Tag: Department Of Defense

Philippines to receive 20 F-16 Block 70/72 fighter jets from the US as confrontations with China grow.

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Philippines to receive 20 F-16 Block 70/72 fighter jets from the US as confrontations with China grow.

The timing of this approval is significant as the Philippines has been engaged in a series of escalating maritime confrontations with China over disputed territories in the South China Sea. U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have increasingly voiced support for Manila in countering Chinese maritime expansion. During his recent visit, Hegseth committed to “reestablish deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region,” calling attention to China’s growing assertiveness. Additionally, Philippine military leadership, including General Romeo Brawner, has publicly stated that a conflict in Taiwan would inevitably involve the Philippines, urging preparations for possible hostilities. Preparations for such scenarios have reportedly influenced the planning of joint U.S.-Philippine exercises, such as the annual “Balikatan” drills. These developments add urgency to the Philippine modernization program, of which the F-16 acquisition is a cornerstone.

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Hegseth visits Manila: Washington prepares for war with China + More

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Hegseth visits Manila: Washington prepares for war with China

The language of Hegseth’s press conference in Manila is indicative of the openly aggressive face of US imperialism under Trump. Gone was any reference to what had been the political shibboleth of Washington in the Asia Pacific region: the defense of “freedom of navigation.” Hegseth spoke rather of “preparing for war,” using the phrase more than once. Every time Hegseth mentioned China he termed it “Communist China,” and spoke of its “aggression.” Hegseth referred to US Seventh fleet commander Admiral Samuel Paparo “and his war plans. Real war plans.”

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A Permanent Arms Economy

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The background to the article reprinted here is the “long boom” of western capitalism during the 1950s and 1960s. It first appeared in International Socialism journal in Spring 1967. On the surface it appeared that the capitalist system had stabilised itself, had broken out of the boom-slump cycle and was now able to offer the workers of Western Europe and North America a steady increase in living standards.

This was a frustrating world for Marxists, who found themselves subject to two temptations. One was to surrender to the claims poured out by the system’s apologists that capitalism had solved its problems and that the path of gradual reform offered a sure road to socialism. The other was to deny the obvious signs of stability and prosperity and assert that capitalism was on the verge of imminent, catastrophic collapse. If these temptations were to be avoided, and Marx’s analysis of capitalism’s contradictions was to hold, then the long boom must be explained.

A Permanent Arms Economy

The Latest on Colby’s Strategy of Denial

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

There’s little in Elbridge A. Colby’s past to suggest that President Trump’s most loyal and fierce allies would embrace him.

Mr. Colby, 45, has deep roots in the foreign policy establishment that Mr. Trump is trying to destroy. He is the grandson of the former C.I.A. director William Colby; a product of Groton, Harvard and Yale Law School; someone who has spent much of his career working across party lines on some of the most complex national security issues: nuclear weapons strategy, China’s military buildup, the commercialization of space.

A Pentagon Nomination Fight Reveals the New Rules of Trump’s Washington

Related:

US Army War College: Adapting US Defense Strategy to Great-Power Competition

USNI: A Forward Denial Defense: Inside the First Island Chain

Colby-Pottinger document

Dems Demand Pete Hegseth Halt ‘Orwellian Book Purges’ In Military Schools

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Dems Demand Pete Hegseth Halt ‘Orwellian Book Purges’ In Military Schools

After DoDEA last month directed its schools to pull lessons from its curriculum related to immigration, gender and sexuality, the schools responded with things like book bans, a portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama being removed, a Harriet Tubman poster being pulled down, rainbows being taken down in kindergarten classrooms and bans on school clubs for LGBTQ+ students and girls in STEM.

Ironically, Vice President JD Vance’s memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” was also banned. 😹😹😹

Trump and Hegseth Fire Judge Advocates General of the Army, Navy and Air Force

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Trump and Hegseth Fire Judge Advocates General of the Army, Navy and Air Force

Hegseth, a former Army National Guard officer and media personality, has been a vocal critic of what he perceives as restrictive rules of engagement that hinder military effectiveness. In his 2024 book, The War on Warriors, he argued against the limitations imposed by international laws, suggesting that such constraints disadvantage U.S. forces against adversaries who do not adhere to the same standards.

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