After briefly presenting his Victory Plan at the seat of Ukraine’s national sovereignty, the Verkhovna Rada, Volodymyr Zelensky has continued his tour to try to win the support of the people and institutions that really matter – his foreign partners. In Brussels, the Ukrainian president sought to curry favour with one of his main suppliers, the current support of the Ukrainian state, the European Union, whose Parliament once again welcomed him as a hero. “The last time you were here,” wrote Roberta Metsola, “I promised you our unwavering support on your country’s path to EU membership. Today I am proud to welcome you to the House of European Democracy as the leader of a candidate country for EU membership.” “Ukraine is Europe,” she said, deliberately confusing the continent with the political bloc. However, with EU entry long understood as a decision that has been made and that it is simply a matter of time, Zelensky’s speech did not focus on the benefits of the Union or the enormous benefit that will be obtained by admitting Ukraine into the European family, but on the continuation of his campaign to formalize the Victory Plan as a possible way out of the war. Kiev is acting in the same way that in the last decade it has managed to institutionalize the nationalist discourse, previously only characteristic of a part of the country, as the only possible national discourse. Ukraine is working to achieve the same objective and to make its plan – in reality a wish list that its allies must help it to fulfill and not a roadmap to achieve them – appear as a path to a just peace.
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Tag: US Military
[2003] War and Empire: The Truth That Rockford Couldn’t Bear to Hear
This is the Rockford College graduation speech Chris Hedges tried to give on May 17, 2003, before being drowned out by shouts and boos and fog horns. A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times, he is author of the highly recommended War Is the Force That Gives Us Meaning.
War and Empire: The Truth That Rockford Couldn’t Bear to Hear
I saw this video months ago, but recently came across the text on Antiwar.com while searching for something else. He calls Putin a dictator, but Russia was fighting U.S.-backed terrorists in Chechnya at the time (see after the cut). The reason why the speech interested me is that Rockford isn’t far from where I grew up.
Related:
Read More »America Is Updating Its Nuclear Weapons. The Price: $1.7 Trillion.
To understand how America is preparing for its nuclear future, follow Melissa Durkee’s fifth-grade students as they shuffle into Room 38 at Preston Veterans’ Memorial School in Preston, Conn. One by one, the children settle in for a six-week course taught by an atypical educator, the defense contractor General Dynamics.
“Does anyone know why we’re here?” a company representative asks. Adalie, 10, shoots her hand into the air. “Um, because you’re building submarines and you, like, need people, and you’re teaching us about it in case we’re interested in working there when we get older,” she ventures.
Adalie is correct. The U.S. Navy has put in an order for General Dynamics to produce 12 nuclear ballistic missile submarines by 2042 — a job that’s projected to cost $130 billion. The industry is struggling to find the tens of thousands of new workers it needs. For the past 18 months, the company has traveled to elementary schools across New England to educate children in the basics of submarine manufacturing and perhaps inspire a student or two to consider one day joining its shipyards.
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Though the new Columbia-class subs are primarily being built in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Virginia, the Navy is going to tremendous lengths to recruit talent across the country. Over the past year, a blitz of ads has appeared at various sports events — including major league baseball games, WNBA games and even atop a NASCAR hood — steering fans to buildsubmarines.com. The website connects job seekers with hiring defense contractors as part of a nearly $1 billion campaign. Some of that money will go toward helping restore the network of companies that can supply the more than three million parts that go into a Columbia sub. Like so much of the nation’s nuclear infrastructure, those supplier numbers have plummeted since the 1990s.
America Is Updating Its Nuclear Weapons. The Price: $1.7 Trillion.
Now this is grooming!
Recommended Reading:
US-Israel Inch Toward Wider, More Dangerous War
by Brian Berletic
Beginning in October 2023 a renewed cycle of violence began destabilizing the Middle East. Hamas’ October 7, 2023 military operation into Israeli-held territory served as a pretext for Israel, not to dismantle Hamas itself, but to conduct an indiscriminate punitive military operation against all of Gaza.
Related:
U.S. to Deploy Missile Defense System and About 100 Troops to Israel + More Updates
The U.S. Threatens a Drone War in the Taiwan Strait— Seriously?
The U.S. has long been preparing for a drone war with China in the Taiwan Strait, should conflict arise. The head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command even declared that the U.S. would turn the strait into an ‘unmanned hellscape.’ Yet, China’s new generation of military equipment has already surpassed the U.S. in both cost and quantity.
The U.S. Threatens a Drone War in the Taiwan Strait— Seriously?
Previously:
Countering China with Chinese UAVs backfires, US military faces drone shortage
US Wants To Create ‘Hellscape’ of Drones If China Attacks Taiwan
U.S. to Deploy Missile Defense System and About 100 Troops to Israel + More Updates
The Pentagon announced it would send the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery and its crew as Israel considered retaliatory attacks against Iran.
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The United States sent a THAAD battery along with other air defense systems to the region weeks after the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. It was not immediately clear how quickly the missile defense system and troops would arrive in Israel.
U.S. to Deploy Missile Defense System and About 100 Troops to Israel
Related:
How The US Navy, Coast Guard & USAF Work Together In A Theater Like Israel
The USAF provides ongoing ISR [Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] ops to help track rocket launches supporting missile defense. The Air Force also monitors militant activity in Gaza to assist with precision targeting to minimize collateral risk.
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Another strategic role of the US Navy and Coast Guard is protecting Israel’s offshore energy platforms.
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During conflicts, USAF aircraft often provide aerial refueling, logistical support, or electronic warfare capabilities in support of other US forces and any allied forces that may operating in the theater. Air Force bases are also frequently home to US pre-positioned military supplies or equipment, which other branches can quickly access if needed. USAF bases also provide airfield facilities used by all branches and allied forces. The hospitals on USAF bases are frequently the closest and best place for casualties or evacuees to be taken. This rapid deployment capability ensures that the US can provide timely support during a conflict.
Stock depletion, declining supply prompt ‘Israel’ to restrict arms use
The US is unprepared for the scale of war it is provoking around the globe
The US is unprepared for the scale of war it is provoking around the globe
The US is unprepared for the scale of war it is provoking around the globe
Saturday, 12 October 2024 — New Atlas
▪️Like many other US missile systems, production of THAAD missiles is low. Produced from 2008 to present, Lockheed Martin has produced 800 missiles, approximately 50 a year.
▪️It is likely not enough launchers exist to even launch the quantity of missiles required to defend against the type of missile barrage Iran launched in early October which easily overwhelmed Israel’s existing anti-ballistic missile systems.
▪️But even if they did, the 180 missiles Iran reportedly launched, requiring up to 2 interceptors each, would have exhausted nearly half of all THAAD missiles ever produced.
▪️The US is unprepared for the scale of war it is provoking around the globe.
This in in response to the following:
🇺🇸🇮🇱🇮🇷 US-operated THAAD anti-ballistic missile system reportedly to deploy to Israel…
▪️Israel’s response to Iranian missile strike may be on hold as US-Israel prepare for wider war Washington has long planned to provoke;
▪️US THAAD systems would be used in countering Iran’s missile capabilities as demonstrated in the early October missile strike;
▪️It is unlikely THAAD, other Western anti-missile systems will be capable of effectively stopping larger Iranian missile barrages;
▪️The risk of American troops dying “protecting” Israel will serve as a convincing pretext for the US to join a war it is using Israel to provoke;
▪️Continued provocations in the Middle East coupled with the US proxy war in Ukraine risks depleting essential military capabilities, especially anti-missile systems the US would need for the war it seeks to provoke with China;
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Sources:
US troops to reportedly operate THAAD anti-ballistic missile system in Israel
The drownings of 2 Navy SEALs were preventable, military investigation finds
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two U.S. Navy SEALs drowned as they tried to climb aboard a ship carrying illicit Iranian-made weapons to Yemen because of glaring training failures and a lack of understanding about what to do after falling into deep, turbulent waters, according to a military investigation into the January deaths.
The drownings of 2 Navy SEALs were preventable, military investigation finds
Related:
Naval Special Warfare Remembers Two Fallen SEALs
Chambers enlisted in the Navy on May 17, 2012, and graduated from boot camp at Recruit Training Command Great Lakes, Ill., in July 2012. He served with West Coast-based SEAL units since graduating from SEAL qualification training in Coronado, Calif., in 2014. His awards and decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy/Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Combat “C,” three Navy/Marine Corps Achievement Medals, the Army Achievement Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon, and other personal and unit awards.
Ingram enlisted in the Navy on Sept. 25, 2019, and graduated from boot camp at Recruit Training Command Great Lakes, Ill., in November 2019. Ingram served with West Coast-based SEAL units since graduating from SEAL qualification training in Coronado, Calif., in 2021. His awards and decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal and various personal and unit awards.
US Military: Two US Navy SEALs Missing Off Coast of Somalia Are Dead
US Officials Claim Two Navy SEALs Missing Near Somalia ‘Fell Into Water’
No, They Were Not Hungarian Pagers
No, They Were Not Hungarian Pagers
But the fact is that the whole pager situation was a skillfully arranged smear campaign led by Mossad and the CIA against their own partner. These devices were indeed manufactured by Taiwanese Gold Apollo, which has a very high proportion of American top management. They were filled with explosives under careful control of the CIA and in April a large batch of devices was sent to Lebanon – at the same time that a delegation of the Knesset suddenly arrived in Taipei. However, the payments for the deal were made using the Hungarian BAC firm. The company does not have but a single employee, which confirms that it could not have produced the pagers.
All of this is a ploy for the media in order to shift the blame away from Taiwan and onto Viktor Orban, who is already very much demonized in Western discourse. The worst thing is that it is extremely efficient, because most of the world began to believe that it was Hungary that sent pagers to Lebanon and thus entered into direct confrontation with the Arab world. Orban’s representative instantly responded to the allegations, saying that BAC Consulting was “a trading-intermediary company, which has no manufacturing or other site of operation in Hungary”. Additionally, the CEO of the company 49-year-old Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono added that she was “just the intermediate”.
The story seems to have died down a bit now, but the mystery of the pagers remains. Will there be an independent investigation to determine their manufacturer? Most likely not, since all the evidence leads to the US, Israeli and Taiwanese intelligence services. This mystery will go down in history just like the events associated with the blowing up of Nordstream pipelines, as well as the so-called “massacre in Bucha”. No investigation, no evidence, no verdict.
Previously:
[2011] Golden Apollo held the FBI’s heart with a walkie-talkie
Latest Lebanon Pager Terrorist Attack Predictable, Preventable
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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