Tag: perpetual war

4 creepy ghost stories from the Vietnam War

In Spring 1993, a Vietnamese farmer was on his way to work his rice paddy when he passed his wife and children in the road. The wife sat on a rock and greeted him “scornfully,” as his children cowered behind their mother. The meeting shocked the farmer, as his wife and his three children were killed when their village was attacked in 1968, and his house was burned to the ground.

Ghost stories like these are told across Vietnam, where rural communities attach great significance to spiritual encounters. In this case, the man understood his wife’s grave had been disturbed in the village’s recent developments, and he immediately set out to give them a proper reburial.

But there are many, many more ghost stories throughout the country, some relevant to the American War fought there. Many of those persist to this day.

Saigon’s Haunted Apartments

The building at 727 Tran Hung Dao in Ho Chi Minh City—once known as Saigon—was a building that housed American service members for much of the Vietnam War. But its construction was plagued by accidents from the get-go, some of which killed the workers building it. Many blamed it on the number of floors the building had, 13, which was considered unlucky.

To assuage their fears and complete the building, the architect decided to call in a shaman to rectify the building’s feng shui-like issues. It’s said the shaman brought the dead bodies of four virgins from the local hospital and buried them at the four corners of the building, which would protect it from evil spirits.

To this day, residents report hearing screams of horror in the middle of the night, the sound of a military parade on the march through the building, and the apparition of a spectral American GI walking, holding hands with his Vietnamese girlfriend.

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100,000 Fighting-Age Ukrainian Men Have Fled the Country in Two Months After Easing of Rules for Departure of 18–22-Year-Olds

Young men are running for their lives.

As the winter approaches in Ukraine – with the terrifying prospect of blackouts and power outages disrupting heating in homes – a huge number of young men are watching the tragedy unfold from safe places, far away from the war.

With the catastrophic number of dead and seriously injured, the ever-growing ‘army’ of deserters and the ghost citizens hiding in their houses from mobilization, the lack of troops has become the main problem affecting the Ukrainian war effort – even more than the lack of weapons, ammo, planes, drones and missiles.

To make things even worse, almost 100,000 fighting-age Ukrainian men have left the country in the past two months, after the Kiev regime eased departure rules for citizens between 18 and 22 years old.

The Telegraph reported:

“Poland’s border guard said 99,000 Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 22 had crossed the frontier – the primary route out of the country – since regulations to ensure that Kyiv had enough soldiers were relaxed at the end of August. In comparison, the entire British Army has around 70,000 personnel.”

Since the beginning of the war, martial law blocked Ukrainian men aged from 18 to 60 from leaving the country.

But, in the fourth year of fighting, Kiev regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky signed a new rule that permits Ukrainian men to travel abroad before they reach 23.

“The move was part of a shift in conscription policy, which lowered the age at which men were obliged to fight from 27 to 25 because of mounting concerns over manpower shortages on the front lines.

By granting young Ukrainians more freedoms to leave, it was hoped more would return and volunteer to fight at a later date.”

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Rand Paul: It’s Odd We’re Not Charging Survivors from Boat Strikes for Drug Crimes

On Wednesday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) stated that when there are survivors of the strikes on what the Trump administration alleges are drug boats, “we don’t try them for drug crimes or we don’t even keep them. We’ve been sending them back.” And “We have no evidence of who they are, other than an accusation that they are drug dealers.”

Paul said, “It’s interesting that, as the boats have been exploded, and as we’ve used this deadly force, when there are survivors, we don’t try them for drug crimes or we don’t even keep them. We’ve been sending them back. So, we repatriated, last week, somebody to Colombia and somebody to Ecuador. So, you would think that, when there are survivors, that they would be tried for a drug crime.”

He continued, “You would think we would be hearing evidence that they’re collecting drugs that are floating around in the water afterwards. You would think we’d hear evidence that the people were armed. So, we don’t know their names. We have no evidence of who they are, other than an accusation that they are drug dealers. But we also, in our country, haven’t typically just killed people because we accuse them of being a drug dealer.”

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Trump calls Israel’s latest Gaza massacre justified; 104 Palestinians, including 46 children killed

Israel massacred another 104 Palestinians, including 46 children, inside Gaza after claiming that its forces came under attack, winning the approval from President Donald Trump, who said Israel “should hit back.”

Israel has been violating the Kushner-Witkoff ceasefire since it was put in place earlier this month, with the full support of the Trump administration. The Israelis understand that all they have to do is float an allegation of a looming Hamas attack and they can resume attacks inside the destroyed enclave.

The Associated Press reported:

Hamas replied in kind on Wednesday, saying the Israeli strikes reveal “a clear Israeli intention to undermine the ceasefire agreement and impose new realities by force.” The group also said in a statement that the U.S. is offering Netanyahu a “political cover” to carry on with its aggression in Gaza.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who Trump once called a “perfect Adelson puppet,” summed up the administration’s position after another deadly Israeli strike on Saturday, saying, “Israel didn’t surrender its right to self-defense. Obviously, the ceasefire is based on obligations on both sides. Israel has a right to self-defense, terrorist activity is an imminent threat to Israel.”

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‘Massive’ Overnight Drone Strikes Cause Widespread Power Outages in Ukraine

The latest in a sustained Russian campaign of massive drone and missile attacks on Ukraine´s energy infrastructure brought power outages and restrictions in all the country´s regions Thursday, officials said, with the Ukrainian prime minister describing Moscow´s tactic as “systematic energy terror.”

The strikes, which were the latest in Russia´s almost daily attacks on the Ukrainian power grid as bitter winter temperatures approach, killed at least three people, including a 7-year-old girl, according to authorities. Children between 2 and 16 years of age were among the 17 injured.

Russian launched more than 650 drones and more than 50 missiles of various types in the attack, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Ukrainian cities use centralized public infrastructure to run water, sewage and heating systems, and blackouts stop from them working. Months of attacks have aimed to erode Ukrainian morale as well as disrupt weapons manufacturing and other war-related activity almost four years after Russia´s full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

“Russia continues its systematic energy terror – striking at the lives, dignity, and warmth of Ukrainians on the eve of winter. Its goal is to plunge Ukraine into darkness; ours is to keep the light on,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said.

“To stop this terror, Ukraine needs more air defense systems, tougher sanctions, and maximum pressure on (Russia),” she added, referring to fruitless U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to make Russia enter negotiations for a peace settlement.

Strikes in the southern Zaporizhzhia region injured 17 people, including a 2-year-old girl, regional authorities said. Rescuers pulled a man from the rubble of a building, but he did not survive, according to Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhzhia regional administration. A second person was also killed in Zaporizhzhia.

A 7-year-old girl died in hospital from her injuries in Ukraine´s central-west Vinnytsia region, regional governor Nataliia Zobolotna said.

Two energy infrastructure facilities were damaged in the western Lviv region, near the border with Poland, local authorities said.

The Polish military said that it scrambled Polish and allied NATO aircraft as a preventive measure due to the Russian attack on Ukrainian territory. The Polish regional airports in Radom and Lublin were closed to ensure the military freedom of operation, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency said.

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Russia Successfully Tests Unmanned Underwater Vehicle 2M39 Poseidon – Capable of Triggering Radioactive Tsunamis

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed a successful test of the ‘2M39 Poseidon’ days after a trial of the new Burevestnik cruise missile, which was followed by nuclear launch drills.

Putin described the Poseidon as a nuclear-powered super-torpedo designed to create radioactive tsunamis and wipe out coastal cities.

President Putin says Russia successfully tested its nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed unmanned underwater vehicle, the 2M39 Poseidon.

According to the Telegraph, The Poseidon has its roots in Soviet plans for a weapon that would be able to render coastal cities on the shores of the United States uninhabitable.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says its new ‘Poseidon’ nuclear torpedo capable of triggering radioactive tsunamis “can be considered a true doomsday weapon.”

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Shocking scenes as huge crowds of ultra-Orthodox Israelis protesting against military conscription throw bottles at female reporter before boy, 15, falls to his death during demonstration

A massive rally of ultra-Orthodox Jewish Israelis protesting against military conscription today turned violent as the crowd threw bottles at a female reporter and a teenage boy fell to his death. 

A packed crowd of an estimated 200,000 people, mostly men, clogged the roads around the Route 1 highway leading into Jerusalem today. 

Photos showed many had climbed atop roofs of buildings, a gas station and onto cranes.  

Video footage showed the agitated crowd stalking a female reporter from Israeli news outlet V1 who was covering the event before chucking glass bottles at her.  

Crowds of men set fire to pieces of tarpaulin as hundreds of police officers cordoned off several roads across the city. 

Demonstrators packed onto the tops of buildings, petrol stations, bridges and balconies above a sea of fellow protesters, some of whom held signs declaring: ‘Better to go to prison than to the army.’

A helicopter flew overhead as people gathered to take part in collective prayers. 

The Israeli ambulance service said a 15-year-old fell to his death and police said they had opened an investigation into the incident.

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China’s Plan to Sink U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers Comes Down to 3 Words

China has developed a formidable, multi-layered anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) system, effectively creating a “defensive bubble” designed to deter the U.S. Navy and potentially sink aircraft carriers.

-This system integrates numerous threats, including “carrier-killer” ballistic missiles, new hypersonic anti-ship weapons, quieter submarines, and an emerging “drone wall” of unmanned systems.

-Together, these layers create vast ocean areas that are too dangerous for U.S. aircraft carriers to operate in during a conflict.

-This A2/AD strategy could successfully prevent the U.S. from intervening effectively in a potential invasion of Taiwan.

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How China could use U.S. farmland to attack America

Chinese entities have been acquiring land in key locations near U.S. military bases, sparking national security concerns about possible spying — or even a potential attack.

Former national security official David Feith laid out the potential risk in an interview with 60 Minutes. Feith worked on U.S.-China policy for the State Department in the first Trump administration, and until April, worked in Trump’s second administration on the National Security Council. While there, he grew increasingly alarmed by where China owns America’s farmland. 
 
“The ability to own large tracts of land, especially close to sensitive U.S. military and government facilities, can pose an enormous problem given the nature of technology today, which is that hostile actor from all across the world can very easily exploit access to land, access to buildings and warehouses, access just to a shipping container or two and do enormous damage, either in intelligence terms or in military terms,” Feith told 60 Minutes.

Feith cited Ukraine’s recent drone attack in Russia as an example. In June, the Ukrainian military attacked Russian nuclear-capable bombers with remotely operated drones it had smuggled into the country.

For China, Feith explained, owning farmland in the United States gives America’s geopolitical rival more operating room for potential strikes.

“It’s an entirely new way of war,” he cautioned.

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Russia Says It Will Respond If the US Starts Testing Nuclear Weapons

Russia on Thursday warned that it would respond if the US began testing nuclear weapons, comments that came after President Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he had ordered the US War Department to start tests.

It’s unclear from President Trump’s post if he meant the testing of nuclear-capable missiles, something the US regularly does, or actually detonating nuclear bombs, which the US hasn’t done since 1992. The president said that he ordered the Pentagon to “start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis” as other countries.

Russia has recently tested a nuclear-capable missile and a nuclear-capable underwater drone, but there have been no known recent detonations of nuclear weapons by any nation. Since the 1990s, all nuclear-armed states, except North Korea, which last detonated a nuclear bomb in 2017, have maintained a moratorium on detonating nuclear weapons.

“The United States is a sovereign nation and has the right to make sovereign decisions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to Trump’s post. “However, I would like to recall President Putin’s repeatedly stated position: if anyone breaks the moratorium, Russia will respond in kind.”

The US and Russia are signatories to the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), but it hasn’t been ratified by all parties, including the US. Russia ratified the CTBT in 2000 but revoked it in 2023, saying it was “mirroring” the US position. Both powers have ratified the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which is in force and prohibits all nuclear test detonations except for those conducted underground.

Peskov also said Russia hasn’t received any notification from the US about a future nuclear weapons test and that Moscow wasn’t aware of any other country that has recently detonated a nuclear bomb. “In his statement, President Trump mentioned that other countries are purportedly involved in testing nuclear weapons. Until now, we were unaware that anyone was engaged in the testing,” he said.

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