conflict
The West Is Playing With Fire In Ukraine
National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
As wars tend to do, the battle over Ukraine continues to escalate.
It was reported this week that North Korean soldiers in the conflict total 10,000 thus far and that Russia has rewarded Pyongyang by sending its excellent air defense systems to the Korean Peninsula in exchange.
Last month, the National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, warned that any North Korean troops fighting in the conflict would be, “fair game and fair targets.”
His green light delivered this week when “a high-ranking North Korean military officer [became] a casualty” according to a Wall Street Journal story on Thursday. That strike was allegedly conducted with British Storm Shadow missiles.
Just these recent events further entangle the U.S., U.K., North Korea, South Korea, and China within the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
But the week’s biggest Ukraine news rattled many Americans — the Biden administration authorized Ukraine to strike targets within Russia with the American-made Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).
“The missiles will speak for themselves,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy boasted.
They sure will. First of all, the U.S. doesn’t have many of the $1.3 million missiles to lob around. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo warned an audience at the Brookings Institute this week that the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine are “now eating into stocks … and to say otherwise would be dishonest.”
I’ve met and been briefed by Admiral Paparo, who is one of the most positive and straight-talking flag officers in our military. If he is publicly ringing the warning bell, U.S. policy leaders should take heed.
Putin did not take the news of the ATACMS well. In response, he announced the use of a hypersonic ballistic missile on Thursday, carefully noting that it didn’t carry a nuclear warhead. The unspoken part: next time, it might.
What’s the goal in Biden’s escalation? It seems the White House is trying to prevent the inevitable or blame Trump for Ukraine’s upcoming defeat.
What they won’t admit is that the metrics of the war are not in Ukraine’s favor, and frankly never have been. No supersonic missile will change the immutable: Russia boasts a population five times Ukraine’s and when it comes to war materiel, Russia is winning. Despite Biden’s attempt to hobble the Russian economy, Putin’s war industry is outproducing the West by three times in the basic munitions needed to prosecute a land battle.
But aren’t Russians dying en mass on the battlefield?
Western leaders keep touting Russia’s high death toll, which estimates now place at 600,000. To military strategists here in the United States, such a human cost is unimaginable. Add up every American combat death going back 160 years through the Gulf Wars, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, World War II, World War I, and even the Union combat deaths in the Civil War, and the number does’t reach what Russia has lost in the past 1,000 days.
American and NATO leaders are foolish to underestimate Russian resolve.
Since its initial blundering and poorly-executed invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has recovered from its mistakes, Russian public support for the war remains high, and the Russian economy hasn’t fallen apart. Putin may have lost the virtue-signaling battle of Ukrainian flag lapel pins, but make no mistake: he’s on a path to win the war.
Biden’s deputy Pentagon press secretary, Sabrina Singh, says don’t worry. On Thursday she told reporters the administration was sending as much American weapons and support to Ukraine as it can muster, “in the weeks and months ahead left of this administration. So, that’s what we’re really focused on.”
What did she make of Putin’s nuclear threat? “I mean, you know, we’ve seen this type of, you know, dangerous, reckless rhetoric before from President Putin,” Singh said.
“I mean, you know?” No, we don’t know. The world hasn’t seen nuclear threats like this since Harry S. Truman demanded Japan surrender.
For anyone worried about the state of our national security, January 20th can’t come quickly enough.
MxM News
Quick Hit:
Hamas paraded the caskets of Israeli hostages, including what they claimed were the bodies of a mother and two young children, through the streets of Gaza before handing them over to the Red Cross. Videos show crowds cheering as armed terrorists carried the coffins as part of a prisoner exchange with Israel.
Key Details:
- Videos from Khan Younis, Gaza, show Hamas and other terrorists parading four caskets, including those of two young children, before handing them to the Red Cross.
- Crowds cheered as the terrorists, armed and unmasked, carried the coffins, with celebratory music playing in the background.
- The deceased were identified as members of the Bibas family, including the youngest hostages from the October 7 attack.
ANIMALS: Hamas paraded the bodies of murdered Israeli babies in coffins while blasting loud music during their celebration today when they handed the bodies over to the Red Cross. pic.twitter.com/CoTV5Rzep7
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 20, 2025
Diving Deeper:
During a ceremony in Khan Younis, Gaza, Hamas paraded the caskets of Israeli hostages through the streets, including what they claimed were the bodies of a mother and her two small children. The display occurred before the remains were handed over to the Red Cross as part of a prisoner exchange agreement with Israel. Crowds of Gazans were seen cheering and celebrating as the coffins were carried by armed terrorists.
Videos from the event show masked militants loading a casket into a Red Cross aid truck, while another militant, adorned with symbols of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, filmed the procession. Another video shows adults and children waving and celebrating as Hamas fighters, armed and in trucks, paraded through the streets. Reuters footage also captured members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP) helping carry a casket, highlighting the involvement of multiple terrorist factions in the display.
Hamas presented the bodies as those of the Bibas family, who were captured during the October 7 attack. The children, aged four years and less than one year, were among the youngest hostages taken during the brutal assault that triggered the ongoing 15-month conflict. The fourth body was identified as 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz, according to Jewish News Syndicate. Hamas has repeatedly blamed the deaths on Israeli airstrikes, though no evidence was provided to support the claim.
Israel and Hamas are currently observing a temporary ceasefire agreement, facilitating the exchange of civilian hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Despite the ceasefire, Hamas has continued to celebrate the October 7 attacks, which resulted in the largest mass killing of Jewish people since the Holocaust. During the ceremony, a stage displayed a poster depicting Israel as a “Nazi Army,” underscoring Hamas’s longstanding agenda of hostility towards the Jewish state.
The shocking parade of caskets, accompanied by celebratory music and cheering crowds, has drawn international condemnation and further underscored the brutal nature of Hamas’s actions. As the exchange process continues, the emotional toll on the families of the victims remains immeasurable.
MxM News
Quick Hit:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has initiated an investigation into the Biden administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal. Hegseth confirmed that investigators have already been selected to examine the disastrous exit, which left 13 U.S. service members dead and stranded Americans behind. He emphasized that accountability is forthcoming and vowed a thorough review to uncover the decision-making failures behind the debacle.
Key Details:
- Hegseth told Breitbart News that he has already chosen investigators for a full Pentagon-led review of the withdrawal.
- The Biden administration’s 2021 exit resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members, abandoned American citizens, and a botched drone strike that killed an Afghan aid worker and his family.
- No officials were held accountable, while Marine Col. Stuart Scheller, who publicly called for accountability, was the only one punished—he now serves in the Trump administration.
Diving Deeper:
Hegseth, in an exclusive interview, stated that the investigation would be comprehensive, focusing on key decision-making failures that led to one of the most disastrous military withdrawals in U.S. history. While no specific timeline was provided, he stressed the importance of getting the facts right.
The 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, executed under then-President Joe Biden, resulted in a chaotic evacuation at Kabul International Airport. The suicide bombing at Abbey Gate claimed the lives of 13 American troops, while the administration abandoned hundreds of U.S. citizens despite claiming success. Additionally, the U.S. military, in a hasty attempt to prevent another attack, launched a drone strike that mistakenly killed an innocent Afghan aid worker and his family. At the time, then-Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley defended the strike as “righteous.”
Despite these failures, no senior officials were removed from their posts. The only individual who faced consequences was Marine Col. Stuart Scheller, who was discharged after demanding accountability in a viral video. Now, he serves as a senior adviser to the Defense Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness under the 47th President, Donald Trump.
Hegseth reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring accountability, emphasizing the need to establish a factual timeline of events, decisions, and their consequences. “I don’t think there’s anybody that feels like there’s been an honest accounting of what happened in Afghanistan. That’s our job,” he said.
The investigation, he added, will be critical to rebuilding trust within the Defense Department. “We’re going to drive that full investigation and get a sense of what happened. Accountability will be coming,” Hegseth concluded.
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