The 12/10/21 dispatch.
Happy Friday! Hope everyone has had a great week!
As you know, President Biden had a two-plus-hour-long call with Biden regarding the situation on Ukraine’s border. It’s too soon to know what effect that might have, but Biden’s stern warning might have been enough to give Putin pause.
If you missed Tuesday’s edition and want to see what an invasion might look like, go here: The 12/7/21 dispatch.
Also, it’s not real clear that an actual invastion would help Putin. (As outlined below.)
Additionally, Biden reportedly threatened that the United States could “include the extreme step of disconnecting Russia from the SWIFT international payment system used by banks around the world.” (Link to article: Biden to warn Putin of economic consequences of Ukraine invasion, says official.)
That’s a serious threat and could give Putin reason to hold off, since it’s hard to launder money when you can’t wire it from overseas. Finally, the U.S. might rapidly ramp up its arms sales to Ukraine, much as it did when Russian invaded Afghanistan back in the ’80s.
That war forty years ago bled Russia out for nearly a decade, and it helped lead to the fall of the Soviet Union.1
In other concerning news happening out there, there’s this:
There have been numerous articles of late that Iran has not been serious about its most recent negotiations. There aren’t many options left other than an attack by Israel or the U.S. (That is, if we’re serious about not allowing Iran to get a nuke.)
Of course remember, if Iran is allowed to get a nuke, then Saudi Arabia will probably quickly want to join that list of nations with nuclear weapons. Also remember that Israel has pretty much vowed that it will NEVER allow Iran to get a nuke, so a war between the two would be quite likely.
In China news, there was this:
Not that this is breaking news, but our forces continue to change their strategic focus toward Asia and the threat from China.
In tech news, there was this:
One thought I had after seeing this is how exactly would our military defend against a swarm of these things flying in?
I’ve put some thought into that and the best I can come up with is electronic counter-measures and using artillery to keep enemy forces more than a few miles away.
Clearly, I’m glad I’m not having to come up with the answer on how to stop a swarm of these because quite frankly: I don’t think we have a current answer.
In stories that make me smile this week — I’m kind of a HUGE fan of the A-10 — there was this:
Now I know that drones (large ones, not like the small ones from the video above) probably will make the A-10 obsolete at some point. (Maybe already.)
But the infantryman in me just has a hard time letting them go. (Also, if there were some kind of massive electronic countermeasures from a sophisticated enemy such as China, which could stop our large drones, such as Reapers armed with anti-tank missiles, wouldn’t it be nice to have some pilots who could fly in with A-10s to mop up some tank columns and enemy troops in the open?)
I’m just spit-balling here.
Moving on, I do have to share some sad and tragic news this week.
I wanted to make just a couple of comments on this.
Back in the ’90s, when I was in the Marine Corps, my infantry platoon as part of one deployment spent months learning how to get better and better at fast-roping, which is how he died.
We started with static attempts from a tower, then from there to a helo to ground. Then from there to a helo to a ship in port (with barely any waves/movement.) And then from there to moving ships from moving helicopters.
I can’t even begin to tell you how dangerous this entire process is. The helicopter is moving. The ship is moving — at speed. Plus, up and down.
And you’re carrying a ton of gear, with which I can promise you that you don’t want to try to swim with. (You also have no kind of harness or anything latching you onto the rope; the only thing you hold onto the rope with is with your boots and two pairs of gloves — because they get so hot going down.)
I only say all of this because I don’t think most Americans have any idea just how dangerous even routine training is. And I’m confident that since this involved SEALs, they had probably found ways to make it even more dangerous: like darkness, potentially foul weather, etc.
The bottom line is we have young men and women doing highly dangerous things, day in, day out, around the world.
We should be BEYOND grateful and thankful for their sacrifices and just how often they put their lives on the line, even in training.
If you would like to donate to Commander Bourgeois’s family, a link to a donation page was linked to by Jake Tapper: link here.
Okay, I know that was a sad thing above, so let’s end with some motivation and something more positive because we must all press on, with whatever challenges and obligations we face in our lives.
That’s it for this post. And as a reminder, please be kind and endeavor to love and support your fellow Americans:
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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.
(The Soviets' failure in the war[88] is thought to be a contributing factor to the fall of the Soviet Union.[55]) Soviet–Afghan War link.
Informative, Stan. Keep up the good work.