Tag: perpetual war

China Floods the Skies Near Taiwan and Raises a Dangerous Question

Taiwan’s defense ministry reported a major surge of Chinese military aircraft operating near the island over the weekend. Radar operators tracked dozens of aircraft moving through the surrounding airspace in a pattern that drew immediate attention across the region. The activity marked one of the larger recent waves of Chinese air operations around Taiwan.


Taiwan didn’t report any Chinese military planes that went beyond the median line and entered the zone for a week from Feb. 27 to March 5. After two were detected on March 6, the next four days had none. Such flights resumed in small numbers between Wednesday and Friday.

The drop coincided with the annual meeting of China’s legislature. While such flights have fallen in the past during major events and public holidays, this year’s fall was more prominent than in the past.

Analysts said the meeting could not be the sole reason behind the recent drop. Another potential factor could be a desire to calm the waters with Washington weeks before a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump. The White House has said that Trump would travel to China from March 31 to April 2, though Beijing has not officially confirmed that.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense released details showing fighters, surveillance aircraft, and support planes flying close to the island. The aircraft operated in areas near Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, which Taiwan closely monitors with radar and interceptor aircraft. Taiwan’s military scrambled its fighters and activated missile systems while tracking the formations and is treating the flights as another set of serious pressure points from Beijing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has increased military pressure on Taiwan during the past ten years, as highlighted by Chinese aircraft and naval vessels now appearing around the island far more frequently than they did ten years ago, a pattern that’s raised concerns across the Indo-Pacific region.

Several explanations could account for the latest surge of aircraft.

The first possibility involves routine military drills. The People’s Liberation Army regularly conducts exercises designed to test readiness and coordination among air units. Large formations help pilots practice joint operations and refine command procedures. Military planners often run those drills in areas close to Taiwan because the region sits near important strategic sea lanes and air corridors.

Psychological pressure may be behind a second possibility. China views Taiwan as part of its territory and has never ruled out using force to bring the island under Beijing’s control.

Large aircraft formations near Taiwan send a visible message to Taipei and to governments that support Taiwan’s security, reminding observers that China continues building military strength capable of operating around the island.

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Trump announces $10B U.S. investment in Board of Peace to rebuild Gaza

President Donald Trump said the United States will contribute $10 billion to the Board of Peace — an international organization he launched in January to help rebuild the Gaza Strip and secure peace in other conflict zones.

At the board’s first meeting in Washington on Thursday, he said other member countries will contribute billions more and send soldiers for Palestinian security.

“The Board of Peace is showing how a better future can be built starting right here,” Trump said at the meeting attended by 17 world leaders who are part of the board, as well as Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.  

“We will help Gaza,” Trump said. “We will straighten it out. We will make it successful. We will make it peaceful. And we will do that in other spots. The Board of Peace is going to lead the way in Gaza.”

In addition to the U.S., seven other countries, including Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, have contributed more than $7 billion to help the Gaza relief effort, Trump announced. The United Nations Office of Humanitarian Assistance is raising $2 billion to support Gaza, and FIFA plans to raise $75 million and to bring World Cup soccer stars to the war-torn territory, he said.

An estimated $70 billion is reportedly needed to rebuild the Palestinian territory decimated after two years of war with Israel.

Approved by the United Nations Security Council last year, the Board of Peace was initiated as part of Trump’s 20-point peace plan to end the conflict in Gaza, starting with a ceasefire that began in October. The second stage of the plan, focused on demilitarization and reconstruction, was announced in January.

During Thursday’s meeting, Albania, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Morocco committed to creating an armed International Stabilization Force to keep security and ensure the disarming of the militant Hamas group, a key demand of Israel and a cornerstone of the ceasefire deal. Egypt and Jordan committed to training a police force, U.S. Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, commander of the Gaza International Stabilization Force, said Thursday.

Jeffers said a team of U.S. military experts is already on the ground in Gaza preparing the infrastructure for ISF headquarters to oversee five sectors in Gaza, each of which will receive a brigade of troops. The long-term goal is to have 12,000 police and 20,000 ISF soldiers, he said, starting with Rafah — the border crossing at the southern end of the 140-square-mile coastal territory.

“This is a vision of Gaza as part of the Middle East at peace,” former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said at the meeting.

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AXIOS: Trump Considering Seizing Kharg Island With American Troops

U.S. President Donald Trump has intensified calls for international allies to deploy naval forces to the Strait of Hormuz, the critical chokepoint for global oil shipments, amid escalating disruptions caused by the ongoing U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran.

President Trump is also considering seizing Kharg Island, which handles about 90% of Iran’s crude exports, if the Strait of Hormuz blockade continues, reports Axios.

U.S. officials say capturing the island could deliver “an economic knockout of the regime.” The plan would require U.S. boots on the ground and a military occupation of the island. Officials warn it carries major risks, including Iranian retaliation against Gulf oil facilities and pipelines, especially in Saudi Arabia.

One official said “there are big risks, there are big rewards.”

At a meeting in the Oval Office, Trump pressed General Caine on why the United States could not immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Caine explained that controlling the strait is extremely difficult because Iran can disrupt shipping with small, mobile forces rather than large naval assets.

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The War Nobody’s Watching: Pakistan’s Three-Front Conflict

On Feb. 22, 2026, a Pakistani airstrike hit the village of Girdi Kas in eastern Afghanistan. As one family lost 18 of its 23 members, Pakistan termed it a targeted counterterrorism operation against militant hideouts. Afghanistan, in contrast, said the strikes hit civilian homes and a religious school. The United Nations confirmed credible reports of civilian casualties, including women and children.

Five days later, Pakistan’s defense minister declared “open war” as Pakistani warplanes struck Kabul, Kandahar, and targets at the former American air base at Bagram, though the Taliban denied significant damage. Afghanistan retaliated with drone strikes and cross-border offensives. Both sides claimed to have killed hundreds.

“They have a great prime minister, a great general,” Trump declared, that same day. “Pakistan is doing terrifically well.”

The State Department backed Pakistan’s “right to defend itself against attacks from the Taliban, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group.” Three days later, the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, and the Pakistan-Afghanistan war vanished from the news.

Yet Pakistan is now fighting on three fronts.

To the northwest, an open war with Afghanistan. To the southwest, an escalating insurgency across the province of Balochistan, where separatist militants launched coordinated attacks across a dozen cities in January, killing nearly 200 people. To the east, an unresolved military standoff with India following their brief war last May – the heaviest engagement between the two nuclear powers since 1971.

Meanwhile, the United States is entangled on every side: backing Pakistan’s military against the Taliban while partnered strategically with the India that hosts the Taliban, that Pakistan accuses of fueling the Baloch insurgency, and that just went to war with Pakistan last year. Yet the U.S. is too busy bombing Iran to notice.

Pakistan shares a 1,600-mile border with Afghanistan to the northwest – a contested colonial-era line that splits the Pashtun population and that no Afghan government has ever recognized. Its southwestern province of Balochistan, the country’s largest and poorest, borders both Afghanistan and Iran and sits atop vast reserves of coal, gold, copper, and gas. To the east lies India, with the disputed territory of Kashmir the eternal sore point between them.

Three borders. Three conflicts.

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Iran Receiving ‘Military Cooperation’ From Russia and China, Iran Foreign Minister Confirms

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has openly admitted that the Islamic terror regime is receiving active “military cooperation” from Russia and China, confirming the worst fears of the axis of evil now openly uniting against America and its allies in the escalating Middle East war.

The revelation came during an exclusive interview with MS Now, in which Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed that Tehran maintains ongoing military cooperation with Moscow and Beijing, though he refused to provide details.

MS Now’s Ayman Mohyeldin pressed Araghchi on mounting reports that Russia and China may be providing targeting intelligence and military support to help Iran strike U.S. military facilities and infrastructure across the Middle East.

Instead of denying the allegations, Araghchi appeared to confirm the growing alliance.

Ayman Mohyeldin:
I wanted to ask you about the war strategy from an Iranian perspective. Can you tell us right now, because, as you know, there has been reporting that both Russia and China are providing targeting intelligence to Iran to target U.S. positions, facilities, and infrastructure across the region—can you confirm or deny whether Russia or China is providing military support and intelligence to Iran?

Abbas Araghchi:
Well, Russia and China are our strategic partners, and we have had close cooperation in the past, which still continues, and that includes military cooperation as well. I’m not going into any details of that. We have good cooperation with these two countries politically, economically, and even militarily.

But let me say once again that this is not our war. This is an imposed war against us. We didn’t start this war. It was an unprovoked, unwarranted, illegal act of aggression against us. We are only defending ourselves, and we will continue to defend ourselves as much as it takes and for as long as it takes in order to end this war in a way that it will not be repeated in the future.

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Kuwait Cuts Oil Output As Qatar Warns Hormuz Chokepoint Chaos Risks Global Shock

Kuwait began cutting crude oil output after storage tank farms began filling up, as crude could no longer be loaded onto very large crude carriers and transported through the Strait of Hormuz, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Sources say the OPEC founding member is now weighing broader reductions in crude production and refining, potentially limiting operations to only domestic demand, with a decision expected within days.

UBS analyst Nana Antiedu noted that Brent crude futures climbed to $91/bbl after WSJ released the report.

WSJ noted:

Data provider Kpler said it has seen indications that Kuwait has started to cut production, adding that the country would have to cut more output in the coming days, as storage would otherwise fill up in around 12 days.

Shutting in an oil well risks long-term damage to reservoir pressure and incurs high restart costs, usually making it a measure of last resort. Restarting production can take days or even weeks depending on the reservoir.

“Storage is limited in the Middle East, and the only fix to avoid tanks running over is to curb production,” UBS commodity analyst Giovanni Staunovo said. “The longer the strait stays closed, the more barrels of crude and refined products will be missing, leading to higher prices.”

Earlier in the day, Qatar’s energy minister, Saad al-Kaabi, told the FT that “Everybody who has not called for force majeure we expect will do so in the next few days if this continues. All exporters in the Gulf region will have to call a force majeure.”

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CIA Prepares Criminal Referral of Tucker Carlson, as Israel and its Loyalists Demand His Arrest

On Friday morning, I taped an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s program to discuss the ongoing Iran War, growing Israeli influence in the U.S., and proliferating attacks on free speech in the West in the name of shielding that one foreign country from critique (I presume it will air in the next few days). Perhaps the most notable part of our conversation was what Tucker told me prior to the cameras rolling.

Tucker said he had learned from several high-placed sources — and he obviously has many within the Trump administration — that the CIA was preparing a criminal referral about him to the DOJ. The subject of the agency’s report of suspected crimes: conversations he allegedly had with Iranian officials and others in Iran prior to the start of the Trump/Netanyahu war. The clear implication was that Tucker had committed acts of subversion or even treason by speaking to Iranians in advance of the war that was about to be launched on their country.

Despite how innately shocking this claim is, I had and still have zero doubt that Tucker was telling the truth about what he heard. I have known him for many years, spent much time talking to him both in front of a camera and away from one, and never once has he lied to me or mislead me. Tucker has been in public life as a journalist and media figure since his 20s. There have been many harsh criticisms launched against him during those decades, many of which — as he will be the first to tell you — were ones that were quite valid.

Notably, many of the harshest attacks on Tucker came from me during my first decade after becoming a journalist (last year, Tucker discussed our friendship in a podcast conversation Chris Cuomo and he noted that, during the War on Terror and his ongoing war cheerleading, “nobody was meaner to me than Glenn Greenwald”; Cuomo said the same was true of him).

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US Issues $10M Bounty For Location Info On Mojtaba Khamenei & Ali Larijani

The US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program has newly issued a $10 million reward for information on the whereabouts of Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani.

The alert calls for information on the two “Iranian terrorist leaders” at a moment of ongoing heavy bombardment of Iran by the US and Israel. Interestingly the State Department said that informants could make people eligible for “relocation”. The Pentagon on Friday said it believes the new Ayatollah is likely wounded and disfigured.

“These individuals command and direct various elements of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which plans, organizes and executes terrorism around the world,” the alert stated.

It actually also seeks information on other top security and government officials. Below is the official US statement in part:

Rewards for Justice is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information on the key leaders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its component branches. These individuals command and direct various elements of the IRGC, which plans, organizes, and executes terrorism around the world.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), part of Iran’s official military, plays a central role in Iran’s use of terrorism as a key tool of Iranian statecraft.

Already amid the US-Israeli operation, at least 40 high-ranking government and military leaders have been killed. Many were slain in the opening days of the war, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

All of this seems part of a US-Israeli effort to foment spying and defections within Iranian ranks and society. There have been claims this week that Iranian citizens are feeding information to Israel – which of course means they are spying as assets.

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DoW Identifies Air Force Casualties

The Department of War announced the death of six Air Force Airmen who were supporting Operation Epic Fury.

Maj. John A. Klinner, 33, of Auburn, Ala.; Capt. Ariana G. Savino, 31, of Covington, Wash.; and Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Ky., were assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. and Capt. Seth R. Koval, 38, of Mooresville, Ind.; Capt. Curtis J. Angst, 30, of Wilmington, Ohio; and Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, 28, of Columbus, Ohio were assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base, Columbus, Ohio.

The six Airmen died on March 12, 2026, in the crash of a KC-135 in western Iraq. The incident is under investigation.

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