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Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N. D. ) doesn’t need Ukraine to worry that a Republican-led Congress means less to its war with Russia.
The Senate Armed Services Committee member said the “blank check” comment through his colleague, KEVIN McCarthy (R-Calif. ), the supposed speaker of the House if Republicans win the half-term, had been taken out of context.
“A ‘blank check’ doesn’t mean you can’t possibly continue to get help. You won’t have a blank check. I agree that we shouldn’t give them a blank check,” he told NatSec Daily in a phone interview. It also implies, I think, that we would like to see more transparency about how cash is used. This is a moderate Republican and American position.
“If Kevin becomes the speaker of the House,” Cramer continued, “eventually he will have to govern, and I’m pretty sure of himself when he governs, he will do it properly. “
McCarthy’s comment a week later still haunts him. He has spent the past few days making sure that the money and weapons of his Republican colleagues pass into Ukraine under his leadership, even though some on the right and left would prefer the U. S. to take refuge. Help and concentrate on internal issues.
Cramer said such diversity of opinion in Congress reflects broader ideological perspectives in the United States. “Vladimir Putin does not confuse our diversity with disunity,” the senator told NatSec Daily. “I also think the same about Ukraine. “
But Cramer made sure to add: “I think we have too many Russian supporters in Congress and, indeed, on cable TV. When asked who specifically he was talking about, the senator declined to call.
The SASC member said he understood the anxiety of Ukrainian officials. Between McCarthy and the uproar over the Congressional Progressive Caucus letter, it is fitting that Kyiv is concerned about clients because of continued strong American support. “But I think we can all calm down and don’t make a miscalculation,” he said.
PUTIN AT PODIUM: Russian President Vladimir Putin has ruled out the option of military nuclear weapons in his war against Ukraine, saying it “makes no sense, politically or militarily,” in a speech Thursday.
In his annual speech at the Valdai Discussion Club, the Kremlin leader struck a familiar tone in criticizing the U. S. The US and its allies, criticizing “Western elites” for trying to dominate the rest of the world. He used the podium to try to court conservatives in the U. S. The US and Europe are fundamentally opposed to the West: it only opposes Western elites who seek to impose their “rather strange” values on others.
“There are at least two Wests,” Putin said. One has “traditional, basically Christian values,” which Russia resembles. But “there is another West: aggressive, cosmopolitan, neocolonial, which acts as a weapon of neoliberalism. “elite. “
He also accused the United States of “fanning the flames of war in Ukraine,” and Moscow’s attempts to “build trust” had been “rejected. “
U. S. NUCLEAR WEAPONS NEWS: Upgraded edition of U. S. main nuclear bomb expected to be a major nuclear weaponThe U. S. will arrive in December, according to unexpected veteran observers who could fuel an already damaging scenario in Europe, our own BRYAN BENDER, PAUL MCLEARY and ERIN BANCO reported. Wednesday.
The air-launched B61-12 enhanced gravity bomb is widely believed to begin arriving in the spring, however, U. S. officials told NATO allies at a closed-door assembly in Brussels this month that it would arrive in December, according to a U. S. diplomatic cable. Two other people who know the problem.
The fast-track procedure comes as Moscow’s threats mount over the use of nuclear weapons, with Russian President Vladimir Putin tracking missile tests his defense leader called simulating a “massive nuclear attack” if Russia attacked and demanded retaliation.
“It would be rushing,” said HANS KRISTENSEN, director of nuclear data allocation at the Federation of American Scientists, who has followed the program extensively. Officials “have said we are not responding to this scenario with nuclear weapons. I don’t think they need to tear that down. “
ROTATION IN Okinawa: The United States will upgrade its permanent fleet of F-15 fighter jets in Okinawa with a rotating force, DEMETRI SEVASTOPULO and KANA INAGAKI of the Financial Times.
The Air Force aims to withdraw two squadrons of the Okinawa-based F-15 Eagle, and Japan fears the United States hopes to find a full-time option for them. Moreover, “critics are concerned about imaginable shortcomings that could weaken China’s deterrence. “capacity,” according to the FT.
The existing concept is to send F-22s from Alaska to Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa during a rotation period. The question is whether the U. S. is in the U. S. If the U. S. will have “end-to-end” rotations, there is no gap between deployments.
HAITI’S KNOT: Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN says Haiti has a “knot of insecurity” that wants to be damaged before next steps can be taken to bring calm to the country. Blinken made the comment in Ottawa on Thursday, his first official vacation in Canada. .
That knot, he explained, is about security. Gangs blocked the main terminal in Port-au-Prince and a cascade of demanding situations deteriorated the country’s food and fuel supply. These conditions, Blinken says, make a long-term choice “impossible. “
Blinken, along with his Canadian counterpart, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, made indistinct promises to paint in combination to “rally foreign support” for Haiti, but refrained from committing to foreign intervention.
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Many of today’s military systems and platforms have been designed to operate independently. With our vision of twenty-first century security, Lockheed Martin accelerates innovation, connecting defense and the virtual with the functionality of key platforms, equipping consumers to stay ahead of emerging threats. Learn more .
TIME TO GO: Moscow’s appointed government and tens of thousands of citizens have evacuated Kherson as Ukrainian forces continue their offensive to retake the region’s capital, the Associated Press’ ANDREW MELDRUM reports.
More than 70,000 citizens have fled the city in recent days, Vladimir Saldo, the Kremlin-based region’s governor, said Thursday. Members of the Moscow administration, monuments to Russian heroes and the remains of Grigory Potemkin, the Russian general who founded Kherson in the eighteenth century. They have also moved, according to KIRILL STREMOUSOV, deputy chief of the region.
Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure continued on Thursday, with a drone strike hitting an electrical installation near the capital and sparking a fire, Kyiv region governor OLEKSIY Kuliba said. This new attack caused “very serious damage,” he said.
IRAN’S MISSING LINK: Although there is no evidence, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President EBRAHIM RAISI have tried to link the ongoing protests that have rocked the country to the fatal mass shooting at a well-known mosque, reports the Associated Press.
Islamic State claimed its duty after a gunman in Shah Cheragh in Shiraz, Iran’s holiest site, killed 15 others on Wednesday. However, the president said the “riots,” which were largely nonviolent protests, allowed for the shooting.
“The enemy needs the riots to pave the way for terrorist attacks. They pass to a holy shrine of a son of the prophet, our third highest vital shrine, His Majesty Shah Cheragh, and open fire on innocent worshippers. “
Meanwhile, Khamenei blamed the attack on a “plot of enemies” and said the country’s citizens “must unite to oppose the wave that does take into account and respect the life, protection and sacred property of the people. “
BEST PRACTICES: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released a set of basic cybersecurity recommendations intended to serve as a “quick start guide” for critical infrastructure corporations and other corporations that may not know how to start protecting their systems. according to our own ERIC GELLER reports (for the pros!).
The voluntary targets apply broadly to all critical infrastructure sectors, focusing primarily on small organizations that lack the capability for themselves with a cybersecurity plan.
The goals of the cybersecurity functionality constitute “the first effort that the U. S. government has made in the U. S. government. “”The U. S. has undertaken to provide a simple, succinct and actionable set of key security outcomes and measurable moves toward a cybersecurity capability benchmark,” CISA Director JEN Easterly told reporters.
NEW POLICY REVIEW: Biden’s management on Thursday released unclassified versions of a series of long-awaited policy revisions: the National Defense Strategy, the Nuclear Posture Review and the Missile Defense Review, the Paul and Bryan Report (for the pros!).
The classified edition of the administration’s national defense strategy was sent to Congress in March and provided a two-page fact sheet outlining its priorities, adding running with allies and confronting China and Russia. A big question is whether anything has changed in light of the ongoing war in Ukraine and China’s war threats to Taiwan.
The missile defense review is expected to report on building a more incorporated national missile defense system as well as a more physically powerful network in the Pacific, where the United States has moved troops and resources in recent years but done little to improve opposing defenses. Imaginable Chinese or North Korean missile attacks.
As widely telegraphed, the nuclear review does not make significant adjustments to the nation’s atomic strategy. The Biden administration has pursued a “no-first” policy that signals it would never strike first, nor has it designated the target of nuclear weapons only to deter. Other nuclear weapons: Two long-standing adjustments that President Joe Biden has indicated he supports.
‘SEAL OF APPROVAL’: Another gift from Alex’s interview with Senator Cramer, which was presented through our friends at Morning Defense (for professionals!): He said Congress officially states that Pentagon contracts will be adjusted to “recognize that inflation is not general at this time.
Cramer’s proposal to order the Pentagon to adjust contracts, an issue of the availability of funds, included in a revised edition of the Senate NDAA. Asked if the Pentagon can already do that, Cramer replied, “I don’t know if they can in any case,” and argued that it is mandatory to give a “seal of approval. “
“I think it’s vital, not just for the Department of Defense, but I think it’s vital for our brands to know that Congress supports this, that they’re not going to be surprised by an abrupt policy resolution or anything that could jeopardize the long term. “Long-term investment in a supply chain or a production chain. “Cramer said.
PHOENIX RISING: Another day, a letter from Congress calling for diplomacy, this one from the right.
Rep. Paul GOSAR (R-Arizona) proposed Arizona as the venue for peace talks between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr ZELENSKYY.
“Peace will have to triumph, but lately it does not seem to be an option,” he wrote in a letter to the two leaders. “Therefore, I invite you to Phoenix, Arizona, where we can start talks to reduce nuclear escalation. “Tensions, end the war, and end the death and destruction that afflicts your two nations. “
Gosar has long said that the war in Ukraine is not America’s fight, putting on his official online page that “spending $40 billion to fund the Ukrainian war apparatus is dead and will lead to more death and destruction. “He then falsely added: “The Zelensky regime is an autocratic dictatorship that was illegally installed by a coup in 2014. “
HERITAGE CLAPS BACK: NatSec Daily has the official battlefield in a war of words between the Heritage Foundation and the Pentagon.
Last week, the conservative think tank released an annual report that, for the first time, called the U. S. military a major issue. UU. de “weak” very partisan, written for dramatic effect and necessarily based on false demands,” adding that the memo is “stupid and dangerous. “
Well, TOM SPOEHR of Heritage, who runs its Center for National Defense, emailed Lara saying that “the real danger is that the American public and lawmakers don’t know the true readiness and capability of the U. S. military. “The U. S. Department of Health and Prevention regarding threats. Most of the knowledge in the index obtained from official documents and Pentagon statements.
Wondering what the Department of Defense will say in reaction to the response?
Retired Gen. GUSTAVE PERNA will serve as chief operating officer of DEFCON AI, a startup that will bring synthetic intelligence to defense logistics. Previously, Perna led Operation Warp Speed, the Covid vaccine delivery program and commander of the Army Materiel Command.
– RICH LOWRY, POLITICIAN: Humiliating retreat of progressives on Ukraine
– DAKOTA WOOD, 1945: Yes, the U. S. Army Is Weak
— ROBIN WRIGHT, The New Yorker: The New Generation of Iranian Protesters
— The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, nine a. m. : Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference (with Alex!)
— The Atlantic Council, 10 a. m. : “Will Putin’s invasion be nuclear?”
— Centre for Strategic and International Studies, 10 a. m. : Conversation with CHRIS INGLIS and ANNE NEUBERGER
Transition to a new concert adjacent to defense or foreign policy?Email me at [email protected] com to appear in the next edition of the newsletter.
Thanks to our editor, Heidi Vogt, who mistakenly believed that we would “govern properly” as guardians of this newsletter.
And we thank our producer, Kierra Frazier, who rules with an iron fist.
Many of today’s military systems and platforms have been designed to operate independently. With our vision of twenty-first century security, Lockheed Martin accelerates innovation, connecting defense and the virtual with the functionality of key platforms, equipping consumers to stay ahead of emerging threats. Learn more .