TUESDAY PDB – Extreme danger. ‘Not prepared': Congressional panel calls for huge defense buildup. America's odds of fighting a major war are the highest in 80 years, and its military isn't prepared for one.
This was the finding of a bipartisan panel tasked by Congress to review U.S. defense strategy. Its nearly 100-page report reveals a crisis of confidence in American national security.
Every four years, Congress gathers a group of outside experts to review the country's national defense strategy. The goal is to assess U.S. national security like an accountant audits a company's books.
To do so, the eight commissioners spoke with lawmakers, U.S. allies, members of the administration and leaders in the Pentagon, including the secretary and deputy secretary of defense.
The commission chides a Pentagon it considers too plodding, a Congress it considers too partisan and multiple administrations it says have been too complacent to address threats from China, Russia and countries in the Middle East.
“The nation was last prepared for such a fight during the Cold War, which ended 35 years ago,” the report reads. “It is not prepared today.”
Meanwhile: “Public awareness is dismal,” and America's security threats are “blinking red.”
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:
HOMELAND SECURITY – LAW ENFORCEMENT
Fort Campbell soldier charged with selling secrets to China plans to plead guilty. Ex-Army sergeant Korbein Schultz is a traitor.
With DUI-related ejection from Army, deputy who killed Massey should have raised flags. The Illinois sheriff's deputy charged in the shooting death of Sonya Massey was kicked out of the Army for the first of two drunken driving convictions in which he had a weapon in his car, but multiple law enforcement agencies still gave him a badge.
POLITICS
EXCELLENT – Trump would ‘absolutely' scrap Biden's Air Force One colors. The Air Force is still modifying two Boeing 747-8s to replace the existing aircraft. They should be delivered in 2026 and 2027, years late and well over budget. When they arrive, they'll be sporting the traditional white-and-light-blue livery that has adorned presidential aircraft since JFK. But Trump can still order the color scheme back to his favored patriotic palette, similar to the colors on Trump Force One.
JD Vance and the Republican vets who think America should do less, not more, abroad. The Republican vice-presidential nominee served in the U.S. Marine Corps, and he's the first veteran of Iraq or Afghanistan to appear on a presidential ballot.
US companies are unwittingly pushing foreign disinformation, IC warns. Foreign actors are working hard to spread harmful narratives in the runup to the November elections — even hiring U.S. marketing and communications firms to help.
After Trump assassination attempt, some veterans spread misinformation. Others pushed back. We surveyed the social media accounts of the 95 veterans in Congress. Here's what we found.
Here are the four military veterans Kamala Harris might pick for VP. They are Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Michigan Sen. Gary Peters.
LITTLE ANTISEMITIC SUBVERSIVES – Aides in Congress create dissent channel to protest US support for Israel. An anonymous group of junior staff members has modeled its effort on an internal State Department messaging system, hoping to create an outlet for calls for a cease-fire in the war in Gaza.
Trump revives false claim that he, not Minnesota's governor, deployed the National Guard to Minneapolis during 2020 BLM riots. Still, it's likely that Trump's public pressure contributed to Tim Walz's decision to greatly increase the size of the deployment by mobilizing the entire Minnesota National Guard.
ISRAEL'S WAR AGAINST TERROR
MORE LIKELY THAN NOT – Hezbollah-Israel conflict not inevitable, US defense secretary says. Still, he remained concerned about the potential for escalation after a deadly rocket strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The Israel-Hezbollah war that no one wants could finally blow up.
Send private-security contractors into Gaza? That's a terrible idea. In Abu Dhabi— Israeli, U.S., and UAE leaders talking up the bad idea of using private military contractors into Gaza, in contradiction of every lesson learned in Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond.
A day of chaos in Israel as far-right protesters storm military bases. The protesters, encouraged by ultranationalist politicians from the governing coalition, broke into a military base where Hamas terrorists are detained and another base hosting the Israel Defense Forces military court.
US POWER OVERSEAS
The US says it has successfully practiced using a low-cost bomb to sink a major surface ship. China is taking note. The ex-US amphibious assault ship Tarawa was akin to a small aircraft carrier.
2 months of US-Japan military training stretches from north to south. Thousands of Marines joined their Japanese counterparts for training in southwestern Japan over the weekend, just a day after the Army concluded its largest exercise in the country.
At training event in Philippines, harsh climate challenges sustainment. With the deployment of an exportable version of the U.S. Army's Joint Pacific Multinational Combat Training Center to the Philippines complete, the service plans to enhance the training in the Southeast Asian country with improved mobility and sustainment capability and more unmanned systems.
Military forces practice coastal combat at Bellows during RIMPAC. At this year's iteration of the exercise Rim of the Pacific, service members from countries in Asia, the Pacific islands and Latin America have joined American Marines in training around Bellows Beach, practicing amphibious fighting tactics.
Austin, Blinken and Japanese leaders laud measures to curb US troops' drinking and sex crimes on Okinawa. U.S. Forces Japan is still working out details for a forum and joint patrols between U.S. military and Okinawan police announced last week to address anger over recent indictments of two service members.
CHINA THREAT
US boosts alliance with the Philippines with $500 million in defense funding and pact amid concern over China. This, along with progress on a proposed military intelligence-sharing pact.
Philippines performs first Sierra Madre resupply since inking deal with China. Philippine forces successfully resupplied, without incident, BRP Sierra Madre (LT-57) with provisions and personnel transfers to the Philippine outpost at Second Thomas Shoal.
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
US will send $1.7 billion in military aid to Ukraine. The package includes an array of munitions for air defense systems, artillery, mortars and anti-tank and anti-ship missiles.
Ukrainian troops say Russia has driven them out of 2 more front-line eastern Donetsk villages. This, after relentless assaults that are part of a Kremlin summer push to overwhelm battlefield defenses there.
NORTH KOREA THREAT
North Korea mulling nuclear test around US election, South Korea warns.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
France renews vow to defend freedom of navigation as it showcases fighters in the Philippines. It added that a pair of jets which landed there for the first time, along with its advanced military power, allow it to respond rapidly to any humanitarian or security crisis in the region.
In a show of growing ties, Russian warships make a new visit to Cuban waters. The three Russian warships arrived in Cuban waters on Saturday, Moscow's second such maritime voyage in as many months.
Japan to start making AMRAAMs and export PAC-3 missiles. It will lend its industrial prowess to help shore up munitions supplies, under an agreement with the U.S. to co-produce Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles and Patriot missiles.
SPACE THREAT
Space Force wants to send satellite repair kits to space. The capability would be needed during a conflict.
US MILITARY
WATCH: Air Force Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE) specialists leap into the Nevada desert.
WATCH: Ride along on the belly of an A-10 Warthog during a munitions drop.
William Calley, a junior Army officer and face of My Lai Massacre, is dead at 80. The former Lieutenant became the only person convicted after U.S. soldiers slaughtered hundreds of unarmed South Vietnamese men, women and children in 1968, one of the darkest chapters in American military history.
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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no one will fight for demoRats, not after what they have done to make our troops fodder, FJB and FKH
Keep up the good work! I love reading your column. Thank for your service. My husband retired USAF so I essentially served – giving birth to a son when Stan was remote 1965.