The view from the front: military matters and motivation for 7/1/22.
Discover more from The View from the Front. By Stan R. Mitchell.
The view from the front: military matters and motivation for 7/1/22.
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There’s a lot of news that’s happened since Tuesday’s newsletter, and it’s hard to decide what’s most important, so let’s just jump into it.
As I stated in the Tuesday newsletter, NATO increased its troops on “high alert” from 40,000 to 300,000.
President Joe Biden announced the establishment of a permanent presence in Poland, as well as the decision to deploy two additional F-35 squadrons to the U.K.. The U.S. will also station two more destroyers in Spain and improve its defense capabilities in Germany and Italy, USA Today reported.
And if you dig in the weeds some, there will also be increased intel and cyber support, as stated below.
In other huge news, NATO reached a deal with Turkey to admit Sweden and Finland. I’ve talked about this possibility for some time now, but Turkey finally got out of the way of the deal. (Expansion of NATO requires unanimous consent of all NATO members, so Turkey had been able to hold up the deal.)
Besides these items, there were also additional commitments made to Ukraine, which will help them fight off the Russians.
And while we’re on the topic of Ukraine, this was pretty significant news, in my opinion. (See below.)
The Washington Post called it a “symbolic victory,” as you can see below, but I think it was more than that.
From that island, you can place anti-ship missile systems, anti-air systems, and other defensive (and offensive) measures that could help break the naval embargo.
The island is 25 miles off Ukraine’s southeastern coast and, interestingly, if you read the Post’s own story, it calls it a “strategic Black Sea outpost” further down in the same story that called the situation a “symbolic victory,.
This is an important reminder of why you shouldn’t just read headlines when you’re trying to inform yourself.
The same article even adds further toward the end of it that “The island, which covers just 0.06 square miles, sits on a major shipping lane and access point to the key port of Odessa.
If you want to know how the Russian grasp was finally broken, you can see it below.
One final point on this, perfectly stated below.
We’ll stop talking about the war for this edition, but because I love dunking on Putin, I’ll leave you with this clip below.
This is absolutely worth the watch if you’ve been keeping up with the invasion from the beginning. (Hat tip to Tom Nichols, who said it best: “Wait for the last line.”)
Moving along, I often discuss the deadly realities of PTSD for our military members who have returned, and in that line of thinking, I wanted to share the below article.
Colón-López has enjoyed a long career as pararescueman in the Air Force’s special operations community. He is also the most senior enlisted service member in the armed forces, representing all enlisted and non-commissioned officers when it comes to advising the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, so what he chooses to highlight carries some weight.
“PTS awareness is not a monthly celebration, but a daily task to ensure we are taking care of one another,” Colón-López wrote in the post about post-traumatic stress. “20 years in combat, unfortunate events, and life in general can throw many challenges at us. Remember, we have each other to rely on. Talk about it, seek help, and know that this teammate is here for you to navigate this minefield called PTS.
Take care of each other out there.
I challenge everyone reading this to reach out to one service member you know today. (Please do this.)
That’s it for this edition. Let’s end with some motivation and wisdom.
As a reminder, please be kind and endeavor to love your fellow Americans. We need to pull this country together, and that starts with all of us.
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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 leadership/biography book, and two realistic war novels: one about World War IIand one about Afghanistan.
P.P.S. And here’s a short bio about me and what I’m trying to do with the newsletter.