Tag: perpetual war

U.N. Reduces Estimated Number of Women, Children Killed in Gaza by Half, Blames Error on ‘Fog of War’

The United Nations has seemingly revised the estimated number of women and children it believes have been killed in Gaza during Israel’s war on Hamas, blaming the “fog of war” for the mistake.

In a graphic featured within OCHA’s recent daily briefing on May 6th, it was claimed that approximately 9,500 women had lost their lives in the ongoing conflict. The organization also cited data sourced from the Hamas-administered Ministry of Health in Gaza asserting that since hostilities began last October, roughly 14,500 children had been killed.

Yet just two days later, the U.N. agency appeared to revise these figures significantly downward in its subsequent report. The updated data indicated that approximately 4,959 women and 7,797 children had lost their lives.

The conflict erupted following a brutal attack by Hamas militants in southern Israel from Gaza, resulting in the deaths of over 1,200 individuals, predominantly civilians, and the taking of approximately 240 individuals as hostages.

A reporter from the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) asked the U.N. about the revision, with the spokesperson blaming the “fog of war” for the errors.

“The revisions are taken … you know, of course, in the fog of war, it’s difficult to come up with numbers,”  Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, said at a press conference last Friday.

“We get numbers from different sources on the ground, and then we try to cross check them. As we cross check them, we update the numbers, and we’ll continue to do that as that progresses.”

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Strapped down, blindfolded, held in diapers: Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention center

At a military base that now doubles as a detention center in Israel’s Negev desert, an Israeli working at the facility snapped two photographs of a scene that he says continues to haunt him.

Rows of men in gray tracksuits are seen sitting on paper-thin mattresses, ringfenced by barbed wire. All appear blindfolded, their heads hanging heavy under the glare of floodlights.

A putrid stench filled the air and the room hummed with the men’s murmurs, the Israeli who was at the facility told CNN. Forbidden from speaking to each other, the detainees mumbled to themselves.

“We were told they were not allowed to move. They should sit upright. They’re not allowed to talk. Not allowed to peek under their blindfold.”

Guards were instructed “to scream uskot” – shut up in Arabic – and told to “pick people out that were problematic and punish them,” the source added.

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Ukraine using British weapons for terror attacks – Moscow

Ukrainian forces are actively using weapons supplied by Britain to carry out terrorist attacks against Russian regions, Foreign Ministry official Sergey Belyaev has said.

London remains one of the largest donors of weaponry to Kiev, providing £7.1 billion ($8.9 billion) in assistance since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Belyaev, who heads the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second European Department, said in an interview with TASS news agency, published on Saturday.

“UK-supplied weapons are being actively used by the Ukrainian military in terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure and the civilian population of Donbass, as well as other Russian regions,” he stated.

According to the diplomat, last month’s announcement by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of a £500 million ($617 million) military aid package for Ukraine was an attempt by Britain to gain a more prominent role in NATO and among European countries.

“The British acted in a similar manner when they began deliveries of Storm Shadow cruise missiles and Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine,” becoming one of the first countries to provide Kiev with such types of hardware, he explained.

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Biden admin expected to announce additional $400 MILLION in weapons for Ukraine

The United States is expected to announce another $400 million in military aid for Ukraine on Friday, a source familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.

It would mark the third round of assistance provided to Ukraine by the Biden administration since the president signed a $95 billion foreign aid bill into law last month.

According to the AP, the latest installment will be provided via the presidential drawdown authority and is set to include High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, artillery, air defense, anti-tank munitions, armored vehicles, and other necessary military equipment.

Whether the package included another round of Army Tactical Missile System long-range ballistic missiles, ATACMS, was not revealed.

On Thursday, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky warned that his nation was facing “a really difficult situation” on the eastern front, where soldiers are working to prevent Russian troops from advancing further into their territory.

“With an increase in the supply of weapons,” Zelensky said, per the Washington Post, “we will be able to stop them in the east. As of now, they seized the initiative there.”

Following the passing of the aforementioned $95 billion foreign aid bill, the Biden administration moved to send $1 billion via the drawdown authority, then approved $6 billion in long-term contracts with defense industry companies to provide weapons in the future.

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UN Relief and Works Agency Staff Stealing, Reselling Humanitarian Aid Meant for Gazans

On Wednesday, a UNWatch report revealed that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency staff have been stealing humanitarian aid materials meant for Gazan civilians, and reselling the materials at a profit. 

UNRWA staff are stealing aid and selling it for profit, while those who report it face reprisals, according to numerous reports published by Palestinians in an UNRWA-related chatroom.

The posts expose a deep frustration by employees that senior UNRWA employees are engaged in the abuses, and that the agency is doing nothing about it. This comes amid a recent call by UNRWA Commissioner-General Phillipe Lazzarini for countries to increase direct cash assistance to Gazans because, although “there is more food available… it still does not mean that the food is accessible.”

The chatroom is run by a former UNRWA employee, Haitham al-Sayyed, who was removed from UNRWA in 2016 after he publicly called out the agency for hiding an UNRWA school map that denied the existence of Israel, covered up with a white cloth to hide it from the cameras while UN chief Ban Ki-moon was holding a press conference in June 2016.

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Former General Mark Milley in Bizarre Defense of Israel

Retired US General Mark Milley offered a bizarre defense of Israel’s actions in Gaza when he opined that “we” in America also “slaughtered people in massive numbers.”

Milley made the comments during a panel discussion at the Ash Carter Exchange on Innovation and National Security in Washington, DC.

“Before we all get self-righteous about what Israel’s doing, and I feel horrible for the innocent people in Gaza that are dying, we shouldn’t forget that we in the United States killed a lot of innocent people,” said Milley, going on to talk about Iraq and French soldiers dying in Normandy.

“We destroyed 69 Japanese cities, not including Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we slaughtered people in massive numbers – innocent people who had nothing to do with their government,” he added.

“War is a terrible thing, but if it’s gonna have meaning, if it’s gonna have any sense of morality, there has to be a political purpose and it must be achieved rapidly and with the least cost,” said Milley.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp then asserted that “the peace activists are the war activists,” referring to college campus pro-Palestine protesters, who he called “an infection inside our society” and a reason why Hamas will continue to fight.

“They’re out there supporting a terrorist organization whose very written charter calls for death of all Jews, not just in Israel but worldwide, I mean come on now, if you’re gonna support that, you’re on the wrong side,” responded Milley.

The former general’s comments about pro-Palestine protesters are somewhat odd given that he previously defended BLM protesters during the Trump era, despite the fact that they are essentially the same people.

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The Insanity of the Regime Changers

Garry Kasparov calls for more regime changes in The Wall Street Journal:

A war can’t be won by following the rules set in peacetime. The only way to win this long war is through regime change in Moscow and Tehran. Such change will be brought closer by isolating Russia and Iran politically and economically and by halting their foreign aggression.

Kasparov’s argument is deranged, but it is useful in reminding us how extreme and dangerous this worldview is. If hardliners like Kasparov had their way, they would unleash chaos and instability unlike anything most of us have seen in our lifetimes. The same people that want to set the world on fire are constantly warning us that if we don’t do what they want that we face “a global catastrophe the likes of which we have never seen,” but it is clear that they are the ones demanding that the U.S. initiate such a catastrophe with overly aggressive policies.

If the only way to “win” is regime change in two countries, that tells us that winning is not a realistic goal. Kasparov seems to think that setting a goal, no matter how unhinged or far-fetched, is all that matters. Is the goal achievable at a reasonable cost? He doesn’t care about that. He writes, “Supporting Ukraine until it is whole and free is a goal. Promoting long-term peace in Europe and the Middle East by doing everything possible to accelerate the downfall of hostile regimes in Russia and Iran is a goal.” It’s true that these are goals in the same way that saying you want to fly to the moon is a goal.

The surest way to destroy international support for Ukraine is to adopt an insane, maximalist goal of regime change in Russia. Many governments are willing to back a policy aimed at defending against an aggressor, but they are not going to support one that threatens to destabilize a large part of Eurasia and potentially risk significant escalation from Moscow. Seeking to topple both governments is also a good way to encourage the Russian government to increase its threats of using nuclear weapons and to push the Iranian government into pursuing their own nuclear arsenal. The worst thing that the U.S. could do is convince these governments that they are in a fight for their survival.

Regime change is almost never the right answer. When it “works” and the targeted regime is toppled, it typically creates many more problem and dangers than it eliminates. When it fails and backfires, it leads to even greater hostility and it could lead to direct conflict. We know that setting regime change as an official goal can pave the way for war later when other means fail to bring down the government. The U.S. should not seek war with Russia or Iran, and so it should not adopt a policy that makes that war much more likely.

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Ukraine Passes Bill To Recruit Prisoners For Depleted Army Ranks

The severe manpower crisis of Ukraine’s armed forces continues to be on display, particularly after the recent decision of the government to deny embassy and consular services for Ukrainian men of fighting age who live abroad but refuse to come back home.

Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday just once again upped the controversy and advanced a dramatic change in law and national policy. It passed a bill enabling select prisoners to be released in order to fight in the armed forces.

“The parliament has voted ‘yes,'” MP Olena Shuliak, head of Zelensky’s party, announced in a social media post. “The draft law opens the possibility for certain categories of prisoners who expressed a desire to defend their country to join the Defense Forces,” she said.

Ironically Moscow has previously come under international condemnation and mockery for just such a policy.

AFP and other international outlets acknowledged this as follows: “Long-opposed to the measure and having criticized Moscow’s mobilization of prisoners to fill its ranks, Kyiv has recently U-turned amid fresh Russian advances on the battlefield,” a report said.

The legislation still has to be signed by parliament’s chairperson and President Zelensky in order to come into force as an active policy. The bill includes the following reported stipulations and parameters:

  • Prisoners must volunteer
  • Only those with three or more years left on their sentence can apply
  • Those convicted of violent sexual crimes are not eligible
  • Former high-ranking officials and those guilty of “serious corruption” are not eligible
  • Prisoners who killed two or people are not eligible

One glaring aspect is that it appears literal murderers can possibly still go free if they join the army, so long as they killed no more than one person, based on the AFP’s reporting

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Ukrainians are God’s chosen people – Zelensky

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has proclaimed that God is an “ally” of Ukraine in the conflict with Russia. Despite his invoking of the Almighty, Zelensky has led a crackdown on the Orthodox Church for the last two years.

As Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter on Sunday, Zelensky released a video address from Kiev’s Saint Sophia Cathedral, in which he accused Russia of “breaking all the commandments.”

“The world sees it, God knows it,” he said. “And we believe God has a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder. So, with such an ally, life will definitely win over death.”

Zelensky’s appeal to Christians came as Ukraine’s parliament examines legislation that would close down the country’s largest Christian church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). While the law has sat in parliament for months, Zelensky’s government has moved to restrict the Church’s activity since the conflict began in 2022.

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How China’s Naval Strategy Exposes Decades of America’s Sinophobic Lies

The history of thalassocracies has always been one of sea dominance, as the name itself implies. However, whenever they become too powerful, they all seem to make one persistent mistake – trying to go against tellurocracies or land powers on their home turf. Even then, thalassocracies usually realize just how hopelessly outclassed they are in such a fight, so they resort to cunning strategies of pushing one tellurocracy against another, an approach that sometimes results in conflicts of global proportions, with devastating consequences for anyone but the sea powers themselves.

So far, land powers have been the most unfortunate in this regard, bearing the brunt of the damage while gaining very little for such a massive sacrifice. A good example is Germany, which foolishly tried to implement its “Drang nach Osten” strategy not once, but twice, thus playing right into the hands of the likes of the United Kingdom, United States and their allies.

And indeed, the latter two (particularly the US) profited immensely from both world wars, drastically expanding their colonial empires and exploiting the world to the fullest, even to this very day.

The UK, although unable to maintain its direct colonial power during the (First) Cold War, still kept much of it indirectly, both through the British Crown and organizations such as the Commonwealth.

Thanks to the Soviet Union, this extremely exploitative neocolonialist system largely crumbled, although it did come back after the USSR’s unfortunate dismantling. Nowadays, both Russia and China are working virtually in lockstep to ensure that the system is defeated once again.

Cooperation between the two superpowers is a massive problem for the political West

The US and its vassals and satellite states once employed actual diplomacy to undermine such an alliance and it worked to a large degree, freezing the Soviet-Chinese relations for decades.

However, there has been a 180-degree turn in Washington DC since then (or 360, as Annalena Baerbock once “wisely” said). World-class diplomats were replaced by bureaucratic yes-men who go to other countries and engage in what can only be described as arm-twisting. Now, that might work against helpless opponents, but the leadership of the political West has become so hopelessly delusional, that it now thinks this could work against actual superpowers. And not just one, mind you, but two. Recent visits of top-ranking American officials to China serve as a testament to that, when Beijing promptly sent them back after they tried masking literal threats as “diplomacy”. A year earlier, the troubled Biden administration even tried sending Henry Kissinger to China in order to play into his Sino-Soviet split legacy. Obviously, it failed, but it certainly demonstrates how desperate the US is. Meanwhile, Moscow and Beijing keep breaking one record after another.

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