Russia Claims Delivery of Air Defense Systems to Venezuela

Russia has claimed it delivered Pantsir-S1 and Buk-M2 air defense systems to Venezuela and is reportedly considering sending its new Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile, raising concerns of a potential standoff with the United States.

Russia Claims Delivery of Air Defense Systems to Venezuela

Previously:

How the US is preparing a military staging ground near Venezuela + the 160th SOAR(A)

[Armchair Analysis] Clausewitz, Mao, and the Long War in Venezuela

The DOGE Is All Wrong

W.J. Astore

You can’t do a wrong thing the right way

During World War II, the Nazi system of extermination camps was fairly efficient. Relatively small death camps like Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka killed an astonishing number of people, more than 1.6 million and nearly all Jews, quickly and efficiently. If there were a Nazi DOGE, I suppose these death camps may have won “efficiency” awards from it. They stripped the incoming victims of all their valuables and then killed virtually all of them. The loot stolen by the SS was then distributed, again fairly efficiently.

The DOGE Is All Wrong

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

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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US focusing on PH over rest of Southeast Asia – expert

US focusing on PH over rest of Southeast Asia – expert

Speaking at a Stratbase Forum in Makati City, Gregory Poling, senior fellow and director of the Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said the collaboration extends to Japan trilateral and bilateral partnerships.

Poling noted the exemption of military aid for the Philippines, along with Taiwan and Ukraine.

“The Philippines is the only country in Asia that explicitly had its military assistance unlocked as a result of Secretary [Enrique] Manalo’s meeting with Secretary [Marco] Rubio. That’s a pretty good sign.

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Human bodies being vaporized in Gaza by US bombs & military assistance to Israel

Human bodies being vaporized in Gaza by US bombs

He added that among the prohibited weapons used by the Zionists are high-explosive bombs with terrifying sounds, and a person who is 200 or 300 meters away from these bombs will evaporate.

According to research conducted by Harvard University, it is possible that Israel has used American-made Mark-84 (MK-84) bombs in violation of humanitarian law in Gaza.

Related

03-01-2025: Military Assistance to Israel

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China says US ‘playing with fire’ by giving Taiwan more military aid

China says US ‘playing with fire’ by giving Taiwan more military aid

Related:

Why Should We Care About America’s Indo-Pacific Allies?, May 10, 2024:

We’re not obligated to defend Taiwan. What we are obligated to do is governed by the law and the law is the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.

But defending Taiwan is not one of those things, but it means that we sell them equipment that they need to defend themselves and the like. And it makes it clear intent that we want a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan PRC issue, a peaceful resolution across the Taiwan Strait. And that we are opposed to a forceful reunification against the Taiwanese people’s will.

Is the United States going to defend Taiwan? If the answer to that question is yes, they’re going to lose hundreds of thousands of troops in that fight and they ought to know that. And then they can then make the calculus whether it’s worth it or not.

— Admiral Harry B. Harris, Jr., former commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command

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Trumpism, NATO and the Ukraine war

Trumpism, NATO and the Ukraine war (original)

“Two years ago, General Mark A. Milley, then President Biden’s chief military adviser, suggested that neither Russia nor Ukraine could win the war. A negotiated solution, he argued, was the only path to peace. His comments caused a furor among senior officials. But President-elect Donald J. Trump’s victory is making General Milley’s prediction come true,” wrote The New York Times in an article published last week, part of a growing line of arguments by those who fear that the arrival of the new Republican administration will mean leaving Ukraine to its own devices. These articles, present in all major American and European media, take literally Trump’s desire to end the war and his lack of interest in the situation in Ukraine. This has also been helped by the words of JD Vance, who, from his ignorance of the conflict, has proposed a plan that can only satisfy Russia, or the exalted response of Donald Trump Jr. after the confirmation of the American permission to use Western missiles against targets on the territory of mainland Russia. Sometimes, think-tankers and experts also add Trump’s disdain for NATO or his desire not to rescue member countries that do not meet the minimum investment required by the Alliance in the event of a Russian attack.

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Trump, Harris, And The ‘Lesser Of Two Evils’

A distressing number of my relatives, friends, and acquaintances have found themselves reduced to making a “choice” between the “lesser of two evils” in most elections. That ugly situation seems to be especially true regarding U.S. presidential elections, and the current contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris continues the distressing pattern.

Trump, Harris, And The ‘Lesser Of Two Evils’