The recent downing of a Syrian Air Force jet by a U.S. Navy Super Hornet fighter has produced another political confrontation between the U.S. and Russia. Until passions ebb, Australia has withdrawn its air units from the American-led coalition. Kremlin accusations of American aggression are propaganda. Syria is small. When a plane is aloft, every […]
Austin Bay
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Wars are using starvation as a weapon
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has issued its latest “Crop Prospects and Food Situation” report. The document directly connects war and anarchy to en masse human hunger. Right now, 37 countries need “external assistance” to address their “food security” problems. Let me translate from UN bureaucratese: severe food shortages threaten the survival of tens […]
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Sec. Mattis — careful and forceful in Singapore
At Singapore’s Shangri-La Dialogue Asian security summit, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis once again displayed his masterful mix of strong personal presence and measured tone as he articulated the Trump Administration’s careful and forceful policy for addressing the region’s security issues. Careful but forceful is required, for the east Asian littoral is a 21st […]
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Missile defense critical to U.S. security
Scratch one intercontinental ballistic missile — and congratulations to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency on its successful test of the Ground-based Missile Defense system. On May 30, the GMD’s sensor systems detected “an intercontinental-range” target missile on a track over the Pacific Ocean. Its long-range Ground-Based Interceptor and its exo-atmospheric kill vehicle combination intercepted and […]
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New oil, gas recovery techniques aid diplomacy
Sophisticated American and Canadian energy industries have given the Free World an economic boost and a powerful diplomatic weapon. The North American “fracking” revolution — hydraulic fracturing to tap vast reservoirs of “tight” natural gas and oil — has altered the world’s strategic calculus. U.S. and Canadian firms began experimenting with advanced oil and gas […]
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Gray zone weapons have been effective
The so-called WannaCry computer virus attack that began on May 12 appears to be a global extortion operation. The attackers demanded that victims with infected computers pay a ransom if they wanted their information restored. Otherwise, the victims’ information would be destroyed. Investigators speculate that a hacker group called The Shadow Brokers created the malware. […]
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Pentagon facing air and sea lift deficit
On May 2, U.S. Transportation Command commander Air Force Gen. Darren McDew told the Senate Armed Services Committee that America doesn’t have enough supply ships, transport planes and tanker planes to move a large combat force to a distant battlefield (like Korea) and sustain that force. To win a war, warriors and weapons must reach […]
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N. Korea, Syria: Two hereditary dictatorships
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is once again threatening war with South Korea, Japan and the U.S. He assures us his ballistic missiles will soon bear nuclear warheads. Last week, aircraft loyal to Syria’s Assad dictatorship dropped nerve agent bombs on a civilian neighborhood. The U.S. retaliated for the war crime with a classic […]
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Obama’s weakness leads to new chemical weapon attacks in Syria
Syria’s Assad regime has once again used banned chemical weapons to inflict mass casualties on civilians. On April 4, Syrian Air Force jets bombed the Syrian town of Idlib. The U.S. State Department said banned chemical weapons were used in the attack. White House press secretary Sean Spicer blamed the Assad regime and didn’t mince […]
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Police, military power needed to deter thugs
In October 2011, the Obama Administration ordered 100 U.S. special operations troops to deploy to central Africa to help African and U.N. forces capture Joseph Kony, the psychopathic commander of the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army. Kony is an evil man. Note the present tense: is, not was. In the late 1980s, Kony took control […]