Tag: Military Industrial Complex

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin: A Certain Kind of Diversity

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin: A Certain Kind of Diversity

That’s no small thing to my old tribe. While there’ve been real militarists, monsters, and just plain jerks to come out of West Point’s academic departments – Petraeus and Trump’s national security adviser H.R. McMaster come to mind – in my assessment, most TAC-types were less intellectually curious or inclined to challenge prevailing assumptions (with some exceptions). Don’t take just my word for it. “He just doesn’t knock your socks off,” a former defense official close to the Biden transition team told Politico – “I just don’t see him as an independent thinker.”

None of that bodes well in crisis times – think pandemic, climate catastrophe, and reprised Cold War nuclear madness – that demand system-shaking visionaries, not company men. Unfortunately, the company man’s president may have just nominated the first black one.

Defense Secretary Miller Pledges to Enhance Peace and Stability in the ASEAN Region

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Defense Secretary Miller Pledges to Enhance Peace and Stability in the ASEAN Region

This week, Miller, who was appointed as Pentagon Chief in November, has visited the Philippines and Indonesia during his Asia tour. A transfer of $30 mln in defense articles was announced following the results of the meeting between Miller and his Philippine counterpart on Tuesday. The US also pledged to provide Manila with $23.4 mln in COVID-19 assistance and disaster relief.

It’s just a smokescreen!

Is the Donbass under threat of a new attack from Ukraine?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Is the Donbass under threat of a new attack from Ukraine?

It is to be hoped that the threat of Russian intervention in the event of an attack on Donbass by Ukraine will prevent Kiev from going through with this bloody plan. For the Ukrainian authorities have forgotten one thing: unlike the inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh, already more than 300,000 inhabitants of the DPR and LPR have received Russian citizenship and passports. This would justify Russian intervention to defend its citizens in the event of a Ukrainian offensive. Let those who have ears to hear, hear.

Biden Is the Perfect Figurehead for the Post-Trump National Security Establishment

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Biden Is the Perfect Figurehead for the Post-Trump National Security Establishment

The prospect of four more years of Trump was what decided this election. It was the overriding imperative of those who cast their votes for Biden. Corporate and establishment Democrats expect their left-wing critics to vote for them every four years without question or negotiation. This expectation is almost always delivered as more of a threat than an ask. And when Democrats lose, they blame the left. Yet election after election shows that when they do win, elite Democrats do not believe that they have to offer any meaningful national security appointments or policy changes to these voters. History shows us that they are much more interested in finding common ground with the violent imperial visions of right-wingers and neoconservatives. And Joe Biden is indeed the perfect figure to drive that reality home.