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.
PENTAGON WOKE WATCH
MORE ‘MOMMY AND ME' MATERNITY TIME EVEN WITHOUT GIVING BIRTH – WOOHOO! Troops entitled to 12 weeks of leave after birth, adoption of a child. Any service member welcoming a new child can take up to 12 weeks of parental leave in the year following, according to a congressionally mandated policy signed Thursday.
Pentagon scrambles to prep new COVID rules as vaccine mandate nears end. Vaccine-refusal separations are on hold as DOD develops “further guidance.”
Pentagon ordered to review its new practice of concealing documents from the public. In late December, the Pentagon was faced with Congress repealing its requirement that all troops be vaccinated against COVID-19, an issue that had wide public interest.
DEMOCRAT STATE DID NOT PROTECT OUR MOST DESERVING AND VULNERABLE – WHILE MASKING EVERYONE ELSE – Court weighs reviving criminal charges over COVID-19 outbreak at veterans' home. Massachusetts' top court on Wednesday appeared open to reviving indictments against two former leaders of a veterans home charged with criminal neglect for their roles in handling a COVID-19 outbreak that killed 76 people.
THEY FOUND ONE! – A RARE BIRD INDEED – Marine Corps boots poolee tied to neo-Nazi groups. The Marine Corps has kicked out a man from its Delayed Entry Program after he admitted that he had belonged to extremist groups before enlisting, the service announced on Wednesday.
POLITICS
MAYBE DON'T DO OR SAY DUMB THINGS – Milley told Jan. 6 panel he's become a political ‘lightning rod.' Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, spoke with congressional investigators about a “deliberate attempt” to smear the military's general officer corps.
McCarthy's troubled speaker bid raises questions about Ukraine. Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California failed for the fourth time on Wednesday to secure enough votes to become speaker of the House, as his right-wing opponents wielded their opposition to U.S. aid for Ukraine as part of their justification for voting against him.
OVERSTATED? – House Speaker impasse hurting national security, vet lawmakers warn. The group is urging fellow GOP members to find a path forward on party leadership as quickly as possible.
NATIONAL SECURITY
White House says it can't confirm that US-supplied heavy artillery system destroyed by Russia in Ukraine. The White House on Wednesday said there was no confirmation of reports from Moscow that the Russian military had destroyed a U.S.-supplied heavy artillery system called HIMARS in Ukraine.
Putin's war in Ukraine and the ‘conversion of Russia.' They didn't go as planned.
Bombers necessary to deter and defeat. A healthy and capable U.S. bomber fleet is vital to national security.
HOMELAND SECURITY
HILARIOUS PARTISAN SHOW AFTER DEMOCRAT-FUELED BLM POLITICAL VIOLENCE INJURED 2,000 COPS in 2020. Veterans urge top House Republicans to condemn political violence. Veterans, law enforcement officers, and others signed a letter calling on top Republicans in the U.S. House to publicly condemn political violence.
CHINA THREAT
War over Taiwan could be inevitable as US, China and Taipei boost military spending. All sides appear to be preparing for what could be an inevitable military solution as defense budgets balloon and the US continues to arm Taiwan
This unusual new Air Force tactic is likely raising alarms in China, expert says. “The agility of the U.S. military's distributed method for strike missions and the suddenness of those strikes will increase immensely.”
US moves to reopen Solomon Islands embassy to counter China. The Biden administration is plowing ahead with plans to reopen the U.S. embassy in the Solomon Islands in a bid to counter China's increasing assertiveness in the Pacific.
FACING CHINA – Japan's Kishida eyes deeper defense alliance with US. President Biden will host Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House next week as Japan boosts its defense spending amid growing security risks in East Asia regarding North Korea and China.
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
Ukraine claims heavy Russian losses in waves of missile strikes. Kyiv says its forces have killed or wounded more than 1,000 Russian soldiers in a series of attacks. Russia has confirmed only one wave of strikes.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 316. Heavy fighting around the largely ruined Ukrainian-held city of Bakhmut is likely to persist for the foreseeable future, according to a senior US administration official.
France to send light battle tanks to Ukraine in first for Kyiv. France will send light battle tanks to Ukraine, becoming the first nation to arm Kyiv with Western-style combat tanks in the war against Russia.
Ukraine sees signs of Russia shifting firepower from Bakhmut. Russian troops have tempered their assault on the city, Ukrainian commanders say, as stiff resistance forces Russian units to shift some of their firepower to surrounding areas.
US edges closer to sending armored weaponry to Ukraine. President Biden acknowledged that Bradley fighting vehicles are under consideration for delivery to Kyiv, as France pledges light tanks.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY – NATO, MIDDLE EAST, ASIA, AFRICA
Poland signs deal to buy 2nd batch of Abrams tanks. Poland's defense minister on Wednesday signed a deal to buy a second batch of U.S Abrams main battle tanks as Warsaw beefs up its defensive capabilities and strengthens military cooperation with Washington in light of Russia's war in neighboring Ukraine.
In Romania, US troops train close to Russia's war, in signal to Moscow. The deployment to a NATO country near the conflict in Ukraine is seen as a model of deterrence for a U.S. military that has recently stepped back from direct fighting.
Russia's hypersonic missile-armed ship to patrol global seas. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday sent a frigate armed with the country's latest Zircon hypersonic missile on a trans-ocean cruise in a show of force as tensions with the West escalate over the war in Ukraine.
How the New Zealand Navy plans to fix its sailor and ship shortfalls. A third of Royal New Zealand Navy ships are docked due to a shortage of sailors, causing a loss of “significant flexibility,” the service's top officer tells Defense News.
Taliban says eight ISIL fighters killed in raids in Afghanistan. The raids follow a series of attacks conducted by ISIL, including a deadly bombing near a checkpoint in Kabul.
NORTH KOREA THREAT
North Korea is developing a HIMARS for nuclear missiles. North Korea wants its own ‘Atomic Annie' multiple-launch rocket system.
North Korean drone entered no-fly zone near Seoul's presidential office. A North Korean drone entered a no-fly zone surrounding Seoul's presidential office last week, South Korea's military said Thursday, in the latest example of the growing military threat from Pyongyang, which has also ramped up missile testing and sent planes near the border.
IRAN THREAT
Iran building drone aircraft carrier from converted merchant ship, photos show. In a dry dock near the entrance to the Persian Gulf, Iran's sectarian naval force is converting a former merchant container ship into a drone aircraft carrier, according to satellite and open source photos published last week by USNI News contributor H I Sutton.
US MILITARY
Army Spartan Brigade preparing to put newest combat vehicles through their paces. The US Army is about to get a peek at how its newest fleet of Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Paladin howitzers will operate together in “austere” environments.
New in 2023: Force Design 2030 update coming this spring. The next annual update for the Marine Corps' Force Design 2030 initiative — the service's effort to restructure and reshape its force — is expected to come out in the spring, according to the Marine Corps.
A new plan for the Marine Corps and the nation: Vision 2035. A new proposal for the Marine Corps, created by retired Marine generals, offers an alternative approach.
Air Force test fires its latest missile configuration for the new F-15EX. The upgraded F-15EX can carry up to four more air-to-air missiles than its predecessor.
‘BIDENFLATION' DOESN'T HELP – US military has unusually high rate of food insecurity, study finds. More than 25% of active-duty service members lack consistent access to enough food for their households, and Army personnel or on-base residents are especially at risk for food insecurity, according to a new report.
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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Then revoke Woke in DoD OK
Terrible woke overpaid BIDEN puppet, our adversaries are laughing out loud
If Milley’s a lightning rod, I say we all invest in skewers and marshmallows. Don’t let opportunities go to waste.
Milley has become a complete fool. He could serve only under the idiot president Slow Joe Biden and is his public crime family.
Milley is a traitor with him siding with the Chinese. Should be removed as head of the services. He sided with the CCP against Trump his commander ,He would have removed any officer that critized him the way he did the commander in Chief
Amazing no one has put this sob and the rest of the woke generals etc down like the diseased pedophiles they are.
Perhaps he needs to be clued in that if you stand on top of a high building during a thunderstorm you are very likely to get zapped. MOST of us learned early on to at least come in out of the rain, apparently he has not.
Focus on China, Russia and Iran and forget about wokeness