As North Korea fires missiles, some in Japan want the ability to launch strikes

TOKYO — As the threat from North Korea’s missiles grows, so the calls in Japan for a stronger military response are getting louder. An influential group of politicians is publicly arguing for technically pacifist Japan to acquire the ability to strike North Korea instead of having to rely on the United States for its defense. […]

The night America went to war with ghosts above the city of Los Angeles

December 7th, 1941 saw the Japanese attack on America’s Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and as President Franklin D. Roosevelt would later opine, it was indeed a day that would live on in infamy.  The events of that day, and the tumultuous war the attack led America to enter, have been the subject of […]

China issues warning to American B1-1 Bomber in contested airspace

Chinese officials issued a radio warning to an American B1-B Lancer Bomber flying near South Korea on Sunday, claiming that the aircraft had illegally entered Chinese airspace and ordering them to leave. The airspace in question is included in China’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the East China Sea, a territory China officially claimed […]

How to get North Koreans off the boat

Newly minted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke to reporters on Friday while visiting South Korea, said that the military option was “on the table” if the U.S. felt North Korea’s missile program, specifically their nuclear intentions, required it. Also on Friday, President Trump jumped on his Twitter account to chastise North Korea saying, “North […]

Korean War: America’s Forgotten War

My recent research on Asian SOF based units has taken me back in time for another look at the Korean War, often referred to as America’s Forgotten War due to it taking place in the aftermath of World War Two, being much shorter than that war (1950-1953), and Americans turning a blind eye to a […]

In China debut, Tillerson appears to hand Beijing a diplomatic victory

BEIJING — While his boss was goading China over Twitter, new Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been trying to build a constructive and “results-oriented” relationship with the leadership in Beijing. And though his warnings about the possibility of eventual military action over North Korea have raised hackles here, Tillerson received a warm welcome from […]

North Korea ‘conducts high-thrust engine test’

North Korea’s state media says its military has tested a new high-performance rocket engine. Leader Kim Jong Un declared the test “a new birth” for the North’s rocket industry, state news agency KCNA said. He said the engine would help North Korea achieve world-class satellite launch capability, it added. The development, not confirmed elsewhere, comes […]

Three Rivers: Modern Japanese Intelligence, Special Operations, and Organized Crime

Part I: Sawanobori, or, basically, river climbing, is a very old Japanese pastime. It involves following a river or stream, up a mountain, to its source.  The climber ascends a tributary of a river, negotiates its features (swimming gorges, and climbing walls and waterfalls), and seeks to run that tributary until they have reached the river’s source.  […]

NORTH KOREA: Missile tests were practice runs to hit the US military in Japan

North Korea’s state-run media announced its latest missile launches were conducted to practice hitting US military bases in Japan, according to The Washington Post on Tuesday. “If the United States or South Korea fires even a single flame inside North Korean territory, we will demolish the origin of the invasion and provocation with a nuclear […]