Early Warning for 31 August

ADMIN NOTE: I’m on the West Coast so I will be on Pacific time until early next week.  The Early Warning will be published at 8am Pacific through Monday.

Good morning.  Here’s what you need to know on this Thursday morning.

After ditching the “two front war” strategy in 2012 and downsizing the military, the Pentagon is now eyeing a new national defense strategy in which the U.S. will upgrade its military and gain the capability to fight wars on two fronts.  Earlier this year, SECDEF Mattis wrote that, “The objective is to build a larger, more capable, and more lethal joint force, driven by a new National Defense Strategy.”  The strategy is due to be delivered to Congress early next year.  (Additional details of this report will appear in tomorrow’s Executive Intelligence Summary.)

North Korean soldiers are being told to pillage corn from local farms to feed themselves, according to a news report.  “The military officers are instructing their soldiers, exhausted after training, to eat corn in the fields because war is imminent.”  This comes as President Trump continues to toe a hard line against the Kim regime, even as his cabinet members are stressing diplomacy as a resolution.  As I’ve previously stated, Kim Jong-un shows time and again that he’s not going to give up his nuclear weapons program, and so the claim that diplomacy will convince him otherwise is a bit dubious.  Yesterday morning, the president tweeted: “The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years.  Talking is not the answer!”  [source and source]

Additional analysis will appear in this Friday’s Executive Intelligence Summary.  If you’re not yet a Forward Observer member, then join us to get instant access to our intelligence reporting.  Prepared by intelligence veterans, our reporting is focused on threats at home and abroad.  Join here.