More than five decades ago, the wry British humor magazine, Punch, observed that “Idealists maintain that all nations should share the atomic bomb. Pessimists maintain that they will.” Nuclear weapons in the hands of North Korea’s hereditary Communist dictatorship vindicate the pessimists. Yes, a hereditary Communist dictatorship. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is the […]
Austin Bay
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web, Uncategorized
Emerging threats drive Navy's ship controversy
U.S. naval officers charged with making sure the future fleet can fight and win American wars have concluded the Navy needs a new generation of frigates. Building new frigates to replace the U.S. Navy’s Perry-class frigates was something many naval officers and Pentagon budget analysts wanted to avoid. All told, 71 Perry-class frigates served with […]
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Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web, Uncategorized
Reining in North Korea’s Kim Jong Un
North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un’s 2017 intimidation offensive is so uniquely threatening it deserves its own nickname: Kim’s “Paranoid Spring.” In January Kim Jong Un seeded this extraordinary season of fear by threatening to strike South Korea, Japan and the U.S. with ballistic missiles. The fear factor rose on February 12 when North Korea […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Defense budget increase still comes up short
Secretary of Defense James Mattis made reviving the U.S. Army his priority project. That meant he was going to give it the budget dollars it needs to be the Army America needs. A lot of people with real expertise in the complexities of national defense agreed with him, but that’s no surprise. Jim Mattis himself […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
North Korea's criminal reality is intolerable
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and his vicious Pyongyang regime are on rampage, this time combining cold-blooded sibling murder with ballistic missiles and nuclear threat. On February 13, assassins murdered the dictator’s half-brother, Kim Jong Nam. The hit team found their quarry in Malaysia, at the Kuala Lumpur airport. Initial reports echoed spy novel […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Small aircraft carriers Navy’s best bet
The U.S. Navy may be on the verge of a light aircraft carrier renaissance. New technology spurs the revival, both new smart weapons in the arsenals of potential military adversaries and new American weapons systems, the USMC F-35B strike fighter being the most pertinent example. The issue is complex, so the back-story here is particularly […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Coordinated defense effort deters war
As a retired Marine Corps general officer, Secretary of Defense James Mattis knows firsthand that America’s adversaries attempt to exploit American weakness, with the goal of making America pay a price. That’s why Mattis intends to address emerging weaknesses and evident deficiencies in American defenses — to avoid paying a costly price. As Secretary of […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Russia’s probe in Ukraine targets Trump administration
It’s mid-winter, with temperatures plunging to five degrees Fahrenheit, but Russia’s creeping war of aggression in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region is heating up once again as Kremlin-supplied rebels attack Ukrainians defending the town of Avdiivka. Despite the Minsk Protocol ceasefire of September 2014, the Kremlin’s Ukraine war has never ceased. It began in Spring 2014, […]
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Response to China push long overdue
Since the 1990s, China has insistently waged a slow and deliberate imperial war of territorial expansion in the South China Sea. “Imperial war” is the apt description. China exhibits classic imperial ambition. Using economic, diplomatic and military muscle (camouflaged by propaganda), Beijing adds territory to its imperial dominion at the expense of less powerful neighbors. […]
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Unrest in Kosovo continues to brew
This week, Kosovo accused Serbia of preparing to emulate “the Crimea model” and annex a predominantly ethnic Serb enclave within Kosovo. The accusation reflected a surge of nationalist anger in both countries and stirred legitimate fear of rekindled war. “Crimea model” refers to the 2014 Russian invasion and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula — the […]