Tag: perpetual war

From USS Liberty to Rachel Corrie: Israel’s Attacks on U.S. You Probably Didn’t Know About

While it has become normalized for US Presidents to openly avow that they are Zionists and pledge unconditional support to their Israeli ally, most Americans still remain unaware that Israel has repeatedly attacked and killed their fellow citizens.

During the past four years of Joe Biden’s Presidency, Israel has gotten away with murdering five American citizens, for which there have been no consequences for the US’ special relationship with Tel Aviv. Yet Israel’s attacks against America and its citizens go back much further.

In 1954, Israeli intelligence operatives planted bombs in US, British, and Egyptian civilian areas in Cairo, ranging from shopping malls, and movie theatres to diplomatic targets.

The goal was to frame Communist groups, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other actors to serve Israeli interests, convincing the US and UK to back Israel in taking military action. However, the plot, known as “The Lavon Affair” was thankfully foiled and represented a diplomatic debacle for Tel Aviv.

During the June 1967 war that Israel initiated with its “Operation Focus” surprise attack against Egypt, an American naval vessel called the USS Liberty was deliberately attacked by the Israeli military.

The incident led to the killing of 34 US sailors and the injury of 174 others, miraculously the US-flagged ship did not sink despite Israel having repeatedly assaulted it with torpedoes and even napalm.

Then US President Lyndon B. Johnson covered the event up in order to not embarrass Israel, although the ship’s survivors have campaigned for justice for years and rarely received much media attention. It is alleged that the Israeli intention behind the USS Liberty assault was to create a false-flag attack that justified American intervention in the 1967 war.

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Drugs as Weapons of War: The US CIA and the Heroin Trade

Why examine the role of the CIA in the rise of the global Heroin trade?

Three reasons-

First, during my recent travels to Rome, I learned of “Operation Blue Moon (Operazione Blue Moon),” which is widely covered in Italian press, publications, and embedded in the Italian political belief system. An account paradoxically completely absent in both the CIA declassified document reading room and in US press coverage. In Italy, “Operation Blue Moon” is shorthand for a commonly believed narrative involving collusion between the CIA and the Italian Mafia to flood dissident Italian groups with inexpensive heroin.

Second, the Chinese CCP government appears to be intentionally targeting the USA with cheap imported Fentanyl, a drug similar to Heroin in mechanism of action but much more potent and deadly. In the US, the commonly accepted narrative is that this is a form of intentional but surreptitious politically motivated chemical warfare by the CCP against American citizens intended to corrode and compromise the cultural backbone of the USA. Assuming this to be true, this strategy and associated tactics would be eerily similar to Italian claims of CIA strategy and tactics in the case of the widely held belief in the history of “Operation Blue Moon.” Tangential but related is that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was once addicted to Heroin and was convicted of felony Heroin possession.

And third, today, with what is proposed to be the complete release of the entire unredacted dossier of US Government records concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, we may be able to finally conclude whether or not the US CIA was involved in that seminal event. Was his assassination an internal coup? HHS Secretary RFK Jr. has repeatedly asserted that he believes that the CIA was involved in the assassinations of both his uncle and father.

Is the culture of the CIA truly so evil, so Machiavellian, that the organization would promote and facilitate the global heroin trade as a political weapon? Is it so evil that it would even participate in a violent domestic coup by assassinating a sitting US President to defend and advance its organizational interests? Or assassinate a leading presidential candidate that would likely act to reduce CIA power or even dissolve the organization? Well, the willingness of the CIA (and its corrupt partner organization USAID) to assassinate or in a multitude of other ways overturn sovereign foreign governments is well documented. As is the long history of CIA/USAID foreign election interference, including interference in Italian elections.

For those who have not read “The Prince,” Machiavellianism is a psychological trait centered on manipulation, coldness, and indifference to morality. There can be no doubt that the dominant culture of the US CIA is both Machiavellian and utilitarian – a belief system in which the ends are considered to justify the means. In the field of personality psychology, Machiavellianism is the name of a personality trait construct characterized by manipulativeness, indifference to morality, lack of empathy, and a calculated focus on self-interest. Does this sound like the culture of the CIA as you know it? Speaking for myself, it is a precise description of the trained CIA agents I have known during my career. I have come to believe that dark triad personality traits are both selected for and intentionally amplified in how CIA agents are trained. Picture “The Real” Anthony Fauci, and you have a pretty good example. A US Government bureaucrat known to surreptitiously frequent CIA headquarters, according to various whistleblowers.

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Trump Should Resist Another America-Last War in the Middle East

In his inaugural address, President Donald Trump made clear that he wants history to remember him as a “peacemaker and a unifier.” In his telling, “we will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end—and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.”

That goal is in jeopardy. Forces inside and outside his administration are trying to drag the president into more wars in the Middle East. One possibility would be an expansion of the low-level war his predecessor Joe Biden lost to the Houthis in Yemen. Another, more consequential possibility would be a full-blown war with Iran. Both wars would be losers that would damage both the country and Trump’s legacy.

Start with Yemen. In that small, impoverished country, the Houthi movement has been attacking shipping in the Red Sea since Israel attacked Gaza after the Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023. 

The economic damage from the disruption to Red Sea shipping has been consequential, but survivable. A glance at a map makes clear who pays the cost of the disruption, however: Asia-Europe trade. Because of easy U.S. access to both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans—big, beautiful oceans, as the president might say—trade with either continent mostly doesn’t rely on the Middle East.

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White House Greenlit New Israeli Strikes On Gaza, Breaking Of Ceasefire

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has said Tuesday that over 400 people were killed overnight and into the morning by Israeli airstrikes following the collapse of the fragile two-month ceasefire.

Local officials say the death toll is expected to climb higher through the day as many are still buried under the rubble. The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders desribed, “We woke up, at around 2am local time, to 20 minutes of airstrikes and heavy artillery, just like the past 15 months of war.”

The statement further said, “We are appalled and outraged by these new unacceptable massacres of civilians.” But Israel has blamed Hamas for the truce’s collapse, also as dozens of Israeli captives (including bodies of the deceased) still remain in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that “Israel will act against Hamas with increasing military force.” He blasted group’s “repeated refusal” to release more hostages.

Israel’s military claimed overnight that Hamas’ highest-ranking security official, Mahmoud Abu Wafah, was killed in the strikes. Bombs pummeled the territory every “five, six seconds” according to a Unicef official.

The Trump administration gave the greenlight for the fresh wave of Israeli attacks. “The Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza tonight,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Monday night Fox News interview, just as the bombs were flying. And meanwhile, this somewhat strangely timed headline on Tuesday has hit:

The US reportedly agreed to an Egyptian proposal to rebuild Gaza without Hamas, with a local price tag of $50bn.

Hamas has blamed Israel for what it says was the unilateral overturning of the ceasefire agreement. Trump has for weeks been warning that all “hell” could be visited upon Hamas if it didn’t immediately return all of the remaining hostages.

Leavitt acknowledged this in her commentary to Fox: “As President Trump has made it clear – Hamas, the Houthis, Iran, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel, but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay. All hell will break loose,” she said.

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France To Expand Its Nuclear Deterrent With New Air Base

France has said it will establish another nuclear-capable air base — its fourth — that will be equipped with two squadrons of the latest version of the homegrown Dassault Rafale multirole fighter. The change in fortunes for the base, Luxeuil Air Base in eastern France — once threatened with closure — comes as European NATO members, including France, look at bolstering their nuclear deterrence capabilities independent of the United States.

The announcements were made today by French President Emmanuel Macron during his visit to Luxeuil — locally known as Base Aérienne 116. As a nuclear-capable base, Luxeuil is planned to host the new ASN4G hypersonic missile by 2035. The weapon will arm two squadrons of the most advanced F5-standard Rafales — a total of 40 aircraft. All in all, France will invest around 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) into the installation.

Pointing to the fact that the war in Ukraine “has changed the situation,” Cédric Perrin, the senator for the region in which the air base is located, confirmed that the first Rafale squadron will touch down at Luxeuil in 2032, becoming operational the following year. The second squadron will become operational in 2036.

It appears that these 40 advanced versions of the Rafale will be in addition to the 42 examples ordered earlier this year. As well as being compatible with the ASN4G missile, the F5-standard Rafales will also be able to work in conjunction with ‘loyal wingman’-type drones.

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Putin Peels Off the Masks of the Ceasefire Kabuki

Putin will never sacrifice Russia’s “indivisibility of security” demands posed to Washington in December 2021 – and met with a no-response response.

The “ceasefire” announced with trademark bombast by Team Trump 2.0 should be seen as a tawdry kabuki inside a cheap matryoshka.

As we peel off the successive masks, the last one standing inside the matryoshka is a woke transvestite tiny dancer: a Minsk 3 in drag.

Now cue to a “ceasefire” redux: President Putin in uniform only for the second time since the start of the SMO, dead serious, visiting the frontline in Kursk.

Finally, cue to the actual peel off operation: Putin’s press conference after his meeting with Lukashenko in Moscow.

Ceasefire? Of course. We support it. And then, methodically, diplomatically, the Russian President pulled a Caravaggio, and went all-out chiaroscuro on every geopolitical and military detail of the American gambit. A consumate artful deconstruction.

End result: the ball is now back in Donald Trump’s court. Incidentally the leader of the revamping-in-progress Empire of Chaos who does not (italics mine) have the cards.

The art of diplomatic nuance

That’s how diplomacy at the highest level works – something out of reach of American bumpkins of the Rubio variety.

Putin was gracious enough to thank “the President of the United States, Mr. Trump, for paying so much attention to resolving the conflict.”

After all the Americans also seem to be involved in “achieving a noble mission, a mission to stop hostilities and the loss of human lives.”

Then he went for the kill: “This ceasefire should lead to a long-term peace and eliminate the initial causes of this crisis.”

As in all Russian key imperatives – widely known since at least June 2024 – will have to be satisfied. After all, it’s Russia that’s winning the war in the battlefield, not the U.S., the – already fragmented – NATO, and much less Ukraine.

Putin was adamant on the ceasefire: “We are for it.”

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“The Gates of Hell Will Open in Gaza” — Ceasefire Ends as Israel Launches Extensive Strikes on Hamas Terror Strongholds in Gaza for Refusing to Release Hostages

In a bold and necessary move to protect its citizens and sovereignty, Israel has launched a series of decisive airstrikes targeting Hamas terror strongholds within the Gaza Strip.

This action comes in direct response to Hamas’s blatant refusal to release Israeli hostages and its continuous threats to Israeli security.

Early Tuesday morning, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) executed extensive airstrikes across Gaza, marking the most significant military action since the ceasefire agreement in January.

“In accordance with the political echelon, the IDF and ISA are currently conducting extensive strikes on terror targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF wrote on X.

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The European Powder Keg: ‘Bosnia Is a Failed State’ 

Bosnia is on the brink of collapse following the sentencing of Milorad Dodik for defying the United Nations High Representative.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in the Western Balkans, is bordered by Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro. It is home to three main ethnic groups: Bosniak Muslims, Catholic Croats, and Orthodox Serbs.

The breakup of Yugoslavia and the war that followed left the country in ruins, with thousands of victims and deep ethnic and religious divisions. 

The war, which began in 1992, ended with the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which divided the country into two federal entities: the Republic of Srpska, primarily inhabited by Orthodox Serbs, and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, shared by Bosniak Muslims and Catholic Croats.

The Dayton Peace Agreement, however, failed to provide a long-term solution for Bosnia. As Tamás Orbán of the European Conservative aptly points out, “Bosnia and Herzegovina is not a country; it’s a ceasefire between three nations pretending to be one, and it may soon come to an end.”

A few weeks ago, a court found Republic of Srpska President Milorad Dodik guilty of defying the authority of Bosnia’s UN High Representative, Christian Schmidt. He was sentenced to one year in prison and barred from holding public office for six years.

The court’s ruling has plunged the country into a constitutional and political crisis unlike any seen since the end of the war.

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Ukraine’s Kursk Offensive Was a Miserable Failure 

August 6, 2024 will forever live in the minds of Russians and Ukrainians as a moment of great consequence. On that day, Ukrainian troops embarrassed Moscow’s army yet again by conducting a mini-blitzkrieg into Kursk, a region in Russia. In the opening days of the operation, Kiev sent between 10,000 and 12,000 troops into Kursk, according to an estimate by Russia expert Dara Massicot. The surprise incursion marked the first time a foreign army invaded Russian territory since Hitler’s armies stampeded toward Stalingrad in World War II.

The Russian troops in the area, mostly young conscripts with no experience in battlefield conditions, were about as confused and demoralized as their superiors. The Ukrainians, meanwhile, were jubilant, pointing to the incursion as an example that Kiev still had a few tricks up its sleeve and retained the combat capability to plan and execute a successful offensive. “Russia brought the war to our land and should feel what it has done,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said two days into the operation.

Seven months later, the picture is much bleaker. Moscow, after losing around 500 square miles of Russian territory, finally got its act together and conducted a counteroffensive of its own in September, throwing tens of thousands of Russian and North Korean bodies into the fray and dropping the same type of glide bombs they have used mercilessly against Ukrainian cities since the war started. 

The Ukrainian army was able to inflict significant casualties as they defended their positions—Kiev’s General Staff reported on February 6 that 16,000 Russian forces were killed—but the onslaught was ultimately too difficult to withstand indefinitely. Russia’s strategy in Kursk was identical to its strategy in Ukraine: throw enough manpower, munitions, and hardware at the problem, and enemy lines will eventually buckle. At the time of writing, the Russian Defense Ministry has re-claimed the town of Sudzha and Ukrainian troops are withdrawing from the region.   

All of this begs the question: in the end, was the Kursk offensive worth it?

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Iranian Intel Ship Sunk By American Forces During Gaza Surprise Attacks

It looks like forces in the Trump administration pushing for war with Iran are going to get their way.

The Iranian intel ship Zagros (SIGINT) was sunk by U.S. forces amid wide-ranging strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip by Israel happening simultaneously.

The ship was commissioned only two months ago.

Iran’s navy received its first signals intelligence ship on Wednesday, semi-official Tasnim news organisation reported, a few days after the country’s army took delivery of 1,000 new drones.

The Zagros is a new category of military vessel equipped with electronic sensors and the ability to intercept cyber-operations and conduct intelligence monitoring, Tasnim said.

“The Zagros signals intelligence ship will be the watchful eye of Iran’s navy in the seas and oceans,” Navy Commander Shahram Irani said, reported Reuters.

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