Today is the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landing at #Normandy, #France, where ~160k #Allied troops pulled off the largest invasion by sea in history. From that point on #America was in charge of #AlliedForces & it was the beginning of the end of #WWII
Long ago, the US military was organized mostly by branches, and they were set against each other so that none of them would challenge the civilian leadership (the founding fathers were paranoid about them taking over).
Some time ago, there was a major reorganization by region. Each command is responsible for a different region and is made up of all of the branches.
My father was stationed at MacDill AFB when the RDJTF became Centcomm (Middle East & North Africa).
Dad wasn't just mad because the things the military wanted didn't happen, that increase in political instability had a real human cost for the civilians living in those Arab countries.
Anyway, if you were ever curious about why the US government seems severely schizophrenic with regards to its Middle East policies, this is why. Behind the scenes, there are different factions with different agendas working against each other.
#Biden calls #America’s democratic values the “grounding wire of our global power” & its #alliances “our greatest asset.” …#Trump, called for withdrawing American forces in #Europe & #Asia & has promised… to cut loose even our closest #allies if they don’t do as he tells them. …Trump sees all countries as unreliable, the relations between them #transactional. That sentiment has spread throughout a #GOP that once championed America’s values abroad…
#Biden, who is the most experienced #ForeignPolicy President in a generation, believes that role is in #America’s interest. “When we strengthen our #alliances, we amplify our #power as well as our ability to disrupt #threats before they can reach our shores,” he said…. To judge the merit of Biden’s plan to sustain American world leadership, voters can look to his record: what he has accomplished, where he has fallen short, & how he intends to build on his work in a 2nd term.
#POTUS#Biden, asked whether #Israel PM Benjamin #Netanyahu was prolonging the #war in #Gaza in an effort to hold on to #power & stay in office, said that he believed “there is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.”
#Biden’s admin has worked to prevent the #war in #Gaza from igniting a broader regional conflict. He brokered the 1st trilateral summit w/long-distrustful regional partners #SouthKorea & #Japan, & coaxed the #Philippines to move away from China’s orbit & accept 4 new #US military bases. He has rallied countries in #Europe & #Asia to curtail #China’s economic sway. “We have put together the strongest #alliance in the history of the world,” Biden says…. #ForeignPolicy#geopolitics#BidenHarris2024
After a sobering trip to #Kyiv, Secy of State Antony J. #Blinken is urging #POTUS#Biden to lift some restrictions on how Ukraine can use American arms.
The #UnitedStates should slap sanctions on ICC ofcls who seek an #arrest#warrant for PM Benjamin Netanyahu, a top foreign policy adviser to #Republican presidential #candidate Donald Trump said on Tues after meeting the Israeli leader.
3 fmr #UnitedStates foreign policy ofcls in Trump's admin met w/ Benjamin Netanyahu & other public figures in #Israel on Mon….
The delegation was comprised of Robert O'Brien, who served as Trump's 4th & final #NationalSecurity adviser, as well as fmr Ambassador to the #UAE John Rakolta & fmr Ambassador to #Switzerland Ed McMullen….
After 75 years of failure, one would imagine that a people would learn what works and what doesn’t, both from their own experience, as well as the experience of others.
"In this conversation, Said addresses comparatively his years of experience during #ForeignPolicy briefings, notably on Palestine, at the #USStateDepartment and #WhiteHouse, with focus on the current war on #Gaza."
2 years ago, #Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz outlined bold, long-term goals: Strengthen the country’s depleted military with extraordinary investments and adopt an assertive foreign policy defending global norms.
And he has mostly delivered on that promise, explains an expert on international security, who says the ‘legacy of his strategic pivot is likely to endure’
When you elect magats to congress, whether or not they decide to do anything at all depends on whether or not they think it will further their plans for dominion and armageddon. Literally. Johnson only capitulated on Ukraine because he thinks it will lead to more people converting to his cult and pushing his cult's unpopular policies.
Not because the safety of the free world depends on it. Right wing christians couldn't care less about that.
These whackadoodles have no business being in Congress or any government position. They're insane. They are letting bronze age fairy tales decide 21st century issues. It's deranged.
An army of Jesus”: Inside Mike Johnson’s come-to-Jesus moment ahead of Ukraine reversal - Johnson met evangelical leader of Ukraine’s National Prayer Breakfast before last week's press conference
By Jonathan Larsen, Published April 22, 2024
#House Speaker #MikeJohnson is plowing ahead on a #ForeignAid plan that has roiled his conference & prompted 2 #Republicans to push an effort to oust him….
But instead of the complex 4-part plan he floated this week, Johnson now intends to try to pass 5 bills — 1 each for #aid to #Ukraine, #Israel, & #IndoPacific allies, …a #GOP wish list of #ForeignPolicy priorities & a 5th…to address widespread Republican… [#border ] demands….
#Russia’s Foreign Ministry has been drawing up plans to try to weaken its Western adversaries, including the #UnitedStates, & leverage the #Ukraine#war to forge a global order free from what it sees as American dominance, acc/to a secret Foreign Ministry document.
“We need to continue adjusting our approach to relations w/unfriendly states,” states the 2023 document, which was provided to The WaPo by a #European#intelligence service. “It’s important to create a mechanism for finding the vulnerable points of their external & internal policies w/the aim of developing practical steps to weaken #Russia’s opponents.”
…tougher & blunter…than the public #ForeignPolicy doc, the secret addendum, dated April 11,2023, claims the #US is leading a coalition of “unfriendly countries” aimed at weakening #Russia bc Moscow is “a threat to Western global hegemony.” It says the outcome of Russia’s #war in #Ukraine will “to a great degree determine the outlines of future #WorldOrder,” a clear indication Moscow sees the result of its invasion as bound w/its ability—& other #authoritarian nations—to impose its will globally.
…The creation of the #ForeignPolicy Concept & the classified addendum followed a call to Russian academics for policy suggestions. One proposal submitted in Feb 2023 to the Foreign Ministry by the deputy head of Moscow’s Institute for the Commonwealth of Independent States, which maintains close ties to #Russia’s #security apparatus, laid out Russia’s options more bluntly still.
The academic, Vladimir Zharikhin, called for #Russia to “continue to facilitate the coming to power of #isolationist#RightWing forces in #America,” “enable the #destabilization of Latin American countries & the rise to power of #extremist forces on the far left & far right there,” as well as facilitate “the restoration of European countries’ sovereignty by supporting parties dissatisfied w/ economic pressure from the #US.”
#Trump has said that he thinks both #Russia & #Ukraine “want to save face, they want a way out,” [everything’s about ego to Trump] & that people in parts of Ukraine would be okay w/being part of Russia….
Accepting Russian control over parts of Ukraine would expand #Putin’s #dictatorship after what has been the biggest #LandWar in #Europe since #WWII. Some of Trump’s supporters have been trying to persuade him against such an outcome.
#Trump has frequently boasted that he could negotiate peace between #Russia & #Ukraine within 24 hrs if elected, even before taking office. But he has repeatedly declined to specify publicly how….
Trump-aligned #ForeignPolicy thinkers have emphasized addressing threats to #US interests from #China & seeking ways to reverse Russia’s increasing dependence on China for #military, #industrial & #economic assistance. They have also embraced limiting #NATO expansion.
" 'I think Trump and Grenell would upend American leadership of the free world, from Truman on the left to Reagan on the right, and replace it with something much darker,' said Daniel Fried, who spent four decades in top State Department posts, including as an assistant secretary of state and a director of the National Security Council. 'It’s transactional. Democratic values are irrelevant, and it’s isolationist.' ”
The announcement came hours after #POTUS had a tense phone call w/PM #Netanyahu during which Biden threatened to condition future support for Israel depending on how it addresses his concerns about #CivilianCasualties & the #HumanitarianCrisis in Gaza.
Nearly all of #aid that has reached Gaza has entered through 2 border crossings in the south, & conditions are especially bad in northern #Gaza, where most of the population lived before being #displaced by #Israel’s invasion.