Tag: perpetual war

More Promises Of Western Aid Emboldened Ukraine To Neutralize Anti-Corruption Institutions

The EU and NATO recently promised more aid for Ukraine. The first did so in late May after the European Council created the “Security Action For Europe” (SAFE) instrument, which will provide up to €150 billion in low-interest loans for defense investments in the bloc’s members and also Ukraine, while the second came in mid-July when Trump announced that NATO members agreed to pay full price for new US arms that they’ll transfer to Ukraine. These promises emboldened Ukraine to raid its anti-corruption bureau.

Bloomberg condemned the move in a sharp opinion piece while The Economist warned that “something sinister is at work” after Zelensky then signed a law that was rushed through the Rada shortly afterwards for subordinating the anti-corruption bureau and its prosecutorial counterpart to presidential control. 

Protests have since erupted in several Ukrainian cities over the latter move, which could only be possible with the SBU’s tacit approval, but it’s premature to conclude that a power struggle is underway.

In any case, a security-related pretext was exploited to justify intimidating and then subordinating anti-corruption institutions to the presidency ahead of more promised aid from the West.

Had those promises not been made, then there’d be a lot less money to steal, thus making it less likely that Ukraine would risk negative Western media coverage by doing what it just did. After all, those moves generated more negative attention than any of its anti-corruption institutions’ accusations against state officials.

Nevertheless, precedent suggests that the West won’t curtail its promised aid despite credible concerns that some of it will be stolen, including some of the arms that NATO might soon send. Russia’s First Deputy Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy claimed last October that “15% to 20% of all military goods received by Kiev end up on the gray and black markets within the next two weeks.”

The Swiss-based Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime also warned about this threat in February.

The reason why Western aid will likely continue flowing into Ukraine in spite of it brazenly neutralizing its anti-corruption institutions is because that bloc has already accepted that some of it will be stolen as the price to pay for continuing their proxy war on Russia.

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An Offensive Shield — for Impunity, and Genocide: The Iron Dome and U.S. Complicity in Slaughter of Gazans

The House of Representatives has approved giving Israel an additional $1.3 billion in “emergency defense assistance” for its Iron Dome missile defense program, another installment of countless billions sent from the United States to intensify a one-sided war against the Palestinian people.

The Iron Dome system intercepts short range rockets (launched from 2.5 to 43 miles) through the joint work of the IDF, Israeli contractors, and U.S. weapons manufacturers like Raytheon. Radar batteries detect incoming missiles, calculate direction and threat level, and, if necessary, target the menacing projectile and speed interceptors to destroy it.

The Iron Dome destroys incoming rockets at high altitude, but, since its emplacement in 2011, the system has also functioned to enable Israel to conduct ethnic cleansing and perpetuate genocide with impunity in Gaza and the West Bank.

It has underwritten an astonishingly deadly campaign of collective punishment, with lengthy, targeted air, drone, and guided missile strikes in densely populated areas. These deadly attacks are carried out against a people who have no army, no shield, and no means of response.

When we fund one-sided protection without justice, we destroy the possibility of peace for them, and for ourselves.

The Iron Dome, then, is not just a “defense” system. It is the preeminent strategic enabler of Israel’s asymmetric genocidal war against Palestinians. First the shield, then the sword.

It must be said clearly: Opposing genocide and illegal occupation is not antisemitic. It is the defense of humanity. The Israeli government’s ongoing colonization of Palestinian land, its collective punishment of a captive population, and its refusal to recognize a sovereign Palestinian people all constitute violations of international law.

To oppose this violence is not to oppose Jewish people. It is to stand against the machinery of oppression, just as we should for any people subjected to such inhumanity.

By eliminating the possibility of reprisal, the Iron Dome has insulated Israel from accountability, enabling it to continue inhumane policies of dispossession and aggression without consequence. This strategic impunity dulls domestic dissent and emboldens a government that continues to seize land and to erase Palestinian life.

War crime inquiries, censures, sanctions, none of it matters while the Netanyahu government pursues with single-minded intensity a “Greater Israel,” using the most advanced military technologies against people who cannot fight back.

That the whole of the United States is not consumed with outrage at the mass murder, the diabolical, Torquemadan cruelties of the IDF, the self-appointed agents of death who gleefully kill children, laugh while shooting starving people desperately scrapping for a morsel of food to survive, and bomb hospitals, mosques, churches, markets, cafes, even tents, — is a wrenching testimony to the psychic numbing that occurs with distance from the grim reality of war and the power of the dehumanizing narrative to which many Americans have succumbed. The capacity to emotionally respond to the agonizing suffering of Palestinians has been muted by distance and by relentless propaganda in the West.

I remember years ago, during the Vietnam War, daily news accounts of the carnage in Southeast Asia eventually dissolved into an undifferentiated mass of information, causing readers to turn the page or switch the channel. Information overload can normalize atrocity as it dulls cognition. Then, when battle scenes of U.S. soldiers being killed or injured were carried by US television networks, the powerful emotional impact drove home the true cost, propelled public opposition to the war and forced President Lyndon Johnson from office.

Spectators of events in Israel can become morally anesthetized as high technology is employed in mass murder, when journalists are targeted and killed, when civilian casualties roll up like an odometer at high speed. Except for random videos posted online, the only testimony is that of the IDF, which denies, denies, denies, cries “anti-Semitism” at exposure, and then, after a pause for a drink of limonana, efficiently continues the killing.

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Is Trump’s Ukraine Arms Deal a Deception?

U.S. President Donald Trump has consistently insisted that the war in Ukraine “is not Trump’s war. This is a Biden war, this is a Democrat war.” But on July 14, it started to look a lot like Trump’s war, as Trump announced “billions and billions” of dollars of American military equipment to be sent to Ukraine along with “severe tariffs” to be applied to any country who buys oil from Russia if a peace deal is not reached in fifty days. But that appearance may be illusory, and the new weapons deal may be a deception.

From one perspective, Trump’s reversal may be celebrated in Ukraine as America reentering the war with the first weapons package and the first tariffs of the Trump administration. From another perspective, the U.S. just made public that its new policy direction is to pull out of the war, stop providing Ukraine with free military equipment, and leave the war to Europe if they wish to continue fighting it.

“We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, a hundred percent,” Trump said. The U.S. will no longer approve weapons packages for Ukraine. Instead, they will sell weapons to NATO who will then send those weapons to Ukraine, or they will sell weapons to NATO countries to replenish weapons they have sent to Ukraine.

Though Kiev may celebrate America’s reengagement in the war, the European countries who are financing it may see it differently. “If we pay for these weapons, it’s our support,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas rebutted. “So it’s European support…. If you promise to give the weapons, but say that somebody else is going to pay for it, it’s not really given by you, is it?”

The Trump announcement that American weapons would once again be flowing to Ukraine may simultaneously be America’s withdrawal from the war in Ukraine, returning the burden to Europe where Trump has long said it should be.

And it is not just a question of who is supplying Ukraine with the weapons. The new weapons deal may not even be what it seems. 

The Financial Times has reported that Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky if the Ukrainian armed forces were able to bring the war to Russia and “make them feel the pain” by striking military targets deep inside Russia. “Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow?… Can you hit St Petersburg too?” Trump asked. “Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons,” Zelensky replied. But there are reports that Trump is not willing to give them the weapons.

The same Financial Times article reports that Trump told reporters at the White House that Zelensky “shouldn’t target Moscow” and that the U.S. is “not looking” to supply long-range missiles to Ukraine. 

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Russia reaffirms nuclear doctrine amid U.S.-Ukraine weapons speculation

Kremlin reaffirmed Russia’s nuclear doctrine on Wednesday, July 16. This announcement comes amid rumors that the United States might supply Ukraine with longer-range weapons capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized the continued validity of Russia’s nuclear doctrine, stating, “The nuclear doctrine remains in force, and consequently, all its provisions apply.”

This statement was made in response to a question about whether the doctrine’s provision, which considers any attack by a non-nuclear state supported by a nuclear power as a joint attack, was still in effect.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered last year to revise the doctrine in response to the U.S. allowing Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles, with a range of about 190 miles, against Russian targets. The amendments expanded the scope of countries and military alliances subject to nuclear deterrence and broadened the list of military threats. The doctrine now classifies any attack by a non-nuclear state, backed by a nuclear power, as a joint attack. This change reflects Russia’s growing concern over the involvement of Western nations in the Ukraine conflict. (Related: Putin revises nuclear doctrine, making it easier for Russia to target Ukraine with nukes.)

The situation took a dramatic turn when reports emerged that President Donald Trump had privately encouraged Ukraine to intensify its strikes on Russian territory. According to sources briefed on the discussions, Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky if his forces could hit Moscow or St. Petersburg if the U.S. provided longer-range weapons. Although Trump later denied considering such a move, the conversation highlighted his frustration with Putin’s reluctance to engage in ceasefire talks.

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U.S.-China Dual Citizen Pleads Guilty to Stealing Missile-Tracking Tech from L.A. Firm

Chenguang Gong, a 59-year-old resident of San Jose, pled guilty on Monday to stealing missile-tracking technology from a research and development firm in the Los Angeles area.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) described Gong as a dual citizen of the United States and China. He came to the United States around 1993 and became a U.S. citizen in 2011. He earned a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Clemson and has done Ph.D. work at Stanford.

He was hired by the unnamed research and development firm in January 2023 as an “application-specific integrated circuit design manager responsible for the design, development and verification of its infrared sensors.”

Three months after he was hired, Gong allegedly began downloading thousands of files from his work computer to “personal storage devices.” Many of those files contained proprietary data and trade secrets, including details of a space-based system for detecting missile launches and tracking hypersonic weapons.

The company Gong took the files from was also involved with designing sensors that allow American military aircraft to detect and defeat heat-seeking missiles.

Gong was terminated by the “victim company” in April 2023. By that time, he had evidently accepted a job at a competing company, but he was still downloading sensitive files to his personal storage devices. DOJ said the data he downloaded was “worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Investigators digging into Gong’s background discovered he applied to Communist China’s “Talent Programs” on numerous occasions between 2014 and 2022, during which time he worked for “several major technology companies in the United States.”

China has several initiatives for aggressively recruiting foreign technology experts, the most infamous being the Thousand Talents Program (TTP). U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies say the talent programs have often been used to recruit espionage agents and steal valuable intellectual property for China.

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Space-Based Missile Interceptors For Golden Dome Being Tested By Northrop

Northrop Grumman is conducting ground-based testing related to space-based interceptors as part of a competition for that segment of the Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative. Interceptors deployed in orbit are currently billed as a critical component of the overall Golden Dome plan, but actually fielding this capability presents significant technical challenges.

Kathy Warden, Northrop Grumman’s CEO, highlighted the company’s work on space-based interceptors, as well as broader business opportunities stemming from Golden Dome, during a quarterly earnings call today. Golden Dome is presently envisioned as a multi-part anti-missile architecture incorporating a swath of existing and future capabilities in space and within the Earth’s atmosphere, which will start entering into operational service by 2028. Golden Dome was originally dubbed Iron Dome before the name was changed earlier this year. It is also now being managed by an office that reports directly to the deputy secretary of defense.

“As we look to Golden Dome for America, we see Northrop Grumman playing a crucial role in supporting the administration’s goal to move with speed and have initial operating capability in place within the next few years,” Warden said today. “This includes current products that can be brought to bear, like IBCS [Integrated Battle Command System], G/ATOR [AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar], Triton [drones], and programs in our restricted portfolio, just to name a few. It will also include new innovation, like space-based interceptors, which we’re testing now.”

“These are ground-based tests today, and we are in competition, obviously, so not a lot of detail that I can provide here,” Warden added. “It is the capability that we believe can be accelerated and into the time frame that the administration is looking for.”

Warden declined to respond directly to a question about how the space-based interceptors Northrop Grumman is developing now will actually defeat their targets. TWZ has reached out to the company for additional information.

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Columbia University says it has suspended and expelled students who participated in protests

 Columbia University announced disciplinary action Tuesday against students who participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration inside the Ivy League school’s main library before final exams in May and an encampment during alumni weekend last year.

A student activist group said nearly 80 students were told they have been suspended for one to three years or expelled. The sanctions issued by a university judicial board also include probation and degree revocations, Columbia said in a statement.

The action comes as the Manhattan university is negotiating with President Donald Trump’s administration to restore $400 million in federal funding it has withheld from the Ivy League school over its handling of student protests against the war in Gaza. The administration pulled the funding, canceling grants and contracts, in March because of what it described as the university’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023.

Columbia has since agreed to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration, including overhauling the university’s student disciplinary process and adopting a new definition of antisemitism.

“Our institution must focus on delivering on its academic mission for our community,” the university said Tuesday. “And to create a thriving academic community, there must be respect for each other and the institution’s fundamental work, policies, and rules. Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and Rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences.”

It did not disclose the names of the students who were disciplined.

Columbia in May said it would lay off nearly 180 staffers and scale back research in response to the loss of funding. Those receiving nonrenewal or termination notices represent about 20% of the employees funded in some manner by the terminated federal grants, the university said.

A student activist group said the newly announced disciplinary action exceeds sentencing precedent for prior protests. Suspended students would be required to submit apologies in order to be allowed back on campus or face expulsion, the group said, something some students will refuse to do.

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World On Fire: While Americans Sleep, Here Are 15 Ways That World War III Has Progressed During The Past 7 Days

By the time we got to this stage, I always thought that far more people would be awake.  Perhaps the reason why so many Americans are still sleeping is because the major wars that are currently raging are happening on the other side of the planet.  It is easy to relax when nobody that you know personally is in the line of fire.  But the truth is that if World War III continues to escalate, it is just a matter of time before the whole world will experience a tremendous amount of pain.

It has now been about a week since President Trump issued an ominous ultimatum to the Russians, but instead of backing down the Russians have only intensified their efforts in Ukraine.  Meanwhile, fighting in the Middle East has flared up on several fronts.  The following are 15 ways that World War III has progressed during the past 7 days…

#1 Israel is warning more local residents to evacuate as the IDF pushes even deeper into Gaza…

On Sunday, the Israeli military (IDF) issued new evacuation orders for parts of central Gaza, which even after years of war with Hamas is an area where Israeli ground forces have rarely operated, further restricting access between Deir al-Balah and the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.

This strongly suggests that indirect efforts to achieve another ceasefire are far from producing anything effective, and it points to Prime Minister Netanyahu pursuing his ultra-controversial plan for mass resettlement of Gaza’s Palestinian population.

Netanyahu has continued to assert that intensifying military pressure in Gaza could compel Hamas to negotiate on terms favorable to Israel and for the return of remaining hostages.

#2 A series of IDF airstrikes just caused a tremendous amount of damage to the port of Hodeida in Yemen…

Israel pounded Yemen’s Huthi-held port of Hodeida with air strikes on Monday for the second time in a month, stoking fears of escalation as it warned Yemen could face the same fate as Iran.

Huthi-controlled areas of Yemen have come under repeated Israeli strikes since the Iran-backed rebels began launching missile and drone attacks on Israel, declaring they act in solidarity with Palestinians over the Gaza war.

In its latest raids, Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel struck “targets of the Huthi terror regime at the port of Hodeida” and aimed to prevent any attempt to restore infrastructure previously hit.

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Fragmenting a Nation: Israel’s Enduring Pursuit of Palestinian Disunity

Israel is aggressively implementing plans to shape Palestine’s future and the broader region, sculpting its vision for the ‘day after’ its genocide in Gaza.

The latest, bizarre iteration of this strategy proposes fragmenting the occupied West Bank into so-called ’emirates,’ starting with the ’emirate of Hebron.’

This unexpected twist in Israel’s protracted search for alternative Palestinian leadership first surfaced in the staunchly pro-Israeli US newspaper, the Wall Street Journal. It then quickly dominated all Israeli media.

The report details a letter from a person identified by the WSJ as “the leader of Hebron’s most influential clan.” Addressed to Nir Barakat, Jerusalem’s former Israeli mayor, the letter from Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari appeals for “cooperation with Israel” in the name of “co-existence.”

This “co-existence,” according to the “clan leader”, would materialize in the “Emirate of Hebron.” This “emirate” would “recognize the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,” in exchange for reciprocal recognition of the “Emirate of Hebron as the Representative of the Arab residents in the Hebron District.”

The story may seem perplexing. This is because Palestinian discourse, regardless of geography or political affiliation, has never entertained such an absurd concept as united West Bank “emirates.”

Another element of absurdity is that Palestinian national identity and pride in their people’s unwavering resilience, especially in Gaza, are at an unprecedented apex. To float such clan-based alternatives to legitimate Palestinian leadership seems ill-conceived and is destined to fail.

Israel’s desperation is palpable. In Gaza, it cannot defeat Hamas and other Palestinian factions who have resisted the Israeli takeover of the Strip for 21 months. All attempts to engineer an alternative Palestinian leadership there have utterly collapsed.

This failure has compelled Israel to arm and fund a criminal gang that operated before October 7, 2023, in Gaza. This gang functions under the command of Yasser Abu Shabab.

The gang has been implicated in a litany of violent activities. These include hijacking humanitarian aid to perpetuate famine in Gaza and orchestrating violence associated with aid distribution, among other egregious crimes.

Like the clan leader of Hebron, the Abu Shabab criminal gang possesses no legitimacy and no public support among Palestinians. But why would Israel resort to such disreputable figures when the Palestinian Authority (PA), already engaged in “security coordination” with Israel in the West Bank, is ostensibly willing to comply?

The answer lies in the current Israeli extremist government’s adamant refusal to acknowledge Palestinians as a nation. Thus, even a collaborating Palestinian nationalist entity would be deemed problematic from an Israeli perspective.

While Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is not the first Israeli leadership to explore clan-based alternatives among Palestinians, the Israeli prime minister and his extremist allies are exceptionally determined to dismantle any Palestinian claim to nationhood. This was explicitly stated by extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. He famously declared in Paris, in March 2023, that a Palestinian nation is an “invention.”

Thus, despite the PA’s willingness to cooperate with Israel in controlling Gaza, Israel remains apprehensive. Empowering the PA as a nationalist model fundamentally contravenes Israel’s overarching objectives of denying the Palestinian people their very claim to nationhood and, consequently, statehood and sovereignty.

Though Israel has consistently failed to establish and sustain its own alternative Palestinian leadership, its repeated efforts have invariably proven disruptive and violent.

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Five Reasons Why No Amount of Additional NATO Support to Ukraine Can Stop Russian Steamroller

The US and its European NATO allies are working on new arrangements to keep the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine going for as long as possible. Here’s why the outcome will be the same no matter how much additional support is delivered.

  1. Ukraine Has Already Lost

Long term, “there is no material-technical nor political strategy” to avoid Ukraine’s defeat, Quincy Institute fellow Almut Rochowanski told Responsible Statecraft this week, stressing that the West simply doesn’t have the capacity to arm Kiev sufficiently to stop it from losing more territory, troops, arms and infrastructure.

  1. Russia’s Advance Has Become Unstoppable

Case in point? The ongoing summer offensive, which even the Russophobic NYT admits has scored “its biggest monthly gains in territory since the beginning of the year” in June – attributable to advantages in troops, airpower and the “methodical” destruction of Ukraine’s army.

  1. Any New Resources Delivered Will Be Wasted

Currently, new deliveries include promises of additional Patriot batteries, sourced from European (not US) stocks, and 49 used Australian M1 Abrams tanks.

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