Mr. President, We Have a Huge Military Drone Gap

No only do we have a mineshaft gap, we also have gaps on drones, tanks, ships, aircraft carriers, submarines, small nuclear reactors, undersea drones, and shipbuilding in general.

Lesson On Gaps

Drone Gaps

The Wall Street Journal laments Xi Jinping Has Learned a Lot From the War in Ukraine

Two years ago, Russia suffered a humiliating defeat in the battle for Kyiv. Vladimir Putin’s generals had promised their boss a swift operation.

Drones have revolutionized the battlefield in Ukraine. For now, the Russian and Ukrainian militaries are the only armies in the world learning how to operate thousands of surveillance and attack drones every day in real combat conditions. Through joint training operations with Russia, the PLA hopes to integrate those lessons into its own combat doctrine.

In early 2022, the West expected far-reaching sanctions against the Kremlin to spark protests among the Russian elite and public. But Moscow’s leverage over global energy markets, combined with limited pre-war financial decoupling from the West and industrial import substitution, helped Russia to pass the stress test. The economy is growing, fueled by orders for military supplies and lavish payments to soldiers and their families. Mr. Putin’s war chest is full. He is well-positioned to pay for at least another two years of war.

Chinese leaders have used Russia’s experience in Ukraine to refine their strategy for managing the home front. The Chinese system sets a high value on history’s lessons. More than three decades after the Soviet Union crumbled, its collapse is still being studied in Beijing. For Mr. Xi, the event was a formative experience, just as it was for Mr. Putin. Beijing is studying Russia’s moves again—this time, in Ukraine.

Aircraft Carrier Gap

Submarine Gap

Rocket Gap

Small Nuclear Reactor Gap

Tank Gap

Need to Plug the Gap

Undersea Drone Warfare Gap

While the Pentagon aims to counter China’s naval power with the Replicator initiative, traditional shipbuilding still dominates funding. Ocean Power CEO: “Big shipbuilding projects overshadow new tech like sea drones… a military industrial complex has the best lobbyists and knows exactly how the money flows and contracting works in the DoD.” Sea drones, unmanned vessels, operate on or below the surface, handling surveillance, reconnaissance, minehunting, or attacks.

Shipbuilding Gap

More on the Shipbuilding Gap

Shipbuilding Gap Investigation Underway

We Need to Do Something Useful

“Old conventional weapons we spent a fortune on are to become a waste by the day. At least we could do something productive while it’s still useful.”

Kamikaze Porpoises

What about kamikaze porpoises?

Sadly, this is not even on our radar, but is there any doubt we have a massive porpoise gap?

Need to Act Now

We need to do something useful with our tanks and other conventional before they go to waste.

And we better learn about drones and porpoises in a hurry. What better way than start a war?

I suggest we attack Greenland, Iceland, or New Zealand right away with tanks before they are obsolete, and with drones and kamikaze porpoises to learn about them.

First, we need men. That means a draft. Anyone who does not support a draft should be shot on sight. People can’t own people, but it’s the unalienable right of governments to own people.

After all, there was no other way we could fight such noble causes like the Vietnam war.

Just One Problem

There’s just one problem in what I propose.

If we can have a draft to fight Vietnam, why can’t Russia have a draft to invade Ukraine? Why can’t Germany invade Poland?

Nuremberg Trial Quotes

Göring: Why, of course, the people don’t want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.

Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.

Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.

This is how some poor slob on a US farm was convinced of the need to go to Vietnam to kill someone that posed no threat to the US. A forced draft made it possible.

Not only do governments take away your liberty, they force you to take away the life and liberty of others.

Only Congress Can Declare Wars

Yeah, right. This is why we have undeclared wars. Note that the United States did not declare war during its involvement in Vietnam.

And many presidential candidates think it would be OK to bomb Mexico to halt drug trade so add that to the list.

We need massive amounts of cognitive dissonance to believe that it’s OK for the US to have troops uninvited in Syria, that blowing Libya sky high is not warfare, and drone policy makes sense.

Shocking Headline of the Day: Germany to Re-Introduce Slavery

On May 10, I wrote Shocking Headline of the Day: Germany to Re-Introduce Slavery

Young Germans will have to choose between the Bundeswehr (military service) and unpaid social service work. Libertarians to a person, will call this slavery, because that is what it is.

From the Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

I love the wording “unalienable” and “self-evident”. No one can take those rights away.

Except governments of course. To repeat …

This is how some poor slob on a US farm was convinced of the need to go to Vietnam to kill someone that posed no threat to the US.

Not only do governments take away your liberty, they force you to take away the life and liberty of others.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal moans all the time about deficits. It also moans all the time about gaps and the need to prepare for war. Not once do any of the WJS editorials suggest how to pay for any of this.

Cognitive Dissidence of the Day

How about we protect our borders and genuine national security interests and let others do the same?

As for a draft, no one has the right to own you, unless of course it is for a very good reason like Vietnam or invading Greenland, Iceland, or New Zealand to prepare for war.

To top it off, Greenland has minerals, New Zealand has an unfair monopoly on sheep, and Iceland has too much thermal energy that should be ours. We are fully justified to take what others hoard if our government so decides.

Those who would not support such actions would be traitors just as those who refused to fight in Vietnam were unpatriotic traitors.

Patriotism means doing whatever government says.