The 11/2/21 dispatch.
Discover more from The View from the Front. By Stan R. Mitchell.
The 11/2/21 dispatch.
Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone had a great weekend.
I thought I’d start this week’s edition by mentioning an item that one reader chided me for missing last week. Here’s the article:
NATO's flirtation with adding 2 more members runs the risk of starting a war the US can't afford to fight
The article is a free read from Business Insider and discusses the potential of whether Ukraine and Georgia may still join NATO. The author argues that allowing them in is “a dangerous and counterproductive policy,” which could lead to war with Russia.
I personally think the article overstates the risk, but I’d love to know what you all think in the comment section below.
Moving on, The Economist writes that Erdogan rule in Turkey might be coming to an end.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is facing some steep challenges.
Turkey’s leader is having one of the worst slumps of his long career. An alliance of the two main opposition parties … is polling ahead of Mr Erdogan’s governing coalition. Were parliamentary elections to take place tomorrow (they are not due until 2023, together with the next presidential election), the ruling coalition would lose its majority. Mr Erdogan, meanwhile, trails behind each of the four most likely contenders for the presidency, in some cases by double digits in putative run-offs. The whispers are starting to grow louder: could the Erdogan era be drawing to a close?
The Economist cites one major contributing factor to this is that the lira has lost “over 20% of its dollar value since the start of the year, more than any other major currency.”
But Erdogan may not go easy. Just a couple of years ago, he arrested more than 77,000 for alleged links to terror organizations.
In China news, I found the story below super interesting.
A defense analyst for the Rand Corporation said this was a big deal because Japan wants “to be able to have that capability [to launch planes] at sea, because there's an expectation that the runways will be destroyed within the first launch” of a war with China.
The ship, which used to be a helicopter carrier, will primarily host F-35s.
On Oct. 3, a pair of Marine Corps F-35B stealth fighter jets successfully did a takeoff and landing off the Izumo's deck. The Marine Corps released a statement announcing the accomplishment, and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force publicly released a video.
Moving on, the Modern War Institute (MWI) at West Point published an interesting article about why the Afghan Army collapsed so quickly. (See below.)
The reasons listed are just as depressing as you’d figure.
In other news, there’s been some additional Afghan-withdrawal fallout.
The closest major U.S. facilities, in Qatar and Bahrain, are more than 1,500 flight miles away.
Finally, it’s been a big week for tech and drones/unmanned robots.
See two points of interest below:
Both are good reads if you’ve got a moment. And these technological insights are definitely going to help give the U.S. a competitive edge in its next conflict.
Finally, we’ll end with some motivation.
That’s it for this post.
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.
We owe it to these guys below, and so many others who have sacrificed for this country, to work hard toward binding the wounds of our land.
And I’d love to hear any comments that you may have below. As always, please share this post if you enjoyed it.
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Every Tuesday and Friday, I write about conflicts and military matters that are happening throughout the world. I do this from a moderate perspective that focuses on unity in our country. I also don’t believe in clickbait, over-the-top headlines, or other tactics that increase fear or panic, all in the hope of web traffic. You will always get the sober, mature view, with a slight bit of my optimism peering through.
Semper Fidelis,
Stan R. Mitchell
P.S. Don’t forget to check out my books. I write fast-paced military and mystery thrillers. You can find all ten books here: amazon.com.