Hi everyone!
Thank you for being here.
Each week, I cover our military, defense news, and foreign policy in a calm and rational manner, with an over-arching goal to unify our country.
Besides covering the news in a calm manner, I end each show with some words of encouragement.
Also, huge shout out to those of you whose paid subscriptions make it possible for me to devote time and resources to researching and compiling the news each week.
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Timestamps:
Timestamp: 4:24. The latest on the Ukrainian advance into Russia, including the destruction of three permanent Russian bridges, as well as a pontoon bridge.
Timestamp: 12:07. Just how big of a secret was this invasion into Russia? Well, the troops thought it was a joke…
Timestamp: 14:31. Part of the reason for the incursion has become more public.
Timestamp: 16:19. This push north is making Ukraine’s aerial drone attacks more effective against the Russians. They’re even hitting Moscow now. And you know the pressure has to be ramping up on Putin.
Timestamp: 24:12. Kremlin response to Kursk incursion shows how Putin freezes in a crisis
Timestamp: 27:39. With new front opened up, Russia supplying Ukraine with lots of captured tanks.
Timestamp: 30:32. In a big shift, Russia now bombing its own territory.
Timestamp: 32:12. Could retired NATO pilots fly F-16s for Ukraine?
Timestamp: 40:46. Who blew up the Nord Stream Pipeline? We may finally have the answer.
Timestamp: 45:24. Russian oil depot fire continues for more than three days, costing Russia more than $200 million in losses.
Timestamp: 48:44. Incredible footage of Ukraine training drone pilots.
Timestamp: 52:07. Russia closes in on eastern city despite Ukraine’s successes elsewhere.
Timestamp: 55:42. Iran signals that it's promised strike on Israel may not be imminent
Timestamp: 57:23. A year in, DOD racks up wins for foreign military sales
Timestamp: 1:00:06. Russia, China Vying for Influence in Southern Hemisphere With U.S.
Timestamp: 1:03:55. Chinese and Philippine vessels collided near a disputed reef in the South China Sea, undermining what had been a brief and fragile truce.
Timestamp: 1:06:49. Motivation and encouragement.
Selected source notes for podcast and transcript above.
Ukraine news:
A short story about bridges inside Russia, and Ukraine continues its advance northward.
3 days ago: Two bridges down, one to go. Ukraine
2 days ago.
Yikes. Looks like the Russian pontoon bridge has been sunk, too!!! 😱😱 (That's now all three permanent bridges, as well as this interim temporary one...)
Also, it’s kind of crazy that Russia couldn’t have defended this third— and last — bridge. They had to know Ukraine was coming, and yet they still couldn’t station air defenses to stop it.)
From the story:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a description of the objectives of the Ukrainian counteroffensive into Kursk on Saturday. "There have already been several reports by Commander-in-Chief [Ukrainian Col. Gen. Oleksandr] Syrskyi about the frontline situation and our operation in the Kursk region" of Russia, Zelenskyy said in his daily report to the Ukrainian people. "We see that the occupier is suffering losses, and this is helpful — very helpful — for our defense. It is about destroying the logistics of the Russian army and draining their reserves."
Ukrainian forces must inflict maximum damage on all Russian positions, he said. The Ukrainian forces are tenaciously defending the Donbas region even as they advance in Kursk. "We are eliminating the Russian military presence in the area of our operations there and replenishing 'the exchange fund' for our state," he said.
The "exchange fund' is replenishing units with personnel, ammunition and supplies.
…
Zelenskyy said Ukraine will fortify the area in Kursk and use it as a buffer zone to prevent Russian forces from firing into Ukraine. In his Aug. 18 report, he said Ukrainian forces have achieved "good and much-needed results" in destroying Russian equipment.
"All this is more than just defense for Ukraine. It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions," he said. "This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor's territory: our operation in the Kursk region."
Zelenskyy took an expansive view of actions against Russia. "Everything that inflicts losses on the Russian army, Russian state, their military industrial complex, and their economy helps prevent the war from expanding and brings us closer to a just end to this aggression, a just peace for Ukraine," he said.
Ukraine attacks Moscow in one of largest ever drone strikes on Russian capital
Kremlin response to Kursk incursion shows how Putin freezes in a crisis
Faced with crisis, Vladimir Putin tends to freeze.
Moscow’s slow, fumbling military response to Ukraine’s surprise occupation of parts of the western Kursk region is the latest example of the Kremlin chief failing to respond with quick, decisive action to match his bellicose rhetoric.
The Kursk incursion is the fourth major blow to Putin’s authority since his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and highlights the weaknesses of a top-down autocracy that operates largely on fear and punishment.
In each case — after Russia’s failure to topple the Ukrainian government at the start of the invasion, after Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin led a rebellion against the regular Russia military command and after Islamist extremists struck the popular Crocus City Hall concert venue — the Kremlin’s response has been halting, with Putin waiting 24 hours or more to offer any public comment.
“It’s always the same style. Putin likes to keep everything secret. When he appears publicly, he doesn’t say much. He prefers not to be alarmist,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of France-based analytical group R.Politik.
In a big shift, Russia now bombing its own territory.
Link to the story:
Fire rages for a third day at a Russian oil depot
Any Russia-Ukraine peace deal unlikely to be just
From the story:
Any peace deal reached between Ukraine and Russia likely won't be fair, Czech President Petr Pavel said Wednesday — but justice should be the objective nonetheless.
"A just peace, if we were to imagine it on a scale from 100 percent to nothing, would mean the restoration of Ukraine's full control over its territory, including Crimea. It would require that the aggressor pay compensation for war damages. But that's probably a fantasy, we can all agree," Pavel said on PoliTalk, a Czech political podcast.
Russia closes in on eastern city despite Ukraine’s successes elsewhere
U.S. news:
Iran signals that it's promised strike on Israel may not be imminent
Iranian officials are signaling this week that an attack against Israel may not be imminent, tamping down some of the more urgent rhetoric around threats to avenge Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed last month in a blast at his guesthouse in Tehran.
Iran had warned early on of a “devastating” reprisal to “punish” Israel for the assassination — but it later adjusted its language, and, in a statement Wednesday, the Iranian mission to the United Nations reinforced the government’s position that any response “must be carefully calibrated” to avoid affecting a potential cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.
Even Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s most powerful security force, said that an attack might not come right away. “Time is at our disposal,” Brig. Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, the IRGC spokesman, said Tuesday, according to local media. “And the waiting period for this response could be long.”
A Year in, DOD Racks Up Wins for Foreign Military Sales
According to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, in fiscal year 2021, sales through FMS clocked in at about $34.8 billion total. For fiscal year 2022, that number jumped to $49.7 billion. In fiscal year 2023, it jumped again to about $66.2 billion. And so far in fiscal year 2024, FMS sales are already above $80 billion, and may top $100 billion by year's end.
Russia, China Vying for Influence in Southern Hemisphere With U.S.
Russian warships have been making port visits to Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, and 22 nations in the U.S. Southern Command's area of responsibility have signed on to China's Belt and Road Initiative, the commander of Southcom told attendees of the Aspen Security Forum.
Army Gen. Laura J. Richardson said the nations that have signed on to the Chinese initiative don't see the investments the U.S. has been making in their countries.
"All they see are the Chinese cranes," she said. "These projects are in the billions of dollars. … They are big-time projects."
Richardson said it would be OK with her if those investments were for doing good in the hemisphere. "But it makes me a little suspicious when it's in the critical infrastructure."
Critical infrastructure, she said, includes deep-water ports, cybersecurity, energy and space.
"I worry about the dual use nature of that. These are state-owned enterprises by a communist government. I worry about the flipping of that to a military application," Richardson said, referring to China.
Southcom's No. 1 teammate working in the various countries in the region are U.S. ambassadors, but some nations are without a U.S. ambassador because many have not been confirmed in a timely manner, leaving, she said.
"We have an absolute connective tissue with all of our U.S. ambassadors in the region."
Besides U.S. ambassadors, others that Southcom partners with to increase U.S. influence in the region include the Commerce Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, NASA, the Inter-American Development Bank, the American Chambers of Commerce, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, and human rights and nongovernmental organizations, the general said.
"I really believe that economic security and national security go hand in hand here in this hemisphere, and we have got to work both of them together very, very quickly," she said.
Regarding the Russian port visits, Richardson said U.S. vessels have been shadowing those vessels to ensure the safety and security of the United States.
Also, the Russians continue to make high-level government visits to Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua with their foreign affairs minister and the head of the Russian legislative body, she said, adding that the U.S. could be doing more in its own government exchanges.
China news:
Words of encouragement:
Let’s end the show with some words of encouragement, because I know that life is hard and sometimes, you just need to hear something that will lift you up.
I always like to share some verses from the Bible, or quotes that touch on the Bible or Jesus, because my Christian faith has become such a source of strength and wisdom and calm for me during the past couple of years, since losing my Mom and now worrying an awful lot about my Dad and his serious memory problems.
I’m betting you have something really challenging going on in your life, as well. (And if you don’t, I can guarantee it’s coming. That’s how life goes.) So, I hope by sharing some of these, it might encourage you to get into the Bible yourself. Because I think it’ll change your life, if you let it.
But before I do, let me share this post in the hopes that it might help some veteran or family who had roots to Afghanistan. I think this is a good and healthy way to see it.
And, I always like to end each week’s notes with this one:
And with that, thanks for joining us this week on The View from the Front.
If you can, consider at some point becoming a paid subscriber.
Here are those links again if you’d like to support the show:
You can subscribe with Substack: https://stanrmitchell.substack.com/subscribe
You can also now sign up at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/stanrmitchell
Or send a tip through Venmo (@authorstanrmitchell): https://account.venmo.com/u/authorstanrmitchell
And there’s even a PayPal link you can use: https://paypal.me/StanRMitchell.
Finally, I’m still trying to grow the show. Please rate and leave comments on SPOTIFY, APPLE, or wherever you listen.
Also, all posts are free, so feel free to share. (And in that line of thinking, it seems like all the social media sites I’m on throttle down my posts when they have a link to Substack, so if you could forward this to a person or two that might be interested, and ask them to consider signing up for free, it’d sure help me a lot!)
That’s it for this edition.
Love my moderate, optimistic view of politics and want to know more about how I see things?
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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.
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.
Please join me again in our next episode, and please stay safe until then.
Love and peace,
Stan R. Mitchell
P.S. Don’t forget that I've also written twelve fast, exciting books.
Finally, I also write a faith blog about God and the Bible. (As a child, I was wounded badly by the church and left it to study other religions, before returning to the faith of my roots.)
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The 8-22-24 edition of The View from the Front podcast.