Connexion
Trump’s White House just released its National Strategy paper. No doubt Brian Berletic will prepare a full analysis. No, the US is not retrenching or intending to pull punches in this area.
There is a lot of blunt discussions about mainland China, Taiwan, allies in the region, South China Sea etc.
This is real politik:
—
The United States prioritizes deterring military threats in the Indo-Pacific region, with a particular focus on Taiwan due to its critical role in global semiconductor production and strategic location providing access to the Second Island Chain.
Taiwan splits Northeast and Southeast Asia into two distinct theaters.
Taiwan’s position is vital for U.S. economic interests, as it influences one-third of global shipping through the South China Sea.
The strategy aims to build a U.S. military capable of denying aggression anywhere in the First Island Chain, including Taiwan, to prevent any competitor from controlling key commerce lanes.
Investments in undersea, space, nuclear, AI, quantum computing, autonomous systems, and energy domains are emphasized to restore U.S. military overmatch and support deterrence efforts related to Taiwan.
The U.S. maintains its longstanding policy of not supporting any unilateral changes to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.
Robust diplomatic efforts are directed at First Island Chain allies and partners to grant greater U.S. military access, increase their defense spending, and develop capabilities specifically to deter aggression against Taiwan.
Strengthening alliances in the Indo-Pacific, including through recent agreements signed in October 2025, forms the bedrock of security and prosperity, with implications for Taiwan’s defense.
The strategy calls for greater burden-sharing from allies like Japan and South Korea to enhance collective defense focused on protecting the First Island Chain, including Taiwan.
Cooperation through frameworks like the Quad (with Australia, Japan, and India) is encouraged to align actions against domination by any single competitor, indirectly bolstering Taiwan’s security.
Economically, the U.S. seeks to rebalance relations with competitors like China to protect supply chains, intellectual property, and critical materials, ensuring long-term deterrence and support for Taiwan’s role in global prosperity.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf
I never thought I’d hobble into that sunset so limp.
with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.
Nuisances and Genociders’ Last Gasp — Sep 02, 2025.
American Dale James West after his arrest in Da Nang on 8/27/25
In South Korea, American Ramsey Khalid Ismael, better known as Johnny Somali, has been stuck for a year, awaiting his conviction, after committing a series of crimes, including playing obscene audios near children at a theme park, fondling a Comfort Woman statue, disseminating an AI video of himself with a Korean woman whom he claimed was his girlfriend, terrorizing an old employee at a convenience store, on and on, for the guy’s a famous “nuisance streamer,” an American specialty.
In Manila, another American nuisance streamer, Vitaly Zdorovetskiy, has been jailed for five months. With the Filipino legal system moving quite leisurely, he won’t see a courtroom for a while. Like Somali, Vitaly can count on many years of free room and board in an exotic locale, not that he’ll see much. In dreams, they’ll return often to Florida and Arizona. Wearing their MAGA hats, it will be just like before, but suddenly, they’re fucked from behind by a new foreign friend. Before his arrest, Vitaly joked his asshole was ready. It will speak fluent Tagalog by the time he’s released. You’d think Somali is too ugly to demand much erotic attention behind bars, but he, too, will get his share of prison love. Lighter, humbler and grayer, each will stumble out to a much changed world.
For decades, Westerners have considered East Asia to be a place to find cheap, unusual fun, you know, like little brown fucking machines, even underaged. After fucking little girls in Cambodia, Glam rocker Gary Glitter showed up in Vung Tau, where he was finally arrested. His rented house is within a 20 minute walk of where I’m sitting.
An American sexpat living for decades in Chiangmai claimed he had never heard of “little brown fucking machines.” He also thought Trump was a great president. Perhaps “irritable farmer” or “western lands” is that innocent.
Not so innocent is Dale James West. Here’s Dân Trí on 8/31/25”
On the evening 8/26, Dale James West (29 years old, a foreign citizen), masked, wearing a Grab uniform and a helmet, attacked a security guard with an iron pipe then barged into PNJ store (455 Núi Thành, Đà Nẵng) to smash a glass case with a hammer to steal gold and diamond jewelry worth 833 đồng [$31,619].
After his crime, the suspect escaped on a motorbike. On the morning of 8/27, the police captured James, along with all the incriminating evidence.
It took less than 12 hours for Vietnamese cops to snag this American. If convicted, a near certainty, he’ll spend from 18 years to life in prison. Since that’s the standard penalty for such a violent crime, let’s hope the Vietnamese authorities won’t show any leniency just because he’s an American.
A video posted by the New York Post shows bystanders on a busy street trying to block his escape, but this tallish armed man proved too intimidating. Violent crimes are extremely rare in Vietnam. The Post also states he’s only 26 years old, and from California.
The West has long exported its degeneracy to the East. With economic collapse, this trend has only accelerated. Here’s news.com.au on 4/28/25:
A wannabe Aussie influencer has been slammed online after “desecrating” a grave in Aokigahara, also known as Japan’s suicide forest.
Sydney man Lochie Jones posted a clip earlier this month titled “Suicide Forest Japan Pt 2 Graveyard Flip”, showing himself entering a burial site on the outskirts of the notorious forest.
“So it looks like there’s a cemetery here with a whole bunch of dead people,” he told his camera.
After climbing into the cemetery he can be seen touching graves, saying: “I wonder how many of them died in the forest.”
He then approaches a headstone with a can of popular Japanese beer Kirin on top of it.
“Look at this guy,” he laughs.
“A whole can of Kirin. Should I drink it?”
“What do we reckon?,” he asks himself.
After setting his phone up against the headstone he decides to do a coin flip to “leave it up to chance.”
More insidious are “educators” like Mark Ashwill in Hanoi who spreads his globalist and woke ideology. Marxism itself is a Western poison still being detoxed by the East.
Nationalism has sustained Oriental nations for millennia. Just below it is Confucianism, then Buddhism, but mixed with assorted folk beliefs. Though Orientals have learned much from the West, they must stop looking towards it for standards.
At Coffee Seven where I’m sitting, there’s an octagonal Taoist mirror over the entrance, a money frog biting a coin, a small golden plate showing a Thai woman kneeling over two fish and a Japanese Maneki-neko cat waving in customers. Of course, Mrs. Seven can’t explain any of these, but her confusion is harmless. In her bedroom, there’s a crucifix and a photo of Father Trương Bửu Diệp. Her late husband was a Catholic. Though converted, she never attended church regularly, and hasn’t been in one in over a decade.
I used to be bothered by Vietnam’s cultural confusion, its mindless hodgepodge, but it’s exactly this ideological inconsistency that’s its saving grace. Vietnamese are too incoherent to be fanatical. I don’t suggest this would work anywhere else. I only think it’s fine for Vietnam.
Walking towards Coffee Seven in the dark, I paused to ask BlueTooth, “If you could live in another country forever, which would it be?”
Though I fully expected him to say USA or, much less likely, Australia or Canada, he answered, “Nowhere. I love it here!”
“Every interesting. You’re unusual! How about if you could spend two weeks in another country? Where would that be?”
“Nowhere. I love it here!”
Last time I heard that was in Lebanon. Ali, my regular driver, said he loved Lebanon too much to go anywhere. Even better was some guy Paul Theroux met in Sicily. When Theroux said he was a traveler, this guy declared that he, too, traveled, then he rattled off all the towns he’d visited. They were all in Sicily. Goofball had never even been to the Italian mainland.
After several delays, it appears my three thickish books in Vietnamese will be published, albeit privately. All I need are 50 copies of each, so some will survive, if only for a few years, my exit. It’s less vanity than the need to complete what I’ve started. After becoming a real homeboy, I’ll give a reading somewhere in Saigon, to a handful of people and, hopefully, two or three dogs, a dozen geckos and one attentive frog.
Ghosts all, we must strive to not be nuisances while barely alive.
Halo Evans
Cool Missiles Bursting in Air! — Sep 03, 2025.
Yesterday, Vietnam held a monstrous military parade in Hanoi. Watching bits of it on YouTube, I couldn’t help but think, What if just one of these impressive looking young men and women falls down? Worse, what if an AK toting soldier needs to use the bathroom? It wouldn’t do to perform a quick number two in front of the whole world, just as you’re passing a grandstand filled with big shots. Some old lady next to General Secretary Tô Lâm licked her lips rather obscenely. At least she didn’t fall asleep.
Off camera, even generals crap in their pants from a too-close explosion. War is all about being acutely aware of your animality, of how meatlike and shit filled you are. It’s anything but an inspiring display of unity made for television. In Beijing, there will be an even more asskicking parade today. Moscow just had one. Such military flexing is designed to steel pussified civilians for the escalation of war, no?
One glaring exception was Trump’s joke parade in DC. As the rest of the world hardens, Americans become self-mocking clowns, with the only tough guys those masked assholes in unmarked cars kidnapping busboys, gardeners, shoppers, grandmas and retarded schoolkids.
Just now, Mrs. Seven showed me a photo of her daughter in a national flag T-shirt, saluting. Behind her is a patriotic sign with soldiers. There’s also a video of about 12 young women, all employees of Shinhan Beauty, looking ready for a military parade, at least. They’d soil their panties at the first incoming.
Buying groceries at Lotte Supermarket, I was given a nylon flag with a plastic stem worth 19 cents. It’s sticking from my never watched TV.
It’s amazing this patriotic eruption across Vietnam, as shown on clothing, cars and at private businesses. To amuse Mrs. Seven, I shared with her a video of a cheeky and boobilicious American waving the Stars and Stripes, as the Star-Spangled Banner plays. Bitch means business.
With “the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,” war is, again, reduced to an inspiring spectacle. One can argue that this is absolutely necessary. Without such manipulation, nations are lost.
As Trump crows of how hot and rich the USA has become, we get entirely different accounts from ordinary Americans.
The Functional Melancholic’s “The United States of Collapse: The End of Empire” begins, “Have you noticed this feeling in the air? A lowgrade tension like the faint smell of smoke in a building where the fire alarm never quite goes off, or maybe the subtle smell of rot under the bed perfume. You walk down any major street in the US and you’ll see it in the eyes of the people pretending not to notice the growing tent cities pitched under the overpasses. And you’ll hear it in the way conversations have basically turned into shouting matches about whose version of the facts are true. You’ll taste it in the food that somehow costs twice as much while containing half as much food and even less nutrition. The roads crack your suspension. The bridges look like relics from civilization long gone. And it’s not just the cracks in the sidewalk, it’s the cracks in the soul.”
After 24 hours, it got over 2,250 comments, with nearly all offering their versions of how the US has collapsed. Also viral is a poem-like declaration from Halo Evans. I’ve inserted linebreaks:
I’m an American. I pay $1,600 for a flat that has no bedroom. That’s 2/3 of my income. I’m an American. I work 50 hours a week. I don’t have health insurance. I’m an American. I couldn't afford to have a child Even if I wanted to. I’m $7,000 in debt. I’m an American. My health is declining because I can’t afford Whole Foods, because That’s too expensive for my life. I am very overqualified for my job, But no one else is hiring. I’m an American. I make my boss hundreds of thousands, If not millions of dollars, while I can Barely keep myself alive. I’m an American. I have never been out of the States. I have never been on a vacation. I’m an American. I make 20 some dollars an hour. A livable wage here is, like, 30 some. Yet, I don’t qualify for government assistance Whatsoever. On the days I don’t work, I’m so tired I just sleep all day. I’m an American. My electric bill is so expensive, I sit outside in the heat because I can’t afford to turn the AC on In the damned house. I’m an American, and I fear I’m just an average American. I’m living the American dream.
Since her Instagram page is filled with self-adoring portraits of herself looking cute, one may wonder how depressed she really is, economically or psychologically? What’s really important is that millions of Americans are seeing themselves in Evan’s self portrait. They’re also overworked, broke and have never taken a vacation.
Unfortunately, it’s not just an image war. Trump just posted, “Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere.”
This lawless psycho is attacking another nation on false pretexts. Battered by so much madness daily, it’s nearly impossible to grasp how fast your society is imploding, especially when you must deliberate forever before buying a loaf of bread or a dozen eggs.
Phoenix in Flames at Haunted Hotel — Sep 03, 2025.
Having been a semi-regular at Coffee Seven for nearly a year, I had assumed until this morning Mrs. Seven lived alone with her two dogs. Whoever else I had seen coming out of her house I thought was a visiting relative. Now, I know she has a sister and a nephew living upstairs, but they never talk. Her sister was a heroin addict, bad enough to be jailed. Now, she just drinks herself stupid, as much as her tiny budget allows.
Her 38-year-old nephew was a gang member who was never sober. So messed up, he had a stroke nearly a decade ago, so is now bedridden and in a diaper. From the government, he receives 1.5 million [$57] a month, and his mom gets 500K [$19] to take care of him. Even in cheap Vietnam, such stipends are jokes, but luckily, the nephew gets an additional 3 million [$114] a month from his gang leader, the notorious Vũ Cách Mạng. Just typing his name made me tremble, I’m such a pussy. Sure hope I won’t run into Revolutionary Vũ any time soon!
“If you come by in the afternoon, you’ll catch my sister. She’ll be sitting right there, drinking beer.”
Sure sounds like my kind of gal, except I only drink black coffee, cappuccini, soursop smoothies and avocado smoothies these days. I never thought I’d hobble into that sunset so limp. Just three years ago, I could still knock them down for 12 hours straight while blathering about Nguyễn Huy Thiệp, Hồ Biểu Chánh, Max Beckmann and Walt Whitman. Now, I just look forlorn while scratching my deflated balls.
“I had this cat,” Mrs. Seven continued. “My sister was always complaining about it, then one day, she just picked it up, right in front of me, and rode away! I couldn’t react quick enough. She just tossed that cat somewhere! It still hurts me to think of how it must have starved and suffered.”
A chick that hard up for drinking money must have sold the cat to one of these “mini tiger” restaurants, I thought immediately, but said nothing. Though pets are generally safe in southern Vietnamese cities, you still have these drug addicts riding around at night, hoping to catch anything.
Also today, I found out her house is worth at least 300K in US Dollars. Four years ago, it could have been sold for half a million. Though so run down, it’s still very close to the ocean, in a city not far from Saigon. With five siblings, all proceeds must be divided by six, so Mrs. Seven has to get by on selling 38 cent black coffee to the least fashionable crowd. With condensed milk, it’s up to 57 cents! Everyone gets free hot tea.
This old broad never complains, however. Yes, there are hints of regrets, such as when she talks about being lusted over by all these foreign men, Taiwanese and Westerners, when she was a star dancer at the Palace Hotel. Since she couldn’t talk to these white guys, she had no idea if they were Russian, Polish, German or whatever. She’s mourning, just a bit, her lost youth.
Sitting at Cóc Cóc, I look up to see too many fat thighs riding by. Most Viets are still thin, though, which is great. Not so great is the replacement of newspapers, books and conversations by smart phones. Covid lockdowns heightened this addiction. Passing through nine countries during that hysteria, I was never quarantined. For 2 ½ years, I lived as normally as possible.
Bringing me my avocado smoothie, Nga is masked. Thảo the receptionist at DC HomeStay is also always masked. Both young, they’re already half dead. If you fear oxygen, you ain’t open to anything.
Done with this article, I will leisurely browse through 300 Years of Poetry About Ba Ria-Vung Tau. I’ve had this for a while. Every city in the world must have a similar anthology, and one for fiction, too. Though this leaves out some key poets, it’s still an invaluable document. Many eyes and souls have experienced these very streets, alleys and buildings.
Done with my reading, I will trek through Vung Tau for miles. Just five minutes away is the Victory Hotel, where Mrs. Seven’s dad worked as a chef. One of his creations was Phoenix in Flames. It was just some wok tossed chicken. Still looking fine on the outside, Victory smells bad, apparently, and might even be haunted. I don’t doubt Mrs. Seven’s dad is still in the kitchen, cooking away late into the night.
Wherever you are, there must be an infinity of stories to be dug up, to dig, dig, dig away! You’ll feel saner, for sure.
So Rich, Smart, Powerful and Ripe — Sep 04, 2025.
Influenced by China, Vietnam had imperial examinations. Any educated boy’s goal in life was to pass this exam so he can become a mandarin, thus gaining social status, wealth and the ability to help his entire family. Like China, Vietnam also had four social classes. From top to bottom were intellectuals, farmers, craftsmen then, finally, merchants. Though a shopkeeper may be much richer than, say, a medicine man, the latter was considered an intellectual, so technically held in higher esteem. If you’re a mandarin, however, you had everything.
To pass the imperial examination, one had to master classic Chinese literature. Mandarins, then, were super literary. This had its drawback. A bookish nerd may not make the best administrator. This glitch in the system bred a bureaucracy that couldn’t stand up to the West. It was also corrupt, since each mandarin’s extended family had to be taken care of.
Even after imperial examinations were abolished, dumb peasants still expected top officials to be intellectuals, so both Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh, for example, posed as poets. So crude, Mao would say to his female underlings, “How were your bowel movements this morning?” He also said, “If you must fart, fart! If you must shit, shit!” That is Confucius wise, I must say. The sage did advise, “When you enter a room, raise your voice and lower your eyes,” so whoever is in there can stop masturbating or farting, I suppose. Gandhi was also very concerned with clean assholes, especially among his female followers.
These thoughts I have this morning because even in Vietnam, there are Trump worshipers. How can they not admire this wealthy chief mandarin of the world’s most powerful nation?
At Viet bookstores, there are translations of Trump’s The Art of the Deal, Think Big and Kick Ass: in Business and in Life, Never Give Up, How to Get Rich, Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate and Life, Trump 101: The Way to Success and Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich—And Why Most Don’t, the last co-written with another famed hustler, Robert Kiyosaki. There’s also Michael D’Antonio’s Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump has become Vietnam’s leading thinker! His wisdom is more valued here than Confucius’, Laozi’s and maybe even Buddha’s! Mary Trump’s Too Much and Never Enough: How my Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man is also available, but only in English, so its readership is minuscule.
Countering this mass psychosis, I tell people, “Trump loves to fuck little girls. He’s a degenerate. There’s this Jewish guy who had an island where Trump, and other top Americans, went to fuck kids. With everything recorded, these politicians must do whatever they’re told by Jews. Other foreign leaders are also trapped this way. Let’s say you’re invited to some party in New York or Washington. They’ll have these girls there. Just leaning into one and you’re fucked! You don’t even need to fuck them. I have an American friend, a white guy, who attended these parties in NYC. He told me, ‘You don’t know how degenerate these guys are!’ His boss used to go to that Jewish guy’s island. When his name appeared in that guy’s black book, a friend of my friend emailed him, ‘Hey, your boss went to that fuckin’ island!’ Though my friend didn’t say anything, he got fired, but his boss also gave him six million bucks! Now, he just travels. In Bangkok, I asked my friend, ‘Did your boss fire you directly?’ ‘No, he had somebody do it,’ he answered. ‘How close were you to your boss?’ I then asked. ‘We fucked girls in the same room!’ he answered.”
Even now, there are millions of Americans who think Trump’s Epstein connection is fake news or an Obama plot. That’s how degenerate the US has become. Even most of those who are outraged don’t dare to call it a Jewish blackmail operation. Very few have spoken up.
On 9/3/25, Kevin Barrett reminded us “the media has studiously avoided the most important aspect of the Epstein story: That the disgraced pimp and his accomplices, starting with Maxwell, were Israeli spies tasked with blackmailing the American political and financial elite.”
This sinister setup enables genocides. Barrett, “Given that Trump is the most abject slave of Israel ever to occupy the Oval Office, and that Epstein (Trump’s best friend for ten years) was a Mossad blackmailer, the world has been practically invited to connect the dots: We are witnessing what historians will describe as the Jeffrey Epstein Genocide, in which the only power that can stop Netanyahu from exterminating hundreds of thousands of innocents—the American executive branch—refuses to do so because its chief officer has viciously raped teenage virgins in front of Israeli spy cameras.”
Vung Tau, 9/3/25
Complicity with Jewish crimes hasn’t just destroyed most Western nations morally but economically. Endless genocides are expensive. Angry white pussies who are terrified of doxing themselves deserve no less. Same with white nationalists who worship Jew sucking Trump. Outside the sinking West, dumbshits who swoon over Trump or devour his books don’t really matter. Ignoring that farcical white jester and all others, their leaders are coalescing.
Done at 6:29AM, I will get some breakfast then stroll towards the ocean. It’s delightful to see people exercising or just daydreaming. Though Trump’s immense stench has wafted to all corners of the world, it’s much less intense here. Pity if you’re not so lucky.
About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):
‘Before being canceled, I was an anthologized poet and fairly prolific author, with my last book Postcards from the End of America. Now, I write about our increasingly sick world for a tiny audience on SubStack. Drifting overly much, I’m in Cambodia.
Born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1963, I lived mostly in the US from 1975 until 2018, but have returned to Vietnam. I’ve also lived in Italy, England and Germany. I’m the author of a non-fiction book, Postcards from the End of America (2017), a novel, Love Like Hate (2010), two books of stories, Fake House (2000) and Blood and Soap (2004), and six collections of poems, with a Collected Poems cancelled by Chax Press from external pressure. I’ve been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2000, 2004, 2007, Great American Prose Poems from Poe to the Present, Postmodern American Poetry: a Norton Anthology (vol. 2) and Flash Fiction International: Very Short Stories From Around the World, etc. I’m also editor of Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam (1996) and The Deluge: New Vietnamese Poetry (2013). My writing has been translated into Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Korean, Arabic, Icelandic, Serbian and Finnish, and I’ve been invited to read in Tokyo, London, Cambridge, Brighton, Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Halle, Reykjavik, Toronto, Singapore and all over the US. I’ve also published widely in Vietnamese.’
AHH: Please support this wonderful writer on his Substack! Thanks
Tags de l’article
The CELAC countries have an existing agreement that defines them, by treaty, as a non-nuclear ‘Zone of Peace’.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro released a draft statement on X/Twitter today condemning “extra-regional military deployment in the region”, approved by the majority of countries in Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños (CELAC), but revealed that a minority held up adoption of the statement. CELAC, which was founded in Playa del Carmen, Mexico in 2011 to provide an alternative forum for countries of the Americas to discuss and deal with regional issues outside of the Organization of American States (referred to as “The Yankee Ministry of Colonies” by Fidel Castro and headquartered in Washington, DC), does not include the USA nor Canada, and operates on a consensus principle. The lack of a consensus decision means that the draft statement may reflect the positions of the signatory countries, but does not represent CELAC as an organization.
Although the draft statement condemns “extra-regional military deployment,” an obvious reference to the USA’s deployment of advanced warships and long-range aircraft in the Caribbean near Venezuelan waters and the recent air strike carried out against a boat which reportedly murdered 11 people, the statement does not identify the United States of America as being responsible for that deployment, possibly indicating further divisions within even the majority CELAC countries over how to confront (or not confront) US imperialism.
During a joint conference yesterday in Mexico City with Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs (and awarded zionist) Juan Ramón de la Fuente announcing a security cooperation agreement, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed that the illegal air strike wchich murdered eleven people was authorized by US President Donald Trump, saying, “Instead of interdicting it, on the President’s orders, we blew it up. And it will happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now. I don’t know.”
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago, which did not sign the CELAC statement, released a statement that said, “I, along with most of the country, am happy that the US naval deployment is having success in their mission. I have no sympathy for traffickers; the US military should kill them all violently.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has played a leading role regionally in confronting the genocide carried out by Israel recently, as well as standing against US imperialist maneuvers in Latin America and the Caribbean, tweeting today, “This is the statement from the vast majority of the members of CELAC, who sign for peace in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is not a CELAC statement because a minority, which I add, opposed it.”
The signatories are Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, México, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Santa Lucía, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.”
“Countries that did not support the statement are Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Jamaica, Paraguay, Perú, and Trinidad & Tobago.”
Note: None of those non-signatories would surprise anyone knowledgeable about the LAC region. It is to be expected, as these are the countries that quite regularly vote pro-US at UN organizations. The moment I saw the speculation (from Venezuelan social circles) that the boat was on its way to Trinidad & Tobago, I suspected that this story was not made up out of whole cloth, or rather, that it was a fully made-up story. I would not be surprised if the Trinidad & Tobago authorities were instructed exactly what to say. It is a regular route. A little boat would have no qualms taking it. The 11 people on board may have been Venezuelans trying to get away from possible war or trying to become migrants. They may have been Trinidadians or Tobagans going home. If I saw that boat while sailing in the area, I would have thought that they were tourists on the way to a reef to dive. There would almost certainly be some drugs on board, but nothing worthwhile or economically significant: perhaps local small trade. The little boat was certainly not on its way to the US to sell a massive stock of drugs. It was blown up between Venezuela (we think) and heading to Trinidad & Tobago (we think), according to the locals who know where the boats go. Strange that we have no coordinates of where this little boat was bombed into the deep by the US War Department as an example of the so-called veracity of their narrative.
Here is a just in update:
— Venezuelanalysis (@venanalysis) September 6, 2025
Zionist Israel has told many lies over the course of their genocide on Gaza and Palestinians. Some of the information is now leaking. PressTV describes the military document that says they failed.
The Israeli military has admitted its May assault failed to defeat the Gaza Strip’s Hamas resistance movement and seize 75 percent of the territory’s expanse, despite the sheer size of its equipment and forces.
The Israeli regime’s Channel 12 reported the admission on Sunday, citing a confidential document compiled by the military.
The document, prepared by Brig. Gen. (res.) Guy Hazut, explicitly contains the words “we failed,” listing several major areas, where the hyped-up and heavily-Western-backed assault fell drastically short of its objectives.
According to the document, the so-called “Operation Gideon’s Chariots” met critical failures such as stopping short of defeating Hamas either militarily or politically, as the regime had intended.
Nor did the assault enable the return of the regime’s captives to the occupied Palestinian territories, it noted.
The operation, meanwhile, took a heavy toll on Israeli forces, the document stated, saying the assault had “drained” the troops.
Finally, it lamented that the indiscriminate and internationally condemned nature of the offensive had increased the regime’s global notoriety.
“Gideon Chariots” was launched between May 16 and August 4 as part of a genocidal war that the regime had begun waging on the Gaza Strip roughly two years earlier.
The operation was ordered after the regime refused to extend a ceasefire deal with Hamas following the expiry of a previous accord in January.
It has been internationally denounced for what critics have called its intensified devil-may-care attitude towards civilian casualties and suffering.
This has been reflected in the genocide’s soaring death toll, now nearing 63,500 civilians, mostly women and children.
Ignoring the far-and-wide condemnation, however, the regime has even resorted to launching the operation’s second edition, which seeks to seize Gaza City, the Gaza Strip’s biggest urban area.
Backed by tens of thousands of Israeli reservists, “Operation Gideon Chariots II” is aimed at expelling more than one million Palestinian residents from the city.
Mahmood OD has more details First he discusses what is happening in Zionist Israel as a result of the hit on Yemen. He then gives more information about the fact that Gideon’s Chariots (number 1) was a total failure.
By all accounts, the Chinese military parade planned for the 3rd of September, marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, will be epic.
All the weaponry and equipment on display in the upcoming military parade are domestically produced active-duty main battle equipment according to a press conference regarding the planning. This event showcases a concentrated display of the new generation of weaponry and equipment of the Chinese military following the National Day military parade in 2019.
Its main features are as follows: It highlights new fourth-generation equipment as the main body, demonstrating the Chinese military’s system combat capability; it showcases the Chinese military’s new domain and new quality combat capabilities; and it displays the Chinese military’s strong strategic deterrence capability, Xinhua reported.
The military parade will include advanced tanks, carrier-based aircraft and fighter jets, organized into operational modules to demonstrate Chinese military’s system-based combat capability. A selection of new forces, covering land, sea and air unmanned intelligent and counter-unmanned systems, as well as cyber and electronic warfare units, will also take part, with equipment such as new drones, directed-energy weapons and electronic jamming systems, showcasing Chinese military’s new-domain and new-quality combat capabilities. In addition, a range of advanced equipment, including hypersonic weapons, air and missile defense systems and strategic missiles, will be unveiled to highlight Chinese military’s strong strategic deterrence. The specific models of weapons and equipment in the parade will be revealed soon, according to CCTV News.
Some of China’s land, sea, air-based strategic weapons and hypersonic weapons are set to make their debut at the V-Day military parade on September 3 in Beijing, and the preparations for the military parade have been basically completed, according to a press conference hosted by China’s State Council Information Office on Wednesday.
Experts said the military parade will contribute to safeguarding China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, as well as peace and stability in the region and the world.
At the press conference, Wu Zeke, a senior officer of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission, and Xu Guizhong, a senior officer from the Central Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), outlined preparations for the upcoming parade and briefed some details of the highly-anticipated event.
Troops participating in the upcoming V-Day parade will line up in formations along the Chang’an Avenue in Beijing, and they will be reviewed by President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, the Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Wu.
The military parade will be conducted in two steps: the review and the march-past, lasting approximately 70 minutes. In the march-past part, the formations will pass through Tiananmen Square in the following order: the air flag guard echelon, the foot formations, the battle flag formations, the equipment formations, and the air echelons. A total of 45 formations/echelons are arranged for this parade, Xinhua reported.
The equipment formations are organized into joint operational groups in a combat-oriented manner, including the land operations group, maritime operations group, air and missile defense group, information operations group, unmanned operations group, logistics and equipment support group, and strategic strike group, among others, Xinhua reported.
The air echelons are organized in a modular and systematic manner, consisting of advanced early warning and command aircraft, fighter jets, bombers, transport aircraft and more. They basically cover the main active-duty aircraft types of the Chinese military, with some making their public debut for the first time, according to the Xinhua report.
Some land, sea, and air-based strategic weapons, hypersonic precision strike weapons, and unmanned and counter-unmanned equipment are set to be displayed to the outside world for the first time, per Xinhua.
The number and models of equipment to be reviewed at the parade will exceed 100, CCTV News reported.
All the weaponry and equipment on display in the upcoming military parade are domestically produced active-duty main battle equipment, according to the press conference. This event showcases a concentrated display of the new generation of weaponry and equipment of the Chinese military following the National Day military parade in 2019. Its main features are as follows: It highlights new fourth-generation equipment as the main body, demonstrating the Chinese military’s system combat capability; it showcases the Chinese military’s new domain and new quality combat capabilities; and it displays the Chinese military’s strong strategic deterrence capability, Xinhua reported.
The military parade will feature new fourth-generation equipment as the core, including advanced tanks, carrier-based aircraft and fighter jets, organized into operational modules to demonstrate Chinese military’s system-based combat capability. A selection of new forces, covering land, sea and air unmanned intelligent and counter-unmanned systems, as well as cyber and electronic warfare units, will also take part, with equipment such as new drones, directed-energy weapons and electronic jamming systems, showcasing Chinese military’s new-domain and new-quality combat capabilities. In addition, a range of advanced equipment, including hypersonic weapons, air and missile defense systems and strategic missiles, will be unveiled to highlight Chinese military’s strong strategic deterrence. The specific models of weapons and equipment in the parade will be revealed soon, according to CCTV News.
Song Zhongping, a Chinese military affairs expert, told the Global Times on Wednesday that with all weaponry and equipment to be reviewed at the military parade being domestically built, the event is expected to highlight China’s complete defense industrial sector and the country’s technological capabilities in national defense.
Items such as hypersonic weapons and unmanned equipment mentioned at the press conference represent some of new-domain and new-quality combat forces in modern warfare, and they could be among the biggest highlights of the parade, according to Song.
Wang Yunfei, another Chinese military affairs expert, told the Global Times on Wednesday that he looks forward to seeing the land, sea, and air-based strategic weapons that were mentioned at the press conference.
At present, all preparations for the upcoming military parade have been basically completed. All the officers and soldiers taking part in the parade will present themselves in high spirits to be reviewed by the Party and the people on September 3 together, a victory day worthy of eternal commemoration by the people of the world, Xinhua reported.
Remembering history, safeguarding future
This military parade is an important part of the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. It is meant to remember history, commemorate the martyrs, cherish peace, and look to the future, Wu, said at the press conference on Wednesday, CCTV News reported.
The Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression started the earliest and lasted the longest. Under the banner of the National United Front Against Japanese Aggression initiated and established by the Communist Party of China, the Chinese people fought bravely and with unity and purpose. They made enormous national sacrifices for the victory in the main Eastern battlefield of the World Anti-Fascist War. They pinned down and eliminated the main force of Japanese imperialism for a long time, wiped out more than 1.5 million Japanese troops, and achieved the great victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, making a major contribution to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War, Wu noted.
The military parade, which will display China’s latest weaponry and equipment, should be viewed as China’s effort to defend national sovereignty, security and development interests, as well as to safeguard peace and stability in the region and the world amid a complex global security situation, deterring those forces that stir up trouble, said Song, the military affairs expert.
China will not bully any one, but it will also not allow the history of being bullied to repeat itself, Song said.
We will see President Putin and President Xi Jinping watching this parade sitting next to one another. The summits of these two usually bring major changes in their wake and some fun moments.
Putin/Xi Jinping Summit: Day 2 – The Real Work Starts
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping at SCO Summit
In this previous post, I discussed the Russian/China relationship as well as research done.
Putin/Xi Jinping Summit: The Bell Tolls
After the parade, they go to SCO. This will be Mr Putin’s longest visit outside of Russia, since the SMO started.
(Mine) Metropolitan Kirill: “Lord have Mercy. Did he really ask, “…why were the Oreshniks not released as the US & Tel Aviv saw this move as weak. Why did it not happen and will it happen?” Son, this venue ain’t the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). And no worldly weapon is gonna win this War”
Background:
Official channel of the Synodal Department for Interaction with the Russian Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies:
The Synodal Department for Interaction with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies held an award ceremony for military correspondents
On June 3, 2025, the Chairman of the Synodal Department for Interaction with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies, Metropolitan Kirill of Stavropol and Nevinnomyssk, met with military journalists and correspondents who, in the course of their work, actively cover the activities and service of the military clergy in the SVO zone.
Among them:
For their contribution to the coverage of the service of military clergy in the SVO zone, they were all awarded the medal of the Order of the Blessed Prince Dmitry Donskoy.
Military Department of the Moscow Patriarchate
America’s military humiliation: the Houthis exposed its waning power.
By Malcom Kyeyune at UnHerd.
When, in reaction to the war in Gaza, the Houthis of Yemen started imposing their blockade on the Red Sea, it was seen as a sure sign of waning American power: a global hegemon was allowing its control over a vital sea route to be contested. In their rush to fathom why this might be happening, detractors of the then president claimed he was simply too weak, too much of an appeaser to use the full width of America’s military might to quash the problem.
In fact, in response, Biden authorised not one but two military campaigns. The first was Operation Prosperity Guardian, which aimed to combine US naval power with a coalition of willing states to protect shipping and break the blockade. That fast turned into an embarrassing debacle, as most of the coalition partners walked away and ships kept getting hit by Houthi missiles. And so, in January 2024, Operation Poseidon Archer was launched, which involved British as well as American aircraft attempting to bomb the Houthis into submission. Here again, the operation was unsuccessful, doing almost nothing to dent Houthi attacks or open up the Red Sea to shipping. But even then Biden was blamed; the mighty US military was being held back somehow. Thus, the natural conclusion was that once Trump was in office, the gloves would come off.
Biden’s critics were actually half right. Once Trump came in, the gloves did come off. Operation Poseidon Archer was followed by Operation Rough Rider, in March of this year, which attempted to show a new, much more muscular American military response against Houthi targets in Yemen — for all of six weeks. For six weeks, US warplanes pounded Yemen around the clock, with rare and expensive stealth bombers flying missions out of Diego Garcia in support of carrier-based aircraft. Yet once those six weeks were up, Trump proudly announced that Yemen had “surrendered” and that there was no more need for the US to keep up the bombing. A ceasefire had been brokered by Oman. This was trumpeted as a glorious victory for the US military, with the Houthis finally promising to not attack US ships anymore, and America graciously returning the gesture.
Of course, Trump didn’t mention the terms of the “surrender”. The Houthis only had to stop attacking American ships in exchange for America stopping the bombing; they were free to continue blockading the Red Sea or firing missiles at Israel. America, in other words, had given the Houthis carte blanche to carry on the behaviour that was the reason America had gone to war in the first place. Thus, to call this deal a surrender was entirely appropriate; it’s just that it wasn’t the Houthis hoisting the white flag.
It is very commonplace to blame reversals and even defeats in America’s various wars of choice as merely a matter of lack of will. If America really wanted to win, it would win, the story goes; the failure of the US is just one where it never commits the force necessary to finish the fight. But today, that excuse rings hollow. Trump’s Operation Rough Rider, unlike Biden’s operations, utilised many of America’s most limited, expensive, and advanced weapons to try to bring the Houthis to heel. And still it surrendered. The lessons here are thus quite bleak. America’s preferred and increasingly only viable method of warfare — aerial warfare — is no longer cost-effective nor practical. But the US has no alternative modes of warfare to fall back on, which means that its days as a military hegemon are probably coming to a close.
To understand just how big a mess the air war against the Houthis has turned out to be, it’s important to understand a very basic rule to US military inventories. For while, on paper, America has 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, an impressive figure that far outstrips any other country on the planet, that top line figure is barely relevant in practice.
For comparison, look to the United Kingdom. The UK has two large aircraft carriers, putting it near the top of the international leaderboard when it comes to the ability to project military force. But as anyone with any familiarity with the Royal Navy can tell you, that number does not tell the real story. The number of carriers the UK can actually deploy is far lower, a number which is fairly close to zero. For while the ships exist, the Royal Navy lacks the crew, the planes, the escorts, and the logistical capacity to actually put them to use for any length of time in a real war. The UK Navy has become something of a Potemkin village, where superficial on-paper strengths hide a catastrophic reality of deferred maintenance, insufficient budgets, and lack of personnel.
Though the situation for the US Navy isn’t quite as dire, in practice, the problem is the same: it cannot realistically put more than two to four carriers to sea at any given moment. The ability to surge capacity in times of crisis is limited, because the various reserve components of the US armed forces have catastrophically atrophied. If you discount the American carriers that are slated for the scrapyard, or those currently lacking a functional nuclear reactor, or those which are tied up in deep maintenance, the number of active, usable carriers is roughly a third of the on-paper number. Half of those carriers were being used against the Houthis.
But carriers are not the only example we ought to look at. For Operation Rough Rider, the US Air Force contributed some six B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, arguably the most advanced (and by far the most expensive) airframe in the US arsenal. At first blush, this seems like only a fraction of America’s power, because it has some 20 such bombers in its inventory. But a closer look at these planes suggest that those six used in Rough Rider very likely represent the entire working inventory of US stealth bombers. Because B-2s haven’t been built for decades, the only way to keep them operational is to cannibalise other B-2s for spare parts: as a result, a large number have been functionally scrapped and cannot ever hope to fly again. Only half of US bombers even qualify for so-called “mission capable” status on an average day, a status which doesn’t actually mean that the plane works; it simply means the plane isn’t completely broken and inoperable. Only two thirds or fewer of those mission capable planes can hope to qualify for what the US military instead classifies as “full mission capable” status. “Full mission capable” is your standard Pentagon-speak; it means the plane is in working order, has nothing broken that’s really important, and can realistically be used for what it was built for.
From carriers to stealth bombers, the pattern here is fairly clear, and it is further corroborated by testimonies from inside the Pentagon itself. America essentially pulled out all the stops to attack the Houthis, waging an extremely expensive and intensive air war against a militia controlling most of Yemen, the fourth-poorest nation in the world. The cost to operate a B-2 stealth bomber is extremely high on a per-hour basis; and their fragile stealth coating is not particularly fond of the warm, salty sea air at Diego Garcia. You don’t send in all of them unless you really mean business. America also committed roughly half of its active carriers, spent a fortune in land attack and air defence missiles, and it even cannibalised ammo stores and air defence systems from the Pacific theatre of operations for the sake of the operation.
But as the stories of the campaign start leaking to the press, it’s clear that none of this effort did anything good. The US couldn’t establish air supremacy, meaning it couldn’t risk flying its older, non-stealth planes for fear of losing them. This itself might seem like proof that America was once again just not trying very hard; for what kind of war is it when you’re not ready to accept losses? But the problem is, America can’t afford to replace planes that get lost and pilots that get killed. This is not a problem of cowardice, but of force generation: even if the US military suffers zero losses due to enemy fire in the years ahead, it is still slated to shrink precipitously. This shrinkage and loss of capacity is just due to America’s planes and ships wearing out, with not enough workers, dockyards, engineers, and dollars to replace them. As America burns through its massive military inheritance bequeathed by Ronald Reagan and the Eighties arms race, there is no plan to replace it. For the US military, avoiding casualties is not a matter of caution or cowardice; it is the result of a total inability to replenish the force.
The result of this American Achilles’ heel has been an extremely expensive reliance — when it has come to defending the Red Sea — on so-called “standoff” weaponry; cruise missiles, for example, that can be launched from far enough away that anti-air fire won’t be a threat. But even then, there were problems: according to leaked reports, even the vaunted F-35 stealth fighter had to dodge incoming anti-air missiles on at least one occasion. In Operation Rough Rider, the US deployed many of its most rare and bespoke weapons, such as the AGM-158 JASSM (Joint Air-To-Surface Standoff Missile) as well as heavy, specialised bunker-buster bombs. Again, by all accounts, this had little effect. Partly, this was because the US kept losing so many of its MQ-9 reaper drones, which come with a price tag north of 30 million dollars apiece, and which were supposed to provide the intel to ensure the bombing campaign found its targets.
When Biden first lost interest in defending the Red Sea against the Houthis, people were aghast. Not doing enough was akin to telling the entire world that the US was too weak to keep the Suez channel open. But Trump, after berating his predecessor, has also walked away, and de facto recognised the Houthi’s control of the channel. It would seem that the US doesn’t actually have many cards to play.
Trump could have sent another carrier to the region in support of his operation, bringing the total up to three. But this would hardly have made much difference to the air campaign because the problem with this offensive wasn’t lack of deck space or fighter sorties — US planes were too wary to go anywhere near Yemen’s air defence, and even stealth jets were reportedly not entirely safe. The problem was the lack of standoff munitions which can be deployed from a point of relative safety. But these are so expensive and so limited that there is no budget to replenish them when stores are depleted (a single JASSM with a 450 kilogram explosive warhead comes in at slightly under a million dollars). Wargames show the US running out of most or all such critical munitions in a matter of weeks or even days in a real conflict against a peer enemy such as China.
Even worse, much of the US military’s most advanced weapons systems are dependent on components and materials such as rare earths from China, which has already started imposing harsh export restrictions in order to slowly choke the life out of the US military industrial complex. In practice, the US does not have the economy to produce the weapons used for aerial warfare at any sort of scale, and this has only been hidden from full view because the military has coasted along on an aura of invincibility.
As the appetite for ground warfare has waned, the allure of quick, cheap and easy air campaigns has grown. But air warfare is no longer what it once was. Operation Rough Rider was supposed to be a decisive show of force against an under-equipped, internally divided third-world nation. Instead, it ended up looking like the last hurrah of a truly antiquated form of warfare, unable to cope with cheaper and better anti-air weapon systems.
All of these limitations make the current talk about a new bombing campaign against Iran utterly surreal. Iran is far bigger than Yemen, with a much more robust air defence network. Moreover, the distances involved are such that carrier-based aircraft, even when launched from the very shores of the Persian gulf, can’t actually reach places like Tehran and return on a single tank of fuel. Fighter-bombers will need aerial refuelling over the Iranian interior, and tanker planes are slow, easy to spot on radar, and pretty much defenceless. Even attempting to destroy the Iranian air defence network will take huge amounts of precision standoff weaponry, which the US cannot practically replace, even if it weren’t struggling with a massive fiscal crisis and soaring bond yields. The critical parts of Iran’s nuclear programme are kept under hundreds of feet of solid mountain; the US, using the heaviest and most advanced weapons in its entire arsenal, did not succeed against the much shallower Houthi bunkers and missile storage facilities in Yemen. All of the problems that forced America’s tacit surrender of the Suez canal would be writ large — and be far more lethal — in any campaign against Iran.
With exploding deficits, a growing internal political crisis, and a slowly collapsing military, America is a leopard that lacks the wherewithal to even attempt to change its spots. The generals know that the jig is up: the old model is broken, there is no new model coming, and nobody has the energy left to do much about it all. And so, this massive crisis of US military power is playing out in the vein of Ernest Hemingway’s comment about the course of his own bankruptcy: gradually, then suddenly.
Once upon a time, there was always a bigger plane, a more advanced high-tech future weapon, yet another trick up the Air Force’s sleeve that you could point to in order to silence the doubters. But those days are over. The gravity of what happened in Yemen will only assert itself once the political class is ready to deal with the new world we are now living in: one in which the US has no new military rabbits to pull out of its hat, and those that it does have simply aren’t enough to get anywhere close to victory.
Malcom Kyeyune is a freelance writer living in Uppsala, Sweden
We are witnessing a historic turning point unfolding in the skies over Kashmir—one that could reshape global perceptions of great-power military capabilities.
On May 7, the Pakistani military announced that it had shot down six Indian warplanes during a pre-dawn clash. The Indian government had not issued an official response. However, Indian media, citing government sources, reported that at least three Indian Air Force jets had crashed in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Local residents filmed wreckage believed to be from Indian Rafale fighter jets, leading many observers to consider Pakistan’s claim of downing six Indian jets as largely credible.
If confirmed, this would be a major battlefield success for Pakistan’s air defense system, reportedly made in China. It would also mean that Chinese-made systems outperformed jets supplied by other major powers. This could give the world a clearer sense of China’s military strength.
The Pakistani military claimed that the six Indian aircraft it shot down included three French-made Rafale jets, one Su-30, one MiG-29, and one Heron drone. The Rafales, first delivered by France to India in 2020, are among France’s most prominent defense exports. Both the Su-30 and MiG-29 are advanced Russian-made fighter jets widely used in export markets.
If Pakistan’s account is largely accurate, it suggests that India’s Russian and French aircraft were no match for Chinese air defense systems. This would mark one of the most convincing real-world performances of Chinese weapons on the global stage—and a breakthrough moment for China’s military industry.
On May 7, India launched a missile strike against Pakistan, targeting areas not only in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir but also reaching deeper than any previous cross-border action since 1971. India stated that it had no intention of escalating the conflict further, making a full-scale war between the two nuclear-armed nations unlikely.
The strike was initially aimed at responding to a deadly terrorist attack on tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir and was meant to appease a surge in nationalist sentiment within India. However, according to currently available reports, the operation failed to achieve India’s intended objectives and instead dealt a blow to its military credibility.
India’s lack of immediate response to Pakistan’s claims likely reflects strategic uncertainty—India is now caught between a rock and a hard place: letting the incident go now would cause more humiliation than refraining from striking in the first place, but launching another airstrike risks losing even more aircraft to Pakistan’s Chinese-supplied JF-17s and HQ-9 missiles, compounding the embarrassment.
The JF-17 fighter jet, which played a key role in Pakistan’s show of strength in this clash, currently numbers around 150 in the Pakistan Air Force fleet. Among them, the most advanced is the JF-17 Block 3, with approximately 24 units delivered. This model is equipped with modern avionics, an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, and PL-15 missiles capable of beyond-visual-range engagement.
In addition, Pakistan recently commissioned the Chinese-made HQ-9P long-range air defense missile system. With a maximum range of 260 kilometers, a single HQ-9P battalion consists of eight quad-launch vehicles and can cover a defensive radius of roughly 125 kilometers.
Some analysts suggest that the HQ-9P, when integrated with the LY-80 medium-range air defense system, the ZDK-03 airborne early warning aircraft, and the JF-17 fighters—all sourced from China—forms a multi-layered “long-medium-short” air defense network. This structure may have given Pakistan a localized air defense advantage over India in the Kashmir region.
India’s national strength is far greater than Pakistan’s, but the Indian Air Force lags behind. Like Pakistan, its air defense systems rely on imports. India’s military equipment is a mix of various systems, with over half of it sourced from Russia. In recent years, India has purchased French “Rafale” jets and is now beginning to buy American-made equipment. The varying levels of interoperability and technological advancement of these systems lead to challenges in achieving unified operational integration and coordination, which affects their overall effectiveness in joint operations.
Pakistan had previously purchased American F-16s, but after the U.S. raised concerns about Pakistan’s alleged ties to “terrorism,” military cooperation with Pakistan was suspended, and Pakistan’s effort at military modernization thus became entirely reliant on China. The Chinese-made J-10 fighter jets and the export version of the JF-17 Thunder (JF-17) have become widely used in Pakistan, and batches of Chinese-made Hongqi (HQ-9) air defense missiles have been supplied. In the 2019 India-Pakistan conflict, there were reports of Pakistan using JF-17 Thunder aircraft to shoot down Indian jets, which greatly enhanced the reputation of Chinese military equipment.
This time, the number of Indian aircraft claimed to have been shot down by the Pakistani military was significant, and while India did not directly confirm Pakistan’s statement, Indian media effectively implicitly confirmed it, making the event cause a major stir internationally. If the details of this incident are further confirmed, it will provide a powerful and shocking real-world example that could reshape global perceptions of China’s military capabilities and overall strength. This battle marks a clear defeat for the U.S.-made medium-range air-to-air missiles and European-made Meteor long-range missiles when faced with China’s PL-15 missile, as their beyond-visual-range (BVR) strike capability falls short compared to China’s. It also highlights how U.S.-made and French-made radar systems pale in comparison to the radar system on the JF-17 Thunder B3, which, in contrast, performs like “nearsighted” compared to the latter. Russian aircraft, known for their speed and maneuverability, are now being outclassed in an era where “avionics and weapon systems” and “system integration” are key. While Russian and French manufacturers prioritize maneuverability, they cannot match the electronic warfare capabilities of the JF-17.
Modern air combat is primarily about beyond-visual-range engagements, with missiles being fired from tens or even hundreds of kilometers away. Aircraft can launch missiles at ground targets from over 100 kilometers, and surface-to-air missiles also have ranges exceeding 100 kilometers. This means that much of the action takes place beyond visual range, where electronic warfare often proves to be more crucial than the speed and climb rate of aircraft.
This India-Pakistan clash showcased China’s air defense capabilities. It’s widely known that the JF-17, while effective, is not the most advanced aircraft in China’s fleet. It lags behind the J-20 in terms of generation, and its overall combat capabilities are also somewhat distant from the J-10. Similarly, the HQ-9P is not the top-tier missile in its series. This battle seems to suggest the following points:
China’s military manufacturing has now surpassed both Russia and France. As there has been no direct confrontation between Chinese and American equipment, the current India-Pakistan battlefield-featuring American electronics in Indian aircraft-has thrust into the public eye a critical question: who holds the upper hand in a war between China and the US. In today’s electronic warfare, a U.S, victory is no longer a foregone conclusion; instead, it has become an open question.
If the information available thus far is accurate, we can safely deduce that since India lost miserably in an air battle with Pakistan, it could barely count as a match for China. India’s military, relying on Russian and French aircraft, has been thoroughly humiliated by Chinese military technology. China’s weapons are almost entirely domestically produced, forming a massive, integrated system, while India’s aircraft are all imports, and at that, only of a certain level. India’s national pride will certainly take a significant hit as a result.
Taiwan should also be deeply concerned. They now know that the air force and electronic warfare capabilities of mainland China are world-class. Our military equipment advantage in the Taiwan Strait is simply unmatched. If the PLA were to engage, Taiwan’s military would be completely overwhelmed. The willingness and confidence of the U.S. to intervene militarily will increasingly become uncertain.
https://news.ifeng.com/c/8jAAMd2aFyG
Lateo.net - Flux RSS en pagaille (pour en ajouter : @ moi)