William Thomas (USNR Resigned) / William Thomas Online
The most revealing way to record any period is to simply list events in chronological order — and see what clear patterns and jarring juxtapositions are revealed through consecutive dates. Six-weeks in preparation, this 2-part “rundown” chronicles the pandemic-challenged Pentagon’s costly and flailing descent into belligerent irrelevance.
JANUARY 2017
“The most likely and significant threat is a novel respiratory disease, particularly a novel influenza disease,” the Pentagon warns in January 2017.
With the US Strategic National Stockpile of medical equipment including respirators, gloves, face masks, and gowns nearly depleted, the 103-page response plan 3560, dealing with“ Pandemic Influenza and Infectious Disease Response,” predicts shortages of ventilators, face masks and gloves — while warning that “crowded workplaces” and “proximity to international airports” would quickly turn an infectious disease into a global pandemic.
The Pentagon also informs the White House that, in the event of a nationwide outbreak, it anticipates “insufficient hospital beds” across the USA.
Yawn.
Kent State student shot dead by US military (John Pail Filo/1971 Pulitzer Prize)
FEBRUARY 2020
On February 1, Defense Secretary Mark Esper signs secret Warning Orders directing NORTHCOM and a cohort of US east coast military units to “prepare to deploy” in response to urban violence if desperate Americans begin fighting over food.
“We’re in territory we’ve never been in before,” says a military planner. At least, not since Kent State.
“Nuclear forces are the supreme guarantee of the security of the Allies, and underwrite every US military operation in Europe,” US European Commander, General Tod D. Wolters promises US senators on February 25, as the stealthy coronavirus begins attacking defenceless US forces.
Social distancing is difficult during military training exercises.
MARCH 2020
DANGEROUS DEFENDER MAY BE SNEEZED OFF
From April to May, ever-belligerent NATO is set to stage its biggest anti-Russia wargames, when it encounters a foe it was not prepared to face.
Designed to provoke war through “deterrence” by pretending to “counter” pretend Russian “aggression”, this latest exercise in nuclear sabre-rattling will conclusively demonstrate to massively unthreatened and fed-up Europeans that the outdated Cold War alliance is still suicidally pressing a country that, after losing 25 million dead defeating Hitler’s invading Wehrmacht, has pledged to never again allow its borders to be transgressed by any army.
In full retreat from the pandemic, Norway calls off its own NATO exercise. But by March 14, Defender Europe 2020 is still on — despite the certainty of soldiers returning from epidemic-stricken regions spreading fresh outbreaks at home.
“The fear factor is real,” says retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski of nervous NATO troops facing an invisible foe for no discernible reason.
Drills of this scale are likely to involve a lot of meeting, talking and hand-shaking among NATO’s aging top brass — “probably something they would very much like to avoid,” guesses Sergey Mikhailov, a senior fellow at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies.
Infecting all command staff members in Europe, while sending tens of thousands of kid-soldiers into diseased areas for a publicity stunt could become a PR disaster for Western “leaders” vain enough to believe thier own lies.
“Deliberately putting soldiers’ health and even lives at risk would hardly be welcomed,” figures Mikhail Khodarenok. The drills would likely remind the Western public of the indefensible stupidity of the Alliance, adds this retired colonel in the Russian Air Defense Forces and former General Staff officer.
Former Pentagon official Michael Maloof also believes that a global epidemic is a “bad time” to demonstrate such extreme US arrogance toward its no longer vassal-allies.
Did somebody just cough?
SICK SOLDIERS
“Mitigation measures taken by the Army to blunt the spread of COVID-19 have proven insufficient,” the army posts to its servicemembers on March 20.
No wonder GIs fear their own commanders, who continue to train them through the intensifying outbreak. “We’re still crammed inside tents with hundreds of people sleeping within 2-3 feet of each other,” one troop says. “Using latrines with no hand soaps in them,” another gripes.
By the end of March, the Pentagon confirms over 1,000 COVID-19 cases among its military — before ordering bases to stop public reporting that warns surrounding communities.
NATO’s nuclear expansion is unwelcomed.
US EUROPEAN COMMANDER URGES FIRST STRIKE
On March 18, a pair of USAF B-2 nuclear attack bombers, escorted by three Norwegian F-35 fighter jets, overfly Iceland to demonstrate their willingness and ability to drop some 60 “dialable” B61-12 nuclear bombs on those darn Russkies from bases in Italy and other European countries foolish enough to paint nuclear bulls-eyes on their foreheads.
On March 25, the US European Command boasts: “Since January the US Army has deployed 6,000 soldiers from the United States to Europe” — along with 12,000 pieces of equipment — “in support of NATO” against “Russian aggression” during a lethal worldwide pandemic.
Long-forgotten is another broken longstanding US commitment, pledged in 2007, that NATO would never expand eastwards into Poland and other eastern European countries if Moscow allowed the reunification of East and West Germany.
As US forces continue training in otherwise locked-down Europe for a nuclear clash between covid-stricken European states and Russia — on Russia’s border — the real purpose behind this latest American-led NATO drill is to sow tension among the European populace by pumping the self-fulfilling meme of a Russian “enemy”, actually preoccupied with a pandemic.
Also on March 25, the human robot responsible for hair-trigger US and NATO nukes in Europe, General Tod Wolters, tells the US Senate Committee on Armed Services that he’s a big supporter of a first nuclear strike. Calling for a nuclear surprise attack, Wolters boasts, “I am a fan of Flexible First-use Policy.”
“A declaration of such gravity,” writes a less enthusiastic Manlio Dinucci for Global Research, “pushes Russian Generals to put their finger on the nuclear trigger.”
Imagine, for example, the presence of zero-warning, Russian nuclear missiles based in a breakaway Montreal or… Cuba.
USS Theodore Roosevelt sailors showing symptoms of COVID-19.
COVID CARRIER KAYOED
The virus-stricken aircraft carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt docks in Guam on March 26. Videos show her sailors cheering their cashiered commander as Captain Crozier departs the command he tried to protect by going outside an unresponsive chain-of-command.
“There’s an entire sea of people,” comments Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero of the Guamanian political advocacy organization, Independent Guahan. “Hardly any of them are wearing masks. Nobody is social distancing. The captain himself exits the ship without a mask and shakes hands with [someone] picking him up… And now we’re hearing that this captain is positive for COVID.”
Guam residents are concerned they might contract the virus from so many beached sailors. In late March, a letter by local community leaders informs Guam’s Governor that his constituents are “concerned” that infections could spread from the Navy’s vessel to the local community.
Honoring the covid threat, Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warns, “We have too many ships at sea, we have too many deployed capabilities. There’s 5,000 sailors on a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.”
On March 27, Trump signs an executive order calling-up one-million reservists to risk becoming infected in crowded ranks during a special tour of “active duty not to exceed 24 consecutive months.”
On March 31, the Dutch/NATO combat submarine, HNLMS Dolfijn is forced to cut its voyage short and quickly return home after eight sailors onboard test positive for Covid-19. All 58 crewmembers are immediately clapped in irons quarantined.
US records highest airstrike rates against Afghanistan and Somalia during COVID-19 -reporterly.net
On February 15, 2020, a US airstrike killed nine civilians in Nangarhar, Afghanistan (Photo: Afghanistan Times)
APRIL
LOOKING FOR A FIGHT
Throughout February, March and April, the US steps up bombing Afghan families, despite — or possibly because of — the February 29th peace accord between its forces and the terrible Taliban. Who, like it or not, happen to live there.
The USA also continues supporting the Saudi’s genocidal bombing of the Yemeni population, amidst brutal cholera outbreaks and sanction-choked starvation, even as the first Covid cases add to the agonies imparted by a broken medical infrastructure.
It’s an intriguing alliance, since a top Saudi Washington diplomat coordinated the al-Qaeda cell that flew an airliner into the Pentagon. (Ambassador Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah reported directly to Prince Bandar, who later became Saudi intelligence chief and the kingdom’s national security council head.)
Fearing further missile strikes on its oil infrastructure, Saudi Arabia bows to UN request for a ceasefire in war-shattered Yemen on April 9.
By April 15, USS Theodore Roosevelt counts nearly 600 confirmed Covid-19 infections among 4,860 crewmembers.
China taunts the US as its aircraft carrier Liaoning continues carrying out operations. In total, four US Navy aircraft carriers — USS Theodore Roosevelt, USS Ronald Reagan, USS Carl Vinson and USS Nimitz — are forced back to port by an alleged commie microorganism.
On April 17, France’s only aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle and her escort, are forced to return to Toulon after some 1,081 of 2,300 servicemen aboard the two ships test positive for Covid-19. After the first case of Covid-19 was detected onboard de Gaulle weeks previously, the carrier was still ordered out to sea. Her captain offered to halt the mission in the port of Brest when the group visited there mid-March, but was overruled.
“The bigger the ship, the more it looks like an ‘armed cruiseliner’, which, as we now all know, is a gigantic Petri dish,” comments Russian military analyst, The Saker.
Also on April 17, at least 10,000 National Guard troops finish deploying around the US Capitol to enforce not-yet-declared martial law and help evacuate lawmakers and top government officials if things go south of south.
On April 24, just days after Trump threatened to “shoot down” gunboats patrolling Iran’s front yard, the US Navy’s guided-missile destroyer, USS Kidd with a crew of 350 is forced to return to port with “over a dozen” positive cases onboard. The modern-day Billy the Kidd has been steaming off Venezuela’s coast to mess with Maduro.
Tehran helpfully suggests that the USA focus its efforts on fighting the coronavirus, rather than provoking Iran.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
