Tag: perpetual war

US War Department Claims It’s Not Waging a ‘Forever War’ in Somalia Despite Record Airstrikes

The US Department of War insisted on Tuesday that it’s not waging a “forever war” in Somalia despite the fact that the Trump administration has shattered the record for annual airstrikes in the country.

Liam Cosgrove, a reporter for ZeroHedge, noted during a Pentagon press briefing on Tuesday that the US has launched 101 airstrikes (now 102) in Somalia and that US troops reportedly conducted a recent ground raid, and asked why the US military is still in the country.

“I can assure you this is an America First Department of War and president, so we aren’t conducting forever wars in Somalia, we aren’t seeking regime change, and we’re not nation building,” Pentagon spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson said in reply.

The Trump administration has dramatically escalated the US war in Somalia, launching more than 10 times the number of airstrikes that the US conducted in 2024, and more than the combined total of airstrikes launched during the 12 years that Presidents Obama and Biden were in office. Despite the unprecedented scale of US strikes, Kingsley described the campaign as “narrowly scoped.”

She told Cosgrove, “I will say that this Department’s narrowly scoped, intelligence-driven, counterintelligence operations in places like Somalia, alongside our partners, allow us to protect the American homeland from terrorist threats and to protect our interests.”

US airstrikes this year have targeted a small ISIS affiliate based in caves in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region and al-Shabaab in southern and central Somalia. The US has been fighting al-Shabaab since it backed an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in 2006, which ousted the Islamic Courts Union, a coalition of Muslim groups that briefly held power in Mogadishu after taking the capital from CIA-backed warlords.

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Trump Says Under Biden Ukraine Received ‘Much’ of US Assistance in Cash

During the term of ex-US President Joe Biden, Ukraine was receiving the majority of Washington’s assistance in cash, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday.

“We are not involved in the war monetarily anymore. Biden gave away $350 billion like it was candy. That is a massive amount of money, and much of it in cash, a lot of IT equipment. I do not give away anything. We sell the equipment to NATO. The European nations pay us for the equipment at 100% price, and then they bring it to Ukraine, or whatever they do with it,” Trump told a cabinet meeting.

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Tensions Escalate Within NATO as Pentagon Abruptly Halts Ukraine-Related Communications with Germany

Strains within NATO appear to have intensified following the Pentagon’s sudden decision to sever routine communications with Germany’s Defense Ministry on matters related to the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war, according to German officials who described the move as unexplained and ‘disruptive.’

Lieutenant General Christian Freuding, head of Germany’s Ukraine coordination task force, told reporters on Tuesday that what had been round-the-clock exchanges with U.S. counterparts have now ceased entirely, leaving Berlin without direct insight into American strategic planning.

German defense sources said they have been forced to route inquiries through their embassy in Washington, with senior military figures acknowledging a lack of dependable channels to engage Pentagon officials amid the communications blackout.

The freeze coincides with the U.S. administration’s efforts to revise its proposed Ukraine peace framework, reducing it from 28 to 22 points after consultations with both Kyiv and Moscow, highlighting what critics call a faltering approach to a war that has dragged on without resolution.

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is Moscow meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin for additional talks, a development that has caught European allies off guard after years of insistence from NATO leaders that direct negotiations with Moscow were untenable.

Berlin only learned of the Trump administration’s suspension of certain weapons shipments to Ukraine last summer when deliveries failed to materialize, despite Germany’s key involvement in coordinating NATO support, sources familiar with the matter said.

Freuding emphasized the shift, noting that “day and night” messaging with American officials has “broken off— completely,” underscoring a broader erosion of trust in between the traditionally close  transatlantic partners.

In response, German policymakers are accelerating an overhaul of the country’s security posture, investing billions in domestic arms production and converting civilian industries to bolster military capabilities.

Officials in Berlin have stated that Germany must prepare for potential U.S. disengagement, with commitments to forge Europe’s most robust armed forces marking a stark departure from the nation’s post-World War II pacifist traditions.

Freuding has publicly cautioned that the once-solid U.S.-led security architecture is unraveling, with many in Germany perceiving Washington as increasingly unreliable in upholding alliances it previously championed.

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U.S. Helicopters Used to Kill Civilians in Philippines, Locals Say

Black Hawk and ATAK helicopters swooped overhead and began firing into the mountains on an early February afternoon. Farmers tilling crops and tending their water buffalo ran for cover, taking shelter as the helicopters strafed the area. In a nearby town square, onlookers recorded with their phones, gasping as explosions ripped across the horizon. A Bell AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter later made rounds in the area, witnesses said, as soldiers sequestered farmers in shelters. They were kept from their farms for weeks as their harvest wilted and died.

It’s a scene that has become a monthly occurrence in the rural Philippines, beginning in early 2023 and continuing today. The military said it was pursuing rebels from the communist New People’s Army (NPA), a designated terrorist group active since 1969, when Jose Maria Sison founded the New People’s Army—a Maoist group waging an armed rebellion primarily based in rural areas. The military and NPA have been in conflict ever since, despite several rounds of failed peace talks, most recently in 2023.

But since 2023, the Philippine military has started using advanced attack helicopters and fighter jets supplied wholly, or in part, by the United States, in a rapid escalation of counterinsurgency operations that have tormented rural communities and led to numerous potential international humanitarian law violations that could trigger policies preventing U.S. military aid, according to dozens of witnesses and experts who spoke to Drop Site News.

Washington says it is arming its ally to defend against Chinese aggression, but the U.S.-manufactured helicopters have so far been used solely on domestic targets.

The NPA’s numbers have dwindled: the military says it has about 1,500 members, although the NPA claims to have far more. The counterinsurgency continues to act as a cover for military and government officials to quash local resistance to infrastructure projects, according to scores of allegations by local and international human rights groups.

Filipino state officials are frequently accused of “red-tagging,” or falsely labeling activists and political opponents as communist rebels. Several “red-tagged” activists have been killed in suspicious circumstances and with no investigations into their deaths, such as Zara Alvarez, a legal worker who was shot dead in a crowded public square in 2020. Others have been kidnapped, such as youth activists Jolina Castro and Jhed Tamano, who disappeared in 2023 before resurfacing and accusing the military of forcing them to falsely surrender as communist rebels.

In March, an FA-50 jet crashed in the country’s southern mountains on an apparent counterinsurgency mission, killing both pilots. Days earlier, Black Hawk helicopters strafed Indigenous communities in the central island of Mindoro, according to the Manila-based human rights group Karapatan.

Karapatan has recorded at least 22 aerial bombings in the rural Philippines since February 2, 2023. That’s when the then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Manila and announced a milestone agreement for U.S. troops to use four additional military bases in the Philippines, strategically facing the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.

On the same day, the Philippine military used helicopters purchased in U.S.-sanctioned arms transfers to launch airstrikes against insurgents in remote areas of northern Luzon, adjacent to three of the bases set to be used by the U.S. military, sending farmers in the rural municipality of Baggao fleeing from their fields.

The farmers ran to the town square of Birao, where they sheltered for several days. They were forbidden from accessing their farms for more than one month, causing them to lose an entire harvest. Each family was given about $85 as compensation by the regional social welfare bureau. “It wasn’t enough,” said Rosario Anban, a farmer. “We couldn’t get to our crops because we were scared.”

The military used white phosphorus during its aerial operations in Baggao, according to rights groups, although it was seemingly far from civilian areas. The next month, the military dropped white phosphorus about a football field’s distance away from Gawaan Elementary School, according to multiple Gawaan residents who spoke to Drop Site.

The mostly Indigenous residents of Gawaan, a remote mountain town accessible only by a dirt motorcycle path, were not used to conflict. They rely on farming, loading vegetables onto jeepneys and selling them at market. In recent years, they have protested a planned dam project that would inundate the nearby Saltan River, flooding part of the valley where they live and farm.

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Ukrainian An-124 “Ruslan” Makes Secretive Landing in Israel, Fueling Speculation of Covert Military Support to Kyiv

In a development that has stirred intense speculation across defense circles, a Ukrainian An-124-100 “Ruslan” — one of the world’s largest and most capable cargo aircraft — made an unannounced landing at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport on the evening of November 28, 2025. The aircraft, operated by Antonov Airlines, arrived quietly from the United Arab Emirates, loaded undisclosed cargo, and departed within a short window, leaving behind more questions than answers.

A Rare Appearance of Ukraine’s Heavy Transporter

The An-124 “Ruslan” is the pride of Ukraine’s aviation industry and a critical asset for the country since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion. After the destruction of parts of Antonov’s fleet at Hostomel Airport in 2022 — including the world-record An-225 “Mriya” — only 10–12 An-124s remain operational worldwide. Most Ukrainian flights now operate from safer hubs such as Leipzig, Germany and other European airports.

Its sudden appearance in Israel — especially without standard flight-tracking visibility — underscores the exceptional nature of this mission.

Unusual Cargo and Unusual Secrecy

Witnesses at Ben Gurion Airport reported trucks transporting large beige containers, similar in size to launch canisters used for Patriot PAC-2/GEM+ missiles or Israel’s Rafael SPYDER air-defense system. The cargo was loaded swiftly into the aircraft under heightened security.

There was no official announcement, no commercial flight plan, and minimal digital traces — highly unusual for a civilian transport operation. Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft flew toward Tbilisi, Georgia, before continuing back to the Persian Gulf region, taking a route that appeared deliberately indirect and partially hidden from common flight-tracking websites.

Such patterns are often associated with military or highly sensitive logistical operations.

Strengthening Israel–Ukraine Defense Links

If the aircraft indeed carried air-defense components or interceptors, it would mark another discreet step in Israel’s gradually expanding support for Ukraine. While Israel has avoided publicly supplying offensive weapons to Kyiv, it has reportedly facilitated transfers of defensive systems — especially as Ukrainian cities continue to face waves of Russian missile and drone attacks.

The timing is notable: Ukraine has recently expanded deployment of Patriot systems, and Kyiv has hinted at receiving additional Western-supplied interceptors through third-party channels.

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Global Military Industrial Complex Has Never Had It So Good, New Report Finds

The global war business scored record revenues in 2024 amid multiple protracted proxy conflicts across the world, according to a new industry analysis released on Monday.

The top 100 arms manufacturers in the world raked in $679 billion in revenue in 2024, up 5.9% from the year prior, according to a new Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) study. The figure marks the highest ever revenue for manufacturers recorded by SIPRI as the group credits major conflicts for supplying the large appetite for arms around the world.

“The rise in the total arms revenues of the Top 100 in 2024 was mostly due to overall increases in the arms revenues of companies based in Europe and the United States,” SIPRI said in their report. “There were year-on-year increases in all the geographical areas covered by the ranking apart from Asia and Oceania, which saw a slight decrease, largely as a result of a notable drop in the total arms revenues of Chinese companies.”

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France & UK Still Insist On Sending Troops To Ukraine, In Effort To Sabotage Trump Peace Plan

As we reported earlier, the important Miami meeting wherein American and Ukrainian delegations hammered out a revised ceasefire draft for some five hours on Sunday did not have European participation. But this is where the real deal-making is taking place. Trump envoy Steve Witkoff is en route to Moscow, where he’s expected to meet with President Putin on Tuesday, in order to present where things stand on the peace plan.

The Miami meeting reportedly focused on where the new de facto border would be in the east, after the 19-point plan featured significant territorial concessions in the Donbass and Crimea. As for Europe, is still touting a “coalition of the willing” which are vowing ongoing military support to the Zelensky government.

At this moment, France and the United Kingdom especially are continuing to push for the deployment of troops from NATO-member states to Ukraine as part of their version of peace settlement, despite this being very obviously unacceptable to Moscow. 

Last week Politico reported that when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined a discussion involving the coalition of the willing via phone call, he made clear to all that the White House wants a peace agreement in place before committing to any long-term security guarantees for Kiev.

But UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer tried to push back, arguing that a “multinational force” would be essential for ensuring Ukraine’s future security.

Bloomberg then followed with a report saying that UK officials have already selected the military units they plan to deploy, based on several reconnaissance trips to Ukraine.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron proposed that such troops could operate in the capital area or western regions of the country, far from the front lines. But this would flagrantly cross all Russia’s red lines. NATO troops on its doorstep was key Putin’s decision-making in launching the ‘special military operation’ in the first place.

It must be recalled that the original US-drafted 28-point peace plan, which leaked to the press and more recently was condensed down to 19 points, included an explicit prohibition on deploying NATO troops to Ukraine.

The European-proposed counter-plan, which was also quickly leaked to the media, greatly softened that stance and laid out that instead of a blanket ban, NATO would not “permanently station troops under its command in Ukraine in peacetime.”

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NATO Mulls ‘Preemptive Strike’ Against Russia’s Hybrid Warfare, Claims ‘More Aggression’ Needed

At a moment Washington under President Trump is busy issuing rare calls for restraint, de-escalation, and to enact a peace deal in Ukraine, a top NATO commander says the conflict needs more aggression by the Western military alliance directly against Russia.

Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of NATO’s Military Committee, has told Financial Times as part of a fresh report that NATO is currently mulling more proactive measures in response to Russia’s escalating hybrid warfare. The report cites an alleged rise in Russian-backed cyberattacks, sabotage operations and airspace violations over Europe – which NATO could mirror and more, as any potential “pre-emptive strike” on Russian targets would be justified.

“We are studying everything… On cyber, we are kind of reactive,” Dragone said. “Being more aggressive or being proactive instead of reactive is something that we are thinking about.”

That’s when he explained his view that a “pre-emptive strike” could under certain circumstances and context be classified as a defensive action. “It is further away from our normal way of thinking and behavior,” he conceded.

“Being more aggressive compared with the [aggressiveness] of our counterpart could be an option” – but he said that the questions that remain are: “legal framework, jurisdictional framework, who is going to do this?”

Multiple diplomats and officials from Eastern European and Baltic states are calling for this more proactive stance, or a less merely ‘reactive’ approach, to make Moscow feel real pain.

“If all we do is continue being reactive, we just invite Russia to keep trying, keep hurting us,” one Baltic diplomat was quoted in the FT as complaining.

“Hybrid warfare is asymmetric – it costs them little, and us a lot. We need to be more inventive,” the diplomat said.

And yet, there already have been years of covert sabotage operations in place, aimed at Russia and overseen by the West. These efforts, some which long ago were exposed in mainstream publications, are a large reason of why there’s been constant escalation of the Ukraine war. 

This has in turn resulted in escalation of nuclear rhetoric and threats between Russia and the West. But the temperature needs to be drastically turned down, but these latest comments by the chair of NATO’s Military Committee will only do the opposite.

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The Same Democrats Who Said NOTHING When Obama Drone-Bombed 16-yr-Old US Citizen Al-Awlaki Are Furious About Trump Bombing Dangerous Venezuelan Cartel Members in a Boat

Al-Qaeda leader and US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in Yemen in September 2011 in a targeted strike.
Al-Awlaki was born in New Mexico and attended college in Colorado.

Obama dropped a bomb on his head.

In May 2012 The New York Times revealed that Barack Obama was the official who actually made the final call on US drone strikes.

Seven months before the New York Times report, Abdulrahman Anwar al-Awlaki, a 16-year-old American citizen from Denver, was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in October 2011.

Abdulrahman Al-Aulaqi was the son of terrorist Anwar al-Aulaqi. He did not have a trial.  He was sixteen.

Barack Obama dropped a bomb on his head.

In January 2020, the United States killed General Qassim Soleimani, a top commander of Iran’s al-Quds Force, in an airstrike at Baghdad’s International Airport. The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Seven people were reportedly killed in the airstrike.

Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of dozens of US military men and women in Iraq.

Speaker Pelosi, Democrats and the fake news media were outraged over the death of the world’s number one terrorist.

The media and Democrats hammered President Trump all day.

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Cenotaphs of US Mercenaries Who Died in Ukraine Appearing in US

Empty graves, or cenotaphs, of American mercenaries who fought on the side of Ukraine are appearing in the United states because their families are unable to retrieve their bodies, a RIA Novosti correspondent revealed.

There are no official figures on the number of US mercenaries killed since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation. Publicly available information suggests the number is over 100. According to publicly available data, at least one American mercenary was killed in November, at least three in October, and the same number in September.

One of the first US citizens to die this year was 23-year-old Robert from Pennsylvania, who was rejected by the US Army due to health issues. As a result, as relatives told local publications, the young man felt there was no meaning in life, working as a night security guard and wanting to become a soldier. In the spring of 2024, he joined the Ukrainian military. His family was expecting him to go on leave in January 2025. According to publicly available information, the mass desertion of foreign mercenaries led to the Ukrainian command canceling his leave, throwing him into battle near Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk), where he was killed on January 3.

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