Those islands are really far from Japan. :|

When you circle the efficiency drain, drones will come out top.
The A-10 is just the canary in the coal mine: I loathe the bad business practice it represents.

A war which we need to kick down an advanced air defense is probably one who’s loss would represent an existential blow to American hegemony. The A-10 is…

The worst way to revitalize a military is to rapidly expand manpower and run aging hardware assets harder and longer. Equating numbers with capability is a fallacy, but it’s reassuring and encourages you to run stuff past the sell-by date. And that describes huge fractions of the teens-fleet.

We did this already and…

The worst way to revitalize a military is to rapidly expand manpower and run aging hardware assets harder and longer. Equating numbers with capability is a fallacy, but it’s reassuring and encourages you to run stuff past the sell-by date. And that describes huge fractions of the teens-fleet.

We did this already and…

Just using your numbers, and for the other %15, they’re expensive hangar queens. Even unstealthy F-15's, 16's & 18's bring capability in the 1st week of a war in carrying the kind of standoff ordinance we’re going to lean on to crack open an integrated air defense (IAD), and being able to defend themselves in an…

A cannon is still more useful than bomb in the total battlefield for slaying trucks, tents, munitions & supplies in the open and as they’re identified.

A-10's aren’t the biggest waste of money, but they still represent a very negative allocation of resources for USAF. We need those pilots in more general-purpose platforms and mechanics doing the same thing. USAF is stretched thin.

Helicopters generally and the A-10 as well are enjoying an Indian Summer in extremely…

AB InBEV is the world’s biggest beer maker.
They’re as distilled and soulless as a corporation can get.

People like being Americans, not World Citizens. They believe in the rule of law. They believe in personal responsibility & accountability.

But most prosaically they don’t like being called names, shit on, or getting pissed on and told it’s rain.

Born again Christian: what is your GUT REACTION to that description of…

HRC’s absence from the Women’s March is no great mystery.
She leads from behind: she licks her finger, feels the political winds and charts a path from there.

Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved by getting American missiles out of Turkey & Italy. The 1956 Hungarian Revolution had no tangible response. Ditto again the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Realize it or not the US military is stretched quite thin with brigades in Korea, Kuwait, Europe, Afghanistan.
Over 230,000*…

... the red line wasn’t a Trump soundbite.

A much-deserved break.

Exactly! Russia would be king maker.
And who would they crown?

Blockade the Malacca Strait — starve China of incoming petrol.
They’d fold soon enough.
I’m not saying this WOULDN’T be a world-wide depression, it would be that, but this possibility is great reason not to be unduly concerned in the near future.

This is a rapidly-changing future. China has an enormous port they…

Hot Take: what cost, red lines, friend? ;)

Is it a direct challenge though? Does Crimea & the Eastern border fighting resemble the beginning of an inexorable push to restore all Soviet borders or is it largely oriented towards domestic political concerns? Propping up Putin’s popularity.

Ukraine was not part of NATO — it is not a black and white challenge…

Details matter.

Mexico borders America. Her drug, gang, security, & demographic problems become ours. Russia borders Ukraine — no matter they’re always going to be more invested in that outcome than we are.

China is a direct, growing challenger to America’s hegemonic position and this growth has been described with…

The article provided those opposed to your viewpoint with the only fodder we need: Ukraine matters FAR more to Russia than the West. Ukraine is a bridge too far.