Tag: perpetual war

CHEAP AND LETHAL: THE PENTAGON’S PLAN FOR THE NEXT DRONE WAR

WORRIED ABOUT a potential war with China, the Pentagon is turning to a new class of weapons to fight the numerically superior People’s Liberation Army: drones, lots and lots of drones.

In August 2023, the Defense Department unveiled Replicator, its initiative to field thousands of “all-domain, attritable autonomous (ADA2) systems”: Pentagon-speak for low-cost (and potentially AI-driven) machines — in the form of self-piloting ships, large robot aircraft, and swarms of smaller kamikaze drones — that they can use and lose en masse to overwhelm Chinese forces.

Earlier this month, two Pentagon offices leading this charge announced that four nontraditional weapons makers had been chosen for another drone program, with test flights planned for later this year. The companies building this “Enterprise Test Vehicle,” or ETV, will have to prove that their drone can fly over 500 miles and deliver a “kinetic payload,” with a focus on weapons that are low-cost, quick to build, and modular, according to a 2023 solicitation for proposals and a recent announcement from the Air Force Armament Directorate and the Defense Innovation Unit, the Pentagon’s off-the-shelf acceleration arm. Many analysts believe that the ETV initiative may be connected to the Replicator program. DIU did not return a request for clarification prior to publication.

The new robot planes will mark a shift from the Defense Department’s “legacy” drones which DIU says are “over-engineered” and “labor-intensive” to produce. The four contractors chosen for the program are Anduril Industries, Integrated Solutions for Systems, Leidos Dynetics, and Zone 5 Technologies, which were selected from a field of more than 100 applicants.

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Pacific on the Edge of War as Chinese Naval Forces Board and Seize Military Boats of Philippine Navy

The Pacific appears increasingly nearer to war as Chinese vessels encircled and boarded military resupply boats belonging to a key American ally.

Tensions erupted as the Chinese Coast Guard seized ships of a Philippine Navy resupply mission that was underway near the Second Thomas Shoal. The Armed Forces of the Philippines revealed pictures of the Monday confrontation in a social media post, calling the attack “coercive, aggressive, and barbaric.”

The shallow reef, also known as Ayungin Shoal, is part of the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands, one of the many areas in the region claimed by Beijing.

The Philippine military was resupplying a tank landing ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, which was intentionally run aground on a reef just off the disputed shoal in 1999 to bolster the country’s claim on the island.

Although likely not even remotely seaworthy at this point, the Sierra Madre remains an actively crewed commissioned vessel of the Philippine Navy.

China has similarly fortified its claims on the area, deploying missiles to some of the islands in 2018.

Videos show the resupply mission turning to blows as China became involved. In one clip, Chinese sailors could be seen waving and swinging axes, machetes and other melee weapons as the boats closed in to become a chaotic mass.

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White House to Send Allies’ Patriot Air Defense Systems to Ukraine

Per a Thursday report in the Financial Times, the U.S. will suspend all orders for Patriot air defense systems to other countries and redirect their production to Ukraine.

According to the White House, it will be “re-sequencing” the planned deliveries so that Ukraine will receive produced systems at an expedited rate.

The move comes on the heels of the Biden administration’s promise of getting more Patriot systems for Ukraine “relatively quickly” at the recent G7 summit. 

The redirection will reportedly not affect exports to Taiwan.

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Putin Signs Military Assistance Deal With North Korea

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a military assistance pact with North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un during the former’s visit to Pyongyang.

The deal promises “immediate military assistance” from either should the other be attacked. Due to Russia’s vast size compared to North Korea, this seemingly provides a security guarantee to the latter, though it is unclear what exact form the promised “protection” and “military and other assistance” would take should hostilities on the Korean peninsula break out. Kim described the treaty as an “alliance,” although Putin did not. 

While many of the terms are still unknown, Putin stated that he would not “exclude the development of military-technical cooperation with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in accordance with the document signed today.”

Throughout most of his presidency, Putin has worked with China and the United States to contain North Korea, especially with regard to nuclear weapons. This current deal between Russia and North Korea seems to mark the end of any U.S.-Russia partnership to contain North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

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War What Is It Good For? Money, Money, Money

Israel’s war on Palestine has generated the equivalent of burning 675,000 tons of coal and causing 166.5 million tons of debris.  Thousands of zoo animals have died of starvation.   Pets have been bombarded with bombs and died due to lack of water.   Solid waste up to 300,000 tons have accumulated in makeshift dumps.   Contamination by asbestos and heavy metals, dust and fine particles, toxic waste from hospitals and industries, and diseases spread by decomposing bodies.   Where are the Climate Protesters?

“US’s “War on Terror” has released 1.2 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases, which is more warming than the annual emissions of 257 million cars.”  War Games kill an uncounted number of sea mammals and consumable fish.  The US military has the largest climate footprint in the world with Qatar coming in second.  In one year Lockheed Martin contributed 33 megatons of GHG emissions.  Airbus’ contribution was 444 megatons and Raytheon 12.7 megatons.  To charge one electric vehicle uses the same energy for 257 homes.Holcombe, Randall GBest Price: $5.00Buy New $12.90(as of 09:02 UTC – Details)

The Economist, “The exponential growth of solar power will change the world”.  Also from The Economist, “China’s giant solar industry is in trouble”.   Why?  Overcapacity.

Europe is transitioning away from natural gas to hydrogen as their newest green initiative.  The Steam Method of producing hydrogen requires natural gas, water and biomass.  The production of one ton produces 6.7 to 9.3 tons of carbon dioxide.   Electricity from the grid can be used to produce hydrogen through water electrolysis.   What powers the grid?  Don’t we have a water crisis?  Brought to you by our ever evaporating – Scientists.   Those ‘experts’ who routinely falsify their reports to satisfy a quotient.

Call in the aliens – we are making a MESS!

One megaton TNT hydrogen bomb can destroy 80 square miles. Israel dropped 70,000 tons of bombs on Gaza Strip since last October, exceeding World War II bombings in Dresden, Hamburg, and London combined.  36 prisoners in Israeli jails have been tortured to death.   723 health workers have been killed and another 900 injured. 151 journalists have been killed.   And Netanyahu posts a video asking the world for more bombs in order to ‘get it done’.   As in no more Palestinians.  Does The Middle East even know they are all NEXT?

Blinken has made fourteen visits to Israel – flying with his security entourage that includes two US Air Force crews.  More climate change and fossil fuels…  The joke of the century.

Manipulating climate in the Middle East is common.  Manipulating climate for ski resorts is common.   Manipulating climate for war is common.  Eleven US states manipulate climate routinely.  Despite the fact that climate manipulation is human derived, it is not added to the equation.  Why?   Because it would skew their expert scientific dramatization.

According to the DoD, weather manipulation is based on the ‘chaos theory’.  “Any input into the atmospheric “system” via weather modification will result in some unknown and unforeseen output somewhere else. The more chaotic a system is, the more sensitive the system is to small perturbations”.  Some states actually charge a tax for the privilege of their ability to modify OUR weather.  Even though citizens don’t own the sky or the weather –

In Colorado, the state issues ‘permits’ to companies which desire to modify the weather.  The permit costs $100 plus a 2% commercial fee for a five year renewable applicant.  Wind turbines can be shifted or manipulated to cause greater wind speeds.  The larger the wind farm, the more it can alter/shape wind speeds.  The higher wind speeds dry up the land causing droughts.   Droughts require cloud seeding and cause fires.  Cloud seeding alters where the rain will fall.  A circle of events that can destroy a state.

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Biden Team Ignores Israel’s History of Deceit and Deception

Question: How do you know when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is lying?

Answer: He moves his lips.

Israel’s history over the past 76 years is replete with examples of deceit.  This was true from the start, when the Israelis denied their role in expelling hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes during Israel’s War of Independence.  The Arab world refers to the expulsion as the “nakba” (the catastrophe), which is largely denied in Israel.  The Israeli legacy of denying the “nakba” is no different from those who deny the Holocaust.

The mainstream media bends over backwards to defend Israel’s case, and over the years it has said very little about the history of Israel’s deceit and deception.  As recently as last week, for example, the Washington Post carried a bizarre headline that read “Israel is on its honor to comply with U.S. intelligence limits.” The accompanying story was a significant one, detailing the importance of the U.S. intelligence provided to Israel to conduct the rescue of four Israeli hostages, an operation that took the lives of nearly three hundred Palestinians, mostly women and children.  By any definition of the requirement for proportionality in wartime, this was indeed a war crime.

The Post article went on to cite National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, an apologist for Israel since the start of the war on October 7th, who explained that the United States has “provided an intense range of assets and capabilities and expertise to Israel,” and that the provision of intelligence  is “not tied or conditioned on anything else.  It is not limited.  We are not holding anything back.  We are providing every asset, every tool, every capability.”  These remarks are dispositive of our complicity in Israel’s brutal and unconscionable assault against Palestinian civilians.

At the same time, U.S. officials disingenuously claim that Israeli is prohibited from using U.S. intelligence for targeting in Gaza in any military operations, including airstrikes.”  They argue that there are “long-standing formal arrangements that are scrutinized by lawyers in the U.S. intelligence community, as well as directives from the White House following the October 7th attacks.”  This is particularly disingenuous because of the long record of deceit and deception from both the U.S. intelligence community regarding U.S. wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and the Israeli lies over the years regarding their wars in 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982.  I’ve written extensively about U.S. and Israeli lies in my articles for CounterPunch and my various books and articles.  And I will return to this deceit in future articles.

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Slovak Defense Ministry Accuses Former Government of Sabotage and Treason Over Ukraine Jet Transfer

The Slovak Ministry of Defense said on Friday that it considers the transfer of MiG-29 fighter jets and air defense systems to Ukraine in 2023 as an act of sabotage by the former leadership of the ministry.

“Based on the results of the discovery of a number of failures of the former government, we, as the Ministry of Defense, are filing an application [to law enforcement agencies] on suspicion of committing sabotage, that is, treason, abuse of power and violation of duties to manage other people’s property,” ministry spokesman Igor Melicher told reporters.

After the inspection, the ministry did not find a document that would justify the legality of transferring fighter jets and air defense to Ukraine, the official added.

Earlier, Melicher stated that the transfer of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in 2023 was illegal, and legal measures would be taken against former Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Naď. Melicher pointed out that Slovakia’s constitution prohibits a caretaker government from making significant foreign policy decisions, such as transferring fighter jets to Ukraine worth over 500 million euros.

Slovak Ombudsman Robert Dobrovodský reported that the Slovak Ministry of Defense could not find any legal analysis confirming the legality of the MiG-29 transfer to Ukraine by Eduard Heger’s government in 2023.

In December 2022, the Slovak parliament passed a vote of no confidence in Heger’s government, but his cabinet continued to perform its duties with limited powers. In March 2023, Heger’s government decided to transfer 13 MiG-29 fighters and part of the Kub air defense system to Ukraine. The party of the current Prime Minister, Robert Fico, sought an investigation into the circumstances of this transfer, claiming that Heger’s government lacked the authority to make such decisions. Former Defense Minister Naď, who was part of Heger’s cabinet, argued that a legal analysis conducted before the decision confirmed the procedure’s legality.

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Israeli war chief demands extended mandatory service to overcome troop shortages

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to schedule an urgent meeting to discuss extending compulsory military service to three years, Hebrew news outlet Makan reported on 21 June. 

The request comes in light of a serious enlistment crisis and shortage of soldiers in the Israeli army. 

“The new security reality requires finding means to continue the war effort,” Gallant was quoted as saying. Gallant has requested that Netanyahu approve this in government within the coming days.

The war minister’s request also comes less than two weeks after Israel’s Knesset voted in favor of a controversial draft conscription bill to delay the enlistment of Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) to the army. 63 voted for the bill, and 57 opposed it. 

The conscription of the Haredim has been a source of much tension in Israel lately. Far-right parties, on which Netanyahu’s coalition relies, favor continued exemption for the Haredim, while others, including Gallant, believe the burden of military service is a responsibility for all Israelis. 

Ultra-Orthodox Israeli Jews of military age have been able to avoid compulsory enlistment into the army for decades by enrolling in yeshivas (religious schools) and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the age of military exemption.

The government has been unable to reach a consensus on the matter. 

“For many months, the security and military establishment has been working to advance the draft law and reach agreements with the Ministries of Finance and the Judiciary, without success or progress in meeting the immediate and urgent needs of the army,” Gallant said. 

The issue of the Haredim has contributed to severe shortages of soldiers in the army during wartime. 

An Israeli army radio correspondent, Doron Kadosh, reported on Monday that the military is setting up a new division for reservists over the retirement age of 40 in order to meet the “urgent need for more troops.”

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New legal powers for Jewish settlers open door to ‘actual annexation’ of West Bank

The Israeli military has quietly handed over significant legal powers in the occupied West Bank to pro-settler civil servants working for Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the Guardian reported on 21 June, in a move that will help accelerate Israel’s illegal annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Israeli military announced the transfer of responsibility for dozens of bylaws at the Civil Administration on its website on 29 May. The Civil Administration governs the West Bank under the military’s direction.

Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, said: “The bottom line is that [for] anyone who thought the question of annexation was foggy, this order should end any doubts. What this order does is transfers vast areas of administrative power from the military commander to Israeli civilians working for the government.”

The transfer will allow Smotrich and his civilian appointees from his religious settler movement to further remove domestic legal obstacles to the theft of Palestinian land for Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

It will also allow Smotrich to further limit Palestinians from building new homes on their own land, which are needed as their population grows.

Israel captured the West Bank and militarily occupied it in 1967. It is home to millions of indigenous Palestinian Christians and Muslims.

Acquiring territory through war and establishing foreign settlements therein is illegal under international law.

The Guardian notes that Israeli politicians have long sought to​ find ways to annex the occupied Palestinian West Bank and make it formally part of Israel.

The transfer of laws, which received little attention in the Israeli press, follows a years-long campaign by pro-settlement politicians to acquire legal powers in the West Bank previously held by the Israeli military as the occupying power.

The laws cover everything from building regulations to the administration of agriculture, forestry, parks, and bathing locations.

Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst for Israel–Palestine at Crisis Group, said, “The big story is that this is no longer ‘creeping annexation’ or ‘de facto annexation,’ it is actual annexation.”

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US-Built Gaza Pier To Be Dismantled Early Amid Ongoing Failures

Following the latest weather and choppy seas setback, the US-built aid pier off Gaza has resumed operations as of the end of this week (Thursday), the Pentagon said, after it broke apart last month. It’s been an on-again off-again situation and the controversial and costly pier project has by and large proven ineffective.

But despite aid reportedly now rolling off the pier once again, Israeli media on Saturday has documented more embarrassing issues, including apparently broken off parts from the pier still washing up to shore far away from its location…

Following significant repairs it underwent at an Israeli port, the pier was transferred back in place amid a series of problems largely due to turbulent seas in the eastern Mediterranean..

The Associated Press has written in a fresh report that “Aid groups have sharply criticized the plan to bring aid by sea into Gaza, saying it’s a distraction to take pressure off Israel to open more land border crossings that are far more productive.”

This week The New York Times essentially declared that the expensive Biden project is an utter failure and that it will be dismantled earlier than expected.

“The $230 million temporary pier that the U.S. military built on short notice to rush humanitarian aid to Gaza has largely failed in its mission, aid organizations say, and will probably end operations weeks earlier than originally expected,” the Times wrote.

“In the month since it was attached to the shoreline, the pier has been in service only about 10 days. The rest of the time, it was being repaired after rough seas broke it apart, detached to avoid further damage or paused because of security concerns,” the report continued.

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