Tag: War

  • Under Weak Democrat Leadership, U.S. Unprepared For Looming WarWith China

    Under Weak Democrat Leadership, U.S. Unprepared For Looming WarWith China

    Under Weak Democrat Leadership, U.S. Unprepared For Looming War With China

    BY: HELEN RALEIGH for The Federalist 

    The Biden-Harris administration has hamstrung the U.S. military even as China’s army, navy, and air force are on the rise.

    The Commission on the National Defense Strategy recently released a report warning that the United States faces the most severe and pressing defense challenges since 1945. The report not only emphasizes the potential for a near-term major war but also underscores the urgent need for action, making the gravity of the situation clear.

    The commission, having meticulously reviewed both public and classified information, has identified China and Russia as major adversaries seeking to undermine the United States’ global influence. However, the commission’s greatest concern lies with China. Its report reveals that “in many ways, China is outpacing the United States and has largely negated the U.S. military advantage in the Western Pacific through two decades of focused military investment,” which is a cause for grave concern.

    The commission estimates that China spends about $711 billion annually on defense, although some experts estimate it to be around $474 billion. The wide range of estimates for China’s defense spending is due to the Communist regime’s notorious practice of hiding the actual scope of its defense spending from its published government annual budget. Some speculate that Beijing might have underreported its past defense spending by as much as 40 percent.

    One thing is sure: China’s yearly defense spending is climbing steadily upward, which poses a serious threat to the United States and its allies, as it allows China to further develop its military capabilities and potentially challenge the current global order.

    The commission noted that China already has “the largest aviation force in its region” and the largest army and navy globally (with 370 ships and submarines). In its recent report, the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), a think tank based in Washington, D.C., points out that the Chinese military is on a war footing, as the regime “is heavily investing in munitions and acquiring high-end weapons systems and equipment five to six times faster than the United States … China is now the world’s largest shipbuilder and has a shipbuilding capacity roughly 230 times larger than the United States.”

    Besides preparing for the war itself, China has been deepening its economic and military ties with other U.S. adversaries, including Russia, Iran, and North Korea, helping enhance their military and economic power to cause a menace to the U.S. influence worldwide. For example, China and Russia established a “no-limits” partnership in February 2022, right before Russia invaded Ukraine. Since then, through purchasing Russian oil and gas and agriculture products, China has been propping up Russia’s economy and minimizing the effect of economic sanctions the West has imposed on Russia.

    On the military front, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified at a congressional hearing that “China’s provision of dual use components and material to Russia’s defense industry is one of several factors that tilted the momentum on the battlefield in Ukraine in Moscow’s favor, while also accelerating a reconstitution of Russia’s military strength after their extraordinarily costly invasion.”

    The commission is deeply troubled by the United States’ unpreparedness as the global security landscape grows increasingly perilous. The U.S. military, lacking the necessary capabilities and capacity, may be unable to confidently deter hostile nations or prevail in combat. This urgent and pressing situation, exacerbated by the Department of Defense’s convoluted “research and development (R&D) and procurement systems, reliance on decades-old military hardware, and a culture of risk avoidance,” demands immediate attention and action.

    However, the major constraint of the U.S. military’s capacity and capability has been the Biden-Harris administration’s defense budget cut (after inflation) four years in a row. Take the administration’s 2025 budget, for example. The U.S. Army is asking for 442,300 troops, a decline from 485,000 in 2022. The U.S. Navy will have 287 ships in 2025, down from 296 today. Navy experts estimated that to defeat the Chinese navy in a battle at sea, the U.S. Navy “needs about 350 ships and another 150 unmanned or lightly manned vessels, for a total of 500.” The United States military has been on a trajectory of managed decline under the Biden-Harris administration. It is crucial that we advocate for increased defense budget allocation to address these issues.

    The Biden-Harris administration’s decision to accumulate significant national debt on domestic initiatives like the Green New Deal while reducing U.S. defense spending is also a matter of urgent concern. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) has reported that the interest payment on our national debt has already exceeded government spending on national defense, a situation that demands immediate attention, especially as the potential for near-term major war has increased.

    Another alarming sign of the United States’ unpreparedness for war is the negative effect its military support of Ukraine has had on U.S. military stockpiles. The support has led to a depletion of America’s inventory of certain weapons and ammunitions, underscoring that “the U.S. defense industrial base (DIB) is unable to meet the equipment, technology, and munitions needs of the United States and its allies and partners.” The DIB’s limited capacity to “produce, maintain, and replenish weapons and munitions” will severely hamper the U.S. military’s fighting capability.

    Furthermore, the commission warns that a military conflict with a near-peer such as China will result in staggering military and economic costs. Even without a full-out war, “the global economic damage from a Chinese blockade of Taiwan has been estimated to cost $5 trillion, or 5 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP),” which will certainly affect American businesses and consumers.

    The commission is concerned that “the U.S. public are largely unaware of the dangers the United States faces or the costs (financial and otherwise) required to adequately prepare. They do not appreciate the strength of China and its partnerships or the ramifications to daily life if a conflict were to erupt. They are not anticipating disruptions to their power, water, or access to all the goods on which they rely. They have not internalized the costs of the United States losing its position as a world superpower.” This concern is a serious one because the United States will not win an all-out war against adversaries such as China without the support and resolve of the American public.

    The commission closes its gloomy report with a list of recommendations, two of which are notable. First, “Congress should pass a supplemental appropriation immediately to begin a multiyear investment in the national security innovation and industrial base.” Among other things, this supplemental appropriation would help “expand industrial capacity,” “harden facilities in Asia,” and “secure access to critical minerals.” Second, “for fiscal year 2025, real growth in defense and nondefense national security spending is needed and, at a bare minimum, should fall within the range recommended by the 2018 NDS Commission.”

    Ultimately, the American public must be made aware of the potential grave threats we face and factor this into their decisions this November. Do Americans want to elect someone who will continue to impose policies that accelerate America’s economic and military decline and relinquish America’s global leadership role or someone who will stop America’s self-imposed decline, introduce policies that will strengthen this nation economically and militarily, and make America great again?

    Make no mistake: An economically and militarily powerful America is the best deterrent of World War III.

  • Israel-Hamas

    Israel-Hamas

    It’s been six months and a couple of days since the barbaric attack on southern Israel by Hamas terrorists. I’ve avoided writing much about the war despite it taking up a lot of my personal bandwidth. But there have been some newsworthy events in the last few days that I feel I need to cover.

    First up is the Hamas Gaza ministry of health death toll. The MSM has been happily parroting the numbers from Hamas with a completely uncritical eye. You’ll have seen 33,000 dead, mostly women and children, bandied about with little to no pushback. This despite the fact that the numbers provided were statistically impossible.

    https://twitter.com/FDD/status/1777721833321529469

    Well, the Hamas run Ministry of health was forced to admit the death toll numbers they’ve been happily providing are false. And not just a little bit false. They were off by more than a third. The Ministry now says it has ‘incomplete data’ on more than 11,000 or the 33,000 deaths they claim.

    Not for nothing, I doubt the ~22,000 they now claim. Remember, if you will, the incident at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in northern Gaza. Hamas initially claimed Israeli airstrike hit the hospital itself and killed more than 500 people. Well, it turned out none of those claims were true. It was a PiJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad) rocket that misfired and hit a parking area on hospital grounds and killed around 100 people.

    Hamas has good reason to lie about the death toll and the causes. They need the collective west, and particularly the US, to believe that lots of civilians are being killed. Joe Truzman, a senior researcher at FDD estimates that around 10,000 of those killed are Hamas/PIJ fighters. If he’s correct, and I have no reason to doubt him, the combattant/non-combattant casualty ratio is 1:1. That low of a ratio is something that no army has ever done in urban warfare.


    The IDF has moved most of its combat forces out of Gaza. The single brigade left in Gaza, the Nahal brigade, is securing the ‘Netzarim Corridor’, which crosses Gaza from the Be’eri area in southern Israel to the Strip’s coast. This force is being used as a screening force, preventing Hamas from re-entering the northern part of the strip.

    Despite what you might have heard, this withdrawal was not done due to any pressure from the US. After 6 months of intense urban combat, those troops need time to rest and refit. As of this writing, the plans to take Rafah are still a go. The only question is when the op will kick off.


    Last week, Israel sent Mohammad Reza Zahedi, commander of the IRGC, to Allah in a strike on an Iranian consulate annex building in Damascus Syria. The Ayatollahs went on their usual tear, and have been screeching about a response ever since. They went so far as to say they would attack US assets if the US interfered in any way. They have since walked that back that claim some.

    https://twitter.com/InstaNewsAlerts/status/1779212869306871850

    Last night, the Iranians seized an Israeli owned container ship off the coast of the UAE. Whether or not this is part of the response or not is unclear. Iran has been attacking Israeli owned shipping since at least 2018.

    https://twitter.com/mercoglianos/status/1779100303339487481

    On a related note, Israeli FM Israel Katz has just postponed a diplomatic trip to Europe due to the security situation. He was to hold talks with the President of Hungary, the Chancellor of Austria and the Foreign Ministers of Hungary and Austria.

    Buckle up folks, the next few days is gonna get real interesting.


    Addendum: As I was about to publish this piece, something interesting crossed the transom. President Stability Shoes is coming back from Delaware early to confer with the NSC about the happenings in the Middle East.

    https://twitter.com/LucasFoxNews/status/1779185233893458106
  • The State Of Play

    The State Of Play

    I was having a conversation with AuntiE today about the possibility of a hot war between NATO and Russia earlier today. She shared an article from Zero Hedge about statements from the current NATO naval chief, Nederlander Rob Bauer. Bauer seems to think there will be a shooting war within the next 20 years.

    I tend to disagree.

    The ‘three day Special Military Operation’ has put to rest the myth of Russian strength. We are now going on 100 weeks of that particular adventurism. In that 100 weeks, Russia has had somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 casualties, lost nearly 75% of its pre-invasion tank force, had a near-successful mutiny and is now forced to buy arms and ammunition from Iran and North Korea.

    Am I saying Putin, and be crystal clear that he’s the one and only one calling the shots, wouldn’t start something with a NATO country? No, there’s always a possibility, however slight, that he’d make that miscalculation. What I am saying is that even if he did, he’d lose. Badly. And relatively quickly. Hell, the Texas of Europe, Poland, could be in Moscow in a month.

    A poorly armed and equipped Ukraine has forced Russian forces back to a relatively narrow strip along the Black and Azov sea coasts. Right now, during the bezdorizhzhia, or mud season, the lines are mostly static. I expect that to change some once everything freezes hard enough for maneuver warfare to begin again in earnest.

    What does have me concerned is the CCP. Chairman Xi has made it as clear as he can that annexing Formosa is his top priority. The recent election there, the anti-CCP party won handily, won’t help. It is widely considered that Xi took the results personally. I feel the need to remind everyone that the US is bound by legislation to aid Taiwan in the event of a CCP attack.

    The PLARF (People’s Liberation Army Rocket Forces) have missiles that can hit any of the US bases in the Pacific ocean. That renders Guam, Kwajalein, Diego Garcia and the bases in Korea and Japan all but useless for logistical purposes.

    The distances in the Pacific are immense. Los Angeles and Hawaii are 2,231 nautical miles apart. Hawaii to Japan is 3,800 nautical miles. The distance between Los Angeles and Tokyo by cargo ship is 5,081 Nautical Miles. For reference, the distance between Halifax and Southampton England, the most common WWII convoy route, is 2,624 nautical miles. This creates a logistical nightmare.

    I think the only thing holding Xi back at the moment is a major corruption scandal in the PLA. I wrote a little about that scandal in the View a couple of weeks back. It certainly isn’t anything POTATUS has done or is doing. Sooner or later, he’ll get his ducks in a row and go for Formosa.

    Iran and its proxies across the Sahel are flexing. While I’m sure that Israel can take care of both Hamas and Hezbollah by itself, I am concerned about a wider regional war. Iran launched attacks in Syria, Iraqi Kurdistan and Pakistan last week. Pakistan retaliated with a limited strike a few days later, but the tensions are still very high between the two.

    The Houthi are continuing their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Bab el Mandab strait and now in the Gulf of Aden. One of the latest strikes was against the US owned and flagged MV Ocean Jazz. The 10662 DWT heavy lift vessel was previously chartered by the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command.

    The only bright spot about the current issue with the Houthi is the AEGIS system is getting its first real-world testing. The eggheads are using the data collected from each intercept to improve the system. All those improvements are uploaded across the fleet and to the AEGIS ashore batteries. That little fact may come to be useful if the CCP decides it’s gonna get froggy with the Taiwanese.

    Of the three major hot-spots, and yes there are others, I think Iran and the Middle East are the most likely to expand. Let’s be honest, the Ayatollahs version of Islam is little better than a death cult. They aren’t what I’d call rational actors and cannot be expected to do the things that a traditional geopolitical actor would do.

    That said, the one that keeps me up nights is China. Between the distances involved, the near-peer abilities of China and what Vizzini said, it will quickly become a bloody and expensive war.

  • Hey AOC, There Is No Moral Equivalency Between Hamas and Israel

    Hey AOC, There Is No Moral Equivalency Between Hamas and Israel

    AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

    RABBI MICHAEL BARCLAY | PJ Media

    (This column is Part 2 of a series of articles explaining the fallacies that have led to the world’s leftists supporting Palestine, Gaza, and Hamas’ horrors.)

    The concepts of “Palestine” and “Palestinians” did not exist before the mid-20th century, but truth has little meaning to the left when it is in conflict with their anti-Semitic/anti-Israel/Marxist/socialist/destruction-of-Western-culture agenda. Even when confronted with the facts, they attempt to justify the truly evil actions of Hamas.

    The latest argument against Israel is that Israel’s retaliation against Hamas is not “proportional.” We are already being inundated with images of the wounded in Gaza. Israel is being called an aggressor and worse. The images of war will be shown more and more in the coming days until the leftist agenda of removing the last week’s images from our minds is achieved.

    But we cannot let that happen. We must always remember what Hamas has done, and how they degraded all of humanity with their conscious targeting of civilians. We must never forget the images of people being dragged out of their cars to be stomped on until they die by Hamas, the videos that Hamas proudly took of homes being invaded and children killed, or the horrors of videos of victims being filmed on the victims’ own cell phones and then sent to their families from their phones.

    Hamas has demonstrated a barbarism unseen in humanity for hundreds if not thousands of years, and we must not let anti-Semitic Marxists like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) change the narrative in an attempt to transform Hamas and the people of Gaza into victims.

    Ocasio-Cortez and her ilk are calling for Israel to be stopped as they feel that Israel’s response is too aggressive and uncalled for. The Swiss foreign minister is one of many using the new leftist term “proportional reaction,” a term that is being picked up everywhere by pro-Hamas supporters like Ocasio Cortez and the BBC.

    Since they can’t really hang their hat on the fallacy of a historical Palestine, they are trying to stop Israel from destroying the evil of Hamas based on the idea that Israel is doing worse to Hamas than Hamas did to Israel. Even while history, common sense, and the most basic ethical standards of humanity demonstrate that Hamas and its supporters have descended to a level below even animals; let us evaluate this concept of proportionality.

    General Wiliam Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army is credited first with the saying, “War is hell.” There is no proportionality in war: you fight for your survival, and it is uglier than any human being should have to experience. In some ways, that’s the point of war: to make it so horrible that people will do almost anything for peace. If Hamas didn’t want hell rained down on Gaza, it should not have consciously and specifically targeted the elderly, women, and children.

    Hamas CHOSE to drop into a music festival and rape, kidnap, and murder young people celebrating life through music. There was no pressure on Hamas to video its acts of horror and send those images to families with the express intention of traumatizing them. Terrorists did choose to perform these heinous acts, and there is every justification to make sure this never happens again.

    But the left is now claiming that this isn’t right — that Israel’s actions are greater than what they suffered. They are demanding that Israel abides by the “principle of proportionality,” a term that they think means that while Hamas can kill Israeli babies, Israel cannot kill any civilian even by accident.

    Related: There Is No Such Thing As ‘Palestinians’

    Ironically, the Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare at Westpoint has established that “there is [sic] no reliable reports that the IDF have [sic] ever intentionally targeted civilians.” Juxtapose this against Hamas’ specific intent to cause terror among civilians. The Israeli Air Force is the only one in the world that gives notice to civilians to exit a building before destroying it, and Israel handcuffs itself in battle by doing everything possible to avoid civilian casualties. While Israel defends all civilians, Hamas uses children and its own civilians as human shields to protect themselves.

    Simply put, Israel uses the IDF to protect its citizens. Hamas uses its citizens to protect Hamas. The civilian pain that is happening in Gaza as Israel now attacks is a direct result of Hamas’ practice of shielding itself with babies. The principle of proportionality is very specific: attacks that might affect civilians are prohibited unless they are excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.

    Since the military advantage is to get Hamas out of Gaza and its supporters defeated forever, then Israel is following that principle perfectly. The Israeli military’s need to remove any vestige of Hamas from the world is so necessary that, sadly, civilians may get hurt. But remember, given that the IDF gives advance notice, the only reason for a civilian to be in Gaza is if they support Hamas or if Hamas is using them as human shields.

    There is no real “Palestine”; Hamas targets civilians in the cruelest of ways; and Israel still does everything possible to avoid collateral damage. But these anti-Israel fanatics still say that too many Gaza citizens are getting hurt or dying. They think they are the official arbiter of how many Gaza casualties are too many and castigate Israel for defending herself.

    If these supporters of the fanatical and evil Hamas really want to crunch numbers to determine how many is too many, consider the following: If these Marxists want “proportionate precision” based on percentages; a literal “eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” (which only ultimately leads to blind men with no teeth), then let us review the statistics. There are over 1,500 times more Arab Muslims than Israeli citizens (9.5 million vs 1.5 billion), and over 1,300 Israeli civilians have been kidnapped, raped, and/or killed in this war so far.

    Since there are over 1,500 times more Arab Muslims who are supporting Hamas in the region, we multiply 1,500 times over 1,300 victims. By their logic of precise proportionality, we would need to kill 2 million Arab Muslim civilians to be pari-passu with Hamas, and God forbid we ever have to do that.

    While Israel works hard to keep Gaza’s civilian casualties down, Hamas consciously aims for civilians. While Israel strives to remove civilians from fighting areas, Hamas uses children, babies, and the elderly as human shields. When the left is complaining that too many Gaza citizens are getting injured, they are rejecting the mathematics that demonstrates how Israel really is restraining herself.

    This entire rhetoric of principled proportionality is just another public relations scheme that, when accompanied by painful images of war, is an attempt to destroy Israel in the minds and hearts of people around the world. We must not let this publicity stunt, which capitalizes on the devastation that Israel is required to perform on Hamas, subvert our support for Israel and her actions.

    Israel and the Israel Defense Force is the most ethical army in the history of the world. Rather than condemning its precise efforts to keep civilians safe, we must laud it. And we must always remember: while Israel uses the IDF to protect civilians, Hamas is killing its own civilians to protect Hamas.

    As Golda Meir is credited with saying, “If the Arabs lay down their weapons, there will be peace. If the Israelis laid down their weapons, there would be a massacre.” We just experienced the truth of her words and the massacres and horrors of Israel not holding their weapons strongly enough. Do not ask us to invite other massacres in the future, God forbid, by using the leftist argument that Israel needs to restrain herself against villains who use babies as shields and then turn to their advantage the deaths of those babies that Hamas is directly responsible for murdering.

    Israel will always strive to save civilians while destroying the evil of Hamas and its supporters. But there is no moral equivalency, and we cannot let fools like Ocasio-Cortez and her squad be left unanswered.

    Original Here

  • War in Ukraine

    War in Ukraine

    As you should know by now, Vladimir Putin let slip the dogs of war last night US time/ this morning eastern european time after months of build-up. The initial attacks came as the UN Security Council was meeting to discuss the situation. Just before the first missiles impacted, and likely after they had launched, a prerecorded address by Putin was played on Russian state media. In that address he announced his plan for a special military operation aimed at disarming and de-nazifying Ukraine.

    Before I go any further, I caution you about the news and reports coming out of the warzone. Not only do you have to wade through the typical fog of war misinformation, you need to deal with active Kremlin disinformation and PSYOPS. If it gets reported by me, it is as close to the truth as I can get from here. Again, be very wary of the information you’re consuming and sharing, spreading disinformation about this can cost lives.

    Starting around 2130 EST Russian cruise missiles, short and intermediate range ballistic missiles and air launched precision munitions started hitting targets in Ukraine. Among the first targets were airports and ammo depots. However, not all targets were military in nature as several sites within the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv and Mariupol were hit.

    Shortly before 0700 local time the ground offensive kicked off with armored columns moving out from Crimea, the Donbas region and the Belarus border. The Crimean column made good headway into Ukraine, but that’s to be expected, given that column consists of mainly elite VDV paratroopers.

    The attacks from the Donbas and Belarus have not made nearly as much progress, though reports indicate that the Belarusan front has captured Chernobyl and most of the exclusion zone.

    https://twitter.com/JulianRoepcke/status/1496854817767145478?s=20&t=P4ZcXWSaGyoZyGdCu6BRZQ
    https://twitter.com/COUPSURE/status/1496864583230894082?s=20&t=P4ZcXWSaGyoZyGdCu6BRZQ

    Things are looking grim for the Ukrainians, however it is not all bad. It seems the Ukrainians have slowed if not stopped the assault from the Danbas. And there are multiple, though unconfirmed, reports that the Ukrainians have shot down several Russian aircraft today. There are also many images and video of disabled and destroyed russian tanks and armored vehicles.

    As I write this Ukrainian forces are fighting to take back Hostomel airport, just 15km from the capitol of Kyiv. Russian airborne forces landed there earlier today and managed to push back the defenders. As of 1515est at least part of the airfield is back under Ukrainian control.

    I will try to keep you updated as much as possible, however the speed at which this is unfolding may not make that possible. Look for a separate piece about the western reaction to this naked aggression by Putin later today.

  • Trouble in the Caucasus

    Trouble in the Caucasus

    In this image taken from a footage released by Armenian Defense Ministry on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2020, Armenian army destroys Azerbaijani tanks at the contact line of the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan. (Armenian Defense Ministry)

    Its starting to look like there is going to be a full scale conventional war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

    There has been ongoing low intensity conflict between the two nations since a war in the early 1990’s following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The conflict is centered on the Nagorno-Karabakh region, inside Azerbaijan, but controlled by ethnic Armenians. The region declared independence in 1991 which led to the 1994 Nagorno-Karabakh war.

    Azeri forces have moved into Nagorno-Karabakh at several locations today. Whether or not they’ll be able to hold onto their gains is up in the air. There was a general mobilization of Armenian forces today just after the incursion started. All reservists, 55 and younger, were recalled to active service.

    It is unclear what started the most recent outbreak of hostilities, the bloodiest since 2016. Both sides are blaming the other. At least 23 have been killed and hundreds injured so far. That number includes civilian casualties.

    There are reports of Turkish involvement on the Azeri side. The President of Nagorno-Karabakh said there were Turkish F-16s involved in supporting the Azeri advance in a security council meeting today. If this is true, there are larger issues at play. Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, along with Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. This could bring Russia into the fray, directly in conflict with Turkey.

    https://twitter.com/drapr007/status/1310229100095660032?s=20
    https://twitter.com/IntelDoge/status/1310266512888995841?s=20
  • Little Duck no more

    Little Duck no more

    While I read from the Atlantic this

    Vote For Joe Biden Or Democrats Will Lose Their Minds And Burn The Country Down…

    There’s a story, perhaps you can see the parallels of wicked tongues

    These were the years when Lewis Cass and Henry Schoolcraft were exploring Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

    Their job was to find out where everything was. They just happened to stop at a trading post at the south end of Grand Island when they heard an amazing story from an amazing young man.

    “He met this remarkable Indian and they played this remarkable song and then told the story about the Lost Warriors,” explained Graham.

    In the late 1820s, a young Grand Island Chippewa Indian named “Little Duck” loved to run. Speed was honored by the rest of the tribe. Little Duck used to run laps on Trout Bay until he was the fastest on the island.  He loved Lake Superior.

    Years later the Grand Island Chippewa were somewhat forced to go to war because of lies

    with other Chippewa tribes against the Sioux tribes to the west.

    Ten men from Grand Island went to fight. 

    It’s said this great battle happened somewhere in northern Minnesota.

    The Sioux greatly outnumbered the Chippewa and scalped most of them, except the 10 from Grand Island who were held up in a cavern. The Sioux chief gave them a chance to leave, but they decided to fight and die with honor but they needed one person to tell their story of what happened. So Little Duck ran. He ran fast, so fast he outran the whole Sioux tribe.

    Later that day all the Chippewa were slaughtered. Little Duck was hiding in the woods and saw the whole massacre. He was the only survivor.

    When he got back to Grand Island there was great sorrow, but his mother said because of what he did he had grown into a man and shouldn’t be called Little Duck anymore. From then on he was known as “Powers of the Air”.

    It was Powers of the Air talking to the French explorers at that trading post.

    “They were very impressed with him. Schoolcraft said he was one of the most impressive young man he’s ever met,” said Graham.

    The explorers left Grand Island with Powers of the Air’s story etched in their minds.

    “The party that was with Cass and Schoolcraft, they had a party of about 20 people or so. They were some French explorers and guides, and even some Native Americans were helping them along. They camped and AuTrain Beach, which is only six or seven miles from Munising, and then a big storm came up and so they couldn’t go further. So their time on their hands and they were remembering this presentation that Powers of the Air had made. They were very impressed with him, as was Cass and Schoolcraft. So I’m told one of the French guides carved the face into the rock on AuTrain Beach with a hammer and chisel and that face is still there. it’s cool to take a walk down AuTrain Beach

    find the carving and know that Powers of the Air is overlooking his beloved Lake Superior and knowing his story.

    the wicked tongues have the people breaking
    the Great Law of Peace
    a bit of insight
    Article 24
    of The Great Law of Peace stated: “The chiefs of the League of Five Nations shall be mentors of the people for all time. …they shall be proof against anger, offensive action, and criticism. Their hearts shall be full of peace and good will, and their minds filled with a yearning for the welfare of the people of the League. With endless patience, they shall carry out their duty. Their firmness shall be tempered with a tenderness for their people. Neither anger nor fury shall find lodging in their minds and all their words and actions shall be marked by calm deliberation.”

    Ben Franklin and the Founding Fathers had such a deep respect for these indigenous teachings, as they actually mirrored Christian teachings. What would the world be like today if policy was created with this kind of respect

    Honor and Statesmanship