US military guns keep vanishing, some used in street crimes

Sorry, Liberals. But You Really Shouldn’t Love NATO.

The danger of permanent subordination to America has started to register in European capitals, long solicitous of American commitment. President Emmanuel Macron of France has accused NATO of experiencing “brain death” and proposed creating an independent European army, an idea rhetorically welcomed by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. The watchword in Brussels these days is “strategic autonomy,” meaning autonomy from the United States. Europeans scarcely seek to disinvite American forces from their continent. Still, they are finding that cheap security from Washington carries mounting costs: dependence on an erratic superpower, pressure to restrict business with China and Russia, and division in Europe itself.

The real question is what Americans want. They could continue to fetishize military alliances as a “sacred obligation,” as President Biden characterized NATO on Wednesday. Or they could treat them as means to ends — and coercive means that often corrupt worthy ends.

For progressives who seek to end endless wars and prevent new ones, the matter of Europe can no longer be skirted. The United States can trust Europeans to defend Europe. Otherwise, it would seem that America truly intends to dominate the world in perpetuity, or until the day a war so great puts dreams of dominance to rest.

 Red_Dragon wrote:
Maneuvering hither and thither, towards hegemony, for the MIC rules. 

 Ohmsen wrote:

Wtf are US troops doing in Bulgaria? I am SO sick of The American Empire.

 Ohmsen wrote:

Clearly Google's fault

US troops accidentally raid sunflower oil factory

CCTV has emerged showing US troops armed with assault rifles mistakenly storming a privately-owned sunflower oil factory in Bulgaria.

They were taking part in a Nato military exercise, with the aim of clearing the airbase next door, but ended up at the wrong coordinates and encountered civilian workers.

The incident happened on 11 May.

No shots were fired and the US Embassy in Bulgaria says it is "fully investigating the cause of this mistake".

There’s a Sexual Assault Crisis in the Military. Congress Can Stop It

Thousands of service members in the United States military report being sexually assaulted every year, but only a small fraction of those cases end in a conviction.

Because freedom...
Biden’s Budget Proposal Funds Most of the World’s Dictators

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Pepe Escobar:   An Empire In Love with its Afghan Cemetery

Free trade...
US warns of sanctions in bid to deter Russian arms sales to Middle East
The US dominates arms exports to the Middle East, but Russia is vying for influence in the lucrative market

 oldviolin wrote:

ymmv

 Red_Dragon wrote:  please pass the baconnaise...

Deep-rooted racism, discrimination permeate US military

 R_P wrote:
Well, that's some solution in search of a problem thinking. 

Keeping up with the Joneses...
What is Australia's space division, and why is it in the military?

3 Fort Campbell soldiers accused of purchasing and transporting illegal guns to Chicago

Pentagon report reveals disturbing details about White supremacists in the ranks

New Sunspot malware found while investigating SolarWinds hack

While we learned of the SolarWind hack on December 13th, the first disclosure of its consequences was made on December 8th by leading cybersecurity firm FireEye which revealed that it was hacked by a nation-state hacking group.

As part of the attack, the hackers gained access to the SolarWinds Orion build system and injected the sunburst backdoor into a legitimate DLL used by the SolarWinds Orion IT management software. This DLL was later automatically distributed to SolarWinds customers in a supply chain attack.

Even though the timeline of the SolarWinds attack starts in September 2019, the date when the earliest suspicious activity was found on SolarWinds internal network, the identity of the hacking group behind this supply-chain attack is still unknown.

However, Kaspersky was the first to make a connection between the SolarWinds hackers and a previously known cyber-espionage group after finding that the Sunburst backdoor has feature overlaps with Kazuar, a .NET backdoor tentatively linked to the Russian Turla hacking group.

"The identified connection does not give away who was behind the SolarWinds attack, however, it provides more insights that can help researchers move forward in this investigation," Costin Raiu, director of Kaspersky's Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT), said.

Meanwhile in Trumpland...
More Than 70 West Point Cadets Accused Of Cheating In Academic Scandal

The code is just a dozen words long: "A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do."