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The Duffel Brief · the free edition, Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Vol. 15 · No. 132 · Thursday, 5 November 2026

Pentagon

Pentagon confident U.S. will be ready for 2027 war with China by 2035

Officials cite historically proven American strategy of entering wars completely unprepared

Hegseth wears Eisenhower's globe as Halloween costume

Spirit Halloween store to become pop-up ICE detention center

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Vol. 15 · No. 132

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Vol. 15 · No. 132 · Deployed worldwide

Thursday

5 November 2026

1119 Zulu

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· Page 2

Russia taps strategic has-been reserve for war in Ukraine

Oh lord, not Steven Seagal.

Filed · 1125

UKRAINE—In another telling development that its invasion of Ukraine is not going well, Russia has recently started calling up forces from the Strategic Has-Been Reserve. Most notably, famous has-been Steven Seagal was deployed to occupied territory in an attempt to shore up the tenuous situation there.

“It wasn’t a complete surprise,” said Lt. Gen Blake O’Conner, military liaison to the Central Intelligence Agency. “Russia has been burning through all their men, material, and, well, everything at an astonishing pace. But still, this is almost the bottom of the barrel.”

The first indication that Putin intended to authorize use of the Has-Been Reserve came when archaic weapons started appearing in Russian forces' hands only a couple months into the conflict.

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