Tag: perpetual war

Israel strikes nuclear and missile sites across Iran

The Israeli Air Force conducted dozens of strikes in Iran on Thursday targeting nuclear and missile sites.

Why it matters: Israel is directly attacking its biggest and best-armed adversary, without clear backing from the U.S.

  • President Trump publicly opposed an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear sites on Thursday, saying he still believed a nuclear deal was possible.
  • Hours later, Israel began targeting nuclear sites as well military headquarters, military commanders, and other Iranian officials, Israeli officials said.

Driving the news: Sirens sounded across Israel on Thursday night. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared a special state of emergency across the entire country.

  • “Following the State of Israel’s preemptive strike against Iran, a missile and drone attack against the state of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate future,” Katz said.
  • An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said only “necessary” activities should take place in Israel starting Friday morning local time. That includes a ban on “educational activities, gatherings and workplaces, with the exception of essential businesses.”
  • Israeli airspace was also closed.

The big picture: The Israeli strikes have launched a new military conflict that poses grave danger to both Israel and Iran.

  • An IDF official told reporters the operation to destroy Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities will take several days, and Israel expects Iran to retaliate with missile and drone attacks.
  • The IDF official claimed that in recent weeks Israel had indications that Iran was racing for a nuclear bomb and that with every day that passed Israel would have less visibility into Iran’s advancements. “We are now in a strategic window of opportunity and close to a point of no return, and we had no choice but to take action,” the official said.
  • Iran denies that it is pursuing a nuclear weapon, and the U.S. and other allies have made no such warning about Iran racing toward a bomb.

Behind the scenes: The U.S. notified several of its allies in private on Thursday that Israeli strikes were imminent and made clear it was not involved, one of the sources said.

  • The Trump administration told Israel it would not participate in any strikes on the nuclear program, Axios reported.
  • However, the U.S. has previously helped defend Israel from Iranian attacks and would likely do so again if this strike kicks off a retaliatory cycle.
  • Before the operation became public, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee tweeted that he was at the embassy in Jerusalem and “will remain here all night,” adding: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”

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Gaza Tribunal in Sarajevo Documents How Genocide Has Eroded International Law

Dozens of lawyers, academics, human rights advocates, and journalists from Palestine, Israel, and global civil society issued a call to conscience on May 29 from a gathering in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dubbed the Sarajevo Declaration, the 2,000-word document was the culmination of the three-day preliminary hearing of the Gaza Tribunal, a newly formed people’s justice initiative aiming to voice “collective moral outrage” over what it described as Israel’s genocide of Palestinians and the decades of impunity for atrocities leading to it.

Throughout three eight-hour days, the tribunal heard 45 back-to-back testimonies of research and analysis on the conditions of life and death in Gaza and across the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The entries — about obliteration of cultural heritage, violations of reproductive and disability rights, the weaponization of accusations of antisemitism, capital accumulation on Gaza’s rubble and in the West Bank, and otherwise — made a case beyond the charge of genocide, which members of the tribunal and a growing proportion of the global human rights community view as fact. Unbound by formal procedure and jurisdiction, tribunal members also brought in analysis of the context predating October 7, 2023. All together, they built an argument that the present stage of genocide in Palestine is the logical end point of a Zionism’s project of domination initiated before 1948 — and that the exceptions that have allowed it have also undermined international law, global cooperation and the United Nations system for all.

Israel and those enabling its actions “want Gaza to be the graveyard of international law,” said Raji Sourani, a Palestinian attorney from Gaza and founder and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza City, in his address at the close of the tribunal’s first day. “Not for Gazans, not for Palestinians, but for the whole world.”

The semi-closed session on the hushed campus of the International University of Sarajevo was the Gaza Tribunal’s first meeting, with the final verdict planned for a last session in October. The proceedings — in their quasi-academic format of panels, PowerPoints, and papers — were both desperate in their desire to impede atrocities and self-conscious of the impossibility to meet the present horror: Israel’s military has intensified its aerial bombardment and blockade of Gaza, in addition to opening fire on people queued for food, leading to some of the deadliest days since Israel broke the last ceasefire in March.

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What the giddy reaction to Ukraine’s surprise attacks says about us

A little over forty years ago, while preparing for a weekly radio address, President Ronald Reagan famously cracked wise about the possibility of attacking the Soviet Union. “I have signed legislation that outlaws Russia forever,” he said. “We begin bombing in five minutes.”

Reagan had not realized that the studio microphone was recording his joke and that technical personnel preparing for the broadcast in stations across the country were already listening. His facetious remarks were leaked. The public reaction was immediate, strong, and negative. Democratic candidate Walter Mondale admonished his election opponent for ill-considered humor, and Reagan’s polling numbers took a temporary hit.

For many, the possibility of thermonuclear annihilation was no joking matter.

Within a few short years, history veered in a much more positive direction, and concerns about either superpower pressing “the button” by accident or by design began to recede. A reelected Reagan and his Soviet counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev launched a set of historic accords that greatly reduced the risk of superpower war. The Berlin Wall fell, the Cold War ended, and the USSR dissolved. For many Americans, the threat of nuclear conflict faded into distant memory.

Today, we encounter those Cold War fears primarily through history books. Fewer and fewer people recall nail-biting over the Cuban Missile Crisis or sheltering under desks in elementary schools. Many have not heard about the controversy over Reagan’s radio gaffe. Millennials and Generation Z wonder why their parents and grandparents worried about a nuclear Armageddon that never, in fact, materialized.

There may be no better illustration of our much-relaxed contemporary attitudes than the public reaction to Ukraine’s surprise attacks last week on dozens of Russian strategic bombers located at bases thousands of kilometers from Ukraine. On June 1, Ukraine used swarms of drones hidden in trucks smuggled across Russia’s border to attack one leg of its nuclear triad of missiles, submarines, and aircraft.

This time, the bombing was no joke. But the Western reaction hardly took the prospect of nuclear escalation seriously.

The operation was “a brilliant technical performance” that showed “why Ukraine will win this war,” according to French philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy writing in the Wall Street Journal. Rebecca Grant, vice president of the Lexington Institute, posted on the Fox News site that Americans should “savor Ukraine’s brilliant strike on Putin’s terror bombers. Too bad Ukraine can’t do it again. Or can they?”

The Washington Post editorialized that the operation showed that Ukrainians are “tough, determined – and right. Theirs is a fight the United States should be proud to support.” Legions of online armchair warriors praised Ukraine’s “bad-ass operation” that will “go down in history” and be “studied for years to come.”

Such reactions largely ignored the impact that such attacks might have on nuclear stability between the United States and Russia, which together hold more than 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons.

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Ukrainian attacks on Russian planes ‘Western’ intel op – Jeffrey Sachs

Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russian military airfields earlier this month were a “Western intelligence operation” orchestrated by the CIA and MI6, American public policy analyst Jeffrey Sachs has claimed.

In an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson released on Wednesday, Sachs accused Western intelligence services of covertly working to undermine peace efforts aimed at resolving the Ukraine conflict, acting on orders from the US “deep state.”

On June 1, Ukrainian drones struck several Russian airbases in a coordinated assault across five regions – from Murmansk in the north to Irkutsk in Siberia – which Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky later called Operation Spider’s Web.

Kiev claimed that around 40 Russian military aircraft were damaged or destroyed, including long-range bombers. Moscow has dismissed the numbers and extent of damage, saying some of the aircraft were damaged, but that it was minimal and will be repaired. It added that most of the drones were intercepted.

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Russia Won’t End Ukraine War Until NATO Pulls Forces Out Of Eastern Flank

A top Kremlin official was quoted in Newsweek this week warning that Russia won’t end the Ukraine war until NATO pulls its troops out of the Baltic and ‘eastern flank’ states.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov demanded that NATO must withdraw its troops from the Baltic region. Russia has long seen the Baltics as very near, and its sphere of influence, also given its territory of of Kaliningrad. 

“The American side requires practical steps aimed at eliminating the root causes of the fundamental contradictions between us in the area of security,” he had said, originally in state TASS.

“Among these causes, NATO expansion is in the foreground,” he emphasized. “Without resolving this fundamental and most acute problem for us, it is simply impossible to resolve the current conflict in the Euro-Atlantic region.”

NATO’s ‘eastern flank’ closer to the start of the Ukraine war – forces have since grown…

“Given the nature and genesis of the Ukrainian crisis, provoked by the previous U.S. authorities and the West as a whole, this conflict naturally acts, well, if you like, as a test, a trial, which checks the seriousness of Washington’s intentions to straighten out our relations,” he said.

Ryabkov said Moscow’s position all along has been that the Western military alliance “not deploy strike weapons near Russian border.”

“In any case, reducing NATO’s Eastern European contingent would likely boost the security of the whole continent,” he concluded.

Such a broader ultimatum was actually issued just before the full-scale invasion, but was not heeded. In fact, countries like Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have only grown more hawkish and vocal in their anti-Moscow rhetoric, and have even taken legal action against the Russian Orthodox Church in the Baltics.

A very provocative and sensational alert issued by German intelligence…

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US Anticipating Potential Israeli Attack on Iran

The US is on high alert in the Middle East and is anticipating a potential Israeli attack on Iran, The Washington Post has reported. Amid the anticipation, the US is reducing the presence of non-essential personnel in the region.

US officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the military has authorized the “voluntary departure” of the dependents of US troops from locations across the Middle East.

The US is also evacuating personnel from its embassy in Iraq. A State Department official told Al-Monitor that the US is “constantly assessing the appropriate personnel posture at all our embassies. Based on our latest analysis, we decided to reduce the footprint of our mission in Iraq.”

The State Department has authorized the departure of non-essential personnel at its embassies in Kuwait and Bahrain, providing them with the option to leave rather than a mandatory evacuation.

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China’s New AI War Academy Trains Cyber Soldiers to Target American Infrastructure

While Americans struggle with the effects of decades of open borders, Communist China has quietly launched the most dangerous military expansion in decades, establishing three specialized war academies to train a new generation of cyber warriors whose sole mission is to defeat the United States. One of the most alarming developments is the creation of the PLA Information Support Force Engineering University in Wuhan, the city that gave us the coronavirus.

This communist training center will offer ten undergraduate majors specifically designed to create AI-powered cyber terrorists, including artificial intelligence warfare programs that teach students how to weaponize AI against American military systems, power grids, and critical infrastructure. These operatives are being trained to deploy autonomous cyber weapons capable of adapting and evolving to penetrate American defenses and disrupt national security systems.

According to multiple U.S. government agencies—including the FBI, NSA, and CISA—Chinese state-sponsored hackers have already infiltrated American infrastructure networks and are actively preparing for large-scale cyberattacks aimed at crippling energy, water, transportation, and communications systems in the event of a conflict. FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that Chinese cyber operatives have “burrowed” into U.S. critical systems and are waiting for the right moment to launch a devastating strike. Congress has echoed these warnings, with House committees sounding the alarm over China’s strategic positioning inside our infrastructure and the openly militarized nature of its AI education programs.

The curriculum includes unmanned operations training to create specialists in drone warfare and autonomous weapons systems designed to target American forces without risking Chinese lives. This is asymmetric warfare at its most dangerous. Particularly concerning is the university’s data link engineering program for “informationized, intelligent, and unmanned operations,” which teaches students how to hack and control the communications systems that link American missiles, warships, fighter jets, and early warning aircraft. Imagine Chinese operatives hijacking our own weapons and turning them against us.

Other programs focus on 6G technology and electromagnetic warfare, simultaneously developing the next generation of communications while learning how to disable ours. They are building the future while planning to destroy ours. The intelligent vision engineering program trains AI specialists in pattern recognition and target identification on the battlefield—effectively teaching machines to automatically identify and strike American soldiers, ships, and aircraft.

Additional majors include big data analytics and automated command systems, aimed at producing specialists capable of processing massive volumes of intelligence to coordinate attacks against American interests worldwide. This is not education—it is militarized indoctrination, and its goal is nothing short of technological supremacy and total strategic dominance over the United States.

This Wuhan AI warrior factory represents the crown jewel of Communist China’s $245 billion military buildup specifically designed to crush American freedom. The university was created by combining elite institutions, the Information Communication Institute of the National University of Defence Technology and the Officer’s Academy of Army Engineering University, into one concentrated weapon against the United States.

Xi Jinping personally ordered this AI warfare force to “effectively support combat operations” and “integrate deeply” into China’s joint operation system targeting American forces. He is clearly preparing for “information-focused warfare” against the United States, and the regime is confident in American weakness at this critical moment.

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Israel confirms it is arming Hamas rivals in operation opposition calls ‘complete madness’

Israel is arming local militias in Gaza in an effort to counter Hamas in the besieged enclave, officials say, as opposition politicians warned that the move endangers national security.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the covert enterprise on Thursday, calling it “a good thing.” In a video posted on social media, Netanyahu said Israel had “activated clans in Gaza which oppose Hamas,” and that it was done “under the advice of security elements.”

Former defense minister and Netanyahu rival Avigdor Liberman divulged the move on Israel’s Ch. 12 News on Wednesday, saying that Israel was distributing rifles to extremist groups in Gaza and describing the operation as “complete madness.”

“We’re talking about the equivalent of ISIS in Gaza,” Liberman said one day later on Israel’s Army Radio, adding that Israel is providing weapons to “crime families in Gaza on Netanyahu’s orders.”

“No one can guarantee that these weapons will not be directed towards Israel,” he said, a warning echoed by one of the officials who spoke with CNN. After Liberman’s revelation, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement saying, “Israel is acting to defeat Hamas in various ways upon the recommendation of the heads of the security establishment.”

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US Army rolls out $13M smart rifle scopes that auto-target and take down enemy drones in combat

The US Army is giving its soldiers a high-tech edge in the fight against drones, and it’s called SMASH.

During a live-fire training exercise on June 6 in Germany, a soldier with the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment used the SMASH 2000L smart scope mounted on an M4A1 rifle to target drones in the sky.

The demo was part of Project Flytrap, a multinational training event.

The SMASH 2000L, made by Israeli company Smart Shooter Ltd., is no ordinary sight.

It uses cameras, sensors, and artificial intelligence to track targets and decides the perfect time to fire, according to reporting from Army Recognition.

Once a drone is locked in, the system controls the trigger and only fires when a hit is guaranteed.

In May, the Army awarded Smart Shooter a $13 million contract to begin delivering these scopes to troops under its Transformation In Contact (TIC 2.0) program.

The goal is to quickly get new, useful tech into soldiers’ hands.

The smart scope weighs about 2.5 pounds and fits onto standard-issue rifles.

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NATO Chief: Russia Could Be Ready to Fight the West in Five Years

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that Russia could launch an attack on the bloc within five years. He called on members to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP.

Speaking at the British Chatham House think tank, Rutte told the audience, “Russia could be ready to use military force against NATO within five years. Five years. Let’s not kid ourselves, we are all on the Eastern flank now.” He continued, “There is no longer East or West – there is just NATO.”

Rutte argued that to combat the supposed threat from Russia, NATO states must boost military spending to 5% of their GDP, adding “3.5% will be invested in our core military requirements. While the rest will go towards defence and security-related investments, including infrastructure and building industrial capacity.” He went on to say that “5% is not some figure plucked from the air, it is grounded in hard facts.”

President Donald Trump has also called for NATO to increase its minimum defense spending level to 5% of GDP. The current requirement is 2%, and only 23 of 32 members meet that threshold.

Spain and Italy will hit the minimum level for the first time this year, while Canada is not expected to spend more than 2% of its GDP on defense until 2027.

US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker restated that demand last week. “We are currently negotiating within the North Atlantic Council the timelines and what’s included in the 5%, both from a core defense standpoint and also defense-related and security-related spending,” he said Wednesday. He added that member states must rapidly ramp up spending to reach that goal.

According to NATO statistics, in 2024, only Poland spent over 4% of GDP on its military. Four countries, including the US, spend over 3% on defense. For the US, this would mean spending $1.45 trillion annually on the war budget. 

“But let me be clear on this, we cannot have another Wales pledge style where a lot of allies don’t meet their commitments until year 10 or year 11,” he said. “We are asking all allies to increase their budgets as far as they can and as quickly as they can, understanding that this is not the United States setting this timeline, it is our adversaries.”

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