News & views related to the war in Palestine …

News & views related to the war in Ukraine …

Remember these cruise missiles which I claimed do not yet exist? Aviation Week has details:

• Aug 29 – Why 3,350 New Bombs For Ukraine Will Not Make A Difference
  Related:
  – U.S. Innovation Hurries New Cruise Missile To Ukraine (archived) – Aviation Week

> The ERAM has emerged within a mere 14 months since the release of solicitation in August 2024—the prototype air-launched cruise missiles have a scheduled delivery in October.
…
The plan now is to deliver a first lot of 840 ERAMs, split between two designs separately produced by Virginia-based CoAspire and California-based Zone 5 Technologies, by the end of October 2026, the documents say.
…
Although Ukraine is cleared to buy up to 3,550 missiles, the first production run is smaller. The first 10 are scheduled for delivery in October. <

Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:

• Sep 1 – A New Global Governance – But What Will, Or Can, It Do?
  Related:
  – Michael Hudson: SCO and BRICS 2025 – Naked Capitalism
  – Xi’s week of diplomacy: As the US pushes countries away, China draws them closer – Christian Science Monitor
  – All 76 weapons at China 2025 military parade explained. 47 are brand new. (vid) – Binkov's Battlegrounds

• Sep 2 – Von der Leyen Is Lying About Russian GPS Interference
  Related:
  – Bulgaria flip-flops on von der Leyen plane’s GPS glitch – Politico.eu
  – Ursula von der Leyen’s flight to Plovdiv: what the data tells us – FlightRadar24
  – Left pushes censure bid against von der Leyen – Euractiv

• Sep 3 – Ukraine's Best Security Guarantee Is Finlandization
• Sep 6 – Ukraine – "Due to the detonation of the warhead of the downed missile …"
  Related:
  – “'Staged actions' in Ukraine.” – A festival of media concoctions. – The Floutist
  – Russia Wants ‘Security Guarantees’ Too. Here’s What They Look Like. (archived) – New York Times
  – Putin Wagers Ukraine’s Army Will Break Before His Economy Does (archived) Duh! – Wall Street Journal

• Sep 6 – Outage
  Related:
  – Typepad is closing down. I am currently working to move this blog elsewhere. I will let you know more when it is going to happen.

• Sep 6 – When The Pentagon Shifts Its Priorities Will U.S. Strategy Follow?
  Related:
  – The Power of Siberia 2 Pipeline Deal Signifies the Failure of Trump’s Eurasian Grand Strategy – Naked Capitalism
  – US to cut some security funds for European countries bordering Russia (archived) – Financial Times
    Move comes as Washington pushes Nato allies to pay more towards their own defence
  – Hundreds Arrested in Immigration Raid at Hyundai Site in Georgia (archived) – WSJ
    South Korea protests after more than 300 Korean company workers are detained

—
Other issues:

Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review – OT 2025-203

Like any report of a war death this is a sad story. But I caught myself smirking at it.

Via Strana (machine translation):

In Kiev, after a Russian strike, the chief engineer of the Patriot air defense system Sakun was killed

In Kiev, after a Russian strike, the chief engineer of the Patriot air defense system unit, Denis Sakun, was killed. This follows from a petition on the website of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky.

He was approached by a relative of the deceased Yana Sakun, who demanded to be awarded the military title of Hero of Ukraine.

She writes that Denis Sakun was the chief engineer of the "anti-aircraft missile unit operating the latest air defense system."

The 'latest air defense system' was a U.S. manufactured Patriot battery. The U.S., and Ukraine, claim that these systems can shot down ballistic missiles. That is claimed here too but it also describes what happened just after that:

"During the massive rocket attack on Kiev, Lieutenant Colonel Sakun was on combat duty as part of a combat crew. The unit destroyed several ballistic missiles, one of which was supposed to hit the SAM positions. As a result of falling debris, a fire broke out. Despite the deadly threat, the officer personally rushed to save the equipment and put out the fire. Due to the detonation of the warhead of the downed missile, Denis Sakun was killed," the petition says.

The battery shot down a ballistic missile aimed at it. Unfortunately the war head of the destroyed missiles fell onto the Patriot battery and exploded.

Or, may be, not.

May be, just may be, the Patriot system failed to destroy the incoming missile which then hit its intended target.

The incident most likely happened on July 31.

Is this a sign of a shift in the global U.S. strategy?

Politico reports:

Pentagon plan prioritizes homeland over China threat
This marks a major departure from the first Trump administration, which emphasized deterring Beijing.

Pentagon officials are proposing the department prioritize protecting the homeland and Western Hemisphere, a striking reversal from the military’s yearslong mandate to focus on the threat from China.

A draft of the newest National Defense Strategy, which landed on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s desk last week, places domestic and regional missions above countering adversaries such as Beijing and Moscow, according to three people briefed on early versions of the report.

The move would mark a major shift from recent Democrat and Republican administrations, including President Donald Trump’s first term in office, when he referred to Beijing as America’s greatest rival. And it would likely inflame China hawks in both parties who view the country’s leadership as a danger to U.S. security.

“This is going to be a major shift for the U.S. and its allies on multiple continents,” said one of the people briefed on the draft document. “The old, trusted U.S. promises are being questioned.”

The National Defense Strategy (NDS) is written by the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy which currently is held by arch-Realist Elbridge Colby.

The draft of the new NDS seems to be a contradiction of his previous believes:

Identifying as a realist, Colby believes China is the principal threat faced by the United States. He believes the US should shift its military resources to Asia to prevent a Chinese takeover of Taiwan. Colby supports reducing military aid to Ukraine. During the AUKUS review in 2025, Elbridge pressured Australia to confirm what role it would play in a war with China over Taiwan.

Colby wants to change U.S. defense policy from concentrating on China, as he had previously argued, to the Western Hemisphere. He may have seen new facts that have moved his opinion.

The failed attempt by the U.S. Navy to secure shipping through the Red Sea against attacks by Houthi in Yemen may have caused such rethink. As may have the loss of the US/NATO's proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

Or did he compare videos of the 'woke' U.S. military parade in Washington DC (vid) earlier this year with the recent flawless one in China (vid)? The difference was indeed glaring. It demonstrated that the U.S. has no chance of winning in a war against China.

Trump seems to concede that China is winning:

Cont. reading: When The Pentagon Shifts Its Priorities Will U.S. Strategy Follow?

Welcome back.

Over the last 48 hours Typepad, the host and provider of the system MoonofAlabama.org is running on, has had an outage.

I am not yet aware of why this has happened. I intend to put up a new post later today.

News & views related to the war in Palestine …

News & views related to the war in Ukraine …

News & views not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine …

Fruitless discussions about 'security guarantees' for Ukraine continue. It will still take time until it is acknowledged that there is no way to implement them. Meanwhile other ideas are cropping in.

Some dimwits in Europe still think that they will be able to prevent Russia from taking care of its security interests:

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will co-host a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” comprised mostly of European allies. The discussions are expected to involve what potential security guarantees for Ukraine could look like and what type of peacekeeping force might be required.

The idea is to establish a setup that would prevent Russia from relaunching attacks on Ukrainian territory if a peace deal or cease-fire is established between the two countries.

President Donald Trump has signaled that the United States could play some kind of role in the effort, although he has ruled out putting American forces in Ukraine. [NATO Secretary-General Mark] Rutte on Wednesday also said the expectation was that the U.S would be involved in some form.

There will be no ceasefire in Ukraine. There will be a peace agreement in the form of a treaty. Ukraine and Russia sides will have to agree to its parameters. The Russian site will insist that Ukraine will be demilitarized and that no foreign forces will be stationed on its land.

European countries are unable to give any real 'security guarantees'. What they could provide is a minuscule force of a few thousand men stationed somewhere in Ukraine. Such a force would be eradicated within minutes should, after a peace agreement, the conflict in Ukraine reignite.

The Ukrainian regime has come to understand that. It has moved away from requesting 'security guarantees' in form of foreign soldiers. It instead wants a huge amount of foreign money to buy and make new weapons.

As the New York Times wrote yesterday:

Cont. reading: Ukraine’s Best Security Guarantee Is Finlandization

There is reason why the name of the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is often mangled into von der Lying.

She is notoriously negligent with facts. Here she is caught outright lying to spread fake anti-Russian propaganda.

When I read the headline below, first published by the Financial Times, I immediately thought that something was very wrong with it.

Ursula von der Leyen’s plane hit by suspected Russian GPS interference (archived) – FT, Sep 1 2025

A suspected Russian interference attack targeting Ursula von der Leyen disabled GPS navigation services at a Bulgarian airport and forced the European Commission president’s plane to land using paper maps.

A jet carrying von der Leyen to Plovdiv on Sunday afternoon was deprived of electronic navigational aids while on approach to the city’s airport, in what three officials briefed on the incident said was being treated as a Russian interference operation.

GPS navigation is based on receiving radio signals from satellites. There is no way to selectively block or disturb these for just a single receiver. If someone would have manipulated GPS in that area it would effected every GPS receiver in the same geography. But I could not find any reports from Bulgaria that taxi drivers or other people using GPS navigation had any trouble with it. There was not a single tweet on X complaining about it.

“The whole airport area GPS went dark,” said one of the officials. After circling the airport for an hour, the plane’s pilot took the decision to land the plane manually using analogue maps, they added. “It was undeniable interference.”

The Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority confirmed the incident in a statement to the Financial Times. “Since February 2022, there has been a notable increase in [GPS] jamming and recently spoofing occurrences,” it said. “These interferences disrupt the accurate reception of [GPS] signals, leading to various operational challenges for aircraft and ground systems.”

The three anonymous "officials" the FT is quoting (which likely include von der Leyen) are lying. The statement by the Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority is just a general one. It does not say anything about the alleged incident.

GPS failure does not mean that one has to use "paper maps". (There are by the way no longer any "paper maps" on professional airliners. Maps are stored digitally.) Modern planes do not depend on GPS. They mainly use their Inertial Reference System. They can also navigate by following ground radar signals. Airports for regular landing of jets have Instrument Landing Systems installed. Short range radio signals from the ground will guide the plane onto the runway. There is no need to wait "for an hour".

As Simple Flying summarizes:

Cont. reading: Von der Leyen Is Lying About Russian GPS Interference

Obama, Biden and Trump have tried to hamper the rise of China. But Obama and Biden pushed Russia into the arms of China. And Trump managed to push India into the arms of Russia and China.

The absence of strategic thinking in the 'West' is palpable.

The ongoing meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is, like similar meetings of BRICS, just one building stone of the new world order. Many more will be needed. A clear outline of the new order has yet to develop:

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday proposed the Global Governance Initiative (GGI) at the "Shanghai Cooperation Organization Plus" Meeting in Tianjin.

"I look forward to working with all countries for a more just and equitable global governance system and advancing toward a community with a shared future for humanity," Xi said when addressing the meeting.

He highlighted five principles for the GGI:

• First, we should adhere to sovereign equality.
• Second, we should abide by international rule of law.
• Third, we should practice multilateralism.
• Fourth, we should advocate the people-centered approach.
• Fifth, we should focus on taking real actions.

Nice concepts and words. I agree with them. But where is the beef? At some point muscles will be needed to back them up.

Two days ago Israel murdered the civilian government of Yemen:

Israel killed the prime minister of Yemen’s Houthi government and several cabinet ministers in a Thursday airstrike on Sanaa, delivering the first successful strike against senior officials in the Iran-aligned group’s leadership, Reuters reported.

Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, confirmed Saturday that Prime Minister Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahwi died in the attack, along with the energy, foreign and information ministers, according to sources, Reuters reported. Al-Mashat did not clarify whether Defense Minister Mohamed al-Atifi survived the strike.

Prime Minister Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahwi was the head of the civilian administration. He was not even a Houthi or member of Ansar Islam and had no influence on military things.

The wholesale killing of the civilian government of a dirt-poor country should be a wake-up call. So should be this:

Eighty-six percent of those who voted among the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars backed the resolution declaring Israel’s "policies and actions in Gaza" had met the legal definition set out in Article II of the 1948 UN convention on genocide.

There is a real danger that such sick behavior will metastasize:

Cont. reading: A New Global Governance – But What Will, Or Can, It Do?