₦airaland Forum

CHICAGO (Tribune News Service) — U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Sunday he has introduced legislation that would give congressional authorization for President Joe Biden to use U.S. military force in Ukraine if Russia uses chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

Speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” the Illinois Republican said the joint resolution would not be a mandate for the Democratic president but rather a measure that would provide an option for Biden’s administration while also sending a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin as he pursues war with Ukraine.

“It just says if it is used, (Biden) has that leverage. It gives him a better flexibility. But also, it is a deterrent to Vladimir Putin. If Vladimir Putin wants to escalate with the west, he will. It’s easy for him to do it,” said Kinzinger, the six-term congressman from Channahon who is not seeking reelection.

“Prior to World War II, there were moments nobody ever wanted to get involved and eventually came to realize they had to. I hope we don’t get to that point here. But we should be ready if we do,” he said.

Kinzinger, a U.S. Air Force veteran with missions in Afghanistan and Iraq who is a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, said in a separate statement that his introduction of the use-of-military-force resolution came after speaking with Secretary of State Antony Blinken “and hearing his grave concerns over Putin’s use of chemical weapons.”

Kinzinger, in his TV interview, also said he hoped there would be broad congressional support for Biden’s call last week for $33 billion in humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine through September.

“Look, we do have outliers and people that seem to show some Putin sympathy, but for the most part Congress is vastly and largely united on the issue of Ukraine. We recognize Ukraine is fighting for all of us,” Kinzinger said, citing some Republicans who have questioned providing U.S. aid to the war-torn country.

“That $33 billion is significantly less than what we would have to spend if we took Russia on directly, so I hope we don’t have any impediments to that at all. I wouldn’t expect we do.”

©2022 Chicago Tribune.

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2022-05-01/rep-kinzinger-measure-allow-us-intervention-ukraine-chemical-weapons-5862165.html

Major General Andrei Simonov reportedly died after his command post came under artillery fire by Ukrainian forces on Saturday April 30. The bombardment also took out more than 30 Russian armoured vehicles, including tanks. Videos circulating on social media appeared to show the command post being hit by Grad rockets, fired from a multiple-launch rocket system.

Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in an interview that some 100 Russian servicemen were also killed in the rocket attack.

The rate at which the Kremlin is losing senior commanders appears to be setting new records in modern military history.

Foreign correspondent Ian Birrell noted in a tweet: "Russia is losing one general a week on average in Putin's disastrous war, which must be an almost unprecedented rate of attrition for such senior officers."

The high casualty rate among among senior officers is also indicative of low morale among the rank and file, an ex-Estonian general told Express.co.uk.

Riho Terras said the senior commanders had to go to the frontlines to try and motivate their troops.

He said: "But the spirit in the Russian troops is still disastrous.

"Why is it that so many high ranking commanders, generals have been killed?

"Because they need to go to the troops in the front and try and encourage the troops to fight and get killed themselves.

"It only shows me that the spirit is not there."

Russian forces are trying to push south from Izyum towards Slovyansk, in a pincer movement designed to encircle Ukrainian troops defending the Donbas.

The strategic importance of the Izyum axis for Moscow was shown with the recent announcement that Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov would take personal command of the offensive there.

Ukrainian intelligence officials told the news outlet Defence Express that Gerasimov was already in-theatre and would command the offensive “at the operational and tactical level".

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1603798/putin-ukraine-tenth-russian-general-killed-invasion-Izyum-kharkiv-andrei-simonov

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Air Force recently successfully tested a hypersonic cruise missile produced by Lockheed Martin, the country's second successful in-flight test of such a weapon.

Why it matters: Disclosure of the test comes amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, during which Russian forces have used hypersonic missiles against Ukrainian targets.

Certain missiles have been able to fly at hypersonic speeds for several decades now, but newer, specific types of hypersonic missiles are being developed to be highly maneuverable in flight, making them difficult to detect on radars and destroyed with missile defense systems.

DARPA did not say exactly when it and the Air Force conducted the test of Lockheed Martin's version of DARPA and the Air Force's Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept [HAWC].

CNN, citing a defense official familiar with the matter, reported Tuesday that it occurred in mid-March.

DARPA and the Air Force did not immediately respond to Axios' questions regarding the exact date of the recent test.

What they're saying: "This Lockheed Martin HAWC flight test successfully demonstrated a second design that will allow our warfighters to competitively select the right capabilities to dominate the battlefield,” Andrew Knoedler, HAWC program manager in DARPA's Tactical Technology Office, said in a statement.

“These achievements increase the level of technical maturity for transitioning HAWC to a service program of record," he added.
DARPA said the missile was dropped from an aircraft before accelerating to and maintaining a cruising speed five times faster than sound for an undisclosed period of time. The missile reached altitudes greater than 65,000 feet and flew for more than 300 nautical miles.

The big picture: The U.S. recently delayed then canceled a scheduled intercontinental ballistic missile test to avoid escalating tensions with Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine.

China's hypersonic missile test last year caught U.S. intelligence officials by surprise.

Along with Lockheed Martin, a separate missile from another U.S. contractor team reached hypersonic flight last September

. https://www.axios.com/us-second-hypersonic-missile-flight-test-05a067da-4f1d-40ab-8f82-002db440e4c0.html

Parachoko:
No country in the world have the capability to shoot 10,000 Nuclear Bomb at once

Even the US and Russia can't shoot up to 5000 bomb sef

How many Silos is in Russia and USA? How many bombers do the two countries have to deliver nuclear bombs? How many Submarines can deliver nuclear bombs in this two countries?

When you look at all this, there is no way 10,000 bombs can be unleash at once.

hammer567:
MAN WILL ONLY DETROY ITELNOT GOD' WORLD.




LET EUROPE DIE. RIP IN ADVANE.

Parachoko:
Can you explain what you mean by this statement please

Parachoko:
Most of this European leaders just like unnecessary wahala.

Well, the war most of them want, I hope they get it soon

Parachoko:
Most of this European leaders just like unnecessary wahala.

Well, the war most of them want, I hope they get it soon

hammer567:
VERY INTERESTING!


WE ALL KNOW THE FIRST PART OF THE WORLD TO BE DESTROYED WILL BE EUROPE AND IT IS SET TO HAPPEN SOONEST.



THE PEOPLE ARE JUST TOO BAD.

Stoltenberg: Finland and Sweden will be 'very much welcomed' if they decide to join NATO

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg tells CNN's Dana Bash that he has a "good dialogue" with Finland and Sweden about potentially joining the alliance in response to Russia's war in Ukraine.

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2022/04/03/stoltenberg-on-finland.cnn

wirinet:
Then you only started listening to Kanu. Kanu of 2014 to 2017 was an advocate of violence. He even went to world igbo Congress to solicit for guns. He hated Yorubas calling them all sorts of names ie Ewedu eaters, Afonja, Bastards. Traitors, demons, etc. During that time there was beginning to be hatred between yorubas and igbos, who hitherto had had good relations for decades. That hatred is yet to subside even today.

He even preached hatred against fellow igbos who did not buy into his ideology. Remember Ekwerenmadu.

wirinet:
But Igwe Kanu's son and his radio biafra was advocating for genocide and extermination against Fulanis and Yorubas. He even pronounced a fatwa against Pastor Kumuyigoing going to preach in Aba.

naptu2:
Oh, don't worry, everyone's time is coming, including those who post on Nairaland in support of terrorists and those who stoke ethnic hatred on Nairaland. Everyone's time is coming and they'll get what they deserve. Who knows, maybe including you.

Appleyard:
Lmao. The Russians simply withdrew from there.

Landmack:
My friend shut up and get the message. The east is in flames today because of MNK and now Simeon Ekpa.

The east used to be the most peaceful not until this Biafra extremists started inciting violence on security forces and igbos.

Now we have the north troubled and also the troubled east. Igbos are fleeing daily from the region.


So just shut up

PressMyButton:
Ibos are directly or indirectly standing with Nmandi Kanu, patronising the federal government for forgiveness and political solution. We see them throng out in their numbers in court premises during his trials.
Is there anything Adeyinka Grandson had said that Kanu hadn't said much worse?. It is the height of hypocrisy when you rejoice that Grandson was jailed while frowning against Kanu being locked up.
If you can stand with Kanu, I also reserve the right to stand with Adeyinka Grandson.

Osagyefo98:
Nnamdi kanu saw his own coming and escaped from UK and EU countries..

Buhari was smart enough to hook him up in Kenya..


The real reason behind his arrest in Kenya was him trying to evade justice in UK.

If not same fate that befell Adeyinka would have befallen Nnamdi Kanu.

FG only got info of the fugitive meandering around African and picked him up.

naptu2:
One down, more to go.

Hopefully all the lunatics that are living comfortably abroad and inciting Nigerians to hate and kill each other will be jailed one after the other.

On Monday March 28, 2022, some gunmen launched a deadly attack on a Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) Abuja-Kaduna evening train carrying an estimated 398 passengers. After detonating explosives on the track (and possibly inside the train according to conflicting reports in the local media), the gunmen surrounded the immobilized train and started discharging their firearms into the carriages. It took at least an hour before a detachment of the Nigerian military came to the rescue of the passengers, who had cowered under their seats as the bandits fired incessantly.

The incident left at least eight people dead—among them a young medical doctor Chinelo Megafu and Musa Lawal-Ozigi, secretary-general of the country’s Trade Union Congress—and at least another forty-one hospitalized, while the yet unidentified assailants also captured some of the passengers.

The toll on the Muhammadu Buhari administration and Nigeria’s tottering democracy is likely to be greater.

The sheer brazenness of the attack throws into relief the administration’s so far unsuccessful struggle to impose some kind of public order even as the country continues to spiral into general lawlessness. Inaugurated in July 2016, the Abuja-Kaduna evening train is a perfect metaphor for this struggle, as a growing number of travelers have embraced the service as travel on the highway between Abuja and Kaduna (a distance of 130 miles) became increasingly unsafe due to the activities of kidnappers and sundry gangsters.

Abuja is the seat of the Nigerian Federal Government while Kaduna houses the Nigerian Defense Academy (NDA).

In recent times, the northwestern state of Kaduna itself has been literally under siege. On March 26 2022, gunmen attacked the Kaduna International Airport killing an official of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) after allegedly storming the runway. In March last year, bandits abducted eleven people after a surprise attack on the staff quarters of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) in Kaduna. In August, two military officers were killed and at least one kidnapped after bandits attacked the permanent site of the Nigerian Defense Academy (NDA). Over the past several months, attacks on various villages across the state have resulted in the death of dozens. Over the years, authorities in Kaduna and a local Shiite Muslim sect have been at loggerheads, with tensions boiling over in December 2015 after a military crackdown led to the death of 347 Shiites.

The situation in Kaduna is far from unique, the security situation across the country having rapidly deteriorated even as government at various levels continue to scramble for a solution. According to the New York-based Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect, attacks by bandits across the Nigerian northwest have claimed at least 5,000 lives since 2018. Since 2009, nearly 350,000 people have been killed in the northeastern part of the country due largely to the activities of Boko Haram Islamist insurgents. The number of displaced people in the Lake Chad Basin is estimated at three million.

Violence in Nigeria is multidimensional and pervasive, ranging from perennial herder-farmer clashes to gang violence, armed robbery, attacks on state infrastructure, especially police stations, airports and power transformers, intercommunal violence, lynching, ritual killings, mob justice, and casual intimidation of ordinary citizens by law enforcement.

More than six million small arms are believed to be in the hands of civilian nonstate actors in the country.

Nigerian police use lethal force on the slightest pretext. Ranked the worst in the world by the 2016 World Internal Police and Security Index, the Nigeria Police Force kills an average of 841 citizens every year. Nigeria (estimated population 200 million) ranks eighth in the top ten of countries with the highest numbers of police killings.

Most murders in Nigeria—official or otherwise—go unsolved. The recent spike in vigilante justice, which has seen a ramp up in incidents in which citizens have taken the law into their own hands owes in large part to distrust of the police and frustration with the justice system. In 2019, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ranked Nigeria among the thirteen worst countries in unsolved murders of journalists.

Nor has increased spending on security produced a commensurate decrease in insecurity. Between 2015 and 2020, Nigeria budgeted an average of about 4.2 billion dollars on security, with the total budget for security rising to 2.5 percent of the GDP in 2020. In 2019, Nigeria had the third largest military budget in Africa, behind only South Africa and Algeria.

While, on paper, security expenditure goes toward training of soldiers, operations, and purchases of vital military equipment, the reality is much different. Corruption is a major problem, with much of the funds budgeted for security regularly diverted. In 2017, at least two billion dollars out of monies set aside for the Boko Haram campaign were diverted to other uses, including financing of political activities. In 2016, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo disclosed that about fifteen billion dollars were stolen from the fight against Islamists under the previous Goodluck Jonathan administration. At the state and local government (LG) levels, governors and local government chairpersons regularly mismanage “security votes,” a monthly federal allocation towards security-related expenses within the states. An estimated 900 million dollars is lost to their mismanagement annually.

Corruption in the security sector has been cited as a factor in some of the recent military takeovers in the region.

In the wake of Monday’s attack, President Buhari held an emergency meeting with service chiefs and heads of security agencies and promised to bring the bandits to justice. The Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya and Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi both visited the site of the attack and echoed the president’s assurance. The latter promised, improbably, that all passenger trains will now be escorted by Nigerian Air Force jets. In truth, most Nigerians feel like Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, who confessed to being “angry, frustrated, and feeling totally helpless.”

While horse-trading among the political class for next year’s all-important elections hums along in the background, it increasingly feels like a sideshow—an expensive one, to be sure—to the anarchy that daily life in the country has become. If, as some have plausibly contended, the Nigerian state failed a long time ago, what we seem to be witnessing is the unfolding reel of its agonizing decomposition and dismemberment.

It has been long in coming, but what used to be a geographically coherent unit is now effectively a collection of parts barely managing to keep in touch with one another. Nigeria in theory has become incommensurate with Nigeria in reality.

The first task before the next president (there will be an election, the question is what kind) is to put Nigeria back in sync.

But first, the incumbent must restore law and order.

This publication is part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future of Democracy.

https://www.cfr.org/blog/nigerian-democracy-peril-country-descends-lawlessness

Nigeria’s largest airline, Air Peace, has halted flights to Kaduna International Airport, barely a day after Azman Air announced the suspension of flights to the state.

Daily Trust reports that the development follows the Saturday attack on the Kaduna airport by armed bandits.

On Monday, Peoples Gazette had reported that Azman Air halted flights to Kaduna.

The airline’s management explained that it suspended operations in Kaduna to re-evaluate its operational procedures in the airport.

“The management of Azman Air will like to inform the general public that we will be halting our operations into Kaduna airport for a few days,” Azman Air said.

Armed bandits on Saturday afternoon breached security at the airport, and attacked people.

A witness told The Gazette the attack occurred shortly after 12:00 noon when the attackers scaled the airport barriers and caused widespread panic across the facility.

Two days after the invasion, armed bandits in another attack on Monday bombed a passenger train along the Kaduna-Abuja track.

Following the incessant attacks on transport facilities in Kaduna, the Nigerian Senate asked President Muhamadu Buhari to declare full-scale war against Boko Haram, ISWAP and bandit terrorists causing mayhem across the country.

Leading debate on the motion, Uba Sani (APC-Kaduna Central) disclosed that bandits had stepped up attacks in some communities of Giwa LGA of Kaduna.

https://gazettengr.com/air-peace-joins-azman-cancels-flights-to-kaduna/

franchasng:
Americans are not like Russian cowards.


The Yankees, my people