Tag: Arms Sales

NPR is Not Your Friend

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

NPR is a problem. Good and proper leftists who read Current Affairs may already realize this. “Of course. NPR (Neoliberal Propaganda Radio) is a bastion of establishment groupthink and orthodoxy that gives cover to imperialism and corporate capitalism.” By contrast, readers on the Right who find themselves consuming Current Affairs may have an equally disdainful but entirely different critique. “Of course. NPR is an elitist liberal propaganda cult that serves as a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party, is openly hostile to any conservative voices, and ought to be defunded!”

NPR is Not Your Friend

US, Canadian War Ships Sail Through Taiwan Strait Shortly After Biden’s Pledge to Go to War with China

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

By Kyle Anzalone and Connor Freeman | The Libertarian Institute | September 20, 2022

US and Canadian warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait, which China views as its territorial waters, on Tuesday. Since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei last month, tensions between Washington and Beijing have soared. The transit occurred just days after President Joe Biden pledged to defend Taiwan with military force against China.

US, Canadian War Ships Sail Through Taiwan Strait Shortly After Biden’s Pledge to Go to War with China

New Fakes about Russia-DPRK Military Cooperation

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

New Fakes about Russia-DPRK Military Cooperation

The second option is more amusing and, alas, more realistic: the source of the sensational information could be such an anonymous and specific medium as Russian politicized Telegram channels, in which the SMO is constantly discussed. However, Telegram’s anonymity often makes it impossible to identify the channel’s real author. This means that any high-school student with a glib tongue can easily portray himself as an “expert from those very structures” involved in the “secrets of the Kremlin court”, even if the information has no real basis in fact.

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To conclude the conversation, it is worth noting how the propaganda image of the DPRK has changed: before the SMO, the Western media presented North Korea as a starving third-world country, but now it is a superpower providing Putin with builders, soldiers and now also ammunition. Therefore, the fake about millions of missiles is clearly not the latest fake about the “Jucheans in the Donbass”.

Biden Again Says the US Would Defend Taiwan If China Attacks

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Biden Again Says the US Would Defend Taiwan If China Attacks

Under the policy of strategic ambiguity, the US is not supposed to say one way or the other if it would intervene to defend Taiwan if China attacks.

Back in 2001, then-Senator Joe Biden criticized President George W. Bush for suggesting that the US would defend Taiwan, then later walking it back. In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Biden wrote that “words matter” and said Bush hurt the credibility of the US by making such comments due to an “inattention to detail.”

That didn’t sound like a political gaffe to me. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Arms Transfers to Ukraine. Detailed Overview of Deliveries, Timeline

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

As tensions mounted in late 2021 and into 2022 concerning a Russian invasion of Ukraine, many countries announced arms transfers to Ukraine. As the invasion began in late February, this resource page was launched to track developments related to such transfers, which thus far includes pledges and/or deliveries from more than 25 countries plus the European Union.

Arms Transfers to Ukraine. Detailed Overview of Deliveries, Timeline

China’s neighbors are buying US weapons Washington isn’t delivering

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

China’s neighbors are buying US weapons Washington isn’t delivering

Even though the United States views these weapons sales as integral to deterring China from attacking Taiwan, some of the deals were publicly announced as far back as 2017.

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The reasons – government delays, supply chain issues and production requirements – are numerous, and the problem won’t be easy to fix, Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Defense News.

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The U.S. government has approved the sale of 10 weapons systems Taiwan has yet to receive – some of which are not slated for delivery until the end of the decade.

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The United States has flooded billions of dollars in weapons into Ukraine, including items that are part of Taiwan’s backlog, such as Harpoon anti-ship missiles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and High Mobile Artillery Rocket Systems.

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For example, several Middle Eastern and eastern European countries are ahead of Taiwan in Lockheed Martin’s F-16 production queue. In 2019, the State Department approved an $8 billion Taiwan sale for 66 F-16s, but Taipei does not expect to receive the aircraft until 2026.

“Saudi Arabia is still ahead of Taiwan on the priority list in some cases,” Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., told Defense News ahead of a July meeting with Taiwan’s Washington envoy. “We need to take a look at that.”

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