Tag: perpetual war

Israel lobby spends millions to unseat US lawmaker critical of Gaza war

The pro-Israel lobby in the US is pouring millions into a campaign to unseat an African-American Congresswoman from Missouri, Cori Bush, as part of a broader effort to replace critics of Israel’s war in Gaza with more Israel-friendly Democrats, The Washington Post reported on 6 August.

“It’s because I called for a cease-fire in Gaza,” Bush told a potential voter as she campaigned door-to-door in her district. “That’s where all of this started.”

Bush is facing a tight primary contest Tuesday against St Louis County Prosecutor and fellow African-American and Democrat Wesley Bell, who is supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the largest and most powerful pro-Israel group in the US.

Whoever wins the primary will run against the Republican party’s candidate for the congressional seat in November.

Outside groups have already spent over $15 million in Missouri’s 1st Congressional district race, with 80 percent of the funds going toward ads opposing Bush and supporting her AIPAC-backed opponent.

In June, AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups spent $17 million to help defeat another progressive African-American member of the US Congress who was critical of the Gaza war, Democrat Jamaal Bowman from New York.

The Washington Post adds that the National Black Empowerment Action Fund (NBEA), founded by AIPAC veteran Darius Jones, donated $1 million to the campaign against Bush last week.

Most of the voters in Bush’s district with whom the Washington Post spoke said they did not know that AIPAC and other Israel lobby groups were so involved in tipping the race.

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US troops return to oil-rich Kirkuk despite talks to withdraw from Iraq

Troops from the US-led international coalition have returned to the K-1 military base in the oil-rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk for the first time since 2020, The New Arab (TNA) reported on 6 August.

An informed Kurdish source told TNA, “The force, comprising about 40 soldiers and 10 to 15 US-made armored Hummer vehicles, was sent from Erbil and deployed at the K-1 military base.”

The US-led coalition did not respond to requests for comment.

The reason for the new US deployment of troops to Kirkuk after four years is unclear.

The source suggested that it may be a response to increased ISIS activities in the disputed province, which leaders of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) have long wished to annex to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq (IKR).

Another source, also speaking on condition of secrecy, told TNA that ISIS has recently resumed its insurgency in and around the Diyala province in eastern Iraq.

The Iraqi armed forces have increased security along the country’s western border with Syria following the release of hundreds of ISIS fighters from prison camps controlled by the US-backed and Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

In mid-July, authorities from the SDF-controlled Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) issued a general amnesty that has so far secured the release of over 1,500 Syrian ISIS fighters convicted of terrorism-related offenses, provided they “did not participate directly in combat” against the SDF.

Informed Iraqi sources speaking with The Cradle stated the US military ordered the release of the ISIS prisoners.

The US-backed SDF holds thousands of ISIS fighters and their family members in around two dozen prison camps in occupied northeast Syria. These include 2,000 foreigners whose home countries have refused to repatriate them.

The deployment of US and coalition troops to Kirkuk follows the Iraqi government’s signing on 1 August of a deal with UK oil giant BP to develop oil and gas fields in Kirkuk. 

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Israel commits new massacre in south Lebanon as regional tensions spiral

The Israeli army committed a massacre in the southern Lebanese village of Maifadoun on 6 August.

Five people were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the town of Maifadoun, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. 

“An enemy drone raided, at around 10:05 am, a two-story house in the Al-Nadi neighborhood in the town of Maifadoun. Smoke rose, and ambulances headed to the scene,” Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported on Tuesday. 

Israeli warplanes also struck the town of Khiam on 6 August.

Hezbollah announced the deaths of four of its fighters after the Israeli attack on Maifadoun.

The Lebanese resistance movement had targeted Israeli forces in the Avivim settlement hours earlier in response to continued Israeli attacks on civilians in south Lebanon. 

“In response to the Israeli enemy’s attacks on the steadfast southern villages and homes, the Islamic Resistance’s Mujahideen targeted a building used by enemy soldiers in the Avivim settlement on Tuesday 06-08-2024 with appropriate weapons and hit it directly,” the Lebanese resistance movement said in a statement. 

Hezbollah carried out several operations the day before, including suicide drone attacks on two Israeli army headquarters – launched in response to Israeli attacks and assassinations in the town of Bazouriye and Mays al-Jabal earlier this week. 

The resistance group said both attacks resulted in “confirmed casualties,” including deaths and injuries among the Israeli army’s ranks. 

Hezbollah has announced the deaths of several of its fighters in Israeli attacks since 4 August, as well as the killing of a civil defense paramedic affiliated with the resistance group’s Islamic Message Scouts Association. 

Tuesday’s massacre comes as regional tensions are at an all-time high following Israel’s assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on 31 July and top Hezbollah war commander Fuad Shukr in a Beirut residential building the day before. 

The attack on Beirut killed several civilians, including young children. 

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Russia, US intensify moves as tensions mount in Middle East

While Russia and the US intensify maneuver in the Middle East as tensions between Iran and Israel ramp up due to the assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu visited Iran and the US increased its military presence.  

Analysts said the situation now is truly worrisome with Iran and Israel vowing to strike each other. However, neither Washington nor Moscow wants an escalation, as they have priorities on the Ukraine crisis in Europe and own domestic affairs with no resources to spare. 

Russia and Iran’s shared position on the multipolar world will promote global stability, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said at a meeting with Shoigu, Russian media TASS reported on Monday. The Iranian president stressed that the era of the US and its allies’ hegemony is over.

Shoigu’s trip aims to strengthen interactions and examine regional and international issues and bilateral political security relations, according to Iranian media ISNA.

Wang Jin, an associate professor at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at Northwest University in Xi’an, said that Russia has long and deep cooperation with Iran and also has a military presence in the region. As Iran has vowed to retaliate against Israel, a new conflict could break out any time, so the two countries have very strong reasons to coordinate.

“If Iran attacks Israel by launching missiles and drones from its own territory or its allies’ in the region, those weapons could fly over the area controlled by Russia, so Moscow and Tehran will have necessary intelligence sharing and coordination before Iran takes action,” Wang said. 

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EU’s top diplomat condemns Gaza starvation that Israeli minister called ‘moral’

European Union High Representative Josep Borrell on Monday condemned the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, urging Israel to halt actions that could further imperil the besieged region’s starving civilian population.

“The ever-worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is creating life-threatening conditions for an already severely weakened civilian population that continues to be subject to starvation and repeated displacement,” the European External Action Service (EEAS) chief wrote in a statement.

Borrell also raised concerns about the destruction of key civilian infrastructure, such as the sanitation and health systems, which are causing the spread of infections and diseases among the population.

“We recall that targeting critical life-saving infrastructure constitutes a war crime and urge all parties to take all feasible precautions to avoid harm to civilians, humanitarian workers, and critical civilian infrastructure,” his statement continued.

Borrell’s statement came hours after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich suggested letting Gazan civilians die of starvation was “justified and moral” in response to Hamas keeping Israeli hostages.

“We are bringing in aid because there is no choice,” he said Monday at a conference in the town of Yad Binyamin, according to Israeli media. “Nobody will let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned.”

Over 100 Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 are still unaccounted for.

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Summer of the Draft: What Government and Think Tanks Are Planning and Why

How did this suddenly become the summer of “the draft”?

There are a number of proposals in the annual defense policy bill (National Defense Authorization Act, NDAA) that deal with the subject. There is one to expand Selective Service registration to women. Another that would make Selective Service registration for American men “automatic.”

Still another proposed amendment to the NDAA, which has also been introduced as a freestanding bill, S. 4881, would repeal the Military Selective Service Act entirely. Meanwhile, the Center for a New American Security just published an exhaustive blueprint for modernizing mobilization, including readiness to activate conscription.

All this talk has compelled “fact checkers” to insist that no, the U.S. government isn’t suddenly “laying the groundwork” for a draft.

But saying the U.S. isn’t preparing for a draft is like saying it isn’t preparing for nuclear war. Just as the Department of Defense is tasked with maintaining readiness to initiate nuclear strikes whenever the Commander-In-Chief so orders, the Selective Service System has the sole mission of maintaining readiness to hold a draft lottery within five days and start selecting draftees and sending out notices to report for induction whenever Congress and the President so order.

As such, there are currently ten thousand draft board members who have been appointed and trained to adjudicate claims for deferment or exemption. As recently as this month, states have been openly seeking volunteers to fill empty slots. And both the SSS and hawkish think-tanks have been war-gaming the government’s contingency plans to activate a draft.

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US-Ukraine-Russian War: It’s About the Money

Well, “the cat is out of the bag, now.” Thanks to US Senator Lindsey Graham, everyone knows one of the more compelling reasons behind the Ukraine war with Russia. And it has little to do with Kiev’s “agency,” “democracy,” and “liberalism.” The latter are merely ‘talking points’ for public consumption – what Noam Chomsky and Ed Hermann called ‘manufactured consent’ in their 1988 seminal work on propaganda, Manufacturing Consent.

Lindsey Graham voiced out loud part of an agenda that is usually hidden from public view or the media – it isn’t talked about (admitted) openly. It’s a veritable “gold mine,” Graham confessed, and America can’t afford to lose control of it. Here’s the translation of Graham’s admission:

It’s About the Money.

Our reliably hawkish Republican Senator is well known for provocative statements. As early as 2022 (at the beginning of the Ukraine war) Graham was all in for regime change in Russia, when everyone else in the West was trying to downplay such a prospect. Moreover, he is quoted as saying at a press conference with Zylensky that “Russians are dying” in the war, while US aid was the “best money we’ve ever spent.”

But with the panache and subtlety of a train wreck the good senator created another stir recently, admitting on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” why Russia must not be allowed to prevail in Ukraine. The latter possesses $10 to $12 trillion worth of rich deposits of critical minerals.

Here are Senator Graham’s reasons justifying the necessity of Kiev (i.e. Washington) winning its fight with Moscow. First, the Kremlin’s access to these deposits would enrich Russia and allow via the Kremlin, China’s participation. Second, if Ukraine retains control over the minerals, it could be “the richest country in all of Europe” and “the best business partner we ever dreamed of.” Third, the outcome of the war in Ukraine is a “very big deal” for the US from an economic standpoint. Thus, Graham is saying that Ukraine’s war is “a war we can’t afford to lose.”

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Israel Is Never “Defending Itself”, and the US Is Never “Defending Israel”

In the last few days Israel has assassinated leaders in multiple neighboring nations, assassinated multiple journalists, deliberately destroyed a water facility in Gaza during a polio outbreak, and had riots defending the right of IDF soldiers to rape Palestinian prisoners. Clearly the sort of country we should all want to send our sons and daughters to go fight and die for.

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Western officials are always babbling about Israel’s “right to defend itself”, which sparks all kinds of debates about whether an occupying force does in fact have a right to defend itself under international law. What these debates overlook is the fact that Israel ISN’T “defending itself”. It’s pure offense. Pure attack. Israel is always the aggressor.

Israel is never “defending itself”, and the US is never “defending Israel”. Both of these nations exist in a constant state of attack and aggression, which is then framed as “defending” by propaganda spin.

The US sows violence and division in the middle east as a matter of policy. Israel’s very creation was an act of aggression upon the people this apartheid ethnostate was dropped on top of, and it has been the aggressor ever since. Other nations and groups in the middle east have been defending themselves against those aggressions. They are the only parties in all this who can claim to be “defending” anything.

Even measures which appear inherently defensive in nature like the “Iron Dome” and the missile and drone interceptions we saw this past April during Iran’s retaliatory strikes are not defensive the way Israel and the US use them, because they are used to protect Israel from the defensive measures of the people Israel is attacking. A Kevlar vest ceases to be a defensive measure when you use it to keep from being stopped by police while conducting a mass shooting. A shield stops being a tool of defense when you’re using it to make sure you can stab someone with your sword. They’re just measures taken to facilitate more Israeli aggression by removing the deterrence and defense capabilities of the people it’s attacking.

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CLOWN SHOW: Kamala Harris Was Dismissed from Intense Meetings on Middle East War in Situation Room… Before The Meeting Was Over

There was a meeting held in the Situation Room at The White House on Monday regarding the rising tensions in the Middle East under Joe Biden.

Iran threatened to attack Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to seek revenge against Israel after Haniyeh’s death .

The meeting focused on the rising tensions in the Middle East and threats against Israel.

Peter Doocy from FOX News covered the Situation Room meeting.

Peter Doocy: We’ve got a sizable motorcade repositioning on Pennsylvania Avenue. So it’s possible that the vice… It looks like I can see behind the camera. The vice president’s vehicles are leaving right now. So it would seem that at least her part in the situation room is done. She will now go back to the naval observatory.

Bill Hemmer: But that doesn’t necessarily mean the meetings over in the situation.

Peter Doocy: Correct.

Amazing. Kamala was such a distraction she was dismissed!

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CENTCOM Chief Meets With IDF Chief To Coordinate on Iranian Response

On Monday, the head of US Central Command (CENTCOM), Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, met with Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi in Tel Aviv as the two militaries are preparing to defend Israel from an expected Iranian reprisal attack.

Kurilla also met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who said the visit from the CENTCOM chief demonstrates strong US support for Israel. “Your arrival in Israel at this time is a direct translation of US support for Israel into action,” Gallant said. “The relationship between Israel and the United States is unshakable.”

Kurilla’s visit came after the US announced the deployment of new warships and warplanes to the Middle East for the purpose of helping defend Israel. It’s unclear when Iran is planning to launch an attack, but it could happen any day. Israel is also considering launching a “preemptive strike,” which would escalate the situation even more.

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