Tag Archives: defense policy

Missile Defense Systems

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President Barack Obama (D)…acquiesced…to Russian demands that we not deploy missile defense systems in eastern and southeastern Europe to counter intermediate range ballistic missiles that rogue nations, like Iran, might launch against our friends and allies.

Now Russia has deployed a modern missile system in Syria.  This isn’t the S-300 system the Russians sold Iran, though, ostensibly to defend against an air attack (against what in Iran? I’ll leave that as an exercise for the student).

No, this is Russia’s SA-23 missile system.  While it’s a variant of the S-300, this system is optimized for defense against short and intermediate range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.  The system also is capable of launching smaller anti-aircraft missiles.  (Who in that fight has an air force against which to be defended?)

This SA-23 deployment came as Russian President Vladimir Putin “advised” Obama not to do anything foolish, else there’d be “tectonic consequences” for us.

Obama has chosen to remain silent on the matter.

There’s timidity, and there’s timidity.

Tough Guys, and Tough Guys

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A year of Russian airstrikes on areas outside government control in Syria have killed more than 9,000 people, displaced tens of thousands and caused wide destruction, [the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights] said Friday.

And in response to the latest cease fire, the Russians have intensified their bombing of civilians and children in Aleppo to support al Assad’s offensive to recapture the city.

The Obama administration asked—very nicely, mind you—Russian President Vladimir to cut that out.  Putin said, “No.”

The ensuing response of John “Motorboat Skipper” Kerry, the guy who sits in the Secretary of State’s chair?  “Maybe I won’t talk to you anymore.”

Very firm.

The Entire Island

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Repair crews worked through the night trying to restore electricity to Puerto Rico’s 3.5 million people early Thursday after a fire at a power plant blacked out the entire U.S. territory.

Officials said they hoped to restore service by morning….

It turns out that they didn’t make by the morning, and the outage extended into a second day—lengthened not just by the severity of the problem, not unique in itself to Puerto Rico, but also by Puerto Rico’s lack of money with which to fund repairs or even parts and equipment to replace the damaged/failed parts and equipment.

I have to wonder about similar vulnerabilities, similar single points of failure, extant on our separated States and other separated territories and within CONUS.  I have to wonder about these vulnerabilities not only in our power distribution grids, but in our communications grids, and cascading from those, in our financial networks and our government effectivity networks.

As Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said,

The system is not designed to withstand a failure of this magnitude.

Neither are any of our systems.  Nor are they designed to any large degree to minimize, if not eliminate, single points of failure.

Security Issues

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In the end, it seems that former Secretary of State and present Democratic Party Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton isn’t the only one who has them.  Amazingly, former JCS Chairman and former Secretary of State Colin Powell has them, also.

Of course, it’s only Israel, though, so who cares?  Not this reluctant (or so he says) Clinton supporter.

In a private email exchange last year leaked this week by hackers, former Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed Israel’s nuclear weapons capability with a friend, saying the country has 200 warheads.

To be clear: that’s a private, unclassified and unsecured email exchange.  Not even treated as FOUO (which such information plainly is not).

The existence of its weapons program is considered classified information by both the Israeli and US governments.

Naturally,

Powell…told The Associated Press on Friday through a spokeswoman he was referring to public estimates of Israel’s nukes.

Sure.  Of course he was.

Even President Barack Obama’s (D) State Department knows better than this:

Asked about the issue at a briefing Friday, State Department spokesman John Kirby also declined to comment.

“I’m not going to discuss matters of intelligence,” Kirby said.

Again I ask: do any Democrats, Democrat supporters, or closet Democrats care about security?  Other than Admiral Kirby, I mean?

Pardon Me?

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There is a campaign afoot by folks like George Soros, Daniel Radcliffe, Susan Sarandon; other guys of the Left including Steve Wozniak and Jimmy Wales; the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International to get President Barack Obama (D) to pardon Edward Snowden.  It’s not beyond the realm of possibility, either; recall President Bill Clinton’s (D) pardon frenzy in his last days in office.

Anthony Romero, ACLU’s National Director, even acknowledges that Snowden broke the law, but that shouldn’t matter—there are mitigating circumstances.

No.  If Snowden truly believes what he did was a righteous act of civil disobedience or an act of whistle-blowing or that there are mitigating circumstances, let him come back to the US, stand trial for his actions, and make his case to the nation and to its representatives in his case, the jury of his peers.