Commentary
-
Our commentary partners will help you reach your own conclusions on complex topics.
Hey everyone, Peter Zion here coming to you from Colorado. The big news today is the Japanese defense ministry has announced that the Americans have agreed to sell Japan several 100 Tomahawk cruise missiles. Now this is not really by any measure. This is a really big deal because the Japanese are no slouch. When it comes to national defense. They do have the world’s second largest Bluewater Navy. And I have no doubt that in a knock down drag out fight against the Chinese navy that they would do just fine on the high seas. They don’t necessarily think that the theater for a future conflict with China is going to be on the high seas. China is a continental power. And Japan is part of what they call the first island chain, which separates the Chinese littoral from the rest of the world. And if there was a conflict, all of the Japanese home islands are in range of any number of Chinese weapons systems. And regardless of whether the Americans are involved or not. Chinese cities are less vulnerable than Japanese once the Japanese topography is a lot more rugged. And so you get a city on a little footprint of land surrounded by mountains, and then you have to get over those mountains gets mixed city. So all of Japan cities do double duty as energy centers and military centers and population centers. So in any sort of conflict scenario, the damage to the Japanese system would be extreme, unless they have some way of preventing that attack from happening in the first place. And that’s where the tomahawks come in. The whole idea of the tomahawks is you get a weapons system with a range of 1000 miles with the basic version with a 1000 pound warhead. And the missiles tend to fly just a few dozen feet above the ground, making them very difficult to detect much less intercept. So we’re not talking here about these 20 grand a pop, Iranian drones that only fly 100 miles an hour and only carry a warhead that’s 50 pounds or less. And so they have to throw dozens of them at any target to do any damage. No, no, these are things that use GPS location that can hit within a few feet of what they’re aiming for. And it just blow it to smithereens. And now, Japan is going to be the third country in the world to have them. And that’s probably the biggest takeaway here is that the United States has always had kind of a friends and family plan that it sells military gear to, but it is always reserved to the very top top top stuff for itself in the Brits. Well, in this calendar year, we have already seen the first two exceptions to that policy being made. The United States is sending air launch cruise missiles and nuclear submarines nuclear powered submarines, that is to the Australians. And now we’re giving tomahawks to the Japanese given both of these countries, the ability to independently destroy China’s economic links to the wider world without any additional help from the United States. And this sudden plural proliferation of countries that can now bring China to their knees independently. This is arguably the biggest strategic development of the year, even more so than the Ukraine war, because it takes what has become the world’s second largest economy and puts it completely at the mercy of the domestic politics of a third party, and now a fourth party. All right, that’s it for me. Until next time.
-
Hurricane Helene hits US coast, Appalachia and beyond
Hurricane Helene hit Florida and Georgia overnight between Sept. 26 and 27 as a Category 4 hurricane, and accompanying storms will continue reaching deeper into the continental United States today. Dangerous flash flooding from the hurricane, known as storm surge, was some of the worst flooding that the Tampa Bay area has ever seen, and… -
Israel holds upper hand against Lebanon, Hezbollah and Iran
On Wednesday, Sept. 25, Hezbollah launched a ballistic missile at Tel Aviv in retaliation for Israel’s explosive pager attack that blew up devices across Lebanon. Although Israel’s defense systems intercepted the surface-to-surface missile, the attempted strike on Tel Aviv marked a significant escalation by Hezbollah. Since the siege on Gaza began, shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023,… -
The Sinaloa Cartel civil war
Fears of a civil war within the Sinaloa Cartel are growing as violence between competing factions within the cartel continues. The Mexican Army has dispatched around 600 elite troops to Sinaloa to help quell those fears, in addition to roughly 2,200 regular soldiers and National Guard. Watch the above video as Straight Arrow News contributor… -
New Ukrainian weapons hit Russia where it hurts
Ukrainian drones struck a major Russian ammunition depot, triggering a massive explosion that was captured on camera. According to the Ukrainian military, 2,000 tons of munitions had arrived at the depot before the attack. Over the past two years, Ukraine has significantly increased its domestic drone production, allowing it to scale up attacks on military… -
Weighing social costs vs. economic benefits on immigration
Global human migration is one of the defining elements of our current historical era, according to the United Nations. Migrants face both the incentives to leave — forced out by climate change, crime and corruption, extreme poverty or violence — and incentives for where to go, based on available job opportunities and so on. Migration…
Latest Stories
-
Congress unveils stopgap bill to avert shutdown
-
GrubHub agrees to $25m settlement for ‘deceptive’ practices
-
Disney pulls transgender storyline from upcoming Pixar series
-
RFK Jr.’s lawyer: NYT report over polio vaccine petition ‘categorically false’
-
'Dirty Dancing,' 'among 25 films named to National Film Registry
Popular Opinions
-
In addition to the facts, we believe it’s vital to hear perspectives from all sides of the political spectrum.
Latest Opinions
In addition to the facts, we believe it’s vital to hear perspectives from all sides of the political spectrum. We hope these different voices will help you reach your own conclusions.
The opinions published in this section are solely those of the contributors and do not reflect the views of Straight Arrow News.
Latest Commentary
We know it is important to hear from a diverse range of observers on the complex topics we face and believe our commentary partners will help you reach your own conclusions.
The commentaries published in this section are solely those of the contributors and do not reflect the views of Straight Arrow News.
Dr. Frank Luntz
Pollster and Political Analyst‘System is rigged’: Black Americans on the American Dream
‘Extremist’ or ‘phony’: Americans share who they voted for and why
‘Extreme’ or ‘fake’: Swing voters weigh Trump or Harris