan break from Trump’s Iran War in the the pages of the generally pro-war Atlantic:

It’s hard to think of a time when the United States suffered a total defeat in a conflict, a setback so decisive that the strategic loss could be neither repaired nor ignored.

Defeat in the present confrontation with Iran will be of an entirely different character. It can neither be repaired nor ignored. There will be no return to the status quo ante, no ultimate American triumph that will undo or overcome the harm done. The Strait of Hormuz will not be “open,” as it once was. With control of the strait, Iran emerges as the key player in the region and one of the key players in the world. The roles of China and Russia, as Iran’s allies, are strengthened; the role of the United States, substantially diminished. Far from demonstrating American prowess, as supporters of the war have repeatedly claimed, the conflict has revealed an America that is unreliable and incapable of finishing what it started. That is going to set off a chain reaction around the world as friends and foes adjust to America’s failure.

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Pete Hegseth Accuses Democrat Senator Mark Kelly of ‘Blabbing’ About ‘Classified’ Briefing

U.S. Department of War (DOW) Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) may be in deep trouble for comments he made over a classified Pentagon brief.

In a social media post on Sunday, Hegseth shared a post from Face the Nation’s Margaret Brennan in which she detailed Kelly’s comments regarding U.S. weapons stockpiles.

“After hearing the Pentagon classified brief on Iran war impact on U.S. weapons stockpiles, Senator Mark Kelly says it is ‘shocking how deep we have gone into these magazines.’ He said the Tomahawks, ATACMS, SM-3, THAAD rounds, Patriot rounds, so those interceptor rounds to defend ourselves have been hit hard. He says it’ll take years to replenish those stockpiles, which could affect a hypothetical U.S. conflict with China,” Brennan reported.

In response, Hegseth criticized the senator, who is a retired U.S. Navy captain, and said officials were taking action.

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A $1.5 Trillion Military Budget Is a Gift to the Grifters

Last week “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth insulted Americans by claiming that a 50 percent increase in the US military budget – from an incomprehensible one trillion dollars to an impossible one and a half trillion – was a “fiscally responsible investment.”

“Thanks to President Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense budget, this War Department has moved from bureaucracy to business,” he said last Thursday.

In a way he was right, though. The huge increase is much more about “business” than what is needed to protect the United States from potential invasion.

But it isn’t the kind of “business” that most supporters of free markets would applaud. On the contrary, this is the business of transferring massive amounts of wealth from the struggling middle and working classes to the well-connected Beltway elite based on lies and scare tactics.

The US mainstream media is crucial in manufacturing the fairy tale that if we don’t mortgage our children’s and grandchildren’s future to finance this obscene military budget, we will be attacked or invaded by some evil foreign power.

It’s not difficult to do a little research and see why the mainstream – and even some “independent” – media outlets push these scare tactics: they are owned or funded by giant corporations with close ties to military contractors.

This unhealthy relationship is known as “corporatism” – the intermingling of pseudo-private companies with the government. It is the precursor to actual fascism, where the government takes a stake in such companies.

We’re getting there faster than most Americans understand.

The whole scam is not about protecting the citizens of the United States. It’s about protecting the US empire overseas, which actually harms the citizens of the United States.

Yes, they rob us to fund their empire and lie to us that it keeps us safe. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our constant military interventions on virtually every continent of the globe only build resentment among the rest of the world’s population. Anyone who thinks people overseas welcome US bombs has been watching too much Fox News or reading too much Washington Post.

And what do we get for the most expensive military on earth – larger than the combined militaries of the next dozen or so countries? Not much. Iran’s military budget is less than one percent of ours, yet Iran destroyed or disabled every US military base in the Middle East.

It turns out that Iran has destroyed dozens of multi-million dollar US spy drones – and several near-billion dollar spy radar stations – with their own drones costing mere thousands of dollars each.

The US surprise attack was supposed to make Iran cower and beg for mercy, but it did the opposite: it showed that despite the trillions extorted from Americans for the most expensive military on earth, the US military can no longer win the wars that US presidents illegally force them into fighting.

The US military continues to fight World War II – with massively expensive aircraft carriers that do not dare get close to combat – while warfighting has evolved into something entirely different.

The only good thing about the Iran war is that it demonstrates how much the special interests have lied to us about the need to continue our suicidal military spending increases.

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When one man, a civilian, controls the kill switch for military ops

In September 2022, Ukrainian forces prepared to launch a drone strike on the Russian naval fleet anchored off Crimea. The drones never arrived.

Elon Musk had decided, unilaterally, not to activate Starlink coverage over the region. But he wasn’t simply declining to help. SpaceX had already been managing battlefield access for both sides: restricting Russian use, imposing speed limits to prevent drone integration, and maintaining a verified whitelist with Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense. One private citizen, with no security clearance and no accountability to any electorate, was governing the battlefield connectivity of an active war.

The public debate treats this as a story about Elon Musk — his politics, his proximity to the White House, his X posts. That framing lets the actual problem off the hook. Replace Musk with the most patriotic, internationalist, apolitical CEO imaginable and the structural problem remains identical. The Pentagon has spent a decade building critical military functions on infrastructure it can’t legally compel, and the consequences are now arriving in real time.

A common reflex is to argue that private defense contractors have always been central to American military power. Lockheed Martin builds the F-35; Raytheon builds the Patriot. What’s different now is the control plane: who has real-time administrative control during use. When the government buys a tank, it owns it. The keys don’t expire. The manufacturer can’t disable it mid-mission or impose terms in combat. Software and AI are different. Vendors keep ongoing control — updates, access, and usage limits. They don’t sell a capability; they license access to one, and the license has conditions.

Those conditions have already collided with active operations. After months of failed negotiations, the Pentagon formally designated the AI firm Anthropic a supply-chain risk because of restrictions on how its model could be used. The Pentagon was explicit in its decision: “The military will not allow a vendor to insert itself into the chain of command.” Emil Michael, the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, described the moment he fully grasped the vulnerability: Anthropic’s models were already embedded across combatant commands and intelligence agencies, wired into classified workflows. Anthropic retained the control plane inside the Pentagon’s cloud — able to update, restrict, or shut off access. When Michael raised hypothetical crisis scenarios, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, offered exceptions case by case. “Just call me if you need another exception,” Michael recalls him saying. In a genuine crisis, a commander can’t call a vendor to authorize military action, nor should he have to.

This isn’t about whether Anthropic’s rules are reasonable. They weren’t set by anyone accountable to the joint force, there’s no override mechanism, and the Pentagon had made itself dependent on systems it doesn’t control.

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Astronauts Saw Strange Things in Space: UFO Files

The United States Defense/War Department published on Friday previously classified documents related to “aliens” and UFO/unidentified anomalous phenomena sightings. The drop includes transcripts of astronauts reporting strange lights and objects during space missions in the ’60s and ’70s.

Not the Whole Story

But, according to a member of Congress who has been very invested in this issue, the interesting stuff is yet to come. Around the same time, he also said the public will never be told everything. “The 1st drop will be big but in comparison to what is coming they will be a drop in the bucket,” Tennessee’s Republican Rep. Tim Burchett said on X Friday morning. “I would say ‘Holy Crap’ is coming.”

Burchett has made many comments over the last few months suggesting the government is concealing bombshell information about non-human intelligent beings on this planet. As a member of Congress, he has received briefings that include information not available to the public. The big questions are: How much of the information that he and other members of Congress have received is legitimate, and how much of it is mis- or disinformation?

In a recent interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Burchett likened UFO-alien disclosure to MKUltra, the illegal CIA mind-control and human-experimentation program. In 1973, CIA Director Richard Helms ordered most MKUltra files to be destroyed. The order was carried out by Sidney Gottlieb, the chemist who had been the longtime head of the program. Investigators on the Church Committee — the senate committee tasked in the mid-’70s with investigating questionable CIA activity — had to rely mostly on survivor testimony and the few remaining documents to get a glimpse into the program. To this day, it is generally agreed the public knows only a fraction of what the government did in it.

When it comes to “aliens” and UFOs, Burchett told Rogan, “It’s kinda like MK Ultra. …They’re not going to tell us everything. … I don’t think they’re going to give us half of what we should get.”

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