Last summer the Pentagon announced its plans to create an advanced missile defense system in the Asian-Pacific region. In the next few years a chain of modern missile defense radars can be deployed from the North of Japan through its Southern islands to the Philippines. Together with the missile systems and the ships the radars will form a joint system that allows intercepting ballistic missiles. “Without acknowledging it, the system is targeted against China. And practically nobody doubts that…[T]he USA is not prepared to acknowledge China as an equal partner and not ready to have a mutual nuclear deterrence or strategic partnership with China…” Leon Panetta, the head of the Pentagon, announced that Japan and the US signed an agreement to deploy the second element of the American missile defense system on Japanese territory. Washington and Tokyo assured China that the missile defense system was not targeted against it. However, experts are convinced that Beijing will view with caution these steps towards deploying a new missile defense element.
Tag: Pentagon
Last June, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange took shelter in the embassy of Ecuador in London after being granted political asylum by the government of R. Correa. Assange explains that the plan shared by the Swedish,…
“Only 17 percent of the all-volunteer force serves for more than 20 years, and they are endowed with a lifetime benefit. The current US military retirement system does not compensate for those in high risk situations or extenuating circumstances (e.g., combat duty, hardship tour, and separation from family).. The current military retirement system is unfair. For example, 83 percent of those serving in the US military will receive no retirement benefit. US military personnel serving 5, 10, or 15 years will depart from service with no benefit or pension. This cohort includes the majority of troops who have engaged and will engage in combat. Retiree healthcare (TRICARE) is significantly more generous than civilian programs. For those serving more than 20 years, the retirement contribution is 10 times greater than the private sector: average private sector pension contributions range from 4-12% per year; military retirement benefit equates to 75% of annual pay per year for those who retire; and immediate payout after 20 years has no comparison in the private sector. In light of the budget challenges DOD is currently facing, the military retirement system appears increasingly unaffordable.” Defense Business Board
The commandos throw themselves into the sea from a helicopter and come to shore on a raft, wipe out the enemies with their assault rifles, discover an arms depot and blow up the weapons as…
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has assembled as the core of his national security and foreign policy advisory team some of the most right-wing and militaristic members of the Bush-Cheney administration. In many ways,…
“IN OPERATIONS in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, a failure to recognise, acknowledge and accurately define the operational environment led to a mismatch between forces, capabilities, missions and goals,” reads a new draft report by the Pentagon’s Joint Staff. In Decade of War: Enduring Lessons from the Past Decade of Operations, the authors admit to failures in Iraq and Afghanistan and lay out a series of lessons for the future, including more effective efforts aimed at winning hearts and minds, integrating regular troops and special operations forces, coordination with other government agencies, coalition operations, partnering with the forces of host-nations and paying greater attention to the use of proxy forces.
Militarization of the US foreign policy on global scale is an obvious fact. It concerns Latin America as much as it concerns other parts of the world. The US State Department does not show its…
Obama touts the Navy SEALS’ raid and killing of Osama bin Laden in his hideaway compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan, as one of, if not the greatest, achievements of his administration. Reportedly, the administration even disclosed details of the raid to Hollywood for an upcoming movie, Zero Dark Thirty, directed by Kathryn Bigelow. The movie is scheduled to be released — SURPRISE! — on October 12, 2012, within a month of the presidential election. Joseph Straw reports for the N.Y. Daily News, Aug. 11, 2011, that the CIA defended its collaboration with the maker of Zero Dark Thirty. CIA spokesman Preston Golson said that such collaboration with filmmakers has precedent and is part of the CIA’s “public outreach.” Despite the CIA’s insistence, Congressman Peter King (R-Long Island), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has demanded that the Pentagon and CIA inspectors general investigate whether the agencies breached policy in this case, in particular whether the filmmakers saw classified material or got access to personnel working under cover.
A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. -Alexander Solzhenitsyn The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has nothing to gain and all to lose – especially their lives. -Eugene Victor Debs Few nations have such extensive borders or coasts as the United States. Few have borders as blessedly uncontested and unthreatened. Why, then, is the US so contemptuous of international law? Why does the US intervene in and invade other lands, often far from our shores, with such alarming frequency? Why does this nation squander trillions of dollars on “security” and “defense”? Why does this nation maintain fleets and hundreds of costly military bases all over the globe? Why does this nation dissipate its treasure deploying the world’s most massive killing machine?
CRIMESTOP: CREATE THE ENEMY, FOOL THE PUBLIC In a special video address, Alex Jones terms the al Qaeda intelligence operation a ‘Swiss army knife’ for destabilization. Simply put, it is a tool to foment…