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Tag: military

  • ‘Joe Biden is your best friend, until he isn’t’

    ‘Joe Biden is your best friend, until he isn’t’

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    Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe. 

    TEL AVIV — Do Israel’s Western allies really believe that the country has the right to defend itself?

    Israelis aren’t sure.

    To varying degrees since the military offensive was launched against Hamas, Western allies have sought to persuade Israel to curtail the campaign, and clearly some would prefer for it to be aborted altogether.

    Reeling from the shock at the sheer ISIS-like savagery of the Hamas attack on kibbutzim in southern Israel, Western allies quickly embraced Israel’s right to self-defense. But many hedged this right from the get-go with caveats — some justified — about the lack of a defining post-war end goal.

    There was handwringing also about the risks of the war expanding and inflaming the whole region and worry, too, that Israel might allow its anger to push it into over-reaching.

    Behind the scenes, the Biden administration was urging Benjamin Netanyahu to delay launching the offensive — a bid to run the clock, hoping the passing of time might lead Israel to scale back its military plans.

    And, of course, as the death toll in Gaza climbed, the shock of October 7 wore off for many Western allies.

    France’s Emmanuel Macron was the first major Western leader to call for a cessation of hostilities, making him an unsurprising outlier. But others have not been far behind, and now they hope to stretch the four-day truce for as long as possible, which would provide further time and opportunity to pile pressure on Israel to halt the military campaign for good. Or at least scale it back considerably.

    Characteristically, U.S. President Joe Biden has been inconsistent, trying to have it all ways.

    Two weeks ago, when asked what the chances were for a cease-fire in Gaza, Biden was in warrior mode and dismissive. “None. No possibility,” he said.

    In an op-ed in the Washington Post on November 18, he wrote: “We stand firmly with the Israeli people as they defend themselves against the murderous nihilism of Hamas.” He highlighted how he’d quickly gone to Israel after October 7 to “reaffirm to the world that the United States has Israel’s back.”

    “As long as Hamas clings to its ideology of destruction, a cease-fire is not peace. To Hamas’s members, every cease-fire is time they exploit to rebuild their stockpile of rockets, reposition fighters and restart the killing by attacking innocents again. An outcome that leaves Hamas in control of Gaza would once more perpetuate its hate and deny Palestinian civilians the chance to build something better for themselves,” he wrote.

    U.S. President Joe Biden speaks as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listens on prior to their meeting in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023 | Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

    But less than a week later, while in Nantucket, Massachusetts for Thanksgiving, that was all forgotten and Biden struck a different chord saying “the chances are real” that the pause could open the door to a longer cease-fire.

    No worries there about how Hamas exploits every cease-fire for war preparations.

    Admittedly, Biden hasn’t talked yet of a permanent cease-fire and he’s linked any truces to the release of hostages. But the change in the mood music was striking and has been noted in Israel, where there’s rising anxiety that the Biden administration is making electoral calculations swayed by progressive Democrats, Arab leaders and Europeans.

    The problem with that is Hamas doesn’t really want a permanent end to hostilities, Israelis argue. Just ask Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas’ political bureau and a man some once suggested was a moderate, they say. Speaking on Lebanese television in October he applauded the slaughter of October 7 and promised that Hamas “will do this again and again.”

    “There will be a second, a third, a fourth,” he added. “Israel is a country that has no place on our land. We must remove that country, because it constitutes a security, military, and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation, and must be finished,” he declared.

    Israelis question whether the United States — as well as most other Western allies — really understand that Hamas isn’t interested in political negotiations about a two-state solution. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” means what it says. No Jewish state.

    Politicians across the ideological spectrum in Israel are always careful to praise Biden publicly, but most are suspicious of the U.S. president, noting his inconstancy and his long-established pattern to talk grandiosely but act cautiously. And then there’s his habit of switching positions.

    In fact, the quip doing the rounds in Tel Aviv is that “Biden is your best friend, until he isn’t.”

    Others note the U.S. leader tends to go by his gut instincts when making decisions. “Does that mean we’re hostages to the fortunes of his digestive tract?” an aide to a member of Israel’s security cabinet remarked to me last week. He asked not to be named, not wanting to impact his boss’s relations with the White House.

    While some Israelis fault Netanyahu for reaching too easily for Holocaust comparisons and of failing to define a day-after governance plan for Gaza when Hamas is no more, the one overwhelming message from most is that this time Hamas must be defeated comprehensively, and that a truncated military campaign would in effect be a win for Hamas.

    Opinion polls bear that out with Israeli attitudes towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more hawkish than at any time in recent memory. Only 24.5 percent of Israeli Jews favor peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority – a fall from 47.6 in favor in September.

    In a survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute before the current pause, only 10 percent of Israeli Jews said they would support a pause in fighting to exchange hostages.

    A woman holds an Israeli flag and a portrait of a hostage during a protest asking for the release of Israeli hostages in Tel Aviv on November 25, 2023 | Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP via Getty Images

    Meanwhile, 44 percent said they wanted the government to negotiate for the hostages’ return without any pause and 27 percent said there should be no negotiations, only fighting. And 12 percent said hostage talks should only take place when Hamas has been defeated.

    Israelis do worry that international pressure will mount to such an extent that they are compelled to stop the war on Hamas far short of the war aims. A halt now or before the goal has been accomplished would be “for Yahya Sinwar [Hamas’ leader in Gaza] a victory,” says Michael Milshtein, a former head of the Department for Palestinians Affairs in Israel’s Defense Intelligence agency.

    “If this war ends with Hamas’ survival, it will further weaken the PLO-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and we can kiss goodbye to any serious talks in the future about a two-state solution or a political settlement with the Palestinians. Hamas isn’t interested in a political resolution – it wants to extinguish the state of Israel,” Milshtein adds. The only question will be when the next war will begin, he and others say.

    “We have to end their capability of threatening Israel ever again,” Ophir Falk, Benjamin Netanyahu’s top foreign policy adviser, told me. “This can’t be just another cycle of violence. Almost everybody in Israel is fully united. The people in the streets and the government and the cabinet and everybody understands that this is a must thing for us to do,” he added.

    So, what if the pressure mounts from Western allies for a cessation of hostilities? “No, that’s not an option,” Falk told me. “We are going to destroy Hamas. And asking us for a ceasefire would be like asking for a ceasefire after 9/11 or Pearl Harbor. It’s just not going to happen,” he added.

    Pretty much across the board, Israelis from all walks of life are unequivocal: There should be no let-up in the campaign to uproot Hamas from Gaza. “This isn’t Bibi’s war; it is Israel’s war,” I have been told time and again the past month. 

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    Jamie Dettmer

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  • Putin’s buddy Orbán pushes EU to the brink over Ukraine

    Putin’s buddy Orbán pushes EU to the brink over Ukraine

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    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán regularly pushes the EU to the cliff edge, but diplomats are panicking that his hostility to Ukraine is now about to finally kick the bloc over the precipice.

    A brewing political crisis is set to boil over at a summit in mid-December when EU leaders are due to make a historic decision on bringing Ukraine into the 27-nation club and seal a key budget deal to throw a €50 billion lifeline to Kyiv’s flailing war economy. The meeting is supposed to signal to the U.S. that, despite the political distraction over the war in the Middle East, the EU is fully committed to Ukraine. 

    Those hopes look likely to be knocked off course by Orbán, a strongman who cultivates close ties with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and who is widely seen as having undermined democracy and rule of law at home. He is demanding the whole political and financial process should be put on ice until leaders agree to a wholesale review of EU support for Kyiv.

    That gives EU leaders a massive headache. Although Hungary only represents 2 percent of the EU population, Orbán can hold the bloc hostage as it is supposed to act unanimously on big strategic decisions — and they hardly come bigger than initiating accession talks with Ukraine.

    It’s far from the first time Orbán is throwing a spanner in the works of the EU’s sausage making machine. Indeed, he has been the most vocal opponent of sanctions against Russia ever since Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. But this time is different, EU diplomats and officials said. 

    “We are heading toward a major crisis,” one EU official said, who was granted anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations. One senior EU diplomat warned this could become “one of the most difficult European Councils.”  

    Orbán is playing the long game, said Péter Krekó, director of the Budapest-based Political Capital Institute. “Orbán has been waiting for Europe to realize that it’s not possible to win the war in Ukraine and that Kyiv has to make concessions. (…) Now, he feels his time is coming because Ukraine fatigue is going up in public opinion in many EU countries.”

    In theory, there is a nuclear option on the table — one that would cut Hungary out of EU political decisions — but countries feel that emergency cord is toxic because of the precedent it would deliver on EU disunity and fragmentation. For now, the European leaders seem to be taking to their usual approach of fawning courtship of the EU’s bad boy to try to coax out a compromise.

    European Council President Charles Michel, whose job it is to forge deals between the 27 leaders, is leading the softly-softly pursuit of a compromise. He travelled to Budapest earlier this week for an intense two hour discussion with Orbán. While the meeting did not reach an immediate break-through, it was useful to understand Orbán’s concerns, another EU official said.

    It’s all about the money

    Some EU diplomats interpret Orbán’s threats as a strategy to raise pressure on the European Commission, which is holding back €13 billion in EU funds for Hungary over concerns that the country is falling foul of the EU’s standards on rule of law. 

    Others however said it’s a mistake not to look beyond the immediate transactional tactics. Orbán has long been questioning the EU’s Ukraine strategy, but was largely ignored or portrayed as a puppet for Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

    “We were watching it, amazed, but maybe we didn’t take enough time to actually listen,” a second senior EU diplomat acknowledged.

    Some EU diplomats interpret Orbán’s threats as a strategy to raise pressure on the European Commission | Peter Kohalmi/AFP via Getty Images

    Increasingly, the leader of the Fidesz party has been isolated in Brussels. Previous peacemakers such as former German Chancellor Angela Merkel or other Orbán-whisperers from the so-called Visegrád Four — Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic — are no longer there. The expected comeback of Donald Tusk for Poland, a pro-EU and anti-Russian leader, will only heighten Orbán’s status as the lonely, defiant hold-out.

    “There is no one left to talk sense into Orbán,” a third EU official said. “He is now undermining the EU from within.”

    Guns on the table

    As frustration grows, the EU is weighing how to deal with the Hungarian threats.

    In theory, Brussels could come out with the big guns and use the EU’s so-called Article 7 procedure against Hungary, used when a country is considered at risk of breaching the bloc’s core values. The procedure is sometimes called the EU’s “nuclear option” as it provides for the most serious political sanction the bloc can impose on a member country — the suspension of the right to vote on EU decisions.

    Because of those far-reaching consequences, there is reticence to roll out this option against Hungary. When EU leaders brought in “diplomatic sanctions” against Austria in 2000, the day after the party of Austrian far-right leader Jörg Haider entered the coalition, it backfired. Many Austrians were angry at EU interference and anti-EU sentiment soared. Sanctions were lifted later that year. 

    There is now a widespread feeling in Brussels that Article 7 could create a similar backlash in Budapest, fueling populism and in the longer term potentially even trigger a snowball effect leading to an unintended Hungarian exit of the bloc.

    Given those fears, diplomats are doubling down on ways to work around a Hungarian veto.

    One option is to split the €50 billion from 2024 to 2027 for Ukraine into smaller amounts on an annual basis, three officials said. But critics warn this option would fall short in the goal of offering greater predictability and certainty to Ukraine’s struggling public finances. It would also send a bad political signal: if the EU can’t make a long term commitment to Ukraine, then how can it ask the U.S. to do the same? 

    The same dilemma goes for the EU’s planned military aid. EU countries could use bilateral deals rather than EU structures such as the European Peace Facility to send military aid to Ukraine — effectively freezing out Budapest. Yet this would mean that the EU as such plays no role in providing weapons, an admission of impotence that is hard to swallow and hurts EU unity toward Kyiv.

    It’s “obvious” that concern is growing about EU political support for Ukraine, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told POLITICO. “At first it’s Hungary, now, more countries are doubtful whether there’s a path.” 

    Asked about Hungary’s objections, Ruslan Stefanchuk, the chairman of Ukraine’s parliament, told POLITICO: “Ukraine is going to the European Union and Ukraine has followed all the recommendations (…) I want to make sure that all member states respect the progress that Ukraine has demonstrated.” 

    The long game 

    That leaves one other default option, and it’s an EU classic: kicking the can down the road and pushing key decisions on Ukraine policy to early next year. Apart from Hungary, Berlin is also struggling with the consequences of Germany’s top court wiping out €60 billion from a climate fund — thus creating a huge hole in its budget. 

    Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, center, during a summit in Brussels | Nicolas Maeterlinck/Belga via AFP/Getty Images

    Such a delay would also lead to stories about fractured EU unity, said another EU diplomat. But “in the real world it wouldn’t be a problem because the Ukraine budget is fine until March 2024.”

    But for others, buying time is tricky. Europe is heading to the polls in June next year, which makes sensitive decision-making harder. “Getting closer to the elections will not make things easier,” the second EU official said, while stressing that fast decisions are key for Ukraine. “For Zelenskyy, this is existential to keep up morale on the battlefield.”

    Both, like another official quoted in this story, were granted anonymity to speak freely.

    Increasingly, Brussels is also worried about Orbán’s long game. 

    There is a constant stream of attacks coming from Budapest against Brussels, on issues ranging from democratic deficit to culture wars over the EU’s migration policy. The latest example is an aggressive euroskeptic advertising campaign featuring posters targeting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen herself. The posters show von der Leyen next to Alexander Soros, the son of George Soros, chair of the Open Society Foundations, with the line: “Let’s not dance to the tune they whistle!”

    “Nobody feels comfortable given what’s going on in Hungary,” Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn told reporters on Thursday. “It’s very difficult to digest given the campaign that he’s leading against the EU and against the president. When he’s asking his people many things, he’s not asking if the Union is so much worse than USSR why is he not leaving?”

    But Orbán seems more eager to hijack the EU from within rather than jump ship, as the U.K. did. Increasingly, he also feels the wind is blowing his way after the recent election results in Slovakia and the Netherlands, said Krekó, where the winners are on the same page as him when it comes to Ukraine, migration or gender issues.

    Hungary’s prime minister was quick to congratulate the winner of the Dutch election, the vehemently anti-EU Geert Wilders, saying that “the winds of change are here.” 

    “Orbán plays the long game,” the third EU official said. “With Wilders, one or two more far-right leaders in Europe and a potential return of Trump he could soon be less isolated than we all think.”

    Gregorio Sorgi, Nicolas Camut, Stuart Lau and Jakob Hanke Vela contributed reporting.

    CORRECTION: This story has been amended to correct a quote on Ukraine’s budget.

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    Barbara Moens, Nicholas Vinocur and Jacopo Barigazzi

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  • Israel steps up pounding of Gaza after collapse of truce

    Israel steps up pounding of Gaza after collapse of truce

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    The Israeli military on Saturday stepped up its bombing of Gaza Strip, intensifying its renewed bombing on the second day after a truce between Israel and Hamas collapsed, with Israel accusing Hamas of violating the terms of the agreement.

    The Israel Defense Forces IDF said on X on Saturday that Israeli strikes hit a total of over 400 terrorist targets in Gaza, including more than 50 targets in the area of Khan Yunis and an Islamic Jihad operational command center inside a mosque, as well as military targets used by Hamas Naval Force.

    The BBC reported that hundreds of Gaza residents were seen leaving to the western part of Khan Yunis after the Israeli army on Friday dropped leaflets over the area warning people to leave.

    Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo earlier Saturday said he had spoken with Israel’s president following the resumption of fighting in Gaza and told him there could be no more killing of civilians. “I’ve addressed my concerns about the fact that violence has started again and I’ve again repeated what I said at the Rafah gate: no more civilian killings,” De Croo told reporters at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, according to a Reuters report.

    Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Friday skipped a speech he was scheduled to give at the COP28 meeting and accused Hamas of “blatantly” violating the truce. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on his X account that the fight against Hamas will continue “until we achieve all our goals: the return of all our abductees, the elimination of Hamas, and the promise that Gaza will never be a threat to Israel again.”

    Hamas launched a violent attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing at least 1,200 people and taking hundreds of hostages. Since then, Israel has been carrying out retaliatory strikes on the besieged enclave, killing more than 11,000 Palestinians, according to both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

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    Pierre Emmanuel Ngendakumana

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  • NATO should be ready for ‘bad news’ from Ukraine, Stoltenberg warns

    NATO should be ready for ‘bad news’ from Ukraine, Stoltenberg warns

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    NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that the Western military alliance should be ready for bad news from the Ukrainian front as Kyiv continues to defend against Russia’s all-out invasion.

    “Wars develop in phases,” Stoltenberg said in an interview Saturday with German broadcaster ARD. “We have to support Ukraine in both good and bad times,” he said.

    “We should also be prepared for bad news,” Stoltenberg added, without being more specific.

    His comments come as Western allies debate over ammunition and financial aid for Ukraine, and as Moscow boosts its troop levels. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Friday to increase the number of soldiers by some 170,000 to a total of 1.3 million.

    The front lines have moved little in recent months despite Kyiv’s counteroffensive during the summer. But the Ukrainians have used cruise missiles to push back the Russian fleet in the Black Sea and have caused damage deep in Russian territory

    “These are big victories even though they haven’t been able to move the front line,” Stoltenberg said in the interview.

    Stoltenberg called on NATO’s members to ramp up the production of ammunition, bemoaning the fragmented state of Europe’s defense industry.

    “We’re not able to work as closely together as we should,” he said, urging governments to look beyond their national interests and see the big picture.

    A victory for Putin would not only be a tragedy for Ukraine but it would also present a danger for the rest of the allies, Stoltenberg said. “The more we support the Ukraine, the faster the war will end.”

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    Bjarke Smith-Meyer

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  • Netanyahu: Don’t accuse me of boosting Hamas with Qatari money

    Netanyahu: Don’t accuse me of boosting Hamas with Qatari money

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    Paul Ronzheimer is the deputy editor-in-chief of BILD and a senior journalist reporting for Axel Springer, the parent company of POLITICO.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vehemently denied accusations he allowed Qatar to fund and strengthen the militant group Hamas in order to divide Palestinians into rival political camps, slamming the claims as “ridiculous.”

    Netanyahu’s opponents in Israel argue his government spent years actively boosting Hamas in Gaza by allowing Qatar to channel hundreds of millions of dollars to the coastal enclave in a risky game of “divide-and-rule,” that was meant to play the Islamist militants from Hamas off against the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

    “It’s a big lie that I wanted to build [up] Hamas. Ridiculous,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Axel Springer, POLITICO’s parent company. “You don’t go to war three times with Hamas or do major military operations if you want to build up Hamas.”

    Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is a leading example of a politician who takes that version of events with a pinch of salt. “In the last 15 years, Israel did everything to downgrade the Palestinian Authority and to boost Hamas,” he previously told POLITICO. “Gaza was on the brink of collapse because they had no resources, they had no money, and the PA refused to give Hamas any money. Bibi saved them. Bibi made a deal with Qatar and they started to move millions and millions of dollars to Gaza.”

    Most incriminatingly, Netanyahu himself said in 2019 at a Likud party conference: “Anyone who wants to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state needs to support strengthening Hamas.”

    Netanyahu on Tuesday, however, dismissed those charges, claiming he only allowed Qatari money to flow into Gaza to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe, not to strengthen the arm of the administration there.

    “We wanted to avoid a civilian humanitarian collapse — disease, rampant hunger and other things that would have created an impossible humanitarian situation,” he said. “That’s why successive Israeli governments allowed this money to go in, not in order to strengthen Hamas. We didn’t want to strengthen Hamas at all. We wanted to weaken it and degrade its capabilities as far as we could.”

    Israel and Hamas are on the fifth day of a fragile truce — which has so far allowed for the release of 69 of the 240 hostages taken by the militant group during its October 7 attack.

    But all eyes are now turned to the “day after” and what the end of the truce will mean for Israel and Gaza.

    Netanyahu said Israel would keep its side of the truce as long as Hamas keeps its, but he noted that Hamas would still have to be destroyed after the cease-fire ends.

    “Make no mistake: we shall continue our military efforts to eradicate Hamas, because Hamas says very clearly that it will repeat the savagery over and over and over,” he said.

    And after Israel has defeated Hamas, he said, the goal will be twofold: to de-militarize and de-radicalize Gaza.

    “Our goal is to make sure that Gaza does not revert to the kind of horrible threat it was to Israel before the war,” Netanyahu said.

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    Paul Ronzheimer and Claudia Chiappa

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  • Joe Biden’s secret Ukraine weapon: Liz Truss

    Joe Biden’s secret Ukraine weapon: Liz Truss

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    LONDON —  She might have crashed Britain. But can she save the world?

    Former U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss landed in Washington this week to drum up support for Ukraine among skeptical Republican lawmakers.  

    On both sides of the Atlantic there are hopes Truss can help steer the debate on the American right away from isolationism and toward the active international role espoused by both U.K. prime minister Rishi Sunak and U.S. President Joe Biden.

    Truss — no fan of either man — makes for an unlikely diplomatic superhero.

    The trip comes barely a year after her humiliating resignation ended a disastrous tenure as Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister. Since the end of her 49-day stint in Downing Street, Truss has tried to carve out a place for herself as a champion of right-wing policies around the world.

    She is in Washington this week as part of a delegation of the Conservative Friends of Ukraine (CFU), alongside fellow former Tory leaders Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard. The group has a packed schedule, with around two dozen meetings planned with conservative U.S. lawmakers and think tanks.

    The delegation’s arrival coincides with a stand-off between Biden and Republican lawmakers, who are stalling on a request to send billions more dollars in military aid to Ukraine. Congress has twice passed spending bills this fall that omitted funding for the conflict.

    Republicans have sought to tie support for Ukraine with measures to strengthen the U.S–Mexican border.

    Former President Donald Trump, who is widely expected to secure the Republican nomination for next year’s general election — and whom polling suggests is ahead of Biden in a series of key battleground states — shares this skeptical view of Ukraine aid. Back in May, Trump refused to say even whether he thought Ukraine or Russia should prevail in the war.

    A showdown is expected next week with a potential vote in the Senate on Joe Biden’s $106 billion aid package — $61.4 billion of which is earmarked for Ukraine. Senior diplomats on both sides of the Atlantic hope Truss could help break the impasse.

    One U.K. official said of the delegation: “They bring a more authentic voice to those kind of Republicans who like speaking to people from their own party — they’re not encumbered by government policy, they don’t have to sort of say nice things about the [Biden] administration.

    “If that resonates with Republican lawmakers in a way that governments don’t, then all to the good.”

    “We’ve targeted Trump-leaning or Trump-supporting Republicans to try and get them to think strategically,” Tory MP Jake Lopresti said | Jim Vondruska/Getty Images

    Showing the right what’s right

    Truss’ full-bodied right-wing agenda might have ended in disaster in Downing Street — but it puts her in a good stead with the Republican right.

    Far from being nice about the Biden administration, Truss was quick to explicitly endorse the Republican Party ahead of her trip, writing in the Wall Street Journal that she hoped “a Republican will be returned to the White House in 2024.”

    She went on: “There must be conservative leadership in the U.S. that is once again bold enough to call out hostile regimes as evil and a threat.”

    The CFU said there is no meeting with Trump himself on its agenda. Instead, Jake Lopresti, a Tory MP who is among the delegation, told POLITICO the group was focusing on lawmakers ahead of the expected Senate vote next week. “We’ve targeted Trump-leaning or Trump-supporting Republicans to try and get them to think strategically,” he said.

    Lopresti said the case the delegation was making was simple: “If you want to avoid conflict in the future, you have to have a strong deterrent. There’s trouble bubbling up all over the world. It’s a bit like the 1930s.

    “It’s cheaper and cleaner and quicker to actually solve it now, send a message — we won’t allow people to walk into other people’s countries in the 21st century. Ukraine is an independent nation, free, democratic. It’s got a right to run its own affairs.”

    High stakes

    John E. Herbst, a senior director at the Atlantic Council — and former U.S. Ambassador to Kyiv — said his think tank is supporting the delegation because it agrees Washington has a “vital stake … in making sure Russia loses in Ukraine.”

    “When Tory MPs come to the United States to explain to populist Republicans that the policy view of those Republicans on Ukraine is a great mistake, we think they should be supported,” he said.

    Notably, the delegation is following in Boris Johnson’s footsteps — another former British PM who has travelled to Washington several times this year to bring the case for supporting Ukraine to wavering Republican lawmakers.

    Johnson addressed a lunch organized by a pro-Ukraine think tank deep in the Republican territory of Dallas, Texas, where he told those present that victory for Vladimir Putin would be “terrible in its ramifications.” He evoked China’s claim over Taiwan, a major foreign policy concern for U.S. politicians of all stripes — especially Republicans.

    Duncan Smith, who has been sanctioned by China for criticizing its human rights record, similarly warned in a speech to the Heritage Foundation this week that the conflict in Ukraine and China’s threats against Taiwan are “linked inexorably” by a “new axis of totalitarian states.”

    “To ignore one is to multiply the danger in the others,” he said. “If Ukraine loses or is forced into some weak settlement with Russia … this in turn will be the strongest signal that the free world will not stand by Taiwan.”

    Whether enough Republicans are ready to listen remains to be seen.

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    Eleni Courea and Esther Webber

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  • Ukraine blows up main railway connection between Russia and China

    Ukraine blows up main railway connection between Russia and China

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    Ukraine’s security service blew up a railway connection linking Russia to China, in a clandestine strike carried out deep into enemy territory, with pro-Kremlin media reporting that investigators have opened a criminal case into a “terrorist attack.”

    The SBU set off several explosions inside the Severomuysky tunnel of the Baikal-Amur highway in Buryatia, located some 6,000 kilometers east of Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official with direct knowledge of the operation told POLITICO.

    “This is the only serious railway connection between the Russian Federation and China. And currently, this route, which Russia uses, including for military supplies, is paralyzed,” the official said.

    Four explosive devices went off while a cargo train was moving inside the tunnel. “Now the (Russian) Federal Security Service is working on the spot, the railway workers are unsuccessfully trying to minimize the consequences of the SBU special operation,” the Ukrainian official added.

    Ukraine’s security service has not publicly confirmed the attack. Russia has also so far not confirmed the sabotage.

    “On the Itikit — Okusykan stretch in Buryatia, while driving through the tunnel, the locomotive crew of the cargo train noticed smoke from one of the diesel fuel tanks. The train was stopped, and two fire extinguishing trains were sent from nearby towns to help. The movement of trains was not interrupted, it was organized along a bypass section with a slight increase in travel time,” Russia’s state railroad company RZHD said in a statement on Thursday.

    This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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    Veronika Melkozerova

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  • NATO front-runner Mark Rutte faces flak over low Dutch defense spending

    NATO front-runner Mark Rutte faces flak over low Dutch defense spending

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    BRUSSELS — Outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is emerging as the front-runner to be the new NATO chief, but faces resistance in Washington from lawmakers who accuse the Netherlands of underspending on defense on his watch, and from others who think it’s time for a woman at the top.

    In what’s shaping up to be at least a three-person race, Rutte is considered a strong favorite, according to two European officials and a diplomat granted anonymity to talk about internal deliberations.

    “He’s certainly a heavyweight, he’s a very good candidate,” Poland’s Ambassador to NATO Tomasz Szatkowski said at an event hosted by POLITICO Pro Defense on Tuesday.

    One of the officials said the longtime Dutch leader had won the support of “senior U.S. and German officials.”

    France, another crucial decision-maker, is also favoring Rutte, driven primarily by his personal rapport with President Emmanuel Macron, who was one of Rutte’s earliest cheerleaders in his quest for the NATO top job.

    “That Macron and Rutte appreciate each other is no secret,” said a French diplomat.

    However, some American lawmakers adamantly oppose Rutte, as the Netherlands has consistently failed to meet NATO’s defense spending target of 2 percent of gross domestic product.

    That pits him unfavorably against Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who signaled interest in the NATO job while in Washington last week. Her government agreed to raise defence spending to 3 percent of GDP for 2024-2027, from 2.85 percent this year. Tallinn has also been an outsize supporter of Ukraine in terms of weaponry.

    The underdog is Latvia’s Foreign Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, whose announcement on Sunday that he was running was even a surprise to some in Riga, according to a diplomat.

    The candidacies of Kallas and Kariņš ruffle some Western European feathers — still smarting from the intense criticism they faced from Baltic nations that they are insufficiently supportive of Ukraine and too fearful to challenge Russia.

    The White House was coy when asked whether U.S. President Joe Biden prefers Rutte.

    “We’re not going to get into internal deliberations over the next secretary general,” said National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson. “We look forward to working closely with allies to identify a secretary general who can lead the alliance at this critical time for transatlantic security.”

    Penny-pincher

    For some, though, the record of burden sharing in a secretary-general candidate’s home country does matter politically, and Washington is scrutinizing that closely.

    U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska and senior of member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Rutte “should be unequivocally disqualified” over his country’s record on NATO burden sharing. He said there is “deep bipartisan frustration in the U.S. about NATO members not pulling their weight.”

    Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas signaled interest in the NATO job while in Washington last week | Leon Neal/Getty Images

    The Netherlands has a poor track record. In 2014 it spent only 1.15 percent of its GDP on defense, while the alliance has a 2 percent spending goal. This year, The Hague will spend 1.7 percent of GDP and has agreed to spend 2.03 percent in 2024 and 2.01 percent in 2025.

    Ahead of July’s NATO summit in Vilnius, Sullivan led a bipartisan group of 35 senators in writing a letter to Biden urging him to ensure NATO countries meet their defense spending commitments. That tally — which amounts to more than a third of the U.S. Senate — hints at the potent politics of burden sharing in Washington.

    Congress’ ongoing negotiations over its annual defense legislation include a provision from Sullivan that would require the Pentagon to prioritize NATO members that hit the 2 percent target when making decisions about U.S. military basing, training, and exercises.

    Some in Biden’s own Democratic Party also believe it’s time for a woman to run NATO.

    “I’ve long thought it was time the allies appoint the first woman NATO secretary general,” Senate NATO Observer Group Co-Chair Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, said in a statement.

    “That said, it’s critical that support for NATO remains strong and bipartisan in the Senate and for that to happen, the successor for this important position should hail from a country that is meeting the 2 percent defense spending commitment, or has a robust plan in place to meet that goal, which was agreed to by all allies in Vilnius,” she added.

    With NATO helping coordinate members’ efforts to help Ukraine fight Russia, there are also calls for someone from the eastern flank of the alliance to become the next leader.

    “Maybe at some point it is also [the] right time for the alliance to look at the region of Eastern Europe,” Ukraine’s Ambassador to NATO Natalia Galibarenko told POLITICO. “So my preference … would be at some point to see [a] secretary-general representing Eastern Europe.”

    Such as Kallas?

    “Why not?” said the Ukrainian envoy.

    With additional reporting from Clea Caulcutt. and Joshua Posaner. Joe Gould and Alexander Ward reported from Washington.

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    Stuart Lau, Alexander Ward and Joe Gould

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  • Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 635

    Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 635

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    As the war enters its 635th day, these are the main developments.

    Here is the situation on Monday, November 20, 2023.

    Fighting

    • The Ukrainian army said it has pushed Russian forces back as far as 8km (5 miles) from the banks of Dnipro river in the southern Kherson region. Ukrainian and Russian forces have been entrenched on opposite sides of the Dnipro for more than a year after Russia withdrew its troops from the western bank last November. Ukraine said last week it had made a breakthrough. “Preliminary figures vary from 3 to 8 kilometres (2 to 5 miles), depending on the specifics, geography and landscape of the left bank,” army spokeswoman Natalia Gumenyuk told Ukrainian television when asked how much progress Kyiv had made. She added that there remained a “lot of work to do”.
    • The United Kingdom’s defence ministry said that there were “few immediate prospects of major changes in the front line,” saying neither Russia nor Ukraine had made meaningful progress on the battlefield. In a statement, it said that intense fighting was concentrated near Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, Avdiivka in the Dontesk region, and on the left bank of the Dnipro River.
    • Russia launched several waves of drone attacks on Kyiv for the second successive night, triggering air raid warnings. Ukraine’s Air Force said its air defence systems destroyed 15 of the 20 Shahed kamikaze drones targeting the Kyiv, Poltava and Cherkasy regions. There were no initial reports of “critical damage” or casualties. On Saturday, Russian drone attacks caused power outages in more than 400 towns and villages in the south, southeast and north of Ukraine.
    • Five people, including a three-year-old girl who was outside with her grandmother, were injured in Russian artillery shelling of Kherson, according to Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. One person was killed by shelling in the northeastern Sumy region.
    Ukrainian teenager Bohdan Yermokhin (right) finally returned home after being taken by Russia last year [Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP Photo]
    • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded swift changes in the operations of Ukraine’s military as he met Defence Minister Rustem Umerov. Zelenskyy said “priorities were set” noting there was “little time left to wait for results”. Zelenskyy said he had also replaced Major-General Tetiana Ostashchenko as commander of the Armed Forces Medical Forces, saying the armed forces needed a “fundamentally new level of medical support”.

    Politics and diplomacy

    • Bohdan Yermokhin, an orphaned Ukrainian teenager who was taken to Russia from the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol during the war and prevented from leaving in March, has returned to Ukraine. Yermokhin, now 18, told the Reuters news agency his return was a “very pleasant gift”. Ukraine estimates about 20,000 children have been taken illegally by Russia. Zelenskyy welcomed Yermokhin’s return and thanked Ukrainian officials, international organisations, and particularly UNICEF, and authorities in Qatar for help in mediation.
    • Zelenskyy imposed sanctions on 37 Russian groups and 108 people including two former Ukrainian top officials now in Russia for their alleged involvement “in the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children from the occupied territory” and individuals who “in various ways help Russian terror against Ukraine”.
    • Pro-war Russian nationalist Igor Girkin, who is in custody awaiting trial for inciting extremism, said he wanted to run for president. Also known by the alias Igor Strelkov, the former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer has repeatedly said Russia will face a revolution and even a civil war unless President Vladimir Putin’s military top brass fight the war in Ukraine more effectively. Girkin helped Russia to annex Crimea in 2014 and then to organise pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine.

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  • Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 630

    Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 630

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    As the war enters its 630th day, these are the main developments.

    Here is the situation on Wednesday, November 15, 2023.

    Fighting

    • Russia intensified air bombardments and ground assaults around the ruined eastern town of Avdiivka, 20km (12 miles) from the Russian-held Ukrainian city of Donetsk. Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Shtupun told national television that Ukrainian forces had repelled eight attacks in the previous 24 hours on Avdiivka, known for its vast coking plant. “Fighting is still going on. Over the last two days, the occupiers have increased the number of air strikes using guided bombs from Su-35 aircraft,” Shtupun said. “The enemy is also bringing in more and more infantry.”
    • Separately, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the head of Ukraine’s ground forces, said that Russia continued to launch simultaneous assault attempts on Ukrainian positions around Bakhmut and Kupyansk, and had stepped up their use of kamikaze drones.
    • In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also focused on Avdiivka, saying Russian forces were losing men and equipment faster there than they did during months of battles near Bakhmut earlier this year. Zelenskyy said that the greater losses inflicted on Russian forces near the town, the worse would be Moscow’s overall position.
    • Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who is in the United States, told the Hudson Institute think tank that Ukrainian forces had “gained a foothold” on the east bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine in the first official acknowledgement of the breakthrough in the Kherson region. “Our counteroffensive is developing,” he said.
    • The Landmine Monitor said the number of civilians wounded or killed by landmines and explosive remnants of war in Ukraine soared to 608 in 2022, compared with 58 the year before. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
    • Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences destroyed four Ukrainian drones over the Moscow, Tambov, Orlov and Bryansk regions. There were no reports of casualties or damage.

    Politics and diplomacy

    • Former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov was pardoned over the 2006 killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya after enlisting with the Russian military in Ukraine. Politkovskaya, who investigated abuses in Russia’s Chechen war and was a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead in the lift of her Moscow apartment block. Khadzhikurbanov was found guilty in 2014 of organising the killing and jailed for 20 years.
    • Russia jailed a man for six years after he was found guilty of  “discrediting” the Russian military for defacing posters of Russian soldiers decorated as “heroes” for fighting in Ukraine. The man was identified only as a 46-year-old “local” to the central city of Tolyatti, where the posters were damaged. Human rights group Memorial named him as Alexei Arbuzenko, a teacher.
    • Oleksandr Dubinsky, a Ukrainian lawmaker who was formally notified this week that he was suspected of treason for allegedly cooperating with Russia’s military intelligence, said a Kyiv court had ordered him detained for 60 days. He did not say why. Dubinksy was put on a US sanctions list in 2021 when he was expelled from Ukraine’s ruling party.

    Weapons

    • Speaking at a European Union defence ministers meeting, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius admitted the bloc would miss its target of supplying Ukraine with 1 million artillery shells and missiles by next March because of production issues. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc had provided more than 300,000 artillery shells and missiles under the first track of the scheme, which involved EU member states delivering from their own stockpiles.

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  • PolitiFact – US military aid isn’t the majority of foreign assistance, contrary to what Marianne Williamson said

    PolitiFact – US military aid isn’t the majority of foreign assistance, contrary to what Marianne Williamson said

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    Does most of U.S. aid to foreign countries consist of military assistance? That’s what Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson said during a Nov. 7 town hall at a store in Manchester, New Hampshire.

    “So, when you look at most American aid over the last few decades, what do we mean by American aid to other countries?” Williamson said, in remarks captured by PolitiFact’s partner, WMUR-TV in New Hampshire. “The vast majority of it is military aid. And we sell arms to 60% of the world’s autocrats. We are the world’s largest arms exporters.”

    In reality, official federal data shows that U.S. military aid accounts for a minority of overall U.S. foreign aid. (We are checking the portion about arms exports separately.)

    Military vs. economic assistance

    U.S. military aid is defined as equipment, training and other defense-related services to national-level security forces of U.S. allies and partners. 

    The ForeignAid.gov website, a project of the State Department and the Agency for International Development, tracks U.S. foreign aid to every country, including the breakdown between economic and military aid. This source is the official one for such breakdowns, said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    It shows that for the most recent full year, 2022, the U.S. provided about $60 billion in economic aid and about $8.9 billion in military aid. That means about 13% of total aid was military aid.

    That was a smaller percentage for military aid than in other recent years; for instance in 2011, military aid accounted for about 38% of all foreign aid.

    Still, at no point in this century has military aid accounted for a majority of all U.S. foreign aid. 

    Our ruling

    Williamson said that looking at “American aid to other countries … the vast majority of it is military aid.”

    In 2022, military aid accounted for about 13% of overall U.S. foreign aid, and in this century, even at its peak, military aid has accounted for less than 40% of overall foreign aid.

    We rate the statement False.

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  • PolitiFact – Marianne Williamson correct that U.S. is world’s biggest arms exporter

    PolitiFact – Marianne Williamson correct that U.S. is world’s biggest arms exporter

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    In a recent appearance in New Hampshire, Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson said the U.S. is the world’s biggest arms exporter and sells widely to autocratic countries.

    “So, when you look at most American aid over the last few decades, what do we mean by American aid to other countries?” Williamson said at a Nov. 7 event at a store in Manchester, New Hampshire. “The vast majority of it is military aid. And we sell arms to 60% of the world’s autocrats. We are the world’s largest arms exporters.” The comments were captured by PolitiFact’s partner, WMUR-TV in New Hampshire.

    She’s correct about the U.S. being the world’s largest arms exporter, and that the U.S. sells heavily to autocratic governments. (We are checking her statement about military aid as a share of U.S. foreign aid separately.)

    Arms exports

    In the breadth of its arms exports, the U.S. leads every other country.

    Data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found that from 2018 to 2022, the U.S. accounted for 40% of arms transfers globally. The next closest country was Russia, at 16%.

    The U.S. share has been climbing. From 2013 to 2017, the U.S. accounted for 33% of global arms transfers. The three biggest importers of U.S. arms are Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia.

    Williamson said 60% of the military aid goes to the world’s autocrats, which appears to come from reporting in The Intercept, a left-leaning online publication. In May, it published a story that used federal data to calculate that, in 2022, the U.S. sold weapons to at least 57% of the world’s autocratic countries.

    For its definitions, it relied on the Varieties of Democracy project at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, which classifies regimes in four categories: closed autocracy, electoral autocracy, electoral democracy, and liberal democracy. The Intercept found that of the 84 nations categorized as autocracies in 2022, the United States sold weapons to 57%. Among the biggest autocratic importers of U.S. arms in recent years have been Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.

    Using another classification system, the Freedom in the World report published by the human rights group Freedom House, produced a nearly identical result of 58%.

    Our ruling

    Williamson said, “We sell arms to 60% of the world’s autocrats. We are the world’s largest arms exporters.”

    The U.S. is the world’s largest arms exporter, with 40% of the global share, easily ahead of Russia at 16%.

    We rate the statement True.

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  • Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 628

    Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 628

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    As the war enters, its 628th day, these are the main developments.

    Here is the situation on Monday, November 13, 2023.

    Fighting

    • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned Ukrainians to prepare for Russia to attack the country’s energy infrastructure as winter approaches in a repeat of last year’s relentless attacks on the power grid that left hundreds of thousands without heating or electricity in the coldest months of the year. “We must be prepared for the possibility that the enemy may increase the number of drone or missile strikes on our infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said in his daily address. “All our attention should be focused on defence… The Ukrainian air shield is already stronger than last year.”
    • On Saturday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the capital came under air attack for the first time in nearly two months. No major damage or casualties were reported in Kyiv itself, but some buildings were damaged in the Kyiv region.
    • Ukraine and Russia reported intensified fighting around the eastern city of Bakhmut, which was captured by Russia in May after months of heavy battles. The head of Ukraine’s ground forces, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Moscow’s forces were “more active” and “trying to recover lost positions”. Russian accounts of the fighting said its forces had repelled five Ukrainian attacks near the ruined city.
    • Ukrainian military intelligence said an explosion killed at least three Russian servicemen in the Russian-occupied southern town of Melitopol, which it described as an “act of revenge” by resistance groups.
    • Russian law enforcement said it had begun a “terrorism” investigation after a goods train was derailed by an improvised explosive device in the Ryazan region southwest of Moscow. Some 19 carriages travelling from the town of Rybnoye were thrown from the tracks and 15 were damaged, investigators wrote in a statement on social media.
    • Moscow accused Ukraine of carrying out a series of attacks in Russia’s border regions of Bryansk and Belgorod, damaging five railway carriages and injuring one person in the town of Valuyki some 30km (19 miles) from the border.
    Russia said it has begun a “terrorism” investigation after a cargo train was derailed by an explosive device in the Ryazan region [Investigative Committee of Russia via AP Photo]
    • A Ukrainian special forces commander played a key role in sabotaging the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September last year, according to a joint investigation by Der Spiegel and the Washington Post. Ukraine has denied being behind the attack.

    Politics and diplomacy

    • Ukraine presidential aide Andriy Yermak said he had arrived in the United States with a delegation headed by Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko for talks on cooperation and support. “I will have meetings in the White House, Congress, think tanks and with representatives of civil society organisations,” Yermak said, with discussions being focused on issues including “the President’s formula for peace” and strengthening Ukraine’s defence.

    Weapons

    • The German government has agreed in principle to double the country’s military aid for Ukraine next year to 8 billion euros ($8.5 billion), a political source told the Reuters news agency. Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, interviewed by broadcaster ARD, referred to the planned doubling of military aid to Ukraine as sending “a strong signal to Ukraine that we will not leave them in the lurch”. The plan needs parliamentary approval.

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  • A celebration of Black military heroism comes to Inglewood

    A celebration of Black military heroism comes to Inglewood

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    During World War I, Black soldiers like David Brewer’s grandfather were not allowed in combat. Instead, they lugged cargo, dug trenches and buried the dead for the U.S. Army.

    But as the Western Front continued to churn out the dead, France welcomed a group of Black Americans in 1918 to fight under their country’s banner.

    The group became known as the Harlem Hellfighters — one of the most renowned Black regiments in history.

    Brewer’s grandfather Sylvester Calhoun didn’t fight, but he helped the estimated 4,500 Black soldiers in France who turned the tide of the war.

    In 2014, Brewer, a retired vice admiral in the Navy — only the fifth African American to attain the rank — flew to France with his 94-year-old mother so she could see where her father had served with her own eyes.

    Actor Dennis Haysbert, left, moderated the panel of retired military leaders including the Air Force’s Lt. Gen. Stayce Harris and Maj. Gen. John F. Phillips, speaking.

    (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

    The pair found delight at the sounds of jazz on city streets — just one influence of the Black soldiers who came to France for the Great War.

    During World War II, Brewer’s uncle fought in the U.S. Army in Italy. Brewer’s father did not see combat during his service, but settled in Tuskegee, Ala., for his studies.

    “His classmate,” Brewer said, “was Gen. Chappie James” — the first Black man to become a four-star general in any U.S. military branch.

    Three men standing and talking in a large room as other people mill around behind them

    Former lawmaker Mark Ridley-Thomas, right, chats with retired Navy Vice Adm. David Brewer, center, and Marine Corps Reserve Maj. Gen. Leo V. Williams III after the panel discussion.

    (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

    On Wednesday, as Veterans Day neared, Brewer and five other Black military leaders brought their stories to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. They spoke about the long and rich history of Black service members.

    “Believe it or not,” philanthropist Bernard Kinsey said, many Black soldiers received the Medal of Honor for their heroics in the the Civil War.

    And Black troops — “‘colored,’ we were called then,” Kinsey clarified — “dominated getting recognized until Jim Crow.”

    The Veterans Day panel was organized by Kinsey’s family, renowned as art collectors. The event included a tour of the historic art, poems and artifacts — like a 1924 photograph of 28 Black Los Angeles firefighters — from the Kinsey Collection that will hang in the halls of SoFi until March.

    The heroics of Henry Johnson, who earned the nickname “Black Death” in May 1918, were highlighted at Wednesday’s event.

    Fighting on the edge of France’s Argonne Forest, Johnson saved a fellow soldier from capture using grenades and his rifle as a club. And using a bolo knife, he prevented a German raid from reaching his French allies.

    Overseas, Johnson and compatriot Needham Roberts received the Croix de Guerre — France’s highest award for valor. But back home in America, the Army refused to recognize Johnson, who was wounded 21 times in the battle.

    Discharge records did not mention his debilitating injuries, and the Army would not award him a Purple Heart.

    Johnson died in 1929 at the age of 32 of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. In 2015, President Obama posthumously awarded Johnson the Medal of Honor.

    Although Johnson’s bravery overseas didn’t immediately ease the hardships that he and his peers faced when they returned home, he helped pave the way for prominent commanders in years to come.

    In 1940, Benjamin O. Davis Sr. became the Army’s first Black general.

    But the belief that Black people could not succeed as officers, or sailors, lingered for years more, Brewer said. In 1944, naval commanders finally launched an officer training course for 16 of the estimated 100,000 Black sailors in the U.S. Navy.

    Every one of them passed the course, according to Navy records.

    But only 12 were selected as officers. A 13th was made a chief warrant officer, resulting in the group’s nickname: “The Golden 13.”

    Twenty-eight years later, in 1970, Brewer joined the Navy, which at the time had no Black admirals.

    There were only a few hundred Black officers among the Navy’s 82,000 officers, Brewer said.

    “And only five – five — Black sailors had achieved the rank of Navy captain by 1970,” he added.

    This year marks 75 years since the U.S. military desegregated, and the numbers still aren’t where they should be, according to the panel of prestigious Black officers.

    As Brewer told it, President Truman only integrated the military after Isaac Woodard, a young Black Army sergeant, was dragged off a Greyhound bus on the way home to South Carolina after serving in World War II.

    Still in uniform, just hours after being honorably discharged, Woodard was beaten blind and arrested.

    A crowd watches six people sitting in a row onstage under a large screen displaying their names, ranks and military portraits

    The panel of retired military leaders gave credit to the Black service members who came before them and made it possible for them to become high-ranking officers.

    (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

    “It was in my wife’s hometown — [in] Fairfield County, South Carolina,” Brewer shared with veterans, students and dignitaries who traveled from as far as Washington, D.C., for the panel.

    The country was outraged, and in July 1946, Truman issued Executive Order 9981, abolishing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin in the United States armed forces.

    Even then, it took six years for the Army to fully integrate, said Maj. Gen. Thomas Bostick — a Black commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers.

    Bostick’s father was an orphan at 8 years old, living in Brooklyn, moving from foster home to foster home. “He never really had a family,” Bostick said, until he joined an all-Black unit in the Army at age 17.

    He was able to move up the ranks to master sergeant, serving for more than two decades.

    “Can you all imagine doing anything for 26 ½ years?” Bostick asked a group of Junior ROTC cadets from John C. Fremont High School in South Los Angeles.

    Maj. Gen. Leo V. Williams III of the Marines remembered his father served as a steward in the Navy for 38 years “and retired as one of the senior Black enlisted folks in the Navy.”

    The Marine Corps, on the other hand, “was so far behind the other services that you can’t even begin to compare,” Williams said.

    When his now ex-wife told her father that she’d be marrying a Black Marine Corps officer, “he said, ‘He’s a liar,’” Williams recalled. “That was 1970.”

    “It’s a history that we have crawled our way slowly forward,” he added. “But you have to understand the history to understand how difficult it may be to make moves based on the culture of your institution.”

    Williams bid farewell to the Junior ROTC Marines with a ringing “Oorah” as he departed the stage.

    A man in a suit poses for a portrait with four young people, three in Marine Corps dress uniform and one in camouflage.

    Ruth Murcia, left, and fellow Marine Corps Junior ROTC students from John C. Fremont High School join retired Maj. Gen. Williams, one of the panelists, at the exhibit of items from the Kinsey Collection.

    (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

    Ruth Murcia, a junior at Fremont High, waited for a chance to speak with Williams. The silver lieutenant discs on her uniform collar quickly caught his eye.

    Her family background is steeped in military tradition, but Murcia fears the journey won’t be as easy as loved ones make it sound. She explained that she’s on the fence about joining the armed forces.

    Williams advised Murcia to head into the military as an officer, a path made possible by ROTC programs across the country.

    Army and Air Force leaders recognized the potential of Black recruits and began placing ROTC units at historically Black universities like Howard as early as 1917. But the Navy refused to host a program of its own until President Lyndon B. Johnson forced the issue in 1968, Brewer said.

    The president, a native Texan, placed the unit in his home state at Prairie View A&M.

    In 1970, Brewer became one of 13 graduates in the university’s inaugural ROTC class.

    “We call it the Prairie View Naval ROTC Golden 13,” Brewer said. “It’s ironic how history repeats itself.”

    Bostick, having served as the Army’s head of personnel, said he didn’t aspire to join the military as a child growing up in Japan and Germany.

    College was his calling.

    “I watched my dad fight two wars. He was always away,” Bostick said. “I didn’t want to do that.”

    Bostick fortunately found an ally who helped him become one of six Black engineers out of 4,000 graduates at West Point to complete their coursework.

    “In 221 years, there’s been one Black chief of engineers from West Point. That’s me — I don’t know how I got there,” Bostick said with a chuckle.

    After 38 years of service, the Army tapped Bostick to address the lack of diversity in the Corps of Engineers, he said.

    Bostick called 25 generals into a room to see whom he could promote. There was one white woman, and he was the lone Black face in the room.

    He then called in 42 colonels.

    “There’s one Asian and there’s one Black female,” Bostick said.

    Then he said: “Give me the top 25 captains.” There was one Black man and one white woman.

    “So then I go back to West Point, and I’m welcoming 127 cadets that picked the Corps of Engineers. There’s two Black males,” Bostick added.

    He wryly told the Army that he estimated he’d have the diversity problem fixed by 2048.

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  • Q&A: Bali bomber on crime, punishment, and what motivated deadly attack

    Q&A: Bali bomber on crime, punishment, and what motivated deadly attack

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    East Java, Indonesia – Umar Patek was released from prison last December after serving just over half of a 20-year jail sentence for the Bali holiday island bombings in 2002, which killed 202 people. He was also convicted for a series of bomb attacks on Christian churches on Christmas Eve, 2000, that left 18 dead.

    On the run for almost a decade, 57-year-old Patek from Central Java was arrested in 2011 in Abbottabad in Pakistan and extradited to Indonesia where he was found guilty of bomb making and murder the following year. The US State Department had offered a reward of $1m for any information leading to his capture.

    Patek’s early prison release for good behaviour in 2022 was sharply criticised by Australian officials and the relatives of the hundreds of victims of the Bali bombing.

    Al Jazeera recently interviewed Patek at his home in East Java where he spoke about his role in Bali and revealed that the horrific bomb attack two decades ago was an act of revenge for the violence inflicted on Palestinian people by Israeli forces.

    He also talked about repentance and of being unsure whether God would forgive him for killing so many civilians.

    Umar Patek at his home in East Java, Indonesia, on October 14, 2023 [Al Jazeera]

    Al Jazeera: How did you become involved with Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the armed group behind the Bali Bombings? 

    Umar Patek: In 1991, I was working in Malaysia and met Mukhlas [a senior JI figure who was sentenced to death and executed in 2008 for masterminding the Bali bombings] in Johor Bahru at the Lukman Hakim Islamic Boarding School.

    I worked on a plantation in Malaysia, and would go to religious classes in the evening at the school. Then Mukhlas asked me to work at the school, so I moved in. After three months at the school, he offered me the chance to go to Pakistan. I wanted to study and he said I could study religion there.

    I first went to Peshawar and then to Sadda, a tribal area in Pakistan which is close to the border with Afghanistan, where there was a military academy that trained people to be mujahideen [Islamic fighters]. From there I moved to a military academy in Torkham in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, I was in the same class as [Bali bomber] Ali Imron. In total, I was away for five years from 1991 to 1995.

    We learned everything at the military academy to train us to be mujahideen, such as how to use weapons, map reading and bomb making. We practised blowing up bombs in areas where there were no people, like in caves or on hillsides, so that there would not be any fatalities.

    We also wanted to make sure that no goats were accidentally killed because lots of people tend goats in Afghanistan.

     

    When I finished my military training in 1995, I went to the Philippines to join the Moro Islamic Liberation Front because I supported their cause as a Muslim.

    From 1995 to 2000, I lived at Camp Abubakar in the Bangsamoro region in the Philippines, but the camp was captured by the Philippine Army in July 2000 and I was told to leave because I looked like I came from the Middle East.

    My family is originally from Yemen, although I am the fourth generation of my family to be born in Indonesia. My face didn’t look like the people in Moro.

    In December 2000, I went back to Indonesia and stayed with Dulmatin [a JI member and one of the most wanted men in Southeast Asia who was nicknamed “the Genius” because of his expertise in electronics for bombs]. Dulmatin asked me to go to Jakarta for work. He had a job selling cars and he said I could also look for work there, which is how I became involved in the Christmas Eve church bombings.

    INDONESIAN POLICE PROVIDE SECURITY OUTSIDE JAKARTA'S MAIN CATHEDRAL THE DAY AFTER BOMB BLASTS ROCKED THE CITY. An Indonesian police officer provided security outside the capital's main Cathedral during morning mass December 25, 2000. Indonesia's Christians on Monday flocked to churches throughout the country hours after a spate of deadly Christmas bomb atttacks killed at least ten people in this predominantly Muslim country.
    Indonesian police officers provide security outside Jakarta’s main cathedral during morning mass on Christmas Day, December 25, 2000, following a spate of deadly Christmas Eve bomb attacks against Christian churches [File: Reuters]

    AJ: You admitted to mixing the chemicals for the bombs used in the Bali bombing in 2002 and the Christmas Eve church bombings in 2000. But you also said you didn’t know what the bombs would be used for. Where did you think the bombs would be planted?

    Patek: I did not mix the bombs for the church bombings, I only knew about the bombs at the time of delivery. It was Eid al-Fitr [the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan] and Dulmatin said, “Let’s go home to Pemalang for the holiday and drop off some things along the way.”

    We kept stopping at churches, although I did not get out of the car. Every time we stopped at a church, I grew more suspicious that we were dropping off bombs because the packages were packed in laptop bags.

    I was sentenced for the bombings even though I did not make the bombs or get out of the car because I was there and I didn’t do anything to stop it. Dulmatin then asked me to go on a trip to Bali in October 2002. We went into a house which was already full of bomb making equipment.

    A general view of the scene of a bomb blast at Kuta, on the Indonesian island of Bali, in this October 17, 2002 file photo five days after explosions in a popular night spot killed almost 200 people. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed May 1, 2011, in a firefight with U.S. forces in Pakistan and his body was recovered, U.S. President Barack Obama said on May 1, 2011. "Justice has been done," Obama said in a dramatic, late-night White House speech announcing the death of the elusive mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake/Files (INDONESIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS OBITUARY TRAVEL)
    A general view of the scene of a bomb blast at Kuta, on the Indonesian island of Bali, in this October 17, 2002 photo, taken five days after explosions in a popular night spot killed 202 people [File: Reuters]

    I met with [JI members] Imam Samudra, Mukhlas, Idris and Dr Azahari. Imam Samudra said that they wanted revenge for the occupation of Palestine and the attack on Jenin [by Israeli forces in 2002 which killed more than 50 Palestinians as well as 23 Israeli soldiers], so they wanted to bomb Westerners in nightclubs in Bali. He ushered me into one of the rooms in the house where all the ingredients to make the bombs had been prepared.

    I told them, if we wanted to get revenge for the atrocities committed against Muslims in Palestine, we should go to Palestine and not kill Westerners in Indonesia. I asked them, “What is the relationship between these people who will be victims and your motive of revenge for Muslims in Palestine?”

    I told them that if they wanted to kill Westerners in large numbers using a one-tonne bomb, it would not just kill the people in front of it. It would explode everywhere. I told them that it would kill lots of other people who were not their target.

    A Palestinian woman gestures on top of her house in the destroyed Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, April 28, 2002. A U.N. mission to find out what happened during Israel's three weeks military operation in Jenin refugee camp is waiting in Geneva for a green light to depart to the region.
    A Palestinian woman gestures on top of her house in the destroyed Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, following what became known as the Battle of Jenin in April 2002 [File: Reuters]

    I said that a bomb would also likely cause Muslim casualties. I asked them, “Who will take responsibility in the next world [paradise] if there are Muslim victims because of this bomb?”

    Imam Samudra said that, on the day of judgement, everyone would be judged individually for their actions based on their intentions.

    I felt that there was no way I could refuse. Imam Samudra had locked the front door of the house so that no one could leave.

    So I did it, and made the last 50kg [110lbs] of the bomb.

    AJ: More than 200 people died in Bali as a result of the bomb you helped to make. How do you feel about killing so many people?

    Patek: I felt guilty when I mixed the materials for the bomb and I felt I was sinning. I felt I was breaking Indonesian law but, more than that, I felt it was a sin against God.

    A Balinese mother and son mourn in front of the Bali Bombing Memorial during a commemorative service in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia in 2004
    A Balinese mother and son mourn in front of the Bali Bombing Memorial during commemorative services in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia in 2004 [File: Bea Beawiharta/CP/Reuters]

    AJ: Do you consider yourself to be a mass murderer?

    Patek: Yes. I feel that I am a murderer and a sinner.

    I have apologised to the victims of the Bali bombing several times and met with the families of the victims of the bombing, too. I told them I was sorry. Everyone who has met with me in person has forgiven me. When I meet victims, I say, “I am Umar Patek and I was involved in the Bali bombing,” then I explain why I was there, and apologise.

    Some people don’t want to meet me and don’t want to forgive me, like people from Australia. That is their right, but my responsibility as a Muslim, and someone who has done wrong, is to apologise. I don’t know if I will be forgiven, only God knows that.

    I did not say sorry to get out of prison early, but everything is always wrong in other people’s eyes. If I say sorry, people say I am pretending and it is a strategic choice. If I didn’t apologise, people would say I was arrogant.

    AJ: Did you agree with the 20-year prison sentence that you were given?

    Patek: I accepted it at the time. There is nothing fair in this life on Earth, justice will only come in the hereafter.

    Umar Patek, a suspected bomb-maker for Jemaah Islamiah, sits in the courtroom during his trial in Jakarta February 13, 2012. Patek is on trial for multiple charges including those of the 2002 Bali bombings. REUTERS/Enny Nuraheni (INDONESIA - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW)
    Umar Patek sits in the courtroom during his trial in Jakarta in February 2012 [File: Enny Nuraheni/Reuters]

    AJ: Your release from prison was highly controversial, particularly in Australia, as you only served 11 years of your 20-year sentence. Should you have been freed?

    Patek: I fulfilled all the criteria according to Indonesian law to qualify for release in 2022. I had also been very opposed to the idea of the Bali bombing from the beginning. The witnesses at my trial all said the same, which is why I was sentenced to 20 years in prison [only]. The central people in the Bali bombing were sentenced to death or died in other ways like Dulmatin, who was shot by the police.

    Bali bombers Amrozi (L), Imam Samudra (C) and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Ghufron, are seen in Nusakambangan prison in this October 1, 2008 combination photograph. The three Muslim militants involved in the 2002 Bali bombings were executed on early November 9, 2008, according to reports from Indonesian television station TV ONE. REUTERS/Supri/Files (INDONESIA)
    From left to right: Convicted Bali bombers Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Ghufron, as seen in Nusakambangan prison in October 2008. The three were executed on November 9, 2008, for their role in the bombings [File: Reuters]

    I last saw him in June 2009, when I came home from the Philippines to Jakarta. He asked me to go to a JI military academy in Aceh, but I said I didn’t want to. I had had enough. I told him I was just transiting in Indonesia to get my passport and visa to go to Afghanistan. I wanted to live there for the rest of my life and I asked him to come with me, but he refused.

    He [Dulmatin] was shot in Pemulang in Tangerang [a city on the outskirts of Jakarta]. I wondered if he had repented for his sins before he died. I never heard him say he felt remorse or sadness about the victims of the Bali bombing and about people who were not the target of the bombing. He never said anything about that and never asked for forgiveness.

    So I was sad for him.

    The four sons (front L-R) of militant Dulmatin, alias Joko Pitono, mourn during his funeral in Petarukan village in Indonesia's central Java province March 12, 2010. Dulmatin, a suspected mastermind of the Bali bombings, was killed in a police raid in Indonesia in the latest blow to an Islamist militant movement in the world's most populous Muslim country. REUTERS/Dadang Tri (INDONESIA - Tags: CRIME LAW)
    The four sons of accused Bali bombing mastermind Dulmatin, alias Joko Pitono, mourn during his funeral in Petarukan village in Indonesia’s central Java province in 2010 [File: Reuters]

    AJ: Is the killing of civilians ever justified?

    Patek: When I was in the Philippines with the [Moro front], I lived with [the chairman] Salamat Hashim and he would often preach to us. He strongly forbade mujahideen from attacking civilians, not just Muslims but also Christians. He said that that was not allowed, and that only members of the army, or civilians who were fighting with the army, and who were also carrying weapons, were allowed to be attacked.

    He once said to me, “Why do you want to wage jihad in Indonesia, who do you want to fight there? The president is Muslim, the government is Muslim, the People’s Representative Council is mainly Muslim, lots of police are Muslim, the army is full of Muslims. It is haram [forbidden] to attack them because attacking Muslims is not allowed.”

    He felt that it was not right to attack people in Indonesia, and I said that at the time of the Bali bombing, but no one wanted to listen to me.

    AJ: What are your thoughts on the Israel-Gaza war?

    Patek: In the opening section of the 1945 Indonesian Constitution, it says that “all colonialism must be abolished in this world”.

    Occupation anywhere, not just in Palestine, is not allowed.

    It is Hamas’s right to take back their land. The news that they are killing babies and children is a hoax perpetrated by the Western media. Indonesia used to be occupied by the Dutch colonialists. Would you call Indonesian heroes, who fought for their independence, terrorists? The Dutch would call them terrorists, but they were just taking back their land.

    A man holds a poster during a rally in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, at the National Monument in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
    A man holds a poster during a rally in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, at the National Monument in Jakarta, Indonesia, on November 5, 2023 [Dita Alangkara/AP Photo]

    AJ: Are you deradicalised now?

    Patek: What is radicalised? If a Christian wants to follow their religion according to the teachings of the Bible, would we call them radicalised?

    I feel that the media has a false image of me as someone who is frightening and cruel. They always paint me as someone who is dangerous.

    People often ask me why I don’t want to be a terrorist any more and why I am so cooperative. I also say that it is from my family. They are the ones who melted my heart and set me back to the right path.

    I am the oldest of three brothers. All my family members are moderate Muslims, none of them have ever followed the same ideology I used to follow, and they have often confronted me about it over the years.

    If my family had said they did not want to have anything more to do with me because of my old ideology, perhaps I would still be radical in my thinking, but fortunately they embraced me and that allowed me to change.

    AJ: How do you feel about non-Muslims?

    Patek: When I was a child growing up, all my neighbours were Chinese Christians. I always used to play with them. Since I was young, I have always been around non-Muslims.

    I don’t hate Christians. My wife’s extended family are Christians and, when we got married, we had no problems and took photos together on our wedding day.

    When I married my wife, I invited all of her family to the wedding at Camp Abubakar. In the beginning, they didn’t want to come because they were worried we would cut their heads off. I told them that the mujahideen did not harm civilians, and that we only attacked the police and the army. I said that I guaranteed their safety.

    In the Moro tradition, when someone got married, mujahideen would shoot their weapons in the air to celebrate. But because my wife’s Christian family was there, I told my fellow mujahideen, “Don’t do the traditional celebration because we have Christians coming and it will scare them.

    “They will think we are trying to kill them.”

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  • Rare footage shows “invisible” nuclear bomber flying in California

    Rare footage shows “invisible” nuclear bomber flying in California

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    Footage has emerged of the first reported flight of the U.S. Air Force’s new nuclear stealth bomber.

    The Northrop Grumman B-21 “Raider” was captured on video flying outside an aircraft manufacturing plant in Palmdale, California, on Friday. The test flight comes less than a year after the Raider was introduced to the public and less than a month after it was seen carrying out taxi tests on a runway.

    On its website, the U.S. Department of Defense wrote the B-21 Raider “is expected to serve within a larger family of systems for conventional long-range strike, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; electronic attack; communication; and other capabilities.”

    The Pentagon noted the design of the nuclear-capable aircraft allows it to be manned or operated remotely, and it is capable of employing “a broad mix of stand-off and direct-attack munitions.”

    Perhaps most notable about the B-21 Raider is that it’s considered a “stealth” aircraft, which are often referred to as being “invisible” due to the bombers being hard for adversaries to detect on radar.

    The B-21 Raider is pictured during a ceremony at Northrop Grumman’s Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on December 2, 2022. Images and videos of the Raider’s first flight on Friday were shared on social media.
    Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

    Reuters reported there are six test B-21s in production now, and the Air Force is expected to buy at least 100 of the aircraft to replace B-1 and B-2 bombers.

    The Raider’s maiden flight on Friday was not announced by the Air Force, but spectators on the ground captured it in the air and posted images and videos on social media.

    Among those that recorded the Raider was Matt Hartman, a freelance photojournalist, who posted a clip on X (formerly Twitter) of the B-21 soaring overhead.

    Moshe Schwartz, a reporter for the website Yeshiva World News, also posted a clip on X of the B-21 flying near Palmdale.

    Ann Stefanek, a U.S. Air Force spokesperson, told Reuters: “The B-21 Raider is in flight testing. Flight testing is a critical step in the test campaign managed by the Air Force Test Center and 412th Test Wings B-21 Combined Test Force.”

    Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman via email for further comment.

    When the Raider was unveiled in a December 2022 ceremony, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin delivered remarks about the new bomber.

    “It can handle anything from gathering intel to battle management to integrating with our allies and partners,” Austin said. “And it will work seamlessly across domains, and theaters, and across the joint force.”

    Speaking about the Raider’s stealth capabilities, the defense secretary said that “fifty years of advances in low-observable technology have gone into this aircraft, and even the most sophisticated air-defense systems will struggle to detect a B-21 in the sky.”

    Austin added: “The B-21’s edge will last for decades to come.”