Search result for: "DoD"


Pentagon Formalizes Conventional Forces’ Role In Irregular Warfare, But Will It Stick?

A recent Pentagon directive officially broadens the responsibility of irregular warfare (IW) well beyond the remit of special operations forces, in a move that former practicioners and experts said could be a significant development for America’s posture in the gray zone — but only if there’s real-world follow through
0 Comment 11694 view

‘Patriot Bonds,’ An Indonesian Shakedown?

One might think that Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto would have learned lessons from the careers of his father, Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, one of the architects of Suharto’s mostly successful orthodox economic agenda, and his grandfather, Margono Djojohadikusumo, the founder of Bank Negara Indonesia, the country’s first central bank
0 Comment 31442 view

Golden Dome: A Media Mirage, Not A Military Shield

The so-called Golden Dome, heralded by Donald Trump as a revolutionary space-based anti-missile shield, has already revealed itself for what it truly is: a media operation designed for talking points, not actual defense
0 Comment 34619 view

F-35 Is The Biggest Money Sinkhole Ever

A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report has found that Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney, the primary contractors working on the F-35, made product deliveries 238 days late on average in 2024 — despite the program paying them hundreds of millions in performance incentive fees, which encourage completing tasks on-time
0 Comment 49645 view

US Military Tells Singapore To Take Its F-15s Anywhere But Guam

In an event barely noticed outside of the region, the U.S. military abruptly cancelled a planned bed down — the military term for housing planes — of 12 Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) F-15s at Andersen Air Force Base (AAFB) in Guam
0 Comment 53489 view

Growing Rivalry Between Indonesia's Police And Military

For a decade under former President Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s police force enjoyed unprecedented privileges and power, with numerous high-ranking police officers appointed to key posts across ministries, state-owned enterprises, and regulatory bodies
0 Comment 52022 view

Indonesia's Slide Toward Militarism

Last week, the normally staid Jakarta Post, Indonesia’s leading English-language daily, published a blistering editorial saying that 27 years after the strongman Suharto fell from power
0 Comment 54349 view

Pressing Issues Await Pope Francis In Indonesia

A host of pressing issues, including the rise of religious intolerance, climate change, human trafficking, violence in Christian-majority Papua, disputes over development projects, and lay-clergy conflict
0 Comment 76052 view

Our Last Chance To Avoid War In The Middle East

Just before the 2020 Presidential elections, I published a book—The Eleventh Hour in 2020 America—in which I laid out the deterioration of American foreign policy and what the next administration needed to do to fix it
0 Comment 57719 view

Zelensky Regime Presses Ethnic Minorities, Dual Citizens to Fill Manpower Gaps

Having realized the destructiveness of V. Zelensky's course to continue the war to please the West until the "last Ukrainian", the country's citizens have long been guided not by feelings of patriotism and self-sacrifice, but by the instinct of self-preservation, fear of a painful death or serious injury
0 Comment 60714 view

Time To Terminate US Counter-Terrorism Programs In Africa

WASHINGTON, US: Every so often I am reminded of how counter-productive US engagement in the world has become. Of how, after miserable failure after failure, this country’s foreign policy makers keep trying to run the globe and fail again. From the strategic defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan to the feckless effort to sway the excessive Israeli military operation in Gaza, the US has squandered its power, exceeded its capabilities, and just plain failed.
 
0 Comment 84719 view

Indonesian President In Damage Control Over New Capital

JAKARTA, Indonesia: Indonesia's president is rushing to reassure investors and bureaucrats about his $32 billion new capital city in a malaria-prone pocket of Borneo, after the resignations of two officials overseeing the plan raised fresh doubts about its future.
0 Comment 90498 view

Beware Misplaced Trust In Pseudo-Intellectuals

SHAH ALAM, Malaysia: Former prime minister Muhyddin Yassin undoubtedly a charismatic & popular Malay Leader got toppled from the Apex, thanks to his bossom buddies from the State of Johor. Muhyiddin the scion of a religious leader, educated in English and groomed by Tun Dr Mahathir himself, held many crucial cabinet posts.
 
0 Comment 142837 view