Yemen turmoil escalates as Saudi Arabia bombs rebels

SANAA

March 27, 2015

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Followers of the Houthi movement shout slogans during a gathering outside the Presidential Palace in Sana'a on February 4.

The turmoil in Yemen grew into a regional conflict on Thursday, with Saudi Arabia and its allies bombing Shia rebels allied with Iran, while Egyptian officials said a ground assault will follow the airstrikes.

Iran denounced the Saudi-led air campaign, saying it “considers this action a dangerous step,” and oil prices jumped in New York and London after the offensive.

Indians in Yemen to be evacuated in ships

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

March 27, 2015

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APShiite rebels, known as Houthis, hold up their weapons to protest against Saudi-led airstrikes, during a rally in Sanaa.

APYemenis hold posters of the King of Saudi Arabia Salman as they chant slogans during a rally to show support for Saudi-led airstrikes against Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, in Taiz, Yemen.

State government has sought the assistance of the Centre

The Government of India is arranging two ships to bring back Indians trapped in Yemen following the conflict between the government and rebel forces, Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj has informed Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.

A press note issued by the Chief Minister’s Office here on Thursday said the Indians in Yemen would be transported in ships to the neighbouring country of Djibouti and from there by air to India. The airports in Yemen were closed due to the fighting between the rival forces.

India Unveils New Coastal Surveillance Radar Network

By Ankit Panda

March 26, 2015

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tour across the Indian Ocean this month was long overdue. Despite its name, the Indian Ocean has not firmly been under India’s custodianship, despite New Delhi’s status as the most capable sea-faring state in the region. During his trip, Modi visited Sri Lanka, Seychelles, and Mauritius — Maldives was struck from his original itinerary after the government there jailed an opposition leader — and addressed defense and security cooperation in each capital.

INDIA AND SAARC: WILL NEW INITIATIVES WORK? – ANALYSIS

By Preety Bhogal

MARCH 25, 2015

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South Asia is a regional bloc that holds immense trade potential but the achievement in intra-regional economic integration has been insignificant so far. The scope of regional cooperation among the South Asian economies is still limited. The 18th SAARC Summit held in Kathmandu, Nepal in November 2014, marked the dominion of the “alliance with neighborhood first” tenet in the evolving foreign policy of India. However, in terms of the India trade with the region, the reality is far from the popular belief.

The relationship between India and other South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member states rejects the gravity theory of international trade, which emphasizes on the role of geographical proximity in augmenting bilateral trade among countries. Despite the nearness, India has a prolonged history of poor trade with the other SAARC nations. In 2013-2014, India’s trade with SAARC members was 2.6 percent of India’s total trade with the rest of the world. Compared to this, India’s trade with countries further away in terms of distance namely the United States (US) and countries in the European Union (EU) was much larger.

Afghanistan and Pakistan: The False Promise of Rapprochement

By MOHAMMED UMER DAUDZAI

MARCH 22, 2015

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Afghanistan — Just weeks after becoming president of Afghanistanlast September, Ashraf Ghani signaled a dramatic shift in the country’s regional diplomacy. He promptly visited Pakistan and its main allies Saudi Arabia and China, and then Pakistan’s army chief and head of intelligence visited Kabul.

The Afghan government is hoping Pakistan will help facilitate dialogue with the leaders of the Afghan Taliban, whom Pakistan has long harbored and enabled. Pakistan, for its part, has asked Kabul’s assistance against the leaders of the militant group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (T.T.P.), the so-called Pakistani Taliban, whose leaders are said to be hiding in eastern Afghanistan.

A BETTER AFGHAN STRATEGY: LOSE THE TIMELINE

Jason Campbell

March 26, 2015

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The first official visit to Washington of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah comes at an opportune time for both countries. The significant drawdown of Western forces at the end of 2014 combined with recent events in Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine have pushed Afghanistan down the foreign policy priority list of the United States and its allies at a time of great transition. This visit will allow Ghani and Abdullah the occasion to put a new face on the bilateral relationship and signal clearly to Americans that the tumultuous days of the Karzai regime are over. For the United States it provides a valuable opportunity to reassess the nature of its commitment to supporting Afghanistan at the outset of the latest and perhaps most crucial phase of the conflict. The Obama administration would be wise to use this occasion not to simply reaffirm its current guidance regarding U.S. involvement in Afghanistan but to make a bold statement that it is committed to the longer-term, continued development of a key ally.

Meet Pakistan's Newest Political Odd Couple

By Jack Detsch

March 26, 2015

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Barely a week after Pakistani Army Rangers raided the headquarters of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Karachi, the embattled political party, accused of harboring illegal weapons on the premises, finally got some good news. On Wednesday, former president and co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Asif Ali Zardari extended an invitation to MQM to join its coalition in Sindh province.

Has the Caliphate Come to Kabul?

BY LEELA JACINTO

MARCH 23, 2015

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Shortly after 5 p.m. on Feb. 24, Ismail Keyhan arrived at Kabul’s central bus station to pick up his father, Amini, a day laborer working on construction sites in Iran. It had been nearly a year since the 20-year-old university student had last seen his dad, and as the evening sun inched toward the western mountains ringing the Afghan capital, Keyhan kept a close watch for the bus.

Does ASEAN Have a South China Sea Position?

By Prashanth Parameswaran

March 26, 2015

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On March 25, Xinhua reported that Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen had reiterated that the South China Sea dispute is an issue between claimant states and China, not between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China.

“It is not the issue of the whole of ASEAN, but the issue between claimant countries and China,” he said during a graduation ceremony at the National Institute of Education. “They need to negotiate with each other.”

SUB-REGIONAL COOPERATION CAN GIVE SAARC NEW WINGS – ANALYSIS

By G. Padmaja

MARCH 25, 2015

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SAARC regional cooperation and sub-regional cooperation were some of the issues discussed during Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar’s visit to Bhutan and Bangladesh on March 1 and 2 as part of his SAARC Yatra. These issues have acquired importance following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘neighbourhoood first’ policy. At the 18th SAARC summit in Kathmandu Prime Minister Modi minced no words in describing the limited progress which the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation has made in the last 30 years.

No, Indonesia’s South China Sea Approach Has Not Changed

By Prashanth Parameswaran

March 26, 2015

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Earlier this week, a number of news outlets reported that Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had said that part of China’s claims to almost the entire the South China Sea has no legal basis, and that Jakarta wants to remain “an honest broker” in the disputes there.

This was perceived among some to be the first time Jokowi had taken a position on the issue since taking office last October, which was significant because he said so on a visit to Japan and right before a trip to China. It might also contribute to the perception that Indonesia’s approach to the South China Sea issue has changed, however slightly, under Jokowi.

China, Russia Consider a Return to Six-Party Talks

By Ankit Panda

March 26, 2015

http://thediplomat.com/2015/03/china-russia-consider-a-return-to-six-party-talks/

On Wednesday, the Chinese foreign ministry issued a statement noting that the top nuclear envoys of both China and Russia met in Beijing on Tuesday to discuss a possible resumption of the Six-Party Talks on North Korea’s nuclear program.

Wu Dawei, China’s top diplomat focused on nuclear affairs, and his Russian counterpart, Igor Morgulov, met in Beijing on Tuesday. According to a statement released by the Chinese foreign ministry quoted by South Korea’s Yonhap News, the two envoys ”exchanged views on the resumption of the six-party talks.”

The Real Intention Behind China's Extreme Counter-Terrorism Law

By Franz-Stefan Gady

March 26, 2015

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The People’s Republic of China is postponing the third reading of a controversial draft of a new counter-terrorism law which, among other things, would have required Western technology firms to hand over encryption keys, source code, and install “backdoors” (bypassing normal authentication) giving Chinese authorities remote access to computers and networks.

Recent reports by U.S. authorities that the law has been put on hold for good have turned out to be premature. The law will likely be somewhat revised to address some Western concerns, since Beijing is still technologically dependent on foreign companies, despite a push to eliminate foreign technology in key sectors by 2020. “Currently, the deliberation on this law is ongoing,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on March 16.

China's Master Plan for Remaking Its Courts

By Susan Finder

March 26, 2015

http://thediplomat.com/2015/03/chinas-master-plan-for-remaking-its-courts/

The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) Court Reform Plan Outline has left most of the world confused about what it means, surprisingly including Chinese judges, some of whom have been burning up the Chinese blogosphere. Stanley Lubman, commentator on Chinese legal affairs, wrote: What remains unclear is whether Chinese leaders intend to make meaningful changes within that framework to raise the quality of Chinese justice or are merely paying lip-service to justice as they continue the old patterns of authoritarian control.

This article provides another perspective on the significance of the Court Reform Plan Outline.

The Court Reform Plan Outline needs to be recognized for what it is — part of President Xi Jinping’s comprehensive reforms of the current political system, and, in particular, part of his comprehensive reforms of the justice system. The aim is to raise the quality of Chinese justice (under Party leadership). As the head of the office of the Central Judicial Reform Leading Group (the Communist Party group in charge of judicial reform) said, “an unjust judiciary would have lethal damage effects on social justice [and, by implication, social stability].”

China and Non-Proliferation: Progress at Last?

By Ian J. Stewart

March 25, 2015

http://thediplomat.com/2015/03/china-and-non-proliferation-progress-at-last/

China’s implementation of non-proliferation controls has been subject to intense and ongoing criticism from the West since the 1970s. However, China’s non-proliferation commitments have gradually expanded over the decades, with implementation following behind, albeit with a substantial lag. There are signs that a tipping point may have been reached but China still has much to do to build confidence in its ability to manage strategic technology.

Welcome to the New Terror Heartland

BY Shane Harris, Tim Mak

03.25.15 

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America’s ally in Yemen is gone. Its special forces have been evacuated. A country touted by the President as a counterterror ‘model’ is poised to be an ISIS and al Qaeda playland. 

Now that U.S. forces have left Yemen and the country’s president has fled in the face of Iranian-backed rebels, the United States has a dramatically diminished capability to combat al Qaeda and ISIS militants who have rooted themselves in the war-torn country and pose a threat to the West, experts and lawmakers said. 

Japan's Navy Unveils 'Aircraft Carrier in Disguise'

Akhilesh Pillalamarri

March 25, 2015

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Japan’s largest warship since World War II has just entered service. Japan’s Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) took delivery on Wednesday of the Izumo, a helicopter carrier “as big as the Imperial Navy aircraft carriers that battled the United States in the Pacific.”

The Izumo was indigenously constructed at a shipyard in Yokohama, near Tokyo, at a cost of around $1.5 billion. It is named after the former Izumo province in western Honshu. In Japanese mythology, the entrance to yomi (hell) is located in Izumo.

JIHADISTS AS THE GREAT COALITION BUILDERS

Mark Stout

March 26, 2015

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When Tunisia’s authoritarian government fell, that democratizing and relatively free country became a place in which jihadists could operate with substantial impunity. One result was that Tunisia contributed adisproportionate number of foreign fighters to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Now, however, ISIL has fouled its own nest.

The recent terror attack at Tunisia’s Bardo National Museum has been a watershed moment for that transitioning nation. Though the dead were mostly foreigners, by attacking tourism the terrorists are directly threatening the livelihood of 10 percent of Tunisians, and indirectly threatening the rest of the population, too. Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, in a televised address, told the people “to understand that we are in a war against terrorism and that these savage minorities do not frighten us.” He added that “we will fight them without mercy to our last breath.” European leadersrushed to offer security and economic assistance to the country and to help it continue its democratic transition.

A grotesque love of propaganda. Unspeakable barbarity. The loathing of Jews - and a hunger for world domination. In this stunning intervention, literary colossus V.S. NAIPAUL says ISIS is now the Fourth Reich

By V.s. Naipaul

22 Mar 2015

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The Nobel Prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul has warned that Islamic State are the most potent threat to the world since the Nazis.

In a hard-hitting article in today’s Mail on Sunday, the revered novelist brands the extremist Muslim organisation as the Fourth Reich, saying it is comparable to Adolf Hitler’s regime in its fanaticism and barbarity.

Calling for its ‘military annihilation,’ the Trinidadian-born British writer says IS is ‘dedicated to a contemporary holocaust’, has a belief in its own ‘racial superiority,’ and produces propaganda that Goebbels would be proud of. 

Locked and Loaded: North Korea's Scary Chemical-Weapons Arsenal

Kyle Mizokami

March 26, 2015

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In recent years, North Korea’s chemical weapons have taken a backseat to her nuclear weapons. They are, however, no less dangerous. The deterioration of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) makes them more essential to victory than ever before. For both practical and doctrinal reasons, North Korea will almost certainly use chemical weapons in wartime, from riot control to lethal nerve gases.

Chemical weapons will be used to create a local, tactical advantage on the front lines and neutralize some advantages, such as air power. Thanks to North Korea’s prodigious missiles and artillery, they can be employed beyond the battlefield as well. North Korea will likely attack South Korea (ROK) through its depth with chemical weapons, from the Demilitarized Zone to Busan.

The Right Peace for Ukraine

By Sergei Lyovochkin 

March 25, 2015

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"There was never a bad peace nor a good war," Benjamin Franklin once said. The Russian language version of this is somewhat more direct: Bad peace is always better than a good war. In Ukraine today, we have a bad peace. Although violations of the cease-fire occur daily, full-scale warfare has, for now, abated. But it could start again, and our situation is as precarious as ever. We as Ukrainians need to unify now, before it is too late. The next step to be taken is not on the battlefield - it is in Kiev.

The world has seen how unpredictable our adversary is. Yet our fate today depends as much as ever on ourselves, and on whether we learn from past events or repeat mistakes.

Is North Korea a Nuclear State?

By Van Jackson

March 26, 2015

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If the global norm against nuclear proliferation is to retain meaning, North Korea must remain isolated from the international community in certain respects. But that doesn’t mean the United States or South Korea should be allowed to conduct naïve policy and planning toward North Korea. Recognizing the threat we are dealing with on the Korean Peninsula—a nuclear-armed North Korea—is a distinct proposition from allowing North Korea to rejoin the international community.

Should Putin Let the Ruble Bottom Out?

BY DEBORA L. SPAR

MARCH 25, 2015

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One can almost excuse Vladimir Putin for trying so hard. This is a man, after all, who famously built his public image in part on feats of derring-do: riding shirtless across Siberia, hang-gliding with migrating birds, and releasing a caged leopard into a natural reserve. So perhaps it isn’t surprising that the Russian president would leap with similar brashness into his country’s economic crisis, precipitated by tumbling global oil prices and Western sanctions. Why not use sheer financial force to wrestle the depreciating ruble back to safety?

Republicans' Israel Problem

Jacob Heilbrunn

March 25, 2015

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/republicans-israel-problem-12482

Jeb Bush's criticism of James Baker underscores how neocons have hijacked the GOP's Israel policy.

Former Secretary of State James Baker is discovering who really controls the Republican Party. Baker, who has never had much patience with Israel’s settlement policy, appeared on Monday evening before the Washington lobbying organization J Street—which was founded to counter the American Israel Public Affairs Committee—to chide Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for opposing Iran talks and disdaining a two-state solution with the Palestinians. “Frankly, I have been disappointed with the lack of progress regarding a lasting peace—and I have been for some time.” These might seem like fairly tepid criticisms, which is what they are. But now the long-time Bush family counselor is being repudiated by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush who is scurrying to shore up his support among the GOP’s pro-Israel base.

U.S. Naval Base Is Under Threat...And It's Britain's Fault

Peter Harris

March 24, 2015

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The naval base on Diego Garcia in the central Indian Ocean is one of the most strategically important U.S. military installations in the world. But the base’s future might just have been thrown into question by a seemingly unrelatedinternational ruling that the British government, which is sovereign over Diego Garcia, acted illegally by unilaterally announcing the creation of an environmental protection zone in the territory back in 2010.

INTERNATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY: BACKGROUND AND US RESPONSES – ANALYSIS

By Liana W. Rosen

MARCH 25, 2015

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Illegal drugs refer to narcotic, psychotropic, and related substances whose production, sale, and use are restricted by domestic law and international drug control agreements.1 Common illegal drugs trafficked internationally include cocaine and heroin, as well as psychotropic substances, such as methamphetamine and ecstasy.2 Cannabis, or marijuana, is also internationally proscribed. The illegal trade in these drugs represents a lucrative and what at times seems to be an intractable transnational criminal enterprise.

U.S. Air Force Pilots Said Retiring the A-10 Will Put Troops in Danger

By MANDY SMITHBERGER

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“I can’t wait to be relieved of the burdens of close air support,” Maj. Gen. James Post, the vice commander of Air Combat Command, allegedly told a collection of officers at a training session in August 2014.

As with his now notorious warning that service members would be committing treason if they communicated with Congress about the successes of the A-10 Warthog, Post seems to speak for the id of Air Force headquarters’ true hostility towards the close air support mission.

The White House Is Barely Shrinking the U.S. Force in Afghanistan This Year

By KEVIN KNODELL

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U.S. troops won’t be leaving Afghanistan as quickly as the White House once planned. On March 24, Pres. Barack Obama announced that American troops will slow their withdrawal from the troubled country.

Though the U.S. officially ended combat operations in 2014, American troops — and funds — still play a huge role in operations against insurgents and terrorists in Afghanistan.

“Putin’s Soviet Ambitions”: The Return of the Cold War

By Anant Mishra

26 Mar , 2015

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Ukraine is situated in the Eastern part of Europe bordering Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia and Slovakia. It is home to almost 44.3 million citizens (it grows to 45.4 million if we include Crimea). Territorially it is the largest country in Europe. After the fall of Soviet Union, Ukraine has maintained closer economic ties with Russia, and an estimated Ukrainian exports to Russia is 15.8million USD every year. It accounts for about 5% of the total Russia’s imports – the largest among the commonwealth of Independent nations and overall fourth largest. Ukraine is also a pipeline state which connects Russia’s gas supply to the west. One of the Russia’s five divisions in the Russian Navy, the Black Sea Fleet, is stationed at Svetsapol, Crimea.

U.S. Backing Iran With Airstrikes Against ISIS

Nancy A. Youssef

03.25.15 

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Iran and the U.S. say they’ve been fighting parallel wars in Iraq. But those two campaigns appear ready to become one, American officials tell The Daily Beast. 

The American-led coalition is now launching air strikes to back up Iranian and Iraqi troops in the key city of Tikrit, a U.S. official tells The Daily Beast. Those forces had previously kicked off their operation to reclaim Saddam Hussein’s from the self-proclaimed Islamic State without informing the U.S. military. But when that campaign stalled, they turned to American air power. 

The Planet’s Best Stealth Fighter Isn’t Made in America

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The U.S. military likes to think it makes the world’s most sophisticated combat aircraft. Think again.

In 2005, Lockheed Martin labeled the F-35, the stealthy new jet they were building for the Pentagon, as a “fifth-generation” fighter. Ironically, it was a term that they had borrowed from Russia to describe a different stealthy fighter, the F-22. But the term caught on. Some of Lockheed’s rivals tumbled into this rhetorical trap and tried to argue that “fourth-generation” was just as capable—whether it is true or not, making such a case is an uphill struggle. 

But if “fifth-generation” means more than “the ultimate driving machine,” a sixth generation will emerge. Saab—yes, that Saab—can argue that it has built the first such aircraft. The Swedish plane has got a mouthful of a name: the JAS 39E Gripen. But it could well be the future of air combat. 

Troubled Waters: Will a Strong Dollar Torpedo the Global Economy?

Samuel Rines

March 26, 2015

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The Plaza Accord was a truly coordinated effort by the G5 economic powers to spur economic growth. Finance ministers met, agreed on a course of action, and executed it. Although the goal was explicit, it was also vague—to devalue the dollar. Now, central banks are coordinating their policy decisions again. But instead of summits and meetings between finance ministers, central banks have a new method to conduct their policy coordination—transparency. Policy transparency from the Federal Reserve allows other central banks to anticipate their actions—and respond accordingly. This is the Yellen Accord—and it may just save Europe.

US Admiral: China Counter-Space Threat Is 'Real'

By Shannon Tiezzi

March 26, 2015

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China’s ability to wage war in space is a major concern for the United States, a U.S. admiral said this week. Admiral Cecil D. Haney, commander of U.S. Strategic Command (the command force responsible for U.S. nuclear forces and missile defense), made the remarks in apress briefing at the Department of Defense on Tuesday.

Haney referenced Chinese missile tests designed to target satellites in low-earth orbit, one in July 2014 and one in 2007. Haney said the U.S. watched the 2007 test “with astonishment,” noting that the successful destruction of the targeted satellite “created just thousands and thousands of pieces of debris that we are confronted with even today.”

ISLAMIC STATE ‘CYBERCALIPHATE’ HACKED 600 RUSSIAN WEBSITES IN 2014

By RFE RL

MARCH 25, 2015

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Hackers aligned to Islamic State (IS) militants attacked 600 Russian websites last year, according to a new report by Russian cyber intelligence company Group-IB.

The websites targeted by the group include a number of banks, construction companies, government organizations, and even schools and a local history museum in the North Urals, Group-IB said on March 25.

Apple co-founder on artificial intelligence: ‘The future is scary and very bad for people’

By Peter Holley 

March 24

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The Super Rich Technologists Making Dire Predictions About Artificial Intelligence club gained another fear-mongering member this week: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. 

In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Wozniak joined original club members Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk by making his own casually apocalyptic warning about machines superseding the human race. 

"Like people including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have predicted, I agree that the future is scary and very bad for people," Wozniak said. "If we build these devices to take care of everything for us, eventually they'll think faster than us and they'll get rid of the slow humans to run companies more efficiently." 

A clarion call to prepare for cyberwar. But what’s the threat?

By Michael Schmitt

23 March 2015.

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Summary: American professionals writing about national defense are intelligent and well-educated, usually with distinguished careers. But their writings should be datelined “from Oz”. Today we examine another example, about the law of cyberwar. {1st of 2 posts today.} 

In every War College in the world, two core principles of military planning are that “hope is not a plan” and “the enemy gets a vote.” Any plan developed without sensitivity to these two maxims is doomed to fail. They apply irrespective of the mode in which the conflict is fought, the nature of the enemy, or the weapons system employed. Unfortunately, some states seem to be disregarding the maxims with respect to cyber operations. They include certain allies and friends around the world, states that the United States will fight alongside during future conflicts. The consequences could prove calamitous, especially in terms of crafting complementary strategies and ensuring interoperability in the battlespace.

Russia playing the long game in global cyberwar campaign

By Jarno Limnell 

March 24, 2015

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The recently published US intelligence community's annual threat assessment promotes cyberattacks the most serious threat to US national security.

This is nothing new, since "cyber threat" replaced terrorism as the main threat a few years ago. What is new however is that where the emphasis was previously on the threat from Chinese, it is now changed to put the emphasis on Russia's cyber-capabilities.

Russia has been developing its cyber-capabilities with big resources for the last 30 years, but it has been fairly restrained in its use so far. At least most of the experts estimate this to be the case.

For example, Russia has not been forced to use its more sophisticated capabilities in Ukraine since it has achieved its political goals without it. But if the war in Ukraine gets worse, so will the related cyber-activities.

Why Politicians Could Use an Arts Lesson

Tom Parker

March 26, 2015

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Political leaders with an intellectual bent usually gravitate towards reading history, often biographies of political figures that they admire or identify with. A smaller number are also drawn towards the arts. George Washington had his favorite play, Joseph Addison’s Tragedy of Cato—about the Roman leader who chooses death over captivity—performed at Valley Forge. Richard Nixon named Tolstoy as his favorite author and George H. Bush War and Peace as his favorite book. John Kennedy and Albert Gore cited Stendhal’s The Red and the Black, the French 19th century novel about the young ambitious Julien Sorel, among their favorites. Senator Robert Kennedy turned to the Greek tragedies after his brother’s assassination.

HARRY POTTER AND THE FIVE-SIDED LABYRINTH

March 26, 2015 

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Not long ago I was searching for an obscure office off a little-used corridor in the lowest subterranean level of the Pentagon when I had an epiphany. Though it seems far-fetched at first glance, J. K. Rowling’s fabulously successful series of Harry Potter novels is nothing less than a thinly-disguised allegory of the U.S. armed forces.

Rowling’s tale is about good, evil, and coming of age in a community based on arcane magic, existing among but hidden from the rest of human society. It revolves around Hogwarts, an academy where trainee wizards learn their craft. Students arriving at Hogwarts are assigned to one of four centuries-old houses within the school based on their personality traits, and their lives then revolve around these identities as the houses vie with each other for preeminence. And this is where the parallels with the American defense establishment start revealing themselves.

The F-35 Nightmare Could Get Even Worse

By Dan Ward

March 24, 2015

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Let’s assume the Pentagon somehow comes up with enough money to pay for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Suppose further the F-35 eventually passes all its test and evaluation milestones and the appropriate authorities make the appropriate Initial Operational Capability and Final Operational Capability declarations.

Let’s imagine a future in which the various services have patiently waited long enough to finally take ownership of their respective fleets, totaling some 2400+ aircraft, allowing the Pentagon to retire the F-16, A-10, F-18 and AV-8. And maybe the F-15 and F-22, as well.

When the Hermit Kingdom Turned Ugly

Nicholas Mancusi

03.25.15 

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Just a few months after the end of the Korean War, a bright, well-dressed young man named Kenneth Rowe matriculated at the University of Delaware to study engineering. Although only a little older than most of his classmates (he was 22 at the time), the man whose birth name was No Kum Sok had already lived though enough hardship and misadventure for an entire lifetime. On September 21, 1953, just days after an uneasy armistice had been signed to end hostilities between belligerents (despite not actually ending the war that officially is still extant), he had piloted his MiG-15 fighter plane across the 38th parallel, defecting from North Korea and landing unannounced at an American airbase. He had no idea about the $100,000 that the U.S. government had promised to any defector who would deliver a working MiG.