Episode 3-16-23

Hey guys, Welcome to the View from the Front podcast. If you just happened to stumble by, let me say a quick word about what we’re doing here. For those who don’t know, my name is Stan R. Mitchell, and I’m a prior Marine and journalist. Every week, I primarily do three things with my podcast: * Work to highlight what our military troops are doing around the world, while also trying to better educate Americans about looming hotspots and foreign policy news you absolutely should know. (Why I focus on foreign policy...) * Attempt to unite our country and remind us of how lucky we are to live in America. Our division and animosity toward each other is dangerous, and I want to do my small part to remind us that more unites us than divides us, and that most Americans are good and not screaming, crazy extremists like you see on the news all the time. (My thoughts on the division in this country...) * Finally, I always share plenty of motivation and wisdom at the end of the episode, because I want to do my small part to help encourage you and lift you up. Life is certainly hard, and I think it’s fair to say all of us need all the motivation and encouragement that we can possibly get. In this episode, we’ll be discussing several topics, that I think will really interest you, and that I almost guarantee you haven’t seen in the news! T The work I do each week is primarily a podcast. You can listen to it from the player above, or from whatever podcast you listen to it from. And if you love what I’m doing here, please sign up for email notifications. It’s FREE. Unless you choose to subscribe and support what I’m doing. It’s $5 per month should you choose that option, and you can cancel at any time. Subscribing also gets you The View from the Front Extended. This is a daily edition that comes out each weekday and is a way to provide value and thank my paying subscribers. Also, people are always asking me on social media how to best support my dreams, including getting out future books sooner. Believe me, the best way to support me is by signing up for a paid subscription here. Or, you can sign up at Patreon or at Venmo (@authorstanrmitchell). But you don’t have to do any of these things. I’ve already had incredible support and feel called to do this. As long as I’m making enough to cover the time I invest each week, I’m not going anywhere. Why paid subscriptions help, and what they’d help me do more of... Enough of the sales pitch, I hope you enjoy today’s edition. Again, you should listen to it from the player above. Source notes: Russia and Ukraine news: A few updates regarding the American drone downing by Russia. First, it wasn’t just pilots acting on their own, as we correctly predicted and stated in yesterday’s Extended edition. Newstory from NBC news: Russian leadership approved aggressive actions of jets that damaged U.S. drone, U.S. officials say From the story: Three U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence said the highest levels of the Kremlin approved the aggressive actions of Russian military fighter jets against a U.S. military drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday. Secondly, Russia tried lying saying they hadn’t done anything wrong and were not to blame for the drone crashing. So, the American military released drone footage showing otherwise, proving yet again that the Russian government lies says things that are not true. In some of the video clips, if you pause them in the right spot, you’ll see the damaged propeller on the drone. Finally, there was this. Russia to try to salvage wrecked US drone; Gen. Milley says 'not a lot to recover' From the story: Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Pentagon briefing that the drone sank into water that's 4,000-5,000 feet deep, making its recovery very difficult. "It probably broke up. There's probably not a lot to recover, frankly,'' Milley said. "As far as the loss of anything of sensitive intelligence, etc., as normal we would take and we did take mitigating measures, so we're quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value.'' Military analysts on social media said the United States would have remotely removed classified software from the MQ-9 Reaper drone before it crashed into the Black Sea to prevent Russia from obtaining classified information. CNN later reported this. In other Russia/Ukraine news, this is worrying if you care about the fate of Ukraine… Ron DeSantis says Ukraine war not US priority, aligns closer to Trump From the story: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had largely avoided staking out a specific policy position on the war in Ukraine until Monday. … He also referred to Russia's unprovoked invasion as a "territorial dispute." Moving along… Russian advance stalls in Ukraine’s Bakhmut, think tank says From the story: Russia’s advance seems to have stalled in Moscow’s campaign to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, a leading think tank said in an assessment of the longest ground battle of the war. The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said there were no confirmed advances by Russian forces in Bakhmut. Russian forces and units from the Kremlin-controlled paramilitary Wagner Group continued to launch ground attacks in the city, but there was no evidence that they were able to make any progress, the ISW said. The founder of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said Sunday on the Telegram messaging app that the situation in Bakhmut was “difficult, very difficult, with the enemy fighting for each meter.” China news: China shows some increasing might in the Middle East and proves it’s a continually growing and expanding power. Truce between Iran and Saudi Arabia, brokered by China, raises some concern for U.S. From the story: After years of hostility, Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to reestablish relations. This tentative peace was brokered by China after it was announced that officials from the three countries had met in Beijing for several days prior to negotiating the deal. This announcement from the three countries marks a new beginning of diplomatic relations between the two Middle Eastern powers and the reopening of embassies in Tehran and Riyadh within the next two months. China's involvement in the deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia comes as a surprise and concern to some as U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia and China have been strained in recent years. The AP noted that this is a new position for China: Iran-Saudi Arabia deal casts China in unfamiliar global role In other news, China is also STILL considering sending lethal aid to Russia for use in Ukraine. The Washington Post warned against this rash move in an editorial on Sunday: Opinion — For China, arming Russia would be folly From the editorial: For Beijing to depart from its policy of pro-Russian neutrality would accelerate its spiraling hostility toward the United States and reposition China not only as a U.S. rival but also as a threatening adversary in the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. Whatever else Beijing thinks it might achieve by replenishing Moscow’s depleted arsenals, it is clear that new weapons and munitions would enable Russia to spill more blood, pulverize more infrastructure, raze more cities and lay waste to more lives in Ukraine, the victim of Russia’s unwarranted aggression. … It would also play havoc with China’s commercial relationships across the world, likely triggering a cascading series of punitive responses by Western countries that would compound Beijing’s already daunting economic problems. The Biden administration and its European allies have warned of such a response. Moving along, in other China news, the deal regarding nuclear submarines between the U.S., U.K., and Australia got a lot of coverage this week. The long-term deal will allow Austrailia to finally have conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarines. What’s the point of this? To deter and possibly oppose China, of course. Nuclear submarines can stay at sea for extremly long periods of time and are very d… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stanrmitchell.substack.com/subscribe