Category Archives: defense policy

No CR

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The House Freedom Caucus wants House Speaker Mike Johnson (R, LA) to attach a House-passed border security bill that’s sitting in the US Senate to the next spending bill that Congress must pass to avoid a government shutdown. Freedom Caucus member Bob Good (R, VA):

I think we ought to be willing to have a fight over securing the border. I think we ought to refuse to fund the government if the administration continues to be unwilling to secure the border, then we ought to tie the funding of the government to border security implementation where some funds are held back until the measurables are met, the performance metrics that demonstrate that the border is being secured. And we do it to through Sept. 30 at the FRA levels[.]

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Freed Hostages

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Israeli forces—the IDF, Shin Bet, and a police counterterrorism unit—successfully raided a specific target in the Gaza Strip southern edge city of Rafah and rescued two hostages that were being held by the terrorist Hamas.

This came while Progressive-Democrat President Joe Biden stepped up his pressure on the Israelis to not go into Rafah, unless they have a plan to protect the civilians, even though Biden has no evidence that the Israelis aren’t already taking extreme measures to protect civilians, measures that include telling civilians where the Israelis intend to strike next and when—measures that also give the terrorists time to leave the target zone. Nor does Biden have any evidence that the Israelis haven’t been taking such measures all along in this war that the terrorists have inflicted on Israel.

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Don’t Destabilize the Alliance

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That’s NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s request of Republican Presidential Primary candidate Donald Trump over Trump’s continued, bluntly phrased, pressure on NATO members to meet their spending commitment of 2% of GDP to NATO.

It isn’t Trump’s rhetoric that risks NATO destabilization, though. When Trump was President, he threatened US withdrawal from the alliance if the other member nations didn’t start meeting that commitment. At the time, only a handful aside from the US were meeting the commitment, and after his threat, a few more stepped up and met theirs. This after 50 years of “pretty please” had fallen on deaf freeloading ears.

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The Hur Report

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Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Progressive-Democrat Joe Biden’s years long mishandling of classified documents—with classification ranging from Confidential through Top Secret and many of them NOFORN (not releasable to foreign entities regardless of underlying classification) or HCS-O (a human intelligence classification control, whose violation endangers the lives of those who would talk to our intelligence personnel)—concluded in part that Biden had them illegally, moved them around illegally, and hung onto stored them illegally. Then, shockingly, he declined to refer Biden for criminal prosecution: Biden, Hur claimed, was too sympathetic and mentally feeble a figure, and it would be difficult to get a conviction.

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Joe Biden’s Classified Documents

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These images are from the Hur report:

This is the quality of Biden’s “storage” in his locked garage. The protecting Corvette automobile is not present.

This is another look angle at some critical, and exposed, boxes.

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President Joe Biden’s Disdain for Israel

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It’s made manifest in just the last few days, as if his constant pressure on Israel to agree a ceasefire, which would only allow the terrorist Hamas to rest, refit, and resume terrorist attacks, hadn’t already made his dislike clear.

Recall that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R, LA) has committed to putting forward a stand-alone bill that would fund Israel in the latter’s fight for survival against the terrorists in the current Hamas-instigated war.

Now Progressive-Democrat President Joe Biden has said he’ll veto that bill if it makes it to his desk [emphasis in the original].

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Deal Breaker

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Apparently, there’s a complicated, multi-phase “ceasefire” that involves staged releases of terrorist-held hostages and Israeli-held terrorist prisoners that’s being developed. Among the criteria being discussed is Israel ceasing, in the first, six-week, phase, all drone surveillance operations.

Above all else, ceasing drone surveillance must be an absolute deal breaker.

Trust the terrorists not to reposition, including infiltrating back into the central and northern parts of the Strip; or to refit; or to rearm during the ceasefire?

Of course they will, and six weeks is an eternity for accomplishing that, but Israel willfully blinding itself to the movements and resupply efforts would be monumentally stupid and hugely expensive in Israeli blood.

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Good That Something is Kicking Them in the Behind

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European nations are getting worried about another Donald Trump Presidency. That worry is

prompting some of America’s staunchest allies in Europe to push their neighbors that are more reluctant to spend into further action on defense and security.

To the extent that’s accurate and, if so, it bears serious fruit, that would be good, and ample justification for reelecting Trump.

In a sign that European officials are starting to address their armaments shortages, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on January 23 announced a $1.2 billion multicountry contract for 200,000 155-millimeter artillery shells, a type being heavily used in Ukraine. The shells will be produced in France and Germany and purchased by Spain, Belgium, and Lithuania.

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The PRC Doesn’t Want to Lead the World?

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That’s the claim of Michael Singh, Washington Institute for Near East Policy‘s Glazer Program on Great Power Competition and the Middle East Director, in his Sunday Wall Street Journal op-ed.

I disagree, beginning with his subheadline:

China doesn’t aspire to lead the world, much less to establish peace, but only to undermine the US.

Only that last is accurate. The PRC most assuredly does intend to “lead the world,” and to do so by overriding and replacing us. Xi has said as much regarding replacing us in other venues.

Singh added this near the end of his piece:

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What Comes After the Hamas War in the Gaza Strip?

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The Wall Street Journal tried to address this question last Thursday. As you might imagine, I have thoughts.

Biden administration officials say the path toward a more stable Middle East goes through the ruins of Gaza.

That’s not far wrong.

The latest blows to the White House plans are the persistent attacks by Houthi forces in Yemen against international shipping in the Red Sea….

No, the blow here is in Biden’s timid response to the Houthis’ attacks on commercial shipping. The paucity of serious response to the terrorists is empirically demonstrated by the Houthis’ continued attacks on that shipping, escalated by their targeting US Navy ships, also.

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