Tag: perpetual war

Biden’s Lawless Bombing of Iraq and Syria Only Serves the Weapons Industry Funding Both Parties

For the second time in the five months since he was inaugurated, President Joe Biden on Sunday ordered a U.S. bombing raid on Syria, and for the first time, he also bombed Iraq. The rationale offered was the same as Biden’s first air attack in February: the U.S., in the words of Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, “conducted defensive precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region.” He added that “the United States acted pursuant to its right of self-defense.”

Embedded in this formulaic Pentagon statement is so much propaganda and so many euphemisms that, by itself, it reveals the fraudulent nature of what was done. To begin with, how can U.S. airstrikes carried out in Iraq and Syria be “defensive” in nature? How can they be an act of “self-defense”? Nobody suggests that the targets of the bombing campaign have the intent or the capability to strike the U.S. “homeland” itself. Neither Syria nor Iraq is a U.S. colony or American property, nor does the U.S. have any legal right to be fighting wars in either country, rendering the claim that its airstrikes were “defensive” and an “act of self-defense” to be inherently deceitful.

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New Air Force weapon can take out hundreds of drones instantly — and silently

The U.S. Air Force unveiled a weapon this month designed to take out hundreds of drones at once with barely a sound.

The Tactical High Power Operational Responder (THOR) uses a beam of energy to scramble the electronics inside hundreds of drones at once.

“This unique system allows base defense forces to stop [unmanned aerial system] attacks at long range before they threaten critical infrastructure,” the Air Force Research Lab said in a June 16 animated video.

Increasingly sophisticated drones are becoming more threatening in the hands of enemy militaries as attack and surveillance capabilities grow, the Air Force said in the video. THOR is more effective than small arms and more efficient than heavy arms, which are currently used against drones.

When THOR identifies a target, it shoots a beam of microwaves in less than a second, providing an instant effect on the drones.

The system is different from a laser, which shoots a beam capable of destroying one drone, according to the Air Force. Instead, THOR’s utilization of high-powered microwaves allows it to scuttle swarms of unmanned aerial systems.

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The U.S. Marines Are Getting Suicide Drones — Lots Of Them

In the near future, the United States Marine Corps will begin fielding a so-called suicide drone, essentially a quickly deployable — and expendable — flying bomb. Based on the UVision Hero-120, the loitering munition is the largest of the company’s short-range systems.

What It Can Do

Don’t let “short-range” fool you, however. Powered by an electric motor and controlled by a “man-in-the-loop” the Hero-120 has a maximum range of 40 kilometers, or nearly 25 miles, and can stay aloft for an hour. The canister launched drone has 8 pop-out fins and is remarkably lightweight.

The entire drone weighs just 12.5 kilos and packs a 4.5-kilo explosive warhead, presumably in its nose. Packed into multiple canister launcher-type pods, it is not hard to imagine large numbers of the Hero-120 sent aloft at once — and in fact, that is exactly what the Marine Corps wants to do.

The Marine Corps contracted with Mistral, an American weapon system company, to integrate the Hero-120 onto the LAV and JLTV land vehicles, as well as onto the LRUSV, a long-range remotely operated drone boat. When mated to a vehicle, multiple Heros could be stacked together, not unlike a multiple rocket launcher system.

The Marine’s new suicide drone will differ slightly from the Hero-120 however, though it is not exactly clear what this difference will be exactly. 

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‘Rules-Based International Order’ Means Washington-Based International Order

The US government has shut down multiple news media websites based in the Middle East, including Iran’s state-owned Press TV, and al-Masirah TV which is owned by the Houthi group Ansarullah in Yemen. The Department of Justice said on Tuesday it had seized 36 Iranian-linked websites, claiming without evidence that they were associated with “either disinformation activities or violent organizations” and were shut down for a violation of US sanctions.

This would be the same US government that is imprisoning Julian Assange for journalism which exposed US war crimes, the same US government which paid for the weapons used to destroy more than 20 Palestinian media outlets in Gaza last month, the same US government whose unipolar domination of the planet is made possible by the journalism-destroying propaganda of the media-owning plutocratic class in alliance with sociopathic government agencies.

This would also be the same US government which constantly pays lip service to the need to protect the freedom of the press, as part of the “rules-based international order” it purports to uphold in the world.

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4 times as many troops and vets died by suicide than combat in post 9/11 era, study says

In the post 9/11 era, more than four times as many service members and veterans have died to suicide than any combat cause, according to a new study by the Costs of War Project published Monday.

The Costs of War Project’s study found that while suicide rates among the general public have been on the rise for the past 20 years, suicide rates among the military and veteran community continue to outpace the U.S. national average. The study concludes, “At least four times as many service members and war veterans of post-9/11 conflicts have died of suicide than ever died in combat.”

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