The 9/8/21 dispatch.

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend.

In the world of foreign policy, the topic of Afghanistan retreated off the front pages, returning to where it’s been for most of the past twenty years. (Much to my — and many other’s — frustration.)

Following the evacuation of more than 124,000 people from Kabul, the Department of Defense is now housing more than 26,000 in the United States. You can read about that work below.

Department of Defense 🇺🇸 @DeptofDefense

Following the evacuations in Afghanistan, eight military facilities in the U.S. worked quickly to set up facilities to house Afghan civilians and families. Learn more about #OperationAlliesWelcome:

go.usa.govDOD CreatesThe Defense Department has set up “mayor cells” at each of the eight installations housing Afghan civilians to better understand their needs and address their concerns of living there, the commander

In the wake of the U.S. departure from Afghanistan, former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough posted a message for those doubting our resolve.

Just a reminder to those nattering nabobs of negativism who have been predicting America’s collapse for 50 years, let me say again what I’ve said for decades: If you bet against the United States of American, you lose. Every. Single. Time.

He added:

Joe Scarborough @JoeNBC

We are the strongest country economically, technologically, militarily, and culturally. Measured by hard power or soft power, America remains the world’s dominant superpower. Washington, DC is broken. The rest of America is doing pretty darn well.

I’ve got to say (as one of America’s biggest fans) that I agree with him.

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Moving to other topics, Russia conducted a massive exercise recently in Crimea, which is the peninsula it annexed from Ukraine. (See below.)

Defense One @DefenseOne

Was Russia’s April Exercise a Practice Run for a Ukraine Invasion? | @DefTechPat buff.ly/3jF3qIF

The exercise comes at a time when the United States has been showing much more support for Ukraine, including a visit by Ukraine’s president to the United States.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III @SecDef

Today, I met with Ukrainian President @ZelenskyyUa and Minister of @DefenceU Taran to reiterate the United States' unwavering support for Ukraine. We also signed a Strategic Defense Framework to enhance our defense partnership and advance shared priorities.

Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa

A new stage in 🇺🇦🇺🇸 defense cooperation. An agreement on the strategic foundations of the defense partnership was signed in @DeptofDefense. For us, 🇺🇸 support for 🇺🇦's territorial integrity, gaining @NATO membership and joint opposition to Russian aggression are very important. https://t.co/SebG2PIQjd

As the AP reported:

The United States is promising up to $60 million in military aid to Ukraine in advance of a White House meeting on Wednesday between President Joe Biden and his counterpart in Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

…

The U.S. says it has committed more than $2.5 billion in military aid to Ukraine since its conflict with Russia began in 2014.

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And finally, in under-reported news, the Dept of Defense has wrapped up its recent aid mission to Haiti, which was struck by a massive earthquake. In total, the Dept of Defense provided:

U.S. Navy @USNavy

#JTFHaiti provided aerial imagery of damaged areas; flew 671 missions to deliver aid and response personnel; delivered almost 600,000 pounds of humanitarian cargo, including food, water, medical equipment, and other critical relief supplies, and assisted or rescued 477 people.

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That’s it for this post. Stay safe and be kind. As always, please share this post if you enjoyed it.

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Semper Fidelis,

Stan R. Mitchell

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