Robbie "Testing" was sarcasm.
They (Afghan government sources) claim 3 dozen dead ISIS.
Trump is just rattling cages with these isolated military actions.
Trump is showboating.
The US is having a clearance sale on bombs and missiles this month -- they are getting near their freshness date expiration. The US can throw its military might around but military action is a the result of political failure. So, Trump is admitting political defeat already -- 2 months in.
The Tomahawk attack in Syria was a political statement.
The MOAB bombing was a show of force for Fat Boy in NK to consider his options.
Neither event accomplished much and will not turn the tides of war in any real beneficial direction.
North Korea is getting their missile software and electronics from Chinese middlemen and the precision machine tools from Europe using the same Chinese middlemen
Quote:
Some of the banned components exported to North Korea can’t be found inside a missile frame. A separate report by U.S. weapons experts reveals how Pyongyang used Chinese middlemen to obtain access to European-made software essential for making parts that go inside advanced rockets.
The report recounts a 2015 business deal in which a European manufacturer agreed to sell sensitive software and industrial-control systems to a Chinese company based in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, about 150 miles from the North Korean border. The deal came with an important condition: None of the items were to be resold to North Korea.
The agreement was quickly broken,
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...7b2_story.html
Quote:
Home Shenyang Machine Tools Company
Reports
Shenyang Machine Tools Company
by David Albright
April 13, 2017
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A relatively large Chinese company, Shenyang Machine Tools Company, allegedly supplied sophisticated machine tools to North Korea in violation of supplier country trade control laws, according to government sources. The exports allegedly occurred in 2015. Although Shenyang company officials have stated that the exports were inadvertent, other evidence suggests that the company did know or should have known about the end destination of the controlled goods being North Korea. The Chinese government has refused to cooperate with foreign criminal investigations to determine the actual situation, backing the company’s claim that the exports were inadvertent or uncontrolled re-exports. Complicating matters, supplier countries are hesitant to supply China with details about potential illegal re-exports because of China’s history of lax enforcement and cover-ups of such cases. As a result, legal options to investigate the company’s exports are limited. However, this company should be considered a candidate for U.S. sanctions. In addition, the United States should take other measures to ensure that U.S. and other suppliers’ goods will not be re-exported to North Korea, particularly in light of increased restrictions on exports mandated by recent UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea.
Shenyang Machine Tools Company, headquartered in the city of Shenyang in northeast China, is a large company that sells a wide range of machine tools, some highly sophisticated. The machine tools use a range of subcomponents imported from major Western supplier nations. It sells its machine tools in China and globally, including in Europe and the United States. It also supplies the Shenyang Aircraft Company, which builds both military and civilian aircraft.
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Shenyang Machine Tools Company | Institute for Science and International Security
Institute for Science and International Security
440 First Street, NW
Suite 800
Washington, DC 20001
Talk about a fucked up domain name
So, Trump's answer to to send a US carrier task force in and stir up the hornets nest? Why not just put the proverbial bullet in Fat Boy's head and say "it wasn't us" as usual -- Putin style and move on ... Fat Boy is by now hiding in his rabbit hole (bunker). So, this is not the end of Fat Boy -- he will rant from his bunker. MOAB requires air superiority to be used so it is no fast solution -- it is the mother of all bluffs.