FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – American Liberty News (ALN) – in collaboration with respected national security expert Paul Crespo and the Center for American Defense Studies (CADS) – provides our readers the PDB:
Not the President's Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL'S DAILY BRIEFING.
Get Your Best Daily Defense and Foreign Affairs Intelligence Here in One Brief. Read the summaries or dive deeper via the linked articles.
POLITICS
Retired senior military officers should not engage in partisan politics. In his emotionally charged, oftentimes bitter retrospective on two decades of war, retired Marine and CIA officer Elliot Ackerman notes: “In 2020 … Americans … got to hear from the military's retired leadership, as a bevy of flag officers — both on the right and on the left — weighed in on domestic political matters in unprecedented ways. They spoke on television, wrote editorials that denounced one party or the other, and signed their names to letters on everything from the provenance of a suspicious laptop connected to the Democratic nominee's son to the integrity of the presidential election itself.”
How the new Republicans could reshape US national security. From China to anti-extremism efforts, a GOP-led House will have its say.
Time running out for Pentagon nominees. Pentagon leaders fear the chance of advancing a slate of critical department nominations this year is dwindling amid ongoing opposition on Capitol Hill, and they're warning that delays could cause significant hardship for military operations in the months to come.
DEFENSE BUDGET
A LOT OF MONEY – US military aid to Ukraine hits $20 billion. The Pentagon on Friday announced another $275 million in weapons and equipment for Ukraine, pushing the amount of military aid committed to Kyiv under Biden to nearly $20 billion — with most since Russia first attacked the country.
NATIONAL SECURITY
SECDEF Austin at STRATCOM: nuclear powers must avoid ‘irresponsible' threats. During a roundtable with reporters a STRATCOM representative said recent comments by Russia's Vladimir Putin “wanted to message that he would not take first strike off the table.”
Pentagon chief: Russia ‘modernizing and expanding its nuclear arsenal.' Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Russia is “modernizing and expanding its nuclear arsenal” as its invasion of Ukraine continues and Russian President Vladimir Putin has made threats about using nuclear weapons in the conflict.
PENTAGON WOKE WATCH
Here's where COVID-19 vaccine religious exemptions stand in the Corps. The commandant said Wednesday that the Corps would “keep pushing” its Marines to get vaccinated even absent a mandate.
HOMELAND SECURITY
Federal case against former Special Forces soldier goes to jury Monday. Retired Green Beret and Oath Keepers member Jeremy Brown, who was arrested in connection to the Capitol riot, is on trial in Florida for weapons charges.
Deserter Bowe Bergdahl's name surfaces in Oath Keepers member trial. The name of former U.S. Army infantryman Bowe Bergdahl, who deserted his post in Afghanistan and was held captive by the Taliban for more than four years before eventually being given his dishonorable discharge, has surfaced in the federal prosecution of retired Army Green Beret and Oath Keepers member Jeremy Brown.
Stonewalling on messy details of ‘Fat Leonard' Navy scandal feels like a blatant cover-up. When law enforcement agencies keep crucial information about high-profile cases from the public, they often say they must do so as to not interfere with investigations.
CHINA THREAT
Pentagon official: China must see Taiwan invasion as costly. When it comes to Taiwan, the United States' goal is to ensure Beijing understands an invasion is “never easy to do rapidly or cost-free,” the senior Pentagon official for the Indo-Pacific said.
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
Ukraine strikes Wagner HQ in Luhansk, governor says. Ukrainian forces have struck a headquarters of Russia's Wagner mercenary group in eastern Ukraine, Luhansk's Ukrainian governor has said.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 292. Heavy fighting in the country's east and south continued unabated, while drone and missile strikes on key power infrastructure kept many Ukrainians in the cold and dark.
Russia sends soldiers to war but ignores mental trauma they bring home. Thousands of Russian soldiers have gone to war, in Afghanistan, Chechnya and now Ukraine, but there are few health services to treat their psychological wounds.
Russia using more Iranian-made drones in attacks on Ukraine infrastructure: think tank. Russia is deploying a “significantly higher number” of Iranian-made drones to attack critical infrastructure in Ukraine than it has in previous weeks, according to an updated analysis from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Drone strikes leave more than a million without power in southern Ukraine, officials say. “After the night strike by Iranian drones, Odesa and other cities and villages of the region are in the dark,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY – NATO, MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA
US builds new firewall to stop spread of militant Islamists. Hundreds of American troops join Western allies in Niger to block al Qaeda and Islamic State from advancing violence and influence in West Africa. “I don't know that I'd call them winning. I‘d certainly say they're holding.”
US troops are back in Somalia and scrambling to help its special forces. The U.S. military is scrambling to make up for lost time in Somalia after President Joe Biden this spring reversed his predecessor's order to pull American soldiers out of the country and returned hundreds of them to the fight against one of al-Qaeda's most powerful global affiliates.
US raid kills 2 Islamic State militants in Syria. American forces killed two Islamic State group officials on Sunday in a helicopter raid in eastern Syria, U.S. Central Command said.
New Peru president appears with military to cement power. Peru's first female president appeared in a military ceremony on national television on Friday in her first official event as head of state, an attempt to cement her hold on power and buck the national trend of early presidential departures.
GO (KIWI) NAVY!? – A third of New Zealand's Navy ships are docked over lack of crew. Three of the Royal New Zealand Navy's nine ships are now docked at the Devonport naval base indefinitely, due to insufficient personnel.
BIDEN'S AFGHAN DISASTER
A desperate road trip to remind America about its Afghan allies. It was day eight, mile No. 1,240, of a cross-country road trip hastily organized to win over Republican senators. At stake: a stagnating effort to permanently resettle tens of thousands of Afghans brought to the United States when America's longest war came to a catastrophic end last year.
SPACE
US call for halting kinetic anti-satellite tests gets boost from UN vote. France just last week became the ninth nation to publicly join the moratorium — following Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Switzerland, and Australia.
NASA's Orion capsule blazes home from test flight to moon. NASA's Orion capsule made a blisteringly fast return from the moon Sunday, parachuting into the Pacific off Mexico to conclude a test flight that should clear the way for astronauts on the next lunar flyby.
Space Command promotes role in Artemis 1. As Artemis 1 nears its conclusion, U.S. Space Command is using the mission to highlight its role in supporting NASA.
SpaceX launches Japanese lander, UAE rover to the moon. A tiny NASA moon probe that aims to hunt for lunar water ice went along for the ride as well.
Defense bill underlines need for tactically responsive space program. The compromise version of the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act keeps language calling for the U.S. Space Force to fund a tactically responsive space program — continuing a three-year push for the service to prioritize the capability.
US MILITARY
Tomorrow's ‘Top Guns' will have uncrewed jets flying in the formation. Maverick's next wingman might be a drone.
‘Solid progress': A look inside Camp Blaz, the Marine Corps' newest base on Guam. Piles of clay-laden limestone, volcanic rock and machinery occupy the site that is becoming Camp Blaz, the first new Marine Corps installation in 70 years.
Marine Commandant Berger talks Ukraine, Taiwan and Force Design when he leaves. As he approaches his final months as the senior Marine, Gen. David Berger says Ukraine conflict has “validated” some Force Design 2030 concepts.
The Air Force wants to send its Reaper drones to Ukraine. The Pentagon's not so sure. Internal wrangling has stalled a plan to transfer older weaponry that the service has wanted to ditch.
Recruited for Navy SEALs, many sailors wind up scraping paint. The high failure rate of the elite force's selection course shunts hundreds of candidates into low-skilled jobs.
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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Gonna effect Morale BIG time
Milly needs to be brought up on Treason for Colluding with China . He believed Trump was going to start a nuclear war.
These supposed admirals and generals need arrested for treason.
Not only the retired but the current trash sitting in the Pentagon starting with Milley need to be retired without pension as the disgrace they are.