FLOWERS AND OWLS INVADE: Life on a new volcanic island.
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai – named after the two islands it is nestled between – was born in December 2014 after a submarine volcano erupted, sending a stream of steam, ash and rock into the air.
When the ash finally settled, it interacted with the seawater and solidified. A month later, the new island was formed.
The island might “last between six to 30 years.”
ANGEL IN WINTER: The Blue Angels conduct a winter training exercise.
SOME THOUGHTS FOR THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Protecting chokepoints remains a key strategic challenge.
HARRIER OVER THE GULF: Yes, there are still a few around. A USMC AV-8B Harrier refuels over the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana.
PRESIDENTS AND THEIR GENERALS PODCAST: A special edition of StrategyTalk, spurred by Jim Mattis’ resignation.
BRIDGING THE BERM: An Armored Vehicle-Launched Bridge (AVLB) extends out and over a tank berm during an exercise at Ft. Irwin, California.
FROM SIMMER TO BOIL: Venezuela and Bolton’s notepad cocktail — bottle of diplomacy with a dash of bitter military threat.
RELATED: Cocktails from Hell, Chapter One — a menu of deadly power cocktails.
SEA SPARROW EMERGES: In a flash as the USS Boxer conducts a live fire exercise in the eastern Pacific.
OFF FLORIDA’S EMERALD COAST: A special ops U-28A over water.
MOVING ON THE RIBBON: A USMC ribbon bridge transports two M1A1 tanks in an exercise at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
THE SPIRIT OF TEXAS: The B-2 bomber Spirit of Texas prepares for a training mission at at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. Photo taken Jan. 17, 2019. The name is on the wheel house. I had to enlarge the photo to see it, but the StrategyPage.com webmaster is right. It’s a stealth bomber so they hide the name.
CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER TRUDEAU FIRES HIS AMBASSADOR TO CHINA: Lots of intrigue in this escapade. High stakes spy allegations, international trade war and more.
In an unprecedented move, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday said he had fired his ambassador to China, who prompted a political furor with comments about Huawei’s high-profile extradition case.
John McCallum had embarrassed Trudeau’s Liberal government by saying Huawei Technologies Co Ltd Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou could make a strong argument against being sent to the United States.
Opposition legislators and former ambassadors accused McCallum of unacceptable political interference in an affair which has badly damaged relations between Canada and China.
Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, was arrested in Vancouver last month over alleged violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran.
China subsequently detained two Canadian citizens on national security grounds. A Chinese court later retried a Canadian man who had been jailed for drugs smuggling and sentenced him to death.
Possibly hostage taking under the color of law? I don’t know, but it strikes me as a reasonable question.
MORE: “Veteran diplomats and experts told Reuters it was the first time a Canadian ambassador had ever been officially fired.”
A BIT MORE:
Brock University professor Charles Burton, a former Canadian diplomat who had served two postings in China, said McCallum’s comments on Meng possibly avoiding extradition had signaled to Beijing that its hard line tactics were working.
“He really made it untenable for the prime minister to sustain him (in his post) for any length of time and he had to go,” Burton said by telephone, suggesting Trudeau should quickly appoint a special envoy to handle the dispute.
According to the report McCallum was a political appointee, not an experienced diplomat.
CHINESE TORPEDO SEIZED OFF VIETNAM: An interesting little tale.
In December 2018 a Vietnamese fisherman operating about eight kilometers off the coast of central Vietnam, spotted a large circular object floating nearby and, curious about that it might be, attached a rope to it and brought it onto a local beach. Once on the beach, someone realized it appeared to be a torpedo (it was seven meters long, 533mm in diameter and had a propeller). Part of it was painted red and it had Chinese language writing on it. The police were called and they brought in a naval officer to confirm that it was a Chinese training torpedo that had not been retrieved after use. The torpedo was put under guard until it could be removed for further examination. Before removal, many cell phone photos were taken and found their way to the Internet.
The article also discusses fishermen snaring AUVs (Autonomous Undersea Vehicle) in the western Pacific.
SPIRIT HIGH IN THE PACIFIC SKY: A B-2 bomber conducts an aerial refueling over the Pacific near Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
SHADOW WAR WITH RUSSIA IN VENEZUELA?: The Kremlin loves shadow wars. (bumped)
Private military contractors who do secret missions for Russia flew into Venezuela in the past few days to beef up security for President Nicolas Maduro in the face of U.S.-backed opposition protests, according to two people close to them.
A third source close to the Russian contractors also told Reuters there was a contingent of them in Venezuela, but could not say when they arrived or what their role was.
Russia, which has backed Maduro’s socialist government to the tune of billions of dollars, this week promised to stand by him after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself president with Washington’s endorsement.
The article says the contractors first flew to Cuba then took commercial flights to Venezuela.
Looks like a KGB colonel’s chess move. Except this is life and death, not chess.
RELATED: My latest Creators Syndicate column which discusses the Venezuelan opposition’s noticeably improved ability to coordinate political actions. Did the CIA/State Department help facilitate the improvement? Far too rash a thought.
ALSO RELATED: For the deep background on KGB chess in the 21st century, purchase Cocktails from Hell and read Chapter 4, 21st Century Russian Imperial Warfare.
SHADOW WAR WITH RUSSIA IN VENEZUELA?: Why not? The Kremlin loves shadow wars.
Private military contractors who do secret missions for Russia flew into Venezuela in the past few days to beef up security for President Nicolas Maduro in the face of U.S.-backed opposition protests, according to two people close to them.
A third source close to the Russian contractors also told Reuters there was a contingent of them in Venezuela, but could not say when they arrived or what their role was.
Russia, which has backed Maduro’s socialist government to the tune of billions of dollars, this week promised to stand by him after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself president with Washington’s endorsement.
The article says the contractors first flew to Cuba then took commercial flights to Venezuela.
Looks like a KGB colonel’s chess move. Except this is life and death, not chess.
RELATED: My latest Creators Syndicate column which discusses the Venezuelan opposition’s noticeably improved ability to coordinate political actions. Did the CIA/State Department help facilitate the improvement? Far too rash a thought.
ALSO RELATED: For the deep background on KGB chess in the 21st century, purchase Cocktails from Hell and read Chapter 4, 21st Century Russian Imperial Warfare.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: My latest Creators Syndicate column, Venezula’s opposition is now a serious threat to the Maduro Socialist Dictatorship.
STRYKER ON A WEST TEXAS ROLL: A Stryker assigned to 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4-17 Infantry Battalion passes a convoy during a field exercise at Ft. Bliss, Texas.
WE JUST NEED THE ARMED FORCES: A plea from Venezuela.
Venezuela’s National Guard, whose support for President Nicolás Maduro has endured despite the country’s dire economic and humanitarian conditions, is beginning to show signs of a break. A budding insurgency within the force was quashed over the weekend, but not before the dozens of protesting guards used 21st century weapons – videos and social media posts stating they didn’t recognize Maduro as president – to rally support for their cause.
The article’s worth reading. My latest Creators Syndicate column which discusses the Venezuelan opposition’s diplomatic, political and information warfare successes also notes the opposition’s vulnerability to suppression by Maduro’s heavily armed thugs.
From the column:
There are rumors of internal Venezuelan military disenchantment. On Jan. 18, the Miami Herald published an article confirming disgust but added that no serving senior officer appeared to be “willing to lead an insurrection.”
That could change.
RELATED: Some background from 2010 on Hugo Chavez, Maduro’s fascist-socialist mentor.
CROATIAN VULCAN IN BATTLE GROUP POLAND: Battle Group Poland is a multinational coalition of U.S., U.K., Croatian and Romanian soldiers who serve with Poland’s 15th Mechanized Brigade. NATO calls it a deterrence force. Can you name the nation Battle Group Poland intends to deter?
THE END OF VENEZUELAN CHAVISMO?: Let’s hope so. Maduro’s socialist dictatorship is in turmoil.
…Venezuelan opposition actions — lines of operation, to use jargon — have begun to work together. The opposition is successfully waging diplomatic, political and information warfare domestically and internationally.
The opposition, however, is vulnerable to physical attack. Maduro, like his mentor, Hugo Chavez, is a heavily armed bully who uses starvation and violence to maintain control.
Stay tuned.
INTERESTING TAKE ON RUSSIAN RELATIONS WITH SERBIA: The czars and commissars both made pan-Slavism a big time foreign policy play. Putin has as well.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to Belgrade — his first in more than four years — was eagerly anticipated by Serbian politicians. Despite the visit being described there as monumental, no agreement that could be described as monumental came out of it. In reality, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has little choice but to praise his Russian benefactor in public, while trying to convince the Kremlin behind closed doors to give Belgrade at least a little wiggle room on the most important Serbian foreign policy issue: recognition of Kosovo.
The Kosovo conflict seemed endless, but many events of the past eighteen months have made its resolution more possible than even the bravest optimists dared to dream just a short time ago. First, Brussels finally named a possible date for Serbia to join the European Union: 2025, signaling that the country’s accession is quite realistic, provided Belgrade complies with certain conditions, the main one of which is resolving the Kosovo conflict.
The essay argues that Serbia is attempting to “rid itself” of Russian support, at least on the issue of Kosovo. It’s worth a read.
VERY RELATED: Chapter 4 of Cocktails from Hell: 21st Century Russian Imperial Warfare. The chapter’s first sentence: “According to the Kremlin, the Kosovo precedent justifies the Crimean precedent.” Available on Amazon and at your local bookstore.
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