PDB – Biden’s Dangerously Weak Defense Budget

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – American Liberty News (ALN) – in collaboration with the Center for American Defense Studies (CADS) – provides our readers the PDB:

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Today's PDB includes a variety of critical, global national security issues.

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READ TODAY'S PDB BELOW:

NATIONAL SECURITY

PROBABLY – Is the US losing an arms race to Russia and China? As Russia and China claim gains on hypersonic weapons development, with possible use of the missiles in Ukraine, the U.S. is still trying to chart its course forward. Plus, a new enlisted unit structure is tested out in the Marines, and the 2nd Cavalry Regiment makes a show of force with Romania's army just west of Ukraine.

DEFENSE BUDGET – NOT ENOUGH

GET IT TOGETHER FOLKS – Pentagon may need more budget funding to help Ukraine. Pentagon leaders said the budget was finalized before Russia invaded Ukraine, so it has no specific money for the war.

OF COURSE, IT DOES – Biden's FY23 budget request fails to fully tackle inflation. This is not a case of blindly calling for “more, more, more!” Rather it is a plea for meeting needs and persistently high inflation.

DITTO – Critics: Pentagon budget fails to account for crises at home, abroad. President Biden's defense spending proposal met an onslaught of criticism from congressional Republicans upon its release Monday for failing, they say, to adequately address escalating inflation and the West's standoff with Russia over Ukraine — growing crises that, officials acknowledged, did not factor into the Pentagon's request to Congress.

DANGEROUS WATERS – US Navy Fleet Would Shrink Under Biden Request. Increasing spending by just 5 percent and cutting two dozen ships. The administration's Navy budget documents do not contain the long-range shipbuilding plan that Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday has said will come out this year. Gilday has publicly advocated for a fleet of 500-plus crewed and uncrewed ships.

Biden budget would mean smallest Army since WWII. Amid a major land war in Europe, the Biden administration's fiscal 2023 budget request would temporarily shrink the active-duty Army to 473,000 troops if enacted by Congress.

Marine Corps wants money for ships, missiles, sensors. Money is coming, but not exactly at the level or timing that Marine leaders have wanted.

CHINA THREAT

Shanghai starts China's biggest COVID-19 lockdown in 2 years. China began its most extensive coronavirus lockdown in two years Monday to conduct mass testing and control a growing outbreak in Shanghai as questions are raised about the economic toll of the nation's “zero-COVID” strategy.

RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR

DANGEROUS WORDS – WHAT IF TRUMP HAD SAID IT? Biden says denunciation of Putin was personal, not policy. President Biden stood by his comment that Vladimir Putin should be removed as Russia's president, saying he was “expressing the moral outrage I felt.”

CEASE-FIRE EQUALS WINS FOR MOSCOW – Ukraine claims some battle successes as Russia focuses on another front. With the fighting raging, diplomacy between the two sides was continuing, with talks planned in Istanbul on Tuesday.

Russia shifts focus to try to grind Ukraine's army in east. With its aspirations for a quick victory dashed by a stiff Ukrainian resistance, Russia has increasingly focused on grinding down Ukraine's military in the east in the hope of forcing Kyiv into surrendering part of the country's territory to possibly end the war.

NORTH KOREA THREAT

MORE TROUBLES – N. Korea's Kim calls for ramping up ideological campaigns amid ‘worst difficulties.' North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for a propaganda campaign to increase popular support for the country's ideology of self-reliance amid “the worst difficulties,” state media KCNA said on Tuesday.

IRAN THREAT

IS BIDEN UNDERMINING TRUMP SUCCESS? – US, Israel and Arab states to expand cooperation in unprecedented meeting. While unprecedented, the meeting came amid a growing list of tensions between Washington and its Middle East allies, including the Iran nuclear deal, tensions between Israelis and Palestinians and a lackluster response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine from Arab and Israeli partners.

Strikes on Iraq reveal Iran's embrace of missile operations. The pattern of strikes reveals an important dyad driving Iran toward more missile use: real advancements in its ballistic missile program and sticky perceptions of declining U.S. (BIDEN) resolve to counter Iran.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

Canada picks the F-35 in fighter replacement competition. Canada plans to buy 88 new fighter jets to replace its CF-18s. The government has budgeted about CA$19 billion (U.S. $15 billion) for the purchase.

END of PDB

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.