Archive
Pentagon Advances Global Interceptor Missile System
Missile Defense Agency
May 16, 2013
Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System Completes Successful Intercept Flight Test
====
This test exercised the latest version of the second-generation Aegis BMD Weapon System and Standard Missile, providing capability for engagement of longer-range and more sophisticated ballistic missiles.
Other Aegis BMD intercepts have employed the ABMD 3.6 and 4.0 with the SM-3 Block IA missile, which is currently operational on U.S. Navy ships deployed across the globe.
====
Standard Missile-3 Block IB launch
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and U.S. Navy sailors aboard the USS LAKE ERIE (CG-70) successfully conducted a flight test today of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system, resulting in the intercept of a separating ballistic missile target over the Pacific Ocean by the Aegis BMD 4.0 Weapon System and a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IB missile.
At 5:25 p.m. (Hawaii Time, 11:25 p.m. EDT), May 15, a separating short-range ballistic missile target was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, on Kauai, Hawaii. The target flew northwest towards a broad ocean area of the Pacific Ocean. Following target launch, the USS LAKE ERIE (CG-70) detected and tracked the missile with its onboard AN/SPY-1 radar. The ship, equipped with the second-generation Aegis BMD weapon system, developed a fire control solution and launched the SM-3 Block IB missile. The SM-3 maneuvered to a point in space based on guidance from Aegis BMD Weapons Systems and released its kinetic warhead. The kinetic warhead acquired the target reentry vehicle, diverted into its path, and, using only the force of a direct impact, engaged and destroyed the target.
Initial indications are that all components performed as designed. Program officials will assess and evaluate system performance based upon telemetry and other data obtained during the test.
This test exercised the latest version of the second-generation Aegis BMD Weapon System and Standard Missile, providing capability for engagement of longer-range and more sophisticated ballistic missiles.
Last night’s event, designated Flight Test Standard Missile-19 (FTM-19), was the third consecutive successful intercept test of the Aegis BMD 4.0 Weapon System and the SM-3 Block IB guided missile. Previous successful ABMD 4.0 SM-3 Block IB intercepts occurred on May 9, 2012 and June 26, 2012. Other Aegis BMD intercepts have employed the ABMD 3.6 and 4.0 with the SM-3 Block IA missile, which is currently operational on U.S. Navy ships deployed across the globe.
FTM-19 is the 25th successful intercept in 31 flight test attempts for the Aegis BMD program since flight testing began in 2002. Across all Ballistic Missile Defense System programs, this is the 59th successful hit-to-kill intercept in 74 flight tests since 2001.
Aegis BMD is the naval component of the MDA’s Ballistic Missile Defense System. The Aegis BMD engagement capability defeats short- to intermediate-range, unitary and separating, midcourse-phase ballistic missile threats with the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3), as well as short-range ballistic missiles in the terminal phase with the SM-2 Block IV missile. The MDA and the U.S. Navy cooperatively manage the Aegis BMD program.
Anatole France and Michel Corday: War is a crime, for which victory brings no atonement
====
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Anatole France: Selections on war
Michel Corday: Selections from The Paris Front
====
Michel Corday
From Under the Rose (1926)
Translated by J. Lewis May
“War is a crime, for which victory brings no atonement.”
“Man is not more intelligent to-day than he was of old…He has more industry, not more brains. He makes war with more devices, but not with more intelligence, than the savage.”
“It is a certain fact that men will continue to be cruel and blood-thirsty so long as they go on eating the flesh of animals. Killing animals and killing men – there is but a step betwixt the two.”
***
It was toward the end of 1919 that Anatole France conceived the idea of writing a novel to be entitled The Cyclops – a tragi-comic satire on mankind after the style of The Revolt of the Angels and Penguin Island…
“How comes it that they find a Cyclops in Trinacria, just as in the fabulous times? The explanation is that the Cyclopes, who had disappeared before civilization, reappear now that war has plunged the world back into barbarism.”
In November of that same year [1921] he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature; and on that occasion he was interviewed by certain journalists to whom he made known his intention to write a book against war.
***
The last time he put in an appearance at the Academy, a certain Marshal told him he read, admired and loved his work, and then added: “You’ll never be so anti-militarist as I am, for, you see, I know what military people are.”
***
Later generations must know the unparalleled violence, the savage hatred and envy, the mad injustice with which the writings and the memory of Anatole France were assailed as soon as he had breathed his last…Truly it is a tremendous piece of irony that the war, the war which Anatole France so bitterly hated, should have loaded his memory with this missing link in the chain of monsters – the unadulterated cad.
Audio And Text: European Guantanamo Or Why The U.S. Wants Serbia To Give Up Kosovo
Voice of Russia
May 17, 2013
European Guantanamo or the reason the US wants Serbia to give up Kosovo
Aerial view of Camp Bondsteel
The U.S. military base in Kosovo was constructed in 1999 without consulting with the government of Serbia and is the largest U.S. military base built outside of the U.S. since the Vietnam War. The site was apparently used for extraordinary renditions and has been referred to as a “little Guantanamo”. This is a very little known fact as NATO, the U.S., the European Union and the West are in the process of forcing Serbia to effectively give up Kosovo, and indicates the real motive for the West’s support of the Kosovo Liberation Army which it had deemed a terrorist organization in the past.
Rick Rozoff, the owner and manager of Stop NATO spoke about this and more in an interview with the Voice of Russia.
Hello! This is John Robles, I’m speaking with Rick Rozoff, the owner of the stop NATO website and international mailing list.
Robles: Hello Rick. How are you?
Rozoff: Very good John. Thanks for having me on.
Robles: It’s a pleasure to be speaking with you. How much importance would you give to the 200 US-NATO troops being stationed in Italy? And why US-NATO troops? These troops are being stationed for possible operations in Libya. How do you think that reflects on the operations to remove Muammar Gaddafi by the US?
Rozoff: It’s a continuation of that policy, of course. And as it is now, you know, two years ago and two months, 26 months ago that the military campaign against Libya was launched, initially, as we have to recall, by US Africa Command (AFRICOM) that began it for the first 19 days and then it was taken up by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for six months thereafter. And this was meant to signal and meant in fact to be the first activation of AFRICOM as a war-fighting force on the African continent, and also NATO’s first open military incursion into Africa and certainly not the last. This was meant to be an opening salvo and not an isolated incident.
What is significant about the impending deployment of what is minimally, and I think we should emphasize, 200 US Marines, and some reports estimate up to 500, these are members of what the US Marine Corps refers to as the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force that only recently was moved into Spain, and then it is being transitioned from Spain into Italy for use in North Africa. So, I think we can see the push to the south and the east, to employ State Department slogan or expression of few years ago, where the US is going to deploy very shortly four guided missile cruisers to the Naval Station Rota in Spain, a Marine expeditionary strike force, really, of the sort we are talking about going to the Sigonella base in Sicily.
This is the same base that the US has another Marine Corps detachment already deployed to. And this is actually a separate one that has already been assigned to the same naval station Sigonella. We should also recall that in the beginning of this year, in January, the governor of Sicily put a stop to plans that the US had for putting a satellite surveillance facility in Sicily, on the island.
You know, big plans are afoot and the US was going to move in something called the Mobile User Objective System, global satellite facility, to Sicily. That seems to have been stopped but troops are coming in, with the avowed purpose, John, of intervening in Libya – Benghazi or elsewhere – as the U.S. sees fit.
Robles: What exactly is that system that you just mentioned?
Rozoff: The photographs I’ve seen of it suggest that it truly is mobile, I mean it is something comparable to some of the Patriot Advanced Capability missile systems that the US has put in Poland and Turkey and Israel. It is described as being a satellite communication system. I’m not sure what precisely it was meant to monitor in Sicily, but I would guess the entire Mediterranean Sea, perhaps most notably part of the eastern Mediterranean. But as to the precise range and purpose of the missile system, I’m not familiar with that.
Robles: I see. So, this is some new technology?
Rozoff: Yes. There are similar ones, that are called Mobile User Objective Systems, deployed in Australia, as well as in the US states of Hawaii and Virginia. But I’m not sure how they are integrated with other military capabilities.
Robles: What else has happened with NATO in the last month that you think our listeners should know about?
Rozoff: They’ve had a series of meetings of foreign ministers, of chiefs of defense staff and others in recent months. The focus, according to NATO of course, is wrapping up the Afghan mission which I don’t think will ever be definitively finished. But the drawing down or the eventual phased withdrawal from Afghanistan, the continuation of the operation in Kosovo, the Serbian province (the province wrenched from Serbia), and continued naval operations in the Mediterranean Sea, what is called Operation Active Endeavour, and ongoing, presumably permanent, naval operations in the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, so-called Operation Ocean Shield.
So, NATO is still in ways that we have discussed on many an occasion in the past continuing permanent military operations way outside the area of the North Atlantic Ocean, ultimately globally. Nothing outstanding in any particular regard but the continuation of these policies.
Robles: How many bases was NATO going to leave in Afghanistan? And what can you tell us about Kosovo, can you give us some details on that as well?
Rozoff: The statement about the US maintaining military bases in Afghanistan after the complete withdrawal of US-NATO troops, well, we can’t say complete – I mean there are estimates that as many as 14,000 US NATO troops will stay in the country – but after the bulk, at one time 152,000 US and other NATO troops, in Afghanistan are withdrawn, according to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan the US has clearly indicated to him, I think the word “demanded” would not be too strong a word, that the US or the Pentagon wants to maintain nine military bases inside the country. And they are situated in the north, south, east and west, and that is near the borders of the former Soviet Central Asian republics, but also Iran and Pakistan, and in some cases not terribly far from the narrow strip of land that connects Afghanistan to China.
And they include of course the major, arguably, at any point in future, strategic air bases like Bagram and Kandahar and Shindand and elsewhere in the country. As we’ve talked about on many occasions, I think any sensible person has figured out that the US and its Western allies don’t intend to vacate the South-Central Asian region in the imminent future, if at all.
Robles: You just mentioned Karzai. I was just reminded about his recent revelation that he’d been receiving garbage bags full of money from the CIA for over a decade. Can you comment on that as far as NATO goes? And regarding US-NATO troops, do you think there is any specific reason why only US-NATO troops are going to be staying in Afghanistan?
Rozoff: Let me start with the second one first because I think it is the easiest. The facts are fairly incontestable, It is not going to be only US troops. The US will maintain nine military bases evidently, that’s what it intends to do. But NATO itself is transitioning from what is currently known as the International Security Assistance Force, initially it was presented, if you can believe this, under the rubric of a peacekeeping force in the early part of this century, and it quickly devolved into a warfighting force and to a combat force. And once that mission, ISAF (International Security Assistance Force), is finished, then NATO will continue in Afghanistan training the Afghan National Army and other security personnel basically to be a Western proxy army in the South-Central Asian region. That’s the easy part.
The question about Mr. Karzai being lavished with a good deal of American largesse, that shouldn’t surprise anybody. It is to be assumed, I suppose, that the US buys off foreign leaders, certainly those it’s implanted in power, like Mr. Karzai, who is not a foreigner, is not an alien to American shores. One of his brothers for example ran, for years, a restaurant pretty much in my neighborhood here in Chicago. And the family, I’m sure, already has mansions set up in this country to flee to when they have to and to take as much of the CIA cash as they can with them back home – repatriate it if you will.
Robles: You mentioned Kosovo a few minutes ago. You said that NATO had met regarding Kosovo and KFOR. Anything new there?
Rozoff: The US and its Western allies, in the latter case I’m talking about people in Brussels whether they are wearing the European Union or the NATO hat, it doesn’t seem to matter much, but I’m sure they employed all their typical subversive powers of persuasion, if you will, to convince the coalition government in Belgrade, in Serbia, to acknowledge the independence of Kosovo, if not formally, practically. And NATO has pretty substantially withdrawn its troops in Kosovo because they turned the province over to their proxy forces there, the former leaders of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, whose leaders are heading up the Kosovo Security Force, which is a fledgling army being trained by NATO.
So, once the country is turned over to surrogates, the NATO troops can clear out and go on to the next war zone which is effectively what happened since 1999. At one point, in June of 1999, there were 50,000 troops in Kosovo under NATO command or under KFOR, the Kosovo Force. And that number has dwindled down to perhaps a tenth of that right now. But the US still maintains Camp Bondsteel and Camp Monteith. The first, Camp Bondsteel, is reputedly the largest overseas U.S. military base built since the war in Vietnam. And there is no indication that it intends to vacate that base. As to what it is doing with it, that’s a question worth pursuing.
Vice President Joseph Biden at Camp Bondsteel in 2009
Robles: Where is that base?
Rozoff: In Kosovo.
Robles: And you say that’s the largest foreign base that the U.S. has?
Rozoff: What I’ve read and, given the acreage, the size of the base, it seems to be the case. It is the largest base that the U.S. has built overseas since the war in Vietnam. Since the 1960s.
Robles: And that’s in Kosovo?
Rozoff: That’s in Kosovo. It was constructed in 1999, I think it was with Kellogg, Brown & Root, that built bases almost everywhere else. It’s in Kosovo and it is a fairly mammoth complex. Camp Monteith is a sister base considerably smaller than Bondsteel. But Bondsteel, which is by the way named after a US serviceman who was killed in Vietnam, there’s been speculation that Camp Bondsteel could have been used for extraordinary renditions during the so-called global war on terrorism.
There’s also been discussion from the sources in Russia amongst other places that should the US want to deploy strategic resources in Camp Bondsteel. And by that we mean either interceptor missiles or perhaps even nuclear weapons. Who would be the wiser and who in the inner circle of Hashim Thaci in Pristina would say “no”.
Robles: When was this base built?
Rozoff: In 1999 it was constructed and it’s been operating ever since. So, you are talking about 14 years now. And there is no indication, you know, unless you accept the US and NATO line – matters have been stabilized in Kosovo and they are going to step down troops, again, which I think they have I think about 90% of the initial deployment, amount of troops rather, 50,000 troops have been withdrawn but Camp Bondsteel – is still there. It is in the eastern part of Kosovo. And in addition to being a US military base it is also NATO headquarters for what’s called Multinational Brigade East.
I am looking at the exact size of the place: it is 955 acres. That’s pretty sizeable. And it was built on Serbian land without consulting with the government of Serbia. I guess the KLA official in Pristina rubber stamped it. By August of 1999, two months after the US and other NATO troops came into Kosovo, the construction of the base was pretty much under way. Apparently 52 helipads were constructed and shortly thereafter franchise restaurants were added.
Robles: Right there at the beginning, was it like that it was already constructed as if it would be a permanent fixture?
Rozoff: By all indications exactly that. I cannot see what the motivation would be to build something that large which is still operative to this day…
Robles: You said they had “franchise restaurants” and things like that in there?
Rozoff: I’m looking at it on the computer now. You know, Burger King, Taco Bell and so forth built in there. Gymnasiums, health clubs. It is a whole city practically. And evidently, somebody with the Council of Europe, Álvaro Gil-Robles (There’s a name for you, John!), human rights envoy to the Council of Europe, referred to Camp Bondsteel in 2005, and this is a quote, as a “smaller version of Guantanamo” after visiting the facility. So, evidently the US did use it for extraordinary renditions, and so-called black operations or black sites.
Robles: So, that would give us a very, very, very clear and undisputable reason why the West is so interested in guaranteeing the independence of Kosovo.
Rozoff: Right. And that was the statement made by many of us who opposed the war against Yugoslavia in 1999. When the US constructed that base, it was almost began immediately after NATO coming into Kosovo, that it was ex post facto proof that the US had military designs in the region and that the war against Yugoslavia was simply an opportunity to expand its military into the region.
Robles: I see.
Rozoff: Which in fact is what has ensued.
You were listening to an interview in progress with Rick Rozoff the owner and manager of the stop NATO website and mailing list.
You can find part 2 on our website at english.ruvr.ru
Pentagon Shepherding Bosnia Into NATO
United States European Command
May 17, 2013
Firm support for NATO and EU integration efforts
NATO HQ Sarajevo: BiH Minister of Defence Zekerijah Osmić paid a visit to the Pentagon where he met with US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel, Fena reported. Osmić noted that a way out of the current impasse in the NATO integration process, meeting the MAP condition, ensuring the continuation of reforms, strengthening of AFBiH demining and civil support operation capabilities, and further participation in international peace support operations, particularly the ISAF mission, are immediate BiH MoD and AFBiH priorities.
US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel congratulated Bosnia for its deployment of an AFBiH Military Police unit to the ISAF mission where they are now contributing to NATO’s efforts [in]Afghanistan.
He also noted the importance of BiH and Maryland’s cooperation that, within their State Partnership, celebrates its 10th anniversary. Secretary Hagel reiterated the United States’ commitment to Bosnia’s progress toward NATO and EU integration, fulfilling the requirement for the activation of the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP), further logistics reform, and the continuation of the overall reform process in the BiH defence establishment.
The meeting was also attended by Jadranka Negodić, BiH Ambassador to the US; Major General Anto Jeleč, acting AFBiH Chief of Staff; Brigadier General Dragan Vuković, acting Commander of the AFBiH Operational Command; Zoran Šajinović, Assistant Minister of Defence for International Cooperation; and LTC Božo Skopljaković, BiH Defence Attaché to the US.
On behalf of the US Department of Defence and Armed Forces, the meeting was also attended by Admiral James Winnefeld, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; James Miller, Under Secretary of Defence for Policy; Derek Chollet, Assistant Secretary of Defence, Evelyn Farkas, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence; and Colonel Scott Miller, US Defence Attaché to BiH, reads a BiH MoD press release.
Henri Barbusse: Jesus on the battlefield
====
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Henri Barbusse: Selections on war
====
Henri Barbusse
From Light (1918)
Translated by Fitzwater Wray
I had seen Jesus Christ on the margin of the lake. He came like an ordinary man along the path. There is no halo round his head. He is only disclosed by his pallor and his gentleness. Planes of light draw near and mass themselves and fade away around him. He shines in the sky, as he shone on the water. As they have told of him, his beard and hair are the color of wine. He looks upon the immense stain made by Christians on the world, a stain confused and dark, whose edge alone, down on His bare feet, has human shape and crimson color. In the middle of it are anthems and burnt sacrifices, files of hooded cloaks, and of torturers, armed with battle-axes, halberds and bayonets; and among long clouds and thickets of armies, the opposing clash of two crosses which have not quite the same shape. Close to him, too, on a canvas wall, again I see the cross that bleeds. There are populations, too, tearing themselves in twain that they may tear themselves the better; there is the ceremonious alliance, “turning the needy out of the way,” of those who wear three crowns and those who wear one; and, whispering in the ear of Kings, there are gray-haired Eminences, and cunning monks, whose hue is of darkness.
I saw the man of light and simplicity bow his head; and I feel his wonderful voice saying:
“I did not deserve the evil they have done unto me.”
Robbed reformer, he is a witness of his name’s ferocious glory. The greed-impassioned money-changers have long since chased Him from the temple in their turn, and put the priests in his place. He is crucified on every crucifix.
Yonder among the fields are churches, demolished by war; and already men are coming with mattock and masonry to raise the walls again. The ray of his outstretched arm shines in space, and his clear voice says:
“Build not the churches again. They are not what you think they were. Build them not again.”
******
There is no remedy but in them whom peace sentences to hard labor, and whom war sentences to death. There is no redress except among the poor.
Interview: Pentagon Plans to Penetrate Africa
Press TV
May 16, 2013
‘US plans to militarily penetrate Africa’
The U.S. is preparing “to militarily penetrate the African continent” by building up its military resources within the Mediterranean Sea, says Rick Rozoff, manager of the Stop NATO organization.
On Wednesday, Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino announced that the U.S. was transferring 200 marines and two planes to its base at Sigonella in Sicily to deploy in Libya if U.S. diplomats come under attack as they did on Sep. 11, 2012.
The U.S. is also deploying four guided missile destroyers to Naval Station Rota in Spain which is the Atlantic gateway into the Mediterranean and one of the most important shipping corridors in the world.
The destroyers include three from Norfolk, Virginia; USS Ross, USS Donald Cook, and USS Porter, and one from Mayport, Florida, USS Carney. Ross and Donald Cook will arrive in fiscal 2014 and Carney and Porter in fiscal 2015.
“The U.S. is positioning itself for a military intervention inside Libya by building military forces in Sicily,” said Rozoff in a phone interview with the U.S. Desk on Thursday.
“Potentially, other interventions in Northern Africa and even the Sahel region could be staged.”
According to Global Research, the U.S.’s intervention in Africa is driven by America’s desire to secure valuable natural resources and political influence that will ensure the longevity of America’s capitalist system.
U.S. And Polish Warplanes Practice Against Russian Models
United States European Command
May 16, 2013
115th FW Airmen train with Polish air force
Tech. Sgt. Kenya Shiloh 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
====
Polish air force Col. Krystian Zięƈ, 32nd Tactical Air Base commander, said this is a unique opportunity for the United States and Poland to strengthen interoperability as NATO allies…”If we need a huge coalition going somewhere to make peace. we’re going to have some good quality aircraft,” he said.
Training opportunities like these were made possible after former Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich signed a memorandum of understanding allowing the establishment of a U.S. Air Force aviation detachment in Poland.
The next fighter rotation is scheduled to take place in July were an F-16 flying from Aviano Air Base, Italy, will travel to Poland to conduct air-to-ground training with their Polish counterparts.
====
U.S. and Polish F-16 Fighting Falcons
Nearly 100 Airmen assigned to the 115th Fighter Wing, Wisconsin Air National Guard, arrived at Lask Air Base, Poland, to train in a joint theater security cooperation event with the Polish air force.
This event, hosted by the U.S. Aviation Detachment 1, is geared toward enhancing the skills of U.S. and Polish F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter aircraft pilots as they conduct simulated air combat scenarios with other aircraft to include MiG-29s and Su-22s.
“We brought six F-16s here to work on a partnership-building opportunity with the Polish air force,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Brian Parker, 176th Fighter Squadron commander assigned to the 115th FW.
“We’re doing things like air combat maneuvers, basic fighter maneuvers and tactical intercepts,” Parker said. “It’s a building block approach so we’ll start out with the basics and increase the tactics as we go through the two weeks; and then we’ll go to doing individual ranges sets where we can see each other – kind of ‘dog fighting.’”
Operations, maintenance and support Airmen were able to start flying training sorties shortly after arriving thanks to the enduring presence of the 10 members of the 52nd Operations Group’s Aviation Detachment 1 already in place before 115th FW’s arrival.
“We have everything we need,” Parker said. “The support structure is completely in place. Having an aviation detachment here that helps with the long term [coordination] of rotating fighter units like ours through here is set up to have a seamless operation…we were able to start flying operations from day one flawlessly.”
…
Polish air force Col. Krystian Zięƈ, 32nd Tactical Air Base commander, said this is a unique opportunity for the United States and Poland to strengthen interoperability as NATO allies.
“Frankly speaking, the U.S. Air Force, as far as I’m concerned, is the best air force in the world,” said Zięƈ. “If we have the opportunity to fly and train, we want to do that with the best.”
Zięƈ said building a partnership capacity with countries like Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia will make forces stronger.
“If we need a huge coalition going somewhere to make peace. we’re going to have some good quality aircraft,” he said. “Therefore, what we do here is important, because we are bringing the quality to a higher level.”
This joint training event sets a milestone for the aviation detachment given that it’s the first fighter rotation for the unit and the second rotation so far this year. The first unit to train here under the Av-Det was a C-130J Super Hercules cargo aircraft unit based out of Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Training opportunities like these were made possible after former Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich signed a memorandum of understanding allowing the establishment of a U.S. Air Force aviation detachment in Poland.
“This is different from our first rotation from the standpoint that instead of an airlift asset, we have brought in a fighter asset to train with the Polish air force,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Matthew Spears, Av-Det commander. “What we want to do is lay the foundation with one of our staunchest allies. We’ve trained together and we’re now prepared to fight together. It’s this type of training that takes place, having Airmen on the ground interacting day-in-and-day-out that really strengthens that partnership.”
The next fighter rotation is scheduled to take place in July were an F-16 flying from Aviano Air Base, Italy, will travel to Poland to conduct air-to-ground training with their Polish counterparts.
Romain Rolland: The enormous iniquity, the ignoble calculations of war
====
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Romain Rolland: Selections on war
====
Romain Rolland
From Mother and Son (1926)
Translated by Van Wyck Brooks
A ball had gone through his temples, from one side to the other. He had been left for two days, blind, on the battle-field. Slowly the sight had seemed to come back. And then it waned again. It had gone out for good and all. Losing it, he had lost everything. He was a painter. It was his joy and his livelihood. And he was not sure that even his brain was not affected. He was living in torture.
But this was nothing. In his night, he wept, without tears, sweating blood. He had nothing left. Everything had been taken away from him. He had gone into the war without any feeling of hatred, through love for his own people, for humanity, for the world, for sacred ideas. He was going to put an end to war. He was going to free humanity from it. Even his enemies. He had dreamed of bringing them liberty. He had given everything. He had lost everything. The world had made sport of him. He had seen too late the enormous iniquity, the ignoble calculations of those who played at politics – in which he had been a mere pawn on the chess-board. He had ceased to believe in anything. He had been tricked. And he lay there, broken, with no desire even to revolt…To sink down swiftly as possible into the quicksand, where one ceased to exist, where one no longer remembered that one had existed – at the bottom of the abyss of eternal oblivion!
***
“It’s strange! Before the war neither of us was a pacifist.”
“Don’t utter that word!” said Annette.
“True enough. They have dishonored it. Those who used to have it in their mouths have denied it.
“If they had only the frankness to deny it! But they have been false to it, they simply go on dressing themselves up in it.”
“Let them keep it,” said Marc. “But we, who disown the war, did not use to be against it. I remember it made me very happy when it began. And you accepted it. What has changed us?”
“The baseness of it, said Annette.
“Its falseness,” said Marc.
“When I see,” said Annette, “that contempt for the weak, for the unarmed, for prisoners, for human suffering, for sacred sentiments, that exploitation of the basest instincts, that oppression of consciences, that cowardice in the face of public opinion, those sheep who are painted as heroes and become so in their very sheepishness, those good people who are driven to killing that feeble mass which does not know itself and allows itself to be led by a handful of misled men – my heart sickens with shame and misery.”
“When I see,” said Marc, “this ignoble war that hides its snout, this troop of masqueraders, these merry-andrews of a rapacious Right who, behind their backs, pick the pockets of the world, this atrocious slavery that imagines it is fooling us by gargling its throat with that empty word Liberty, that hypocritical heroism – I laugh in all their faces!”
Sweden: “It looks like NATO proponents have advanced their positions”
The Local
May 16, 2013
More Swedes in favour of joining Nato: poll
The number of Swedes who support joining Nato has gone up by 9 percentage points since 2011, a new opinion poll has revealed
The Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper reported on Thursday that support for potential membership of the military alliance has increased.
Thirty-two percent of survey respondents stated that they were in favour of Sweden joining Nato. Two years ago, that number was 23 percent.
The proportion of Swedes who firmly want to stay out of Nato has gone down in the same period. The new poll showed that two in five Swedes say no to joining, down from 2011 when half of Swedes had the same attitude.
“It looks like Nato proponents have advanced their positions,” political scientist Ulf Bjereld told SvD.
He said that debate in recent months about Sweden’s military capacity had likely stirred Swedes’ thoughts about Nato. The Armed Forces’ ability to defend Sweden if it came under attack has been under scrutiny since Supreme Commander Sverker Göransson in January said Sweden could hold out for maximum one week.
The poll also looked at feelings towards Nato within Sweden’s different political parties. It found that one in four Social Democrats supported membership, while as many as one in two Moderate Party supporters wanted to join.
While the Moderates are officially in favour of joining, it’s the party’s coalition ally the Liberals (Folkpartiet) that has at times lobbied for membership and made it a talking point on the political agenda.
Bjereld noted that the principle of non-alliance and neutrality had long been a cornerstone of Swedish national identity.
“To join a military alliance would be a big psychological step for many Swedes, and I also think there is significant concern that Swedes would risk being pulled into warfare against its will,” Bjereld said.
Pentagon’s Strategic Command Developing Space War NATO
U.S. Department of Defense
American Forces Press Service
May 14, 2013
Stratcom Strives to Build Coalitions for Space Operations
By Donna Miles
====
“Our intent with combined space operations is to mirror some of the partnerships we have in other mission areas that are long-term and enduring.”
Space is vital to military operations, providing an array of capabilities that give space-faring nations’ forces a military advantage…
====
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. – Recognizing the value of multinational coalitions for operations in the land, maritime and air domains, officials at U.S. Strategic Command here hope to forge a coalition that shares assets and capabilities in space.
The United States and its allies are discussing details for the first agreement of its kind promoting combined space operations, Air Force Brig. Gen. David D. Thompson, Stratcom’s deputy director of global operations, told American Forces Press Service.
The agreement could spell out specific areas in which the participating nations will work together, and what each will contribute to those efforts, Thompson said.
The agreement will formalize an arrangement tested last year during a period [of?] discovery. Based on the findings, the U.S. and its allies agreed in September to continue working toward closer combined space operations.
Thompson said he hopes the agreement will be the first step in forging international military-to-military cooperation in space that is essential to all. The Stratcom staff already is promoting the concept with what is hoped to be the next wave of nations to join the coalition.
“Our intent with combined space operations is to mirror some of the partnerships we have in other mission areas that are long-term and enduring,” Thompson said.
Space is vital to military operations, providing an array of capabilities that give space-faring nations’ forces a military advantage, he said. These include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities that enhance warfighters’ situational awareness, space-based communications that provide them instant, global communications, and global positioning systems that deliver highly accurate navigation and targeting positions.
“This gives them an awareness and understanding that enhances their capabilities to conduct operations the way no other armed forces can today,” Thompson said. “That’s why it’s vitally important to our military forces.”
However, as more nations, organizations and commercial companies vie to take advantage of space-based capabilities, the once-pristine space domain is becoming increasingly congested and competitive, Thompson said.
And of particular concern to military leaders, space is an increasingly contested domain, with potential adversaries hoping to level the playing field by denying access to space and space-based capabilities, he said. The response, Thompson said, must be the same unity in numbers that has proven itself out in every other domain. Coalitions provide more capability than any one nation can provide alone…
Unlike recent coalitions, formed for specific periods to accomplish specific objectives, Thompson said he hopes those formed for operations in space endure.
…
“Joining together in a coalition is a statement of assurance that each nation is committed to effective, mutually supportive conduct of operations in space,” he said. “We are united in a coalition sense when it comes to operations in space and providing those capabilities for each nation.”
