National Defense Briefs – November 25, 2013

By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
November 25, 2013

Part-six ofthe series, NATIONAL DEFENSE BRIEFS. Each week we bringing to readers of LowcountryBizSC.com updates aimed at informing with timely military andhomeland-security news briefs, trends, definitions, and shortcommentaries. Defense issues are inextricably connected to business. Inthat, we present the “National Defense Briefs” that matter.

•    China is again flexing its muscles in the East China Sea – specifically airspace above a group of uninhabited islands claimed by both China and Japan – wherein the Communist superpower has established a new maritime air-defense identification zone. China refers to the islands as theSenkaku, whereas Japan refers to the islands as the Diaoyu. According to ABC News, “Saturday, Beijing issued a map of the zone and a set ofrules that say all aircraft must notify Chinese authorities and aresubject to emergency military measures if they do not identifythemselves or obey Beijing’s orders.” According to the BBC, “[China’sdefense ministry] said aircraft entering the zone must obey its rules or face ‘emergency defensive measures.’” The islands have been a source of tension between the two Asian nations for decades.

•    U.S.Sec. of Def. Chuck Hagel said, This announcement by the People’sRepublic of China will not in any way change how the United Statesconducts military operations in the region. … We remain steadfast in our commitments to our allies and partners. According to the ChristianScience Monitor, “The United States, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan haveall rejected, condemned or regretted Beijing’s announcement Saturdaythat all foreign aircraft must file flight plans before entering itsnewly declared zone, which includes Japanese-administered islands thatChina also claims.” The U.S. maintains significant ground, Naval, andair forces in the region, including a formidable military presence onthe nearby Japanese island of Okinawa.

•    The Washington Postreports, “When missiles fired by CIA drones slammed into Yemen andPakistan last week, the attacks ended a period of relative quiet for[Washington’s] lethal counterterrorism program. They also served as areminder that the CIA is not ready to relinquish its role in the dronewar.” (As previously reported, the media frequently mislabels unmannedaerial vehicles or UAVs as drones. UAVs are designed for aerial strikesand reconnaissance. Drones are designed to be “shot down” as airbornetargets during testing.)

•    The majority of UAV strikes against terrorist targets, worldwide, continues to be coordinated by CIA,though there is a move between CIA and the U.S. Dept. of Defense (DoD)to have UAV attack operations brought under DoD’s U.S. Joint SpecialOperations Command.

•    Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu said “The world had become a ‘more dangerous place’ as aresult” of the interim, multinational deal, led by the U.S., aimed atcurbing Iran’s nuclear program “in exchange for lifting some sanctions”against the Shia Islamist state. According to FOX News, Netanyahu“reiterated a long-standing threat to use military action against Iranif needed, declaring that Israel ‘has the right and the duty to defenditself by itself.’”

•    Iran – which has frequently called forthe “death” of both Israel and the U.S. – is the primary supporter ofthe Lebanon-based terrorist group, Hezbollah.

– W. Thomas Smith Jr. is a military analyst and partner with
NATIONAL DEFENSE CONSULTANTS, LLC. Visit him at http://uswriter.com