Tag: war

The USMC officially bans Southern heritage:

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger has ordered all Confederate-related paraphernalia to be removed from Marine Corps installations, his spokesman confirmed on Wednesday.

A document showing the commandant’s decision appeared online on Wednesday, though it did not say when all of the Confederate-related paraphernalia needed to be removed by.

Berger’s spokesman confirmed to Task & Purpose that the commandant had sent a directive to his senior staff ordering all installations to get rid of symbols of the Confederate States of America.

The ruling elite are making it entirely clear to all and sundry that the imperialist Yankee nation is not the Southern nation. Young Southern men should probably keep that in mind before they consider joining the military forces of their occupiers.

It’s actions like this that remind us 2033 is only 13 years away. It also tends to suggest that REBEL’S RUN is going to be a monster hit.

The Philippines, led by their indomitable President Duterte, have terminated their special relationship with the U.S. military:

Relations between two traditional allies have reached a new low after Manila warned the US that it is ending an agreement that allows American troops to set foot on the Philippines soil. Manila sent formal notice to the US embassy on Tuesday that it is terminating the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesperson Salvador Panelo said it was done in order to be independent from Washington in military affairs.

It’s about time we rely on ourselves, we will strengthen our own defenses and not rely on any other country.

Panelo told reporters that the nation is open to signing VFAs with other countries as long as they are “mutually beneficial, not one-sided.”

Signed in 1998, the VFA regulates the entry of US warships, aircraft and soldiers into the Philippines. It also allows US troops to be immune from prosecution by local authorities for some crimes committed on the Philippines soil.

Whether Americans like to admit it or not, their government did establish a global military empire that violates the sovereignty of dozens of occupied countries. The fact that it is a self-serving empire and not the “defense against godless communism” that the empire is still sold as is obvious, given that the danger against which it purports to defend most of these countries has not existed since 1989.

It’s good to see countries like the Philippines pushing back against imperial Washington DC. Americans should do the same.

I don’t know why U.S. presidents waste their time on this nonsense:

US President Donald Trump unveiled his “Deal of the Century” peace plan on Tuesday in the White House, giving Israel full control of the settlements and Jerusalem as its undivided capital. The plan also established a Palestinian state.

The plan, Trump said, has the support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main political rival, Blue and White head Benny Gantz.

“If [the Palestinians] are genuinely prepared to make peace with the Jewish state,” Netanyahu said in his remarks at the unveiling ceremony, “Israel will be prepared to negotiate peace right away.” Trump said that the United States will recognize Israeli sovereignty over any land that “my vision provides to be part of the State of Israel” and will require the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the Jewish state and to agree to solve the refugee problem outside of Israel.

The prime minister is expected to vote on Sunday at the Cabinet meeting to immediately apply sovereignty to the territories in Judea and Samaria.

In other words, the Israelis are confirming the long-held beliefs of the Palestinians concerning the settlements, and they doing so with the blessing of the United States. How is this substantially different than the scores of Indian treaties that lasted until the settlers decided that they wanted more Indian land?

And who seriously regards this as a peace plan? Of course the Palestinians won’t accept it.

Israel has a right to exist. Its right of conquest is no less, and no more, illegitimate than any other nation’s right to land it has won through military victory. But it does not have a right to exist in peace; that has to be won separately, through convincing neighboring parties that peace is in their interest. And while I could certainly be wrong, I don’t see how this “Deal of the Century” is likely to be of much interest to any non-Israeli parties.

The truth is that many of the U.S. military’s leaders and senior officials are losers, dopes, and babies. Just look at their track record. They’re fortunate that Trump isn’t as ruthless as Stalin, who would have had them all shot for their obvious inability to complete their missions, if not treason:

The president reportedly called Afghanistan a “loser war,” and told his military leaders: “You’re all losers… You don’t know how to win anymore… I want to win… We don’t win any wars anymore… We spend $7 trillion, everybody else got the oil and we’re not winning anymore.” It’s reported that Trump was so angry at this point that he wasn’t breathing properly.

In his most incendiary comment, Trump—a man who, remember, managed to get out of military duty in Vietnam due to a supposed bone-spur problem—is said to have told the assembled forces, “I wouldn’t go to war with you people… You’re a bunch of dopes and babies.”

The comment reportedly left the room dumbfounded. Tillerson was “visibly seething,” and decided to speak up. The secretary of state said, “No, that’s just wrong… Mr. President, you’re totally wrong. None of that is true.” When the meeting ended soon afterward, Tillerson reportedly stood with a small group of confidants and said, “He’s a fucking moron.”

One senior official summed up the meeting: “We needed to change how he thinks about this, to course correct… They were dismayed and in shock when not only did it not have the intended effect, but he dug in his heels and pushed it even further on the spectrum, further solidifying his views.”

For all the feigned indignation of the Washington Post writers, the fact is that the god-emperor was absolutely right and is still absolutely right about the ineptitude of the U.S. military leadership. Notice the wildly inappropriate attitude of the senior official – almost certainly Deep State – who clearly believes that his views, and the views of his colleagues, take precedence over the views of the American people and their duly-elected President of the United States.

Julius Caesar won the Gallic War in eight years. The Allies won World War II in six years. This pathetic collection of inept, corrupt, and mediocre perfumed princes haven’t been able to defeat anyone since 1950. Except, of course, Grenada.

At this point, I don’t like the new U.S. Space Force’s odds against the space invaders. Or even the asteroids, for that matter.

I would not advise overreacting to the Iranian response to the recent US missile strikes.

Iran struck back at the United States for the killing of a top Iranian general early Wednesday, firing a series of ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops in a major escalation that brought the two longtime foes closer to war…. Iran has started its “second round” of attacks against bases holding U.S. troops in Iraq, the Tehran-based Tasnim news agency said on Wednesday. The second round of attacks started an hour after the first phase took place, the agency reported.

This is not what countries do when they have any intention of engaging in actual war. The Iranian military has more than 500,000 active troops and there are no reports of them being deployed aggressively in the direction of Iraq or Saudi Arabia.

This is just tit-for-tat. If Iran was serious, they would be deploying divisions and shutting down all naval traffic in the Gulf. Until they start doing that, I wouldn’t even bother paying the whole thing any attention.

Mike Cernovich reports that the US is officially ending the military occupation and withdrawing from Iraq.

U.S.-led coalition tells Iraqi military it will withdraw from Iraq out of respect for the nation’s sovereignty
– Reuters

Trust the plan. No wonder the neocons weren’t celebrating.

UPDATE: Confirmed.

The authenticity of the letter, which was addressed to the Iraqi defence ministry’s Combined Joint Operations Baghdad, was confirmed to Reuters independently by an Iraqi military source.

UPDATE: The US Secretary of Defense denies the report.

The United States has no plans to pull out militarily from Iraq, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told Pentagon reporters on Monday, following reports by Reuters and other media of a U.S. military letter about a withdrawal. 

Remember, the narrative is not synonymous with the truth. Read this article published by the Washington Post twice, first with a mainstream perspective, then with your Q filter turned on:

In the chaotic days leading to the death of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Iran’s most powerful commander, top American military officials put the option of killing him — which they viewed as the most extreme response to recent Iranian-led violence in Iraq — on the menu they presented to President Trump.

They didn’t think he would take it. In the wars waged since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Pentagon officials have often offered improbable options to presidents to make other possibilities appear more palatable.

After initially rejecting the Suleimani option on Dec. 28 and authorizing airstrikes on an Iranian-backed Shiite militia group instead, a few days later Mr. Trump watched, fuming, as television reports showed Iranian-backed attacks on the American Embassy in Baghdad, according to Defense Department and administration officials.

By late Thursday, the president had gone for the extreme option. Top Pentagon officials were stunned.

Who, one wonders, are these “top” American military officials and Pentagon officials? To whom, or what, are they loyal? And how tactically capable are they if they are foolish enough to engage in this sort of transparent managing-up with a personality like the god-emperor?

One can’t help but notice that neither the Israelis nor the neocons appear to be overly pleased about the recent assassination of Qassem Soleimani. Perhaps, instead of a prelude to war, it was a prelude to the long-overdue withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

The Iraqi parliament called on the government on Sunday to work to end all foreign troop presence as a backlash grew after the killing of a top Iranian military commander and an Iraqi militia leader in a U.S. strike in Baghdad.

A resolution passed by a special session of parliament said the government should cancel its request for assistance from a U.S.-led coalition.

Parliament resolutions, unlike laws, are non-binding to the government. But this one is likely to be heeded: Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi had earlier called on parliament to end foreign troop presence as soon as possible.

Remember, the god-emperor seldom does the obvious. So, the obvious explanation for his actions is seldom going to be the correct one. After all, there is no reason to believe this was even an attack by the U.S. military, given the fact that the previous attempt on Soleimani was by someone else.

And one immediate result has been the cessation of offensive actions by the U.S. military:

The US-led coalition has announced it will put most of its operations on hold and focus on ensuring the security of its troops as tensions in the Middle East skyrocket after the death of Iran’s top general at the hands of the US. The coalition will from now on devote most of its efforts to protecting its troops and bases, a coalition spokesman told journalists, adding that most operations against militant groups have been put on hold. 

Don Jr., yes. Ivanka, absolutely, unquestionably no.

In a SurveyMonkey poll for Axios, Republican voters chose children of President Trump — Don Jr. and Ivanka — as two of the top four picks for president in four years.

Why it matters: An early poll like this is largely a measure of name ID. But it’s also a vivid illustration of just how strong Trump’s brand is with the GOP.

Ivanka and Don Jr. find themselves near the top of a long list of politicians who have held elected office, many of them vocal supporters of the president.

The big picture: Don Jr. has emerged as one of the most prominent defenders of his dad, frequently going after the left on Twitter, where he has 4.2 million followers, and serving as a popular warm-up act for presidential rallies. His book — “Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us,” released in November — reached No. 1 on the N.Y. Times nonfiction bestseller list. In October, at a rally in San Antonio for president Trump’s re-election, the crowd chanted “2024!” as Don Jr. spoke.

Before we get too excited about the god-emperor-in-waiting, let’s focus on seeing the god-emperor himself reelected in 2020. Those who weirdly – and suspiciously – have questioned whether I have lost faith in President Trump simply because I am capable of pointing out the entirely obvious in the aftermath of the supposed Soleimani assassination are simply not paying attention to my comments on it. I will do a Darkstream on the subject tonight after the Vikings game.

I don’t know what is actually going on. Nor does anyone else, however much they might like to pretend that they do. But I would still rather have the god-emperor in the White House right now than any U.S. politician or world leader not named Duterte. Then again, the thought of what Duterte could do with the U.S. military at his disposal is terrifying.

On the one hand, the opioid crisis would definitely be over and the Devil Mouse would no longer exist. On the other, we might find ourselves maintaining a military occupation of California while caught up in a massive war with the Elder Ones in Antarctica.

Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson made what should be an obvious point and needs to be addressed by every current and would-be U.S. leader:

Before we enter into a single new war, there’s a criterion that ought to be met. Our leaders should explain to us how that conflict will make the United States richer and more secure. There are an awful lot of bad people in this world. We can’t kill them all. It’s not our job. Instead, our government exists to defend and promote the interests of American citizens. Period. That’s why we have a government. So, how has the killing of Soleimani done that? Maybe. No one in Washington has explained how.

It seems unlikely that the assassination of a general from a country with whom the United States is not at war is going to end well for Americans:

President Donald Trump has ordered an airstrike that killed Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, the powerful head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, at Baghdad International Airport, the Pentagon confirmed.

The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, which were responsible for the recent attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, officials said.

Tehran has vowed ‘crushing’ vengeance for Soleimani’s death, an extremely popular figure at home, the country’s highest ranking general and responsible for shaping Iranian foreign policy throughout the Middle East.

A Pentagon statement issued to DailyMail.com late Thursday, Washington DC time, said: ‘At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Quasem Soleimani.’

The United States has nearly two million Iranian residents living inside its borders. I tend to doubt most of them are more loyal to President Trump and the U.S. military than the Iranian people, which is why I am concerned that the next stage of the USA’s Syracuse Expedition may have just begun.

It’s particularly disappointing because the president had been doing such a good job of refusing to expand the needless imperial wars up until now. Perhaps the strike was legitimately justified, but given the last 18 years of costly, pointless, and mostly unsuccessful war, that also appears less than likely.

Certainly the Iraqis don’t appreciate the action.

The caretaker leader of Iraq’s protest-challenged government, Adil Abdul Mahdi, said the US assassination operation was a “flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty” and an insult to the dignity of his country. He stressed that the US had violated the terms under which American troops are allowed to stay in Iraq with the purpose of training Iraqi troops and fighting the jihadist organization Islamic State. 

UPDATE: ‘Due to heightened tensions in Iraq and the region, the US Embassy urges American citizens to heed the January 2020 Travel Advisory and depart Iraq immediately. US citizens should depart via airline while possible, and failing that, to other countries via land.’

Despite all the announcements and theatrics, I can’t help but observe that an identification reportedly based on a well-known ring could be faked rather easily. It would not shock me if Soleimani were to unexpectedly surface in the future.