Tag: war

Work, Brothers

Russia appears to be gearing up for something, if Putin’s coded message to her soldiers is any guide:

Rather than engage with Zelensky’s proposals, Putin turned away from the letter entirely. He said the ones to be addressed were Russia’s combatants and soldiers at the line of contact, telling them:

The country is proud of you and places its hopes on you. We should address not the authors of this letter, nor lovers of the epistolary genre, but our fighters on the front line.

He then closed with the phrase: “Work, brothers!”

To understand the import of that phrase you need to be introduced to Magomed Nurbagandov:

Magomed Nurbagandovich Nurbagandov (January 9, 1985 – July 10, 2016) was a police lieutenant serving in the National Guard of Russia, stationed in Kaspiysk in the Republic of Dagestan. He was a Dargin by nationality, born in the village of Sergokala. By all accounts an exceptional student — he graduated from lyceum with a gold medal and then with honors from the law faculty of Dagestan State University.

On the morning of July 10, 2016, Nurbagandov was vacationing with his family near the village of Sergokala when he was attacked by five armed militants. Having learned he was a policeman, the militants forced him and his brother into the trunk of a stolen car, drove them away from the recreation area, and then shot them. The murder was filmed on a mobile phone and posted on an extremist website. Wikipedia

The militants’ goal was psychological — they wanted him to appear on camera and call on his fellow officers to quit the police and stop fighting. Instead, looking directly at the camera, Nurbagandov urged: “Keep on working, brothers” (Работайте, братья) — an act which took tremendous courage.

The militants had uploaded an edited version of the video where they cut out Nurbagandov’s last words. His defiance was suppressed — until fate intervened. Several militants from the group were killed in September 2016, and when examining the bodies, the mobile phone that had filmed the original, unedited video was found. The full footage — with his final words intact — was then released by Russian authorities. The phrase went viral on September 12, 2016, and became a nationwide sensation.

By invoking it in front of the international audience at SPIEF, Putin was making a layered statement: that Zelensky’s letter was an enemy propaganda exercise, that it deserved to be treated with the same contempt Nurbagandov showed his captors, and that the only people worth addressing are those doing the actual fighting. Putin’s visage was grim when he spoke this phrase.

Now the limits of the US military have been clearly established, it makes sense that Russia no longer feels the need to maintain the holding pattern it has been in for the last three years. And unlike his people, who are primarily focused on Ukraine, and to a lesser extent the European Union, Putin understands that their real enemy is Clown World.

DISCUSS ON SG

Comprehensive Failure

No wonder Iran sees no reason to rush into a peace deal. The US military failed in every aspect of the recent war:

CNN found that Iran has now unblocked 50 out of the 69 tunnel entrances struck by the US and Israel at 18 underground missile facilities. Iran has repaired other parts of the bases as well, including roads that the US and Israel bombed to prevent missile launchers from using them. Satellite images show almost all these craters have now been filled, and at two sites, even repaved.

Now the cat’s out of the bag, and the world is exposed to the embarrassing reality that the months of US strikes did virtually nothing to Iran’s military capability, with Trump forced to cover up and save-face by claiming that he “spared” the Iranian military proper because that was somehow favorable to his post-war vision—sure.

The truth is that all the new revelations have unsealed the true aim of US strategy: it was never to totally destroy Iran’s military capability—the US itself never possessed the ability to do so. The aim was to create a brief window of degradation that would allow the Israel-fronted “plan” of overthrowing the Iranian regime to work. The hope was to temporarily slow down and hamper Iran’s military just long enough for the various psyops and false flags to stir up unrest in the country and lead to a Venezuela-style overthrow—but Iran had prepared well, and was not fazed by either prong of the failed operation.

So let’s look at the way the US lost the most recent round of its war with Iran:

  1. Regime change failed
  2. Nuclear prevention failed
  3. Defense of Arab bases failed
  4. Defense of Israel failed
  5. Destruction of military capabilities failed
  6. Strait of Hormuz blocked

About the only thing the US did successfully was to not lose any warships. Which, one notes, could have much more easily been accomplished by not sending them to the Persian Gulf in the first place. And not only did the USA fail in its objectives, but it ended the conflict worse off than when it began.

That is, by every historical measure, a defeat. It’s not an existential one, nor is it necessarily the last word on the international conflict. But the history books will record this as being a defeat of the USA by Iran.

DISCUSS ON SG

Report: Iran Has Nukes

81 years of global fear, and 40+ years of neocon warnings, threats, and hissy fits may have just gone up in smoke during a single telephone call:

I have not been given access to NSA Sigint, but I have confirmed that the phone call last week between Iranian President Pezeshkian and Pakistani Prime Minister Shariff was over a non-secure line. I am reliably informed that this was done deliberately by the Iranians and Pakistanis — i.e., the Iranians and Pakistanis were counting on the Americans and the Israelis to be listening in. The key part of the conversation between Pezeshkian and Shariff was this:

President Masoud Pezeshkian communicated a formally structured, three-step strategic ultimatum if US strikes continued:

  1. Immediate Withdrawal from the ongoing nuclear peace talks.
  2. Total Abandonment of the prospective Nuclear Treaty framework.
  3. The Detonation of a Nuclear Device on Iranian soil—executed not as a weapon of war, but as an undeniable demonstration of sovereign capability and ultimate control over the escalation ladder.

When Marco Rubio was called an hour or so later by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar, and received the same message, the White House knew that the information was legitimate. While the US intelligence community probably cannot confirm that Iran actually does have a functioning nuke, the Pakistanis believe the Iranians do. The intercepted chat between Pezeshkian and Shariff, followed by Rubio’s conversation with Ishaq Dar, convinced Trump and his advisors that Iran was not making a hollow threat.

Now we know why there has been a dramatic change in Trump’s rhetoric towards Iran… Hell, he downplayed yesterday’s missile dust up in the Persian Gulf, which left Kuwait’s International Airport on fire from an errant PAC3 Patriot missile.

I am very skeptical that nuclear weapons exist in the form we have been told that they do. Whether they don’t exist at all, which is what I think is the most probable state, or whether they simply aren’t stable to keep ready for more than a week or two, I don’t know. But I’m entirely confident that the whole concept of a “nuclear arsenal” that involves weapons being preserved in a metal shell and ready at the push of a button for decades is a fictional one.

So what Iran “possessing a nuclear weapon” actually signifies could mean that Iran is now willing to end the nuclear charade that ensured US military dominance for the last 70 years, and that it has the permission of China and Russia to do so.

This might explain the need for “alien disclosure” once the threat of nukes and global holocaust is gone.

DISCUSS ON SG

War and the Failure of Economics

Steve Keen points out how the economic models that Western military strategists are using are outdated and incorrect Neoclassical economic models that are going to make the ramifications of the war in the Middle East considerably worse regardless of the outcome for the US military:

The Trump-Epstein-Netanyahu War could cause more deaths than any war in history, including World War II. This will not be via its direct casualties, but via deaths caused by its economic and agricultural consequences across the planet. For someone who exalts in superlatives, Trump may be responsible for causing more deaths than any previous tyrant in human history.

This is because the world economic system resembles Trump himself: its self-image is one of robust power, but its inner nature is one of incredible fragility. One month ago, many people would not even have heard of the Strait of Hormuz—which Trump, in his bravado, has just referred to as “the Strait of Trump”. Now everyone knows where it is—if not precisely why it matters. We are about to learn the hard way, via the consequences of cutting off this vital artery in the global economy’s circulatory system.

This should have been common knowledge. But, just like Trump himself, our understanding of the global economy is based on an elaborate set of delusions. I am looking forward to the howls from mainstream “Neoclassical” economists when they hear that I blame most of those delusions on them.

Neoclassical economics has always lulled us into a false sense of security by its asinine assumption that most industries are “competitive”, as they define competition. A “competitive” industry, according to Neoclassical economics, is one in which there are a multitude of producers producing a homogeneous product. This definition is doubly delusional: most industries are dominated by a small number of very large firms; and all products are highly differentiated.

In the Neoclassical world, taking out a few producers would have only a trivial impact on total production, because there are thousands—millions!—of producers, and every producer’s output is a perfect substitute for all other producers’ output. In the real world, most industries are dominated by a handful of large firms, and one firm’s output cannot be easily substituted for another.

We are now finding this out the hard way in the TEN War: Venezuelan oil cannot replace oil from the Persian Gulf, and the key facilities which have been damaged—such as Qatar’s LNG processing plants—can only be repaired by a handful of companies.

Worse, those repairs will take years, whereas the canonical “supply and demand diagram” of Neoclassical economists completely ignores time. In the Neoclassical world, if you want to produce higher output, just increase the price and, hey presto, you move up the supply curve and produce a higher quantity.

In the real world, if you are 25 percent below the desired level of output of LNG—as the world is now, with not only the wartime destruction Qatar’s plants, but also the impact of tropical cyclone Narelle on Australia’s LNG plants—then it will take several years to move up that “supply curve”.

It’s insane to go into what is an industrial war of attrition with knowingly faulty strategic models, because it guarantees that no matter what decisions you are making, they are going to be suboptimal at best, with real potential for catastrophe.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Retarded Art

To absolutely no one’s surprise, the short fake Trump is practicing the art of the fake deal again:

Trump pushes for last-minute changes to Iran peace draft. The US president has reportedly requested that Iran make additional commitments on its nuclear program

US President Donald Trump has toughened the terms of peace talks with Iran, the New York Times and Axios reported on Saturday, citing officials familiar with the matter. On Thursday, the two countries reportedly agreed on a memorandum of understanding that would extend the ceasefire reached in April for another 60 days and restart negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. A day later, Trump summoned senior national security advisers to the White House Situation Room.

According to the NYT, Trump became concerned about provisions in the proposed agreement that would unfreeze Iranian assets and grew frustrated with the pace of Tehran’s response to previous proposals. The revised terms were intended to increase pressure on the Iranian leaders.

I know I’m shocked. Even the real Trump is less reliable than Darth Vader. Has he ever not altered the terms of a deal to which he’s agreed?

Why does anyone ever waste time “negotiating” with him? I certainly wouldn’t.

DISCUSS ON SG

Here We Go Again

It appears the “wait until the Hajj is over” theory was right:

US Navy Central Command just issued a critical warning to all ships in the Strait of Hormuz that major US military operations will soon be conducted there.

The notice cites Iran’s “dangerous and illegal mining.” It makes clear US forces have been placed on “high alert for Iranian attack” anticipating retaliation.

The Notice says “Any vessel obstructing the operation or “supporting mine-laying activities WILL BE TARGETED BY U.S. FORCES.”

The same type of warning was issued on June 11, 2025, with the Twelve Day War starting the next day.

What sort of magic bullet do they think they have this time?

DISCUSS ON SG

I Think That’s a No

The short, fake Donald Trump really is a wholly-owned creature whose priorities are completely unrelated to American national interests:

Donald Trump told Arab leaders he will only broker a peace deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if they normalize relations with Israel, according to a leaked phone call.

The most powerful leaders in the Middle East, including those from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt, joined the President on a conference call on Saturday to discuss progress toward ending the US-Iran war and reopening the vital oil passageway.

In return, Trump pressed the leaders to normalize ties with Israel, a demand aimed at nations that have opposed the Jewish state since its founding in 1948.

Arab leaders were so stunned by the demand that they refused to respond, remaining entirely silent on the call, according to Axios.

After a prolonged silence, Trump nervously joked, ‘Are they still there?’

With the silence unbroken, Trump ended the call by announcing that his envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff would follow up on Israel normalization in the weeks ahead.

Interesting and informative priorities, to say the least. After the Gazacaust,normalization is obviously a complete political non-starter; 9x more people have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli government than were reported to have been killed by the white South African government for the totality of its rule there.

At this point, I suspect the only reason Iran hasn’t proactively resumed the war is because they know the ceasefire is to their advantage with regards to rearming.

DISCUSS ON SG

Kiev Meets Mr. Hazel

Andrei Martynov is pretty confident that it’s going to be necessary for the Russians to drop an Oreshnik or three on the European power centers, as they did with Kiev last night, to convince them to stop playing poke the Bear.

NATO criminals are doing everything they can to censor any info coming out of destroyed sites, especially around Belaya Tserkov airfield complex which contained many things ranging from bunkers to aviation repair and “mad maxing” facilities for all kinds of flying means for strikes against Russia.

Again, terrorism against Russian civilians will continue–UAVs and hence striking schools, dormitories, kindergartens et al are the only real means of “influencing” anything by allegedly creating dissatisfaction within Russian society with Kremlin and discrediting Russian leadership–this is the way primitive inbred and pervert cretins in London, Berlin and Paris think. Militarily NATO is impotent and terrorism is the only weapon they have. This IS the spread, so to speak. At this stage, Europeans must be made to have chronic diarrhea from fear of Russia. Non-stop, they need to live in paralyzing fear because Europe is a Satanists’ playground.

Next time it could be Berlin or Paris and they can do nothing about it.

It’s understandable that the Russians feel no need to save the Europeans from Clown World. After all, they had to save themselves, and if the nations of Europe are sovereign and healthy, they are a proven potential threat to Europe. But Clown World is the greater evil, and the Russians know perfectly well who is behind Ukraine and using it as a proxy to make war on them.

DISCUSS ON SG

Rejecting the Empire’s Protection

Events appear to be generally going in the direction predicted by the skeptics concerning the failure of the Epstein Alliance’s attempt to force regime change in Iran and the resulting collapse of the imperial security arrangement in the Gulf:

Saudi Arabia reportedly just floated a non-aggression pact with Iran. This comes in the wake of Saudi Arabia watching Tehran breach multiple layers of US air and naval defenses in the Strait of Hormuz in chillingly fast strikes during the first five weeks of the Ramadan war (i.e., the war that started on 28 February). According to the Financial Times, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia — that once relied on Washington’s “ironclad” (In reality a mirage) guarantees — is now quietly exploring a regional deal modeled on the old Helsinki Accords of economic cooperation, security guarantees, stability without the empire calling the shots.

If true, this marks the Saudis effectively rejecting the US as its prime protector and accepting a new security architecture that recognizes Iran as the new sheriff in a dangerous neighborhood. When your protector looks vulnerable and weakened, you start talking to the country that just proved it can deliver…

Iran is no longer operating from the weakened military position it occupied earlier this year. Iranian missile infrastructure has been substantially reconstituted. Naval capabilities have been dispersed and hardened. Command structures have stabilized under IRGC leadership. Current assessments indicate Tehran retains approximately 70% of its missile capability and has restored operational functionality to roughly 30 of its 33 strategic missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz.

China and Russia have also quietly reinforced Iran’s resilience without openly entering the conflict. Chinese assistance reportedly includes dual-use technologies, satellite support structures, drone and missile-related components, BeiDou integration, and indirect defense assistance routed through deniable channels. Russia appears to be providing intelligence support while benefiting strategically from the broader energy shock environment created by prolonged instability.

Ironically, this defeat and retreat from the Gulf is one of the best possible outcomes of the war for the American people, whether one or two more rounds are fought before further rounds become impossible.

DISCUSS ON SG

Round Three Warning

Iran is clearly unconcerned about the prospects of the US attempting to return to the battlefield and waging more ineffective war on behalf of Israel:

BREAKING: A source close to Iran’s Ghalibaf says Iran’s “third struggle” plan announced by the IRGC will close Bab el-Mandeb Strait “by fire” and disable the seven submarine internet cables under the Strait of Hormuz, in immediate response to upcoming US strikes that Iran has assessed as “inevitable,” for this weekend. The source adds that Iran will also respond with “next-generation missiles and drones” firing hundreds daily at the Gulf energy infrastructure, and that the US and Israel are playing “Russian roulette” with the outcome being the “collapse of the global economy and unprecedented gas prices.”

And both the US and the Iranian generals appear to know the score.

The US reportedly used up more than half of its inventory of THAAD anti-missile interceptors while defending Israel from Iranian attacks during the recent war. “Israel is not capable of fighting and winning wars on its own, but nobody actually knows this, because they never see the back end,” said a US official quoted in the report.

Hence my conclusion about the desperation of the Netanyahu regime. Israel can’t defeat Hezbollah on its own. It can’t defeat Iran even with the help of the US military. And sooner or later, Turkey is going to sweep down from the north and then it’s all over in the Middle East.

Things are likely going to get very ugly in a number of places over the next decade. And it wouldn’t be a surprise if this somehow played into the 2033 timeline in the United States, especially given the way that AIPAC has now taken complete control of the Republican Party in the aftermath of the Kentucky congressional election.

UPDATE: A major military escalation by the US ARMY is imminent, according to multiple sources. Expect a MAJOR escalation in both Cuba and Iran in the next 24 – 48 hours

Army?

DISCUSS ON SG