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Quick Analysis

2019 Terrorism Report

The U.S. State Department has released its 2019 “Country Reports on Terrorism” .  Ambassador Nathan A. Sales, Coordinator for Counterterrorism, provides this summary:

The United States and its partners made major strides to defeat and degrade international terrorist organizations in 2018. Together, we liberated nearly all the territory ISIS previously held in Syria and Iraq, freeing 110,000 square kilometers and roughly 7.7 million men, women, and children from ISIS’s brutal rule. These successes set the stage for the final destruction of the so-called “caliphate” in 2019. At the same time, the United States and its partners continued to pursue al-Qa’ida (AQ) globally, and the United States applied maximum pressure on Iran-backed terrorism, significantly expanding sanctions on Iranian state actors and proxies and building stronger international political will to counter those threats.

Despite these successes, the terrorist landscape remained complex in 2018. Even as ISIS lost almost all its physical territory, the group proved its ability to adapt, especially through its efforts to inspire or direct followers online. Over the last year, ISIS’s global presence evolved with affiliates and networks conducting attacks in the Middle East, South and East Asia, and Africa. Additionally, battle-hardened terrorists headed home from the war zone in Syria and Iraq or traveled to third countries, posing new dangers. Hundreds of ISIS fighters were captured and detained by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a partner non-state actor. The United States led by example in repatriating and prosecuting American foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs), and we pressed other countries to do the same. Meanwhile, homegrown terrorists, inspired by ISIS ideology, planned and executed attacks against soft targets, including hotels, restaurants, stadiums, and other public spaces. The December 2018 shooting at a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, which killed three people and wounded 12, demonstrated the ability of homegrown terrorists to strike in the heart of Western Europe.

Iran remains the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. The regime has spent nearly one billion dollars per year to support terrorist groups that serve as its proxies and expand its malign influence across the globe. Tehran has funded international terrorist groups such as Hizballah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It also has engaged in its own terrorist plotting around the world, particularly in Europe. In January, German authorities investigated 10 suspected Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force operatives. In the summer, authorities in Belgium, France, and Germany thwarted an Iranian plot to bomb a political rally near Paris, France. In October, an Iranian operative was arrested for planning an assassination in Denmark, and in December, Albania expelled two Iranian officials for plotting terrorist attacks. Furthermore, Tehran continued to allow an AQ facilitation network to operate in Iran, which sends fighters and money to conflict zones in Afghanistan and Syria, and it has extended sanctuary to AQ members residing in the country.

AQ and its regional affiliates remain resilient and pose an enduring threat to the United States, our allies and partners, and our interests around the world. Given ISIS’s setbacks, AQ aims to reestablish itself as the vanguard of the global jihadist movement. Despite our sustained efforts since September 11, 2001, and the group’s leadership losses, AQ’s regional affiliates continue to expand their ranks, plot, and carry out attacks, as well as raise funds and inspire new recruits through social media and virtual technologies. AQ’s global network includes remnants of the group’s leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan, al-Nusrah Front in Syria, other AQ-linked extremists in Syria, AQ in the Arabian Peninsula, AQ in the Islamic Maghreb, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, al-Shabaab, and AQ in the Indian Subcontinent.

Regionally focused terrorist groups also remained a threat in 2018. For example, Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba – which was responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks – and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) maintained the capability and intent to attack Indian and Afghan targets. In February, operatives reportedly affiliated with JeM attacked an Indian army camp at Sunjuwan, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, killing seven. Elsewhere in South Asia, the Taliban and the Haqqani network (HQN) continued to launch lethal attacks throughout Afghanistan, including against U.S. military personnel. In one of its deadliest attacks to date, HQN – an affiliate of the Taliban – killed more than 100 people after detonating an explosives-laden ambulance in Kabul in January, a week after the Taliban conducted an attack on a Kabul hotel that killed 22. The Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan also continued to carry out attacks in 2018, including a March suicide bombing that targeted a checkpoint on the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan, resulting in the deaths of four police officers and two civilians. Israel continued to face terrorist threats from Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza. In 2018, Hamas and other Gaza-based groups launched more than 750 rockets and mortar shells toward Israel.

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Terrorist tactics and use of technologies evolved throughout 2018. For example, the increased use of commercially available drones and encrypted communications, as well as low-tech vehicle and knife attacks, presented additional challenges for the international counterterrorism community. Moreover, terrorists remained intent on attacking civil aviation, though there were no successful such attacks in 2018.

In October, the White House released the National Strategy for Counterterrorism, the United States’ first counterterrorism strategy since 2011. The strategy emphasizes the need to counter the full spectrum of terrorist threats we face, including ISIS, AQ, and Iran-backed groups, as well as regional terrorist organizations. It also highlights the need for a whole-of-government approach to counterterrorism – one that relies on both civilian and military tools to address near- and long-term terrorist threats. Our strategy places a premium on dismantling terrorist organizations using a wide range of diplomatic, law enforcement, military, intelligence, financial, and other tools. It also calls on our foreign partners to assume a greater share of the burden. In 2018, the United States used this whole-of-government approach to mobilize international responses to counter the most dangerous transnational terrorist organizations.

Throughout the year, we continued our efforts to combat terrorist financing. The Department of State completed 51 designation actions against terrorist groups and individuals, and the Department of the Treasury completed 157 terrorism designations. These actions were critical steps in cutting off the flow of resources that might be used to commit terrorist attacks.

Restricting terrorist travel remained a top priority. The United States played a leading role in helping states implement key measures in UN Security Council Resolution 2396 aimed at countering terrorist travel, including border security and information sharing measures. The United States signed three new arrangements to share terrorist watchlists under Homeland Security Presidential Directive 6, bringing the total number of partner countries to 72. The Personal Identification Secure Comparison and Evaluation System (PISCES) border security platform grew to include 227 ports of entry in 23 countries, and our partners use it to screen more than 300,000 travelers each day. In December, the United States launched an initiative at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to adopt a standard for passenger name record data – a key screening tool that the United States has used for decades and that UN Security Council Resolution 2396 made mandatory for all UN members – by the end of 2019.

The United States continued to play a major role in building our partners’ capabilities to detect, disrupt, and dismantle terrorist networks – particularly governments on the front lines against terrorist threats. Such assistance advanced major U.S. counterterrorism priorities, especially information sharing, aviation security, preventing homegrown terrorism, countering the financing of terrorism, countering Iran-backed groups, and pursuing FTF prosecutions and repatriations. The Department of State also launched a battlefield evidence initiative with the Departments of Defense and Justice, to enable the United States and partner nations to use captured enemy material more effectively in criminal prosecutions and other civilian applications.

The United States engaged a host of international partners – from governments to local religious leaders to tech companies – to counter terrorist radicalization and recruitment, both online and offline. We supported international initiatives, including the Strong Cities Network, which expanded to 125 cities globally and plays a key role in building local resilience to terrorist narratives. We also funded and mobilized support for grassroots programs to counter radicalization to violence in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Kosovo, Malaysia, Mali, Nigeria, the Philippines, and many other locales.

These efforts are only a snapshot of our ongoing work to protect the United States and our allies from terrorism. Country Reports on Terrorism 2018 provides a detailed review of last year’s successes and challenges facing our country and our partners. As we look to 2019 and beyond, the United States and our partners will remain committed to the global counterterrorism fight.

Photo: U.S. soldiers fire a howitzer in Iraq, Aug. 12, 2018, while supporting Iraqi forces as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. Army photo by 2nd Lt. Jamie Douglas

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Quick Analysis

The Dangers of a Divided America

The recent obituary in the Washington Post describing the planet’s most horrendous terrorist as “an austere religious scholar” stands in marked contrast to the purple prose it has used to describe President Trump.

Politically motivated excesses are not new, but the extremes to which the left-leaning news media, and those with similar views in Hollywood and academia now subscribe to are true concerns for worry.  The reality is increasingly clear and deeply troubling: much of the America’s leftist establishment feels more in common with Karl Marx, Mao Zedong, and Nicolas Maduro than they do with Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, or all those people that believe in the U.S. Constitution.

Listen to Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Review the lecture notes from most political science departments at colleges when describing comparative governments.  Follow the actions of some American institutions, such as the National Basketball Association, as they immediately genuflect towards Beijing as teams trade away their beliefs in the Bill of Rights in return for the chance to make a fortune in China.  Observe the employees at Google who seem more comfortable dealing with Xi Jinping than the U.S. military.

A free republic like America can easily withstand the abandonment of its ideals of personal liberty by some who, for monetary, psychological, or ideological reasons have drifted towards authoritarian philosophies, even those, like socialism, which have failed completely and repeatedly across the globe for nearly a century.   But what is happening, indeed, what has happened, is not the intellectual defection of disaffected individuals, but the wholesale abandonment of America’s ideals by major institutions, including much of the news media, almost all of academia, and the entertainment establishment.

The entertainment industry has abandoned traditional ideals for the most obvious of reasons.  Beijing has poured vast amounts of its great wealth into that business.  Whether in the production and distribution of shows in the TV and movie enterprises, or the ability to market and capture sporting audiences in the vast Chinese population, the barons of sports and entertainment have openly and shamelessly sold their souls for cash.

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The leftist tilt in journalism is, ultimately, a product of the extreme bias in academia.

Academia has been dominated by those on the left to an extraordinary degree. Writing in Inside Higher Ed, Samuel Adams notes:

“…higher education is now ruled by an ever-growing professional class of administrators who call the shots outside the classroom. They not only have deep influence over campus politics and student life via offices such as the Dean of Students, Offices of Diversity and Inclusion, Student Success, and Engagement and Leadership, but they are also more liberal than any other occupational group in the nation…Two-thirds of administrators self-identify as liberal, with 40 percent of that liberal pool stating that they are far left. A quarter of them call themselves middle of the road, while only 5 percent say they are on the right. That makes for a liberal-to-conservative ratio of 12 to one.”

A Forbes article by George Leef reports that “A good many educators take seriously the idea that teaching is a political activity and accordingly feel justified in using their classrooms as platforms for spreading their social, economic, and philosophical beliefs. They want to act as “change agents” who will improve the world…Most of those educators have been imbued with a leftist cast of mind – hostile to capitalism, private property, and anything that stands in the way of their utopian visions of a just society brought about through government power. Instances like the …ones at UC Santa Barbara (where a professor physically attacked a student who was peacefully protesting abortion) and Eastern Connecticut (where a writing professor went off on a rant about how evil Republicans are) are pretty common.”

Journalist come from journalism schools, which share the same extreme-left bias as the rest of the universities to which they are attached.

The salient question is whether America, as a nation guided by a Bill of Rights and a Constitution that so many on the left consider irrelevant, and a nation that requires at least some degree of unity in the face of threats from terrorists such as the late al-Baghdadi and powerful national enemies such as China and Russia, can survive in a disunited state? 

Picture: Old-fashioned newsroom (Pixabay)

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U.S. Economy Prospers

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis has issued its analysis of the current state of the U.S. economy, measuring the Third Quarter GDP growth for 2019. The Bureau found that real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the third quarter.

The report’s date clearly refutes the almost passionate statements by opponents of the Trump Administration, who have both criticized the White House’s pro-growth policies and suggested replacing them with a variety of measures that have proven disastrous in nations such as Venezuela.

“Today’s report shows that the U.S. economy continues its steady growth in defiance of media skeptics calling for a recession,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “Since President Trump took office, wages have surged, unemployment has hit record lows, and poverty has fallen for all Americans, including the country’s most vulnerable.”

In the third quarter, U.S. consumer spending grew a healthy 2.9 percent, as American consumer confidence continued to buoy our country’s economic strength. Spending on durable goods led and jumped 7.6 percent from the second quarter. Business intellectual property investment rose 6.6 percent, signaling that American business will continue to lead the world with new ideas and inventions. The 1.6 percent growth in goods exports demonstrates that President Trump’s trade policies are bringing Made in America back.

In September 2019, unemployment in the U.S. fell to 3.5 percent, hitting the lowest level in 50 years. The unemployment rate for Hispanic Americans and African Americans were also at record lows. The total numbers of employed Americans hit the highest level on record. Between 2017 and 2018, 2.3 million more Americans gained full-time, year-round employment, including 1.6 million women.

This has translated to higher incomes for average Americans. The Census Bureau reported in September that real median household income rose to more than $63,000 in 2018, the highest level in nearly two decades. Between 2017 and 2018, real median earnings of full-time, year-round workers rose 3.4% and 3.3% for men and women respectively. This good news tracks with Labor Department numbers, which marked more than a year of consecutive year-over-year hourly wage increases of 3.0 percent or higher. Before 2018, wage gains had not hit 3 percent since 2009.

The poverty rate has tumbled as well. In 2018, the poverty rate fell by 0.5 percent to the lowest level since 2001, as the growing economy lifted 1.7 million Americans out of poverty since just 2017. Disadvantaged groups such as Hispanic Americans and African Americans saw the largest poverty reductions. America’s children saw a 1.2 percentage points in poverty, while poverty for single mothers fell by 2.5 percentage points.

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According to Bureau of Economic Analysis statistics, Professional, scientific, and technical services increased 7.4 percent in the second quarter, after increasing 8.0 percent in the first quarter. Real estate and rental and leasing increased by 2.6 percent, after increasing 0.8 percent in the first quarter. Mining (a particular target of the U.S. left, who have consistently attacked the industry) increased 23.5 percent, after increasing 26.0 percent.

The White House notes that   “In its final projection before the 2016 election, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that real GDP would grow at a 2.1 percent annual rate in the first 11 quarters of a new Administration. Instead, under President Trump, real GDP as of the third quarter has grown at a strong 2.6 percent annual rate since the election. As of the third quarter, real GDP is $230 billion—or 1.2 percent—higher than CBO’s projection Furthermore, under President Obama’s expansion period, real GDP grew at only a 2.2 percent annual rate compared to the Trump Administration’s 2.6 percent rate.”

What of the future?  Much depends on the success of President Trump’s attempts to rein in China’s illegitimate trade practices, which have resulted in vast numbers of U.S. jobs lost, particularly in manufacturing, and have cost U.S. companies billions from intellectual property theft.  They have also endangered American national security, as major U.S. advances in defense have been stolen.

The National Interest outlined a variety of practices, including currency manipulation, cyber attacks, selling fentanyl, intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer, product-dumping and subsidizing state enterprises as Beijing practices that have caused substantial harm.

Prior presidential administrations chose largely to ignore China’s practices, and critics of the Trump Administration have emphasized the temporary pain as opposed to the eventual gain from finally confronting Beijing’s abuses.

Illustration: Pixabay

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Obscuring Biden’s Guilt

The media has done its level best to obscure and weaponize the debate about matters concerning the U.S. government interaction with Ukraine. Therefore, as a public service, let’s breakdown the issue to its basic components.

Burisma Holdings is a Ukrainian gas company, considered by many to be corrupt, that employed  former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, while Vice President Biden served as the point man for the Obama Administration to that nation.  Hunter has no known expertise in the gas business. (He is an attorney who has been a cocaine abuser and was dismissed from the Navy) The matter is similar to Hunter’s activities in China.  Hunter flew along with his father on Air Force two to China on an official mission, and returned with an over one billion dollar financial deal in his pocket, on a business area he also knew little or nothing about. 

In law, there is a concept known as “Prima Facie,” which, as explained at dictionary law.com, is  Latin for “at first look,” or “on its face,” referring to a lawsuit or criminal prosecution in which the evidence before trial is sufficient to prove the case unless there is substantial contradictory evidence presented at trial. A prima facie case presented to a Grand Jury by the prosecution will result in an indictment.

The enrichment of a vice-president’s son with nations the Vice President was directly and simultaneously dealing with, and, indeed, the accompanying of the son with the Vice President on Air Force Two is Prima Facie evidence of both Hunter and Joe Biden’s violation of federal law, specifically, 5 Code of Federal Regulations Sec. 2635.702: Use of Public Office for Private Gain.  . The law is rather clearly written:

“An employee shall Any situation can side effects from viagra lead sufferers towards inferiority complex as well as restoring the overall kidney function so as to avoid unsanitary sexual life in their daily life. ED viagra in usa basically involves causing trouble to a man’s erection fails when sexual intercourse is attempted, especially if thinking about the problem makes it worse. There are natural remedies being offered like cheap sildenafil the herb Gingko. Anil Lakhani, ED Gini and Jony said, “M’loyal platform viagra discount is helping us in customer acquisition, retention and engagement, customer behavior and hence going for a more targeted marketing rather than bulk blasts to unknown consumer’s It has enabled focused communications to a set of customer’s rather than blanket messages to all. not use his public office for his own private gain, for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise, or for the private gain of friends, relatives, or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity, including nonprofit organizations of which the employee is an officer or member, and persons with whom the employee has or seeks employment or business relations. The specific prohibitions set forth in paragraphs (a) through (d) of this section apply this general standard, but are not intended to be exclusive or to limit the application of this section…To ensure that the performance of his official duties does not give rise to an appearance of use of public office for private gain or of giving preferential treatment, an employee whose duties would affect the financial interests of a friend, relative or person with whom he is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity shall comply with any applicable requirements of § 2635.502.

The Wall Street Journal described Hunter’s China business: “BHR Partners was officially registered 12 days after Hunter Biden in December 2013 flew to Beijing aboard Air Force Two, while his father made an official visit as vice president. Hunter Biden… owns 10% of a private-equity firm called Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Co…Hunter Biden is one of nine directors of the firm, known as BHR Partners, which is controlled and funded primarily by large Chinese government-owned shareholders.”

There is a similarity between the way the Democrat majority in the House of Representatives and their media allies have responded to the Biden violation of the Code of Federal Regulations and the way they responded to the abuse of the FBI in the now debunked charges of Russian Collusion with the Trump campaign.  In each instance, legal and ethical violations on the part of key Democrats occurred. To obscure their guilt, (first in abusing the legal process to spy on a rival campaign, and currently, to gain unlawful enrichment) spurious charges were levelled against the Trump Administration.  Knowing that a biased media would dwell endlessly on the false charges, the tactic successfully distracted the public from the actual lawbreaking.  

Photo: Air Force 2 (USAF photo)

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Foreign Policy Update

IRAN

Morgan Ortagus, State Department Spokesperson, announced that Secretary Pompeo is continuing restrictions on the Iranian regime’s nuclear program. “This decision will help preserve oversight of Iran’s civil nuclear program, reduce proliferation risks, constrain Iran’s ability to shorten its “breakout time” to a nuclear weapon, and prevent the regime from reconstituting sites for proliferation-sensitive purposes,” according to Ortagus.

The Secretary made two determinations with sanctions implications pursuant to Section 1245 of the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act of 2012 (IFCA): one identifying the construction sector of Iran as being controlled directly or indirectly by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC); and one identifying four strategic materials as being used in connection with Iran’s nuclear, military, or ballistic missile programs. With these determinations, the United States will have additional authorities to prevent Iran from acquiring strategic materials for the IRGC, its construction sector, and its proliferation programs.  

CHILE

The Russians are active in the Chilean elections, according to a State Department official. The Russian influence on developments in Chile in recent days is especially prevalent in the social media environment. 

The State Department regards Russian activities taking advantage of the Chilean political environment and “skewing it through the use and abuse of social media trolling and seeking – rather than allowing the citizens of Chile to have their own debate about how their country and the courses their country should take, they’ve sought to exacerbate divisions, foment conflict, and all around act as a spoiler to responsible democratic debate,” according to the official.

UKRAINE

In a recent press conference Secretary of State Michael Pompeo was questioned about US foreign policy strategy in the Ukraine. He responded that the United States has supported the Ukrainian government and delivered weapons to it so that it could defend itself from outside aggression.  He pointed out that no other nation has been as generous as the United States. He added that former President Obama and Vice President Biden will have to answer if Hunter Biden is the reason why the previous Administration refused to supply the Ukraine with defensive weapons.

CHINA

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In a recent speech in New York on Thursday Secretary Pompeo said that we need to try to “help China make good choices,” and create the incentives to encourage China to do so. He added that “We want them to be successful and grow and prosper.” The Secretary pointed out that not all of Washington’s dealings with China have been win-win. “It’s been the case,” he said, “that we’ve had U.S. companies go in there and they have been given commercial access. I was pleased they made decisions on banking and insurance regulations that they’re – that are changed. These are really good signs. I’m encouraged by that. I hope they’ll continue to do that. I hope we’ll continue to open markets for them as well.”

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Secretary Pompeo chaired a recent meeting of the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and announced this week several key State Department initiatives. The State Department, he noted, was expanding coverage of its In-person Registration Program beyond the Washington, DC region to workers employed by consular personnel in the New York metropolitan area and in Houston, Texas. He said the US Mission to the United Nations also launched an In-person Registration Program for domestic workers employed by members of the UN Permanent Mission community.

The program is expected to be expanded in 2020 to include Los Angeles and San Francisco, and will cover domestic workers employed by UN personnel. It will enhance protection and oversight of foreign domestic workers employed by foreign mission and international organization personnel present in the US, according to the Secretary.

Pompeo also announced the Department’s third investment of $25 million in the Program to End Modern Slavery, bringing the total U.S. investment to $75 million and making it the United States’ largest anti-trafficking program.  Pompeo also  reaffirmed the Trump Administration is committed to ending human trafficking for its estimated 25 million global victims.  

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government.  Each Saturday, she presents key updates on U.S. foreign policy from the State Department.

Illustration: Pixabay


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U.S. Dangerously Lags in R&D

Since the middle of the last century, The United States has relied on advanced technology to defend itself.

Today, faced with giant adversaries (Russia has larger geography, China has a greater population and a vast industrial base) that need is greater than ever.  However, America’s vital edge is slipping significantly.

Writing in American Military News, Michael Marks reports that “There can be no doubt that Russia and China are determined to challenge America’s qualitative advantage. From the rebirth of Russian military power under Vladimir Putin to the ever-growing Chinese military prowess across the board, their efforts show no sign of slowing down.”

The problem stems from the Obama era. A Government Executive report by Marcus Weisgerber several years ago noted that “Since Congress imposed federal spending caps in the 2011 Budget Control Act, the Pentagon’s procurement and research-and-development budgets—the so-called modernization accounts—have been in steady decline.” 

Angus Loten, writing in the Wall Street Journal, reports that “The federal government needs to do more to support the development of innovative technology as U.S. productivity falls and foreign tech hubs gain clout, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said…Overall federal R&D spending, at 0.7% of gross domestic product, is roughly half what it was in the mid-1980s.”

In his State of the State address this year, Putin stressed that:

“The work on promising prototypes and weapon systems that I spoke about in my Address last year continues as scheduled and without disruptions. We have launched serial production of the Avangard system. As planned, this year, the first regiment of the Strategic Missile Troops will be equipped with Avangard. The Sarmat super-heavy intercontinental missile of unprecedented power is undergoing a series of tests. The Peresvet laser weapon and the aviation systems equipped with Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missiles proved their unique characteristics during test and combat alert missions while the personnel learned how to operate them. Next December, all the Peresvet missiles supplied to the Armed Forces will be put on standby alert. We will continue expanding the infrastructure for the MiG-31 interceptors carrying Kinzhal missiles. The Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile of unlimited range and the Poseidon nuclear-powered unmanned underwater vehicle of unlimited range are successfully undergoing tests.” The effects of the pills minimum run for 4 to cialis levitra generika 5 hours, which aids men to enjoy their sexual life without any hindrances. Each medicine is prepared with a different method, material probe cialis generika and pattern, so it works differently on the condition. Apart from this there http://www.slovak-republic.org/cialis-5603.html viagra 100 mg are other reasons as well which could only be responsible for the issue. By increasing vital buy line viagra energy, this wonderful supplement energizes the penis in order to enjoy an everlasting sexual pleasure even if you are 60 years old man.

the Russia Beyond publication provides more details. It describes the Sarmat Nuclear Missiles as “The biggest and most devastating system in the world … It’s the only missile in the world able to cover 17,000 km before eliminating everything in its path. Every missile will have at least 15 multiple reentry vehicles (MIRV), each with a yield of between 150 and 300 kilotons, enough to blow a crater the size of the Grand Canyon. Hypersonic missiles: Another super hot addition to Russia’s weapons store: The first ever missiles able to hurtle towards their target at 2.5 km/s (eight times faster than the speed of sound). Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jets: Experimental machines of this type have already been baptized in Syria to test their devastating power, and the new missiles and bombs specially created for them. The fastest military helicopter in the world: This army chopper will be able to fly at speeds of up to 500 km/h with eight men on board armed to the teeth with devastating weaponry.”

Damiel Wagner, writing for the South China Morning Post, “The formidable arsenal on display at China’s 70th anniversary parade announces to the world its ambition – backed by hefty investment – to be a global leader in futuristic weapons technology.” 

Russia and China are not only increasing their individual advanced weapons programs individually, they are working together as well. Spacewar notes that Russia is aiding China in building a missile defense system…”We are now helping our Chinese partners to create a missile-warning system, a missile-attack warning system…This …will dramatically increase China’s defense capability.”

The Congressional Research Service has weighed in on the growing threat:

“For more than 70 years, the technological superiority of the United States military has offset the size and geographic advantages of potential adversaries…However, the Department of Defense (DoD) and the federal government…are no longer overriding funders of R&D, and this shift in support…has substantial implications for how DoD obtains advanced technology and maintains the battlefield overmatch that technology has historically provided.

In 1960, the United States accounted for 69% of global R&D, with U.S. defense-related R&D alone accounting for more than one-third of global R&D (36%)…However, from 1960 to 2016, the U.S. share of global R&D fell to 28%…As a result of these global, national and federal trends, federal defense R&D’s share of global R&D fell to 3.7% in 2016.”

Photo: The Eagle Aero probes fly attached to the red device underneath NASA’s F-15B research test bed aircraft. Credits: NASA / Carla Thomas