Honor Our Fallen by Understanding Their Missions

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. . .Our service members’ sacrifice is an abstraction when the average citizen has little idea where we are fighting and why. Our military’s broader missions don’t get much public attention, and our elected leaders struggle to describe them in easily digestible soundbites. Indeed, our complex war against transnational jihadists defies tidy abbreviation. The days of a discrete “war in Iraq” are gone. Our “war in Afghanistan” rages on, but is vastly reduced. The “war on terror” as a catch-all term is uselessly ill-defined. . .

Around 10,000 U.S. troops support the Afghan government against the Taliban and ISIS while peace negotiations proceed intermittently. A decade ago, 100,000 troops served on the ground. Now, only a few hundred participate in front-line combat missions alongside Afghan commandos, mainly against ISIS.

Most troops provide training, logistics, and air support to the Afghans. Without our help, the fragile Afghan government risks being overwhelmed by Islamists. The resulting anarchy might permit jihadist groups to carve out a sphere of influence and export terrorism, forcing us to return later. Since last year, 15 service members, all U.S. Army soldiers, have fallen to hostile action in Afghanistan. An additional six from the Air Force and Army died in non-hostile incidents. . .

About 6,000 service members partner with Iraqi forces and hunt the remaining ISIS cells. The Iraqi military, though far from perfect, is more capable now than in 2014, when it collapsed in the face of an ISIS blitzkrieg.

Our troops now train the Iraqis to prevent ISIS from making a resurgence. We also present a latent challenge to Iran’s expansionist designs on the region. It’s a risky situation, as seen when Iran-backed militias targeted our forces in December, precipitating our killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January. Leaving would open the door for Iraq to become an Iranian satellite and trigger the reemergence of the ISIS. Last year, we lost five service members to hostile action: three Marines, a soldier, and an Air National Guardsman. A U.S. interpreter was also killed. Three others died in non-hostile incidents. (Read more from “Honor Our Fallen by Understanding Their Missions” HERE)

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White House Discussing Possible Resumption of Nuclear Testing

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The White House has been discussing the possible resumption of testing nuclear devices as a means to pressure Russia and China to come to the bargaining table.

Nuclear testing was completely banned in 1991 when George H. W. Bush signed the START treaty. Resuming tests now would send a clear message that the U.S. wants another arms control treaty, this time involving China. China has rebuffed the suggestion, saying its nuclear arsenal is tiny compared to those of Russia and America. But the Chinese military is building missiles as fast as it can, and putting the brakes on China’s efforts makes sense.

The White House meeting discussing the testing option was a “deputies level” meeting, meaning it didn’t involve any cabinet secretaries or the president.

Guardian:

The discussion was first reported on Friday night by the Washington Post, which cited a senior administration official as saying that a demonstration to Moscow and Beijing that the United States could carry out a “rapid test” could be a useful bargaining counter in the achieving the administration’s priority on arms control – a trilateral deal with Russia and China.

(Read more from “White House Discussing Possible Resumption of Nuclear Testing” HERE)

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Shameful: On Eve of Memorial Day, NYT Accuses U.S. Military of Celebrating ‘White Supremacy’

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Memorial Day often marks the beginning of summer in earnest. Americans go outside, enjoy a barbecue, watch football, and take some time to remember the brave men and women who lost their lives to protect and serve the United States of America. The coronavirus may dampen some of these celebrations, but it should not impact America’s tribute to the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. Yet the editors at The New York Times thought Memorial Day weekend a great time to post a screed asking the question, “Why Does the U.S. Military Celebrate White Supremacy?”

Sure, the editorial posted on Saturday, not Monday. But it still came out during the weekend Americans associate with the holiday dedicated to commemorating the deaths of those who gave their last measure of devotion to this country. On that weekend, the Times accused the military — as a whole — of “celebrating white supremacy” because … military bases are named after Confederate generals.

Yes, that’s the entirety of the “evidence” that the military supposedly celebrates “white supremacy.”

The Times accused the U.S. military of celebrating racism because ten of America’s eight hundred military bases are named after Confederates — and the editors of America’s newspaper of record chose Memorial Day weekend to run this editorial. (Read more from “Shameful: On Eve of Memorial Day, NYT Accuses U.S. Military of Celebrating ‘White Supremacy'” HERE)

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Army Is Spending Half a Billion to Train Soldiers to Fight Underground

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U.S. Army leaders say the next war will be fought in mega-cities, but the service has embarked on an ambitious effort to prepare most of its combat brigades to fight, not inside, but beneath them.

Late last year, the Army launched an accelerated effort that funnels some $572 million into training and equipping 26 of its 31 active combat brigades to fight in large-scale subterranean facilities that exist beneath dense urban areas around the world.

For this new type of warfare, infantry units will need to know how to effectively navigate, communicate, breach heavy obstacles and attack enemy forces in underground mazes ranging from confined corridors to tunnels as wide as residential streets. Soldiers will need new equipment and training to operate in conditions such as complete darkness, bad air and lack of cover from enemy fire in areas that challenge standard Army communications equipment.

Senior leaders have mentioned small parts of the effort in public speeches, but Army officials at Fort Benning, Georgia’s Maneuver Center of Excellence — the organization leading the subterranean effort — have been reluctant to discuss the scale of the endeavor.

“We did recognize, in a megacity that has underground facilities — sewers and subways and some of the things we would encounter … we have to look at ourselves and say ‘ok, how does our current set of equipment and our tactics stack up?'” Col. Townley Hedrick, commandant of the Infantry School at the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia, told Military.com in an interview. “What are the aspects of megacities that we have paid the least attention to lately, and every megacity has got sewers and subways and stuff that you can encounter, so let’s brush it up a little bit.” (Read more from “Army Is Spending Half a Billion to Train Soldiers to Fight Underground” HERE)

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President Trump: ‘I Have a Chance to Break the Deep State’ (VIDEO)

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. . .While the interview hadn’t yet aired as of Saturday morning, Attkisson had begun releasing snippets and teasers from it, including one bombshell teaser regarding the president’s ongoing war with the so-called “deep state” of Obama-era operatives who’ve been working against him since before he’d even stepped into office.

“If it keeps going the way it’s going, I have a chance to break the deep state. It’s a vicious group of people,” the president reportedly said during the interview.

He was likely referencing the latest bombshells concerning the improper investigation into and prosecution of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

The bombshells have shown, among other things, that a slew of Obama administration officials sought in late 2016 and early 2017 to unmask Flynn’s name. One of those officials then leaked the findings to the press.

Now, while the “deep state” remark was the most explosive from the interview, it wasn’t the only notable one. Not by a long shot.

(Read more from “President Trump: ‘I Have a Chance to Break the Deep State’” HERE)

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Watch: U.S. Navy Warship Successfully Destroys Aircraft Mid-Flight With High-Energy Laser Weapon

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Video shows a U.S. Navy warship successfully shot down an aircraft out of the sky using a high-energy laser weapon. The USS Portland, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship of the United States Navy based out of San Diego, used a high-energy class solid-state laser to destroy a drone mid-flight.

“Amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland (LPD 27) successfully disabled an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a Solid State Laser – Technology Maturation Laser Weapon System Demonstrator (LWSD) MK 2 MOD 0 on May 16,” the Navy’s Pacific Fleet said in a statement on Friday.

The Navy said that the test was the “first system-level implementation of a high-energy class solid-state laser.” The 150-kilowatt weapon system has three lasers that were developed by Northrup Grumman.

“By conducting advanced at sea tests against UAVs and small crafts, we will gain valuable information on the capabilities of the Solid State Laser Weapons System Demonstrator against potential threats,” Capt. Karrey Sanders, commanding officer of Portland, said.

(Read more from “Watch: U.S. Navy Warship Successfully Destroys Aircraft Mid-Flight With High-Energy Laser Weapon” HERE)

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Democrats Just Announced Their New Plan to Impeach President Trump

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By CNN. The Democratic-led House of Representatives on Monday told the Supreme Court that the House needs secret Mueller grand jury materials to determine if there is new evidence of impeachable offenses involving President Donald Trump.

The House Judiciary Committee has been attempting obtain the documents prosecutors collected from witnesses about Trump in a back-and-forth legal fight that’s now reached the Supreme Court.

“The Committee’s impeachment investigation related to obstruction of justice pertaining to the Russia investigation is ongoing,” Douglas Letter, the House general counsel, said in a court filing Monday.

“If this material reveals new evidence supporting the conclusion that President Trump committed impeachable offenses,” Letter said, “the Committee will proceed accordingly — including, if necessary, by considering whether to recommend new articles of impeachment.” (Read more from “Democrats Just Announced Their New Plan to Impeach President Trump” HERE)

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Bill Maher Regrets Trump Impeachment; Acquittal Just ‘Emboldened’ President

By Washington Times. Bill Maher, one of President Trump’s fiercest critics on cable television, voiced regret Friday over Congress having conducted the impeachment proceedings he previously championed.

“Impeachment turned out to be a horrible thing,” the liberal comic said during the latest episode of his weekly HBO program, “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

“If I could do it over again, I wouldn’t, because it just emboldened him,” Mr. Maher said about impeaching Mr. Trump.

Mr. Maher, 64, made the remarks while discussing the president’s recent firing of five inspectors general who had been tasked with conducting oversight of the Trump administration.

Calling it a “war on accountability,” Mr. Maher said the president removed the watchdogs without making too much noise by acting while the media was focused on COVID-19, the contagious disease responsible for the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic that has claimed nearly 100,000 lives across the country and counting. (Read more from “Bill Maher Regrets Trump Impeachment; Acquittal Just ‘Emboldened’ President” HERE)

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Biden Denies Fraud in Mail-In Voting: ‘No Evidence Whatsoever’; GOP Groups Sue California Governor, Claim Vote-By-Mail Order Is ‘Brazen Power Grab’

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By Breitbart. Sunday on WISN’s “Up Front,” presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said there was “no evidence whatsoever” that mail-in voting is fraud-ridden. . .

Biden said, “I will tell you what, you mean Trump fraud? Look, he’s sitting in the White House filling out absentee ballots to vote in a primary in Florida. Now, why is it not fraud when he does it, and anyone else would do it? There’s no evidence whatsoever.” (Read more from “Biden Denies Fraud in Mail-In Voting: ‘No Evidence Whatsoever'” HERE)

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GOP Groups Sue California Gov. Newsom, Claim Vote-By-Mail Order Is ‘Brazen Power Grab’

By Fox News. The Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee and California Republican Party sued Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s Secretary of State Alex Padilla on Sunday, claiming an executive order sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters in the state is an “illegal power grab” that invites potential fraud.

Newsom’s order, aimed at allowing voters to avoid exposure to coronavirus, will send ballots to all registered voters including inactive voters. This has led to concerns that ballots sent to people who have moved or died will end up being filled out and submitted anyway unless voter rolls are inspected and cleaned out before ballots are mailed. Many Republicans have expressed concern that Democrats could try using these ballots improperly, to swing races in their favor.

“In a direct usurpation of the legislature’s authority, Governor Newsom issued an executive order purporting to rewrite the entire election code for the November 2020 election cycle,” read the complaint, filed Sunday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. “This brazen power grab was not authorized by state law and violates both the Elections Clause and Electors Clause of the U.S. Constitution.”

The lawsuit claimed Newsom “has created a recipe for disaster” by ordering ballots be sent to everyone registered to vote including inactive voters, arguing that “it invites fraud.” The Republicans also claimed that by giving Newsom the sole power over determining where and if in-person voting will take place, it will lead to “arbitrary and disparate treatment of individual voters,” violating the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

As examples of potential foul play, the complaint noted that mailed ballots easily could be intercepted by the wrong parties if they’re mistakenly sent to the wrong addresses or if the recipients lived in large residential buildings. Additionally, the Republicans wrote, voters could be susceptible to pressure from others when voting outside the private, secret confines of a voting booth. (Read more from “GOP Groups Sue California Gov. Newsom, Claim Vote-By-Mail Order Is ‘Brazen Power Grab'” HERE)

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Report: Texas Naval Base Jihadi Secured U.S. Citizenship Despite Living in Syria

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An accused terrorist who allegedly opened fire on United States Navy personnel in Corpus Christi, Texas, was able to secure American citizenship through a little-known immigration loophole, a former intelligence agent states. . .

The Center for Immigration Studies’ Todd Bensman, a former intelligence agent, reports that Alsahi was able to secure American citizenship through a little-known immigration loophole that depended on his father’s naturalized citizenship:

Adam Alsahli, 20 at the time of his death Thursday, was already a U.S. citizen when he moved from the Middle East to Corpus Christi, Texas, in 2014 with his mother (and likely several siblings) at the height of the Syrian civil war, by virtue of his father’s American citizenship, according to two sources familiar with the family’s immigration status. The attacker’s 75-year-old father, Salim Alsahli, became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1984, the sources told CIS, and subsequently seems to have sired a family back in Syria that included Adam Alsahli’s birth in 1999. [Emphasis added]

Although his children and their mother were born in and resided in the Middle East, the father’s U.S. citizenship conferred U.S. citizenship on Adam Alsahli, since he properly registered a declaration at a U.S. embassy or consulate office overseas. That apparently happened with Adam Alsahli because by the age of three, in the year 2002, [Alsahli] was granted an American passport that was repeatedly renewed over the years, sources said. [Emphasis added]

In 2014, at the height of the civil war inside Syria, Adam and at least his mother moved to the United States. The mother is currently a legal permanent resident who has a pending application for U.S. citizenship, the sources said. [Emphasis added]

(Read more from “Report: Texas Naval Base Jihadi Secured U.S. Citizenship Despite Living in Syria” HERE)

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Trump Suspends Travel From Brazil

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President Donald Trump is suspending travel from Brazil to the U.S. as the coronavirus pandemic worsens in Latin America’s largest nation and economy.

The president’s order, published Sunday, denies entry to “all aliens” who were in Brazil two weeks prior to their attempted entry into the United States. The order takes effect May 28 at 11:59 pm ET.

Brazil has rapidly become one of the hardest hit countries in the world as the World Health Organization warns that the epicenter of the pandemic has shifted from Europe and the U.S. to South America. . .

Brazil has more than 347,000 confirmed cases of the virus and at least 22,013 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. At this point only the United States is harder hit in terms of total positive cases. (Read more from “Trump Suspends Travel From Brazil” HERE)

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