An extraordinary event triggered the Mr. Bolton’s reaction. It has been reported that the ICC chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, is seeking approval to investigate allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan, including possible torture by US forces and the CIA. In a statement on the ICC website, Ms Bensouda said the prosecutor’s office believed an investigation was required owing to “the gravity of the acts committed . . . and the absence of relevant national proceedings against those who appear to be most responsible for the most serious crimes within this situation”. The move is likely to provoke anger in Washington and the Bolton’s article is just the first salvo.

In the good old days, the US merely paid too much for its supplies and equipment. No one hurt except the taxpayers. Flash forward to the current never ending wars. Many military contractors have made a lot of money over our never ending wars. But it’s not just the taxpayers that are losing. It looks like the money is getting so huge that we are killing Americans over the threat of being discovered. Something is really wrong.

We’re being ripped off by the deep state. We’re paying trillions of dollars for our military and putting both our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines at risk as well as putting our country in harm’s way. Roberts puts together some amazing information today. Click and read the links. What he’s saying isn’t opinion. The information is actually knowledge from many sources. This one is very sobering.

The never ending war in Afghanistan continues on. Much is made of the economic cost of the war, which is incredibly high. Not so much is made of the real cost of the war, namely the damage done to our most valuable assets, our people. It goes beyond the death and injury to our military members. The heroin addictions in the US are equally troubling.

HUGE CAVEAT: This is satire. No claims to knowledge here! A little levity to make fun of some of the stupidity of our self proclaimed leaders. RAQQA, Syria — The reign of ISIS will soon be at an end, thanks to the latest overwhelming and decisive tactic employed by the US military: An airdrop of hundreds of laptops loaded with 130-slide PowerPoint presentations. “They’re not even password-protected,” said Adm. Michael S. Rogers, commander of US Cyber Command. “We want them to get in. As every staff officer and senior staff noncommissioned officer knows, lengthy PowerPoint presentations can be fatal.”(2 comments)

It’s a sad commentary on the United States right now that we seem to not be able to make military equipment. The F35 debacle speaks for itself. The Navy has so many problems with the Littoral ships and the latest aircraft carrier that you can write books about it. Well, in an equal opportunity moment, it appears that the Army isn’t immune either. At the “battle” of Kirkuk, Kurds armed what seems to be 1970s technology Chinese anti-tank missiles destroyed a US Army M1A1 tank owned and operated by the Iraqi army. This isn’t a rare occurrence. ISIS destroyed Iraqi M1A1 tanks in the beginning of the war near Mosul. They even captured some and operate them. Hezbollah has at least one M1A1 tank. It’s not mobile, but the guns still work and they tow it into battle! Houthi rebels in Yemen are destroying Saudi Arabian M1 tanks with anti-tank missiles. The US is currently spending $20 million per tank for 1000 M1 tanks to upgrade the turrets with all sorts of high tech. Meanwhile the Russians are fielding their T90 and Armata tanks which are clearly marked improvements on older tank technology and perhaps are the best in the world. A complete, latest version of the T90 costs $4.5 million.

Stealth aircraft were all the rage in the 1980s. It was the height of the Cold War and everyone wanted to have the ability to conduct strategic bombing at will. Like everything in life, there are trade offs. The things that make stealth such a viable concept for strategic warfare detract from the ability to conduct tactical warfare. Despite 16 years of our never ending wars we are investing in military equipment that will do nothing to support what the neos say could be 50-60 years long. Does it still make sense to invest heavily in equipment needed for the last war?

Most folks don’t really think about the state of our military as being the result of decades of bureaucratic inertia. Unlike the private sector which can be much more agile in identifying and embracing change, our military sees change as bad. Protecting the bureaucracy is the most important. Problems in our military of today are based on changes made 20 years ago. The scary thing is that we won’t see the impact of the Obama years for many years.