Tag: perpetual war

Pentagon Reportedly Preparing to Send 3,000 Airborne Troops to Middle East

The Pentagon is preparing to deploy about 3,000 troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, according to multiple reports.

Politico reported the deployment would add to thousands of Marines already heading to the region.

Two defense officials confirmed the planned troop deployment.

Pentagon officials said no decision had been made to send troops into Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The U.S. currently has about 50,000 troops in the area.

The troop increase follows ongoing U.S. military operations against Iran.

U.S. Central Command said strikes have destroyed thousands of military targets since Feb. 28, when President Donald Trump announced the beginning of Operation Epic Fury.

The New York Times previously reported the Pentagon was considering deploying the 82nd Airborne Division to the area.

Iran continued drone and missile attacks in the region Tuesday.

Trump said he delayed additional strikes due to conversations with Tehran toward a peace deal.

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Did You See This Clip of Obama’s CIA Director Talking About Iran?

It’s beyond parody that a former CIA director could be so out of touch, simply because he disliked an election outcome. This was a gathering of the so-called ‘morons’ on MS Now—true, that’s often the case, but this time, it was a particular brand of idiocy. They had John Brennan, Obama’s former spy chief, who arguably went rogue during the Russia investigation, claiming he would trust Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, over Donald Trump. 

John, are we experiencing dementia, or are you just getting your shots in before your probable indictment for giving false testimony about the Russiagate hoax, especially regarding the Steele dossier? 

Trump launched Operation Epic Fury almost a month ago, where we’ve destroyed Iran’s navy, its nuclear weapons ambitions, and the core of its political and military leadership. The cream of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is gone. The Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, is dead, and his son is pretty much half dead. Its ballistic missile capability has been severely degraded; its infrastructure and manufacturing base are being dismantled. This regime will collapse. But there’s been a pause as talks reportedly resumed on a new deal between the US and Iran. 

“Well, I tend to believe Iran more than I do Donald Trump, because he could not acknowledge the truth even when it—he’s slapped in the face with it repeatedly,” said Brennan on MS Now.  

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Silicon battlefields: Why Big Tech is a target in the US-Israeli war on Iran

In traditional wars, armies directed their firepower toward visible strategic assets – military bases, weapons factories, airfields – where supply lines could be mapped and battle plans drawn with relative certainty. Combat effectiveness depended on numbers, firepower, and tactical maneuver. 

Today, however, the logic of war has shifted beyond the physical battlefield. Over the past two decades, the digital revolution has built a second layer of strategic infrastructure behind the front lines, quietly transforming how power is projected and how wars are fought.

Digital infrastructure has moved from the periphery of war to its operational core. Intelligence gathering, drone coordination, and battlefield decision-making increasingly depend on cloud systems and artificial intelligence (AI) platforms. The architecture of contemporary conflict is therefore built as much on corporate-run networks as on conventional military hardware.

This evolving reality shapes Iran’s strategic outlook as the war with Washington and Tel Aviv deepens. In Tehran’s assessment, the technological backbone sustaining western-aligned military operations in West Asia cannot be viewed as politically neutral. It constitutes an extension of the battlespace itself – a domain where economic assets, corporate platforms, and national security objectives intersect.

Corporate networks as instruments of war

In recent years, advanced militaries have woven digital platforms into every stage of warfare. Satellite surveillance systems feed data into cloud networks. Armed drones transmit high-definition video streams requiring immediate analysis. 

Signals interception capabilities generate vast intelligence flows that must be converted into rapid operational decisions. Military power, increasingly, is measured not simply by missile stockpiles or air superiority, but by the capacity to process information faster than an adversary.

Major technology firms now sit at the center of this process. Companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google provide the infrastructure enabling governments and militaries to store, analyze, and deploy critical data. Their cloud platforms underpin intelligence assessments, battlefield logistics, and command-and-control coordination across multiple theaters.

This convergence of corporate technology and state power has reshaped how conflict is understood. Digital networks have become as vital as aircraft carriers or missile defense systems. In the context of the US-Israeli war on Iran, Tehran increasingly interprets this reality as evidence that global technology companies form an integral part of hostile operational environments.

That perception gained public visibility when Iranian media circulated a list of nearly 30 sites across West Asia, and especially the UAE, linked to major tech firms. 

They included regional headquarters, engineering offices, and large-scale data centers operated by firms such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, NVIDIA, IBM, and Palantir Technologies. In Tehran’s reading of the conflict, these facilities represent strategic nodes embedded within the operational ecosystem that sustains adversaries’ military capabilities.

Stretching from Tel Aviv to Persian Gulf cities such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Manama, these facilities host cloud services used by state institutions, intelligence agencies, and defense contractors. Some contribute directly to artificial intelligence development for surveillance and battlefield analysis. Others support regional digital economies whose stability indirectly underwrites military spending and technological innovation.

In an era where data flows shape combat outcomes, the infrastructures managing those flows may be viewed as legitimate strategic targets.

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Jewish settler gangs rampage through West Bank villages for three consecutive days

Illegal Israeli settlers continued their violent attacks across the occupied West Bank on 23 March, after several destructive pogroms targeted Palestinian villages over the weekend.

Palestinian farmers and shepherds in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, came under attack by settlers on Monday. 

“Muhammad Yahya Abu Aram, 35, and Elias Saeed al-Amour suffered from suffocation and fainting after colonists sprayed them with pepper spray following an attack on shepherds and farmers in the western part of Al-Rakeez village in Masafer Yatta,” anti-settlement activist Osama Makhameh told WAFA news agency. 

Groups of settlers also uprooted scores of olive trees in Beita, south of Nablus, on Monday, while also raiding a school in Huwara – spray painting graffiti on the walls and replacing the Palestinian flag with an Israeli one.

Overnight, a health clinic in Burqa, east of Ramallah, was torched by settlers. 

As the war on Iran rages and Tehran continues its large-scale retaliatory campaign against Israel, extremist settler violence against Palestinians – which was already at an all-time high – is now surging. 

Israeli settlers rampaged through multiple Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank overnight on 21 March, smashing cars, burning homes, and attacking and injuring Palestinians who were defending their homes.

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Rising number of US troops oppose Iran war, refuse to ‘die for Israel’: Report

More and more US troops deployed to West Asia are expressing doubts about fighting in the war against Iran, including having to “die for Israel,” the Huffington Post reported on 23 March.

A veteran and reservist who mentors younger officers told HuffPost that troops she speaks with are expressing a loss of faith after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu helped push US President Donald Trump to go to war against Iran.

“I’m hearing out of service members’ mouths the words, ’We do not want to die for Israel – we don’t want to be political pawns,” she said.

“I’ve shared conscientious objector information six times in the past two weeks, and I’ve been in the military almost 20 years – I’ve never had people reach out this way,” the first reservist continued.

Interviews with active-duty soldiers, reservists, and advocacy groups conducted by HuffPost found that many US troops expressed feeling vulnerable, overwhelming stress, frustration, and disillusionment to the extent that they wished to leave the military.

Interviews further revealed that troops are worried about inadequate protection from Iranian ballistic missiles and drones targeting US bases in the Gulf region.

“Getting random indirect fire is not the same as watching the entire gym and coffee shop and some dorms get blown up from a door less than 50 meters away,” said one service member.

Thirteen troops have been killed in the war so far, and at least 232 have been wounded.

White House officials are now speaking of launching a limited ground invasion to seize Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf.

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Army raises enlistment age to 42, removes waiver for marijuana possession

A major update to Army recruiting regulations this week raises the maximum age a recruit can join to 42, and removes a barrier to joining for recruits with a single legal conviction for marijuana or drug paraphernalia possession.

The Army’s previous limit was 35, though exceptions are occasionally made. The higher age limit brings the Army in line with other services’ limits of 41 in the Navy and 42 in the Air Force and Space Force, Kate Kuzminski, who studies military recruiting for the Center for a New American Security, told Task & Purpose.

Army recruiting officials have noted in recent years that the average age of recruits is increasing, with officials telling reporters in 2024 that the average recruit was 22 years, 4 months, and that it was still “going up.” 

Kuzminski said the change has positives and negatives. According to a report she authored for the RAND Corporation, many older recruits scored higher on enlistment qualification tests than recruits who joined before 20. Those older recruits were also more likely to reenlist and be promoted than their younger peers.

However, older recruits were also less likely to graduate from basic training and had higher attrition rates.

The older enlistment cap is the latest in the military’s multi-billion-dollar overhaul of recruiting, launched after years of missed recruiting goals. The Army, the largest branch in the military, failed to meet annual recruiting goals in 2022 and 2023. Changes in recent years to the Army’s recruiting enterprise include installing a pre-boot camp prep course for recruits who do not initially meet fitness and academic standards and creating marketing schemes to move the Army’s messaging past the post-9/11 wars and appeal to Gen Z. 

The changes also reflect a changing Army workforce with more education and job skills. In 2024, then-Army Secretary Christine Wormuth announced that the Army’s goal was to have one-third of the entire force to hold college degrees. For officers, the service has expanded its direct commissioning program for professionals who have worked in the tech sector for a few years and have expertise in artificial intelligence and space, in order to help bolster the Army’s technical knowledge across its formations. 

Col. Angela Chipman, chief military personnel accessions & retention division said the enlistment age increase reflects the need for technical talent, even in the enlisted force.

“We’re kind of looking at a more mature audience that might have experience in technical fields,” Chipman said. “We need warrant officers with extreme technical capabilities, and those will come from the enlisted ranks.”

Marijuana laws vary between states

The Army also changed a specification in its waiver process for drug offenses. According to the regulation, recruits no longer need a waiver for a single conviction of possession of marijuana or possession of drug paraphernalia like bongs, roach clips, miniature spoons, and various pipes.

Under the previous regulation, a recruit with one conviction for possession of marijuana or drug paraphernalia required a waiver from officials in the Pentagon. Recruits previously had to wait 24 months to enlist, and would have to pass a drug test at a Military Entrance Processing Stations facility before their waiver could be approved.

Kuzminski said the waiver modification “accounts for changes in society.” She noted that the change is for a single offense but that recruits with a “pattern” of convictions or behavior would still need a waiver. 

“The updated regulation allows for one mistake, which likely represents the bulk of potential recruits considering service in the Army,” Kuzminski said. “Reducing the number of characteristics that need to be reviewed for waivers frees up capacity for other candidates who need waivers, thus speeding up the process across the board and helping to ensure that the Army does not lose interested candidates.”

The looser approach to marijuana use comes as the broader military tightens its drug policies for troops currently serving. In recent years, the military added psychedelic mushrooms and products with kratom and related substances to its list of banned substances.  Earlier this week, the Army said it will begin flagging all soldiers with positive drug tests — not just those with security clearances — to the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency.

And both Republican and Democratic in Congress have signaled a more lenient approach to recruits’ marijuana use — which is legal for recreational use in almost half of the U.S. and legal for medical use in the majority of states.

“It’s just us looking at, as the states continue to legalize marijuana versus those that don’t, and the federal government not yet legalizing,” Chipman said, “at what point are we hindering ourselves by holding people to this type of conviction that in some states is okay and some states isn’t?”

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Trump Officials Flee Into the Bunker

In the last few days, drones have reportedly been spotted over Fort Lesley J. McNair, in Washington, DC, where Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth live. Officials are worried, and so am I, though for different reasons. 

Did you know our secretary of state and secretary of defense live on an army base? 

And they’re not the only ones.

Pam Bondi, Stephen Miller, and other senior Trump officials have moved into military housing. Tulsi Gabbard and Russell Vought are browsing the available housing, but have not moved yet. One more senior official, unidentified, has been advised to move by security officials.

The official excuse is that they face threats from a range of purported foes, including, we are told, cartels, foreign adversaries, and protesters. 

But I can’t help feeling we’re not getting the real story. And, frankly, what that might be chills me. 

Why does a king (and his courtiers) go into his castle and pull up the drawbridge? 

Because they see themselves as besieged — or are planning to do something they know will cause them to be besieged.   

Harvard professor Steven Levitsky — an expert on threats to democracies — made this sobering observation:

It is something you never see in a democracy. Government officials live on military bases or other sort of fortified zones [only] in authoritarian regimes.

In authoritarian regimes.

Coming at a time when fair elections are openly threatened and our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms challenged at every turn, when we see this group withdraw to a hardened inner sanctum, we’d better be paying close attention. 

But thus far little attention has been paid to this matter, and what it may mean. 

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Hegseth Makes Troops Prove “Sincerely Held” Faith in Latest Beard Crackdown

The latest edict from beard-obsessed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth adds strict new regulations to his crusade on facial hair, which rights groups have characterized as an attack on troops’ civil liberties.

In a March 11 memo, Hegseth, who has made grooming and appearances a central focus in his time at the helm of the U.S. military, raised the bar to qualify for a religious exemption to his blanket ban on beards. The guidelines lay out a strict new process by which service members may apply for a religious exemption and subject those who’ve already received one to a reevaluation, arguing they need to ensure their religious beliefs are “sincerely held” and have a genuine conflict with the grooming standards.

Service members who have spoken against Hegseth’s focus on grooming standards say his restrictions on beards are exclusionary to people from religious communities that require adherents to follow specific tenets of faith around beards, hair, and other grooming matters.

Sikhs, for example, who have served in the U.S. military since at least World War I, are required by their faith not to cut the hair on their head, to keep a beard, and to wrap their long hair in a turban. Members of many schools of Muslim tradition likewise have rules around beards and hair length.

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Huh? Who On Earth Is Trump Talking To?

President Donald Trump says he has paused strikes on Iran, claiming to have had significant direct communications with Iranian figures amid the ongoing military escalation, describing the exchanges as productive, yet Israel appears to be continuing airstrikes at the same time.

Trump framed the talks as a potential path to de-escalation through verifiable compliance rather than prolonged conflict, and characterized the negotiations positively during recent comments.

“We have had very, very strong talks,” he said. “We’ll see where they lead. We have major points of agreement… They went, I would say perfectly.”

He specified the involvement of U.S. representatives. “Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner had them.”

Addressing Iranian denials broadcast on Iranian state television, Trump responded, “Well, they’re going to have to get themselves better public relations people!”

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The Donald Gets a Double-Whammy

It sure looks like the Donald is on the receiving end of a double-whammy. His victory declaration in Iran looks to rank right up there with George Dubya Bush’s “mission accomplished” pratfall on the deck of a US aircraft carrier in 2003; and that also means that his SOTU boasting about defeating “Joe Biden’s” inflation and getting the gas pump price under $2 per gallon is out the window, too.

What’s back in play front and center, therefore, is the AFFORDABILITY issue come November. The Dems have no clue about how to fix it, of course, but they sure as hell will be brutally pounding the GOP candidates and the Donald with the latter’s own bogus hot air on the matter.

For want of doubt, consider the conflagration in the global oil markets at this very moment. At ground zero in the Persian Gulf, the major crude oil from the region have already shot the moon.

Thus, Oman crude prices are up to $154/barrel, crossing $150 for the first time ever. At the same time, Dubai crude is up to $130/barrel, while Brent is trading at $110.

This means, in turn, that the gap between Oman and world prices is off-the-charts wide, and now stands at 30% or $44 per barrel. By comparison, before the Iran War, the difference between all benchmarks was just $5 per barrel during January and February.

In very short-run, of course, Brent and WTI are priced based on US and European supply conditions, while the actual disruption is concentrated in the Middle East, meaning they do not fully capture the severity of the physical shortage. YET.

On the other hand, global crude oil markets everywhere and always eventually get arbitraged, causing the major marker grades to fully reflect worldwide supply, demand and inventory conditions. So unless the Gulf is re-opened within a matter of days, the marker grades will soon rise toward these Gulf prices as global inventories continue to be liquidated.

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