2008 China Military Power Report (PDF)

First of all, only Americans should be driving on American streets. And ultimately, only Americans should be living in America. But here we have foreign nationals who owe their allegiance to foreign countries driving weapons of mass destruction across the country. (Remember what they did with seemingly harmless passenger airplanes.)

Until the late 1980s, the KGB operated an extensive trucking network throughout Europe. With this network, the Soviets could smuggle just about anything anywhere on the continent. I worry that terrorist organizations could develop the same type of network in the United States. Already, there are well-organized transportation networks that shuttle illegal aliens and illegal drugs throughout the country. And then there are the semi-legitimate businesses, such as smaller moving companies, that use illegals to transport household effects across the nation. Similar networks could be used by terrorists to transport weapons of mass destruction to targets throughout the US.

Hopefully, the United States government will soon realize this great threat and get the foreigners off our roadways.

A Letter to the Editor From the Commanding General, Multi National Force - West

By Maj. Gen. John F. Kelly
Multi-National Forces - West

I have just had the privilege of returning to Iraq and more specifically to Al Anbar province for my third tour. I say privilege for a number of different reasons not the least of which is the opportunity to again serve with young Americans - the best of their generation - in combat. A second reason is there is no greater honor for any man or woman than to protect one's country in time of grave danger, while wearing the nation's cloth. Finally, I do not think there can be anything more gratifying on this earth for an American than to participate in the freeing of a people from the grip of a tyrant, then helping those same people realize the benefits of democracy. To actually exercise the God-given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I have been away for three years. What I have found in the week I have been back can only be described as shocking. When I was here last, dozens of improvised explosive devices detonated everyday in Al Anbar. Fire fights were as common as IEDs, and mortar and rocket attacks a nightly routine. The emirs of al-Qaida and other equally murderous groups predicted our imminent defeat as they pursued a sick form of extremism no rational man or woman here, or anyplace else, could fathom. Many in our own country for any number of reasons began to lose faith - but the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who fought our enemy to a standstill never doubted or waivered in their determination to win.

Several days ago I walked through the market section of Fallujah. It was bustling with Iraqis of all ages buying and selling products of every description. Adults waved, pressed forward to shake hands and many, like good businessmen everywhere, tried to make a sale. Kids swarmed around the Marines trying out the few English words they have learned in schools that are all now open. Parents no longer fear to send their boys and girls to learn, a practice that under the extremists was often a death sentence.

When I last visited that city, it was the most dangerous place on earth. It was a gunfight going in, and a gunfight coming out everyday. The majority of the city's population lived in stark terror from the most evil men on the planet. It was the same then in Ramadi, Hadithah, and all the way along the Euphrates River Valley to the Syrian border - but no longer. Like Fallujah, the schools are open, markets thrive, and post-war recovery gains momentum across Al Anbar. This war is not won, but is being won and today primarily by the Iraqis themselves. Al-Qaida is not defeated, but it is on the ropes. Its membership knows that if they are foolish enough to come out of the holes they hide in, they will not only meet tough young Americans standing firm and unafraid, but also Iraqi police and soldiers in vastly increased numbers and effectiveness. Iraq is still a dangerous place, but nothing like it was only a short time ago. We should see this thing through because it's the right thing to do, the American thing to do, and we have the new "Greatest Generation" in just enough numbers willing to give up the comfort of their homes and defend us all while spreading freedom to a people who have never known it. (2/11/2008)

"In 1992, Russia unilaterally ended flights by its strategic aircraft to distant military patrol areas. Unfortunately, our example was not followed by everyone," Mr Putin said, in an apparent reference to the US.

"Flights by other countries' strategic aircraft continue and this creates certain problems for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation," he said."

A side note: While in the Marines during the late 1980s I was on a Navy LHA operating near Vietnam when a Russian bomber flew directly over the flight deck at a height of about 500 feet. It was very dramatic and cool, and funny when many Sailors and Marines mooned the bomber.  Incidentally, even though the Soviets were operating out of Cam Ranh Bay at the time, the US had expressed interest to the Vietnamese government about leasing the base at Cam Rahn Bay, despite the debacle of the Vietnam War.

See: US Jets Intercept Russian Bear: Photo 1 | 2 | 3 

Republican Candidates Have a Small Worldview

During the last Repub debate, the candidates were asked about Putin. (McCain is already on record for saying he sees the letters KGB when he looks into Putin's eyes.) Huckabee wasn't very complimentary and Romney used the words authoritarian and oppressive when talking about Putin.

The candidates are basing their conclusions on a very US-centric viewpoint. Here in the States, democracy thrives for a number of reasons. Not all of these reasons are present in Russia and many other countries of the world. Russia, for example, sits in Europe and Asia and borders some of the most dangerous and populous countries in the world. Huge criminal organizations operate within her borders. And Russia doesn't have a tradition of democracy. Their past is known more for the "Tartar Yoke" than a Bill of Rights.

Putin, actually, is doing a masterfully delicate job at guiding Russia from communism to free market capitalism. It may not always be pretty, considering the Russian mafia organizations, the terrorists in Chechnya, the vestiges of communism and the like that Putin must contend with. Moreover, the Russian people, because of their history, may be more inclined to prefer stronger central authority. So lighten up on Putin. Russia needs stronger central authority at the present time as it continues to make the transition to freedom.

Bush and many others seem to believe that unless a country is totally democratic like ours, then it's not quite right. I say, so what even if it is true. We need Russia and many other countries as our friends more than we need them to be perfectly democratic. In fact, Russia should be one of our best buds. Like the US, Russia is fighting Islamic extremists. Russia is European. They are largely Caucasian, like the US (not Middle Eastern, Asian, etc.). The Russians are also largely Christian (Eastern Orthodox). We have many commonalities and many common enemies.

Remember the old days of the Soviet Empire? The Soviets were badasses. No one hijacked their planes. Their military was feared throughout the world, what with their SPETSNAZ, BMPs, AKs, T-72s, MiGs and ICBMs. We (in the US) can have what's left of these badasses on our side if we can cut Russia and Putin a little slack on the democracy thing.

The US should always promote democracy and help nations to achieve democracy. But ramming it down a country's throat is not productive, and it turns potential partners into adversaries.

Mexico Has an Illegal Alien Problem

It's sort of ironic. Many Mexicans aren't too happy about the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens arriving each year over the southern border from Central American countries, according to an interesting article in the February 2008 edition of National Geographic Magazine. Meanwhile, on the northern border, Mexico's drug war is heating up as thousands of heavily-armed federal troops take the fight to drug cartel members.

It's a shame that some of the Drug War and associated vices are spilling onto American soil, for the US has the resources to effectively shut down the border using troops and fences. But the US does comparatively little, though it's trying to do more. But more isn't good enough. Each year, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans enter the United States illegally. True, many of these illegals are hardworking and will gladly perform hardscrabble work that many Americans wouldn't even think about doing. However, many other illegals are bringing a host of vices to America, including illegal drugs, drug use and abuse, alcohol abuse, thievery, human smuggling, organized criminal activity and a drug war to name a few.

Walk the streets of Dallas, where I walk the streets as a letter carrier for the USPS, and you'll see firsthand the dangers these illegals bring to America. Walk through an illegal alien apartment complex and you'll probably smell marijuana. Walk through an illegal alien apartment complex and be careful not to step on broken beer bottles on a Saturday or Sunday morning after a night of loud, drunken, parking lot revelry. Walk the residential streets behind an illegal alien apartment complex and you'll see a row of for sale or for lease signs because the Americans are tired of having their homes broken into. Walk the halls of the local elementary school and you'll find 97 percent immigrant children being funded by 100 percent Americans. Walk the halls of the local middle school and you'll find gangs, pre-teen sex and drugs, including $2 cheese heroin which has killed more than 20 youths in the Dallas area in the last two years. And around the middle school you'll find a neighborhood brimming with Mexican graffiti. Better be finished with your walk before dark, though, because that's when the gunfire starts.

Drive the streets of Dallas, and you better be careful too. Dallas is awash with old pickup trucks and rusty vans driven by uninsured drunken Mexicans who never had a day of drivers ed in their life. (You better leave early for work in the morning, because there's always a traffic wreck on the freeway that involves an illegal.) But if you're cut off while driving, it's best to look the other way and go on about your business, because these people are illegal. They got to the States illegally, they were employed illegally, and they got their lawnmower for their landscaping business illegally. They use illegal drugs and drive illegally. And some of them illegally have a small-caliber handgun in the glove compartment. (I've seen it firsthand, up close and personal.) You don't want to become a part of their illegal, underground world.

Deliver their mail, and you'll see a host of unpaid medical bills from area public hospitals, and then you'll start to see how illegals are bankrupting city, county and state entities. And while these illegals are being paid with hundred dollar bills in their underground economy, Americans are paying hundreds if not thousands in extra taxes and insurance to fill the gap.

The damage has already been done to America. Literally, tens of millions of illegals have come to America during the last several decades, denigrating American society across the land. It would be great if we could deport every last illegal. But rounding up millions of illegals is just not doable, politically expedient, or morally acceptable. After all, Americans have profited handsomely from their toil and sweat, and we looked the other way as they lived, got married, had American citizen babies and took over entire neighborhoods and cities across the American Southwest. Plus, for the last seven years, illegals have been welcomed by a Spanish-speaking president who did something by doing nothing in allowing millions of illegals into the US. We're big free-market capitalists here at MNN, but even we see this inaction as a naked attempt to supply American Big Business with cheap labor and depressed wages while stoking the American economy with demand for new housing, etc. (For his looking-the-other way, Bush thinks these illegals will someday find their way to the Republican Party. Yeah, right!)

Instead of mass deportations, here at MNN we support troops on the border and an impenetrable wall from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean along the entire US/Mexican border. Once sealed, the United States should reluctantly give amnesty to every remaining otherwise non-criminal illegal in the land and present them with their "Welcome to America" gift - a taxpayer identification card!

New MNN Blog

The Military News Network Blog will highlight US Homeland Security issues and global military, war and conflict news. As for US Homeland Security, New York City remains the most likely location for a terrorist attack with a man-pack nuclear weapon. And the US southern border remains vulnerable to mass illegal immigration and Drug War violence. For military, war, and conflict matters, we will be highlighting interesting related information and providing commentary where appropriate. From time to time we may also comment on the US political process. Your feedback is welcome and a comments link will be provided below each entry for your feedback.