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Hope everyone is doing well!
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We’ll start this episode with President Biden naming the country’s two biggest national security threats, then, we’ll move on to the following:
Besides discussing the two national security threats that Biden named, I’ll also talk about a big one I think he missed.
Ukraine’s advances in the south near Kherson are causing Russia to urge residents to evacuate.
NATO is talking about delivering increased numbers (and quality) of anti-air weapons to Ukraine.
SpaceX, which has been providing critical internet for Ukraine, announced it can no longer pay for those services, and is asking the United States to cover those costs.
And, as always, end with our motivation and wisdom section.
The biggest news of late was President Biden laying out the country’s two largest security threats.
Biden’s National Security Strategy Focuses on China, Russia and Democracy at Home
From the story:
President Biden declared on Wednesday that the overwhelming challenge for the United States in the coming years would be “outcompeting China and restraining Russia” while focusing on restoring a damaged democracy at home.
In his 48-page national security strategy, which every new administration is required to issue, Mr. Biden made clear that over the long term he was more worried about China’s moves to “layer authoritarian governance with a revisionist foreign policy” than he was about a declining, battered Russia. More than six months after the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military appears less fearsome than it did when the first drafts of the document circulated in the White House in December.
Honestly, it’s kind of hard to disagree with these two threats. Though I’m certain if things heat up with Iran (or some kind of terrorist threat happens), then conservatives will pounce on those things not being named. (I am on vacation, as I had said, and couldn’t fully scrutinize the document, but I didn’t see Iran mentioned in a quick scan.)
You can scan the open-source document yourself here: full national strategy.
One of the items that I’m surprised wasn’t discussed more was our wide-spread division and the surprisingly-high reality of internal strife/conflict.
I found only a single sentence, unless I’m missing something:
And at the same time, we are standing up to threats to our democracy such as domestic terrorism by implementing our nation’s first-ever National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism.
Not to state the overly-obvious, but…
We’ve had protestors fighting in the streets during the BLM protests, we’ve had plans to abduct a governor (in Michigan), and we’ve had a mob storm the capital (with an uglier back-up plan that included weapons from some groups).
Commentators and political figures from the right routinely talk about increasingly aggressive actions to take back the country, and it’s not even rare to hear discussions of a looming civil war.
This is one of the main reasons I’ve been doing this newsletter; this division is real, it’s nasty, and it’s dangerous. It’s arguably lethal to our country, if you study the history of other countries.
But I also know President Biden likely hesitated highlighting these threats further because such a thing would be taken by the right as proof that the federal government would use its powers to attack its opposition.
Always a balancing act for sure, and often, the art of politics is discretion and biting your tongue.
Moving along…
Ukraine continues to advance in the south, gaining new ground near Kherson. It’s gotten so bad that Russia has said it will help civilians evacuate from the area to Russian territory, though I have no idea why anyone in their right minds would want to do that.
At the same time, the Russian missile attacks against civilian structures in Ukraine are galvanizing support for better anti-air weapons.
Somewhat worrying, this news broke as well:
I’m going to wrap things up there for today on the news portion. It’s vacation and I probably SHOULD be relaxing more (always a struggle for me). Lol
Having said that, let’s end with Motivation and wisdom portion now.
And, I always like to end with this one:
And with that, thanks for joining us this week on The View from the Front.
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As a reminder, please be kind and try your best to love your fellow Americans.
So many men and women have sacrificed, fought, and died to keep this country together the past 240-plus years. Please work daily to unite our country again. The vast majority of Americans are decent, loving, great people.
Please don’t name-call the other side. They are mothers and fathers and folks not much different than you.🇺🇸🇺🇸
Also, please try to be a better person each and every day. Try to be kinder on social media and how you interact with others with whom you disagree.
Also, if you have a dream kicking around in the back of your mind? Go after it. If you have that friend or family member that you know you should reach out to? Reach out to them.
Finally, and this especially goes to all my awesome military folks listening out there, if you need help, reach out to someone. Please. Call that friend or family member. Do it for us all. We’ve already lost too many of the greatest folks that this country has produced to suicide. So I’m asking you to be brave once more, and show some vulnerability. Take a deep breath, breathe, and call a friend or family member or someone who can help.
I appreciate each and every one of you. Every tweet, every share, every email, etc. I can’t even tell you how much those mean to me, and I love each and every one of you all.
Please join me again in our next episode, and please stay safe until then.
Thanks again, everyone! You guys are the best. As always, don’t forget to check out my books. You can find all 11 of them on Amazon.
And with that, I’m out.
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Semper Fidelis,
Stan R. Mitchell
P.S. Don’t forget to check out my books. I’ve written a CIA/Marine sniper series, a detective series, a private investigator series, an action-packed Western, a motivational/biography book about President Obama, and two realistic war novels: one about World War II and one about Afghanistan.
P.P.S. And here’s a short bio about me and what I’m trying to do with the newsletter.
Episode 10-14-22