How the world's largest military stacks up to the US armed forces

Military delegates arrive at the Great Hall of the People for a meeting ahead of the opening ceremony of the National People's Congress (NPC), in Beijing, China, on March 4.REUTERS/Jason Lee

A recent report from the US Congressional Research Service outlines China's 2.3 million-member armed forces and sheds light on misconceptions from Western military analysts.

Simply put, the report challenges the idea that Westerners can understand China's military and foreign-policy decisions without first understanding Chinese philosophy and culture of warfare.

Unlike the US, China has a media apparatus controlled by the state, so its military reports lack the transparency established by a free press.

China also has a fundamentally different understanding of aggression. For the Chinese, there is little difference between peacetime and wartime cyber espionage, and they have engaged in stealing military secrets from the US and others because they can.

The report, written by Ian E. Rinehart, a CRS analyst in Asian affairs, urges Congress and military leadership to examine a "Chinese way of war."

Specifics of the report, detailed below, show how China has stepped up to rival the US's military might in the Pacific:

See full article here. 

http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-us-military-comparison-2016-8?utm_content=buffer80b40&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer

US has Launched a New Assault Against Russia, Russian Embassy Attack: Terrorism Or Act of War?

 

TND Guest Contributor:  Petr Lvov |

Read the full Article here. 

 http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2015/05/us-has-launched-a-new-assault-against-russia-3159994.html

If someone had the impression that the visit of Secretary of State John Kerry to the town of Sochi, followed by negotiations with Victoria Nuland, his deputy in Moscow, could be regarded as first steps in the direction of normalization of US-Russian relations, they would be deeply mistaken. In short, Washington, particularly the Obama administration, is trying to solve its problems at the expense or rather with the help of Russia, to ensure the victory of Hillary Clinton in the upcoming elections. However, the United States continues to apply pressure on Russia, using a variety of different strategies.

Special attention is now paid to Syria and the weakened regime of Bashar al-Assad in the face of a new armed assault against Damascus. The attempts to trade the support of Syria for a number of concessions on Ukraine and Crimea allegedly made by John Kerry failed. Then Americans attempted blackmail, which is the strategy of choice for Washington in the countries that resist its dictate. On May 19 the Russian embassy in Syria was shelled by militants, presumably Jaysh al-Islam, which resulted in one of the shells exploding in the main building of the diplomatic mission. Fortunately, there was nobody there in the room destroyed by the explosion. Immediately after the attack the State Department swiftly condemned this act of terrorism. But we all are well aware of the fact that the “southern front” operating in the suburbs of the Syrian capital is controlled by Jordan with a certain amount of US assistance, unlike the “northern front” guided by Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The shelling of the Russian embassy – is clearly a signal to Russia that it should abandon its support of the Syrian regime.

Russian Embassy Attack: Terrorism Or Act of War?
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/05/21/russian-embassy-attack-terrorism-or-act-of-war/

 

On Tuesday, May 19th the Russian consulate in Damascus suffered another attack by NATO proxy forces trying to overthrow the government of Syria. The Russian Foreign Ministry responded with a statement condemning the attack as an act of “terrorism” and asked the “international community” to respond to the attack and urged “all parties enjoying influence on extremists in Syria to demand they immediately stop such actions.”

But was this an act of terrorism or an act of war? Let’s examine what an act of terrorism is. It is an attack on civilians by individuals or small groups with the objective of creating terror in the population in order to achieve political purposes. An attack on a military post or an attack on a military unit are not acts of terrorism, but are acts of war. The shelling of a foreign embassy by organised armed units engaged in a war is not an act of terrorism either. It is an attack on the foreign state itself and therefore is an act of war and meant as such.

And who is this mysterious “international community” they refer to? Well, everyone who is not blind, deaf and dumb knows it is the United States of America and its lieutenants in crime who are engaged in the war against Syria; Britain, France, Canada, Jordan, Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia. It is not a matter of these countries “enjoying influence” as the Foreign Ministry stated but a matter of their direct support and control of the forces that attacked the consulate.
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/05/21/russian-embassy-attack-terrorism-or-act-of-war/