Tag: perpetual war

As Hegseth Spars With Congress Over Iran War, Trump Decries Criticism As ‘Virtual Treason’

There was a bit of a narrative shift on display in Congress as back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill with top defense and Trump admin officials played out Tuesday, with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth repeatedly on the defensive as he and the administration face intensified scrutiny over the Iran war.

And the growing frustration vented in Congress is not just being sounded by Democrats. As Washington Post’s Tuesday headline aptly described: Hegseth, Caine encounter intense bipartisan frustration with Iran war. It seems President Trump has been made keenly aware of potential growing rebellion among GOP ranks, and biting criticisms over how the conflict and Strait of Hormuz standoff is going, given he decided to level the word “treason” in an afternoon Truth Social Post. It seemed also aimed at a series of apparent recent sensitive or classified info leaks within the administration and Pentagon to the media, related to the conflict…

Trump stated while en route to China: “When the Fake News says that the Iranian enemy is doing well, Militarily, against us, it’s virtual TREASON” – and he went on to charge that “they are aiding and abetting the enemy!”

“Only Losers, Ingrates, and Fools are able to make a case against America!” he also wrote.

This moment might remind the American public of another key turning point in US history when past president cast all criticisms of wars of choice in the Middle East: When President George W. Bush was gearing up to launch new forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks, he declared, “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.”

This week also saw arch-neoconservative Robert Kagan break from Trump’s Iran War in the the pages of the generally pro-war Atlantic:

It’s hard to think of a time when the United States suffered a total defeat in a conflict, a setback so decisive that the strategic loss could be neither repaired nor ignored.

Defeat in the present confrontation with Iran will be of an entirely different character. It can neither be repaired nor ignored. There will be no return to the status quo ante, no ultimate American triumph that will undo or overcome the harm done. The Strait of Hormuz will not be “open,” as it once was. With control of the strait, Iran emerges as the key player in the region and one of the key players in the world. The roles of China and Russia, as Iran’s allies, are strengthened; the role of the United States, substantially diminished. Far from demonstrating American prowess, as supporters of the war have repeatedly claimed, the conflict has revealed an America that is unreliable and incapable of finishing what it started. That is going to set off a chain reaction around the world as friends and foes adjust to America’s failure.

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Trump Also Says That the Russia-Ukraine War Will End Very Soon

Is the war about to end?

The war between Russia and Ukraine entered its fifth year, and while the advances by Moscow troops is nowhere as fast as last year, the war is still ongoing, as brutal as ever.

People around the world were surprised, when on Sunday, after their ‘Victory Day’ parade, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that he believed that the war in Ukraine was near the end.

Yesterday, this statement was reinforced by Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitri Peskov.

So, today, US President Donald J. Trump came to public to say the very same thing: the war is almost over.

Reuters reported:

“President Donald Trump said ​on Tuesday that ‌the war in Ukraine is very ​close to ​ending and he believes ⁠there will be ​a settlement between ​Russia and Ukraine.

‘The end of the war ​in Ukraine I ​really think it’s getting ‌very ⁠close’, Trump told reporters as he left the White ​House ​for ⁠a trip to China. ​Trump’s comments echoed those ​made ⁠by Russian President Vladimir Putin ⁠on ​Saturday.”

Putin has admitted that Trump is the only foreign head of state that truly wants to bring an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine.

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18 U.S. Intel Agencies Said Iran Wasn’t Building a Nuke; CIA Concluded Iran Could Hold Out for Months

All 18 U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and would retaliate against U.S. bases across the Middle East if the U.S. attacked the country, former U.S. counterterrorism chief Joe Kent reported today.

The agencies also knew that Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz, Kent reported on X. 

The report from Kent — who quit his post due to the war on behalf of Israel — included a story from The Washington Post about a CIA analysis explaining that Iran could withstand American-Israeli attacks for months without suffering severe economic hardship.

Kent also challenged Post columnist Marc Thiessen, who thinks Trump should continue the war.

A former Green Beret and combat veteran, Kent has opposed the war from the beginning. He has said the U.S. must end aid to Israel and stop fighting its wars. One reason: The stated purpose of the war, that Iran would soon build a nuclear weapon, was bogus.

“One of the many tragedies of this war is that before the war began the U.S. Intel Community [IC], including CIA, was in agreement that Iran wasn’t developing a nuclear weapon & that Iran would target U.S. bases in the region & shut down the Strait of Hormuz if they were attacked by Israel & the U.S.,” Kent wrote:

The IC also properly assessed that targeting the Iranian leadership would strengthen the regime and embolden the hardliners. 

Despite the professionalism & accuracy of the IC, the narrative & agenda spun by a foreign government — Israel, won the argument & forced us into this war. 

We need to understand exactly how this happened to ensure we are never put in this position again.

Kent’s post affirms the report in The New York Times that Trump unwisely listened to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claims that defeating Iran would be a cinch. Indeed, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Netanyahu’s presentation to Trump in the White House Situation Room in February “bullsh*t” after CIA chief John Ratcliffe — citing an intelligence analysis of Netanyahu’s claims — called them “farcical” and “detached from reality.” 

Nonetheless, Trump went ahead.

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Covert NATO initiative turns film into anti-Russia battleground

A scandal has erupted over covert NATO conferences with the Western entertainment industry. Leaked documents reviewed by The Grayzone show how NATO has sought to infiltrate film and TV for decades, with UK intel operatives taking the lead.

On May 3, The Guardian revealed that NATO has held a series of secret meetings with film directors, screenwriters and TV producers in cities from Paris to Los Angeles. The disclosure suggests NATO is seeking to employ the entertainment industry in its propaganda operations as a European war looms.

To date, NATO’s “conversations” with scriptwriters have reportedly “inspired, at least in part” three separate unstated projects, which are already in development. At a forthcoming London summit, NATO operatives are set to meet with screenwriters tied to the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB). In email correspondence, the union told its members the event will focus on the “evolving security situation in Europe and beyond.”

Organizers claim NATO was “built on the belief that cooperation and compromise, the nurturing of friendships and alliances, is the way forward.” The alliance is actively seeking to influence film and TV projects extolling this mantra, stating, “even if something so simple as that message finds its way into a future story,” as a result of the meeting, “that will be enough.” 

But collusion between NATO and the entertainment industry has a well-established history. Over recent decades, NATO has covertly sought to employ film and television creatives as psychological operations specialists, while influencing popular culture. A core driver of this push has been Chris Donnelly, a veteran British Ministry of Defence and military intelligence operative, who led alliance expansion into Central and Eastern Europe during the 1990s.

Donnelly later developed the Integrity Initiative to cultivate support for conflict with Russia through covert networks of influential pro-war pundits and operatives. Hidden behind a seemingly legitimate think tank called the Institute for Statecraft, the Integrity Initiative only became known to the public after independent outlets like The Grayzone reported on leaked emails from Donnelly revealing its existence.

In leaked documents discussing NATO expansion, Donnelly stated, “What I needed in the 1990s and did not have” was a major international public relations firm to “scale up successful activities to have real impact,” and achieve “essential behavioural change” in audiences. To address the problem, he proposed “advertising campaigns on TV promoting change, a TV soap opera looking at the problem of corruption” and other innocent-seeming cultural products aimed at enhancing NATO control.

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Netanyahu Says Israel Plans to ‘Wean Ourselves Off’ U.S. Military Aid Over Next 10 Years 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he plans to reduce his country’s dependence on U.S. military aid.

During an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, Netanyahu said he wanted to reduce American aid down to zero over the next decade.

“I’ve said this to President Trump. I’ve said it to our own people.”

“Their jaws dropped, but I said I want to draw down to zero the American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have, because we receive 3.8 billion dollars a year.”

“I think that it’s time that we weaned ourselves from the remaining military support,” he continued. “I want to start now.”

Israel currently receives roughly $3.8 billion annually under a 10-year agreement signed in 2016 during the Obama administration.

The deal committed the United States to providing Israel with $38 billion in military assistance through 2028.

The funding has helped Israel purchase American-made weapons systems including F-35 fighter jets, precision-guided munitions, missile interceptorr and air defense technology.

The question of U.S. aid to Israel has become a political flashpoint following the Gaza war and the wider regional conflict involving Iran and Hezbollah.

Within the GOP, figures such as Rep. Thomas Massie and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene have openly questioned why American taxpayers continue sending billions of dollars overseas while the U.S. faces soaring debt and domestic crises at home.

On the left, anti-Israel sentiment has surged inside the Democratic Party following their military campaign in Gaza.

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Trump Again Threatens to Pull Troops From Italy: ‘They Weren’t There When We Needed Them’

Trump is not one to forgive and forget a betrayal or a slight – even if it is committed by a longtime ally.

For a long time, US President Donald J. Trump had an alliance with right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

She was the only European leader to attend his second inauguration last year.

But the traumatic developments during the ongoing war in Iran collapsed the bilateral relations, after Meloni denied the US permission to use Italian bases for airstrikes against Tehran’s regime, and also took Pope Leo’s side during the recent spat with the US president.

Secretary Marco Rubio went to Italy to meet the Pope and Meloni, but it hasn’t healed the wounds.

This last weekend, Trump again refused to rule out withdrawing American troops from Italy.

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Murphy’s True Allegiance: Illegal Immigrants, Iran, And Ukraine Over American Citizens

From the fabricated Russia collusion narrative to two phony impeachments to his relentless defense of Obama’s catastrophic 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy has been a consistent opponent of American interests. He is one of the Senate’s most vocal proponents for counting millions of illegal immigrants in the census. It is a deceitful and unconstitutional scheme that steals congressional seats and electoral votes from real American citizens.

Murphy actively works to grant political power to millions who illegally crossed our southern border by counting them in the census. This scheme effectively hands extra congressional seats and Electoral College votes to blue states like California and New York, bypassing law-abiding citizens in red states. Far from protecting American sovereignty, Murphy celebrates it as a brilliant political power grab.

Senator Chris Murphy proves that feminism is nothing more than a selective political prop. While Iran stones women, hangs girls for improper clothing, and treats them as property, Murphy has refused to get tough on the ayatollahs. Instead, he viciously attacked President Trump’s strikes against the regime, branding them “illegal,” and has pushed war powers resolutions to limit America’s response to Iranian threats.

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Zelensky Touts That 20 Countries Seek Ukraine Drone Deals

Ukraine is emerging as a global drone export powerhouse, coming fresh off vast experience gained in over four years of war with Russia – or at least that’s the image Kiev is seeking to present to the world.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that nearly 20 countries are pursuing drone agreements with Ukraine, with four deals already finalized.

Agreements already confirmed include deals with Germany, Norway and the Netherlands, alongside ‌long-term security partnerships with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates which were inked in late March as Zelensky personally toured the Gulf, even amid the ongoing Iran war, according to Reuters.

Zelensky has been offering Ukraine’s services and drone supplies to Gulf countries as a cheaper, effective alternative to dwindling and costly American-supplied anti-air defenses.

“Nearly 20 countries are currently involved at various stages: 4 agreements have already been signed, and the first contracts under these agreements are now being prepared,” Zelensky has newly proclaimed on X.

“Ukraine has ​already ⁠started to receive the necessary volume of fuel thanks to the agreements,” Zelensky also stated. Interestingly, he’s also of late been pitching being a supplier of battlefield robots, as we’ve detailed before.

Starting in April, Zelensky had hailed that Ukrainian personnel were able to help partners build effective air defenses using interceptor drones to combat Iranian Shaheds.

Low-cost interceptor drones deployed by Ukraine are among the most effective ways to combat the inexpensive $20,000 Shaheds, as a war of attrition makes little economic sense when interceptor missiles cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.

Ukraine has had four years to develop low-cost one-way attack drones and interceptors during its war with Russia. Now, this technology is clearly being exported across multiple theaters in Eurasia.

Zelensky did not identify the countries or the exact interceptor drones used in his comments at the time, but it is possible that Octopus-100 autonomous interceptor drones were deployed.

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UAE Becomes Active Combatant in Iran War, Secretly Launching Strikes Against Islamic Regime

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been secretly carrying out attacks against Iran, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The attacks included a strike on an oil refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island in early April, triggering a major fire and knocking much of the facility offline for months.

Iran acknowledged at the time that the refinery had been struck in what it described as an enemy attack.

Tehran later responded with missile and drone strikes against the UAE and Kuwait.

While Gulf states publicly insisted before the war that they would not allow their territory or airspace to be used for attacks on Iran, the UAE became an active participant in the conflict after coming under sustained Iranian attack.

Iran launched more than 2,800 missiles and drones at the UAE during the war, more than against any other country besides Israel.

The attacks disrupted tourism, aviation, and property markets across the Emirates and reportedly triggered a major shift in Abu Dhabi’s strategic outlook toward Tehran.

U.S. officials are said to have quietly welcomed the UAE’s participation in the war effort, according to the report.

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Why Does the US Have So Many Military Bases Overseas?

You can’t make this stuff up. The “liberal” New York Times has now explained why the U.S. has so many overseas military bases in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Anton Troianovski, who covers global diplomacy, writes:

The Persian Gulf war in 1991 ushered in the era of permanent, large-scale military bases in the Middle East — in part to protect oil supplies. The rationale evolved to include crushing Al Qaeda, promoting democracy and fighting the Islamic State. The bases are part of a military network spanning the globe that officials say helps project America’s economic and political power. Russia and China also have global ambitions, but their military footprint is much smaller. Russia’s main military presence outside the former Soviet Union is in Syria, where its influence has declined after the fall of the Assad regime in 2024. China has an African base near the Red Sea and is expanding elsewhere — Cambodia, for instance.

Where to begin?

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