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Complaints among nuke missile crews suggest sagging morale in a highly sensitive US force | Fox News

Posted by on June 5, 2013 Comments Off

Officers with a finger on the trigger of the Air Force’s most powerful nuclear missiles are complaining of a wide array of morale-sapping pressures, according to internal emails obtained by The Associated Press.

The complaints shed fresh light on dissatisfactions roiling this critical arm of the Air Force, an undercurrent that has captured the attention of the service’s leaders.

Complaints among nuke missile crews suggest sagging morale in a highly sensitive US force | Fox News

Related articles:

US Launch Officers for Nuclear Missiles: Incompetence, rot and crisis
Is there a morale crisis in the US nuclear force? – Salon.com

It’s not just nuke missile crews who are having a problem. Rot has spread throughout the officer corp.

General Failure – Thomas E. Ricks – The Atlantic
Is Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Aiding and Abetting the Enemy? | Walid Shoebat

Air Force Expert: US-Russia Confrontation Likely If Russia Delivers Missiles to Syria

Posted by on June 1, 2013 Comments Off

“If you remember the 1973 war, we started to resupply Israel. The Russians put all of their forces on alert. They were going to intervene in the Middle East, we were going to intervene in the Middle East, and this was going to spiral out of control,” Francona said.

“And this has the capability of leading to that confrontation because the Russians are backing the Syrians and if we declare a no-fly zone, they may feel that they have to intervene on behalf of the Syrians. We’re approaching a very critical time in this right now.”

The new threat stems from a cache of missiles Syria ordered from Russia years ago. They have yet to be delivered because of the ongoing civil war between forces loyal to the Syrian Ba’ath Party government and protestors trying to topple it.

Air Force Expert: US-Russia Confrontation Likely If Russia Delivers Missiles to Syria

U.S. won’t tolerate changed status quo in Senkakus, South China Sea | GlobalPost

Posted by on June 1, 2013 Comments Off

The United States warned Saturday it will not tolerate attempts by any country to change the status quo in the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and islands claimed by some Southeast Asian countries and Taiwan in the South China Sea.

“The United States stands firmly against any coercive attempts to alter the status quo,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a speech at the Asia Security Summit in Singapore, an apparent reference to China’s recent assertiveness over the Senkakus and disputed islands in the South China Sea such as the Spratlys.

U.S. won’t tolerate changed status quo in Senkakus, South China Sea | GlobalPost

I am wondering if this is just one step less than declaring war on China?

What has China said about its territorial claims in the East China Sea and South China Sea?

China has regarded the Japanese administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea as its core interest, China’s foreign ministry has announced for the first time.

The Diaoyu Islands are about sovereignty and territorial integrity and is China’s core interest, ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press conference.

China officially declares disputed Senkaku Islands as being of ‘core interest’ – Yahoo! News India

We also know from Chinese statements in the past that China will wage war over its “core interests.”

I think this means that conflict between the US and China is going to get worse. Time to start thinking about the possibility of war. Check out these articles:

The shadow of 1914 falls over the Pacific – FT.com
Sea of Troubles: Asia Today Compared to Europe Before World War I | TIME.com
Chinese Military Instructed to ‘Prepare For War’ With Japan
China prepares subways for nuclear attacks | Washington Free Beacon
Why 2013 eerily looks like the world of 1913, on the cusp of the Great War
A Frightening Prospect: War in the East China Sea
Chinese think tank: conflict inevitable between Japan, China over Senkakus
2013, like 1913, could see epic transformations in world order | World news | guardian.co.uk
Professor: Don’t Be Surprised If There’s A War Between Japan And China In The Next Year

Could a Middle East War Trigger a Much Wider War Involving America and Russia?

Posted by on May 31, 2013 Comments Off

The Syrian conflict threatens to draw America, Russia, and Europe into a wild inferno engulfing the entire Mideast.

An assassin’s bullet among sectarian tensions was all it took to push the European powers into the catastrophic ‘war to end all wars’ in 1914. By slaying an Austrian archduke, a Serbian gunman triggered a chain of events that savagely changed the face of Europe by bringing about World War I.

It is a moment in history worth remembering as we once more teeter on a historical precipice.

When it comes to the Syria conflict, recent developments may hurl us off the cliff. A series of escalations – including Israeli air strikes on Damascus, Hezbollah’s decision to openly send thousands of fighters across the border, and the European Union lifting its arms embargo on the rebels – have dramatically increased the risk level. And given the signs that planned U.S.-Russian-endorsed talks in Geneva might not even get off the ground, there is evident cause for worry. Close observers now worry the Middle East is on the brink of a wider war – one that will have as profound repercussions for the region as World War I had for Europe.

“There is real danger of greater contagion,” …

Mideast War in Our Time? – The Daily Beast

Chinese think tank warns of military clashes with Japan – The Economic Times

Posted by on May 31, 2013 Comments Off

It warned that a military clash with Japan could happen if the dispute escalates, saying the confrontation between the two countries over disputed Diaoyu Islands in East China Sea may extend from the sea to the air.

…

He warned that this is a dangerous game that could spiral out of control and finally hurt the US.

Chinese think tank warns of military clashes with Japan – The Economic Times

So a military clash with Japan could spiral out of control and hurt the US.

What does that mean?

It means that China and the US could go to war.

China wants war with America

Posted by on May 30, 2013 Comments Off

Why do China’s officers want to go to war? There is an unfortunate confluence of factors. First, there is a new Chinese confidence bordering on arrogance. Beijing leaders, especially since 2008, have been riding high. They saw economic turmoil around the world and thought the century was theirs to dominate. The U.S. and the rest of the West, they believed, were in terminal decline.

The Chinese military also has gained substantial influence in the last year, perhaps becoming the most powerful faction in the Communist Party. Beginning as early as 2003, senior officers of the People’s Liberation Army were drawn into civilian power struggles as Hu Jintao, then the new leader, sought their support in his effort to shove aside Jiang Zemin, his wily predecessor who sought to linger in the limelight. Last year, the civilian infighting intensified as the so-called Fifth Generation leadership, under the command of Xi, took over from Hu’s Fourth. Like a decade ago, feuding civilians sought the support of the generals and admirals, making them arbiters in the party’s increasingly rough game of politics.

America’s China mistake – latimes.com

Israeli Air Force chief warns a multi-front war could be imminent | World Tribune

Posted by on May 23, 2013 Comments Off

“It’s not as if we can say we have two weeks go prepare [for war],” Eshel said. “I am not sure we have two weeks to prepare.”

In an address on May 22 to the Fisher Brothers Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies, Eshel said the next war with Hizbullah in Lebanon would exhaust the air force’s capabilities. He warned that the next war would include missile strikes on Israel’s cities, which would require a strategy to end fighting quickly.

“We have to be prepared to fight on three fronts simultaneously,” Eshel said. “We have to know to leap from one front to another.”

Israeli Air Force chief warns a multi-front war could be imminent | World Tribune

What is going to happen in the next hundred years?

Posted by on May 16, 2013 Comments Off

The world is back to where it was in the late 19th century — no one great power controls everything on the planet, not the US and not China. And that makes the threat of war inescapable.

In The Great Illusion, a bestseller in 1913, the Labour MP Norman Angell distilled the ruling wisdom of the time: the immense productivity of global markets had made war a destructive anachronism. A new phase in human history had arrived, a period of continuing growth and prosperity, bringing with it an era of peace. In fact, it was the long peace that Angell and so many others expected that turned out to be the great illusion, and the century that followed was shaped by violent global conflicts.

When the first issue of the New Statesman appeared, 14 months before the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo, European states controlled much of the globe. The culmination of many years of geopolitical rivalries, the First World War destroyed Europe’s primacy and led to another world conflict from which the United States emerged as the global hyperpower. Today the US can no longer claim any all-round pre-eminence; but that does not mean that China, or any other country, can occupy the position in the world that the US once did. Instead, we have entered an era in which no great power is predominant. For the foreseeable future, no one will rule the world.

What is going to happen in the next hundred years?

Putin on Victory Day: Russia a security guarantor | NewsOK.com

Posted by on May 9, 2013 Comments Off

Russia will be a guarantor of world security, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday at the annual military parade on Red Square.

Putin made his short speech at the culmination of Victory Day, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany 68 years ago. It is Russia’s most important secular holiday, honoring the huge military and civilian losses of World War II and showing off the country’s modern arsenal.

Putin on Victory Day: Russia a security guarantor | NewsOK.com

I view this remark as significant. Russia is going to stop the West from interferring in other countries even if it means nuclear retaliation. Several Russian leaders have already implied nuclear retaliation for western interference in Syria and Iran.

China’s stealth wars of acquisition – The Japan Times

Posted by on April 28, 2013 Comments Off

In the way China made land grabs across the Himalayas in the 1950s by launching furtive encroachments, it is now waging stealth wars — without firing a single shot — to change the status quo in the South and East China seas, on the line of control with India, and on international-river flows.

Although China has risen from a poor state to a global economic powerhouse, the key elements in its statecraft and strategic doctrine have not changed.

Since the Mao Zedong era, China has adhered to ancient theorist Sun Tzu’s advice: “The ability to subdue the enemy without any battle is the ultimate reflection of the most supreme strategy.”

China’s stealth wars of acquisition – The Japan Times