Pentagon

The Pentagon’s Battle Space Is Expanding

On 1 June the US Air Force Times reported that two B-1B Lancer nuclear bombers based in South Dakota had just completed a “long-range training flight” to the Black Sea during which they carried out manoeuvres to practice using “a long-range missile designed to target and destroy enemy ships.” This deployment was “especially important to prepare B-1 crews to counter new and emerging threats and to be ready for a conflict against a major power, as outl

Somalia: Erratic U.S. Policy Failure Doesn’t Get Noticed. But a U.S. Diplomat Struggling With an End-of-Career Crisis Might

Churchill is believed to have once said that “diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.” If that is true, then can we assume that Washington’s man in East Africa has lost his edge? Or perhaps just his mind.
There is a fable of a senior foreign office official from London in colonial times visiting a ‘District Officer’ in East Africa. They both venture out into the dessert in a Land Rover and the official asks his khaki clad DO three questions.
“What is the name of the tribe in this area?”

Trump’s War on Arms Control and Disarmament

Melvin GOODMAN
A successor to the Trump administration will have to rebuild the credibility of the Department of Justice and the effectiveness of such regulatory agencies as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Consumer Finance Protection Agency.  It will have to rebuild the intelligence community, which has been heavily politicized, and the Department of State, which has been hallowed out.  Now, you can add the field of arms control and disarmament to the list of reclamation projects because of the hostile and counterproductive acts of the Trump administration.

U.S. Military Planners Advise Expanded Online Psychological Warfare against China

Just three years ago, Americans had a neutral view of China (and nine years ago it was strongly favorable). Today, the same polls show that 66 percent of Americans dislike the country.
Alan MACLEOD
As the U.S. military turns its attention from the Middle East to conflict with Russia and China, American war planners are advising that the United States greatly expand its own online “psychological operations” against Beijing.

BREAKING: US Removing Its Patriot Missile Systems from Saudi Arabia

Today the Pentagon announced it will be removing four of its patriot missile batteries from Saudi Arabia, apparently as part of a planned rotation of its military hardware in the region. US officials have stated that they plan to still maintain ‘robust capabilities’ in the Middle East to counter Iran.
The four batteries of Patriot surface-to-air missiles were deployed to the Arabian Penninsula last year following attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Saudi Aramco oil facilities.