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Pentagon/Military
Austin anomalies
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was admitted to intensive care at Walter Reed on January 1. He was suffering complications from an undisclosed surgical procedure. For some reason he held his hospitalization as a secret to be kept inside the Pentagon. No one in President Biden’s world was notified — not Biden, not National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, not communications spokesmen inside the White House. No one mentioned Austin’s disappearance »
The Austin auscultation
The Austin Auscultation might be the title Robert Ludlum would have given to a suspense novel if he were inspired by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s secret hospitalization. It doesn’t have quite the ring of The Bourne Ultimatum and other of his Bourne series thrillers, but it could do. Secretary Austin’s hospitalization was so secret that it was kept strictly within the Pentagon’s five sides. Politico reports: “The Pentagon did »
Will America Lose the Next War?
My great teacher of strategic studies, the late Harold Rood, used to say the question of war is simple: if there’s going to be a war—and there will always be another war—who is going to win it? Our friends at Kite and Key Media have produced another of their short but information-rich videos on this question, and it is sobering: »
FBI catching up
The New York Times has seven bylines on its story identifying Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira as “[t]he leader of a small online gaming chat group where a trove of classified U.S. intelligence documents leaked over the last few months.” That would be the group to which the leaker — Mr. OG — belonged, per the Washington Post this morning. At any rate, Teixeira dos not seem to conform »
In our face
With his trip to Kyiv and related festivities one has to wonder if President Biden isn’t shoving his deconstruction of the United States in our face. The deconstruction proceeds in word and deed every day. It is hard to keep up. It is already a cliché to observe that neither he nor the condescending clown he placed in charge of the Department of Transportation has bothered to show up in »
They came in peace
Forgive me for repeating myself — the Biden administration intended to let the Chinese spy balloon traverse the United States and surveil some of our most secure war-fighting facilities without obstruction or notice. It was only exposed to the public by the efforts of Chase Doak and the Billings Gazette as it crossed Montana. As we reacted with incredulity, the administration woke the president and shot the balloon down off »
Take me to your leader
We dread the moment when those responsible for the unidentified flying objects shot ask to be taken to our leader. First, someone needs to wake up the president. Then someone needs to check his alertness. Is he having a good day? Next, someone needs to clue him in and bring him up to date. The first question at yesterday’s White House briefing noted that the most recent objects shot down »
It came out of the sky
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declared at yesterday’s press briefing (transcript here) that they have no indication of alien involvement in the recent proliferation of “objects” over the United States and Canada. “I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no — again, no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity — (laughter) — with these recent takedowns,” KJP told reporters. What’s so funny ’bout »
Balloon war of the worlds
In the past 48 hours or so American pilots flying under the auspices of NORAD have shot down two more unidentified objects over North America, one off the coast of Alaska and one over the Yukon in Canada. The objects are said to be smaller than the huge Chinese spy balloon President Biden let traverse the United States before having it shot down over the Atlantic off the coast of »
Who knows?
David Niven lifted the title of his best-selling memoir The Moon’s a Balloon from the poem “who knows if the moon’s a balloon” by e.e. cummings. This is the poem: who knows if the moon’s a balloon, coming out of a keen city in the sky–filled with pretty people? ( and if you and I should get into it,if they should take me and take you into their balloon, why »
Who was that masked defense official?
The Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross reports that the Department of Defense won’t identify the senior Pentagon official who told the press on background this weekend that the Trump administration let Chinese spy balloons transit the United States at least three times. The senior defense official omitted the critical fact that these incidents went undetected by the defense and national security establishments. Ross links to the Pentagon transcript of the call »
China investigates
The AP reports on the Chinese spy balloon spotted over Montana. The AP story reads like satire. This is the Age of Biden: The U.S. is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted over U.S. airspace for a couple days, but the Pentagon decided not to shoot it down over concerns of hurting people on the ground, officials said Thursday. The discovery of the balloon puts a »
Stranded (Not Stranded)
It’s been more than 10 years since I borrowed from the name of the pop/rock group Was (Not Was) to comment on current events, as I did an embarrassing number of times in my “Wazwaz (Not Wazwaz)” posts discussing Minnesota’s notorious Wazwaz family in 2009 and 2010. This week I have occasion to borrow from Was (Not Was) once again. Our humiliating departure from Afghanistan has given us the spectacle »
Throughput to August 31
Having just watched this morning’s Pentagon briefing, I infer that the Biden administration intends to comply with the Taliban deadline of August 31 for the departure of American forces from Afghanistan. I emphasize that this is an inference from the Pentagon spokesman’s remarks. What once appeared to be Biden’s self-imposed deadline has now firmed up under pressure from Biden’s new Taliban friends. On the plus side, our airlift capacity is »
Biden speaks
President Biden turned up at the Pentagon yesterday for some purpose or other, perhaps to make the remarks to Defense Department personnel in the video below (about 10 minutes). The White House has posted the text of Biden’s remarks here. With a vacant look in his eyes, Biden observes: “Before I begin, I have some welcome news that the Saudi government has released a prominent human rights activist, Loujain al-Hathlou »
What happened to the USS Fitzgerald?
In the early morning hours of June 17 the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald was involved in a what is described in media reports as a “collision” with the massive Philippine-flagged ACX Crystal container ship. The Fitzgerald returned to Fleet Activities Yokosouka under its own power. Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin spoke to members of the press about the incident on Sunday. His statement is posted here. The ship »
Dan Gelernter: Obama does the military
We haven’t gotten around to noting the Obama administration’s order to open all military jobs to women, “removing the final barriers that kept women from serving in combat, including the most dangerous and grueling commando posts.” Dan Gelernter is an occasional contributor to the Weekly Standard and chief executive officer of Dittach.com. Dan comments: America takes its sports more seriously than its military. This is the conclusion we can draw »