GOP Governor Sends Guard Troops To Border ‘Warzone’

WEDNESDAY PDB – Noem deploying troops from South Dakota to border ‘warzone.' South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem joined a list of Republican governors who have pledged to deploy troops to the country's southern border.

“The border is a warzone, so we're sending soldiers,” Noem posted on X. “The SD-Guard's primary mission will be construction of a wall to stem the flow of illegal immigrants, drug cartels, and human trafficking into the United States of America.”

Noem said 60 South Dakota soldiers will be deployed to Texas in the spring on a rolling basis “over a three-month period.” She said the deployment “answers the call” from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R).

Abbott and the Texas National Guard have continued building razor wire barriers along the southern border, defying a Supreme Court decision, and increasing tensions with the Biden White House.

Republican governors across the country are backing Abbott in his standoff against the federal government, and many have shown support by sending Guard troops to support Abbott.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here's a roundup of today's other top defense stories from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.

Not the President's Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL'S DAILY BRIEFING – the PDB:

NATIONAL SECURITY

Musk's SpaceX forges tighter links with US spy and military agencies. SpaceX is deepening its ties with U.S. intelligence and military agencies, winning at least one major classified contract, and expanding a secretive company satellite program called ‘Starshield.'

How many Sentinel nuclear-tipped missiles does the US need? The Air Force deployed its first Minuteman missile in 1962.

The revolution that wasn't: How AI drones have fizzled in Ukraine (so far). Last fall, both Russia and Ukraine boasted of fielding drones that tracked targets using AI algorithms. New analysis suggests that neither side got it to work properly — but the US and China might.

POLITICS

Reversing ‘alarming erosion' in military quality of life requires Biden funding request. The White House needs to ask Congress for enough money in its fiscal 2025 budget request to fix it, bipartisan leaders from the House Armed Services Committee wrote in a recent letter to Joe Biden.

TO COUNTER CHINA – Congress must extend vital Central Pacific agreements. The bipartisan Compact of Free Association Amendments Act must be part of any FY 2024 appropriations package. This would fund the agreements between the U.S. and the Freely Associated States (FAS) — Palau, the Marshall Islands, and Micronesia — for another 20 years.

US POWER OVERSEAS

Navy destroyer trains near India following drills in South China Sea. A U.S. guided-missile destroyer joined Japanese and Australian warships for weekend drills before heading to India for a separate, five-day exercise.

US, Singapore air forces to team up at vital Pacific base in Guam. Andersen Air Force Base will house half of Singapore's F-15 fleet, as the city state seeks to ramp up its combat readiness.

IRAN THREAT

BIDEN WEAKNESS CONTINUES – Yemen's Houthis can still fight despite US-led airstrikes. Despite a month of missile and airstrikes, just this week, Iran-backed Houthis seriously damaged a ship in a crucial strait and apparently downed an American drone worth tens-of-millions of dollars.

CHINA THREAT

China's coast guard has triggered ‘panic' in Taiwan. That's only part of Beijing's plan. King Xia, a Taiwanese tourist boat, was taking 23 passengers on a journey around Taiwan's outlying Kinmen Islands just miles from China's southeastern coast when it was intercepted by two Chinese coast guard vessels.

US Space Force: We need a hotline to China. Direct communications could ward off miscalculation as space militarizes faster than norms develop.

China unveils export version of attack helicopter. The signature attack helicopter was shown off by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) at the Singapore Airshow.

RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR

Five places Russia is fighting to break through Ukrainian lines. Outmanned and outgunned, Ukrainian ground forces are in perhaps their most precarious position since the opening months of the war.

Why Ukraine wants Germany's Taurus missile. Germany is considering sending Taurus guided missiles to Ukraine. What can these systems do?

Next-door to Ukraine, Moldova's president warns, ‘Putin will not stop.' Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been a ‘profile in courage' in resisting the Russian invasion of his country. Much less well-known is Maia Sandu, who has been president of Ukraine's tiny neighbor Moldova since 2020.

EU approves new sanctions package against Russia. The 13th package of Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia bans nearly 200 entities and individuals accused of helping Moscow procure weapons or of involvement in kidnapping Ukrainian children.

Two years after Russian invasion, landmines plague one-third of Ukraine. Mines, including a deadly new Russian version, litter an area roughly the size of Florida, undermining an international effort to ban the weapons.

Los Angeles woman arrested on treason charge in Russia. Its Federal Security Service announced the arrest of a 33-year-old woman on treason charges, accusing her of taking part in pro-Ukraine protests outside of Russia and of sending aid to Kyiv.

SPACE THREAT

Growing the Space Force: Is outsourcing operations an answer? As the Space Force plans to reorganize for a potential fight with China, the service is eyeing using contractors rather than Guardians to run some satellite networks.

A dead satellite will crash back to Earth this Wednesday. What to know. After 16 years of operation, a defunct satellite will crash at approximately 10 a.m. ET, says the European Space Agency.

ISRAEL'S WAR AGAINST HAMAS

Israel orders new evacuations in northern Gaza as UN suspends food deliveries. Residents of two neighborhoods in Gaza City were ordered to evacuate, and the World Food Program described scenes of chaos in the north too dangerous to allow it to provide food supplies.

US MILITARY

Air Force knows what failed in fatal Osprey crash — but not why. Air Force Special Operations Command said Tuesday it knows what failed on its CV-22B Osprey leading to a November crash in Japan that killed eight service members., but not know why.

Inside the Navy's quest to fix its recruiting crisis. Last year, the Navy hit a grim milestone for the first time in its history, one that leaders hoped they would never see.

Marine Corps launches Corps-wide barracks inspections. More on the Marine Corps' efforts to improve the quality of its barracks.

What is the Marine's so-called ‘old corps'? It's a story as old as the military: someone always had it worse, things were harder, and that never happened back when [insert random older Marine] was in the Corps.

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.

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