Tag: Mark Milley

In Ukraine, the United States Is In Over Its Head

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

By Thomas Meaney. Mr. Meaney, a fellow at the Max Planck Society in Germany, writes regularly on American foreign policy and international relations.

The greatest blunder President Vladimir Putin may have made so far in Ukraine is giving the West the impression that Russia could lose the war. The early Russian strike on Kyiv stumbled and failed. The Russian behemoth seemed not nearly as formidable as it had been made out to be. The war suddenly appeared as a face-off between a mass of disenchanted Russian incompetents and supercharged, savvy Ukrainian patriots.

In Ukraine, the United States Is In Over Its Head

Mystery Over Missing Sidewinder Missile That Failed to Shoot Down UFO

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Mystery Over Missing Sidewinder Missile That Failed to Shoot Down UFO

But the F-16 jet tasked with shooting the object over Lake Huron on Sunday “missed on its first attempt,” according to Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson.

Citing U.S. officials, Tomlinson wrote on Twitter that a second Sidewinder air-to-air missile was required, and it is “not clear where the first missile landed.”

A Defense Department spokesperson told Newsweek they were “certainly aware of the reporting on this,” but did not have any other details they could provide at this time. [Yet Kirby ‘can’t’ confirm that it happened]

…

“The warhead is relatively small, as is the missile, limiting potential damage if it misses or something goes wrong,” [Jodi] Vittori previously told Newsweek.

National Security Council spokesperson, John Kirby, said on Monday that the objects downed in Alaska and Canada “are in remote and wintry terrain,” with the object over Michigan likely to be “in very deep water in Lake Huron.” This makes salvage operations more difficult, he added.

Thanks to Dave DeCamp for this find! FYI, according to Wikipedia, the Sidewinder is almost 10 feet long, 5 inches wide, and 188 pounds. The warhead, itself, is 20.8 pounds. They’re shooting down these unidentified objects, all willy nilly, but I’m not supposed to be concerned about a missing missle?! Sorry, not sorry, this one hit too close to home! Time to look for more memes, I guess! 😅

Related:

Jet that shot down unidentified object over Lake Huron took off from Madison (missing missile was noticed when the F-16s landed back in Wisconsin)

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Ukraine can’t retake Crimea soon, Pentagon tells lawmakers in classified briefing

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Ukrainian forces are unlikely to be able to recapture Crimea from Russian troops in the near future, four senior Defense Department officials told House Armed Services Committee lawmakers in a classified briefing. The assessment is sure to frustrate leaders in Kyiv who consider taking the peninsula back one of their signature goals.

Ukraine can’t retake Crimea soon, Pentagon tells lawmakers in classified briefing

RAND: Avoiding a Long War – U.S. Policy and the Trajectory of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

*Russian use of nuclear weapons is a plausible contingency that Washington needs to account for and a hugely important factor in determining the future trajectory of the conflict

*Although a Russian decision to attack a NATO member state is by no means inevitable, the risk is elevated while the conflict in Ukraine is ongoing.

*Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley reportedly kept a list of “U.S. interests and strategic objectives” in the crisis: “No. 1” was “Don’t have a kinetic conflict between the U.S. military and NATO with Russia.” The second, closely related, was “contain war inside the geographical boundaries of Ukraine.”

*It is clear why Milley listed avoiding a Russia-NATO war as the top U.S. priority: The U.S. military would immediately be involved in a hot war with a country that has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. Keeping a Russia-NATO war below the nuclear threshold would be extremely difficult, particularly given the weakened state of Russia’s conventional military.

*Since neither side appears to have the intention or capabilities to achieve absolute victory, the war will most likely end with some sort of negotiated outcome.

*Since avoiding a long war is the highest priority after minimizing escalation risks, the United States should take steps that make an end to the conflict over the medium term more likely.

*A major source of uncertainty about the future course of the war is the relative lack of clarity about the future of U.S. and allied military assistance to Ukraine.

Avoiding a Long War – U.S. Policy and the Trajectory of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Related:

Avoiding a Long War – U.S. Policy and the Trajectory of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict