Tag: perpetual war

Russia Is Not Our Enemy

Given the ongoing war between the United States and Russia in Ukraine, it’s natural for Americans to conclude that Russia is our enemy. Not so. Our enemy is instead the US national-security establishment — i.e., the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA — the entity that is responsible for the war in Ukraine and that is destroying our lives, liberties, and well-being here at home.

Our American ancestors would have understood this phenomenon. If the Constitution had called into existence a national-security state form of government, our ancestors would never have accepted it. That would have meant that the United States would have continued operating under the Articles of Confederation, a type of governmental structure without a standing army.

Our American ancestors loathed standing armies, which was the term they used to describe what we call today a national-security state. They understood that big, permanent military establishments are always the enemies of the citizenry. They understood that standing armies or national-security states end up destroying the lives, liberties, and prosperity of the citizenry.

That’s why the Constitution called into existence a limited-government republic, one whose powers were few and limited and that had only a relatively small, basic army. That’s why America lived without a national-security state for more than 150 years.

Today, things are totally inverted. Americans love the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA, which is, in actuality, one great big military-intelligence entity that is divided into three wings. Americans don’t see this enormous permanent entity as their enemy or as a grave threat to their lives, liberties, and well-being, as Americans did at the nation’s founding and for the next 150 years. Today’s Americans see the national-security state as their friend, ally, and protector that keeps them safe from all those scary creatures in the world.

But what today’s Americans don’t realize is that it is their very own national-security state that gins up those scary creatures in order to have Americans view their national-security state as their friend and protector.

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Prolonging Genocide as a Smokescreen: On Israel’s Other War in the West Bank

Promises of “absolute victory” in Gaza are nothing but “gibberish”, according to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Gallant’s comments were not meant to be public, but somehow were leaked and published by Israeli media on August 12.

The explanation of why Netanyahu is pursuing a losing war in Gaza has been largely confined to the prime minister’s personal interests: avoiding the outcome of his corruption trials, preserving his extremist government coalition and avoiding early elections.

Still, none of these rationales explain the absurdity of continuing with a war, which, in the words of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is “the worst failure in Israel’s history”.

What else could explain Netanyahu’s motive behind the war? And why are his most crucial government allies, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich determined to prolong it?

The answer may not lie in Gaza, but in the West Bank.

While Israel is extending its failed military campaign in the Strip with no clear strategic objectives, its war on the West Bank is driven by clear strategic motives: the annexation of the West Bank and the ethnic cleansing of large sectors of the Palestinian population.

This is not only obvious through Israel’s daily actions in the West Bank but also because of the clear statements made by Israel’s extremist government officials.

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WWIII: Zelenskiy Says Ukraine Will Soon Be Able To Attack “Anywhere In Russia” – Ukraine Uses Long-Range Thermobaric Drone Inside Russian Federation Overnight

A jet-based drone rocket called Palyanytsia was fired onto RF territory overnight.

This is a new rocket drone type developed in Ukraine, or given to Zelenskyiy, and will seriously escalate the situation.

It contains aluminum fog that when blown up creates a vacuum effect — thermobaric rocket drone, 1500 km range.

The drone rocket was launched during the night of Aug 24.

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B-2 Stealth Bomber “Hot Pits” At Indian Ocean Air Base, Positioned Within Striking Range Of Iran

The Middle East has been on edge all week as the world awaits a retaliatory Iranian attack on Israel that could spark a regional conflict. As of Friday, Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah rebels have been exchanging fire, and an oil tanker earlier this week in the southern Red Sea was hit by a missile attack, likely from Iran-backed Houthi forces.  

With all eyes on the Middle East, our attention shifts to a “hot pit event” on Wednesday with a Northrop B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and US Air Force Airmen assigned to the 110th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron at the Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, according to the USAF. 

The US military uses Diego Garcia as a strategic point for launching operations in the Indo-Pacific. The hot pit event allowed the B-2 to land and refuel without shutting its engines down. 

USAF noted, “Conducting hot pit events in various locations around the globe enables aircrew and support Airmen to maintain a high state of readiness and proficiency.” 

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Sabotage Confirmed At Norwegian Air Base

Norway has revealed that one of its most strategic air bases has been the target of sabotage. The announcement comes as other European NATO air bases — namely in Germany — report incidents, one of which remains unexplained, as well as troubling drone activity over critical infrastructure. These incidents come amid increasing warnings about nefarious Russian activity on the continent, part of an apparent wave of ‘hybrid warfare’ as the conflict in Ukraine further stokes East-West tensions.

Reports emerged today from The Barents Observer that a critical communications cable associated with Evenes Air Station, in northern Norway, had been severed. The incident occurred in April and was reported to the police, but has only now been announced, as state prosecutors investigate what happened.

The precise function of the cable has not been disclosed, but reports describe it as being “part of the air base’s critical infrastructure,” and that it was cut outside the airfield’s perimeter. The Norwegian Police have confirmed that it was severed in a deliberate action but that, so far, no one has been charged, and no suspects have been identified at this point.

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Everything We Just Learned About The Ghost Shark Uncrewed Submarine

Anduril says it has received active interest in integrating more than a dozen new military and commercial payloads onto its Ghost Shark extra-large autonomous undersea vehicle (XL-AUV). Payload testing and otherwise demonstrating the Ghost Shark’s highly modular design are core focuses of new work on the underwater drone that is now set to occur in the United States.

The War Zone learned these and other new details about Ghost Shark in an interview earlier this week with Dr. Shane Arnott, Senior Vice President for Engineering at Anduril and the company’s maritime lead.

The Ghost Shark’s U.S. debut, which Anduril announced this week, came at the biennial U.S. Navy-led Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in Hawaii, where the uncrewed undersea vehicle (UUV) was displayed to attendees. RIMPAC 2024 wrapped up on August 1. Development of Ghost Shark began in Australia in 2022 for that country’s navy, which is looking to acquire at least three of the UUVs by 2025. The Ghost Shark now in the United States is an additional example that Anduril built using its own funds.

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Israel launches violent raids on southern Lebanon as China urges nationals to leave

Israeli forces intensified their cross-border attacks on Lebanon overnight Wednesday-Thursday with a series of 10 raids across eight different southern areas within 45 minutes, Lebanese media reported on Thursday.

The attacks took place around 1am local time, according to security sources, adding that the strikes targeted and destroyed several buildings in the Khiam, Kfarchouba, Mhaybib, Aita al-Chaab, Ghazziye, Ramiye, and Kaouthraiyet al-Sayyed, villages that lie about 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) past the Blue Line. No casualties were reported.

The Israeli military said that its air forces had hit more than 10 “Hezbollah targets” in different areas in southern Lebanon.

The army claimed on X that “among the targets attacked were weapons depots, military buildings, and a launcher used by Hezbollah to carry out operations against Israel”.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah announced it had targeted Israeli army barracks in northern Israel.

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Israeli Forces Target Houses, Tents – Scores of Civilians Killed in Gaza

Israeli airstrikes claimed the lives of scores of Palestinian civilians on day 321 of the genocidal war the occupation army is launching on the Gaza Strip.

The airstrikes targeted houses and tents in various areas in the besieged Strip namely Beit Lahia, Tal al-Zaatar in Jabaliya, Khan Yunis, Nuseirat camp, Al-Maghraqa, Tal Al-Hawa, Al-Zeitoun, and Al-Sabra and Deir Al-Balah.

Eleven people were killed and several others injured at dawn Thursday in an Israeli shelling that targeted the Hamouda family’s house, in Beit Lahia, north of Gaza.

The victims, mostly women and children, were taken to Kamal Adwan Hospital badly burnt while others were still under the rubble.

Also in the north of Gaza namely in the Tal al-Zaatar area in Jabaliya, the Israeli occupation army targeted the Salman family’s residential apartment killing three Palestinians and injuring others.

In Khan Yunis, south of Gaza, Abu Daqqa’s house in al-Fakhari area, east of the city was shelled by Israel’s occupation army killing a woman and a child.  

In parallel, the Israeli occupation opened fire on the tents of displaced Palestinians in Mawasi al-Qarara, northwest of Khan Yunis.

Israel’s occupation forces targeted the house of the Al-Judaili family in the Nuseirat camp in the center of Gaza, injuring several Palestinians.

In the meantime, Israel’s occupation’s artillery shelled the Al-Maghraqa area northwest of the Nuseirat refugee camp.

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Countries fueling Israel’s Gaza war may be complicit in war crimes, experts warn

Israeli tanks, jets and bulldozers bombarding Gaza and razing homes in the occupied West Bank are being fueled by a growing number of countries signed up to the genocide and Geneva conventions, new research suggests, which legal experts warn could make them complicit in serious crimes against the Palestinian people.

Four tankers of American jet fuel primarily used for military aircraft have been shipped to Israel since the start of its aerial bombardment of Gaza in October.

Three shipments departed from Texas after the landmark international court of justice (ICJ) ruling on 26 January ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza. The ruling reminded states that under the genocide convention they have a “common interest to ensure the prevention, suppression and punishment of genocide”.

Overall, almost 80% of the jet fuel, diesel and other refined petroleum products supplied to Israel by the US over the past nine months was shipped after the January ruling, according to the new research commissioned by the non-profit Oil Change International and shared exclusively with the Guardian.

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How Taiwan Became an Issue

Given that official Washington seems increasingly determined to fight Beijing over Taiwan, concerned Americans are right to wonder: how did the question of Taiwan come to be of such purported importance to these global powers?

While several closer islands, such as the Penghu (or the Pescadores as they are now known), were incorporated into the Chinese polity during the period of Ming blue water exploration in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Formosa (or Taiwan as it came to be known) never was.

After shuttering its large scale naval activities in the mid-fifteenth century, the Ming were thereafter largely content to let the rival trading companies of the Portuguese and Dutch quarrel for influence on Formosa, where trade revolved around tea and camphor.

In an odd bit of history repeating itself, the island first became a central focus of a ruling mainland Chinese regime as a result of a civil war that needed concluding: displaced by the invading Manchurian forces (the eventual Qing), in 1661 what remained of the Han, Ming ruling clique retreated to Formosa. It was following their ultimate defeat in 1683 that Formosa started to become ethically and administratively integrated into China (a process completed around a century later).

Despite its import as a trading hub in the centuries thereafter, when the Japanese took possession of Formosa at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), per the terms of the Treaty Shimonoseki (1885), the island’s new rulers found a society, economy, and polity virtually untouched by modernity.

And while initially brutal, putting down an anti-Japanese insurgency of emigre Han Chinese and native Taiwanese, the Japanese colonial administration of the island, which lasted until the end of World War II, would see the island transformed into an educated, urbanized, and rationalized society with living standards far higher than on the mainland.

Despite the increasing gap, most Taiwanese, whose cultural links with the mainland were still strong, were open to rejoining mainland China when the war finally ended—although it is worth noting that this willingness proved short-lived, the Kuomintang (KMT) regime needing to viciously suppress a mass uprising against its terrible misrule in 1947.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, at whose feet a great deal of blame for a whole host of problems may be laid, also laid the foundation stone for misadventure in dealing with China, including Taiwan.

Indeed, while there was a reasonable possibility that Taiwan could have been its own independent country at the end of the Second World War, it was FDR and his successor, Harry Truman, who ensured this would not happen.

Ignoring the wisdom of multiple of his predecessors, who had refused to get involved either in internal Chinese squabbles or its feuds with neighboring Japan, FDR began supporting the KMT regime of Chiang Kai-Shek.

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