#Singapore Civil Defense Force

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Rescue dogs from Asia helping to sniff out survivors after Turkey quake

The Straits Times / Asia News Network

14 February 2023

SINGAPORE – As search and rescue teams continue to seek out survivors among the rubble in the aftermath of last Monday’s earthquake in Turkey and Syria, rescue dogs from Singapore and its South-east Asian neighbors Malaysia and Thailand have emerged as key members of these operations.

These trained canines and their keen sense of smell are able to work in tandem with the human members of the rescue teams and access areas that humanitarian aid officers find difficult to reach.

Their senses are especially useful in the two countries, where hundreds of buildings have collapsed due to the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, leaving more than 37,000 dead and thousands more missing so far.

The Singapore Civil Defense Force team sent four canines along with their 68-man Operation Lionheart contingent to the south-eastern Turkish town of Kahramanmaras, near the quake’s epicenter.

The dogs, including two labrador retrievers Frenchy and Rizzo, have been deployed to sniff out areas that could become potential rescue sites, helping the teams assess the need to use search equipment to home in on victim locations, said the SCDF on Facebook.

Thailand’s search and rescue team in Turkey, including its two sniffer dogs Sierra and Sahara, has also drawn attention on social media, according to Thai daily The Nation.

The female golden retrievers in the team from the country’s urban search and rescue team have raised awareness of the role sniffer dogs play in these missions.

Photos of seven-year-old Sierra and six-year-old Sahara have been shared widely on social media, along with an outpouring of concern for those affected by the catastrophe.

Both dogs had passed training certified by the International Rescue Dog Organisation and have been tasked to search for earthquake victims in the rubble.

The Thai team started work on Saturday in Hatay, a southern Turkish province on the Mediterranean coast that borders Syria, where wintry conditions have seen temperatures plunge to 2 deg C.

From Malaysia, tracker dogs Denti and Frankie have been sent on their first mission abroad, less than two months after their high-profile search and rescue job during the landslide at Batang Kali near Genting Highlands that killed 31 campers.

Both Denti, a labrador retriever, and English springer spaniel Frankie were put on an 11-hour flight to Istanbul, before being dispatched to southern Turkey for their mission to locate casualties of the earthquake in 12-hour shifts, The Star newspaper reported.

On Saturday, they discovered and rescued five family members who had been trapped under the rubble of their residential building for six days, Bernama reported.

A Malaysian tactical operations official said the dogs were trained to find victims, alive or dead.

They were accompanied by their handlers, said unit chief Donny Chap.

He told The Star that the two canines, who received “Hero Malaysia” medals following their efforts during December’s landslide, had been given sufficient rest before their latest deployment.

📷 https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40024812

🤍🐶🤍

[mariacallous]

Just shy of half past 1 in the morning, the MV Dali, a giant container ship, was sailing gently out of the port of Baltimore when something went terribly wrong. Suddenly, lights all over the 300-meter-long vessel went out. They flicked on again a moment later, but the ship then began to veer to the right, toward one of the massive pylon-like supports on the Francis Scott Key truss bridge—a huge mass of steel and concrete that spans the Patapsco River.

The Dali’s lights went out a second time. Then the impact came. The ship plowed into the support, with large sections of the bridge’s main truss section instantly snapping apart and falling into the river. It took just 20 seconds or so for the structure to come down.

Now, a major US port is in disarray, and several people who were working on the bridge at the time of its collapse are missing. A rescue operation is underway. President Biden has called the disaster a “terrible accident.” Ship traffic is currently stuck on either side of the crash site, and a major roadway through Baltimore has been cut off.

“It’s a dreadful tragedy and something you hope never to see,” says David Knight, a bridge expert and specialist adviser to the UK’s Institution of Civil Engineers. But commenting on footage of the bridge collapse, he says he is not surprised by the manner in which it crumpled.

Large steel structures may seem invulnerable, but steel, explains Knight, is relatively lightweight for its size. As soon as it is pushed or pulled the wrong way with enough force, it can fold like paper. In this case, the Francis Scott Key Bridge was a “continuous,” or unjointed, bridge that had a 366-meter-long central truss section. (Truss bridges use steel beams, arranged in triangular shapes, to support their load.) The central truss was made up of three horizontal stretches, known as spans, with two sets of supports holding these above the water. It was the third-largest structure of its kind in the world.

“When you take a support away, there is very little in the way of robustness,” says Knight. “It will drag down, as we saw, all three spans.” The separate approach spans remain standing. There is nothing in Knight’s view that immediately suggests any structural problem with the bridge. An engineering firm, Hardesty & Hanover, confirmed to WIRED that it performed an inspection of the bridge in 2019, and that other inspections have been carried out since, but did not provide any additional details on the state of the structure. WIRED has approached H&H for further comment. In June last year, the US Federal Highway Administration rated the condition of the bridge as satisfactory.

The immense force of the container ship impact should not be underestimated, adds Knight. Such vessels require a lot of power and time—perhaps many minutes—to come to a complete stop. The Francis Scott Key Bridge was completed in 1977. In more recent decades, bridge engineers have commonly incorporated defenses to reduce the potential damage by ship strikes when bridges are erected in similar locations, Knight says. These include hydraulic barriers and additional concrete around the base of bridge supports, for instance. However, even with such fortifications in place, heavy strikes can still cause devastating damage.

It is not clear why lights turned off and on again on the Dali, a Singapore-flagged ship built in 2015. “That is an indication of a massive problem,” says Salvatore Mercogliano, a maritime historian at Campbell University in North Carolina and a YouTuber who has analyzed the crash.

At the time of the accident, two pilots—mariners who board a ship to help it navigate particular stretches of water, including in and out of ports—from Baltimore were on board. The Dali was broadcasting its position publicly via the automatic identification system (AIS) and was traveling at a speed of over 8.5 knots. It then slowed to around 6 knots in the moments before the crash, according to AIS data.

Both pilots and all crew members on the Dali are accounted for. There are no reports of injuries, the ship’s management company, Synergy Group, said in a statement on March 26.

ABC News reports that the crew of the vessel made a desperate mayday call in an attempt to warn transport officials that the crash was about to occur. A report from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, seen by ABC, says the Dali “lost propulsion” and that the crew were aware they had “lost control” of the ship. Maryland governor Wes Moore told reporters that, thanks to the mayday call, officials were able to stem the flow of traffic over the bridge, an intervention that he says “saved lives.”

Mercogliano says it is very difficult for ships of this size to make rapid adjustments to their trajectories. Video footage shows a sudden outpouring of smoke from the vessel’s stack, indicating a change in engine activity of some kind. What is particularly disturbing is that, in this case, the vessel ends up plowing straight into one of the key supports for the bridge, clearly off course. No information as to why this happened has become public.

Photographs of the aftermath show the bow of the ship pinned beneath fallen sections of the bridge. The anchor chain is visible, meaning that at some point the anchor was dropped, though it is not certain whether this happened before or after impact. The chain appears to be at an angle, however, which Mercogliano says could be a sign that it was dropped shortly before the crash and dragged for a brief time.

Lawyer James Turner of Quadrant Chambers in London specializes in, among other things, ship collisions. He says that there would have been no automated systems on board a merchant ship of this kind able to prevent the impact. Information from radar, AIS, and visual observations would have been available to the crew, however.

But data-collecting systems may now reveal exactly what happened. As on airplanes, commercial ships have data and audio recorders on the bridge, which are often a key source of information for investigators post-incident. “The master will hit a button and that ensures that the last two hours of audio recording are preserved, as well as all the data from the various parts of the ship, like the engine and steering and so on,” explains Turner. “That can be downloaded and queried.”

He adds that estimates of the ship’s speed at the time of the incident as recorded by AIS are likely “99.99 percent accurate.”

For now, the focus of responders will be on locating survivors from the fallen bridge. Two people have been rescued, one of whom is in the hospital. Six construction workers remain missing.

The disaster has come at a difficult time for shipping, with drought afflicting the Panama Canal and Houthi attacks striking multiple vessels in the Red Sea in recent months. Somali piracy is on the rise again, also. The grounding of the Ever Given in the Suez Canal is very much still within recent memory—it occurred a mere three years ago.

The Port of Baltimore insists in a statement that it has not been shut down—road vehicles are still operating within the port—however, all ship traffic in and out is suspended until further notice. AIS data reveals around a dozen commercial vessels at anchor outside the port, their entry now blocked by the stricken bridge and the Dali. It will take some time for the US Army Corps of Engineers to remove the steel pieces of the bridge, which present a significant threat to passing vessels, from the river.

“Whatever ships are in the port are now stuck,” says Mercogliano, who notes that Baltimore is an important port in terms of car deliveries and coal exports.

Overall, he argues, maritime operations are extremely safe today, though the volume and velocity of trade mean that when things go wrong it can be especially serious.

“We move goods a lot faster than ever before, and there’s very little margin for error,” he says. “When there is a mistake, the mistakes tend to be very large.”

[66-bl1tz-kr13g-fr1tz]

S2UndergroundWire:

//The Wire//1700Z May 21, 2024//

//ROUTINE//

//BLUF: ICC CONSIDERS ARREST WARRANTS FOR ISRAELI AND HAMAS OFFICIALS. DETAILS OF IRANIAN HELO CRASH REMAIN CONTRADICTORY.//

-----BEGIN TEARLINE-----

-International Events-

Iran: Details continue to become contradictory following the helicopter crash that killed Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. New Iranian press statements have indicated that at least two other helicopters were involved in the incident to some degree…the collection of VIPs were not traveling in one lone helicopter as initially claimed by Iranian media (and some western sources). However, it is not clear as to if these helicopters were flying as an assembled flight, or if there was some separation of time between each of the aircraft’s transit south through the valley to Tabriz.

The Hague: The lead prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) has recommended the issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant, as well as Hamas commander in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar. The ICC will now hear evidence to determine if arrest warrants shall be issued.

Singapore: One passenger was killed, and many others injured during an extreme turbulence event on a routine flight between London and Singapore. Singapore Airlines Flight SQ321 experienced substantial turbulence as the long-haul flight neared the coast of Thailand. Following the extreme turbulence, the aircraft made an emergency landing in Thailand. AC: As the turbulence occurred unexpectedly, little warning was given to passengers, causing at least 30 passengers to suffer varying injuries to include a few cases of severe blunt force trauma. This incident did result in one fatality, but it is not clear as to if this occurred as a direct result of trauma due to the kinetic turbulence, or due to an underlying medical issue. The deceased passenger has not yet been identified by the airline.

New Caledonia: Australia and New Zealand have reportedly begun repatriation flights for their citizens located on the former French Colony. Violence continues as France deploys increasing numbers of forces to the region to maintain order.

Democratic Republic of the Congo: Overnight, Congolese forces allegedly halted a coup attempt, arresting possibly two Americans who allegedly planned to support and coordinate the efforts of a local guerrilla group. AC: So far, it’s too soon to tell if this is a legitimate coup attempt, or something else entirely. Two people are unlikely to overthrow anyone singlehandedly, but this would also not be the first time that a spy got caught engaging in espionage. Nor would it be out of the question for the local warlords of the DRC to grab a westerner and fabricate a story to consolidate power. As there are far too many variables and far too few reliable information sources in the region, the truth of this incident is unlikely to come forth for the time being.

-HomeFront-

South Carolina: The South Carolina Port Authority has announced that yesterday’s software issue has been resolved, and all terminals are resuming operations. No further details have been provided as to the specific cause of this outage.

Washington D.C. – H.R. 8445 has been introduced in Congress. This bill would amend U.S. Title 38 and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to expand eligibility of all military servicemember benefits to any American citizen serving in the Israeli Defense Forces. Per the text of the bill as provided by the bill’s sponsor, “the service of a citizen of the United States in the Israeli Defense Forces shall be treated in the same manner as service in the uniformed services.”. AC: This appears to be the first and only time (at least in U.S. history) whereby a nation is considering granting military servicemember benefits to those in the military service of a foreign nation. As such, it’s not certain how this situation will develop or if other factors such as the United States Uniform Code of Military Justice, Law of Armed Conflict, Rules of Engagement, or other legalities will apply to these select IDF soldiers as well.

-----END TEARLINE-----

Analyst Comments: As the discrepancies with the official Iranian helicopter crash story begin to mount, it is important to consider the commonality of the events that took place to result in this disaster. On the one hand, Iranian officials revealing that two additional aircraft were involved makes sense…but prompts the question of how the only aircraft with the President onboard could be the one that crashed, and the other two aircraft had no idea anything happened at all, as insinuated by Iranian media. Putting together the timeline of events is challenging, and results in any number of scenarios or theories as to how this incident could have occurred. It’s possible for one aircraft out of three to become separated from the others. It’s also possible for the other two aircraft to have departed several minutes before or after the President’s helicopter, those crucial minutes resulting in tragedy. Though completely speculative considering the lack of data available, it also wouldn’t be unheard of for a VIP to delay a departure, personally urging the other two aircraft (also carrying VIPs) to head back with the intent of catching up en route. Alternatively, the President could have been late for another meeting and flew ahead of the other two, with disastrous results. It is also possible that extreme weather conditions restricted visibility to the point that the formation broke up, with each pilot managing their own aircraft out of the valley. This is not entirely uncommon, but also causes additional questions to arise, such as how or why the two additional aircraft did not hear any radio distress calls or note any transponder data.

Nonetheless, considering all factors (none of which are completely definitive by any means) the oddity of losing the most important aircraft in a formation of three does increase the likelihood of either nefarious action or a more serious (and embarrassing for Iran) accident. As with most aviation incidents, the nuts and bolts of how tragedy strikes is a long chain of causation, with sometimes hundreds of events lining up perfectly for a disaster to occur. Considering the current international tensions, either a consolidation of power, foreign assassination, mechanical failure, sheer ignorance, incompetence, or bad luck…any one of these theories likely means the same for Iran’s future. More tension via the inevitable election season woes along with tamping down international embarrassment, and Iran always trying to save face in the international arena. Whatever the cause of this accident, most nations around the world seem to implicitly blame either the United States or Israel for the crash. If this accident was indeed purely an accident, the diplomatic complexities of Iran trying to save face in the wake of ‘the attack than never was’ probably will cause domestic problems for the Ayatollah as well.

Regarding the recent activities at the Hague, the recent events involving potential arrest warrants probably don’t mean much at all in the long run. However, the second order effects and responses to this development are worthy of note. As a reminder, 12 Republican Senators signed a letter directed to the ICC’s lead prosecutor on April 24th. This letter contained openly threatening language, stating “If you issue a warrant for the arrest of the Israeli leadership, we will interpret this not only as a threat to Israel’s sovereignty, but to the sovereignty of the United States.”. The letter also contained threatening language towards the prosecutor personally, to include his family, stating “Target Israel and we will target you. If you move forward with the measures indicated in the report, we will move to end all American support for the ICC, sanction your employees and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States. You have been warned”.

Language such as this is not only openly threatening, but also contradictory. Currently, the charges brought forth to achieve arrest warrants are not with regards to Israeli kinetic targeting practices, but those regarding the deliberate starvation of the Palestinian population in Gaza. Israel has openly admitted to deliberately withholding international food aid, and the United States building a naval logistics hub and continuing to airdrop food is a de facto admission to this deliberate starvation as well. Perhaps most importantly, it is unclear as to how the ICC potentially investigating Israel has any bearing on the national sovereignty of the United States as directly stated in the letter. This minor footnote may be a tacit admission of a reality that the American people are not yet ready to rationalize.

Analyst: S2A1

//END REPORT//

[atotaltaitaitale]

.

Sound of Paris - Public Warning System (Système d'alerte et d'information des populations - SAIP) - Sound On 🔉

Every first Wednesday of the month, at midday, an alarm sounds in France's major cities. (=>Reminds me of the Alarm system in Singapore).

These are the monthly tests of the SAIP (Système d'Alert et d'Information des Populations) alert and information system, a system for rapidly warning citizens in the event of a military attack, natural disaster or other civil security problem.

In France, since the Second World War, sirens have gradually replaced the tocsin (ringing of bells). From 1948 onwards, the Réseau national d'alerte (RNA), a network of sirens located mainly along land borders, fulfilled the function of alerting populations. Inherited from passive defense, i.e. the protection of populations in the event of war, it was initially conceived as a response tool to the airborne threat.

After the Cold War, sirens were installed throughout France. This warning network is managed by the FrenchAir Force, but it is not only of military interest: it is also used to warn people in the event of natural disasters such as tsunamis. It is used " to warn the population of a civil-security disaster of natural or technological origin." In September 2019, it was activated in response to a major fire at the Lubrizol plant in Rouen, for example.

Every month, during drills to ensure that the equipment is working properly, this siren sounds for one minute and 41 seconds. In the event of a real threat, this signal is repeated three times. If this situation arises, the French Ministry of the Interior recommends taking shelter in an enclosed space, blocking openings and vents, and staying away from windows. Then wait for the government's instructions on the radio.

A little nostalgia of my Sound Of Singapore Series.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.9

48 BC – Caesar's Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus: Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt. 378 – Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople: A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths. Valens is killed along with over half of his army. 1173 – Construction of the campanile of the Cathedral of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) begins; it will take two centuries to complete. 1329 – Quilon, the first Indian Christian Diocese, is erected by Pope John XXII; the French-born Jordanus is appointed the first Bishop. 1428 – Sources cite biggest caravan trade between Podvisoki and Republic of Ragusa. Vlachs committed to Ragusan lord Tomo Bunić, that they will with 600 horses deliver 1,500 modius of salt. Delivery was meant for Dobrašin Veseoković, and Vlachs price was half of delivered salt. 1500 – Ottoman–Venetian War (1499–1503): The Ottomans capture Methoni, Messenia. 1610 – The First Anglo-Powhatan War begins in colonial Virginia. 1810 – Napoleon annexes Westphalia as part of the First French Empire. 1814 – American Indian Wars: The Creek sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving up huge parts of Alabama and Georgia. 1830 – Louis Philippe becomes the king of the French following abdication of Charles X. 1842 – The Webster–Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States–Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains. 1854 – American Transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau publishes his memoir Walden. 1855 – Åland War: The Battle of Suomenlinna begins. 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain: At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope. 1877 – American Indian Wars: Battle of the Big Hole: A small band of Nez Percé Indians clash with the United States Army. 1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph. 1897 – The first International Congress of Mathematicians is held in Zürich, Switzerland. 1902 – Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 1907 – The first Boy Scout encampment concludes at Brownsea Island in southern England. 1925 – A train robbery takes place in Kakori, near Lucknow, India, by the Indian independence revolutionaries, against British government. 1936 – Summer Olympics: Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games. 1942 – World War II: Battle of Savo Island: Allied naval forces protecting their amphibious forces during the initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal are surprised and defeated by an Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser force. 1944 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time. 1944 – Continuation War: The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive, the largest offensive launched by Soviet Union against Finland during the Second World War, ends to a strategic stalemate. Both Finnish and Soviet troops at the Finnish front dug to defensive positions, and the front remains stable until the end of the war. 1945 – World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. Thirty-five thousand people are killed outright, including 23,200–28,200 Japanese war workers, 2,000 Korean forced workers, and 150 Japanese soldiers. 1945 – The Red Army invades Japanese-occupied Manchuria. 1960 – South Kasai secedes from the Congo. 1965 – Singapore is expelled from Malaysia and becomes the only country to date to gain independence unwillingly. 1969 – Tate–LaBianca murders: Followers of Charles Manson murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent. 1970 – LANSA Flight 502 crashes after takeoff from Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport in Cusco, Peru, killing 99 of the 100 people on board, as well as two people on the ground. 1971 – The Troubles: In Northern Ireland, the British authorities launch Operation Demetrius. The operation involves the mass arrest and internment without trial of individuals suspected of being affiliated with the Irish Republican Army (PIRA). Mass riots follow, and thousands of people flee or are forced out of their homes. 1973 – Mars 7 is launched from the USSR. 1974 – As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office. Vice President Gerald Ford becomes president. 1991 – The Italian prosecuting magistrate Antonino Scopelliti is murdered by the 'Ndrangheta on behalf of the Sicilian Mafia while preparing the government's case in the final appeal of the Maxi Trial. 1993 – The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year hold on national leadership. 1999 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet. 2006 – At least 21 suspected terrorists are arrested in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot that happened in the United Kingdom. The arrests are made in London, Birmingham, and High Wycombe in an overnight operation. 2007 – Air Moorea Flight 1121 crashes after takeoff from Moorea Airport in French Polynesia, killing all 20 people on board. 2013 – Gunmen open fire at a Sunni mosque in the city of Quetta killing at least ten people and injuring 30. 2014 – Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American male in Ferguson, Missouri, is shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer after reportedly assaulting the officer and attempting to steal his weapon, sparking protests and unrest in the city. 2021 – The Tampere light rail officially started operating.

[usafphantom2]

China constantly increases the flight of combat aircraft in Taiwan's ADIZ

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 07/11/2022 - 6:28 PM in Military, War Zones

China has intensified its incursion activities into the Taiwan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) by sending its fighter planes to the region.

According to the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) carried out 555 missions in the first six months of the year, of which 398 involved combat aircraft, compared to 187 in the same period last year.

Defense analysts say that the continent's forces are developing their ability to control the skies in a greater scope as part of preparations for a possible conflict.

China sent 29 warplanes to Taiwan's ADIZ at the end of June this year, according to media reports, marking the third largest flyby in the country this year.

Warplanes, including 17 fighter jets, six bombers and other support aircraft, entered the island's air defense identification zone, The Star newspaper reported citing the island's ministry of defense.

Although overflights have generally been seen as one of Beijing's tactics to intimidate the island, the increased use of fighter planes was noteworthy, observers said.

But in recent months, the PLA has intensified training exercises with its combat aircraft in airspace near Taiwan and further south of the Bashi Channel, an important gateway to the western Pacific, Wang said.

Beijing has been sending patrols to Taiwan's ADIZ almost daily since the end of 2020 to increase pressure on the island.

China violated Taiwan's air defense identification zone in January as well as 35 of its military aircraft, including J-16 fighters and an H-6 bomber, joined four other support planes that entered its ADIZ.

At the end of May, 22 fighter jets joined eight other support planes in the violation of Taiwan's ADIZ area.

The issue of Taiwan has been at the forefront of US-China relations in recent months.

Tensions between Washington, which is committed to supporting the island's self-defense, and Beijing over Taiwan were open earlier this month, when their respective defense chiefs met at the Shangri-La Dialogue defense conference in Singapore.

Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since the defeated nationalists withdrew to the island at the end of the Chinese civil war more than 70 years ago.

But the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in power in China sees the self-governing island as part of its territory - although it has never controlled it.

Beijing has not ruled out military force to take Taiwan and has maintained pressure on the democratic island in recent years with frequent flights of warplanes to the island's ADIZ.

An ADIZ is imposed unilaterally and distinct from sovereign airspace, which is defined by international law as the extension of 12 nautical miles from the coast of a territory.

Source: ANI News

Tags: Military AviationPLAAF - China Air ForceRoCAF - Republic of China Air Force/Taiwan Air ForceWar Zones - China/Taiwan

Previous news

The Thai Navy will buy seven Hermes 900 UAVs from Elbit Systems

Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in a specialized aviation magazine in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[newstfionline]

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

How a cargo ship took down Baltimore’s Key Bridge (Washington Post) To bridge experts, the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge after being hit by a heavy cargo ship was as inevitable as it was devastating. When a vessel as heavy as the Singapore-flagged Dali collides with such force against one of the span’s supercolumns, or piers, the result is the type of catastrophic, and heartbreaking, chain reaction that took place early Tuesday. “If the column is destroyed, basically the structure will fall down,” said Dan Frangopol, a bridge engineering and risk professor at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania who is president of the International Association for Bridge Maintenance and Safety. “It’s not possible to redistribute the loads. It was not designed for these things.” No bridge pier could withstand being hit by a ship the size of the Dali, said Benjamin W. Schafer, a professor of civil and systems engineering at Johns Hopkins University. In video imagery, the ship can be seen losing electrical power, then briefly regaining it before going completely dark. The ship issued a mayday call shortly before striking the bridge, giving officials time to stop traffic and try to evacuate it before it fell into the river.

DeSantis Signs Social Media Bill Barring Accounts for Children Under 14 (NYT) Florida on Monday became the first state to effectively bar residents under the age of 14 from holding accounts on services like TikTok and Instagram, enacting a strict social media bill that is likely to upend the lives of many young people. The landmark law, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, is one of the more restrictive measures that a state has enacted so far in an escalating nationwide push to insulate young people from potential mental health and safety risks on social media platforms. The statute both prohibits certain social networks from giving accounts to children under 14 and requires the services to terminate accounts that a platform knew or believed belonged to underage users. It also requires the platforms to obtain a parent’s permission before giving accounts to 14- and 15-year-olds. In a press conference on Monday, Mr. DeSantis said it will help parents navigate “difficult terrain” online. He added that “being buried” in devices all day long was not the best way to grow up. The new Florida measure is almost certain to face constitutional challenges over young people’s rights to freely seek information and companies’ rights to distribute information.

Joe Biden’s Political Origin Story Is Almost Certainly Bogus (Politico/Washington Free Beacon) A new investigation from The Washington Free Beacon’s Joseph Simonson and Andrew Kerr raises major questions about a story President Joe Biden has long told: when he successfully defended a construction company as a young lawyer from an injured welder’s lawsuit. Biden said feeling guilty over his role pushed him to switch to public defense and politics. But the Free Beacon finds that “this story is almost certainly a complete work of fiction”—that the case in question seems to have happened while Biden was still in law school, and the welder actually won.

U.S. allows U.N. ceasefire vote, but it’s too late for many in Gaza (Washington Post) In a surprise move Monday, the United States abstained during a United Nations Security Council vote calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. For many people in Gaza, the passage of the Security Council comes far too late. The Israeli campaign in Gaza has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, including many women and children, forced the overwhelming majority of people in Gaza to flee their homes and plunged more than half of Gaza’s population into a de facto famine. Small children are dying of malnutrition in what U.N. officials describe to be the broadest and most severe food crisis in the world. On Monday, Israeli forces continued their week-long raid of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City amid Israeli claims of a Hamas presence in the facility. Israel also said it would cease cooperation with UNRWA, the U.N. agency that distributes most aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and what U.N. Secretary General António Guterres describes as “the one ray of light for millions of people” subsisting of its support. Through all this, the United States has operated hand-in-glove with Israel, greenlighting a surge in arms transfers to reinforce the Israeli military’s relentless bombing campaigns.

Forest fires burn in nearly half of Mexico’s drought-stricken states, fueled by strong winds (AP) Forest fires were burning in nearly half of Mexico’s drought-stricken states Monday fueled by strong winds. The National Forestry Commission reported 58 active fires in 15 states, including in protected nature reserves in Morelos, Veracruz and Mexico states. A preliminary estimate of the affected area reached more than 3,500 acres (1,421 hectares).

Venezuela’s main opposition coalition unable to register a presidential candidate (AP) The main Venezuelan opposition coalition said early Tuesday that electoral authorities didn’t let it register its presidential candidate as the deadline ended, in what it called the latest violation to the citizens’ right to vote for change in the South American country. Hours before the opposition coalition couldn’t register Yoris, President Nicolás Maduro made official his candidacy for a third term that would last until 2031. Polls show the unpopular Maduro would be trounced by a landslide if Venezuelan voters were given half a chance.

Brazil Police to Probe Bolsonaro’s Stay at Hungary Embassy (Bloomberg) Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court on Monday gave former President Jair Bolsonaro 48 hours to explain why he stayed at the Hungarian Embassy in Brasília for two days in February. According to security footage obtained by the New York Times, Bolsonaro appeared to seek political asylum from Budapest mere days after federal authorities confiscated his passport as part of a criminal investigation into whether he tried to incite an insurrection and purposefully spread voting disinformation, among other charges. On Monday, Brazil’s federal police launched an investigation into the far-right leader’s movements. Bolsonaro confirmed that he stayed at the embassy beginning Feb. 12 but only said, “I have a circle of friends with some world leaders. They’re worried,” when asked why. His lawyers added that Bolsonaro’s visit was to discuss political matters. The Hungarian Foreign Ministry refused to comment.

Moscow rampage reveals ambition, deadly reach of ISIS successor groups (Washington Post) A few months before being killed in a U.S. Special Forces raid, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi released a final video message that symbolically passed the torch to far-flung followers in distant lands. His self-declared caliphate had been defeated, he acknowledged, and it was now up to the terrorist group’s regional chapters to carry out “revenge operations” around the world. “Our battle today is one of attrition and stretching the enemy,” Baghdadi said in the April 2019 video, released just after the fall of the Islamic State’s last stronghold in Syria. “They should know that jihad is ongoing until the Day of Judgment.” Friday’s bloodbath at a suburban Moscow concert hall is but the latest reminder of how effectively Baghdadi’s brutal vision is being carried out. While his self-proclaimed Middle East “caliphate” is in ruins, a constellation of Islamic State regional affiliates is gaining strength in many parts of the globe, fueled by a mix of traditional grievances as well as new ones, including the war in Gaza, counterterrorism officials and experts say.

Japan approves plan to sell fighter jets to other nations in latest break from pacifist principles (AP) Japan’s Cabinet on Tuesday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it’s developing with Britain and Italy to other countries, in the latest move away from the country’s postwar pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project and part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to countries other than the partners. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the changes are necessary given Japan’s security environment, but stressed that Japan’s pacifist principles remain unchanged.

Israeli Soldier’s Video Undercuts Medic’s Account of Sexual Assault (NYT) New video has surfaced that undercuts the account of an Israeli military paramedic who said two teenagers killed in the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Oct. 7 were sexually assaulted. The unnamed paramedic, from an Israeli commando unit, was among dozens of people interviewed for a Dec. 28 article by The New York Times that examined sexual violence on Oct. 7. He said he discovered the bodies of two partially clothed teenage girls in a home in Kibbutz Be’eri that bore signs of sexual violence. The Associated Press, CNN and The Washington Post reported similar accounts from a military paramedic who spoke on condition of anonymity. Nili Bar Sinai, a member of a group from the kibbutz that looked into claims of sexual assault at the house, said, “This story is false.”

Israeli settlers eye Gaza beachfront (BBC) Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza in 2005, but some in the Israeli settler movement still hope to go back, one day. Daniella Weiss, who heads a radical settler organisation called Nachala, or homeland, says she already has a list of 500 families ready to move to Gaza immediately. We meet Daniella at her home in the West Bank settlement of Kedumim, where red-roofed houses are spread over hilltops and valleys. Her vision for the future of Gaza—now home to 2.3 million Palestinians, many of them starving—is that it will be Jewish. “Gaza Arabs will not stay in the Gaza Strip,” she says. “Who will stay? Jews.” She claims that Palestinians want to leave Gaza and that other countries should take them in. “Africa is big. Canada is big. The world will absorb the people of Gaza. How we do it? We encourage it. Palestinians in Gaza, the good ones, will be enabled. I’m not saying forced, I say enabled because they want to go,” she says. There is no evidence that Palestinians want to leave their homeland—although many may now dream of escaping temporarily, to save their lives. I put it to her that her comments sound like a plan for ethnic cleansing. She does not deny it.

Young Opposition Candidate Set to Become Senegal’s President (NYT) With the concession of his main rival, a young political outsider backed by a powerful opposition figure has won a surprise outright victory in Senegal’s presidential election only 10 days after being released from jail. Bassirou Diomaye Faye is the anointed candidate of Senegal’s popular and controversial opposition politician Ousmane Sonko. Mr. Faye’s main rival, the governing party candidate Amadou Ba, conceded in a statement congratulating his rival on Monday for winning in the first round. Mr. Faye, who celebrated his 44th birthday on Monday, will become the West African country’s youngest ever president, and the youngest elected president currently serving in Africa. (There are younger leaders, but they came to power by force.) He had been jailed on charges of defamation and contempt of court, and was awaiting trial. Mr. Faye and Mr. Sonko have captivated young people by excoriating political elites, pledging to renegotiate contracts with oil and gas companies, and promising “monetary sovereignty”—Senegal is one of 14 countries that use the CFA, a currency pegged to the euro and backed by France.

Puppets (Los Angeles Times) The Los Angeles Puppetry Guild represents a diverse bunch, from amateurs to industry professionals, and judging by member rolls puppetry is having a real moment right now. The L.A. guild is up to 200 members, and the Puppeteers of America now recognizes it as the largest such regional body in the country. The surge is mostly people in their 20s and 30s. One theory is that CGI becoming firmly mainstream when it comes to film effects has provoked some yearning for the more tactile medium of puppets.

[themarketinsights]

Aero Small Gas Turbine Engine Market Unidentified Segments – The Biggest Opportunity Of 2023

Latest released the research study on Global Aero Small Gas Turbine Engine Market, offers a detailed overview of the factors influencing the global business scope. Aero Small Gas Turbine Engine Market research report shows the latest market insights, current situation analysis with upcoming trends and breakdown of the products and services. The report provides key statistics on the market status, size, share, growth factors of the Aero Small Gas Turbine Engine The study covers emerging player’s data, including: competitive landscape, sales, revenue and global market share of top manufacturers are Rolls-Royce plc (United Kingdom), Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Japan), PBS Group, a. s. (Prague), Honeywell International Inc. (United States), Mitsubishi Power, Ltd. (Japan), Cape Aerospace Technologies (South Africa), GE Aviation (General Electric) (United States), IHI Corporation (Japan)

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Aero Small Gas Turbine Engine Market Definition:

Aero small gas turbine engine is specially used for the experimental aircraft, sports gliders, unmanned aerial vehicle,s etc use din the aviation and defense industry. The small gas turbine engine generates a mixture of burning fuel and compressed air. These turbine engines consist of a single-stage compressor with a generator attached to the same shaft. The fuel such as kerosene, diesel, biofuel, synthetic fuel are used in these engines.

Market Trend:

Increasing Consumption of Aero Small Gas Turbine Engine in Cruise Missile Applications

Market Drivers:

Growing Aircraft Industry with the Special Type fo Aircraft Application Requirement

Demand for the Auxiliary Power Range in the Aircrafts Used in Defense Industry

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Technological Advancements in the Aero Small Gas Turbine Engine

Surging Investment of Industries on Aero Small Gas Turbine Engine Aircrafts

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by Application (Small Civil Aircraft, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), Experimental Aircraft, Sport Gliders, Model Aircraft, Others), Output (<40 MW, <40-70 MW, 71-100 MW, >100 MW), Fuel (Kerosene, Diesel, Jet A, Biofuel, Synthetic Fuel), Sales Channel (OEM, Aftermarket)

Region Included are: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Oceania, South America, Middle East & Africa

Country Level Break-Up: United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, South Africa, Nigeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Germany, United Kingdom (UK), the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Turkey, Russia, France, Poland, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, India, Australia and New Zealand etc.

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Chapter 5: Displaying market size by Type, End User and Region 2015-2020

Chapter 6: Evaluating the leading manufacturers of the Aero Small Gas Turbine Engine market which consists of its Competitive Landscape, Peer Group Analysis, BCG Matrix & Company Profile

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[antoine-roquentin]

Myanmar: Vast arsenal and notorious troops deployed during nationwide ‘killing spree’ protest crackdown – new research

The Myanmar military is using increasingly lethal tactics and weapons normally seen on the battlefield against peaceful protesters and bystanders across the country, new research by Amnesty International has revealed.

By verifying more than 50 videos from the ongoing crackdown, Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab can confirm that security forces appear to be implementing planned, systematic strategies including the ramped-up use of lethal force. Many of the killings documented amount to extrajudicial executions.

Footage clearly shows that Myanmar military troops - also known as the Tatmadaw - are increasingly armed with weapons that are only appropriate for the battlefield, not for policing actions. Officers are frequently seen engaging in reckless behavior, including the indiscriminate spraying of live ammunition in urban areas.

‘We are frontliners’: Youth brave bullets and arrest to keep protests alive 

While the early street protests against the February 1 military takeover remained largely peaceful, attracting people from all strata of society, the police and army have violently broken up more recent demonstrations, killing more than 70 so far. This has whittled down protests to younger, more daring groups engaging in cat-and-mouse games with security forces: making tactical retreats and reassembling the moment forces move on. To avoid death, injury or arrest, they have had to quickly adopt new methods and tools.

Mayangone Township resident Ko Phyo Tin, 25, who joins the Kyun Taw protest group every day, uses a shield improvised from a piece of steel as protection against rubber bullets and live rounds, and dons a Chinese-made combat helmet.

“Most of us are using protective equipment made in China. We don’t trust its quality but we have no alternative,” he said, adding that the group would gladly accept donations of quality gas masks, hard hats and body armour.

Women have also taken up positions as “frontliners”, the protesters bearing the brunt of the police and army assaults and shielding those behind them. They include Ma Thu Thu, 23, a founder of a team of frontliners that operates in Hlaing and Kamaryut townships, where such groups proliferate.

Thu Thu said her team comprises a core group of more than 10 people that is supported by about another 50 volunteers, who have learned from the street tactics used in dissident movements overseas.

“I saw the protests in Hong Kong and they gave me ideas about how we could defend ourselves,” said Thu Thu, whose small frame belies a capacity to endure gruelling confrontations with security forces.

She has been protesting against military rule since February 6 and is increasingly convinced that the people need protection from the lethal force police and soldiers used against striking dockworkers in Mandalay on February 20, when security forces fired live rounds on a crowd of more than 1,000 demonstrators at a shipyard, killing two and injuring dozens.

On February 26, Thu Thu watched a violent crackdown by police on big crowds of protesters at the Myanigone and Hledan junctions in Yangon.

“Police opened fire to disperse protesters, who fled in chaos. Some were arrested. When I saw that, I thought we needed to be able to protect protesters during demonstrations planned for February 28, Milk Tea Alliance Day,” she said, referring to a loose alliance of pro-democracy movements in Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and now Myanmar.

“I posted [these thoughts] on Facebook and one of my friends said she would donate 30 shields. I talked with some of my male friends and we decided to volunteer as frontliners,” she added.

“When we first started posting [about our plan], about a hundred people contacted us [wanting to join]. Members of our group are from many different townships in Yangon.”

Myanmar junta hires Israeli intelligence veteran for international lobbying campaign 

Defense Minister Mya Tun Oo retained Ari Ben-Menashe and his Montreal-based Dickens & Madson Canada to “assist in explaining the real situation in the country,” according to a consultancy agreement dated Thursday. The firm is tasked with lobbying Congress and the Joe Biden administration as well as the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Russia in addition to the United Nations, the African Union and other international organizations and NGOs.

The firm is expected to file a formal lobbying contract with the US Department of Justice early next week, Ben-Menashe said in a telephone interview Friday morning from Myanmar, where he’s wrapping up his second trip in the past few weeks. He said the contract was for a “big amount” but declined to get into specifics.

(Update: Dickens & Madson said the contract with Mya Tun Oo was for $2 million in a Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) disclosure filed Monday, March 8 with the US Department of Justice. The amount is to be paid  “when legally permissible by controlling jurisdictions” since the minister and other military leaders are under US sanctions.

“Within the United States, Registrant will provide advice and counsel to the foreign principal and advocate before the executive and/or legislative branches of the government of the United States to seek support and humanitarian aid for the benefit of the citizens of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and to strive for the removal or modification of current sanctions,” the lobbying disclosure states. “Additionally, Registrant proposes to provide media and public relations services to further the country’s goals and activities. Registrant also provides lobbying services to the foreign principal in other countries.”)

Ben-Menashe indicated that he plans to present the country’s military rulers as a counterweight to alleged growing Chinese influence in the country under Aung San Suu Kyi, the government leader whose National League for Democracy swept legislative elections in November. The Burmese military declared the elections to be illegitimate on Feb. 1 and deposed Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, sparking international condemnation.

“Aung San Suu Kyi moved toward China while she was in power,” Ben-Menashe said. “And these guys [in the military] don’t like it.”

He added that officials in Saudi Arabia and the UAE had offered to assist with the return of Rohingya Muslims, almost a million of whom have fled to neighboring Bangladesh in recent years amid what the United Nations have labeled a campaign of genocide. Ben-Menashe said he had advised the country’s rulers in the 1990s and warned at the time against having Suu Kyi in the government, claiming she had shown anti-Muslim animus.

“Aung San Suu Kyi as leader was the one who did in the Rohingyas, not the army,” he insisted.

Democratic shadow government taking form in Myanmar 

Myanmar’s banking system, always feeble, looks close to collapse. With banking havens for the junta’s finances, namely the US and Singapore, restricting capital flows, the Biden administration’s freeze on $1 billion of Myanmar’s US-held assets and an ongoing national boycott of military-affiliated businesses, the junta’s finances are being squeezed.

All this definitely means the junta’s strategy of carrying on with business as usual has gone out the window and makes large-scale violent escalation likely.

The writers disagree with the view that the disparate Civil Disobedience Movement can win by sheer power of will and personal sacrifice. Look at the numbers: In some ministries, such as health and education, participation in the movement is substantial, with estimates that a third of staff are actively involved. In others, it is much smaller.

Some 600 policemen are said to have defected so far. Overall, the number of Civil Disobedience Movement participants is likely in the tens of thousands, out of a million or so civil servants across the country.

The junta is cracking down hard. Participating civil servants have been suspended by the junta, with some losing their pay and benefits and others potentially charged with treason.

One senior civil servant told us: “I really want to participate in the civil disobedience campaign but I have to take care of my family – we rely on my salary [and] the housing provided by the department.”

One month on, the story of Myanmar’s coup has become a tale of two governments, the junta and the acting administration of the Committee Representing the National Parliament (CRPH), a group of MPs mostly from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

With many of its members including Suu Kyi detained and least one who has died in the junta’s custody, the democratically-elected NLD has been hit hard by the coup.

“We cannot operate as a political party right now. [The junta] seized our leaders… Our party headquarter is closed. But we are trying to connect with our party members,” Phyo Zeya Thaw, NLD Central Committee Member, told the writers.

The CRPH has sought to challenge the junta while running and hiding. It has already announced a public administration program that established local councils led by MPs and loyal local officials to run affairs in Myanmar’s 360 townships in competition with the junta.

Preliminary data from a survey we are conducting on this parallel governance bid suggest that early success is mixed: In parts of the country, the NLD’s grassroots networks have been able to set up structures, in particular in Yangon, Mandalay and Sagaing regions, all part of the NLD’s heartland. In other townships, the junta has the upper hand.

Significantly, the CRPH is now putting itself firmly at the head of the disparate civil disobedience movement. On its website, the CRPH is registering civil servants participating in CDM who it will provide support.

It has also formed an ”acting administration” of acting ministers. They will cover all portfolios of the toppled NLD government until a new unity resistance government is formed.

To form this unity government, the CRPH is competing with the junta in reaching out to both civil society leaders and to ethnic political parties and ethnic armed groups. The success of these overtures may decide the ultimate fate of Myanmar’s coup.

Two other resistance organizations, a General Strike Committee and a General Strike Committee of Nationalities, that sprung up to organize a general strike in February are still organizing protests and strikes independently.

Business revolt brewing in coup-crippled Myanmar 

Western business groups, namely European, American, British, Italian and French chambers of commerce, rejected the regime’s invitation to meet on March 4. At the same time, major Asian business groups such as the Thai, Hong Kong, Japanese and Chinese have not released any statements of concern since the coup and lethal crackdown on protesters.

The Western chambers’ refusal comes at a time of widespread and rising condemnation against the regime’s brutal crackdown on unarmed protesting civilians, with more than 50 killed as of March 3, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an independent monitoring group.

Australian business group AustCham Myanmar said on Wednesday it has “serious concern over the increasing use of violence against the people campaigning for a return to democratic Government in Myanmar.”

[bloededhoine]

@soyinigomontoya i'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt because i'm in a good mood and like your url.

"wouldn't all countries militaries be a tool for genocide?"

short answer: no

long answer: let's see, shall we? also the long answer has a big tw for discussions of genocide, including brief mentions of the holocaust and armenian genocide, and detail about british occupation of ireland.

countries, military, war, and genocide are not a packaged deal. i think of them kind of like a ladder. the bottom rung is a country. this rung is basically just the requirement to be counted, since non-sovereign states cannot declare war. second rung is a military, which nearly all countries have. the third rung is war, which you cannot reach without having a military, cause duh. the fourth rung is genocide, which you cannot reach without war (depends on your definition of the terms, but that's arbitrary at this point. no population gets killed en masse and doesn't even fight back).

let's start at the bottom rung, with a countries. on this rung we have the 206 nations recognized by the united nations. no states, territories, or regions allowed. sorry. all these nations are allowed to move up to the second rung, military.

but do they? not always. i think around 15 countries have no armed forces, but they are all either teeny tiny little microstates that have an agreement with their surrounding country to provide defense, or island nations that have agreements with larger close by countries. these 15 don't get to move any further up the ladder, cause they are literally incapable of entering the second rung, war.

the other 191 countries make it to the second rung, and while most choose to continue up the ladder, some just don't. the swiss military, for example, hasn't been in a war since 1815. sweden hasn't been in a war since 1814. both countries have militaries, they just don't use them for war. neutral countries stay on the second rung because they don't engage with the third.

onto the third rung, war. most countries participate, albeit to varying degrees. the top ten by global militarization index are israel, singapore, armenia, cyprus, south korea, russia, greece, jordan, brunei, and belarus. the bottom ten are iceland, costa rica, swaziland, haiti, panama, papua new guinea, liberia, gambia, cape verde, and sierra leone. to move up to the fourth rung, these countries need to be involved in a war with the purpose of genocide. fortunately, most wars don't qualify.

genocide is the killing of a people. the holocaust was a genocide of (primarily) jewish people. the armenian genocide was a genocide of, wait for it, armenian people. a civil war can never be a genocide, by definition the different sides are from one people. ie the american civil war was american people fighting american people. even though it was racially motivated, the two sides were of one nation that had different ideas about race and slavery. it's important to remember that all wars require at least two sides, and one always will end up winning. take the troubles, as wars go they were very small scale and easy to understand. to oversimplify things, the irish said get out, the british said no, the irish said we'll make you, the british said try it. tale as old as time. the irish could never come close to genocide, they were the minority and had been fighting this fight for centuries with shockingly little progress. the british, however... different story. there's a reason gaeilge isn't spoken anymore and the irish diaspora is one of the largest in history. that conflict was definitely a genocide (albeit an incredibly long, drawn out one), but the genocide was one sided.

so to sum up, no. not all countries' militaries are a tool for genocide. only the countries with an active military that participates in wars with the purpose of wiping out a specific people are tools for genocide. that ends up being a pretty small number, even though many countries will weasel their way out of being held responsible.

[arcticdementor]

Generic reasons for any technocracy’s overdoing things include those associated with the intrinsic nature of elitism. The corporate-minded folks who run the Red Dot (a.k.a. Singapore) consist of the high ranks of the People’s Action Party and the senior managers who direct its ministries, agencies, and two sovereign wealth funds. To give an extreme but not entirely uncharacteristic example of the tightness of this networked and not infrequently family intermarried elite, the CEO of Temasek is the wife of the current Prime Minister (who is the son of Singapore’s first and most illustrious Prime Minister). Ho Ching and Lee Hsien Loong—although several rungs down the ladder from the late iconic duo of Lee Kwan Yew and Kwa Geok Choo—are Singapore’s current power-political couple; when they walk together arm-in-arm, small explosions issue from the heels of their shoes.

…

All insular and confident political elite clusters tend to generate a sense of privilege—earned privilege, perhaps, but privilege all the same. When coupled with the longevity of high status and a perception of success at doing the “job,” a certain rigidity of personality, defensiveness about criticism, and, at times in some people, arrogance about their own presumed infallibility can result. It can also lead to a belief that the über-elite are entitled to warp and wind the law to their own purposes. The tendency isn’t new: See II Samuel, chapter 12, for an example concerning King David and a family friend named Nathan.

…

Which begs a better question: What are the historical and cultural facets of overdoing it, in part at least, “with Chinese characteristics”? Since I am not and never will be expert on anything Chinese, I rely for parts of an answer on Singapore’s 89-year-old sage Wang Gungwu—whom I have read, known, and worked with now and again for 25 years. For present purposes, three insights demand a hearing.

First, the paternalistic nature of leadership in Singapore owes much to a path dependency planted amid its 1965 origin, and it has little to do with anything culturally Chinese. When Singapore was thrust into independence against its will, the leadership faced a parlous situation in which maintaining social order and political control was paramount. Traumatic 1964 race riots were vivid in their working memory. The trauma of the 1942-45 Japanese occupation was still felt, partly in the form of the psychological shock of the sudden, ignominious dethronement of British superiority that rattled the self-confidence of the Chinese elite whose members had modeled themselves as Westernizing Anglophones.

…

But second, yes, Singapore’s paternalistic political culture does owe also to the Taoist/Confucian prism that splits civil light into the colors of Chinese culture. It is a deep shaping factor that is much more powerful than a mere two generations of Anglophonic affections and affectations.

At least as much as China itself these days, whose intellectual traditions have been whipsawed by forced-march Marxism-Leninism and its partial relaxation, Singapore’s elite prizes orderliness above all else. There is right and wrong, diligence and laziness, loyalty and disobedience. Despite the existence in the Analects of a right to oppose unrighteous, ruinous rule, history has bequeathed the de facto obligation that authority and expertise are due respect and honor. There is, in short, a natural hierarchy inherent in all things that guides virtuous behavior, and in that hierarchy all things fit together. Reality exudes symmetry. Ambiguity and loose ends make some people in all cultures nervous, but in Confucian-accented Singapore, those personality types dominate.

…

Another illustration of the general point can be gleaned from something as anodyne as a high-end restaurant experience. At most very high-end Western restaurants, menus offer at least some choices. At nearly all very high-end East Asian restaurants, chefs dictate what is best among the foods available, and know how to cook and present them. Both a Westerner in a high-end Western restaurant who refuses to choose and an Easterner in a high-end Eastern restaurant who deigns to choose are inexplicable in their respective cultural contexts.

This difference echoes across political cultures: Multiparty politics and wide-open elections are menu-like; one-party paternalistic systems are not. Asian democracies are unlikely ever to fully mimic Western types, whatever other reasons may also explain differences.

The difference appears, too, in the nature of counsel in high bureaucracy. In the United States staffers are expected to present options to the President. This is the Goldilocks method: Create three options, one too meek and one too bold, so that the President will choose B, the option in the sweet middle. East Asian staffers do not typically relate to their principals in this manner. If a responsible executive asks an expert his or her view of what to do, that expert gives one view. To offer alternatives would signal indecisiveness and a lack of self-confidence and self-respect, and no East Asian leader—emperor of old or head-of-state at present—wants a wavering adviser, the kind of person, Dean Acheson once commented, who writes memoranda not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.

…

Rather, the great man approach to historical interpretation is the baked-in default mode of the Far East. LKY succeeded in part because he understood and went with the “soft” authoritarian cultural flow, not because, as some have argued, he was a crazed megalomaniac. He was not; he was merely blunt on occasion, as when he remarked in April 1987 that, “I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yes, if I did not, had I not done that, we wouldn’t be here today. . . . We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.”

Gungwu explains that Chinese do not hold much with airy abstractions, preferring pragmatics when it comes to politics. They speak of the “thought” of the flesh-and-blood great man—from Mencius, Lao Tzu, and Confucius all the way to Mao, Deng, and now Xi—rather than of disembodied abstract theories. LKY was Singapore’s great man, shaping the first half-century of its independence like no other, and his legacy is his “thought”—even if most here avoid calling it that, at least when speaking English. But some get real close: A popular 1998 book about LKY is entitled Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas.

Third, that the high political elite here embody this paternalism is quintessentially mandarin in origin, but its broader institutional shape owes something as well to the aforementioned Chinese elite’s Anglophonic choices and experience. A lot of what the British brought to Singapore worked pretty well, and Singapore’s first generation of independence leaders were wise enough not to want to screw with it for the mere sake of change. A new photography exhibit at the Sun Yat-sen Museum, highlighting early commercial photo studios here, illustrates the backdrop. The featured photos show well-to-do Chinese dressed in then-stylish Western garb, down to the pocket watch chains emerging from vest coat pockets.

Thus, between the crisis of birth etched into the psyche of the managing elite, a perduring Confucian heritage, and a deliberately adopted (and adapted) Anglophonic legacy, you have the basic formula for the singularly Singaporean technocratic character. With it, you also have the formula for how the “family firm” state occasionally overdoes things.

[davidshawnsown]

COMMEMORATIVE MESSAGE IN HONOR OF THE 75TH DIAMOND JUBILLEE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREAT ALLIED VICTORY OVER JAPAN IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION AND THE VICTORIOUS AND DEFINITE CONCLUSION OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Ladies and gentlemen, to all the people of the United States of America and Canada, to all our remaining living veterans of the Second World War of 1939-1945 and of all conflicts past and present and their families, to our veterans, active servicemen and women, reservists and families of the entire United States Armed Forces and Canadian Armed Forces, and to all the uniformed military and civil security services of the Allied combatants of this conflict, to all the immediate families, relatives, children and grandchildren of the deceased veterans, fallen service personnel and wounded personnel of our military services and civil uniformed security and civil defense services, to all our workers, farmers and intellectuals, to our youth and personnel serving in youth uniformed and cadet organizations and all our athletes, coaches, judges, sports trainers and sports officials, and to all our sports fans, to all our workers of culture, music, traditional arts and the theatrical arts, radio, television, digital media and social media, cinema, heavy and light industry, agriculture, business, tourism and the press, and to all our people of the free world:

Our greeting to the millions who today celebrate such an important day in our history.

For it was on this day in history when in 1792 when the September Massacres, the mass slaughter of the Catholic clergy and supporters of the monarchy during the early stages of the French Revolution, began as revolutionary crows stormed into the prisons killing supporters of the deposed royal family.

It was on this day in 1872 that the Battle of Sedan ended with a historic defeat for the French Army.

It was on this day in 1960 when the in-exile Parliament of the Central Tibetan Administration held its very first elections.

And today, September 2, in the midst of the fact that the world is now currently in one of the greatest crises of our times in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in millions being infected and in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people around the world, as well as the cancellations of many events and of sporting activities and the postponment of many others as a precautionary measure for the sake of protecting public health and well-being, we today celebrate with great joy the anniversary of all anniversaries: the 75th Diamond Jubilee year anniversary of the signing of the official documents of the unconditional surrender of the whole of Japan to the victorious Allied Powers and the conclusion of the Second World War, 6 years and a day after it began with the Nazi German advance to western Poland in 1939. It is a day of profound celebration of the historic day that finally ended years of long and bitter war against the Axis aggressor in many parts of the world, a war that would in the end cost the lives of millions of people, the dignity of millions of women and children, the loss of many precious works of art and culture and the destruction of countless architectural wonders, economies and industries. It is a day wherein we reflect the sacrifices of the millions of men and women who fought and worked in the side of the victorious Allies in the united cause of the defense of lives and individual freedoms against the totalitarian aggressor bent on destroying freedom and independence for the sake of fascism, opresssion and abuse of human rights and liberties. It is a day of remembrance of the memories of the millions of martyrs of the uniformed military, law enforcement and civil defense services of the Allied Powers who perished during this terrible period in human history. It is above all a joyful day of celebration of the victory against the forces of evil and the beginning of the long era of peace.

On this day exactly 75 years ago, aboard the historic battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) off the waters of Tokyo Bay, military representatives of both the Allies and the Empire of Japan signed the papers that formally ended a six year old war (eight long years of warfare in East Asia) and brought forth the victory over the Axis aggressors in the Asia-Pacific, with the acceptance of Japan and her armed forces of the terms of unconditional surrender of the country to the victors as agreed before earlier in the year in Postdam and as announced to the whole of the country the month before, with with ceremonies of surrender being conducted in other parts of East Asia in the coming days marking the close of another memorable but bloody chapter in world history. On that day the world witnessed the beginning of a long but painful road to peace that would in the following years be riddled with the blood of future regional wars, but lined with the sacrifices of millions whose sacrifices during those six long years brought forth the ideals of a better world for our future generations, a world full of peace and progress, where people live in harmony, friendship and cooperation. On that day the world celebrated the victory won against the Axis Powers whose plans for evil domination in the world and the suffering of millions were ended by the Allied Powers. On that day the world gave its thanks to the millions of men and women, collectively dubbed as the Greatest Generation, the millions of active and reserve servicemen and women of the armed forces, police, fire, border protection, civil defense, emergency response and intelligence organizations, as well as all paramilitary and law enforcement auxillary organizations of the Allied Powers whose tenacity, courage, hard work, dedication, resiliency and profound active support in the battlefields in land, air and sea in conventional and unconventional military and paramilitary operations, intelligence gathering and counter-intelligence operations, law enforcement,  emergency response, disaster and war relief and rehabilitation operations, whether be in enemy territories or in friendly lands, together with the millions of working men and women of the home front industries who helped supply needed equipment, fuel, water and vehicles, as well as shipping and aerial supplies and even clothing, furniture and needed medical supplies and food, all to the servicemen and women in the frontlines, the medical professionals who helped in treating the wounded, the chaplains who prayed for the living and the dead and the people in culture and the arts, in the press, film and television, in businesses and enterprises,  and in sports either as serving in the uniformed organizations or in active support for the war effort at home secured the cause of liberty and independence of millions all over the world against the Axis Powers and collectively as one people ended the threat posed by them to the free world and to the whole of humanity.  For such a great victory, that had been paved by the blood of the millions of lives lost during this long and painful conflict, including Jews, members of other religious communities, people who sympathized with the resistance movement and anti-Nazi activists and politicians, as well as of Poles and others in Soviet concentration camps and Gulag camps and by exile to  other parts of the USSR of various ethnic communities, as well as the massive Japanese persecution, injustices, murder and violent acts directed at the Chinese and dissident citizens and people of other faiths in the Asia-Pacific  and Axis aerial bombardments and sea attacks on merchant shipping and supply convoys, had indeed been impossible if not for the great support shown by every one of our millions of people, who through their efforts contributed to the great and glorious victory that we remember today. Such indeed is the importance of this great victory that we remember on this very day of our history, exactly 75 years ago today.

We indeed cannot forget so great a sacrifice by millions of people from all walks of life who perished in so severe a global conflict as this, with millions of civilian fatalities, and millions more who died among those in the uniformed organizations and paramilitary groups of the Allies who fought against the aggressor.

We cannot forget too the martyrdom of millions who suffered gravely at the hands of the Axis governments and socio-political organizations.

We cannot forget as well the heroism of millions who fought in the battlefields of this long conflict, in places like Dunkirk, Leningrad, the Brest Fortress, Moscow, Tula, Borodino, Sevastopol, El Alamein, Tobruk, Stalingrad, Kursk, Normandy, Caretan, Paris, Minsk, Monte Cassino, Eindhoven, Rome, Smolensk, Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa, Lyon, Bastogne, Warsaw, Bryansk, Anapa, Smolensk, Lviv, Shanghai, Pearl Harbor, the Bataan Peninsula, Corregidor Island, Singapore, Besang Pass, Hong Kong, Wuhan, Midway Island, Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, the Santa Cruz Islands, Belgrade, Sofia, the Caucasus, Karelia, Cologne, Xiamen, Budapest, Tunis and many more, in the land, air, and sea, from every terrain and in any weather condition, from the sands of the Sahara, up to the Normandy beaches, the British skies, the forests and plains of the Low Countries, the mighty mountains and valleys of the Alps and Balkans, the marshes at Pripyat, the Ukrainian steppes to the Arctic and the snowy lands of Scandinavia, towards the jungles of Myanmar and the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines and Indonesia, in the changing terrains and landscapes of China and Korea, and in the Pacific Islands and New Guinea, dinstinguishing themsleves for their country and for the whole of humanity in conventional and unconventional military and paramilitary operations, intelligence gathering and combat and service support, led by heroic commanding officers coming from all walks of life, graduates of military academies and officer candidate institutes, whose efforts received for them the honor and glory of their country and people, many of them at the cost of losing their lives in battle.

And we cannot forget as well the contributions of millions in the home front in the victory that is celebrated today in the Asia-Pacific, thru their efforts to support those in the battlefields and overseas bases with much needed equipment, supplies and essential equipment, in addition in supporting war bonds activties and listening to artists who time and again gave concerts and shows to those in the armed forces at home and overseas, while also watching movies and documentaries about the war during this time in our history.

This was indeed a day that everyone had waited all these 6 years. A day the millions who fought in the Allied military forces and guerilla organizations anticipated, many would die in combat but many more lived to see this day come, a day that would usher in the end of this long conflict and the victory won against the Axis Powers. Indeed the sacrifices of the millions who were mobilized to fight those who were threatening peace and the future of the world, as well as the blood poured by those who fell in this long period of our history, and the suffering felt by so many people in the territories where the war had impacted directly all led up to this great day. Of the millions who answered the call, millions less died in battle in the uniforms of the Allied armed forces and paramilitary organizations in Europe, North Africa and the Asia-Pacific and in naval operations everywehre,  while millions still lived long for the great day of victory to arrive on the 2nd of September, 1945, exactly 75 years ago.

Today, in remembrance of the victory won against the Allies and the end of this great war, we remember these millions of active and reserve men and women of the military forces and paramilitary organizations of the Allies, today only by the thousands who are still alive ever to celebrate this momentous occasion of such an important anniversary of the victory won over the Axis Powers in the Asia-Pacific and the end of this long and bitter conflict that forever changed human history. We must never forget that this victory was made possible because of their adversity in battle, determination, iron-willed strength, courage, friendship, bravery and perserverance, and above all the readiness to sacrifice life and limb for the sake for the cause of the defeat of the ideologies that begun this conflict eight decades past in Eastern Europe.

Marking this great anniversary, with deep respect and profound gratitude we today honor these  millions of heroes, who, through their personal and combined efforts, secured the final victory we honor today against the Axis Powers, ending once and for all their evil plans for the domination of the world and the repression of peoples. Today and always may we by our words and actions recall the memory of these men and women who served during those years of combat in every corner of the world who are even in this present time and in a modern way of life are still honored not just by battle honors and monuments but also in various works and in radio, television, film and digital media, and who today we, the descendants of this heroic and great generation of heroes, and the generations of tomorrow must keep in our minds and hearts, among them the men and women of the intelligence services who helped provide the Allied military leadership  with information on enemy locations and movements, Easy Company of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, formerly 4th Brigade Combat Team and now 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, United States Army, the brave men of the 1st Marine Division’s 1st, 5th and 7th Marine Regiments, the tankers of the 2nd Armored Division, the aviators and air crews of the 8th Air Force, and all our sportsmen and women who served under the colours of the Allied military forces during the long war and helped win the definite victory against tyranny and oppresion, be forever in our memories and our profound remembrance, not just by their families and descendants but by the very people they fought and died for in the fields of battle, the frontlines, the concentration camps and the home front, and by the people and youth of today and our future generations of men and women, most especially to all considering careers in the uniformed services, so that their legacies to the peoples of the world will be conserved for posterity and for the sake of those who will follow in their footsteps today and in the future.  On this day of celebration for millions of people all over the globe we once again send our greetings to the hundreds of thousands of men and women in active service and in the reserves in the armed forces,  police, public security, forestry, border security, civil defense and emergency services of the Allied combatant countries and their families,our working people, agricultural workers and those working in science and technology, education, tourism, culture and the arts and in the mass media and the press and all our sportsmen and women, as well as our military and civil uniformed service veterans and their families, and the families of all who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for the defense of our principles and of our liberty and independence. In addition to these individuals and public and private corporate and cooperative entites, in light of the ongoing global pandemic caused by COVID-19, we also today remember the modern day heroes of this disastrous time: our medical workers and professionals treating the sick and the dying even at the cost of their lives, as well as those working in essential and permitted industries and enterprises, which have also suffered from the economic fallout of this pandemic, whose determination, courage and firm hope in the future, with firm compliance with health and safety protocols, have ensured the survival and resilience of our people and economies in the face of such a health crisis never seen in over a century, and the people working for the research, development and manufacture of medications and vaccines against the virus and its effects on our health and well-being.  As we today celebrate this historic anniversary of the victory won against the Axis Powers in the Asia-Pacific, let us not forget them as well, for these are the great men and women who are the descendants to the millions who fought for this great victory and are the ones tasked to carry the flames of this great victory into the future. May we forever never ever forget the Allied heroes and martyrs of the Second World War in Europe, North Africa and the Asia-Pacific who all through these years of warfare helped make possible the victory we celebrate today, 75 years on to the day of the conclusion of this war and of the victory against the Axis Powers in all the theaters of this global conflict, and in looking onwards to the anniversaries of such a great victory even without the presence physically of the heroic generation that won this war against the evil aggressors, may we forever inherit their legacy of service to their country and people, towards the defense of the freedom and independence of the free world against domestic and foreign enemies and ideologies against the spirit and legacy of those who fought for the sake of the human race and the peace and progress of the world.

To all of you, our dear living veterans of this war who still are with us, rest assured that as you all live our remaining days on this earth, we will forever honor and remember the great victory you all won against the forces of international  fascism, imperialism, dictatorship, racism, xenophobia and totalitarianism symbolized by the Axis Powers, carry onwards the memories of your service with the armed forces of the victorious Allied Powers and instill in our future generations the value of patriotism, courage, audacity, bravery, cooperation, respect, harmony and dignity, and above all, the value of helping in the defense of the country and people for the continued survival of our freedom and independence, towards the goal of a better tomorrow strong and free for our children and grandchildren. By your legacy we therefore promise to forever honor your combined sacrifices and contribution to the victorious conclusion of this long war, to work hard to defend the principles of independence and sovereignty and give all our time and talent in labor in times of war and peace and in times of disaster and need for the sake of building a stronger, prosperous and independent world by building up our economy, fighting the ills of our current society, improving education, help preserve the environment, promote culture and the arts as well as local traditions and the way of life of aboriginal and Native American communities, promote and protect the freedom of religion and the sanctity of human lives, promote a healthy lifestyle and a sporting way of life, and forever honor the places and people who are part of our history while maintaining readiness to instill in our future generations a spirit of preparedness to serve their country and people to the best of their ability and fight the evils that are still present in our world of today!

Today, as the world celebrates this historic 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, we, the millions of people of the free world, today we pledge, more than ever before, to honor the sacrifices of the heroes of the past and work towards achieving the goals of peace and progress and a better world fought by these valiant men and women who risked their lives for the defense of our liberties and civil and human rights against the Axis Powers and ensured the victorious advance towards a world that is just and diverse, where Nature’s wonders have been restored to former glories and wherein humanity lives in the spirit of peace, friendship and cooperation built on the heroic acts by the heroes of our past.

On this very great day of our history and in the history of humanity, this very important day in which we celebrate as one people the 75th year anniversary of the official glorious and victorious conclusion of the 6-year long Second World War, and the official surrender of the military forces of the Empire of Japan, we greet all of you the people of the free world, and most especially to all of you our remaining veterans of this long and great conflict, who helped win this great victory and opened the gates for a better future for all of humanity, as heroes who risked even their lives for the defeat of the military and political might of the Axis Powers, to all you our veterans of succeeding conflicts and in UN peacekeeping operations worldwide and to all and of our men and women and veterans of the military and civil uniformed services and uniformed youth groups from all the Allied combatant countries as we today mark 75 years since the final defeat of the Axis Powers in the Asia-Pacific and the victory over the Empire of Japan!

For all of us, it wil forever be a day of remembrance and celebration of the great victory in which our forebears won against the might of the Axis Powers all over the world, and a day in which we will forever uphold the legacy of the millions who died for the values that are worth defending and fighting for, then as in today. We will never stop honoring the blessed memory of these men and women who sacrificed their lives for the freedom and independence of our world. We will never stop reminding our children and future generations of the cost of the freedoms we celebrate. And we shall always light up the legacy in which these millions of men and women lived and fought for, which is the great victory that we celebrate today.

Today, we celebrate with all of you, the people of the free world and forever treasure in our hearts and minds the memory and legacy left behind by these the millions of men and women who 75 years ago celebrated the conclusion of such a war that forever changed our world and a war that they won against the forces of the Axis Powers at the cost of millions of lives lost from the plains and mountains of Europe, the sands of northern Africa and the Middle East, towards the diverse lands of the Asia-Pacific. Today and always we continue to remember their sacrifice for the sake of us and for the generations to come who will forever honor and commemorate their contributions to freedoms we cherish to this day. Even as the growing tide of evil may be rising again, united with the men and women of our NATO armed forces and the armed forces of our allies abroad in the performance of their patriotic, internationalist and military duties for the sake of the freedom and independence of the peoples of the free world, armed with the best and modern equipment, arms, vehicles, ships and aircraft, and united with the public security services and the hard work of our people of all sectors of society, no obstacle cannot be overcome, no problem can be left unsolved and no stone left unturned in our efforts to forever maintain the legacy left behind by these heroes of the Second World War, who fought at the cost of their lives to win the victory that we celebrate not just on this day but also every day of our lives!

More than ever before in our history, we will never let the fire of the great victory won 75 years ago fade away in our hearts, and forever maintain the legacies of victory won by the great generations who fought before us!

Today, as we mark this great day in our history, may we never regret to recall the heroic deeds of our predecessors who fought in this war and of all our past naval aviators who flew throughout all these years for the sake of the freedom and independence not just of the United States of America and Canada, but the freedom and independence of all of the free world. May we as one united people never tire of honoring the memory of our heroic forebears and always work hard to be worthy of their sacrifices, most of all, for the sake of our present and for the future of our world and of all humanity. We will never forget their tireless sacrifices for the sake of the freedoms we enjoy today and always uphold what this victory truly means – a victory against the ever present forces of international fascism and totalitarianism around the world!

nd in conclusion, as we today mark this historic anniversary since the victory over Japan and the conclusion of the Second World War, as we today mark it with remembrance and joyful celebration, may we who keep this sacred holiday and recall the millions who died to make this victory possible  with respect and reverence especially for those who went before us shall be worthy of what they fought and died for, for building a world of peace, harmony and progress, a clean environment, and a brighter future for all our children and grandchildren - truly the very future that is truly worth defending and the very future our forefathers fought with their very own lives. With our greatest gratitude may we, the successors to this great generation of victors, always and forever treasure in our hearts all those who have gone before us and have entrusted to us the spirit of defending our freedom and liberty in all those years from the beginning of the war up to the great victories in which we honor today, everyday and in the years and decades to come! And may we forever cherish the victory won today, the very reason of the freedoms we live, and forever kindle the fire of victory that will enflame our memories both now and in the brighter tomorrow that is to come!

As the men of Easy Company would always say:  WE STAND ALONE TOGETHER!

ETERNAL GLORY TO THE MEMORY OF THE MEDICAL WORKERS AND PROFESSIONALS AND PERSONNEL OF UNIFORMED SERVICES WHO PERISHED IN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC!

ETERNAL GLORY TO THE MLLIONS OF THE FALLEN AND THE HEROES AND VETERANS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN EUROPE, NORTHERN AFRICA AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC FROM 1939-1945, WHOSE LEGACY WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN BY ALL OF US TODAY AND BY ALL THE GENERATIONS TO COME!

ETERNAL GLORY TO ALL THOSE WHO GAVE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE FOR THE FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE OF OUR WORLD AGAINST FASCISM, NAZISM AND IMPERIALISM IN THE FIELDS OF BATTLE, THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS, AND IN THE HOME FRONT!

LONG LIVE THE VICTORIOUS MEN AND WOMEN IN THE SERVICE OF THE ALLIES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN EUROPE, NORTHERN AFRICA AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC!

LONG LIVE ALL THE ALLIED MILITARY, PARAMILITARY AND CIVIL VETERANS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR!

LONG LIVE THE INVINCIBLE AND FOREVER VICTORIOUS PEOPLE OF THE FREE WORLD AND ALL OUR SERVING ACTIVE AND RESERVE SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN AND VETERANS OF THE ARMED SERVICES OF ALL THE COMBATANT ALLIED COUNTRIES THAT HELPED WIN THIS GREAT WAR AGAINST FASCISM, NAZISM AND IMPERIALISM, AS WELL AS ALL OUR ACTIVE AND RESERVE SERVICE PERSONNEL, CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES AND VETERANS OF THE POLICE, FIREFIGHTING, FORESTRY, BORDER CONTROL, CUSTOMS AND RESCUE SERVICES AS WELL AS OUR YOUTH OF TODAY AND THE CHILDREN OF OUR TOMORROW WHO WILL CARRY ON THE LEGACY OF ALL THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE THEM, ESPECIALLY TO THE MILLIONS OF MEN AND WOMEN WHO TOOK PART IN THIS GREAT WORLD WAR!

LONG LIVE THE GLORIOUS 75TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE PACIFIC AND CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATERS OF OPERATIONS AND THE GREAT VICTORY OVER THE FORCES OF THE EMPIRE OF JAPAN AND THE AXIS POWERS!

GLORY TO THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CANADA, THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND AND FRANCE, TOGETHER WITH THE ARMED SERVICES OF THE OTHER VICTORIOUS COMBATANT COUNTRIES OF THE ALLIED POWERS, GUARDIAN DEFENDERS OF OUR DEMOCRATIC WAY OF LIFE, OUR FREEDOM AND OUR LIBERTY AND GUARANTEE OF A FUTURE WORTHY OF OUR GENERATIONS TO COME!

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND TO ALL OVER THE WORLD, A VERY HAPPY  75TH VICTORY OVER JAPAN DAY!

And may I repeat the immortal words of the Polish National Anthem:

Poland has not yet perished, so long as we still live!

CURRAHEE! AIR ASSAULT! ARMY STRONG! SEMPER FI!

Ooooooooooooooooooraaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

 1830h, September 2, 2020, the 244th year of the United States of America, the 245th year of the United States Army, Navy and Marine Corps, the 126th of the International Olympic Committee, the 124th of the Olympic Games, the 102nd since the conclusion of the First World War, the 81st of the beginning of the Second World War in Europe, the 79th since the beginning of the Second World War in the Eastern Front and in the Pacific Theater, the 75th since the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and the victories in Europe and the Pacific, the 73rd of the modern United States Armed Forces and the 53rd of the modern Canadian Armed Forces.

  Semper Fortis

JOHN EMMANUEL RAMOS-HENDERSON

Makati City, PH

 (Requiem for a Soldier) (Honor by Hans Zimmer)

(Slavsya from Mikhail Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar)

(Victory Day by Lev Leshenko)

(Last Post) (Taps) (Rendering Honors)

[libertariantaoist]

News Roundup 5/20/20

by Kyle Anzalone

US News

Senator Rand Paul says no-knock warrants should be abolished. [Link]

Sam Jacobs explains how civil asset forfeiture has led to rampant police abuse and policing for profit. [Link]

An email from Susan Rice from inauguration day has been released. The email shows then FBI Director James Comey discussing not sharing intelligence with then soon to be NSA Mike Flynn. [Link]

The military is planning to battle the Covid pandemic through the summer of 2021. [Link]

The Pentagon awarded an $800 million contract to Booz Allen Hamilton to create AI for all levels of DoD decision making. [Link]

Asia

A judge in Singapore sentenced a man to death via Zoom. The man was accused of being involved in a drug deal. [Link]

Seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack by unknown militants. [Link]

Afghanistan

Over 200 Afghan doctors and other medical staff protests because they have not been paid in three months and lack the medical equipment to fight Covid. [Link]

At least eight worshipers were killed in an attack on a mosque in Afghanistan. [Link]

The Taliban and Afghan government killed more civilians during April than the previous months of 2020. [Link]

Middle East

The US issues a warning that any ship that comes within 100 meters of a US Navy ship may be treated as a threat. The threat is directed to Iran. [Link]

In a UN meeting about Syria, the US and China argue over global leadership and Covid. [Link]

Read More

[atotaltaitaitale]

Sunday Sound of Singapore - Public Warning System Test

Sound on 🔈

The Public Warning System (PWS) is a network of civil defense sirens installed by the Singapore Civil Defence Force on over 2,000 strategic points in Singapore to warn Singaporeans of impending dangers, air raids and atomic bomb blasts. Thus far, the siren network has only been used for occasional public awareness drills, monthly test chimes on the 1st of every month at 12:00PM (GMT+8:00 SGT) and for commemorating the island's Total Defence (February 15) and Civil Defence Days (September 15) at 6:20pm [This is the sound in this video]

27032022

~~Every city has its own color, smell, sound, and vibe. While I can share the colors through photography and sometime the vibe too, I thought I would try to share with you the sounds that are so specific to Singapore. ~~

[cincinnatusvirtue]

December 7th:  Attack on Pearl Harbor, America enters WWII

December 7th, 1941, famously referred to by then US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a “date which will live in infamy” became the rallying cry for America’s official entry into the then two year running Second World War.  Though in the case of Japan, the war had really been raging with its conquest of East Asia and China in particular since 1937 or even 1931 depending on your definition.  Imperial Japan’s attack on the US naval fleet docked at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii really was the culmination of a longstanding rivalry between the two nations over the course of the preceding decades.

In some ways the story dates back to the start of American-Japanese relations when a US fleet under Commodore Matthew C Perry arrived in Japan in 1853 and ending the longstanding period of isolation Japan had followed for centuries under the Tokugawa Shogunate.  This forced open diplomatic and trade relations, which was soon followed up by European powers and brought Japan into the modern era.  Over the next century, Japan saw rapid modernization, with the Meiji Restoration of the Japanese Emperor from ceremonial figurehead to absolute ruler, the true expansion of the new Japanese Empire began after this time period  Rapid social and internal reform combined with gradual imperial expansion.  Japan famously defeated China in the 1894-1895 First Sino-Japanese War, which gave Japan control over Korea in it’s sphere of influence and Japan’s subsequent invasion and occupation of Taiwan.  This was followed by victory over the Russian Empire in 1904-1905s Russo-Japanese War.  However, the peace for this war brokered by then US President Theodore Roosevelt, limited Japanese gains to a few ports and islands, but effective greater political influence in the region.  Japanese nationalists however, saw this as the first US attempt to limit Japan’s influence in the Greater Asia-Pacific region, suspicious that America was clamoring to gain its own influence here.

America for it’s part had indeed expanded into this region with the 1898 annexation of the Republic of Hawaii, which in turn was a largely American sponsored effort to overthrow the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1894.  After 1898 it was the US Territory of Hawaii (statehood of Hawaii occurring in 1959).  American influence in the region further expanded with the 1898 Spanish-American War, which saw the US destroy the last elements of Spain’s longstanding overseas empire, occupying/liberating Cuba and annexing Puerto Rico in the Caribbean.  Also occupying and annexing Guam and most importantly the Philippines in the Pacific.  America would also acquire the island of American Samoa in this period.

These two parallel examples of imperialism and expansion sowed the seeds of conflict that would emerge in World War II.  Both the US and Japan were technically on the same side during the First World War in opposition to the Empire of Germany.  Japan got limited territorial gains from German Pacific islands and German colonies in China.  Japan also pressed during the Treaty of Versailles conference for a clause supporting racial equality, it saw limited support and was ultimately not included.

Japan and the US also sided with other Allied nations in an intervention in the Russian Civil War to end the Communist rise leading to the Soviet Union.  Japan occupied parts of Siberia but due to objections from the US was forced to scale back its occupation and eventually withdrew altogether along with all other Allied nations.

The 1920′s saw Japan enter an economic recession while America was experiencing an economic boom.  Both sides were signatories of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty which saw to limit the navies of the US, Britain, France, Italy and Japan from escalating into an arms race.  Japan would withdraw from this treaty in 1934.

1931 saw both sides come to loggerheads even more with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (Northern China) with Japan’s military taking increasingly a nationalist tone and exerting control over the Japanese government.  The invasion lead to the establishment of a Japanese puppet state, Manchukuo.  This invasion lead to condemnation of Japan and its withdrawal from the League of Nations.  1937 saw the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, which saw Japan invade China in the middle of a civil war between Nationalist and Communist elements.  This would interrupt the civil war for the duration of World War II with almost all Chinese parties fighting united against the Japanese invaders, despite friction and some fighting between both sides.  Japan initially pushed back the Chinese in eastern parts of the country and was to commit well known atrocities against the Chinese populace, most famously in Nanjing in 1937-38.  Meanwhile, Japan had drawn closer ties to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy during this time, culminating in the 1940 military alliance, the Tripartite Pact committing the Axis Powers to mutual defense, its main target was the United States. 

1939 saw the start of the Second World War with Germany’s invasion of Poland and the subsequent British and French declarations of war.  Japan monitored the war but was committed to defeating China at the time.  With the fall of France to Nazi Germany in 1940, Japan took this chance to overtake French Indochina (Vietnam) and this lead to the US, Britain the Netherlands declaring a trade embargo.  Effectively this cut off Japan’s oil imports, 80% of which came from America and vital to its war efforts.  Seeing this as further evidence of America and Britain’s attempts to curtail Japan’s influence and project for a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”, a euphemism for Japanese imperialist control of East Asia and the Pacific, Japan began to develop plans for an attack against the US, Britain and the Netherlands.

The plan for war was developed under Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, the Japanese military and approved of eventually after much discussion by the Japanese Emperor and his council.  The goals were to launch simultaneous attacks against American, British and Dutch interests in the Pacific.  Namely, removing America from the Philippines, Guam and elsewhere in the Pacific Islands, conquering British Hong Kong, Malaya and Singapore and the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) for its oil supply.  The attack was meant to be overwhelming and fast, crippling the naval capacity of America especially and making a rapid peace thereafter.  The plan for the attack of the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii would be executed in surprise fashion without declaration of war, influenced by Japan’s attack in 1904 on Imperial Russia’s naval base at Port Arthur.  It was also influenced by Britain’s successful plane oriented bombing of Italian ships at Taranto in 1940.  The goal was to sink and destroy as many ships as possible so that’s America’s naval capacity would be diminished to the point it couldn’t fight an effective naval war in the Pacific.

Americans polled at the time by Gallup were in the majority thinking war with Japan was imminent and there had been warning signs of war breaking out, but nothing conclusive.  The Japanese plan called for the use of aircraft carriers sending warplanes and small submarines from a great distance to launch in successive waves with the hopes of destroying American aircraft carriers docked at Pearl Harbor.  The attacked commenced at 7:48 AM local time with 183 Japanese warplanes launching from north of the island of Oahu, US radar detected the planes incoming but mistook them for US planes on maneuvers from the US mainland, the planes began bombing and strafing runs of US ships right away.  The US returned fire with its own planes and anti-aircraft guns.  Subsequently a second Japanese wave of planes attacked in quick succession.  These were coupled with midget submarine torpedo attacks. 

The battle was over in 90 minutes and was a tactical Japanese victory.  US casualties included 2,200+ military personnel killed and 65 civilians and hundreds wounded.  Half of the casualties occurred with the explosion of the forward magazine of the American battleship the USS Arizona.  Four American battleships were sunk, four damaged along with damage to numerous other ships, 188 aircraft destroyed and 159 damaged.  Japan lost 64 airmen and sailors in the attack, 29 planes destroyed, 74 damaged and 4 midget submarines sank, one was grounded and a single sailor taken prisoner, becoming the first Japanese POW of the war with America.  Japan delayed its declaration of war on America by three hours.  America declared war by vote of Congress the next day, after President Roosevelt’s speech.  Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy also declared war on America and the US responded mutually by December 11th.  The US would now have to fight a two front war in Europe and the Pacific.  Japan’s surprise attacks elsewhere against other American, British and Dutch targets were also mostly successful.  However, fate worked against Japan at Pearl Harbor in one crucial aspect, American aircraft carriers (their primary target) were not present, having been out at maneuvers at sea and this combined with American industrial output in the coming months were to have grave consequences for Japan’s war effort, especially as its navy would be decisively destroyed at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, thereafter putting them on the defensive and the road to final defeat...

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Russia will display Il-76MD-90A, Su-35 and Ka-52 aircraft at ADEX 2022 in Azerbaijan

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 09/06/2022 - 14:00in Military

The Russian state defense article export agency Rosoboronexport will organize a joint Russian exhibition at the ADEX 2022 International Defense Industry Exhibition, which will be held from September 6 to 8 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

In the exhibition, Rosoboronexport will demonstrate the military transport aircraft Il-76MD-90A(E), the Su-35 multipurpose fighter, the Ka-52(E combat reconnaissance and attack helicopter, the Mi-35M transport and combat helicopter, the BMPT tank support vehicle "Terminator" combat helicopter, self-propelled bus "Msta-S" with 155 mm ca

"We will present about 500 samples to all types of armed forces and military branches, special units and police, we will demonstrate a wide range of civil products," said Alexander Mikheev, general director of Rosoboronexport. "We expect a lot of attention to the small weapons promoted by Rosoboronexport, counter-terrorism systems and cybersecurity projects."

The Rosoboronexport exhibition will feature samples of the special Tigr armored vehicle and a mine-protected armored vehicle, as well as technical means of border protection and critical facilities, including autonomous mobile stations and technical surveillance and video-television complexes.

"We will talk about our proposals within the scope of the industrial partnership, the possibilities of development and joint production of weapons and military equipment, the modernization of previously delivered products and the training of personnel," said Alexander Mikheev.

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. It has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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