Tag: perpetual war

Trump Lied About Being for Peace – Just Like Every President Before Him

Three years ago, Donald Trump referred to himself as “the candidate who delivers peace.” This weekend, his administration bombed Iran. While it may seem unusual, the historical record suggests otherwise, clearly demonstrating that Trump follows a long line of American politicians who spent a lot of time talking about being against wars only to wage them once elected president.

During the 2000 presidential debates, George W. Bush claimed he wanted a “humble” foreign policy, adding that he doesn’t think US troops “ought to be used for what’s called nation-building.”

By 2003, the Bush administration was at war in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

According to researchers at Brown University, the Iraq War directly caused at least 190,000 deaths and is projected to cost US taxpayers roughly $2.2 trillion when long-term veteran care and related expenses are included.

Bush also oversaw a brutal torture program that included waterboarding, sensory deprivation, auditory overload, and “rectal rehydration”.

In February 2007, Barack Obama told an Illinois crowd that they came to see him speak “because you believe in what this country can be. In the face of war, you believe there can be peace. In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope.” In 2008, he said that events in Iraq “have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible.”

Obama received a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

Three days after his inauguration, Obama ordered the CIA’s first Pakistani drone strike, killing at least nine civilians. During his first term, Obama outpaced Bush in the number of drone strikes he authorized, blew up weddings and funerals, bombed Libya, launched cyber attacks and imposed crushing economic sanctions against Iran, while also openly targeting US citizens in Yemen.

In 2013, Obama boasted that “after a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home.” And yet, by the time he left office in January 2017, US troops remained in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, Bush-era CIA torture was brushed under the carpet, and the US had bombed at least seven different countries.

In 2016, Donald Trump claimed if he became president, “the era of nation-building will be brought to a very swift and decisive end.”

Less than a week into his first term, Trump oversaw a commando raid in Yemen that resulted in the death of an 8-year-old girl.

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Bloody Scene Unfolds as Security Forces Fire on Armed Militants as They Try to Storm US Consulate in Pakistan

Benghazi 2.0 averted.

As TGP reported earlier, nearly two dozen militants were killed as they tried to storm the US Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, on Sunday.

The militants tried to storm the consulate after the US and Israel killed Iran’s Supreme Leader and 40 other senior Iranian Regime officials.

Security forces fired on hundreds of militants as they set fires and tried to breach the consulate.

A bloody scene unfolded as the Shiite Muslims in Pakistan scattered amid gunfire.

Graphic video posted to social media shows several bloodied militants running for their lives as (US Marines?) unloaded on them.

The Pakistani militants shouted for help as they carried dead bodies away from the barrier of the consulate.

Fox News reported:

At least nine people are dead and more than two dozen injured after violent clashes outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan.

Hundreds of protesters stormed the diplomatic compound in a sharp escalation of anti-American demonstrations.

The unrest followed reports that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli strike, sparking anger among Shiite Muslims in Pakistan.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that many of the protesters were Shiite Muslims who expressed outrage over Khamenei’s reported death and alleged U.S. involvement. Protesters chanted anti-American and anti-Israel slogans, and attempted to breach the consulate’s perimeter.

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US-Israel war on Iran ‘decided ⁠weeks ago’ under cover of nuclear talks: Report

The unprovoked US-Israeli war against Iran launched on 28 February had “been planned for months, and the ⁠launch date ⁠decided ⁠weeks ago,” even as the US and Iran carried out indirect nuclear negotiations, an Israeli defense official told Reuters.

Washington and Tel Aviv renewed negotiations in February over Iran’s nuclear program. President Trump was under pressure from Israel force Iran to give up uranium enrichment, as well as its ballistic missile program and support for regional resistance forces.

Amid the negotiations, Trump sent an “armada” of US naval ships and warplanes to the region, threatening to launch an attack if officials in Tehran refused to make a deal.

After the latest round of talks on Thursday, a senior US official told Axios the talks were “positive.”

Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, who mediated the talks, said the talks had shown “significant progress.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also expressed optimism, saying both sides had shown a “clear seriousness” about getting a deal.

However, the US and Israel launched large-scale attacks against Iranian targets early Saturday, suggesting the negotiations had never been serious.

In the wake of the attacks, Omani Foreign Minister Albusaidi said that the negotiations he mediated had been “deliberately undermined.”

Mehran Kamrava, director of the Iranian studies unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and professor at Georgetown University in Qatar, stated that Israel “appears to have launched an attack designed to derail the negotiations.”

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Going to War, Again, for Israel

Once again, America is going to war for Israel. Once again, many will die for the Zionist state, including American service members. Once again, we will stumble blindly into a military fiasco. Once again, we will do the bidding of a foreign power whose interests are not our interests, but whose lobbyists have bought up our political class, including Donald Trump. Once again, we will violate the U.N. charter by attacking a country that does not pose an imminent threat.

This is not our war. This is part of Israel’s demented vision of Greater Israel, of dominating the Middle East. But Israel needs our military, our taxpayer dollars, our weapons to do it. And we have handed them the keys to our formidable arsenal.

The architects of the war with Iran, which the administration feels no need to justify to the American public or the international community, admit it will not be quick.

Sen. Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CBS News on Saturday that the goal is not only to curb Iran’s nuclear program, but “dismantle their terror support network.”

“To do all that is going to take longer than the strikes on their nuclear program last summer,” Cotton said. “We’re probably looking at weeks, not days, of joint efforts by the United States, Israel and our Arab partners, who have also been attacked this morning.”

Israel’s lackeys in the political class, along with their courtiers in the media, including former American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) employee Wolf Blitzer, as well as academia, are shining examples of Israel’s transparent and often illegal meddling in the American political system. Forget Russia. Forget China. No foreign government comes close to exerting Israel’s influence.

Democratic Party leaders are not opposed to attacking Iran — they are opposed to attacking Iran without being consulted. Two dozen Democrats lept to their feet and applauded every time Trump threatened Iran, or lauded Israel, in his State of the Union address. The Biden administration and Democratic Party leadership made no effort to reinstate Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear agreement. It focused instead on sustaining the genocide in Gaza. It cheered Israel’s decapitation of Iranian proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Kamala Harris in her feckless and tone deaf presidential campaign promised to continue funding the genocide, which alienated many voters, and labeled Iran our most dangerous enemy.

Endless war is a bipartisan project.

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GOP Rep. Tim Burchett Reminds Democrats That Obama Bombed Eight Countries Without Congressional Approval

Republican Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee appeared on NewsNation tonight and provided a reminder for all of the Democrats who are suddenly claiming that Trump can’t act on Iran without congressional approval.

Burchett points out that Obama bombed eight different countries without congressional approval.

Democrats think no one remembers anything. When Obama was president, he could pretty much do anything he wanted with zero pushback from his party or the media. He could do no wrong in their eyes.

Partial transcript via Overton News:

BURCHETT: “President Obama bombed 8 countries without Congressional approval.”

“So I think it’s a little disingenuous for the Democrats start saying this is unprecedented and you’ve got the most stable regime, outside of probably the Chinese, in the whole right now.”

“And they’ve killed Americans within recent memory.”

“Is this the revenge tour? Maybe be a little bit. But you poke the bear you get it.”

“Or you poke the bull, you get the horns and the horns.”

“And the horns right now are Donald J. Trump.”

“And he’s letting an enemy of this country know how we feel about them.”

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US Again Demands Iraq End Maliki Nomination, Or Else

Iraq’s Coordination Framework is still putting forward Nouri al-Maliki as its candidate for prime minister, despite President Trump loudly and repeatedly demand he be withdrawn. The US had reportedly set a deadline of Friday, February 27, to end the candidacy or face unspecified repercussions. What happens next, after the US has attacked Tehran, is anyone’s guess.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because the US had similarly set a “final deadline” for Maliki’s withdrawal last weekend, though that deadline passed with little visible consequence and just more US complaining about Maliki.

With just 24 hours left, the latest deadline doesn’t seem like it’s going to change anything either, with the Framework saying they don’t intend to allow the US to decide who gets to be Iraq’s prime minister.

Furthermore, the indication is that they don’t even intend to hold another meeting on the premiership until next week, well after this deadline will have already passed.

There does not appear to be any other serious candidate being put forward by any part of the Framework, which is the largest bloc in Iraq’s deeply divided parliament.

Maliki served as Prime Minister of Iraq from 2006 through 2014. President Trump has insisted he has “insane policies and ideologies” and cannot be allowed to return to office, though again there are no other serious candidates within the Framework who have come forward to replace him with.

Maliki has sought to return to office for years and though his State of Law Party only won about 6% of the seats in last year’s election, he has the support of Kurdish factions, and the largest party within the Framework, that of current Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, has appeared to accept Maliki’s candidacy after Sudani said he doesn’t intend to serve another term.

It’s a recurring theme in Iraq that after their elections forming a coalition government takes quite some time and a lot of negotiation.

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Pro-Palestinian Columbia University Student Group Posts “Marg Bar Amrika” (Death to America)

An unofficial Columbia University student group, the pro-Palestinian ‘Columbia University Apartheid Divest’ posted “marg bar amrika,” the Islamist Iranian regime chant that means, “death to America,” to X Saturday in response to the killing of Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ale Khamenei in joint U.S.-Israeli air strikes.

Via Wikipedia: “Death to America (Persian: مرگ بر آمریکا Marg bar Amrika) is an anti-American political slogan and chant which has been in use in Iran since the inception of the Islamic Revolution in 1978. Ayatollah Khomeini, the first leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, popularized the term. In most official Iranian translations, the phrase is translated into English as the less offensive “Down with America.” The chant “Death to America” has come to be employed by Islamists, anti-imperialists, and decolonisation movements worldwide. Great Satan is another closely linked propaganda phrase.”

The group later posted that X made them take the post down, but that it stood by the thought, “X forced us to delete our “marg bar amrika” tweet in order to gain back access to our account but the sentiment still stands”

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Iran says it has ‘one word only’ for America in tense standoff between representatives at emergency UN Security Council meeting

Iran‘s representative told an emergency United Nations meeting that they have ‘one word only’ for the United States following the deadly airstrikes on Iran earlier today. 

Iran’s Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told America to be ‘polite’ at the emergency meeting following Operation Epic Fury, which saw airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear and missile programs. 

‘I have one word only,’ Iravani said, at the meeting in New York City on Saturday. ‘I advise to the representative of the United States to be polite.’

‘It will be better for yourself and the country you represented, thank you.’

US Ambassador Mike Waltz hit back at Iravani and said: ‘Frankly, I’m not going to dignify this with another response.’

‘Especially, as this representative sits here, in this body, representing a regime that has killed tens of thousands of its own people and imprisoned many more simply for wanting freedom from your tyranny,’ he concluded. 

The tense meeting saw Iravani describe the war against Iran as one against international law and international legal order under the United Nations Charter. 

‘This morning, the United States regime – jointly and in coordination with the Israeli regime – initiated an unprovoked and premeditated aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran for the second time in recent months,’ Iran’s ambassador said. 

‘This is not only an act of aggression; it is a war crime and a crime against humanity,’ Iravani continued. 

‘The invocation to “preemptive attack”, claims of imminent threat, or other unsubstantiated political claims, are unfounded legally, morally and politically.’ 

The UN Security Council, charged with ensuring international peace and security is maintained, is comprised of 15 members, including five permanent members; China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States. 

Other current members include Bahrain, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Greece, Latvia, Liberia, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia.

At around 1.15am on Saturday, the US and Israel began hitting Iranian targets to ‘dismantle the Iranian regime’s security apparatus.’ According to the United Nations News, the strikes do not meet the criteria of lawful self-defense and ‘constitute a violation of Article Two’.

In response, Iran said it will invoke, ‘without hesitation,’ the Charter’s Article 51 for its ‘inherent and lawful’ right to self-defense. 

But, Israel’s Ambassador Dany Danon said the attacks were an ‘act of necessity’ to put an end to an ‘existential threat,’ UN News reported. 

‘This is not the anger of a radical fringe,’ Danon said. ‘It is State-sanctioned hatred.’ 

Waltz equally defended the operation, and said: ‘This is a moment in history that requires moral clarity.’

Waltz claimed that the operation had ‘specific and strategic’ objectives in efforts to reduce missile capabilities that threaten allies, target naval assets used in international waters and disrupt machinery that provides militant weaponry. 

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Israeli strike on Iranian school kills over 100 children – media

Over 100 students have been killed and dozens injured in an Israeli airstrike on a girls’ primary school in the city of Minab, in southern Iran, according to the country’s news agency Tasnim. The attack comes amid ongoing airstrikes on the Islamic Republic by Israel and the US.

Israel launched what it described as a pre-emptive operation against Iranian military and nuclear-related targets on Saturday, saying the strikes were aimed at neutralizing threats posed by Iran. US President Donald Trump later said Washington was joining the operation, citing the failure of nuclear diplomacy as a direct trigger for the renewed bombing.

One of the strikes reportedly targeted an elementary school in the city of Minab, killing at least 148 students and leaving 95 others injured, according to local officials.

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‘Every Arab is to be killed’: New evidence confirms Zionist terror campaign fueled 1948 expulsion of Palestinians

New Israeli documents have emerged confirming that Zionist militias used massacres, rapes, and expulsions to ethnically cleanse some 800,000 Palestinians to create the state of Israel in 1948.

Haaretz reported on 27 February that the documents contain first-hand accounts of the 1948 war (known by Palestinians as the Nakba) written by commanders in the Zionist militias, which formed the core of the Israeli military.

The documents were discovered after someone left boxes containing thousands of documents next to a dumpster in a Tel Aviv neighborhood two years ago.

According to the Israeli newspaper, the discovery of the documents “completely dispels the Israeli narrative according to which the country’s Arab inhabitants fled of their own volition at the behest of their own leaders.”

The documents include an account of the war written by Yitzhak Broshi, commander of Golani’s 12th Battalion. Broshi explains that he gave the order to raze the village of Arab a-Zabah, a Bedouin community in the Lower Galilee, and kill every person found there. “Every Arab among the Zabahim is to be killed,” his order stated.

In another case, Broshi ordered his troops to search for Arabs hiding in the Mount Turan area of the Lower Galilee after it had already been conquered. “Kill anyone who is hiding,” Broshi’s order read.

Haaretz notes that although nearly 80 years have passed since the Nakba, which Israelis call the “War of Independence,” much material in Israel’s archives remains classified. As a result, “historical memory in Israel is a deception.”

“It can now be confirmed, on the basis of an impressive range of evidence, that the IDF [Israeli army] expelled Arabs systematically and violently during the War of Independence. The expulsion was effected by massacres, murder, and a variety of moves aimed at terrorizing this civilian population and expediting its flight,” Haaretz concluded.

“How do you expel a village?” asked Maxim Cohen, a commander of the Carmeli Brigade. “You lop off the ear of one of the Arabs before everyone else’s eyes, and they all flee. In practice, no village was evacuated without stabbing someone in the stomach or by means of similar methods. We won thanks only to the fear of the Arabs, and they were fearful only of deeds that were not in accordance with the law.”

Haim Ben-David, who later obtained the rank of major general and became former prime minister David Ben Gurion’s military secretary, explained that orders to kill and expel Palestinian civilians during the 1948 war were given verbally rather than written down.

“In our operative orders, we were careful not to mention killing. The orders relating to conduct were orally conveyed to the battalion commanders,” Ben-David explained.

Yisrael Carmi, a battalion commander in the 7th Brigade, stated that during the conquest of Beersheba in October 1948, he gave the order that any Palestinian who resisted expulsion was to be executed.

“I conquered the city,” Carmi testified. “In mopping up that area, I gave an order to annihilate anyone who appeared in the street, whether they resisted or did not resist. An order was given to destroy everything. After the conquest of the police station – after the surrender – the murder stopped. Until then, everyone was killed – women and children and everyone. Then an order was given to the people to go to Hebron. Anyone who didn’t go was ‘removed.’”

Mordechai Maklef, an operations officer, explained, “The intention was to expel.”

“It is impossible to expel 114,000 people who lived [in the Galilee] without terror. There had to have been an element of initial terror for them to leave.”

In an effort to conceal this history, Israel has released to the public only a million files out of 17 million in the Israel State Archives and the Army and Defense Establishment Archives.

The archives’ staff was told to conceal “material that might harm the [army’s] image [and show it] as an occupying army devoid of moral foundations, [which displays] violent behavior against an Arab population and cruel acts (killing, murder).”

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