Trump’s rhetorical Greenland spectacle
President-elect Donald Trump, by calling for the effective U.S. purchase or annexation of Greenland, an autonomously-run territory of European NATO ally Denmark, seems to be playing mind games with Copenhagen, yet by so doing does damage to Ukraine, Israel, and NATO in open, obvious benefit to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Problem 1: By doing…
To Shorten Wars and Prevent Wider War The Biden Administration Should Lift Allies’ Conventional Strike Restrictions Against Iran’s and Russia’s Conventional Military Targets
October 4, 2024 Ukraine & Israel: Ukraine and Israel face common adversaries axially aligned. Russia and China enable Iran and its terror proxies with lethal supply and know-how to wage war against Israel. Russia and China could sanction Iran but do not. Iran, China, and North Korea likewise back Russia’s increasingly genocidal war of aggression…
In the News: Observations & Analyses
Ukraine: AP reported President Volodymyr Zelensky’s words at a ceremony commemorating the massacre at Babyn Yar in Kyiv of nearly 34,000 Jews during 48 hours in the 1941 Nazi occupation: “Babyn Yar is vivid proof of the atrocities that regimes are capable of when led by leaders who rely on intimidation and violence. At any…
Russia-Iran in Context: President Masoud Pezeshkian’s Glass House is also a Nesting Egg
AP reported yesterday: “Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday slammed the West, saying that Israel is “committing massacres” in the war in Gaza and using European and American weapons to do so.“ President Pezeshkian shattered yet another of Tehran’s glass houses given that Iran’s regime culturally and materially engineered Hamas to attack Israel on October…
The Regime Too Expensive for the World
Iran has reportedly started shipping ballistic missiles to Russia to use against Ukraine, adding to its destabilizing weapons trafficking portfolio of terrorists, oppressive regimes, cartels, and aggressor states. Iran’s lethal trade is aimed mostly at Israel, other free nations, and against opponents to authoritarian leaders or military juntas that can provide sanctions-free income streams to…
Iran Regime: Russia’s and China’s Destabilizer Bot
The dictatorial theocracy of Iran has been a quasi-vassal of larger dictatorships since the Iranian revolution of 1978-79. Today Iran acts in the strategic interests of Russia and China as it seeks membership in their regional organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. From 1997-2006, Russia under Putin was the top heavy conventional weapons supplier to Iran…
Target Logic: Shahed-136 Drones
The Russians are aiming Shahed-136 drones at Ukrainian energy nodes, buildings, and other infrastructure items, such as communications. The Shahed-136 suicide drone uses commercially available GPS as a guidance system, making it susceptible to jamming devices. In December 2021, Israel’s Jerusalem Post published a well-informed advance warning of the capabilities of Iran’s Shahed-136 including longer range,…
Russia in Syria: More Footprint Than Boot
A September 14th, 2022 report of the U.N.’s Commission of Inquiry on Syrian Arab Republic found conditions similar to those that led to the wider Syrian Civil War eleven years ago. Moscow has borrowed heavily on its credited strategic gains in Syria to pay off its deep deficits in its war of aggression against Ukraine…
Beirut’s Port Explosion: Analysis and Strategic Implications
Introduction Purpose: To analyze open source information about (1) the strategic context and (2) chain of events leading to the massive ammonium nitrate explosion in Beirut’s port on August 4th, 2020, killing some 200 people, injuring over 6,500, and displacing 250,000.¹ Pre-and-Post Explosion Context Lebanon Generally: Modern Lebanon with its East Mediterranean ports2 has been a…