THE WORLD’S BIGGEST AIRPLANE: Meet the Stratolaunch. Twin fuselages and a 385-foot wingspan.

EMPEROR XI JINPING RIDES THE TIANANMEN TIGER.

TET OFFENSIVE, VIETNAM 1968: A North Vietnamese home-made “big bore” pistol captured by Marines near the town of Dong Ha. The pistol barrel was made from a U.S.-made M-79 grenade launcher. Marines also captured a quick draw holster made for the weapon.

LEAKED AUDIO RECORDINGS OF RUSSIAN MERCS: Business Insider seems to think the recordings are authentic.

Leaked audio recordings said to be of Russian mercenaries in Syria capture expressions of lament and humiliation over a battle in early February involving US forces and Russian nationals.

Published by Polygraph.info — a fact-checking website produced by Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, news organizations that receive funding from the US government — the audio recordings paint a picture of Russian mercenaries essentially sent to die in an ill-conceived advance on a US-held position in Syria. Polygraph says the audio recordings are from a source close to the Kremlin.

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…apparent in the audio is displeasure with how Russia has responded to the situation. Initially, Russia denied that its citizens took part in the clash. Later, a representative said five may have died. Last week, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the fight left “several dozen wounded” and that some had died.

The audio recordings, in which voices can be heard saying 200 people died “right away,” appear to back up reports from Reuters, Bloomberg, and the Pentagon that roughly 100 — if not more— Russians died in the fight. Reuters has cited sources as saying the advance’s purpose was to test the US’s response.

SOME TRANSLATED AUDIO:

…well … to make it short, we’ve had our asses f— kicked. So one squadron f— lost 200 people … right away, another one lost 10 people … and I don’t know about the third squadron, but it got torn up pretty badly, too … So three squadrons took a beating … The Yankees attacked … first they blasted the f— out of us by artillery, and then they took four helicopters up and pushed us in a f— merry-go-round with heavy caliber machine guns … They were all shelling the holy f— out of it, and our guys didn’t have anything besides the assault rifles … nothing at all, not even mentioning shoulder-fired SAMs or anything like that … So they tore us to pieces for sure, put us through hell, and the Yankees knew for sure that the Russians were coming, that it was us, f— Russians … Our guys were going to commandeer an oil refinery, and the Yankees were holding it … We got our f— asses beat rough, my men called me … They’re there drinking now … many have gone missing … it’s a total f— up, it sucks, another takedown … Everybody, you know, treats us like pieces of s— … They beat our asses like we were little pieces of s— … but our f— government will go in reverse now, and nobody will respond or anything, and nobody will punish anyone for this … So these are our casualties.”

Doesn’t sound like he’s embracing the suck. Well, he’s a mercenary fighting a “gray zone” war and he tried to surprise American soldiers. A “merry go round” with heavy machine guns. Sounds like Ma Deuce at work.

Here’s the polygraph.info report Business Insider used as its source. Check it out.

FRANCE 24 INTERVIEWS A RUSSIAN MERCENARY: The short article basically repeats the video interview (which is on the web page). But the video is still worth watching.

WORN OUT BY THE BATTLE FOR HUE: Great photo of an exhausted Marine. He’s fallen asleep on the hull of his vehicle (an Ontos). From the Vietnam War Tet Offensive commemorative photo series.

RELATED: Ontos in action.

BATTLE OF HUE, TET OFFENSIVE, VIETNAM 1968: U.S. Marines secure the stone gate on the south side of the old walled city. The gate suffered battle damage.

THE FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER: The U.S. Army addresses “the fitness crisis.”

A recent Heritage Foundation report found that, according to 2017 Pentagon data, “71 percent of young Americans between 17 and 24 are ineligible to serve in the United States military.” Nearly one-third of those young Americans are too overweight for military service.

“Put another way: Over 24 million of the 34 million people of that age group cannot join the armed forces — even if they wanted to,” said retired Lt. Gen. Thomas Spoehr and Bridget Handy, who authored the report, “The Looming National Security Crisis: Young Americans Unable to Serve in the Military.”

An article well worth reading.

SAMPAN LANDING, TET OFFENSIVE, 1968: A Marine platoon aboard sampans supports Operation Houston south of Phu Bai, Vietnam.

CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY PROPOSES NO MORE TERM LIMITS FOR CHINA’S PRESIDENT: How convenient for Xi Jinping.

In a short release, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said that the Central Committee had proposed to remove from the country’s constitution the expression that the president and vice president “shall serve no more than two consecutive terms.”

It said the proposal was made public Sunday, a day ahead of a scheduled meeting of the Central Committee. It was unclear why the announcement was made ahead of that meeting.

Xi, 64, was approved to begin his second five-year term late last year and is slated to step down in 2022. But many analysts believe he wants to stay in office longer.

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Xi, as the son of a famed Communist Party veteran, is known as a “princeling.” He rose through the ranks to the position of Shanghai’s party leader in 2007 before being promoted the same year to the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee. A year later, in a sign that he would succeed then-leader Hu Jintao, he was tapped to be vice president.

Since his elevation to the presidency in 2012, Xi has overseen a wide-ranging crackdown on corruption that has helped him eliminate rivals and consolidate his grip on power.

A Chinese princeling. So we’re witnessing his transition Chinese emperor? Maoism. Stalinism. What’s the difference? They’re all absolute monarchies.

A DEGAS IN A BUS: French police discover Degas’ Les Choristes in a suitcase in a bus. The painting was stolen in 2009.

TET OFFENSIVE, VIETNAM 1968: Khe Sanh Marines dig trenches.

THE SOUTH CHINA SEA HEATS UP: IISS provides an in-depth look at Chinese radar installations in the Spratly Islands.

ISRAEL’S NEXT WAR WITH HEZBOLLAH:

Another war between Israel and Hezbollah is almost inevitable. Although neither side wants a conflict now, the shifting balance of power in the Levant and shrinking areas of contestation are indicators of a looming showdown. The real questions are how and where—not if—the impending conflagration will occur.

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Since 2006, Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that in future conflicts they will follow the Dahiya Doctrine, named for Hezbollah’s stronghold in the southern Beirut suburbs near Beirut–Rafik Hariri International Airport, which was devastated by Israeli bombing in the last war. According to Gadi Eizenkot, the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, in the next conflict the IDF will follow these same rules of engagement but across a broader landscape.

It’s on The Brookings Institution’s blog. Good read.

MY LATEST CREATORS SYNDICATE COLUMN: Russian covert influence operations target more than U.S. elections. Bulgaria has become a target. (bumped)

TET OFFENSIVE ROCKET ATTACK AFTERMATH: Smoke and dust rise after a barrage strikes Khe Sanh, February 21, 1968.

RUSSIAN COVERT INFLUENCE OPERATIONS: They target more than U.S. elections.

VALENTINE’S DAY MEDEVAC DURING TET OFFENSIVE 1968: The helicopters are bringing wounded men to a field hospital near Hue City. A grim photograph.

THE CRITICAL MINERALS LIST: Compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey. “…a draft list of minerals considered critical to the economic and national security of the United States.”

RELATED: Congo and the corrupt cobalt crisis. (Scroll down to February 10 post.)

TET OFFENSIVE, VIETNAM 1968: Rocket attack on Da Nang.

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER MCMASTER CALLS FOR “CYBER DIALOGUE WHEN RUSSIA IS SINCERE” ABOUT CURTAILING CYBER ESPIONAGE: When I first heard McMaster’s comments mentioned on the radio I thought “when Russia is sincere” had to be the punch line to a joke.

In responding to a question from a Russian politician about the U.S. and Russia potentially working together on cyber security, McMaster seemed to dismiss the notion.

“I’m surprised there are any Russian cyber experts available, based on how active most of them have been in undermining our democracies in the West,” he said to chuckles from the audience. He added, “we would love to have a cyber dialogue when Russia is sincere about curtailing its sophisticated form of espionage.”

Well, it was almost a punch line.

LINK: Fixed.

“BEEP AND A RUSH”:

…refers to something nonsensical or to someone who isn’t making any sense. Comes from the sound emitted by a “secure communications terminal” that isn’t synchronized with other secure terminals.

Read the whole thing at EMBRACE THE SUCK.

AMERICAN TROOPS IN EUROPE MUST ADJUST TO “THE CHANGING CHARACTER OF WAR”: I’m not sure war’s fundamental “character” has changed much in the last 30,000 years, but I believe General Scaparrotti is referring to innovative technologies and new tactical and operational wrinkles. He’s also preparing for full-spectrum combat (to include mechanized combat) against a near-peer adversary. And in eastern Europe who might that near peer be?

A new cyber center, intended to bolster defenses against Russian intrusions and misinformation campaigns, also will be formed at Scaparrotti’s NATO headquarters in Mons, Belgium.

The moves coincide with a push by the U.S. to rejuvenate EUCOM into a warfighting headquarters capable of commanding troops in a crisis. Military officials have said such high-end command and control skills languished during the post-Cold War era, but EUCOM has sought to bring them back.

EUCOM war games now focus on confronting a “peer competitors” and sophisticated military threats that weren’t a priority during the previous 15 years, when military attention was on counterinsurgency campaigns in the Middle East.

“We had to reorganize some of our staff to be able to work in this environment,” Scaparrotti said. “We’ve done that. We’ve tested ourselves.”

In Russia, Scaparrotti said he sees a military that also is evolving. Moscow’s interventions in Ukraine and Syria have been a “testing ground” for regular Russian forces. Meanwhile, Russia’s military buildup in Kaliningrad, a fortified enclave with sophisticated Iskander missiles, also is an area of concern, Scaparrotti said.

Article’s worth the read.

U.S. REJECTS CHINESE INVESTORS BID TO TAKE OVER CHICAGO STOCK EXCHANGE: Interesting that the stock exchange decision comes the same week that the Director of National Intelligence (and the heads of other American intel agencies) told the Senate they were worried about Chinese cyber warfare and nefarious Chinese penetration of American commercial enterprises and universities.

Note that the U.S. government originally said yes to the stock exchange deal:

The decision comes after more than two years of reviews by officials.

The tie-up was initially approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, pending further approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

But US politicians, including President Trump, have said letting a Chinese firm invest in a US exchange was a bad idea.

Under the proposal, the Chinese-led North America Casin Holdings group would have bought CHX Holdings, which owns the Chicago Stock Exchange.

The exchange, which handles just 0.5% of US stock trades, had said the deal would have provided the exchange with “vital capital”.

That funding would have been used “to boost numerous initiatives designed to benefit the city of Chicago, the US economy and market structure as a whole”.

“Numerous initiatives” in Chicago, huh?…Isn’t Barack Obama from Chicago?…

During last Tuesday’s (February 13) appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the DNI and the heads of the CIA, NSA and FBI said the American public should be “wary” of using Chinese Huawei smartphones.

“We’re deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don’t share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks,” FBI Director Chris Wray testified, according to CNBC. “That provides the capacity to exert pressure or control over our telecommunications infrastructure. It provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information. And it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage.”

RELATED: My column on the DNI’s testimony which quotes DNI Coats as warning that America’s adversaries are “using cyber and other instruments of power to shape societies and markets…”

REAL RUSSIAN HACKERS: Radio Free Europe cites a TASS report that last year hackers attacked the SWIFT international payments system through a Russian bank and stole $6 million.