Don’t let Beijing push us around, warns ‘frustrated’ former ambassador to China

The United States needs to stop getting pushed around by China and work out a long-term strategy to deal with the country’s rise, former U.S. ambassador Max Baucus said last week. In an interview more than five weeks after leaving Beijing, Baucus expressed frustration with the Obama administration’s lack of strategic vision and its weakness […]

Israeli intelligence minister says Trump created a new path to peace

JERUSALEM — Israeli Minister of Intelligence Israel Katz is known as a political bulldozer. It’s a label he is proud of and a trait, he believes, could bring about peace with the Palestinians. Albeit in a roundabout way. Katz’s plan, which he says has been adopted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is regional and multilayered. […]

North Korea-U.S. talks called off after death of Kim Jong Un’s half brother

TOKYO — Talks between North Korean diplomats and former American officials, scheduled to be held in New York next week, have been canceled following allegations that the Pyongyang regime planned the attack that used a chemical weapon to kill leader Kim Jong Un’s half brother. The plans for the “Track 1.5” talks were already hanging […]

Blasts in Syria kill dozens at security headquarters in Homs

BEIRUT — At least 42 people were killed Saturday in the western Syrian city of Homs after al-Qaeda-linked militants attacked two heavily guarded security facilities. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring network, said suicide bombers blew themselves up and gunmen opened fire outside the headquarters of general and military intelligence, two of the […]

China’s unveils more copycat military equipment; this time it’s a frigate

In recent years, China has unveiled the J20, a fourth-generation fighter jet that was based off of stolen American designs for the F-22, as well as the J31, which bears a striking resemblance to the F-35… because its design was stolen as well.  Now, China’s People’s Liberation Army has unveiled a design for their latest […]

The case against war with Iran (Part 1)

Former CIA officer Sam Faddis recently wrote a piece here on SOFREP entitled, “The Coming War with Iran.”  Contrary to the article’s title, and even to some of the admittedly bellicose language within the piece (whether justified or not), Mr. Faddis was not advocating for a war with Iran.  The thrust of the article, rather, […]

ISIS car bomb in Syria kills at least 50

A car bomb claimed by ISIS detonated in a rebel held Syrian village on Friday, killing more than fifty people, 30 of whom were civilians.  The Aleppo Media Center and the UK-based Syrian Observatory both report that the death toll could exceed 60, but their accounts have yet to be confirmed. According to Turkey’s state-run […]

Pentagon: ‘Conditions have been set’ for ISIS defeat in western Mosul

Air Force Colonel John Dorrian conducted a press briefing at the Pentagon on Wednesday, in which he indicated that the progress made by coalition forces and the Iraqi military in recent days will have reverberating effects throughout the ISIS command structure, and will eventually lead to their defeat. The ISIS-controlled area is “shrinking steadily with […]