Tag: war

The Macgregor Plan

Col Douglas Macgregor’s five-point plan for updating the US military for its actual 21st Century challenges:

Toward a New National Military Strategy

For real and meaningful reductions in the current $1 trillion national defense budget to occur, national command authorities must alter the nation’s strategic focus. New national security legislation must move the posture of U.S. forces away from military interventions focused on nation-building, democratization, or alleged threats. Instead, the defense posture should focus on the Western Hemisphere, learning to avoid patterns of behavior antithetical to U.S. interests.

The following five points offer the foundation for a new national military strategy that is both affordable and sustainable within the new multipolar, international system of the 21st century:

            •          Defend America First: Reserve the use of American military power for defense of the United States in the Western Hemisphere. Secure U.S. borders, coastal waters, and airspace. Military power may be used to defend American citizens and identified vital strategic interests at home and abroad. However, unless the United States’ vital strategic interests or territory are directly attacked, Washington will avoid the use of force.

            •          Maintain Strategic Military Power: Ensure U.S. freedom of action in areas of strategic importance by preserving and enhancing the American military’s core capabilities. Identify, defend, and maintain critical lines of communication and a reduced number of overseas bases needed for the execution of these tasks.

            •          Declare a “No First Use” Doctrine for Nuclear Weapons: Maintain the scientific-industrial capacity to wage high-end conventional warfare and build nuclear weapons, but recognize that the alleged advantage of striking first with nuclear weapons is illusory. Preventive or preemptive war is unwise and immoral and should be excluded from American military strategic planning.

            •          Establish an Operational National Defense Staff: Develop, update, and implement a refined Unified Command Plan to dramatically reduce unneeded overhead and improve the U.S. Armed Forces’ responsiveness to national command authority. This action requires legislation to place a “Chief of Defense” in the chain of command with real authority, not just advisory responsibility.

            •          Build New Armed Forces for the 21st Century: America needs a strong military designed to protect the United States in the 21st century, not an anachronistic and expensive industrial-age structure with enormous overhead and few fighters.

The one thing I think is missing from the plan is addressing the strategic retardery that engulfs Washington. There are far too many military neophytes who don’t know the first thing about war, or even math, who are involved in establishing the USA’s military goals. Perhaps starting with banning all dual-citizens from being permitted any involvement in military planning or geopolitical strategy would be a good start.

It doesn’t matter how excellent all the other aspects of the military are if you’re going to permit a few ambitious Peruvian-Americans to direct all US military assets to serve the interests of Peru.

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Should Have Stayed Neutral

Swedes are rapidly discovering that a) listening to their government is foolish and b) joining NATO has only reduced their national security by putting them at risk of being nuked.

Sweden is sending out five million pamphlets to residents urging them to prepare for the possibility of war, with instructions on how to stockpile food and even seek shelter during a nuclear attack, as fears grow of a conflict between Russia and NATO. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Stockholm has repeatedly urged Swedes to prepare both mentally and logistically for a possibile conflict, citing the worsening security situation in its vicinity.

The booklet ‘If Crisis or War Comes’, sent out by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), contains information about how to prepare for emergencies such as war, natural disasters, cyber attacks and terrorism.

‘An insecure world requires preparedness. The military threat to Sweden has increased and we must prepare for the worst – an armed attack,’ its new introduction states. In one of the more worrying excerpts, which harks back to advice given by governments during the darkest days of the Cold War, it informs people of the risk of nuclear weapons.

If they’d simply stayed neutral, they wouldn’t have to worry about going to war with a nuclear power. But, when you’re dumb enough to sign up for war as a US proxy, well, you’re going to assume a level of risk that you’re simply not going to be able to handle.

As Henry Kissinger once observed, while being an enemy of the USA is dangerous, to be its friend is fatal. NATO has not, cannot, does not, and will not protect anything.

If a small nation wants to stay out of a large war, neutrality is always its best bet. See: Portugal, Spain and Switzerland during WWII.

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History in the Making

I am awed and dumbstruck at the opportunity to witness something this significant and epic, even if it’s only on video.

Drone wars: Russian net-throwing drone intercepts Ukrainian net-throwing drone. Perhaps the first duel of its kind.

Imagine having been able to witness the first manned aerial duel during WWI. This may have been the first unmanned air duel in human history, and soon we’ll probably be able to see the first AI air combats. That’s not the only callback to WWI, as another thing to note is the terrain below, which is so cratered by shells that NASA could fake another Moon landing there.

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The NYT Throws in the Towel

It appears this “permission” granted to Ukraine for long-range strikes with US and UK missiles, which would seemingly necessitate US providing the satellite targeting data for the attacks, is little more than another lame negotiating ploy. Clown World clearly recognizes that it has lost the war, and is now simply trying to look strong in order to encourage Russia to settle for less than it might otherwise gain, as Simplicius breaks down a recent New York Times article.

The NYT piece is remarkable in its admissions. It says that Trump forcing Ukraine to give up land would look like a major defeat of the West, but no matter—the author writes it is necessary because Ukraine is being devastated and Putin has no reason to stop; finally reality dawns on them!

Despite flashes of spectacular success by Ukrainian forces, the Russian position has gradually strengthened, and there is no reason to expect Mr. Putin to lose the upper hand now. That may sound like defeatism, but it’s also realism. I believe it’s right to call Ukraine a proxy war, because I think it’s reasonable to conclude that the Biden administration has supported the war not only in deference to righteous Ukrainian determination to fight off Russia but also because the war was a chance to debilitate our enemy without directly engaging it. Now another cold winter bears down, and Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure is so bomb-wrecked that people are expected to endure daily blackouts of up to 20 hours through the dark and bitter months.

This bleak landscape contains the most extreme and tragic results of the power games that have been played out mercilessly on Ukrainian soil by greater powers. Both Russia and the United States have for decades exploited Ukraine’s internal divisions to undermine each other and jockey for regional influence, usually at the expense of ordinary Ukrainians.

The even bigger admission is the now naked truth that the war is in fact a proxy war, spurred on by NATO and the West. For the first time, MSM makes headway in acknowledging the West’s participation in the Ukraine’s exploitation, even if only by a halfway measure. The author even goes on to admit the Bush administration heavily backed the Orange Revolution of 2004, “shower[ing] the pro-Western groups with funding and training.”

This doesn’t mean that the Ukrainians won’t fire a few long-range missiles with US – or more likely, UK – assistance, probably at the Kursk pocket where the last vestiges of Ukraine’s best troops are being systematically eliminated in a vain attempt to hold on to some Russian territory as negotiating leverage. But Russia has sent a very clear signal that the time to surrender is now, as for the first time, it is striking hard at the electrical system that permits Western Europe to provide Ukraine with emergency electricity.

It finally happened—our questions on Russia and Putin’s resoluteness have been answered. After a nearly two-month hiatus of major long-range strikes on energy infrastructure, Russia struck back again last night with what’s again being called one of the largest strikes of the war, which not only reportedly utilized a fleet of 16 Tu-95s, but according to some sources even a wing of Tu-160s for the first time.

Protocol would have it that more systematic strikes like this would follow, weekly or so, for the winter campaign. Russian ISR would spend some time doing damage assessments then continue levying strikes on the areas which need further degrading.

Continuing the war at this point is simply irresponsible by any military perspective. The European governments that supported it have collapsed, the economies of the European governments that supported it are contracting – Volkswagen just closed three of its factories in Germany – and Russia is stronger in economic, political, military, and diplomatic terms than it was when the special military operation began. No amount of brave rhetoric or esoteric word magic is going to salvage anything positive from what was always a spectacularly stupid idea.

The age of the US military empire is over. It’s time to shut down the bases and bring home the troops to defend the borders and begin the mass repatriations that are so long-overdue. A nation that recognizes its imperial sell-by date and gives up its ambitions can still survive and thrive as a kingdom. See: Persia and Russia. An empire that refuses to admit that it is done eventually ends up being overrun by its former dominions. See: Great Britain.

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Clown World Wants WWIII

And they’ve only got two months to start it. But they’re definitely going to try.

President Joe Biden has lifted that ban on Ukraine’s use of US-supplied long-range missiles meaning the war-torn country can now strike deep inside Russia, sources say. The decision is a major US policy shift and comes as Biden is about to leave office and President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to limit American support for Ukraine and end the war as soon as possible.

Ukraine plans to conduct its first long-range attacks in the coming days, according to sources. The first deep strikes are reportedly likely to be carried out using ATACMS rockets, which have a range of up to 190 miles.

Biden allowing Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces to use US-supplied missiles for strikes deep into Russia has raised expectations for the UK to follow suit with its Storm Shadow missiles.

Putin has been clear that Russia will strike back against any nation that helps Ukraine fire missiles against it. One hopes the Russian response will be reasonably proportional, because these are acts of war that would justify anything, up to and including strikes on every US base in Europe.

This is why it was so important for Donald Trump to win the election. Imagine if these lunatics had four more years to operate.

UPDATE: Clearly Team Trump recognizes the gambit being played.

US President-elect Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., lashed out at the Democrats following reports that ongoing President Joe Biden had allowed Ukraine to use American-made long-range missiles to strike internationally recognized Russian territory.

Trump Jr., who campaigned alongside his father during the 2024 presidential election and has been helping him pick members of his future cabinet, did not mince words on social media.

“The Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives,” he wrote on X on Sunday. “Gotta lock in those $Trillions. Life be damned!!! Imbeciles!”

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The End of the Aircraft Carrier

World War II marked the end of the battleship. World War III is marking the end of the aircraft carrier:

Both of Britain’s aircraft carriers, which are said to serve as the backbone of the Royal Navy, would have major battlefield vulnerabilities in a potential conflict with a near-peer adversary, The Times reported on Friday, citing sources.

A defense source told the paper that the UK military had run a “whole load of scenarios” simulating a full-scale conflict, in which the navy’s “ability to survive” was tested against an “overwhelming force.” The war games, the details of which are secret, involved HMS Queen Elizabeth – the fleet’s current flagship – and HMS Prince of Wales, which were commissioned in 2017 and 2019, respectively.

Designed to project UK power across the globe, both vessels can carry up to 40 aircraft, including advanced F-35B Lightning II stealth fighters, and can host helicopters for anti-submarine warfare as well as troop transports. A Times source familiar with the situation admitted that “in most war games, the carriers get sunk,” adding that the ships are particularly vulnerable to missiles.

It’s interesting that Russia still hasn’t demonstrated its objections to British support and funding for Ukraine by sinking one of these white elephants. Whereas sinking a US Navy carrier would provoke an unnecessary hot war with the USA, what is Britain going to do? Send the other one to the Baltic? And further support for Ukraine isn’t a threat since it’s already provided its long-range missiles to Russia.

This development has been obvious for some time, but it’s fascinating to actually reach this point in history. It will also be interesting to see if any carriers are actually sunk or if the navies of the world will simply stop producing new ships and maintaining the existing ones.

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No Rematch, Please

After seeing its aircraft carrier driven from the Red Sea from Yemen’s land-based missiles, it appears the US Navy has no taste for a rematch any time soon:

Houthi rebels are brandishing increasingly sophisticated weapons, including missiles that “can do things that are just amazing,” the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer said at an Axios event.

The big picture: The militant group has for a year used drones and missiles to strangle waters off Yemen, disrupting international shipping.

Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Bill LaPlante on Wednesday said the Houthis “are getting scary.” “I’m an engineer and a physicist, and I’ve been around missiles my whole career,” he said at the Future of Defense summit in Washington, DC. “What I’ve seen of what the Houthis have done in the last six months is something that — I’m just shocked.”

State of play: The group’s forces menace almost every ship passing by — civilian or military — and have even sent some to the seafloor.

Translation: there will be no naval war over Taiwan. If you have to be concerned about Yemeni land-to-sea capabilities, you’re not ready to fight off the coast of China. We’re effectively back in the days of the Age of Sail, when shore batteries trumped battleships.

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Zelensky on the Way Out

Simplicius notes that the mainstream Narrative is now preparing the ground for the removal of Zelensky as the puppet-in-chief of the Kiev regime.

Just a day after we wrote about the ‘rumored’ new plan for the US to hold Ukrainian elections next year to give intransigent Zelensky the boot, The Economist made it semi-official by acknowledging that, ‘suddenly’, Zelensky is facing a ‘power struggle’ at home. It’s in line with how Biden’s advanced dementia was just “abruptly” discovered by figures and organs of the establishment, only after becoming convenient and politically expedient enough for them to make it public. Similarly here, as soon as the memo-from-above’s arrival, The Economist sprang into pre-conditioning the ground to sell the narrative that Zelensky’s regime is now on uncertain footing; they would have never been allowed to even suggest that Zelensky faced danger at home until it became necessary to do so…

A ‘dignified bow out’ just like the same establishment forces asked of Zelensky’s fateful partner-in-crime Joe Biden. Remember, it’s either the “easy way” or the “hard way”, as Pelosi said; the same stands for Zelensky. Take your free trip to Tel Aviv or we can begin raising the level of ‘encouragement’. After all, recall Zaluzhny was directed to step down from his role as general for a long time, and it was only after his direct subordinates began to be assassinated did he heed the warning and do as he was told.

Sooner or later, every ticket-taker ceases to be useful and is thrown from the high horse.

One of the best reasons to follow the alternative media, in either blog or video form, is that you will reliably have some idea what is going on long before the mainstream media is allowed to cover it. Biden’s dementia was recognized and discussed in the alternative media long before the mainstream journalists dared to observe the obvious, and in like manner, the inevitable outcome of the war in Ukraine was pointed out more than two years before the media stopped blathering about Russia running out of men and ammunition in two weeks, or a popular groundswell driving President Putin from power.

Isn’t it informative how a single defeat or embarrassment is supposedly sufficient to force someone the media hates out of office, but 32 straight months of one defeat after another have proved insufficient to destabilize media favorite Zelensky’s position despite his cancellation of elections and present illegitimate status?

Anyhow, now that Clown World’s favor has officially been withdrawn from their puppet in Kiev, it’s only a matter of time before he is removed from the scene one way or another. This will be the sign that negotiations with Russia to end the special military operation are being pursued; whether Russia is feeling magnanimous in victory or not is another matter entirely.

And it’s no wonder that the Europeans are all panicking about Trump’s election. Russia is making it clear that its demands will include the withdrawal of NATO to the German border, and Trump will know that’s a good deal that’s worth taking.

The Kremlin is again saying that Russia is only interested in those negotiations that will ensure the fulfillment of all tasks in the context of Ukraine and Ryabkov’s 2021 ultimatum about NATO’s withdrawal to the border of Germany. Everything else is of no concern, as is the change of faces in the White House. There will be no deal.

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The New SecDef

The good news is that Pete Hegseth, the incoming Secretary of Defense is an “extremist” with a Deus Vult tattoo whom the Pentagon hates. He knows the US military, its capabilities, and its limitations. The bad news is that he neither knows nor understands the Middle Kingdom, and would appear to buy into the retarded neocon myth that China seeks “global domination”.

The Pentagon, the past X number of years, 10, 12, 15, the Pentagon has a perfect record in all of its wargames against China. We lose every time inside the Pentagon wargames. We know what our real capabilities are. We didn’t even get into this part of The War on Warriors. The way we train for conflicts, the way we procure weapons systems, the way our system works, the way our bureaucratic system works, the way the speed of weapons procurement works, we’re always a decade behind and fighting the last war.

Whereas China – what did Rumsfeld say, you go to war with the army you have – China is building an army specifically dedicated to defeating the United States of America. That is their strategic outset. Take hypersonic missiles. Our whole power-projection plaform is our aircraft carriers and our ability to project power that way, strategically around the globe. And yeah, we have a nuclear triad and all that, but that’s a big part of it.

And if 15 hypersonic missiles can take out our ten aircraft carriers in the first 20 minutes of a conflict, what does that look like? If they’ve already got us by the balls economically, which you pointed out very well, with our grid. Culturally, there’s plenty of elite capture going on around the globe. Microchips and everything, why do they want Taiwan? They want to corner the market completely on the technological future. We can’t even drive our cars without the stuff we need out of China these days. They have a full-spectrum, long-term view of not just regional, but global domination.

And we have our heads up our asses.

I’m not going to lie. I like this man. He has clearly read Turchin, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, as well as a number of relevant sources that provide him with a far more realistic perspective on global military realities than the warmongering diasporans who just want to sow bloodshed and chaos everywhere around the world as long as they can use the US military to do so. And I suspect, unlike the neocons and their servants, that Hegseth is capable of learning from people who actually know China, and understand that all of China’s efforts are not focused on global imperialism, but rather, conclusively putting an end to their “century of humiliation” and making sure that no power on Earth is capable of subjecting the Chinese people ever again.

As Jeffrey Sachs pointed out, in more than 2,500 years of history, China has engaged in all of two foreign military actions, and both times were in response to Vietnamese aggression in the region. It is the Vietnamese, and not the Chinese, who were, and are still, feared throughout the region. Whereas the USA has been the second-most aggressive military power the world has ever seen; neither the Roman Empire nor the Ummayad Caliphate engaged in foreign military actions as often as the USA has. Only the Mongol empire was more aggressive as a percentage of their extant years.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
– Sun Tzu

But one can only regards the dismay of the Deep State as a good sign.

“There is reason for concern that this is not a person who is a serious enough policymaker, serious enough policy implementer, to do a successful job,” said Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.

If he’s not what Washington considers “serious” then he’s not a ticket-taker. So Pete Hegseth appears to be an excellent appointment of the sort that Donald Trump completely failed to make the previous time around. We can still remain optimistic, that as the song says, this time he’ll do it right and appoint Ron Paul to be Secretary of the Treasury. I’ll definitely have to read his book. In the meantime, enjoy the Lightning Rave mix introduced on the Darkstream last night.

UPDATE: While Hedgseth is clearly a Zionist, he doesn’t appear to support the neocons’ plans for war with Iran. In his role, his personal ideological preferences are far less important than his grasp of what the US military can and cannot do.

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Unimpressed

Andrei Martyanov is not at all impressed by the credentials of the incoming National Security Advisor:

“Mike is the first Green Beret to have been elected to Congress, and previously served in the White House and Pentagon,” Trump said in a statement announcing his latest cabinet pick. “Mike served in the Army Special Forces for 27 years where he was deployed multiple times in combat for which he was awarded four Bronze Stars, including two with Valor.” “Mike retired as a Colonel, and is a nationally recognized leader in National Security, a bestselling author, and an expert on the threats posed by China, Russia, Iran, and global terrorism,” the statement added. “He serves as a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Mike is a distinguished graduate with honors of the Virginia Military Institute. Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda, and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!”

Is not an expert “on the threats posed by China, Russia, Iran and global terrorism” and especially on Russia, because there are about zero people for the least 20+ years in both House Armed Services and House Foreign Affairs Committees who have any clue about the world outside and the modern warfare. He cannot be an expert, considering his alleged support for a delusional and utterly obsolete concept of “Peace Through Strength” for the United States. Waltz worked for Donald Rumsfeld–the guy who failed miserably in his understanding of the warfare and applied geopolitics. TOE of the US Armed Forces is a testament to the views of these people, not that anyone else would have fared better by screwing US doctrinal development so profoundly. Somebody has to tell the guy that “Strength” based on TOE from 1990s is not strength.

I had a very tenuous hope for Trump calling on Colonel Douglas Macgregor for the position of National Security Adviser, well … we all knew what was coming, didn’t we. Waltz is a “specialist” in high intensity police operations in Afghanistan, wow … Degree in “International Relations” from VMI kinda gets you some ideas. So, the “special forces” guy with zero understanding of technological and economic drivers of the modern war will be a classic US gung ho “advising” Trump. Well, looks like we exchanged one set of neocons for another.

I’m not impressed either, but then, I didn’t expect to be. There is absolutely no one in the US military establishment who is genuinely qualified to prepare for either the industrial element of a hypothetical air-sea war with China or the scale of the air-land war with Russia. Even the concept of an air-sea-land war with Iran in the Middle East might or might not be within the limits of the US military’s strategic capabilities.

Technology, demographics, industrial capabilities, and international economics have all changed dramatically since 1990 and that is not a coincidence. But as with the aphoristic generals always fighting the last war, US strategists have not even begun to correctly understand, much less anticipate, the current challenges; we know they have not because they would not be assuming that “strength” is their advantage anymore. Just as the British military still vastly overrates its own significance and abilities, the US military is not cognizant that it is now a regional power, not a global superpower.

And no one who has served in the military can claim to know anything useful about “national security”, not in a nation that has been invaded by tens of millions of foreigners without the military or the so-called security establishment doing anything about it.

This announcement is a bit more promising, although the two appointees are both clowns, they are from the sober faction that is trying to preserve the current system rather than destroy the world.

President-elect Donald Trump has officially named Elon Musk to head the newly created ‘Department of Government Efficiency.’

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