Defence and Freedom

A blog (mostly) about defence policy and military affairs.
Some humour, German politics and economic stuff is in between.

[Chris Hedges @ChrisLynnHedges]

One of the main problems Americans face as the Empire declines is that we are ruled by grifters and idiots. When the British Empire fell, it slowly disengaged with its more imperialist impulses. The American Empire, on the other hand, has both of its political parties ramping up the nation's militarism, and as a result is inflicting massive suffering on the global populace as it falls.

[DJ P.R. 🙄 @djpr]

43 % der Unionswähler wählen die Union aus Enttäuschung über andere Parteien. Ausgerechnet die Partei, die insgesamt über 50 Jahre regiert und dabei jedes Mal Kanzler oder Kanzlerin gestellt hat.

Kognitive Dissonanz ist wirklich ein faszinierendes Phänomen.

[Red Operative Leninist @RedPill_Marxism]

Huawei "Chinese spyware" suddenly doesn't seem that bad in comparison

[+972 Magazine @972mag]

Revealed: Israel’s curriculum for ‘influencing public consciousness’

A leaked Defense Ministry tender lays out the army’s training program for manipulating public opinion in Israel and abroad.

@ha_makom

https://t.co/5C1yc8quJj

[Defence and Freedom @DefenceFreedom]

@hillme89 It wasn't terribly important outside of the Pacific War, which was secondary to the war in Europe where the decryption machines that cracked Enigma codes were the most important allied technical advantage of the war.

[Nury Vittachi @NuryVittachi]

It is truly EYE-OPENING to talk to Iranians and get their point of view:
.
IRANIANS: You murdered Qasem Soleimani.
U.S./ ISRAEL: We don’t believe in international law.
IRANIANS: You bombed our peace talks in Qatar.
U.S./ ISRAEL: We don’t believe in international law.
IRANIANS: You murdered our govt members and their spouses and children.
U.S./ ISRAEL: We don’t believe in international law.
IRANIANS: You stole our ships and everything in them.
U.S./ ISRAEL: We don’t believe in international law.
IRANIANS: You made an unprovoked attack which killed more than 100 school kids.
U.S./ ISRAEL: We don’t believe in international law.
IRANIANS: We’re going to charge shipping fees so we can rebuild what you destroyed.
U.S./ ISRAEL: YOU CAN’T DO THAT! INTERNATIONAL LAW!!!!

[Defence and Freedom @DefenceFreedom]

She talks about a modern form of censorship and narrative-setting - propaganda.

Such efforts are an attack on democracy.

[Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 @infolibnews]

AI presents an incredible opportunity for Jews because "instead of trying to control the whole world" and "manage" social media, "we can go directly to the companies" with "advocacy solutions," Dr. Maya Ackerman tells the American Jewish Committee.

"For the first time, there is a path to correcting the digital world!" Ackerman says.

[Defence and Freedom @DefenceFreedom]

@NotWoofers Japan hadn't enough cargo ships for peacetime needs. It captured just enough in the first weeks to cover peacetime needs. It never had enough cargo ships for wartime needs and certianly none to spare for wartime losses.
They weren't able to do more for logistics reasons.

[Defence and Freedom @DefenceFreedom]

@umiami91 Moreover, an aircraft carrier is at most about half the time at sea.

Airbases are permanent, roads & airports are dual-use and thus usable almost for free.

Naval air is a sideshow in continental warfare because it's too expensive. It has its niche far away at sea.

[Defence and Freedom @DefenceFreedom]

@umiami91 The costs of naval aviationa re a multiple of what land-based aviation costs. That carrier and its escorts + navy support rat's tail are vastly more expensive than an airbase or two.
Naval air has weight penalties.
A budget yields way more land-based than carrier-based air power.

[Arnaud Le Gall @Arnaud_Le_Gall_]

Guerre contre le Liban : B Netanyahou a déclaré hier :

« Nous ne voulons pas seulement désarmer le Hezbollah. Nous voulons un Liban démilitarisé ».

Le Hezbollah est un prétexte. Les suprémacistes israéliens veulent pouvoir envahir le Liban et annexer des pans entiers de son territoire sans qu’aucune force de défense, à commencer par l’armée libanaise, puissent entraver leur funeste projet. Pourquoi les médias français ne rapportent-ils pas ces propos publics ? Pourquoi continuer à dire qu’il s’agit d’une guerre entre Israël et le Hezbollah, alors que de toute évidence c’est une guerre contre tout le Liban ?

Soutien total au Liban et à son peuple.

[Defence and Freedom @DefenceFreedom]

@PoliticsVeteran @BladeoftheS @carolehope2 Germany had bombed Polish, Dutch and French cities already. It would not have held back from bombing English cities if the RAF had stuck to dropping leaflets only.

[Defence and Freedom @DefenceFreedom]

@BladeoftheS Well, the UK lost WW2.

It entered WW2 because it guaranteed Polish sovereignty, but it accepted that the USSR annexed much of Poland.

The war broke the country and empire that cracked during WWI already. The UK was badly indebted & its great power status questionable by 1956.

[Defence and Freedom @DefenceFreedom]

@SeanBannion There were 6k allied combat aircraft at D-Day, no aircraft carriers.
HMS Formidable was irrelevant at Crete, land-based aviation carried the initial invasion + defeated and scared away the RN there.

USN 6th fleet air power today ~ Netherlands Air Force.

[Defence and Freedom @DefenceFreedom]

@SeanBannion You appear to be delusional.

An appropriate counter to my claim that land-based aviation turns naval aviation into a sideshow is to disprove it.
You don't, because the notion that a handful naval air comes close to continental air power is bollocks.

[Defence and Freedom @DefenceFreedom]

@GeoGDF01 No, I just don't have tunnel vision on the seas.

The carriers had marginal influence on events (the Italian battlefleet had hardly any fuel anyway).
Land-based aviation was dominant over Africa, Crete, Malta and Central Med.

[Renaissance Europe Institute @reieurope]

Germany has around 1,300–1,500 hidden champions:

Germany alone accounts for roughly 46% of the world’s hidden champions — highly specialised, mostly mid-sized companies that rank among the top 3 globally in their niche markets or #1 in Europe.

These are not famous consumer brands. They are companies that dominate the components, machines, tools and industrial systems behind global supply chains.

This is why Germany became Europe’s strongest export economy: not only because of large corporations, but because thousands of specialised firms became global leaders in extremely specific industrial markets.

[Defence and Freedom @DefenceFreedom]

@Dawidaltexian @AlexHollings52 Do you want to make the case that one F-15A was more of a threat to Soviet aircraft at medium to high altitude in good visibility conditions than six F-5E?

https://t.co/LuA1lOuQg3

[Defence and Freedom @DefenceFreedom]

@Dawidaltexian @AlexHollings52 Shooting with Sparrows is far from the same as hitting with Sparrows, especially against a high performance jet with proper radar warning receiver as the F-16.

An F-15A did cost about twice as much as an F-16A.

[Defence and Freedom @DefenceFreedom]

@bayraktar_1love They may salvage some parts such as diesels, but I say this ship is a write-off.