Tag: perpetual war

Would the President Be in Charge During a War in Taiwan?

With 5 months remaining until the November elections, candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump have, over the last few months, staked out positions on key issues on the geopolitical stage. One of the more noteworthy examples was Trump’s acquiescent opinion given to reporters about how Congressional Republicans could get behind the controversial military aid package passed in May.

Another flashpoint was Joe Biden’s recent comments on whether the United States would militarily intervene if China launched an attack against Taiwan.

In an interview with TIME, Biden gave his best shot at “clarifying” his position on the use of American bodies, ships, and planes to defend Taiwan

“It would depend on the circumstances. You know, by the way, I’ve made clear to Xi Jinping that we agree with—we signed on to previous presidents going way back—to the policy of, that, it is we are not seeking independence for Taiwan nor will we, in fact, not defend Taiwan if they if, if China unilaterally tries to change the status. And so we’re continuing to supply capacity. And, and we’ve been in consultation with our allies in the region,” said the President.

When asked to re-clarify if he is not ruling out US troops being deployed, he responded that he was “not ruling out using US military force,” adding that there “is a distinction between deploying on the ground, air power and naval power, etc.”

It’s no secret that Biden has difficulty communicating as exhibited by the constant mistakes and loss of thought train in the TIME interview, but this section underlines the consequences of that as regards a conflict that would take place over 8,000 miles away and 12 hours from Washington.

It’s a conflict where Washington’s opponent sits one-eightieth of that distance away from their target, and where POTUS has moments to decide how to respond to a conflict that’s predicted to be decided itself in just moments.

Keep reading

Fascists Must Be Destroyed: Kremlin Condemns Azov Battalion’s Brutal Execution of Russian PoW

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the shooting of a Russian serviceman by Ukrainian neo-Nazi Azov Battalion* was committed by fascists that must be destroyed.

On Monday, the Ukrainian Azov Battalion* posted a video in which a Russian serviceman was killed at close range.

A video shows footage from an action camera mounted on a militant’s helmet. As he walks through a trench, he encounters a wounded Russian soldier sitting unarmed on the ground, unable to offer any resistance. The militant opens fire on him despite having enough time to realize that the prisoner posed no threat. The Azov* member yells curses at the Russian and fires several more shots to ensure he is dead. Other militants communicating with him via radio supported his actions.

“Fascists are fascists, they must be destroyed,” Peskov told reporters.

The Russian Investigative Committee stated that it is examining the details surrounding the shooting of a Russian soldier.

“The investigators of the Russian Investigative Committee will study… the circumstances of the shooting of a Russian serviceman,” the statement said.

The investigators will establish all the circumstances of the incident and the circle of persons involved in the crimes.

Keep reading

Republican vice presidential candidate: if he wins, Trump will discuss ending the conflict in Ukraine with the Russian Federation

Even before the official start of the election campaign, former US President Donald Trump repeatedly stated that if he were the head of state, and not Biden, the military confrontation in Ukraine would not have begun at all. In the current situation, if he returns to the Oval Office, and after the assassination attempt, the chances of this are very high, Trump promised to stop the war in Europe literally within 24 hours.

Until recently, the former US President did not reveal how he intends to do this in the current realities. Ohio Senator James David (JD) Vance, who became a vice-presidential candidate at the Republican Party convention, provided some clarity on this topic in an interview with the American Fox News channel.

Donald Trump has promised to negotiate with Russia and the Ukrainians to quickly end this problem so that America can focus on the real problem, which is China.
the politician said.

He noted that the Biden administration is spending billions to help Kyiv, but the current American government does not have a clear strategy and goals for this support, except perhaps statements about the need to “weaken and defeat” Russia. According to Vance, further escalation of the conflict with the support of the United States could ultimately escalate into a nuclear war, which no one in the world needs, including the United States itself.

Keep reading

Israel minister demands West Bank annexation if UN court rules against it

Hardline Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on the prime minister to annex the occupied West Bank if the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rules Israeli settlements are illegal this week.

Smotrich told reporters, “no one will move the people of Israel from their land”, the Times of Israel quoted him as saying on Monday.

The UN’s top court is expected to deliver a non-binding ruling on the legal ramifications of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories on Friday.

“I hereby call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – if the International Court of Justice in The Hague does decide that the settlement enterprise is illegal – respond to them with a historic decision of applying sovereignty to the territories of the homeland,” said Smotrich.

The far-right minister also promised to “thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state through massive construction, regulating settlements, building roads and other measures in the field” – all moves illegal under international law.

Fifty-two countries presented arguments at the ICJ, also known as the World Court, about the legal consequences of Israel’s actions in the occupied territories in February, after the UN General Assembly asked it in 2022 for an advisory opinion.

Keep reading

Biden campaign to blame ‘climate of violence’ on pro-Palestine protests after Trump shooting: Report

The re-election campaign of US President Joe Biden is shifting focus away from attacking former president Donald Trump for the climate of violence in the country and instead placing the blame on pro-Palestinian protesters.

According to senior US officials who spoke with Reuters on 14 July, the campaign will “draw on the president’s history of condemning all sorts of political violence including his sharp criticism of the ‘disorder’ created by campus protests over the Israel–Gaza conflict.”

The shift came in response to Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump. “This changes everything,” one campaign official told the British news agency. ”We’re still assessing. Making the case against Trump, drawing that split screen will get much harder.”

Before Saturday’s assassination attempt, Biden’s campaign strategy was set to focus on attacking Trump personally, including TV ads highlighting his May felony conviction relating to hush money paid to a porn star to avert a sex scandal before the 2016 US election.

As student protests against the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza spread across dozens of US university campuses this year, Biden was quick to condemn protesters and accuse them of promoting violence and antisemitism.

In April, he released a statement condemning protesters at Columbia University occupying the institution’s Hamilton Hall, which they renamed Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was murdered by the Israeli army in Gaza.

Hind and her relatives were killed on 29 January while fleeing their neighborhood in Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for the area. Their bodies were finally recovered 12 days later. Multidisciplinary research group Forensic Architecture mapped a total of 335 bullet holes in the Kia Sedan where they were killed.

Keep reading

Weapons experts: US-supplied bombs used in Israeli strike of Gaza ‘safe zone’

Israel’s deadly strike on Al-Mawasi, one of the bloodiest attacks in more than nine months of war in Gaza, used massive payload bombs provided by the United States, according to weapons experts.
The bombing of the Israeli-declared “safe zone” transformed the tent city on the Mediterranean coast into a charred wasteland, with nearby hospitals overrun with casualties.
According to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, the barrage killed at least 92 people and wounded more than 300.
The Israeli military said it targeted two “masterminds” of the October 7 attacks by Hamas that triggered the war. It said a top commander, Rafa Salama, was killed in the strike, but uncertainty remains over Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif.
AFP videos of the attack showed a white mushroom cloud billowing over a busy street, leaving behind a huge crater strewn with the wreckage of tents and a building blown to bits.
Here is what we know about the weaponry used in the attack:
Two weapons experts said that a sliver of munition seen in a video of the blast site circulating online was a tail fin from a US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM). AFP could not independently verify the video.
The GPS-aided kit converts unguided free-fall bombs — so-called “dumb bombs” — into precision-guided “smart” munitions that can be directed toward single or multiple targets.
The United States developed the kit to improve accuracy in adverse weather after Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
The first JDAMs were delivered in 1997 and, according to the US Air Force, have a 95 percent system reliability.

Keep reading

Israeli ‘siege tactics’ block aid groups to access Gaza: NGOs

Access to war-torn Gaza has become increasingly difficult for humanitarian groups, 13 leading NGOs warned on Monday, accusing Israel’s military of blocking much-needed aid from reaching the besieged Palestinian territory.

Denouncing “Israel’s systematic obstruction of aid and its ongoing attacks on aid operations”, the humanitarian organisations said that Israel had facilitated only 53 — less than half — of the 115 relief missions they had planned.

The aid groups slammed what it called Israel’s “siege tactics” in its struggle against Palestinian militant group Hamas.

It said the so-called “humanitarian zone” where most of the strip’s population of 2.4 million people now reside had become “an active combat zone” and “extremely unsafe”.

The charities also criticised the bombing of United Nations schools used as shelters by displaced Palestinians.

At least six schools have been hit over the past nine days.

“These recent events are exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe at a time when NGOs continue to come up against the obstacles imposed by the continuation of Israeli military operations on the ground,” a press release summarising the 13 NGOs’ views warned.

Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council were among the charities to contribute to the document.

Keep reading

Bipartisan Support for More Genocidal Nuclear Weapons

Whether the president’s name is Obama or Trump or Biden, whether it’s the red team in charge or the blue team, there was and remains strong bipartisan support for “modernization” and “investment” in new nuclear weapons for America. The new Sentinel ICBM, the new B-21 Raider bomber, and the new Columbia-class nuclear submarine may cost America as much as $2 trillion over the next thirty years while making genocidal nuclear war more rather than less likely.

This is insanity.

It’s time for a different path. It’s time for deep cuts in nuclear weapons. Not only to save trillions of dollars but to reduce the chances of a world-ending genocide.

Back in 2017, I wrote the following article on the threat of nuclear weapons to America. Of course, I should have said: the threat of nuclear weapons to the world, to all life on this planet of ours.

It’s time to stop building weapons of mass destruction before we start using them in earnest.

Keep reading

Germany pledges to expand commitment to Ukraine, agrees to host U.S. cruise missiles

Germany, already the second-largest military donor to war-torn Ukraine after the United States, has pledged to expand its commitments to Kyiv during the recent summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Washington, D.C., including allowing the U.S. to host Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles for “security” purposes.

This comes after the U.S. announced its intention to deploy missiles to Germany in a move that would have been prohibited by the now-defunct Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty which then-President Ronald Reagan signed with General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev of the former Soviet Union.

The treaty banned land-based missile systems with ranges between 310 and 3,400 miles. Former President Donald Trump withdrew from the treaty in 2019, claiming Russian non-compliance with its contents.

The current proposal would see American Tomahawk missiles – and potentially other long-range weapons systems – deployed in Germany beginning sometime in 2026.

Tomahawk missiles, launched from ships or submarines, have a range exceeding 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles), although exact figures are classified. It should be noted that the Tomahawk missiles are capable of being fitted with nuclear warheads.

In addition to Tomahawks, the White House announced that it will also deploy other “conventional long-range” missiles to Germany on an “episodic” basis, including SM-6 anti-air missiles and experimental hypersonic weapons. All of these would significantly increase the ranges of current land-based missile systems in Europe.

Keep reading

Geopolitical Events Could Escalate To Global War

The latest reports coming out of the Middle East indicate that Israel and Hezbollah have each drafted “battle plans” of their own and are currently trying to obtain more weapons in preparation for a significant war. Another potential escalation could be the pact between Russia and North Korea, both enemies of the West.

The news coming from the Middle East came straight from two senior American officials who were briefed on intelligence about the moves, which contradicted public statements by both sides that they were not interested in going to war. According to a report by Politico, officials believe that the risk of a major escalation is higher than it has been in a long time.

Israel continues to pursue its goal of the elimination of Hamas, while Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon could throw even more fuel on the fire. Iran has been warning that should the IDF enter southern Lebanon, the Jewish state should expect an “obliterating war.”

Keep reading