Today is the first day of Spring. Things will start to thaw out and make war a bit easier as the weather warms. Meanwhile, Xi Jinping from the land of the dragon meets with Putin from the land of the bear. We will soon see how that goes! Will Ukrainian farmers get their winter wheat planting harvested?
Meanwhile, more escalation rhetoric…
Lindsey Graham calls for US to shoot down Russian fighter jets
Frm the article:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) responded to Russia’s Tuesday downing of a U.S. drone by saying the U.S. military should take aggressive action against Russian fighter jets.
Graham called for retaliation, including a threat to shoot down Russian jets in future situations, during an interview on Fox News’ “Hannity.”
READ MORE: Video: Pentagon releases footage of Russian jets dumping fuel on, crashing US drone
“If you ever get near another U.S. asset flying in international waters, your airplane will be shot down,” he said.
“What would Ronald Reagan do right now?” Graham added. “He would start shooting Russian planes down if they were threatening our assets. American foreign policy is in freefall.”
The remarks came after two Russian military jets took down a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone flying over the Black Sea in international waters, according to the U.S. European Command….
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Another Warmonger?!?!
And then there’s…
Carelessness?!?!
Chinese rocket falls out of sky over Texas, disintegrates
From the article:
Part of a Chinese rocket that carried three military spy satellites into orbit in June recently fell uncontrolled out of the sky and disintegrated over Texas.
U.S. Space Command confirmed that the four-ton rocket component plunged into the atmosphere at 17,000 miles per hour and came apart, possibly creating a debris field over Texas hundreds of miles long, USNI News reported.
The object was the second stage of a Long March 2D rocket that delivered three Yaogan-35 remote sensing satellites into orbit over the summer. NORAD tracking data indicated the stage was space junk in low Earth orbit before making an unscheduled return, USNI News reported.
READ MORE: US launches spy satellite in Pacific as China swarms Taiwan
In a statement, U.S. Space Command said the “uncontrolled reentry … was not steered but rather its orbit decayed and lowered naturally.”
“This type of behavior reinforces the need for better international norms regarding high-risk uncontrolled reentries,” Space Command continued….
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While Chinese space junk rains on Texas…
China’s Xi Jinping to visit Putin in Moscow next week to assume larger global role
From the article:
Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to spend three days in Russia visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin next week, a diplomatic opportunity for the isolated Russian leader as China moves to have a stronger hand in global affairs.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the two leaders will meet one-on-one during an informal dinner on Monday, and officials from both countries will have broader talks Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. The trip is scheduled to end Wednesday.
A foreign policy adviser to Putin, Yuri Uskahov, said Xi and Putin will likely discuss Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
“I’m sure that our leader and the Chinese leader will exchange their assessments of the situation in the context of the development of the conflict in Ukraine,” Ushakov said, adding, “We shall see what ideas will emerge after that.”
The trip could represent a challenge to the U.S., Ukraine’s largest material supporter in the war, and is set to come a month after President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
China proposed a set of ceasefire and peace talk conditions for the conflict in February, but little progress on that front has been made public since then. China has not condemned Russia for the invasion, but in a rare move this week, the Chinese foreign minister called his Ukrainian counterpart to urge a peaceful end to the war, as reported by AP.
READ MORE: China cease-fire proposal for Ukraine falls flat with US, allies
The high-level meeting comes on the heels of China playing mediator to forge diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, bitter rivals that have for decades waged what has been called a cold war in the Middle East….
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Larger Global role!?!?
Will the dragon play the bear?
Does the dragon have green eyes?
China’s Green Lasers Over Hawaii Signal a Coming War: Expert
From the article:
The appearance of China’s green lasers over Hawaii signals a coming war, warns Rick Fisher, a senior fellow at International Assessment and Strategy Center.
In late January, Japanese astronomers stationed in Hawaii noticed mysterious green laser beams being fired over the island. The laser beams are being shot down from space over one of the largest mountain ranges in Hawaii.
When they first reported these beams to the public, the astronomers said they came from a NASA satellite—they were thought to be American lasers. But just a week later, the Japanese astronomers issued a correction saying that the green laser beams were not from a U.S. satellite, but instead, they were more likely from a Chinese satellite.
According to NASA’s assessment, it was likely caused by China’s Daqi-1 satellite, which is a “Chinese atmospheric environment monitoring satellite” launched in April 2022.
“This weather satellite passing over Hawaii, shooting its lasers, its atmospheric measuring lasers, down from on high is very much a signal to the United States that if there is a confrontation over the future of democratic Taiwan, they are ready to target American military forces, which will definitely impact American civilian lives in the state of Hawaii,” Fisher told the “China in Focus” host on NTD, the sister media outlet of the Epoch Times.
The expert disagreed that the Daqi-1 satellite is solely for environmental research….
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Is the CCP really worried?
Chinese military worried about US Starlink satellites, Javelin missiles
From the atricle:
Starlink satellites and Javelin missiles are primary areas of concern for China’s defense forces, which are trying to close the capability gaps posed by those technologies.
That’s according to a review of nearly 100 articles in Chinese-language defense journals produced by researchers at universities linked to the People’s Liberation Army, which are studying U.S. military capabilities deployed in the Ukraine war, Reuters reported.
The Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission is studying the war in Ukraine as an opportunity to devise stronger defenses, Reuters reported. Their findings, according to the articles, state that Starlink satellites and Javelin missiles are challenges that demand further research.
According to Reuters, researchers at the Army Engineering University of the PLA wrote the following in a September article, emphasizing the need to be able to disable the satellites: “The excellent performance of the ‘Starlink’ satellites in this Russian-Ukrainian conflict will certainly prompt the U.S. and Western countries to use ‘Starlink’ extensively in possible hostilities in Asia.”
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How many spies are “un-arrested”?
Meanwhile, in the South China Sea…
More than 40 Chinese vessels reported around Philippine-claimed island
From the article:
This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Saturday spotted more than 40 Chinese vessels near Pag-asa, one of the islands occupied by Manila in the South China Sea.
Coast Guard personnel stationed on the island – also known as Thitu – reported a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy vessel, a China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel, and 42 suspected maritime militia vessels, anchored within 4.5 to 8 nautical miles of the shore.
The PCG said this was “clearly inside the land feature’s 12-nautical mile territorial sea.”
The PLA Navy vessel and CCG 5203 had been observed loitering in waters surrounding Pag-asa Island, while the suspected maritime militia vessels were anchored in the vicinity of cays west of the main island, Pag-asa Cay 3 and Pag-asa Cay 4, the PCG said in a statement.
Pag-asa Island, around 300 miles (483 kms) from Puerto Princesa in Palawan province, in the western Philippines, is the largest island in the Philippine-occupied Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) in the contested Spratly Islands. It serves as a local seat of government, and is home to more than 400 civilians, including 70 children.
The presence of Chinese vessels in the area has become frequent in recent years. In 2020, more than 100 Chinese vessels, which appeared to be fishing boats, were seen near the island. In 2022, a civilian boat manned by Philippine Navy personnel sailed near a sandbar off Pag-Asa Island in a bid to retrieve suspected Chinese rocket debris. A Chinese coast guard ship blocked their path and used a rubber boat to collect the debris.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and the Department of Foreign Affairs have yet to comment on Saturday’s report. Since Marcos took office on June 30, the Philippine government has filed at least 77 diplomatic protests against Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea. Last month, Marcos summoned Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian – the first such summoning in recent years – after China deployed a military-grade laser against the PCG near Ayungin Shoal, or Second Thomas Shoal, in the Spratlys.
China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including two main archipelagos, the Paracels and the Spratlys, that it calls Xisha and Nansha, respectively.
In 2016, an international tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines and against Beijing’s sweeping claims in the contested waterway. But China has since refused to acknowledge the ruling….
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It’s not just Taiwan they want!!!!
AND here is:
A daily example on the Homefront!
Lastly…
From the 1440 Daily Digest:
Iraq War Anniversary
Today marks 20 years since a US-led coalition launched its ground offensive in the Iraq War, the start of a nearly nine-year occupation. The conflict would topple Saddam Hussein’s pan-Arab, secular Ba’athist regime (see history) while ushering in an extended period of instability and counterinsurgency in the region. A multinational force led by the US and joined by at least 40 other nations based the 2003 invasion on intelligence that Iraq had acquired weapons of mass destruction in addition to claims the regime was aiding terrorists in the West. Occupying forces were ultimately unable to substantiate either claim. Estimates place the overall civilian death toll of the war between 100,000 and 500,000, with millions more displaced. At least 8,000 Americans died amid the initial invasion and subsequent occupation and counterinsurgency. Analysts estimate the war’s overall cost at roughly $2.5T. Roughly 2,500 US personnel are stationed in Iraq today in mostly advisory roles. See the conflict’s history in photos here (warning—sensitive content), or check out a series of images taken by civilians with disposable cameras in 2004 and 2023 here.
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Another 20 year (1 JST) failure.
(See Cosmis Clockworks I in main menu.)
In Living Memory
(From Archives, posted 07/21/2021.)
{Make that “Three in a Lifetime”.}
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And they shall recycle their weapons of war into implements of agriculture!
(Isaiah 2:4)
LOLGB+
The Ezekiel 33 Watchman Report 
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