Tag: war

The Insane Plan

According to Tucker Carlson, this is the plan that the junior Senator from Connecticut described as “insane”.

Under pressure from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Trump administration may be within days of launching a nuclear strike on Iran. The target would be Pickax Mountain in central Iran, where Israeli intelligence claims the Iranian government has restarted its nuclear enrichment program. No conventional weapon in the American arsenal can penetrate 300 feet of solid granite to destroy the tunnels where enrichment is supposedly taking place. The only military option is a nuclear strike. Netanyahu has been pushing hard for one. “Bibi calls Trump about it every day,” says an informed observer.

Netanyahu is cornered and desperate. After last week’s election results, he can’t form a government unless Trump intervenes directly in Israeli politics and brokers a deal with other parties that gives Netanyahu 61 seats in the Knesset. Otherwise, he is out as prime minister and on his way to ignominy, investigations and possibly jail. Netanyahu must stay close to Trump. He needs this war.

To that end, he’s applied maximum pressure to his closest allies in the administration, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper. Both oppose a negotiated settlement to the war they’ve so grievously mismanaged; both are pushing to restart major combat operations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA director John Ratcliffe are also following Netanyahu’s lead, as are leaders of the Democratic Party. In a recent meeting on the subject, former president Barack Obama said he opposes the current Iran peace deal being drafted in Doha.

The rest of America’s longtime allies in the Middle East are terrified by the prospect of more war. On September 27th, Netanyahu flew secretly to Abu Dhabi to enlist the UAE in his lobbying effort for a final attack on Iran. The Emiratis refused. After eight months of conflict, Gulf economies are teetering. So are global energy and fertilizer markets. They won’t recover soon. Globally, there are a total of about 850 supertankers used to transport oil from producers to the rest of the world. In October alone, 11 of them were badly damaged in Hormuz. At this pace, a global depression is imminent. A nuclear strike would radically accelerate the destruction. Fallout from a ground explosion at Pickax Mountain would contaminate the Persian Gulf, poisoning the water supply for 100 million people.

And those are just some of the immediate consequences for the region. The rest of the world is every bit as exposed. No country other than the United States has ever used a nuclear weapon in war. Some would like to. An American nuclear attack on Iran would set a new precedent. The Russians have already told at least two other governments that an American nuclear strike on Iran would free them to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Pakistan and India would be tempted to do the same against each other, as would North Korea against Seoul. After the first nuclear strike, World War Three is inevitable. That war would be short and final.

We’ve been sleepwalking toward this moment for months. Since February, the administration has quietly rewritten America’s nuclear doctrine to make first use of so-called “battlefield nukes” easier and therefore more likely. No one in Washington in either party seems bothered by this. Now we’re on the brink of it.

Close observers say Trump is likely to decide by next weekend whether or not to use nuclear weapons. That would be November 7, six days from now. To his credit, he’s hesitating. At the moment, Trump is listening to his vice president, JD Vance, and to his envoy and friend Steve Witkoff, both of whom argue a deal with Iran can be made.

They’re right, though it won’t be simple. The Iranians are famously frustrating to negotiate with under any circumstances, and elements of that government have become more radical since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his family were killed in February. After decades of isolation, even relatively moderate Iranian leaders seem confused by how decisions are made in the West. (There is a widespread belief in Tehran, for example, that the United States government controls Israel.) But overall, people who have spoken to decision-makers in Iran say there is consensus there that more war is bad for everyone and a deal is worth making.

One group that hasn’t been consulted so far is the global population — the hundreds of millions of people who will be killed along with their children if Trump is pushed by Netanyahu into launching a nuclear strike next week. Now would be the time for them to speak up.

The last thing Americans need or want is more war for Israel. But the fake Trump is an AIPAC construct, so the real question is how far American Jews are willing to risk further abusing and misusing their influence over the US military, because they are very well aware of the potential costs of the fallout for them when – not if – things go wrong.

And considering how far wrong everything has already gone for Israel and its supporters this year, the rational thing to do would be avoiding any further war. The problem is that there are no shortage of war hawks in Israel who actually think that the US retreating from the Middle East will be to the advantage of Greater Israel, and that the situation is a situation where heads Iran loses, tails the US loses, and both results are to Israel’s advantage.

Which, to be honest, doesn’t appear very likely, and many of the US military leaders clearly know it.

US President Donald Trump may scapegoat his defense and military chiefs for the state of the Iran war, according to a Sunday report, even as he considers resuming attacks on the country following the US midterm elections on Tuesday.

Trump reportedly clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over that question in a phone call over the weekend, the latest in a series of disagreements they have had about whether to attack. The premier — who is in a precarious position after losing his majority in the Knesset in Tuesday’s election — was said to have pushed for a return to strikes, while Trump favors giving more time to negotiations.

The war is deeply unpopular in the United States, and with no resolution to the conflict in sight, is expected to hurt Trump’s Republican Party in Tuesday’s votes for the US Congress. Oil prices have risen as Iran continues to obstruct shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Against that backdrop, according to The Atlantic magazine, Trump is looking for someone to blame for the course of the war and is speaking with advisers about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Both have been leading advocates of the war. Trump’s anger has reportedly grown since his advisers mistakenly assured him ahead of the war’s start in late February that it would be over long before the midterms.

So why would you listen again to those who were wrong the last three times. Especially in light of what some of the pollsters are observing: “For the first time in my lifetime, the polling is that Americans want AIPAC out and they don’t want to send any more money to Israel.”

UPDATE: Not too much doubt about where the Russians and the Chinese stand on more US military action in the Middle East. It is perhaps worth noting that the Russian Defense Minister happens to be visiting China now.

  • RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SAYS SIGNALS OF PLANNED NEW MILITARY ACTION AGAINST IRAN ARE CAUSING EXTREME CONCERN
  • Director Wang Yi has elaborated on China’s position on the situation in the Middle East and the Gulf region. China believes that military means are not the solution. They will only lead to escalation that serves no one’s interest. It is hoped that relevant parties will stick to peace, resolve disputes through dialogue and negotiation, and restore peace and tranquility in the Middle East and the Gulf region at an early date. – Mao Ning, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

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Post-Midterm Retreat

Europeans are rightly concerned that the US military is going to further withdraw from NATO if the Republicans get hammered in the mid-term elections:

NATO is worried that Donald Trump could significantly reduce US involvement in the bloc if the Republican Party loses the midterms on November 3, Politico has reported, citing European officials and diplomats.

Officials in the military bloc are “bracing for a worst-case scenario” as a result of the vote on Tuesday, the outlet said in an article on Sunday.

If a victory for the Democrats blocks Trump from legislating domestically, he may decide to go after NATO to rally his MAGA base, diplomats told the outlet.

The US could withdraw thousands more troops from Europe, cut American funding for the bloc, or limit the NATO-backed PURL arms-buying scheme for Ukraine, they suggested.

Nothing has cost the Republican more votes than their enthusiasm for foreign adventures. That’s why gas and energy prices are out of control. And no one voted to defend Israel or Ukraine; US involvement in both wars is a complete negative for Americans. If the politicians weren’t wholly-owned by AIPAC, not a dime would be wasted on either.

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Haitian Invasion Update

Major Offensive by Salvadoran Commandos Against Armed Gangs in Forested Areas

Salvadoran special forces are said to have launched a major land and air military operation in the forested areas where several armed groups operating in Haiti have entrenched themselves. According to reports, around twenty gang members, including a leader known by the pseudonym “Commandant Galaxy,” are said to have been neutralized during this offensive.

The operation reportedly involved the use of drones and combat helicopters. Airstrikes are said to have targeted several fortified camps serving as rear bases for the armed groups, with the aim of dismantling their strategic positions. At the same time, commandos are said to have intervened at the residence of a gang leader nicknamed “Ezol.” This operation is said to have resulted in the liberation of 18 people held captive, including 12 young girls who are said to have been victims of sexual exploitation and used as leverage to extort ransoms from their families. A significant sum of money, estimated at over a million dollars, is also said to have been discovered inside the residence.

El Salvador Rejects Any Negotiation with Gang Leaders

In response to the intensification of operations, several gang leaders are said to have attempted to make contact with Salvadoran authorities to negotiate their departure from Haitian territory. A proposal that is said to have been categorically rejected by the President of El Salvador, who is said to have ordered the continuation of the offensive against the armed groups. On the ground, several criminal factions are said to be in flight, seeking refuge in forested areas. They are said to be tracked by surveillance drones and targeted by airstrikes carried out by combat helicopters.

An Operation Announced Until the Dismantlement of the Gangs

Salvadoran authorities are said to affirm that the operation will continue until security is restored and a normal situation returns in Haiti, without the presence of armed groups controlling territories. The Salvadorans are said to be welcomed by scenes of acclaim from certain populations, who see this intervention as a hope for regaining peace and security.

For now, the fate of the powerful gang leader known as “Barbecue” remains uncertain. He remains unlocated, as operations continue against the various armed groups.

Looks like a little mission creep might be creeping in. President Bukele may want to step in and remind those Salvadoran authorities that the mission is to a) retrieve their four citizens, b) kill those responsible, and c) return to El Salvador. Restoring a nonexistent security to Haiti is not going to happen without large-scale genocide.

This is exactly how the seeds of failure are often sown in victory.

Always slap down hard those commanders who get excited about the success of the mission and want to extend it. The irony is that those mission creepers were often naysayers about the original mission.

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Island-Hopping to Iran

Larry Johnson believes he knows what the “Trump” administration’s “insane plan” is. And if he’s right, it’s not a good one:

Here is how I understand it came together. The week of October 19, Trump was presented with a menu of options for a renewed war on Iran. The plans were not drawn up by the Joint Staff’s J5, the Pentagon’s chief planning directorate, but by the J5 at Central Command, the headquarters that will actually fight the war. Trump, my source says, chose the option of seizing one or more islands. Murphy’s “insane” comment, after his briefing, fits that choice. Murphy has not publicly named the targets. Analysts discussing his briefing have mentioned Kharg, Iran’s main oil export terminal, and Qeshm, the large island that sits across the Strait of Hormuz.

And then, on October 29, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Lieutenant General Brett Sylvia, the Joint Staff’s J5. The Pentagon says he was removed for leaking classified information and failing polygraph tests. Two other Pentagon sources told CBS those accusations are false. What I am told, and what other analysts have heard from their own sources, is that Sylvia opposed the island plan…

The traditional way to take an island is an amphibious landing: ships, landing craft, Marines wading ashore. That is almost certainly off the table. Any American amphibious ship that sails into the Persian Gulf puts itself inside range of Iranian anti-ship missiles, drones, mines and fast attack boats. Kharg sits about 16 miles off Iran’s coast. Larak, near Qeshm, sits just a few miles off it. Sending a big-deck amphibious ship into that space is an invitation for the first American capital ship to be lost to enemy fire since the Second World War. Even Proceedings, the Naval Institute’s own journal, ran an analysis in April warning that the Navy might not be able to get close enough to launch amphibious vehicles at all.

That leaves the air. Either you drop paratroopers or you land C-130 transports on the island and offload troops. Here is the arithmetic problem. A C-130 carries fewer than 100 combat-loaded troops, and typically somewhere between 64 and 92 paratroopers, depending on the model. To put 1,000 soldiers or Marines on the ground, you need at least a dozen sorties, and far more once you add vehicles, ammunition, water, medical teams and air defense. Every one of those aircraft is a large, slow, unarmored target flying into airspace where Iran has had years to position short-range air defenses and shoulder-fired missiles. One aircraft shot down on approach and you have lost a company.

The first wave also has to secure the runway before anyone else can land, and we know who gets that job. Airfield seizure is the signature mission of the 75th Ranger Regiment. It is what the Rangers did at Point Salines in Grenada in 1983, at Rio Hato in Panama in 1989 and at Objective Rhino in Afghanistan in 2001. Ranger battalions are reportedly already in the theater, and they would almost certainly be handed the mission of jumping in and seizing the strip so the C-130s can follow. These are the finest light infantry in the world. They are also light infantry: lightly armed, carrying what they can jump with, and dependent on everything that comes in behind them. In Grenada and Panama, the defenders could not shell the airfield from the mainland a few miles away. Here, Iran can. Iran also knows the Rangers’ playbook as well as anyone who has read the history, which means it knows exactly which runway to watch. Sending the Rangers to seize an airfield within sight of the Iranian coast is asking America’s best to hold the door open in a room that is already on fire.

The landing is not even the hard part. The hard part is the day after. Once American troops are on the island, they are sitting a few miles from the Iranian coast with no hardened fortifications, inside range of Iranian artillery, rockets, ballistic missiles and swarms of drones. Iran will not need to retake the island. It will simply shell it, around the clock, for as long as the Americans choose to stay. And the Americans will be defending themselves with the same depleted interceptor stocks Miller describes, against targets that are cheap for Iran to build and expensive for us to stop.

Then there is resupply. A Marine Expeditionary Unit carries enough to sustain itself for roughly 15 days. After that, every bullet, every gallon of fuel, every bottle of water and every replacement part has to arrive by air or by sea, through the same gauntlet that made the landing so dangerous. Casualties have to go out the same way. That means an endless air bridge of vulnerable transports, or ships parked inside the Gulf, or both. The island becomes a hostage, and the American public watches the casualty count rise every evening on the news.

And what would it achieve? Seizing a couple of small islands near the Strait does not neutralize Iran’s long southern coastline, which is where the missiles and drones that threaten shipping are actually launched. Taking Kharg would cut into Iran’s oil exports, but Iran has other terminals, and the most likely response would be more strikes on the Gulf states’ oil and water infrastructure, the infrastructure that is already being held together with tape. We would be trading a symbolic flag-raising for a permanent target.

If this is the plan – and it might only be a smoke screen – it’s right up there with The Bay of Pigs. It wouldn’t be even remotely surprising if the US military refused its orders from a fake Commander in Chief.

Because whatever that is pretending to be the President of the United States, it’s not Donald Trump.

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EU-Backed Coup in Poland

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has attempted an Orange Revolution-style coup in Poland, backed by the European Union:

On the night of this Friday, strong units of the Polish Police have cordoned off the headquarters of the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw, in the open outbreak of a prolonged crisis over the composition of the body’s leadership, which has for months pitted Prime Minister Donald Tusk against his two main political adversaries: the leader of Law and Justice and former head of Government, Jaroslaw Kaczinski, and the current president of the country, Karel Nawrocki.

The institutional clash dates back to the beginning of this year, when Nawrocki, an ally of Kaczinski, refused to swear in three of the six magistrates appointed by Parliament. To this blockade was added the president of the Constitutional Court, Bogdan Swieczkowski, who refused to allow the judges elected by the current parliamentary majority to take office.

Hours before the Police were deployed, the Polish official agency PAP reported that Swieczkowski and his number two, Bartlomiej Sochanski, had been suspended for a month and that their profiles had disappeared from the court’s website by order of Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska.

Given the seriousness of the situation, Nawrocki has canceled his official trip to Senegal and has announced that he is returning to the country. “At a time like this, the president must be in Poland,” he declared, while Kaczinski, also through social networks, denounced that the court is suffering an “attack” by the “services of Tusk” in an unprecedented episode on a “global scale”.

According to the leader of Law and Justice, “From today, Poland becomes a police state, and from there there is already a direct path to authoritarianism, and then to totalitarianism. The Tribunal is the guarantee of our freedom and sovereignty. Tusk’s trampling of the law knows no limits”.

Considering what has happened to the people of Ukraine since the Kiev regime took control, they would do well to make sure that the Eurofascists are not successful with a second “coup for democracy”.

Clown World is getting desperate. I expect this means that there will be escalation in the Middle East soon. Stay frosty and well-stocked.

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Fourth Time’s the Charm

A U.S. Senator from Connecticut says that “Trump” is going to restart the Iran war after the mid-terms:

Trump is reportedly planning to restart war with Iran after the election. Some of us have been briefed on the war plan. And while I cannot disclose any details, I can say this: the plan is insane. It will not achieve objectives and will set off a new cycle of escalation.

Well, this may explain why so many governments around the world have been warning their citizens to stock up on supplies. If you don’t already, I’d be sure to have two week’s worth of water and food on hand.

The one thing about insanity is that you can’t ever reasonably anticipate its limits. But if whatever lunacy they try is going to effect the supply chain, then it’s going to effect most of us. And based on the first three attempts and the recent firing of the top US military strategist, I have no problem believing that the plan will not achieve its objectives.

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Top US Military Strategist Fired

Considering that the US military managed to lose 18 military bases in an offensive action, one would hope that it is looking for better strategists than those upon whom it has been relying.

The Pentagon has fired its top military strategist as Washington draws up contingency plans for a possible escalation of hostilities with Iran.

Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia has been removed from his position as director for strategy, plans, and policy (J5) on the Joint Staff, a spokesman confirmed late Wednesday, following media reports of his dismissal. His predecessor, Lt. Gen. Joseph McGee, was forced into retirement a year ago amid reported friction with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. Sylvia previously served as vice director of the J5.

The Pentagon did not explain Sylvia’s departure. His responsibilities included developing military strategies and plans to advise the chairman and the US president. He joins nearly two dozen senior military and civilian officials removed during Hegseth’s tenure.

The problem, of course, is threefold. First, this is a war that is manifestly not in the US national interest. Second, the shift to 5GW missile-and-drone-based warfare renders all previous strategies at least potentially irrelevant. Third, it is never helpful to have an allied nation calling the shots and dictating a military’s primary objectives.

This is why the war on Iran was obviously foolish and why success in that war was very low-probability from the start. The US military needs a complete reset, and replacing its top strategist is only the first in a very long chain of necessary decisions if the USA wants to remain a major regional military power.

And the sooner that it realizes it is no longer a global superpower, the better.

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The End of the US Middle East

It appears the Gulf States have chosen a side, and it’s not the US-Israeli alliance:

Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman, the brother of the Crown Prince, flew to Tehran. With him came Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir and Turkey’s intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin. They sat down with Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and senior security official Rezaei, who hosted the talks, for about two hours. The agenda: the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, the Strait of Hormuz, the American blockade of Iran’s ports and a regional non-aggression framework.

Read that list again. Those are the four biggest security problems in the Persian Gulf. The countries that actually live there just met to discuss them. The United States, which has two carrier strike groups, an amphibious ready group and a blockade in the neighborhood, was not in the room. Nobody seems to have missed it.

The three visitors are the signatories of the Makkah Agreement, the mutual-defense treaty that Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed on August 7. Article 2 says an attack on one is an attack on all. It was sold, at least in Washington’s imagination, as a Sunni shield for the Kingdom against Iran and its friends in Yemen.

Eleven weeks later, the entire shield showed up in Tehran to talk about cooperation. Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan says Tehran will “study” the agreement, “and if it is good, we will support it.” The treaty conveniently includes an accession clause allowing new members to join by consensus. My sources tell me the three formally invited Iran to join once the U.S.-Israeli war ends, and that Tehran accepted on that basis. No official readout confirms that yet. But the official readouts did agree to keep talking “among the four,” and Iran has a phrase for what it wants: “endogenous security.” Translation: security for the Gulf, by the Gulf, without the 5th Fleet.

Imagine NATO’s founding members inviting the Soviet Union to join in 1952, and you have some idea how badly this has gone for American strategy.

In fairness to American strategists, none of the people involved in the US strategy for the Middle East for the past 40 years have actually been Americans. What we’re witnessing is the failure of the Greater Israeli strategy of the neocons, which I have to admit, did succeed rather better than I would have ever imagined given how effectively it exploited the non-nation states of the region.

The problem, as always, is that the seeds of ultimate failure are planted with initial success. Fortunately for the USA, it appears to have been more of a Suez moment than a Sicilian one.

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Bukele vs. Haiti 2

Sources on the ground confirm the collapse and desperation of criminal gangs in the face of the arrival of El Salvador’s special forces in Croix-des-Bouquets.

  1. COLLAPSE OF KEY FACTION: After a wave of tactical attacks with drones and heavy fire, the operational base of “Chen Mechan” (a crucial ally in the criminal structure of the plain) was completely destroyed. His faction no longer exists in the area.
  2. MASSIVE CASUALTIES IN THE LANMÒ GANG: The Lanmò San Jou organization suffered massive losses of soldiers in the recent clashes. The volume of casualties is so high that their makeshift medical shelters have completely collapsed.
  3. ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING OF MEDICAL PERSONNEL: In desperation over the number of seriously wounded, armed commandos attempted to kidnap medical staff at the Centro Hospitalario de Santo 22 and Sainte Camille Hospital to force them to treat their men under threat of death.

The situation is one of extreme volatility, with hand-to-hand battles on the ground.

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Literally Going to Hell

This is where “free speech” and “tolerance” leads. It’s the whole reason they were created and imposed upon Americans in the first place.

The moral decay forced upon America by radical leftists has reached a terrifying new low right in the heart of the Midwest.

An Iowa city council opened its regular meeting this week by standing for an invocation addressed to a “dark father,” praising the “luciferian impulse,” and closing with “Hail Satan.”

The City of Ottumwa’s official YouTube channel posted the October 6, 2026, regular meeting.

After the mayor called the 5:30 p.m. session to order and invited those who wished to participate in the invocation to stand, the scheduled speaker began: “Let us pray. Dear dark father, let us stand now unbowed and unfettered by arcane doctrines born of fearful minds in darkened times.”

He continued by urging the room to “embrace the luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge and dissipate our blissful and comforting delusions of old,” to judge people by “concrete actions” rather than “arbitrary social norms,” and to hold “only to that which is demonstrably true.”

He closed with the line that set off the room: “It is done. Hail Satan.” The Pledge of Allegiance followed immediately.

The Inquisition were never the bad guys. It was always the satanists of the so-called “Enlightenment” whose false philosophy was nothing more than their centuries-long Fabian campaign against Christendom.

Bukele understands. He’s leading a Christian crusade against the vaudun priests of Haiti right now.

Looks like Iowa needs one too.

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