ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By ROBERT BURNS and RICHARD LARDNER WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s the biggest budget the Pentagon has ever seen: $700 billion. That’s far more in defense spending than America’s two nearest competitors, China and Russia, and will mean the military can foot the bill for thousands more troops, more training, more ships and a lot else. And next year it would rise to $716 billion. Together, the two-year deal provides what Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says is needed to pull the military out of a slump in combat readiness at a time of renewed focus on the stalemated conflict in Afghanistan and the threat of war on the Korean peninsula. The budget bill that President Donald Trump signed Friday includes huge spending increases for the military: The Pentagon will get $94 billion more this budget year than last — a 15.5 percent jump. It’s the biggest year-over-year windfall since the budget soared by 26.6 percent, from $345 billion in 2002 to $437 billion the year after, when the nation was fight

Israeli F-16I destroyed in attacks prompted by Iranian UAV infiltration Turkish helicopter shot down by Kurdish militia in Syria's Afrin - Erdogan

Written by  Paul Craig Roberts ; Originally appeared at  paulcraigroberts.org A couple of decades or more ago when I was still in Washington, otherwise known as the snake pit, I was contacted by a well-financed group that offered me, a Business Week and Scripps Howard News Service columnist with access as a former editor also to the Wall Street Journal, substantial payments to promote agendas that the lobbyists paying the bills wanted promoted. To the detriment of my net worth, but to the preservation of my reputation, I declined. Shortly thereafter a conservative columnist, a black man if memory serves, was outed for writing newspaper columns for pay for a lobby group. I often wondered if he was set up in order to get rid of him and whether the enticement I received was intended to shut me down, or whether journalists had become “have pen will travel”? (Have Gun—Will Travel was a highly successful TV Series 1957-1963). Having read Bryan MacDonald’s article on Information Clea

An Israeli air force F-16C,at the Ovda air force base, on November 8, 2017JACK GUEZ/AFP On February 9, Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway officially announced that the US supports the Israeli attack that targeted twelve positions of the Syrian Air Defense Forces and the Iranian forces in Syria. The Pentagon spokesman told reporters that the US fully supports “Israel’s right to defend itself”, according to Reuters. “Israel is our closest security partner in the region and we fully support Israel’s inherent right to defend itself against threats to its territory and its people,” Maj. Rankine-Galloway said, according to Reuters. Maj Rankine-Galloway also noted that the US Department of Defense did not participate in the Israeli military operation in Syria and warned from Iran’s “destabilizing activities” in the Middle East. “We share the concerns of many throughout the region that Iran’s destabilizing activities that threaten international peace and security, and we seek greater

This Saturday began with breaking news about the downing of an Israeli F-16I that was, according to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), carrying out attacks on the Syrian T-4 military base in the central of Syria, not far away from the ancient city of Palmyra. The Israeli jet crashed in Israel, but it became clear that the reason for its downing was the heavy attack conducted by Syrian anti-aircraft systems —in this case supposedly the now decades old S-200 (SA-5 NATO reporting name)— positioned in the Syrian soil and, probably, near the T-4. It was like this that the air superiority of the Israeli Air Force (IAF) in the southwestern Syrian territory came to its end, opening the door to, as Hezbollah’s statement also announces, a new strategic phase in Syria, in which Damascus starts to actually live up to its threats against Israel, something that it rarely has done up until now. Even right now there are signs that this new phase has began since in its “retaliatory attacks” the I

Written by  Alexander Mercouris ; Originally appeared at  The Duran The  US Nuclear Posture Review  is a seminal document, not just because of the nuclear weapons build up it speaks of – worrying though that is – but because it represents a formal admission by the US that the so-called ‘unipolar moment’ – the period after the end of the Cold War when the US enjoyed unchallenged global dominance – is over. So far from being the world’s unchallenged and unchallengeable ‘hyperpower’ and world hegemon, the US admits that it is now once again just one of three Great Powers – the US, Russia and China – albeit that it still considers itself to be the strongest of the three. The Review admits this unambiguously.  One of its chapters is straightforwardly entitled “The Return of Great Power competition”. This chapter, the single most important in the whole document, has this to say Since 2010 we have seen the return of Great Power competition. To varying degrees, Russia and China h