Writing on ACW 2004–2026 · 2,079 posts
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Yet again, the strange alliance of incompetence between the Defense Department and the press creates wildly exaggerated estimates of Chinese defense spending. AFP reports that “China is more than doubling its budgeted defense spending this year as part of an…
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I’ve just spent the entire day en route home from Beijing, so this will be short. I arrived to find an e-mail from Wade Boese at ACA pointing out some of the less sane remarks in the Defense Science Board…
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Jim Oberg is wrong to dismiss the controversy over the Near Field Infra Red Experiment, which will test a Missile Defense Agency kill vehicle in space, as the result of “careless usage of provocative terminology” by the Missile Defense Agency…
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Just as news of the Spanish and Honduran pullouts from Iraq was giving “false comfort to terrorists” and evil-doers the world over, Albania announces it may increase its “71-member-strong contingent patrolling the northern city of Mosul under U.S. command.” “The…
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China successfully sent two new satellites, Experiment Satellite I (Shiyan 1) and Nano-satellite I (Nuoxing 1), into space early Monday with a Long March II C carrier rocket, according to the People’s Daily. People’s Daily hailed the launch as a…
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Mordechai Vanunu will be released from an Israeli prison Wednesday. Vanunu was a technician in the Israeli nuclear weapons program who took his camera to work one day. When The Sunday Times published the photographs along with technical analysis in…
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The White House has expressed concern about the killing of Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi, but affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself. The concern expressed by the White House has a Kissengerian amoralism to it. Here is Condolezza Rice, condemining Israeli…
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Yesterday, I visited the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) museum. CALT designs, develops and manufactures Chinese space launch vehicles and ballistic missiles. The highlight, for me, was a “Smart Dispenser” (SD), which is a CZ-2C upper rocket stage…
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Looks like it was that bad. Kaiser claims the press conference “aggravated the doubts of a lot of people.” One literate friend quotes Fischer on Amis: The Bush performance “isn’t bad as in not very good or slightly disappointing. It’s…
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Obviously, I didn’t get to see the Bush press conference, but I received the following observations: He didn’t answer a single question (most of which were softballs), he was offered and refused 3 or 4 opportunities to admit that he’d…
