On May 30th, Secretary of Defense James Mattis announced a momentous shift in American global strategic policy. From now on, he decreed, the U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), which oversees all U.S. military forces in Asia, will be called the Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM). The name change, Mattis explained, reflects “the increasing connectivity between the Indian and …
Continue reading Is a War With China on the Horizon?
At a graduation ceremony for the US Naval War College (barf), US Secretary of Defense James Mattis asserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin “aims to diminish the appeal of the western democratic model and attempts to undermine America’s moral authority,” and that “his actions are designed not to challenge our arms at this point but to undercut …
Continue reading Mattis: Putin Is Trying to “Undermine America’s Moral Authority”
US Defense Secretary James Mattis, who earned the nickname “Mad Dog” while serving in the Marine Corps, jetted off to the 2018 International Institute of Strategic Studies’ (IISS) annual Shangri-La Dialogue conference in Singapore armed with threats against China and North Korea. Ironically, Mattis’s military machismo occurred prior to the June 12 summit in Singapore …
The arguments between Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford before the Syrian air strikes, and between them and President Donald Trump and his ultra-hawk national security adviser, John Bolton, ended with “precision strikes” early Saturday morning in Damascus and near the city of Homs. Some …
Continue reading On the Reaction to the U.S. Strike in Syria
Wednesday morning, President Trump jolted the nation with a tweet that contained both threat and taunt: "Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!' You shouldn't be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and …
Here is “Mad Dog” Mattis, the US Secretary of War, stating that he has no evidence that there was a chemical weapons attack in Syria last week, but that he personally believes that there was one. I remember when a person who claimed to believe something for which there was no evidence was either a …
Continue reading American Officials Continue to Make Laughing Stocks of Themselves
Defense Secretary James Mattis announced a dramatic shift in military policy last week, and it threatens to plunge the world into new forms of conflict. The secretary, known as “Mad Dog” Mattis when he was a four-star Marine general, now commands the most powerful military force in human history. Mattis insists the nickname came from …
Continue reading Trump’s General Just Announced a New Cold War. Who Will Stop It?
After nearly two decades of focus on terrorism, the US military establishment is seeking to pivot back to great-power competition with Russia and China, preserving global dominance while rebuilding the “eroding” force. “Inter-state strategic competition, not terrorism, is now the primary concern in US national security,” says the new National Defense Strategy, published by the …
Continue reading New US Defense Strategy: Return to Global Dominance, Slimming Down Pentagon
Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. now recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and will eventually move its embassy there, might well be the most predictable decision of an otherwise unpredictable presidency. Trump made his Jerusalem promise back in March of 2016, during an address he gave to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee …
Continue reading Tillerson, Mattis Warned Trump Against Embassy Move
