Small Wars Journal

10/2/2020 News & Commentary - National Security

Fri, 10/02/2020 - 9:57am

News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Duncan Moore.

1. Russia’s Fancy Bear hackers likely penetrated a US federal agency

2. Mike Pompeo should visit Taiwan

3. Marine Corps activates first new base in nearly 70 years

4. No matter who wins in November, budget cuts and domestic politics will crimp America’s China strategy

5. Facebook, Twitter flounder in QAnon crackdown

6. ‘We’re not taking a knee’: training under pandemic conditions could better prepare soldiers for the big fight

7. The Asia inheritance: Trump and US alliances

8. Kremlin orders 2-week virus quarantine for all Putin visitors – Reports

9. Trump tweets that he will overturn recent changes to the Navy SEAL ethos

10. Two more reasons to worry about China

11. Why downplaying China's election interference could backfire

12. What if Sherman Kent was wrong? Revisiting the intelligence debate of 1949

13. Pentagon urges caution in linking steep increase in Army suicides to pandemic

14. A solarium for presidential transition teams

15. 50 U.S. senators call for talks on trade agreement with Taiwan

16. How Russia targets U.S. elections

17. The United States has repatriated 27 Americans from Syria and Iraq including ten charged with terrorism-related offenses for their support to ISIS

18. British Army to become force of ‘boots and bots’: CGS

19. Why Trump’s retreat from US allies could have nuclear consequences

20. The truth about today’s anarchists

 

1. Russia’s Fancy Bear hackers likely penetrated a US federal agency

Wired · Andy Greenberg · October 1, 2020

I wonder what agency.

 

2. Mike Pompeo Should Visit Taiwan

National Interest · Michael Rubin · October 1, 2020

This would really raise tensions to a boiling point.

But I am not really clear what critical strategic effect we would be trying to achieve with such a visit.

 

3. Marine Corps activates first new base in nearly 70 years

Marine Corps Times · Philip Athey · October 1, 2020

Will we shift more forces from Okinawa to Guam?

 

4. No matter who wins in November, budget cuts and domestic politics will crimp America’s China strategy

Diplomat · Jacob Parakilas · September 30, 2020

And I think the effects of COVID-19 are going to be felt for years to come.

 

5. Facebook, Twitter flounder in QAnon crackdown

AP News · Amanda Seitz & Barbara Ortutay · October 1, 2020

This QAon conspiracy is just crazy. But it still amazes me how any sane or normal person could fall for it.

 

6. ‘We’re not taking a knee’: training under pandemic conditions could better prepare soldiers for the big fight

Stars & Stripes · Corey Dickstein · October 1, 2020

The military must "fight through" this pandemic. If we fail to do so, we not only damage readiness, we also telegraph our weakness to our adversaries, and they will surely try to develop biological weapons that will cause our military to halt operations.

 

7. The Asia inheritance: Trump and US Alliances

Diplomat · Abraham M. Denmark & Shihoko Goto · October 1, 2020

Some apparent good news. We need our alliance structure. Without it we are vulnerable, and we will be unable to protect our national interests.

 

8. Kremlin orders 2-week virus quarantine for all Putin visitors – Reports

Moscow Times · September 30, 2020

Very interesting timing of this order (this report is from Wednesday). Did the Kremlin know something before we did?

 

9. Trump tweets that he will overturn recent changes to the Navy SEAL ethos

Navy Times · Geoff Ziezulewicz · October 1, 2020

We just do not need this.

 

10. Two more reasons to worry about China

FDD · Thomas Joscelyn · October 1, 2020

Don't we have enough already? 

 

11. Why Downplaying China's Election Interference Could Backfire

FDD · by Craig Singleton · October 1, 2020

 

12. What if Sherman Kent was wrong? Revisiting the intelligence debate of 1949

War On the Rocks · Zachery Tyson Brown · October 1, 2020

 

13. Pentagon urges caution in linking steep increase in Army suicides to pandemic

ABC News · Luis Martinez · October 1, 2020

 

14. A solarium for presidential transition teams

War On the Rocks · Benjamin Jensen · October 1, 2020

A useful tutorial on the transition process.

 

15. 50 U.S. senators call for talks on trade agreement with Taiwan

Reuters · Patricia Zengerle & David Gregorio · October 1, 2020

 

16. How Russia targets U.S. elections

RAND · Marek N. Posard et al.

 

17. The United States has repatriated 27 Americans from Syria and Iraq including ten charged with terrorism-related offenses for their support to ISIS

US Department of Justice · October 1, 2020

 

18. British Army to become force of ‘boots and bots’: CGS

Army Technology · Harry Lye · September 30, 2020

 

19. Why Trump’s retreat from US allies could have nuclear consequences

Defense One · Eric Brewer · October 1, 2020

A cautionary note.

 

20. The truth about today’s anarchists

New York Times · Farah Stockman · September 30, 2020

 

"The nation that will insist on drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking done by cowards."

- Sir William Francis Butler

"The history that lies inert in unread books does no work in the world. If you want a new idea, read an old book. `Tis the good reader that makes the good book. A book is like a mirror. If an ass looks in, no prophet can peer out."

- The "maxims” quoted from Clark Becker, Lord Lytton, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Georg Lichtenberg quoted in Jay Luuvas' Military History: Is It Still Practicable?

“The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”

- General of the Army, Omar Bradley, rendered on Veterans Day 1948 (then called Armistice Day)

Categories: News