Headlines:
- Neocons are back with a Big War Budget
- Kim Jong Un’s ‘Secret’ China Visit Sends Loud Message to US
- The West Bites Back
Neocons are back with a Big War Budget
With the US struggling to maintain its global position with creative political plans it has turned to sheer brute force to maintain brand America. The last minute signing of the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill in the US is a big windfall for the Pentagon, who will be getting the majority of the money, in the realm of $700 billion. This includes 14 new ships, 28 new helicopters, and 56 of the costly F-35 warplanes. This is part of a $61 billion spending increase over the previous year, and virtually every aspect of the Pentagon is getting more money, more equipment, higher pay, and just general boosts in funding. Which isn’t to say everyone’s happy. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), the House Armed Services Committee chairman, complained that the massive increase is “not enough to fix our problems. Though the military budget is tentatively to swell to $716 billion next year, policy-makers seem to be setting the stage for another multi-month round of outdoing one another on increases.
Kim Jong Un’s ‘Secret’ China Visit Sends Loud Message to US
North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has surprised everyone with an unannounced visit to China on Monday 26th March. He reportedly arrived in Beijing on a train, accompanied by unusually high amounts of security. This marks Kim’s first time traveling outside of North Korea since taking power in 2011. Footage from Nippon News Network, owned by Nippon TV, showed what an announcer described as a green train carriage with yellow horizontal lines, part of a 21-car train, similar to the kind that Kim’s late father, Kim Jong Il, rode when he visited Beijing in 2011. The US has for long used North Korea as a means to interfere in the region, by using the rogue status of North Korea. But since Trump increased America’s bellicose language against North Korea regional nations have come to see the US as part of the problems rather than then solution. The Olympics in South Korea saw direct visits and talks between the North and the South. The surprise visit to China, coming soon after Trump’s announcement of a direct meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un. It remains to be seen if China has pulled the carpet beneath he US, but the US is fast losing control of this region.
The West Bites Back
The US and scores of EU nations surprised many by suddenly expelling scores of Russian diplomats in solidarity with Britain. This is the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history. More than 20 countries have aligned with the UK, expelling more than 100 diplomats. EU leaders agreed last week it was highly likely Russia was behind the nerve-agent poisoning. UK Prime Minister Teresa May said: “President Putin’s regime is carrying out acts of aggression against our shared values and interests within our continent and beyond. And as a sovereign European democracy, the United Kingdom will stand shoulder to shoulder with the EU and with Nato to face down these threats together.” Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also praised the “extraordinary international response” by the UK’s allies. The Russian foreign ministry responded said the moves demonstrated a continuation of a “confrontational path. It goes without saying that this unfriendly act by this group of countries will not go without notice and we will react to it. Russia wanted to send a message to those nations who were recruiting former KGB agents or had become safe havens for Russian oligarchs, but it didn’t expect such a unified response from the West. If the west continues down this path Russia’s actions may have unified them rather than dividing them.