Tag Archives: North Korea

US hosting ‘open secret’ military exercises with Taiwan

Posted on by Leave a comment

The drills were held in Michigan, involving approximately 7000 soldiers from both sides. Although most Americans taking part in the exercise were members of the Michigan National Guard, some were unnamed units under the direct command of the Pentagon. This indicates that the troops in question must have been special forces used in various covert operations.

Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst

It’s certainly not breaking news that the United States is trying to prevent China from restoring full sovereignty over all of its territories, primarily Taiwan. The Chinese breakaway island province is not only of historical, legal and national value, but also of prime strategic importance. When in the hands of Beijing’s enemies, Taiwan is a major security hurdle, as it exposes the entire southeast China’s “soft underbelly”, particularly the neighboring province of Fujian. This doesn’t only slow down (or even prevent) normal economic development, but it also requires the mobilization of significant resources used by the military to ensure the security of the crucial area.

On the other hand, if Beijing restores its full sovereignty over the island, be it in a similar manner to Hong Kong (or Macao), or perhaps within a new, even more lax framework that eliminates the threat posed by the US, Taiwan would become a significant springboard for pushing the belligerent thalassocracy’s forward-deployed forces that are jeopardizing China’s interests in the Asia-Pacific. Obviously, Washington DC is trying everything in its power (short of direct war, for now, at least) to prevent this scenario, which is why it’s pushing Taipei to a sort of crawling confrontation with mainland China or at the very least trying to prevent the rapprochement between the two.

Military involvement of the US is a major component of this “China containment” strategy, as the Pentagon planners like to call it. This includes not only the arming of Beijing’s breakaway island province, but also providing training to its forces. This was usually done in Taiwan, but since China has warned repeatedly that it will not tolerate the presence of any major US forces (or those of its other vassals and satellite states), Washington DC found a workaround. Namely, according to various regional sources, Taiwanese troops attended somewhat rare joint military exercises with their US counterparts this summer. It’s important to note these were held on American soil.

On September 4, the Taipei Times reported that the drills were held in Michigan last month, in the August 5-19 timeframe, involving approximately 7000 soldiers from both sides. Although most American troops taking part in the exercise (dubbed “Northern Strike”) were members of the Michigan National Guard, some of them were unnamed units under the direct command of the Pentagon. This indicates that the troops in question must have been special forces used in various covert operations. For its part, Taipei sent the entire joint battalion of its 333rd Infantry Brigade. Both sides have indicated that such military drills will be held in the future on a more regular basis.

According to Taipei Times, which in turn cited Sankei Shimbun, a Japanese news source, the reason why the US hosted Taiwanese troops is that it’s supposedly “wary of provoking China”. This is allegedly because “the Michigan exercises were led by the National Guard — a strategic reserve force that is normally overseen by US state governments — instead of the US Armed Forces”. However, according to their own inadvertent admission, this was a bogus attempt of presenting the exercise as not involving the US federal troops, because the drills were directly overseen and commanded by the Pentagon. Normally, National Guard units are under the control of their respective states.

In other words, Washington DC’s supposed attempt to not anger Beijing is nothing but a mere formality. The source further added a rather unfortunate analogy by comparing the drills to previous US National Guard exercises with the Kiev regime forces held on a regular basis since 2014. For its part, there’s very little value in these formal American military distinctions, particularly as the Pentagon is directly involved. It also marks a significant shift in the way the US is using its Asia-Pacific vassals. The adoption of the so-called “Ukrainian model” indicates that Taipei is also expected to fight “to the last Taiwanese” (TTLT). This is part of America’s revised strategic posturing that refocuses on its regional satellite states. Taipei Times also admitted that the exercise isn’t exactly a new development and that the preparations for it were an “open secret”, pointing out that “as early as 2021 foreign media have reported on joint military training between Taiwan and the US at Camp Grayling in Michigan”. The Institute of National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun was quoted as the source of this claim, further adding that when asked in July whether the US National Guard helped train Taiwanese troops, US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner stated that “discussions about the issue should be kept behind closed doors”. And indeed, American and Taiwanese officials are yet to comment on the exercises.

You can support this ministry and keep us on the internet using the links below.  Patreon is gone so now we havePayPal, Cash App and Buy me a Coffee as our online options.  The new buy me a coffee link is below. 

Buy me a Coffee

Cash App ID: $jstorm212

Paypal Link:  https://paypal.me/johnnystorm?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US

North Korea’s new ICBMs deter another US aggression

Posted on by Leave a comment

Unfortunately, the ability to turn America into a giant radioactive glass desert is the only way to ensure the belligerent thalassocracy will think twice before attacking. And the American people should hold their political elites accountable for such a state of affairs.

Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst

North Korea’s portrayal in the mainstream media is unflattering, to say the least. However, underestimating Pyongyang’s growing capabilities is wholly limited to the infowar arena, as the Pentagon is deeply alarmed by the DPRK’s latest show of force during the recent military parade commemorating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the KPA (Korean People’s Army). The country has shown an unprecedentedly diverse array of new weapons, including its rapidly growing arsenal of ICBMs(intercontinental range ballistic missiles). The “star of the show” was what appears to be a solid-fuel ICBM similar to the older Soviet/Russian “Topol”.

If true, it would mean that the incessant reporting about North Korea’s supposed “inability” to develop and field solid-fuel missiles is nothing but wishful thinking. And indeed, Pyongyang has made tremendous strides in developing a plethora of both strategic and tactical missiles and other weapons to ensure it could never be targeted with impunity. The people of North Korea still remember what certainly seemed like an apocalypse to them when American bombers laid waste to their cities, towns and villages, including the basic infrastructure and vitally important irrigation systems, which greatly contributed to famines in the following decades.

However, despite well over a million casualties caused by intentional US targeting of civilians, the truly terrifying possibility was the nearly initiated American plan to drop hundreds of nuclear weapons on the East Asian country. US Army General Douglas MacArthur, the overall commander of Western forces during the Korean War, planned using nuclear weapons to inflict a decisive defeat on North Korea. Luckily, this deranged idea was dropped due to fears of how the Soviet Union would react. Pyongyang soon became aware of the plan and decided to ensure it is never implemented by developing capabilities to retaliate.

And while the USSR provided a direct strategic umbrella, preventing further attacks on North Korea, the superpower’s unfortunate demise in the 1990s left Pyongyang’s security severely undermined. Over the next three decades, North Korea developed capabilities far exceeding the size of its population, economy and territory, effectively becoming what Alexander Mercouris of the Duran appropriately dubbed “the pocket superpower”. Developing such capabilities is certainly no easy feat even for global powers, while being virtually impossible for relatively small countries such as North Korea. And yet, DPRK is rather unique in this regard, being the only small country (besides Israel) with such weapons.

North Korea’s urgent need for deterrence has been repeatedly reinforced, including just several years ago, when the US came close to once again attacking the country on multiple occasions under both the Obama and Trump administrations in 2016 and 2017. The Pentagon’s war plans once more included the use of thermonuclear weapons, just like approximately 70 years earlier, but never materialized, thankfully. Pyongyang’s ability to “return the favor” forced the belligerent thalassocracy to take the military option “off the table”. The successful deployment of several ICBM types, as well as the adoption of MIRV (multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles) warheads presents an insurmountable obstacle for aggressive US strategists.

Military experts are now almost certain that the current DPRK arsenal would be sufficient to defeat America’s GMD ABM (anti-ballistic missile) system. The GMD (Ground-Based Midcourse Defense) currently employs 44 GBI (Ground-Based Interceptors), with four targeting each hostile ICBM to provide a 97% chance of interception (tested against hopelessly outdated, over half-century-old American “Minuteman 3” ICBMs). And while the quantity of thermonuclear warheads in North Korea’s possession is a closely guarded state secret, Pyongyang recently announced “an exponential enlargement” of its strategic forces, further reinforcing its previously precarious position.

Washington DC’s inability to intercept North Korean missiles has pushed it to consider “preventive attacks”. As Pyongyang’s entire strategic arsenal was thought of being composed exclusively of older-style liquid-fuel missiles (which take time to launch), the US believed it would have enough time to target all North Korean launch sites before the ICBMs are fired. However, Pyongyang has now demonstrated it has solid-fuel missiles (much shorter launch cycles, as there’s no need to fuel the missiles before launch), nullifying the possibility of such strikes. What’s more, numerous North Korean test launches of new depressed-trajectory missiles have proven impossible for America’s “Aegis” ABM system to even detect, let alone shoot down.

Japan, although already spending hundreds of billions of dollars on US-made ABM defenses such as “Aegis”, is now set to waste even more resources, although these exact systems have been completely powerless to intercept a single North Korean missileflying close to or even over its home islands. Worse yet, while those were relatively rudimentary ballistic missiles with largely predictable flight paths, in September 2021 Pyongyang also began flight testing HGVs (hypersonic glide vehicles), an area in which it takes precedence even over the US, which still lacks operational hypersonic weapons.

North Korea’s capability to obliterate American population centers is of utmost importance to prevent yet another brutal USAF firebombing that killed upwards of a third of its population in just three years (1950-1953). And while the notion may sound too harsh, the utterly barbaric US foreign policy and the incessant aggression against the world stand as a testament to the effectiveness of North Korea’s approach. Unfortunately, the ability to turn America into a giant radioactive glass desert is the only way to ensure the belligerent thalassocracy will think twice before attacking. And the American people should hold their political elites accountable for that state of affairs.