Tag: perpetual war

Nuclear Risk Rising Daily Amid Bushehr Nuclear Plant Attacks— Rosatom CEO

The events at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant are developing according to the most undesirable forecast, Russian nuclear power corporation Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev said on Saturday.

“Unfortunately, events are developing according to the most undesirable forecast. As they say, our bad premonitions did not deceive us. In general, the identification of the conflict and the escalation around the Persian Gulf lead to corresponding consequences… Today at about 7:20 a.m. Moscow time [4:20 GMT], a blow was actually struck to the physical protection circuit of the station, and the first death of an employee was recorded,” Likhachev told reporters.

It remains unclear whether the incident was accidental or a deliberate attack, Rosatom CEO said.

“Unfortunately, the likelihood of a possible nuclear incident causing damage is only increasing day by day, unfortunately, they are confirmed by the events of today,” Likhachev said.

Likhachev added the main phase of evacuation of Russian specialists from Iran’s Bushehr NPP began on Saturday, about 20 minutes after the strike. The evacuation of 198 personnel is being carried out by bus, with the journey across nearly all of Iran expected to take two-and-a-half to three days, he said.

“Of course, we have informed the relevant services of Israel and the United States. We are very grateful to our [Russian] Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Defense, and our special services for this cooperation. Here we work as a single mechanism, we support each other. I bow low for caring for our comrades,” Likhachev added.

Iran is taking extensive measures to secure the evacuation route for Russian specialists from the NPP, with coordination also underway with Armenian authorities, Rosatom CEO said. The evacuated personnel are expected to depart later from Yerevan airport, he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is closely monitoring the situation around the Bushehr plant, paying particular attention to the plant’s operations and Russian personnel, Likhachev also said.

Earlier in the day, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said that the Bushehr NPP site came under fire from the United States and Israel, and one of its employees was killed.

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Two HC-130J ‘King’ Aircraft, 2 Helos Intentionally Destroyed On Ground In Iran During Rescue Mission (History Rhymes) – US SOF Forces Avenge Desert One Failure Under Carter

After evacuating the second crew member of the downed F-15E, the U.S. had to destroy two HC-130J Combat King II rescue aircraft and two helicopters that, for unknown reasons, were unable to leave Iran.

The aircraft were blown up on the ground to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands after landing at an improvised refueling site. 

Three additional HC-130J Combat King II aircraft were then dispatched to continue the combat search-and-rescue mission.

The wreckage of a U.S. MH-6 Little Bird helicopter was spotted next to the remains of HC-130J Combat King II rescue aircraft that were destroyed by U.S. airstrikes in Iran to prevent them from falling into IRGC hands. (h/t Clash Report)

The images are eerily reminiscent of the failed ‘Desert One’ Iranian rescue mission under President Carter in 1980, except this time, the mission was highly successful.

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POWDER KEG EUROPE: German Men Now Have to Ask the Army for Permission to Leave the Country for More Than Three Months

German fighting-age males are getting an early taste of the military escalation on the old continent.

We have been reporting here on TGP how the Euro-Globalist ‘leaders’ in Europe have been pushing their countries through a military buildup not seen since the end of the Cold War.

But it did take us by surprise just how fast Germany escalated their military service rules into draconian demands.

It has now been reported that German men ‘of fighting age’ must now ask the Bundeswehr for permission to leave the country for more than three months.

The Telegraph reported:

“The government has introduced a new military service scheme this year that stops short of conscription but requires men born from 2008 onwards to take a medical exam and fill in a survey about their fitness for service.

It has emerged that a clause in the law also requires men aged between 17 and 45 to obtain a permit from the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, before leaving the country for extended periods.”

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Prominent New York synagogue hosts presentation on why U.S. Jews should support the ethnic cleansing of Gaza

The American press does its best not to cover savage Israeli views of Palestinians, but a leading New York synagogue gave an honored platform to those views ten days ago. It hosted an Israeli advocate with connections in its government who argued for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, and said American Jews need to support that operation.  

Benjamin Anthony said that all “Palestinian Arabs” in Gaza pose such a threat to Israel that the international community should use “muscular diplomacy” with Egypt so as force the population out of Gaza into an “enclave” in the Sinai peninsula. 

“I believe the international community would very handily be able to create some sort of enclave for the…Gazans in the Sinai peninsula. And then we might have the breathing room to think about long-term solutions.” 

Though those two million Gazans would likely be displaced again, into African countries, said Anthony, the leader of an Israeli think tank called the MirYam Institute. 

“I think someone like [Egyptian president] Sisi would likely move the Gazans along from the Sinai peninsula in the event that he didn’t want to build a place for them there, and you would probably see them dispersed through the continent of Africa quite quickly.”

Anthony’s argument is widely shared by Israelis (according to a 2025 poll), and it only received mild push back from Eliot Cosgrove, a leading conservative rabbi in the U.S., who had brought Anthony, his first cousin, onto the synagogue dais.  

Cosgrove called the scheme “very intriguing,” but protested that Anthony was conflating “Hamas with the entire Gaza population.” And that by creating a refugee population with a “narrative”, Israel was practically and morally kicking the can down the road. Speaking “as a proud Zionist,” Cosgrove said the scheme is not in Israel’s interest.

Anthony insisted that no Gazans could be trusted because Gazan civilians cheered the atrocities against Israelis on October 7. Cosgrove folded his hand: “Well, I love you, and I disagree with you, but let’s move on.” 

Cosgrove ended the hour-long dialogue by thanking Anthony “for fighting the good fight” and “for representing our people.”

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Trump has no good options to resolve the disaster he created in Iran

U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the American public on Wednesday, but he didn’t have anything new to say. That lack of any substance is emblematic of the entire criminal and foolish war he agreed to launch on Iran.

The American war effort is a disaster. While the United States and Israel have inflicted enormous damage on Iran and killed and injured thousands of innocent civilians both there and in Lebanon, the actual gains are minimal, and to the extent that there were any goals for this war, they haven’t been achieved.

When Trump announced that he would speak Wednesday night, many thought he was going to announce a timetable for an American departure from this war, but all we got was more of the same “four weeks” guesswork that we heard four weeks ago. 

The only item that was even a little different, although Trump has been alluding to it for several days, is that the U.S. might leave the war without a deal to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz. 

Doing that would make American losses in this war even more dramatic. But Trump has allowed himself to be led into a war with no way out. 

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Israel is implementing its Gaza strategy in Lebanon: turning ‘buffer zones’ into permanent borders

While the US-Israeli war on Iran and its economic repercussions on the global economy continues to be at the center of global media attention, Israel is in the process of re-drawing the map of the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon. If successful, Israel’s plans could have regional and global repercussions. And yet, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon has barely made a blip on the Western media’s radar. 

Last week, Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said that Israeli forces will not leave the south of Lebanon after the end of the current war. Katz’s statements are in line with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said last weekend that he had instructed the Israeli army to expand its control in the south of Lebanon up to 10 kilometers, to create a “security buffer zone.” These statements come as the Israeli army has deployed four divisions to the Lebanese border, and continues to push into Lebanese territory.

Everything in the current Israeli invasion of Lebanon is repeated from previous invasions; Israeli orders to civilians to leave their villages in the south, the near 1 million Lebanese displaced, the bombing of infrastructure, especially bridges over the Litani river, and the fighting inside and around Lebanese villages. But there is something different this time; Israel’s destruction of infrastructure is not a mere war strategy. It is yet another announcement of Israel’s renewed doctrine: occupying new areas, often depopulating them by force, and permanently controlling them, basically expanding Israel’s de facto borders with “buffer zones.”

Although Israel has implemented elements of this strategy in the past, this time it is significantly different. First, because Israel is explicitly stating that it wants to permanently occupy new Arab territory, against the backdrop of official statements about ‘Greater Israel’ ambitions. Second, because it is happening without any significant international reaction. And lastly, because this new model that Israel is trying to replicate on a second front could have implications for the future of war and border drawing worldwide. 

This reality raises two critical questions: how did this model become an Israeli official policy? And what will this Israeli vision mean for the Middle East and the world, if realized?

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Downed U.S. Drone Appears On TikTok Live As Iraqi Children Try To Sell It

As the U.S.-Iran conflict enters its second month, America’s Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System, or LUCAS, is becoming increasingly visible across the Middle East theater, a sign that the Department of War has learned one critical lesson from both the Iranian drone playbook and the Ukraine-Russia war: cheap drones are the future of warfare.

The latest news on LUCAS comes from an unverifiable TikTok video, amplified on X, which appears to show a downed drone seized by Iraqi children who are reportedly trying to sell it.

If authentic, the footage is another reminder that low-cost drones are proliferating so widely across the region that they will likely spread to other parts of the world.

In a separate video reposted on X, Iranian forces appear to have recovered a LUCAS drone in the Persian Gulf area.

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What Exactly Is the Purpose of NATO in the Year 2026?

One month into Operation Epic Fury against the Islamic Republic of Iran, a long-overdue conversation has finally broken into the open: What, exactly, is the enduring rationale for NATO? For decades, this question has been treated in Washington foreign policy circles as heretical. But it isn’t. And to their credit, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are now saying so plainly.

As Trump recently put it, “They haven’t been friends when we needed them. We’ve never asked them for much. … It’s a one-way street.” Rubio has been similarly blunt: “If NATO is just about us defending Europe if they’re attacked but then denying us basing rights when we need them, that’s not a very good arrangement. … So all that’s going to have to be reexamined.”

They’re spot-on.

At best, America’s European “allies” have spent decades free-riding on the U.S. security umbrella. Despite repeated commitments to meet baseline defense spending targets, many NATO members still under-invest in their militaries and outsource their national defense to American taxpayers. The imbalance is staggering: The United States accounts for the overwhelming majority of NATO’s military capabilities, logistics, and strategic lift. Overall, American taxpayers contribute about 60% of total spending on NATO defense.

At worst, some of these same European allies actively undermine U.S. operations at critical moments. Major Western European countries such as Spain and France have restricted or complicated U.S. use of their airspace during Operation Epic Fury. That is farcical. A so-called alliance in which members obstruct one another’s ability to wage war is not actually an alliance — it is a liability.

This raises the core question: Why, exactly, does NATO exist in the year 2026?

Let’s recall its origins. NATO was founded in 1949 with a clear and urgent mission: to contain and, if necessary, defeat the Soviet Union. That mission was compelling — indeed, existential. Western Europe lay devastated after World War II, and the Soviet threat was real, immediate, and hegemonic.

But that world quite literally no longer exists.

The Soviet Union collapsed three and a half decades ago. The Berlin Wall fell the year I was born. The Cold War is now a relic of history. By any reasonable metric, NATO achieved its raison d’etre by the early 1990s. But instead of declaring victory and recalibrating, the alliance drifted. It expanded ever further into Eastern Europe and shifted its ostensible mission into… well, something.

Simply put, NATO is today an organization in search of a purpose.

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Trump says workers must pay for imperialist war with cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and daycare

Speaking at a closed Easter lunch at the White House on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump declared that the federal government should stop paying for daycare, Medicare and Medicaid, all of which, he indicated, must be sacrificed for imperialist war.

“Don’t send any money for daycare,” Trump said, because “we’re fighting wars.” He went on, “You gotta let states take care of daycare and they should pay for it too … Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things,” insisting that Washington had to concern itself with only “one thing, military protection.”

He added that the federal government’s role was to “guard the country,” before dismissing Social Security, which serves more than 70 million people; Medicare, which covers about 68 million; and Medicaid and CHIP (the Children’s Health Insurance Program), which together cover more than 75 million people, including about 36 million children, as “little scams.”

The remarks, delivered in a setting where Trump evidently felt free to speak more openly than usual, were a blunt threat against programs on which millions of workers and their family members depend. Capitalist politicians generally avoid such direct attacks on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security because these programs remain deeply embedded in the lives of working people who have paid into them for decades. Trump, however, stated with unusual candor the real priorities of the ruling class.

The significance of the remarks lies not only in their content but in the circumstances under which they were made. The Easter lunch was closed to the press, and video of the event was briefly posted by the White House and then deleted. In contrast to Trump’s later scripted primetime address on Iran, the lunch exposed a more direct statement of policy: Social spending is to be gutted, while war spending is treated as the only indispensable function of the state.

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The United States Is already headed for a forever war

Let’s all give a hand for Marco Rubio, secretary of state, favored champion of the White House, and all-around cretinous worm. The Amazing Plastic Man—the adjective refers to his flexible principles, not his increasingly inflexible face—was hitting the airwaves this Monday morning to articulate the latest version of what the Trump administration regards as its war aims. Excuse me, military operation aims; President Donald Trump has figured out the One Weird Trick around constitutional checks on executive war powers. You just have to use the right words!

“Well, the war is—this operation, okay—and that’s what this is—is about very specific objectives,” Rubio told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

The president laid them out on the first night of the operation. I’ll repeat them to you now because I hear a lot of talk about ‘we don’t know what the clear objectives are.’ Here they are. You should write them down. Number one, the destruction of their air force. Number two, the destruction of their navy. Number three, the severe diminishing of their missile launching capability. And number four, the destruction of their factories so they can’t make more missiles and more drones to threaten us in the future.

All of this so that they can never hide behind it to acquire a nuclear weapon. That was our objective from the beginning; that remains our objective now. We are on pace and in fact ahead of schedule on some of those things, and we are going to achieve those things in a number of weeks, not in a number of months.

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