Brett Wilkins Jun 16, 2025
Flight-tracking websites showed dozens of Air Force aerial refueling planes departing from military bases in the United States and heading to Europe on Sunday, fueling speculation of direct U.S. involvement in the widening Israeli-Iranian war.
Military-focused news sites reported that around 30 U.S. Air Force KC-135R and KC-46A tankers were identified by flight-tracking software in what The Times of Israelcalled an “unprecedented mass deployment” to Europe.
If the shit hits the fan, I want too see every single fucking MAGA voter at a US Army recruiting office signing up for 11 Bravo, Grunt Infantry.
Grunt infantry is redundant
Eh, maybe cav scout or something in the 92 family (NOT 92R), we don’t want those asshats walking around with an M4/203 and frags.
This would have to be the most unpopular war in US history and yet I think everyone Trump has surrounded himself with is telling him to do it.
I think Trump is attempting to scare Iran into accepting his nuclear deal. The only problem with this tactic is that Iran might not believe him as they know how deeply unpopular the war would be.
This might sound insane but every single wartime president has gotten a huge boost to their approval ratings due to media networks circulating pure propaganda nonstop. Even NPR will start doing positive coverage.
The consent manufacturing machine will rev up like it always does. There’s already attempts to get us on board with a the fantasy of a regime change. As though that won’t lead to another ISIS or Libya.
But I really don’t think the average liberal boomer is going to fall in line behind Trump like they did Bush. And certainly not anyone younger. Dem leadership is probably already on board though.
I don’t know if he’s serious about regime change in iran. He seems to negotiate from a raft of threats and lies. Hopefully it’s all for show but if the war does go down my guess for approval ratings is over 60%. Not quite Bush I or ii numbers due to decline in news consumption.
I doubt anyone in power is deluded enough to think they can actually reinstate the Shah or something. They probably just want to bomb every piece if infrastructure in Iran and not worry about them for a few decades.
But regime change absolutely is the fantasy they are trying to sell liberals.
the exception was covid, there was a huge downturn in recruitments, and they were getting worried. but military propaganda: top gun maverick helped boost numbers up. also the fact that they loosen some restrictions to join the military too. i was in a forum of people joining, during the obama years, and it was getting tougher to join. its mostly due to medical conditions that prevent people from joining.
It also isn’t true. LBJs approval rating absolutely tanked because of the Vietnam war.
Johnson’s approval ratings had dropped from 70 percent in mid-1965 to below 40 percent by 1967
https://millercenter.org/president/lbjohnson/foreign-affairs
It was perceived that he was losing the war and lying to the public about the successes that they claimed to have achieved.
But winning wars, even unjust ones, always gets the president brownie points in the eyes of the public and corporations
I’m seeing a lot of posts drumming up war hype and WW3 fears but there is nothing to fight. Iran is already cooked and no one is wants to do a ground invasion of Iran. Iran’s allies have abandoned them. This is american security preparing for possible counter attacks and bombing targets, not a full on war. Iran is already at war with Isreal.
Wonder if they are on the way to liberate Greenland?
Ways that could escalate:
- Iran finishes a nuke (or get one from somewhere [or use some other form of WMD]) and the regime decides to go out with a bang
- China using the moment of distraction to try something funny with Taiwan
- A new wave of international terrorism after the regime falls
So, even if that doesn’t escalate up to full on WWIII there is enough shit on the horizon to be worried
commondreams.org is on my PiHole block list for some reason, is it a low quality news source, or some such? It’s not a news outlet I’ve heard of, at least.
Edit: Ah, because it’s a shell going to a CDN that scoops up data and such, seemingly.
www.commondreams.org (blocked www.commondreams.org.cdn.rebelmouse.com)
Early 2000’s era nostalgia goin real hard
Operation Desert Shield, redux, again. Hey at least the music of the era is relevant again
The worst part of anti-war music is that it never stops being relevant. Blast off! It’s party time!
I fucking hate this rhetoric which is: OIL! GAS! BUY OIL! BUY GAS! KEEP PUTIN HAPPY! OIL! GAS!
No one was taking the ‘war’ between Israel and Iran seriously last week because the USA was like… “yeah, nah”. Now, after a quick call from Putin and bam, all this BS about how the US is pandering for war when it’s a nothingburger.
Remember kids, buy oil, buy gas and do as you’re told.
I think RATM had something to say about your last 4 words
“Thank you sir, may I have another!”
A-10 movement always preceeds ground deployments. They moved those to Kuwait at the end of March. This has been coming for a while, its not an unplanned thing like it appears.
Also indicates complete air superiority in guessing Israel has removed a fair amount of threat
Where are those informations diskussed? If the information was out in March then Lemmy as a whole is not good at filtering the relevant news.
For A-10s theres probably 4 active squadrons, 2 national guard, 1 reserve 74th (Georgia), 75th (Georgia), 354th (Fairbanks), 190th (Boise national guard), 107th (michigan) is in Afghanistan
45th/47th reserve, not sure
They are phasing all A-10s out and replacing with other aircraft, f-16s for the 25th.
25th has a great insignia:
Thank you.
worry not. remember this is TACO Don… he’ll chicken out again
This comment will age poorly if he don’t.
that’s not even in the list of things I’d consider giving a fuck about
It’ll just change to TOCO, Trump Occasionally Chickens Out
He also said if he was president there’d be no more wars, so this obviously totally super duperly cannot happen.
It’s not a war, it’s a special military operation.
Only for a day
He openly calls service members suckers and losers. I dont know that he much cares whats done with them.
Yeah, it seems fairly impossible he’ll get fully into the war, and even lending a few bunker busters would be surprising when that’s risking a blowback on American forces.
I would guess that Trump is expecting Khamenei to cave, because that’s what he’d do. Most likely, he won’t, Trump will be confused, and this will drag on and on until a regional nuclear exchange is on the table.
it works in russias favor since its redirecting some resources from the ukrainian front, its not a coindence that this is occuring at the same time russia was having larger losses.
Who is exchanging nukes in that? Israel and who else?
Reciprocal nukes like Trump’s reciprocal tariffs.
Iran or Iran’s splinter states. They have several bombs worth of uranium that’s almost ready.
I doubt the US would get involved, and nobody else is going to for sure.
Hasn’t Iran been talking about ramping up nuclear weapons production since like the end of last year? I don’t think they’re actually a nuclear capable nation but I could see them posturing like they are
We need to fix the voting system. ALL pacs should be banned and campaign spending should be limited.
So NOW they want to have bases in Europe?
US is going to be bankrupt by the time he is done his second term.
I mean, that’s just on brand for him. If anything, he has shown a talent for bankrupcy.
Ueah. Yeah its pretty fucked.
The shitty thing is: this mother fucker woild love iranian culture. It’s super good at all the shit he fakes like gold plated shit.
he loves russia more.
🌮
Well, so much for peace talks.
When you are 0/2 why go for 3…
WW3 Here we go! 🎉🥳
/s
Any tips? Like do I hoard rice, beans, sugar, spices, things I can trade with other people?
Should I get a pro-grade slingshot, maybe a bow and arrow?
Hoard stuff that you want to actually eat
Don’t ask me for tips.
I’d probably just kill myself, I wouldn’t have the will to live.
I hope reincarnation is real and I get to be born in an advanced post-scarcity civillization somewhere out there in the universe/multiverse where I can enjoy hundreds orntousands of years being a captain of a starship just mapping the universe.
Unfotunately, that’s just me daydreaming, its too far fetched to be real.
(Okay maybe get some ham radios and some portable ones, stored in an EM-Shielded container with some solar panel batteries? Communication might be important. But, ask yourself: do you really want to live in a nuclear apocalypse?)
Learn high-density home gardening and safe food preservation. That said, white rice does store a long time so it’s a good thing to hoard if you’re worried about food availability.
This is basic dictator playbook, problems in domestic politics, start a war and problems change to foreign policy.
Putin has done this multiple times now, and Trump is following up.
This is why I say Canada, Greenland, and Mexico are not safe. Added to the fact that all 3 countries have lots of resources the US needs.
Don’t forget panama
If the US ever try to take out the Panama channel it would fuck up bigly international commerce. Basically only the US military is going to use it because no insurance company is going to cover ships going through them, and without insurance ships can’t even leave port.
Not take out. Take over. And therefore control said trade.
Wouldn’t this cause catastrophic domestic problems though. I think the US would tear itself apart trying to go to war with either of those three. Greenland perhaps less-so but still incredibly distasteful.
They won’t defend their own democracy. They won’t defend mine.
Putin has done this multiple times now, and Trump is following up.
The United Russia party has had a chokehold on Russian elections practically since the day the USSR was dismantled.
There’s a lot more to their socio-economic dominance than Russia just starting new wars. RU controls the national media, they have deep roots in petrochemicals and finance and real estate, they’re mobbed up, they have control of the military across the officer’s corps, and they’re embedded all through local government.
Putin could be the biggest peacenik hippie in Russia and that party wouldn’t budge from its perch.
He’s doing these wars because he’s fascist. Not because he’s doing 11D politics chess.
Starting a war isn’t really 11D thing, it is more like “me big army, me attack” vibe. Even the orange orangutan can figure that one out.
Russia has two exports, fossil energy and war. They know nothing else.
Putin and his party are one and the same.
Russia has two exports, fossil energy and war.
Russia is the only country left with a functioning space program. Also, one of the few remaining virgin steel manufacturers, in large part thanks to their domestic supply of iron and cheap energy. And, like Ukraine, it is a major regional breadbasket (one of the knock on effects of the war has been a one-two punch to cereal exports into Africa and the Middle East).
They don’t have the manpower that China and India enjoy, so they never properly built up their high end service and manufacturing base, even in the Soviet Era. But the “Russia’s just an oversized gas station” line doesn’t hold up to any kind of close inspection.
60% of their export is fossil energy, it is a banana republic
60% of their export is fossil energy
China, India, and Turkiye have been ravenous in their demand for petrochemicals. These sectors have been growing at a breakneck pace.
it is a banana republic
Which large US business conglomerate is extracting fruit produce from Russia through armed occupation at below market rates?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic
“In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically and economically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resource.”
They are so dependable on fossil fuel export that they try to sway all other nations to use fossil fuels and generate crisis on it to tie other nations closer to it’s only source of power in global market. Russia has less GDP than Italy. They are not super power anymore, and every nation should try to get away from their fossil fuels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company
it came to control vast territories and transportation networks in Central America, the Caribbean coast of Colombia, and the West Indies. Although it competed with the Standard Fruit Company (later Dole Food Company) for dominance in the international banana trade, it maintained a virtual monopoly in certain regions, some of which came to be called banana republics – such as Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic#Etymology
In the early 20th century, the United Fruit Company, a multinational corporation, was instrumental in the creation of the banana republic phenomenon. Together with other American corporations, such as the Cuyamel Fruit Company, and leveraging the power of the U.S. government, the corporations created the political, economic, and social circumstances that led to a coup of the locally elected democratic government that established banana republics in Central American countries such as Honduras and Guatemala; No official apology has ever been done by any banana company or the U.S. with only the C.I.A. backed dictator of Guatemala apologizing in 2011
:-|
They are so dependable on fossil fuel export that they try to sway all other nations to use fossil fuels
Ah, Okay. I think I understand the problem here.
Everything you said is true of the GOP/American Right as well, and they do it the same way, through oligarchy, it’s just a matter of they having more time to ratchet it down where the US is just getting its official start, although it’s been working behind the scenes towards this for decades too
As if any USA president wouldn’t be doing the same thing.
