Marty Breeden sent me this video from CBN News today, and it immediately got my attention.
Even a member of Congress is warning that we could soon see a military conflict between the United States and China, and that is extremely alarming.
Those that follow this website on a regular basis already understand where all of this is eventually heading. The prophetic chess pieces are moving into place, but most Americans have no clue about what is happening.
What in the world are the Iranians thinking? After President Trump decided not to respond militarily to the rockets that the Iranians fired at U.S. bases in Iraq, it appeared that a major war had been averted. People all over the world celebrated this unexpected turn of events, and global stock markets soared. But now the Iranians are changing their tune again. Instead of “standing down”, top Iranian leaders are warning that “harsher revenge” is on the way and that there will be more attacks against U.S. forces. I think that Iran correctly perceives that Trump does not want a war, but if Trump gets pushed too far he will hit the Iranians extremely hard. And once the Iranian homeland starts getting pummeled by U.S. missiles, the Iranians will start firing some of the 200,000 missiles that they have stockpiled at Israel, and needless to say the Israelis will respond with even greater force. In other words, any escalation of this conflict at this point has the potential to spark World War 3.
So the Iranians would be wise to stop this nonsense while they still can, but apparently they have no intention of doing so.
On Thursday, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Aerospace Force claimed that the missile attacks the other night were just “the first stage of a major regional operation aimed at expelling U.S. forces from the Middle East”…
Iran’s missile strikes on Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops were the first stage of a major regional operation aimed at expelling U.S. forces from the Middle East, the Iranian commander responsible for the attack said Thursday.
Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who as commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s Aerospace Force oversees most of Iran’s missile arsenal, stopped short of threatening further concrete military action. He also said Iran hadn’t intended to kill anyone in Wednesday’s attack but only to cause material damage.
And Revolutionary Guard commander Abdollah Araghi is promising that “harsher revenge” is coming soon…
A senior Iranian military commander has promised further action against the United States, a day after Tehran launched missiles at two bases housing US troops in Iraq.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Abdollah Araghi said that Iran would take “harsher revenge soon,” without specifying what that might entail, Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday.
Do they actually believe that Trump will allow them to repeatedly attack our forces without responding?
If any American had been killed during the missile strikes the other night, it is quite likely that Trump would have responded already.
And when Trump acts, he likes to make a major statement.
Iran is playing a very dangerous game, and if they miscalculate just a little bit there will be disastrous consequences.
Unfortunately, they are so blinded by rage that they don’t appear to be thinking rationally. At this point, the Iranian media is reporting that the recent missile attacks were “only the beginning of the strikes”…
Tasnim News Agency reported on Thursday that the missiles that hit U.S. interests in Iraq were only the beginning of the strikes. The deputy head of the IRGC, Ali Fadavi, described Iran’s missile attacks on US forces as a display of the Islamic Republic’s military capabilities, claiming that the Americans “couldn’t do a damn thing” about the strikes.
Many of us had been hoping that cooler heads would prevail, but at least on the Iranian side that does not appear to be happening.
And Iranian proxies are already lobbing rockets at U.S. targets. For example, on Wednesday a couple of “small rockets” were launched toward the Green Zone in Baghdad…
Small rockets hit the area in or around the Green Zone in Iraq’s capital of Baghdad late Wednesday, a day after Iran launched missiles at bases housing U.S. and other coalition forces in Iraq, American military officials said.
There was no casualties to U.S. or other coalition forces in the area, and no damage to facilities in the Green Zone, which contains the American embassy and other Western diplomatic posts, officials said.
Subsequently, there was a rocket attack on Balad Air Base in Iraq on Thursday…
Another day, another rocket (alleged) rocket attack on a US airbase in Iraq.
Al-Sumaria reports that rockets hit the Balad Air Base, about 40 miles north of Baghdad, where US troops are stationed.
The source said in an interview with Alsumaria News, “A missile, whose type was not specified, fell this evening, to the Fadlan area of the Dujail district near Balad Air Base,” without giving further details.
Iranian proxies would not be doing this if they did not have permission from Tehran.
Perhaps President Trump is waiting until there are American casualties to respond, and he certainly is not eager to get the U.S. involved in a major war during an election year, but at some point his patience is going to run out.
Meanwhile, the IDF has just conducted a stunning attack on Iranian-backed militia targets “on the border between Syria and Iraq”…
According to reports by domestic and western media, the Israeli air force carried out an attack against an Iran-backed militia reportedly headquartered on the border between Syria and Iraq.
Tribal sources in Iraq apparently told reporters that the Israeli shelling targeted trucks and individuals associated with Iranian-backed militias near the Iraqi-Syria border. Artillery and shelling was also reported, though it’s unclear who fired those shots. The weapons are believed to have been destined for Hezbollah.
In the end, even if President Trump is absolutely determined to keep the U.S. out of a major conflict there will still be a war between Israel and Iran.
The Iranians have restarted their nuclear program, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged that Iran will never be allowed to finish it.
The clock is ticking, and Israel is going to do whatever it takes to keep the psychopaths in Iran from being able to build their own nuclear weapons.
So one way or another, war is definitely coming, and it will change all of our lives in a major way.
But many were hoping that World War 3 was at least delayed for a while after Trump showed such great restraint on Wednesday.
Unfortunately, the Iranians seem determined to press their luck, and we are all going to pay a great price for their complete and utter recklessness.
About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.
If someone else had been in the White House, this crisis could have easily turned out much differently. Sadly, most Americans have no idea that we were literally on the brink of the beginning of World War 3 this week. In fact, our population is so clueless about the rest of the world that 75 percent of all registered voters can’t even find Iran “on an unlabeled map of the globe”. We literally live in an “idiocracy” where a third of the country can’t even name a single branch of government. For most Americans, the alarming headlines about Iran will soon fade from memory, and they will just go on with their lives as if nothing really happened. But the truth is that we were right on the precipice of a cataclysmic war that could have resulted in millions upon millions of deaths. And a major war in the Middle East could still start at literally any time, but President Trump’s brave decision has at least delayed it for now.
When Iran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq, it would have been so easy for President Trump to order an immediate military response.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he waited for an accurate damage assessment to be completed, and it turned out that no Americans had been killed or injured.
The Iranians possess very accurate weapons, and so at first a lot of people were quite puzzled by this. But then later on it started to become obvious that the Iranians “may have intentionally missed” their targets. In other words, this attack was essentially the equivalent of “a warning shot”…
Iran may have intentionally missed targets on bases in Iraq to avoid significant U.S. casualties and damage to infrastructure, according to U.S. government sources.
Iran appears to have fired the missiles into vacant areas where they were unlikely to cause significant harm, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly. The attack, the official said, was designed mainly for a domestic audience to show Iranians that the regime was responding to the killing last week of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
Iranian leadership had to show the Iranian people that they were “taking revenge” for the death of Soleimani.
But by choosing not to spill any American blood, they presented Donald Trump with an opportunity to walk away without escalating the conflict into a full-blown war.
And the Iranians made doubly sure that no American blood would be spilled by issuing a warning in advance…
PM Adel Abdul Mahdi received a call from Tehran warning him an attack was imminent in retaliation for the US killing of its highest ranking general, his spokesman said.
CNN, citing an Arab diplomatic source, said that Iraqi officials then passed the information on to US troops before the attack began.
Subsequently, when the missile strikes were over the Iranians notified the U.S. government “through at least three back channels” that there would be no more attacks…
Iran initiated contact through at least three back channels starting late Tuesday, including through Switzerland and other countries. There were “multiple messages and they were all the same,” a person familiar with the matter said. Iran wanted to convey their retaliatory action had ended — and was waiting to see how the US would respond.
If Hillary Clinton had been in the Oval Office during these very tense moments, we would probably be at war with Iran right now.
But Donald Trump is not Hillary Clinton.
In both of my articles yesterday, I explained that this was a golden opportunity for President Trump to avert a major war, and I was hoping that his advisers were telling him this. Since no American blood was spilled, both sides could still walk away and claim victory, and that is precisely what happened on Wedensday…
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that there would be increased sanctions but no retaliatory strikes for Iran’s ballistic missile assault on U.S. bases in Iraq. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said, “For the time being, the Americans have been given a slap,” but no other attacks were coming soon. Both sides have relaxed tensions, and the threat of war has receded.
In the end, President Trump is coming out of this looking really good. Soleimani is dead, and Iran’s “revenge” did not take a single American life.
But if Trump had recklessly ordered a retaliatory strike against Iran, the Iranians had already warned that they were going to launch missiles at Israel.
And once the first missile landed in an Israeli city, the Israelis would have responded with overwhelming force. Just check out what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday…
Israel will strike back hard if Iran attacks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned at the Kohelet Policy Forum’s conference on Wednesday.
“The state of Israel is the stable anchor in the stormy [Middle East] waters,” Netanyahu said. “We stand firm in the face of those who seek to destroy us. Anyone who tries to attack us will suffer the most overwhelming blow.”
When we get to the point where missiles are flying back and forth between Iran and Israel, nobody is going to be able to stop the madness.
And we are still on the brink of global chaos, but at least President Trump has given us a chance to avoid a worst case scenario.
In the aftermath of the events of the past two days, Franklin Graham posted the following message of gratitude to President Trump on Facebook…
Thank you Mr. President for addressing our nation today and for giving peace a chance. I’m sure there are millions of Iranians who would like to thank you too, if they could. The Islamic Republic of Iran is a dangerous government and is responsible for exporting the Islamic revolution to many countries around the world. They have also repeatedly vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. I know you probably had lot of pressure from some to respond quickly and with a heavy hand; but thank you for showing restraint. A former premier of France once said, “It is far easier to make war than peace.” I also appreciate the fact that you made it clear that as long as you are president, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. Please be assured of my prayers and those of many Christians across the country and around the world.
You know, for once it would be nice for the Democrats to also acknowledge that President Trump has done something right.
Yes, we understand that this is an election season and that the Democrats are going to look for every opportunity to criticize Trump.
But we are all Americans, and this week we were just moments away from the start of a cataclysmic war with Iran.
President Trump’s wise decision has kept us out of such a war for now, and for that he should be greatly applauded.
About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.
We are at one of the most critical turning points in modern world history, and whether or not we will be able to avoid World War 3 will come down to a handful of key decisions that Donald Trump will make over the next few days. If he makes the wrong decisions, he will be second guessed for generations to come. But if he makes the right decisions, he could literally change the course of human history for the better. The entire globe was shocked when Iran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq a few hours ago. But the initial reports indicate that there were no U.S. casualties, and the Iranians are telling us that there will be no further attacks as long as the U.S. does not retaliate. So this gives Trump the opportunity to de-escalate the conflict and still save face. Since we were able to take out Qassem Soleimani without losing a single American life, Trump can simply claim victory and move on.
But there will be an enormous amount of pressure on Trump to respond militarily to this attack, and if that happens the Iranians are already promising to escalate the conflict to an entirely new level.
In particular, the Iranians have repeatedly warned that they will bomb Israel if there is U.S. retaliation.
And if Iran attacks Israel, the Israelis will likely respond with overwhelming force, and once that happens nobody is going to be able to stop a major war from happening.
This could literally be our last chance to avoid World War 3, and hopefully President Trump is getting some really good advice from the people around him.
Because I believe that the Iranian threats are very real. Shortly after launching missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq, the Iranians threatened “to bomb Israel and Dubai if the United States retaliates”…
Iran has threatened to bomb Israel and Dubai if the United States retaliates for its ballistic missile strike at two Iraqi bases housing US troops.
Tehran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases housing American troops in a revenge attack for the US drone strike that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani on Friday.
And NBC News Tehran Bureau Chief Ali Arouzi has reported that the Iranians are specifically threatening to destroy the Israeli city of Haifa…
Iran is warning that if there is retaliation for the two waves of attacks they launched their 3rd wave will destroy Dubai and Haifa.
Of course this is not the first time that we have heard such threats.
On Sunday, the head of Iran’s Expediency Council warned that if Trump escalates the conflict, Iran would “strike Haifa, Tel Aviv and wipe out Israel”…
Mohsen Rezaei, head of Iran’s Expediency Council and former chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, said on Sunday Iran will target Israel during a confrontation with the US.
“If Trump retaliates to Iran’s revenge, we will strike Haifa, Tel Aviv and wipe out Israel,” said Rezaei.
And then on Monday, the chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said that the nation of Israel would be wiped out in “half an hour” if the U.S. attacks Iran again…
A senior Iranian lawmaker on Monday threatened that Israel would be destroyed in “half an hour” if the United States attacks the Islamic Republic.
“If the US attacks us, only half an hour will remain of Israel’s lifespan,” said Mojtaba Zolnour, chairman of Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, in comments carried by the Mehr news agency.
After being stirred up so much by their leaders, hordes of Iranians loudly chanted “death to Israel” over and over during the funeral procession of Qassem Soleimani on Tuesday.
Even though this is a conflict between the United States and Iran, clearly the Iranians want to make this about Israel as well.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying very hard to keep Israel out of the fighting…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Security Cabinet ministers Monday Israel is not responsible for Soleimani’s death and does not want to be pulled into a confrontation between Iran and the US, Axios reports.
“The killing of Soleimani is a US event, not an Israeli event, and we should stay out of it,” Netanyahu is quoted as saying according to two sources.
But the moment the first missile from Iran hits Israel, everything will change.
Israel has been preparing for a war with Iran for a very long time, and the Israelis would likely strike back with such force that it would absolutely stun the entire planet.
And once that happens, nobody is going to be able to stop a major war from happening.
The storm clouds that have been building on the horizon are now directly over top of us, and if this window of opportunity to avert war is missed we may not get another chance.
So let us hope that President Trump grabs this opportunity and does not choose to escalate the conflict even more.
Unfortunately, all of the war hawks in Washington will be urging him to do just the opposite, and at this point it is difficult to see how a major war with Iran will be avoided.
And most Americans actually believe that one is coming. In fact, a survey that was just released found that 71 percent of all Americans believe that “the U.S. will be at war with Iran within the next few years”…
A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll that ran Jan. 3-6 found that 41% consider Iran to be an “imminent threat” to the United States, up 17 points from a similar poll that ran in May 2019. (https://tmsnrt.rs/35xJUDA)
It also found that 71% of Americans believe that the U.S. will be at war with Iran within the next few years, up 20 points from May’s poll.
But this war won’t be anything like our wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
It would literally be a worldwide life or death conflict with Iran, their proxies and millions upon millions of Shiite radicals wherever they are located.
They would fight dirty, they would throw everything that they have at us, and they would go after targets on U.S. soil.
We are definitely not prepared for such a war, and so let us hope that it can be averted somehow.
But I have a feeling that there will soon be a U.S. military response to the missile attacks, and then we shall see how serious the Iranians really were about striking Israel.
About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.
It certainly didn’t take long for the missiles to start flying. Just hours after Qassem Soleimani’s funeral proceedings ended, the Iranian military fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two U.S. bases in Iraq. President Trump will be making a statement about this attack on Wednesday, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham is calling the attack “an act of war”, and the top headline on the Drudge Report at this hour consists of just two words: “It’s War!” Of course the Iranians were already calling this conflict a “war” even before they decided to start firing missiles at us, but this definitely escalates matters.
The Iranians warned us that this was coming, but it was still absolutely stunning to see it actually play out. Ayatollah Khamenei had mandated that any retaliation must be “proportional” and carried out by the Iranian military directly, and that is precisely what happened.
And according to the Daily Mail, Khamenei “was personally in the control center coordinating the attacks”.
The good news is that the initial damage reports seem to indicate that there were no U.S. casualties. The following comes from Fox News…
Iran fired as many as 15 ballistic missiles into Iraq, targeting U.S. military and coalition forces early Wednesday, officials said, in a major retaliation by the rogue regime after the U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian Quds Force Gen. Qassem Soleimani last week.
Ten missiles hit Al-Assad Air Base, one missile hit a military base in Erbil and four missiles failed to hit their targets, according to a U.S. military spokesman for Central Command, responsible for American forces in the Middle East. The attacks unfolded in two waves, each about an hour apart.
Initial assessments showed “no U.S. casualties,” a U.S. military official in Baghdad told Fox News.
However, it does appear that there were some Iraqi casualties…
A US official told CNN that there were no initial reports of any US casualties, but an assessment of the impact of the strikes is underway. A preliminary report from an Iraqi security source indicated there were Iraqi casualties, but Iraqi security officials later told CNN there were no casualties among Iraqi security forces.
There are casualties among the Iraqis at al-Asad airbase following the attack, an Iraqi security source tells CNN. The number of casualties and whether the individuals were killed or wounded were not immediately clear.
When news of these missile strikes originally broke, just about everyone assumed that Trump would soon hit back really hard.
But if it is true that no Americans were killed or wounded, that gives Trump a potential way out.
According to NBC News Tehran Bureau Chief Ali Arouzi, Iran is not currently planning any more attacks as long as the U.S. does not respond…
Iran’s foreign minister @JZarif says Iran’s response was proportional and does not want this to escalate. State media are reporting that senior officials in country won’t launch anymore attacks as long as America does not attack.
Trump could decide that taking out Soleimani without losing a single American life is a pretty good trade and walk away from this conflict. He could simply declare victory and start focusing on the upcoming election in November.
Of course that is probably not likely. There will almost certainly be some sort of U.S. response, and the Iranians are already promising to escalate the conflict even further if that happens…
In a statement, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, an elite wing of the Iranian military that is also known as the IRGC, said the attacks were “hard revenge” for the death of Soleimani. The IRGC said in the statement that any country housing US troops could be subject to “hostile and aggressive acts” and called on American citizens to demand the government remove US troops from the region.
“To the Great Satan … we warn that if you repeat your wickedness or take any additional movements or make additional aggression, we will respond with more painful and crushing responses,” the statement to the US read.
And without a doubt, the war hawks in Washington will be pushing for the Trump administration to hit Iran with overwhelming force.
In particular, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham sounds like he is ready to go over to the Middle East and start bombing Iran himself…
On Fox News, Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., stated that he “just got off the phone” with Trump about the situation and that if Iran continues “this crap” they are “going to wake up one day out of the oil business.”
“This was an act of war, Sean, by any reasonable definition,” Graham continued, before declaring that “the President has all the authority he needs under Article II to respond. How he responds is yet to be determined.”
And earlier on Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told CNN that the U.S. is prepared to “finish” a war if Iran starts one…
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper told CNN Tuesday that the US is not seeking a war with Iran but it is “prepared to finish one.” He also said the US is not withdrawing troops from Iraq following a weekend vote by Iraq’s parliament to expel American forces.
Hopefully cooler heads will prevail.
Perhaps the Iranians were simply incompetent, or maybe it is even possible that they fired at areas of those bases that were not occupied by Americans on purpose, but in any case the fact that there were no U.S. casualties gives everyone a chance to save face and avoid war at the same time.
Yes, I am the same guy that is constantly warning that war is coming, but I am not eager to see it actually happen.
There is still a chance for peace at this late stage, and let us hope that Trump grabs it.
Because if events escalate even further, nobody may be able to control what happens.
At this hour, thousands of additional U.S. troops are headed to the Middle East, and many of them are fully convinced that they are heading into a war…
The 600 mostly young soldiers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, were headed for the Middle East, part of a group of some 3,500 U.S. paratroopers ordered to the region. Kuwait is the first stop for many. Their final destinations are classified.
“We’re going to war, bro,” one cheered, holding two thumbs up and sporting a grin under close-shorn red hair. He stood among dozens of soldiers loading trucks outside a cinder-block building housing several auditoriums with long benches and tables.
Sadly, if there is a full-blown war many of those troops may never come home again.
We are so close to a cataclysmic conflict with Iran, and it would be far more nightmarish than any other war in the post-World War 2 era.
But at this moment there is a slight chance that it can be averted, and let us pray that President Trump makes the right decisions.
About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.
Whether you want it or not, the war with Iran has already begun. It is kind of sad that the pundits on our cable news channels are so clueless about what has happened. They seem to think that there is still a debate about whether we will go to war with Iran or not, but meanwhile the Iranians believe that the war has already started. Of course most Americans don’t want such a war, and President Trump didn’t intend to start one, but we now have one nonetheless. Over the past few days, vast hordes of Iranians mourning the death of Qassem Soleimani have been literally screaming for “war” and “revenge” at the top of their lungs. And as you will see below, the top military adviser to Ayatollah Khamenei just told CNN that our two nations are already at war. So it isn’t our decision to make. The Iranians are going to be shooting at us whether we shoot back or not.
Perhaps you think that I am exaggerating.
Well, I would like for you to consider some of the statements that Major General Hossein Dehghan made during an exclusive interview with CNN. Dehghan is the top military adviser to Ayatollah Khamenei, and he is promising that Iran will soon “take direct action against America”…
“It might be argued that there could be proxy operations. We can say America, Mr. Trump, has taken action directly against us — so we take direct action against America.”
And he also told CNN that the Iranian response to the death of Soleimani will have “decisive deterrent effect”…
In common with other Iranian officials, Dehghan suggested that Iran was in no hurry to retaliate and would choose its targets carefully. “Our reaction will be wise, well considered and in time, with decisive deterrent effect.”
But just because Iran plans to hit us back really hard does not mean that a war has begun.
However, this next statement that Dehghan made leaves no doubt about where the Iranians stand…
“The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted. Afterward they should not seek a new cycle.”
The Iranians clearly believe that a “period of war” has already started.
And we are being told that the only way for this “period of war” to end is for Iran to inflict a blow upon us that is equal to the blow that we inflicted on them.
So what would be equal to the loss of Qassem Soleimani in the eyes of the Iranians?
Soleimani was one of the greatest heroes in the modern history of Iran, and hundreds of thousands of mourners have poured into the streets over the past couple of days to express their grief…
Crowds mourning the death of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani continued to flood the streets of the capital as his funeral procession dragged into the night.
Earlier in the day hundreds of thousands of people swamped central Tehran to express their outpouring of grief at the death of the revered leader of the elite Quds Force, who was assassinated in a US drone strike in Iraq on Friday.
After following his casket through the capital, Soleimani’s body was transported to the holy city of Qom where a ceremony at Masumeh shrine will be held ahead of his burial in his hometown tomorrow.
It is going to take a great deal for the Iranians to feel that they have extracted sufficient vengeance. And Dehghan foreshadowed what may be coming when he made this statement to CNN…
“No American military staff, no American political center, no American military base, no American vessel will be safe.”
And other key Iranian leaders are saying similar things.
For example, Soleimani’s replacement is warning that the Iranians will “continue down martyr Soleimani’s path”…
Esmail Ghaani, who has replaced Qassem Soleimani as head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, has warned the US that Iran will retaliate to last week’s drone attack. He told Iranian state television that “God the Almighty has promised to get his revenge” for the killing of Mr Soleimani. The newly appointed chief said that actions would “certainly” be taken.
Mr Ghaani also pledged to “continue down martyr Soleimani’s path”, after US officials claimed they assassinated the Iranian general because intelligence showed he was plotting “imminent attacks” on US officials.
Even more ominously, the New York Times is reporting that Ayatollah Khamenei himself has mandated that American interests must be attacked directly by Iranian forces…
In the tense hours following the American killing of a top Iranian military commander, the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made a rare appearance at a meeting of the government’s National Security Council to lay down the parameters for any retaliation. It must be a direct and proportional attack on American interests, he said, openly carried out by Iranian forces themselves, three Iranians familiar with the meeting said Monday.
Of course most Americans absolutely do not want a war with Iran.
In fact, I would guess that probably about two-thirds of all U.S. citizens will be against a war with Iran when a national survey is taken.
But that doesn’t matter to the Iranians. They are going to start shooting at us, and they want to make us hurt as much as possible.
If you can believe it, one member of the Iranian parliament has even suggested attacking the White House…
Iranian MP Abolfazl Abutorabi has reportedly threatened to attack the White House in response to a message from President Trump that promised severe consequences if the Islamic nation escalates hostilities with the U.S.
Abutorabi was responding to a question about how Iran should react to the death of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani during an American airstrike, The Independent reported.
“We can attack the White House itself, we can respond to them on the American soil. We have the power, and God willing we will respond in an appropriate time,” Abutorabi said according to the UK publication, which cited Iranian news agency ILNA.
So you can debate about whether there will be a war or not all you want, but the truth is that everyone should really be trying to figure out how to end the war that has already started.
And at this point, I don’t know if anything can be done to stop events from spinning wildly out of control. Every time Iran hits us, Trump is going to hit them back even harder, and neither side is going to back down any time soon.
At this hour, more U.S. troops are headed to the Middle East. In addition to the deployment of thousands of troops from the 82nd Airborne Division, a couple thousand Marines with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit have been diverted to the Middle East…
Marines with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) will now head to Iraq aboard the USS Bataan (LHD-5) amphibious assault ship to join other U.S. troops recently called upon to bolster security measures and military readiness in the country, according to USNI News.
According to the USNI Fleet Tracker, the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group had just arrived off the coast of Morocco this week as tensions have risen with Iran. The Marines aboard had planned to train with Moroccan military members, as part of the joint Exercise African Sea Lion, before the apparent change in plans.
Even more importantly, six B-52 bombers have just been deployed to Diego Garcia…
The U.S. Air Force is deploying six B-52 bombers to Diego Garcia, an island base in the Indian Ocean, amid the rising threat of Iran retaliating after a U.S.-led airstrike killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
The move, which was first reported by CNN, is the latest in efforts by U.S. military officials to bolster resources near the Middle East after the Iraqi Shia militia Kataib Hezbollah hinted at possible retaliatory attacks to avenge Soleimani’s death.
I wish that it wasn’t true, but war is here.
Will this conflict eventually evolve into World War 3, or can we still be pulled back from the brink somehow?
Only time will tell, but I would definitely encourage everyone to get prepared for a worst case scenario.
About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.
For the first time ever, a blood red flag is being flown over the famous Jamkaran Mosque in the Iranian “holy city” of Qom. If you have not see it yet, you can watch it being raised right here. And as I will explain below, the fact that this mosque is directly associated with the Mahdi makes this symbolic gesture doubly significant. The hoisting of this flag was broadcast on Iranian state television, and it was obviously intended to send a message to Shiites all over the globe. So precisely what was that message? Well, we are being told that according to Shiite tradition a red flag represents both “blood spilled unjustly” and a call for revenge…
Red flags in Shiite tradition symbolise both blood spilled unjustly and serve as a call to avenge a person who is slain.
It is the first time in history that the red flag has been hoisted on top of the Jamkaran mosque in the Iranian city and comes after warnings of harsh retaliation against the US.
Red flags have also been spotted flying at anti-U.S. demonstrations in Tehran over the past few days.
Clearly, the Iranians want blood. They will never, ever forgive us for the killing of Qassem Soleimani, and their faith requires that he be avenged.
There is also a message inscribed on the blood red flag that is now flying above the Jamkaran Mosque, and apparently it is a reference to the death of the grandson of Muhammad…
The flag, inscribed with the words “Those who want to avenge the blood of Hussein,” was hoisted above the mosque’s shrine for what local reports claimed was the first time in history, according to the Daily Mail.
The grandson of Muhammad, Hussein was decapitated in A.D. 680 during the Second Islamic Civil War, when Muslims were fighting over who was the proper successor to their prophet. The act was met with bloody retaliation from Muslims who considered Hussein’s death unjust and sought to avenge him.
Obviously the Iranians are viewing this as something much bigger than simply extracting sufficient revenge for the death of a deeply loved national leader.
Rather, they seem to be using this moment as a call to wage jihad against all of the enemies of Shia Islam.
And as I mentioned above, the fact that this flag was raised over this particular mosque is a very big deal.
The Jamarkaran Mosque is considered to be one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, and it is also associated with the future reappearance of the Mahdi. In fact, as the flag was being hoisted there was a direct reference to the Mahdi…
As the flag was raised in Qom, the mosque speakers called, ‘O Allah, hasten your custodian reappearance,’ a reference to the end-times reappearance of the Mahdi.
In Iran today, most of the national leaders believe that the 12th imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, was born in Iraq in 869 and never died. Just before judgement day, the Mahdi is supposed to reappear along with Jesus during a time of war and chaos “to bring peace to the world and establish Islam as the ruling faith across the globe”. It is also commonly believed that the Mahdi is coming very soon, and so that explains why so many top Iranians seem to relish the thought that war could be coming. They need war to come first in order for the Mahdi to appear, and since the Mahdi is supposed to return during the coming apocalyptic war and establish Shia Islam as the faith of the entire planet, they aren’t exactly too concerned about the threats that President Trump is making.
It is so important to understand the mindset of these radical Shiites.
If they die as martyrs, they will be rewarded as such in the afterlife.
If they live through the coming holy war, they will get to see the coming of the Mahdi, and they will help to institute the global rule of Shia Islam.
So in either case, they believe that they can’t lose.
At this point, what they want is blood. In fact, even the daughter of Qassem Soleimani is asking for vengeance. Just check out what she just asked Iranian President Hassan Rouhani…
‘Who is going to avenge my father’s blood?’ One of the commander’s daughters asked.
In response, Rouhani promised her that ‘everyone will take revenge’ and assured her as she wept, ‘we will, we will avenge his blood, you don’t worry.’
There is no question that Iran is going to strike back.
And it won’t just be a one time deal. They are going to hit us repeatedly, and they have already identified 35 potential targets…
IRAN today pinpointed 35 “key US targets” for revenge after its top general was assassinated – with America expecting retaliation “within weeks”.
Hours later, rockets were fired near the US Embassy in Baghdad and at an airbase housing American troops, according to reports.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have to wait long for the violence to begin. In fact, the Green Zone in Baghdad has been targeted by rockets for two days in a row…
At least three explosions were reported Sunday inside the heavily-fortified Green Zone — which houses the U.S. Embassy, Balad Air Base and Iraqi government buildings — in the second attack of its kind after the U.S.-led airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
A total of six Katyusha rockets — three inside the Green Zone and three in the nearby Jadriya area — hit Baghdad, according to a statement by Iraq’s military, as Reuters reported.
Of course President Trump is not going to put up with this, and he has warned the Iranians that he has identified 52 Iranian targets that could potentially be hit…
Showing no signs of seeking to ease tensions raised by the strike he ordered that killed Soleimani and Iranian-backed Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at Baghdad airport on Friday, Trump issued a threat to Iran on Twitter. The strike has raised the specter of wider conflict in the Middle East.
Iran, Trump wrote, “is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets” in revenge for Soleimani’s death. Trump said the United States has “targeted 52 Iranian sites” and that some were “at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.”
Following that tweet, many on the left harshly criticized Trump for potentially targeting cultural sites, but Trump subsequently doubled down on that threat…
“They’re allowed to kill our people, they’re allowed to torture and maim our people, they’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people and we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way,” Trump told reporters.
“If they do anything there will be major retaliation.”
Does anyone see a way that war with Iran can be avoided at this point?
Because I certainly don’t.
The Trump administration and the Iranians will both keep escalating things until a full-blown cataclysmic war erupts in the Middle East, and it will be a war that will inevitably involve Israel as well. This Middle East war will greatly accelerate the development of “the perfect storm” that I keep talking about, and none of our lives will ever be the same again.
Those that think that this is a crisis that will blow over in a few days or a few weeks are not being rational.
The Iranians will never, ever, ever forgive what Trump has done, and Soleimani’s successor is assuring everyone that we will soon “see the bodies of Americans all over the Middle East”…
Esmail Ghaani, the successor to slain Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, threatened the US Friday following his appointment to head the Revolutionary Guards’ foreign operations arm.
“Be patient, and you will see the bodies of Americans all over the Middle East,” Ghaani said.
There is no stopping this now.
War is coming, and the death and destruction it will bring will shock the entire planet.
About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.
A lot of people seem to have forgotten that we were literally on the brink of war with Iran earlier this year. Back in June, President Trump cancelled a major U.S. bombing mission against Iran at the last minute, and things seemed to settle down quite a bit since that time. But now tensions are rising once again. On Sunday, U.S. airstrikes targeted Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria that U.S. officials believe have been behind recent rocket attacks against U.S. forces. Of course those Iranian-backed forces never would have launched such attacks in the first place if they did not have permission from Tehran itself. The Iranians love to hide behind proxies, and for now the U.S. is only conducting airstrikes against those proxies. But at some point President Trump’s patience is likely to run out, and at that point we could start hitting Iran itself. Over the past six months, the U.S. has sent 14,000 more troops to the Middle East, and it is being reported that “the Pentagon is considering deploying additional forces to the region”. The drumbeats of war are starting to get louder again, and many believe that eventually one side is likely to push the other side a bit too far.
The attacks that we just witnessed were supposed to send a very strong message to Tehran. According to the Daily Mail, five separate targets were hit, and at least 19 people were killed…
US air strikes left 19 people dead in Iraq and Syria on Sunday in retaliation against an Iranian-backed militia group blamed for a rocket attack two days earlier that killed an American contractor.
F-15 Strike Eagles hit five targets associated with Kataib Hezbollah, the Iranian-sponsored Shiite militia group, said Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
These airstrikes were launched to directly retaliate for the casualties that U.S. forces suffered from a rocket attack on one of their bases in Iraq on Friday…
Officials with the U.S.-led mission to defeat ISIS said Friday that a U.S. civilian contractor was killed and several American troops were wounded in a rocket attack targeting an Iraqi base in Kirkuk.
The attack, which occurred Friday around 7:20 p.m. local time in Iraq, also wounded several Iraqi personnel, officials with Operation Inherent Resolve told Military Times in an emailed statement.
But of course that attack was just the latest in a series of rocket attacks that have targeted U.S. forces lately…
U.S. officials believe Iranian-backed militias are behind a recent spate of rocket attacks that have targeted U.S. bases and interests in Iraq over the last couple months.
A U.S. official told Military Times that Iran-backed militias are now using more lethal and longer range 122 mm rockets in their attacks.
Friday’s attack on Kirkuk is at least the eleventh rocket attack targeting an outpost housing American forces in the last two months.
I am certainly not a fan of military conflict, but if I am sitting in the White House and someone keeps lobbing rockets at my troops I wouldn’t wait two months to hit them back.
So why did President Trump wait so long?
As I noted earlier, these Iranian-backed militias wouldn’t be doing anything without approval from Tehran. If Trump really wants these rocket attacks to stop, Iranian leaders need to be sent a message that will be clear and unmistakable.
And it appears that U.S. officials may be starting to lean in that direction. In fact, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told the press on Sunday that more military action “could be warranted”…
Pompeo, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared briefly in a club ballroom to comment on the airstrikes.
Esper termed the offensive “successful,” but said that Trump was informed that a further military response could be warranted.
Personally, I don’t know what the Iranians are thinking.
Perhaps they believe that if they use their proxies to make things uncomfortable enough for U.S. forces that Trump will eventually pull them out of the region.
But if that is what they are really thinking, they have badly miscalculated.
Meanwhile, Iran continues to get cozy with Russia and China. In fact, the three nations are currently conducting “their first-ever joint naval drills”…
This weekend, China, Iran, and Russia began their first-ever joint naval drills in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Oman. The training exercises were announced by China’s defense ministry on Thursday, as all three nations continue to have strained relations with the United States and its allies.
The Russians have developed a very strong military presence in the Middle East in recent years, and Russia and China have both warned about what a war between the U.S. and Iran would mean for the entire region.
A major war in the Middle East would have very serious implications for the entire globe, and it would risk sparking a much wider conflict.
Right now our relations with Russia are already the worst that they have been since the end of the Cold War, and they just continue to deteriorate.
Most Americans don’t spend too much time thinking about a potential war with Russia, but over in Russia there is lots of talk about a possible military confrontation. In fact, Russia’s top general recently warned that the western powers are preparing for a “large-scale military conflict”…
Russia’s top general has warned a big war is coming in a chilling prediction amid ongoing tensions with NATO.
Valery Gerasimov, the chief Vladimir Putin’s general staff, has said he believes the West are preparing for a “large-scale military conflict”.
He was speaking at a senior briefing for the military – saying that the West has assigned “adversary status” to Russia.
Ultimately, one of the big reasons why Trump may have been so hesitant to be more aggressive with Iran is because he realizes that it could potentially spark World War 3.
Because once we go to war with Iran, the Iranians are going to start launching missiles directly at Israel, and Israel would undoubtedly strike back with overwhelming force.
Once the dominoes start falling, it could very easily set off a sequence of events that nobody is going to be able to control.
We definitely live at a time of wars and rumors of wars, and peace could be taken from the Earth very easily.
So let us hope that cooler heads prevail.
But if the Iranians keep pushing their luck, it is only a matter of time before Trump gets fed up, and when he decides to hit them directly he is going to hit them exceedingly hard.
About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.
On Tuesday, terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired hundreds of rockets at Israel in retaliation for Israel’s targeted killing of the senior commander of Islamic Jihad in Gaza. Many of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system, but quite a few got through, and some even reached as far as Tel Aviv. Following those rocket attacks, Israeli tanks and aircraft pounded Islamic Jihad positions in the Gaza Strip, and Israeli officials are pledging to continue to respond to any additional attacks. Unfortunately, it certainly sounds like more attacks are coming. According to Islamic Jihad’s Secretary-General Ziad al-Nakhala, his organization is “going to war” with Israel. The following comes from the Times of Israel…
“We are going to war. [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has crossed all the red lines in assassinating Al-Quds Brigades Commander Baha Abu al-Ata. We will respond forcefully,” PIJ Secretary-General Ziad al-Nakhala told the Dar al-Hayat Arabic-language news site.
Israeli officials felt that they had no choice but to kill Baha Abu al-Ata once they had a clear opportunity to do so. According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he was an “archterrorist” and was “the main instigator of terrorism from the Gaza Strip”. The Israeli people are fed up with the endless rocket attacks, and so it makes sense that Israel would target the man that initiated so many of those attacks.
But to Islamic Jihad, Baha Abu al-Ata was a greatly beloved hero, and his death sent shockwaves throughout the entire Middle East. Once news of his death got out, terrorists in Gaza fired “more than 200 rockets into Israel”…
Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip sent a barrage of more than 200 rockets into Israel Tuesday and vowed further revenge after the Israeli military carried out a pair of targeted airstrikes on senior Islamic Jihad commanders, killing one in Gaza and missing the second in Syria.
An Israeli airstrike killed Baha Abu al-Ata, 42, and his wife as they slept in their home in eastern Gaza Tuesday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said. Conricus added that Abu al-Ata was responsible for a number of recent rocket attacks on southern Israel and claimed he was actively planning new attacks.
In response to those rocket attacks, IDF tanks and planes absolutely pummeled Islamic Jihad military outposts…
Israeli tanks attacked three Islamic Jihad military posts in the Gaza Strip Tuesday afternoon.
An IDF spokesperson stated: “A short while ago, IDF tanks targeted three PIJ military posts in the Gaza Strip.”
The Israeli Air Force has also bombed numerous Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza in response to the firing of dozens of rockets by the terrorist organization.
And IDF spokesperson Hidai Zilberman told the press that the Israelis are “prepared for several days of battle” if it comes to that.
We shall see what happens, but it appears that we may be looking at a conflict that will last a whole lot longer that just a few days.
Islamic Jihad is promising a campaign of revenge that will “have no borders”, and it is being reported that Israel’s enemies are considering “opening a second or third front in the north”…
DEBKAfile’s sources report that when Israel’s security cabinet was convening in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning, so too were senior officials in Tehran, Damascus and Beirut. They were discussing whether to punish Israel by opening a second or third front in the north.
The Palestinian Jihad also maintains armed forces in Syria and Lebanon, who may be conscripted in both countries for strikes against northern and central Israel in solidarity with their brothers in Gaza. The Gaza headquarters initially reacted to the death of its leader by announcing that their retaliation “would have no borders.” Then, after firing some 50 rockets, Jihad stated that as yet “unprecedented retaliation” was still to come, suggesting that Israel faced attacks from additional borders.
Of course every time Israel’s enemies escalate the conflict, Israel is going to hit back even harder.
And if this conflict escalates enough, it could pull in the Iranians and all of their close allies in the region. In recent years, Islamic Jihad has actually forged very close ties with Tehran. The following comes from the Jerusalem Post…
PIJ is important for Iran because Tehran’s regime often argues that it is the center of “resistance” against Israel and the US. In order to weave a narrative of “resistance,” it must show that it is actually doing something against Israel. Since Iran doesn’t like to sacrifice its own Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members, it works through other groups. In Lebanon it supplies Hezbollah with precision guidance for its rocket arsenal; in Gaza it has relations with PIJ and also with Hamas.
At some point, Israel will find itself fighting against Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran all at the same time.
Could it be possible that we are right on the precipice of that war?
Without a doubt, many on both sides of the conflict are eager to achieve final victory. For example, on Tuesday one activist group in Israel was openly calling for war with Hamas…
The group’s activists were seen hanging signs around the country reading, “Bibi – Give Us The Order!”
“The time has come for Israel to achieve victory over Hamas and all the terror organizations in Gaza,” said Im Tirtzu CEO Matan Peleg. “Peace is made with defeated enemies, and that’s the only way to restore quiet to the south. Today’s assassination of a senior Gazan terrorist was a step in the right direction, and now we need to take the next step and defeat the terror in Gaza once and for all.”
If rockets were constantly being fired at my family and friends, I think that my patience would be gone too.
There simply is not going to be lasting peace in the region as long as the status quo exists. Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian government have all pledged to permanently wipe Israel off the map, and the Israelis are going to respond to every attack against them by hitting back extremely hard.
Whether it happens today, tomorrow or at some future time, the truth is that a major war is coming to the Middle East.
And once that war happens, none of our lives will ever be the same again.
About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.
It is funny – for decades we have never had any problems with commercial ships passing through the Persian Gulf, but all of a sudden it has become a major flashpoint. As you will see below, the Iranians are now warning that they plan to “secure” the Strait of Hormuz, and meanwhile a plan for a European-led naval task force to confront the Iranians is rapidly coming together. The seizure of a British tanker a few days ago really rattled British officials, and they are determined to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. Of course the more the Persian Gulf region becomes saturated with military assets, the more likely it is that a “mistake” will happen, and it sure won’t take much of a spark to start World War 3 at this point.
Today, close to 20 percent of all the oil produced in the entire world passes through the Strait of Hormuz, and that makes it an exceedingly important waterway. U.S. and European officials continue to stress the importance of freedom of navigation through the area, and they appear to be losing patience with the Iranians.
But Iran does not intend to back down one bit. On Tuesday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that his country “will use its best efforts” to secure the Strait of Hormuz. The following comes from the Jerusalem Post…
“Iran will use its best efforts to secure the region, particularly the Strait of Hormuz, and will not allow any disturbance in shipping in this sensitive area,” Araqchi told French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, IRNA reported.
So what does that mean exactly?
Do the Iranians plan to keep grabbing oil tankers whenever it suits them?
The seizure of the Stena Impero pushed us dangerously close to war, and the British government is still hoping that negotiations will result in the release of that tanker.
However, the British also plan to flex their military muscles in order to keep such an incident from happening again, and they are calling for other European nations to join them…
France, Italy and Denmark gave initial support for a British plan for a European-led naval mission to ensure safe shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, proposed after Iran’s seizure of a British-flagged tanker, three senior EU diplomats said on Tuesday.
The cautious backing at a meeting of EU envoys in Brussels contrasts sharply with the lukewarm response shown by European allies to a similar American call first voiced at NATO in late June, when countries feared they could make U.S.-Iranian tensions worse.
Could this be the very beginning of a “coalition of the willing”?
According to Reuters, this task force would likely include “aircraft too”, and that is definitely raising some eyebrows…
British foreign ministry and defense officials have also discussed a possible mission, which would likely involve not just ships but aircraft too, directly with their Italian, Spanish, French and German counterparts.
A senior German diplomat in Berlin said Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was in close contact with his British and French counterparts, Hunt and Jean-Yves Le Drian, to “contribute to the security” of the Gulf including on maritime security.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military is making headlines as well. In an interview with CBS News, CENTCOM Commander General Kenneth McKenzie claimed that U.S. forces may have actually shot down at least two Iranian drones last week…
The U.S. believes it may have brought down two Iranian drones last week, rather than just the one that has been reported, CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told CBS News’ David Martin in an interview Tuesday aboard the USS Boxer, the ship that took action against the drones. Asked by Martin whether it was “only one drone,” McKenzie revealed that he believed the Boxer had engaged two drones “successfully” and perhaps even more.
“As always it was a complex tactical picture, we believe two drones. We believe two drones were successfully — there may have been more that we are not aware of — those are the two that we engaged successfully,” said McKenzie.
We should be very thankful that there is no more shooting for the moment, but that could change at any time.
And even if things stabilize in the short-term, the truth is that it is going to be exceedingly difficult to stop the countdown to war at this point. The U.S. and Israel have both made it exceedingly clear that they will never allow the Iranians to develop their nuclear program past a certain level, and the Iranians have been racing to move their program forward ever since the U.S. left Obama’s nuclear agreement.
Unless there is some sort of crazy miracle and another nuclear agreement happens, it appears that war is on the horizon.
Also, I wanted to mention that we just witnessed a very alarming “incident” off the coast of South Korea on Tuesday…
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a statement claiming they had fired more than 300 warning shots at a Russian A-50 command and control military aircraft early Tuesday morning after it had twice violated the country’s airspace, the first such incident between the countries.
Moscow furiously denied Seoul’s account of the encounter, claiming that South Korean military jets had dangerously intercepted two of its bombers during a planned flight over neutral waters.
That is a huge number of “warning shots”, and it is yet another example of how tense things are all over the world at this point.
Without a doubt, we are living during a time of “wars and rumors of wars”, and once World War 3 begins we will not be able to stop it.
So let us pray for peace, because the alternative is too horrible to even think about right now.
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.
The U.S. military is following many of the exact same patterns that we witnessed during our previous wars in the Middle East, and that even includes setting up shop at a key military base deep in the heart of the Arabian peninsula. After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the U.S. military abandoned Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, but now they are back. Hundreds of U.S. troops are already there working hard to get the base operational, and as you will see below, a tremendous amount of new construction is planned. The base covers “well over a hundred square miles”, and so it has more than enough room to serve as a central hub for a new Middle East war. Tensions with Iran have escalated dramatically over the past few weeks, but apparently somebody anticipated that the U.S. would need to use this base even before then, because according to NBC News U.S. troops were already arriving back in June…
In June the U.S. military began moving equipment and hundreds of troops back to a military base in Saudi Arabia that the U.S. deserted more than 15 years ago, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the deployment.
Over the coming weeks the deployment to Prince Sultan Air Base, intended to counter the threat from Iran, will grow to include fighter jets and Patriot long-range missile defense systems, the officials said. The Patriots have already arrived at the base and should be operational in mid-July, while the aircraft are expected to arrive in August.
And it turns out that the U.S. military has used this base during all of our previous wars in the Middle East.
For example, according to Air Force Magazine the U.S. military first occupied Prince Sultan Air Base for a few months during Operation Desert Storm…
The US Air Force first occupied the sprawling base in two frantic months from November 1990 to January 1991, then departed. Five years later, USAF and coalition forces moved back into the base. It quickly became a massive facility, home to a state-of-the-art air operations center and serving as the hub for air activity in the region.
Then later on, the base played a key role during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. The following comes from the Military Times…
Starting with the January 1991 air war against Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait the previous summer, the U.S. flew a wide range of aircraft from Prince Sultan air base, originally known as al-Kharj. Supported by an all-American array of creature comforts like fast-food restaurants and swimming pools, U.S. forces there flew and maintained Air Force fighters and other warplanes.
The base also served as a launch pad for the December 1998 bombing of Iraq, code-named Operation Desert Fox, which targeted sites believed to be associated with Iraq’s nuclear and missile programs. In 2001, the base became home to the U.S. military’s main air control organization, known as the Combined Air Operations Center, which orchestrated the air war in Afghanistan until it was relocated in 2003 to al-Udeid air base in Qatar.
But U.S. activity at the base didn’t reach a crescendo until Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Here is more from Air Force Magazine…
Other delicate negotiations came down to the wire just before the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. “We’ve had very productive meetings regarding military cooperation with Saudi Arabia in the event of military action against Iraq,” State Department official Richard Boucher announced Feb. 26, 2003.
That day, newspapers reported that the Saudis granted formal permission for PSAB to be used in the war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom began March 19.
Once again, PSAB pulled its weight in the air campaign. Fuel was a metric showing just how far PSAB had come since 1996. Prince Sultan Air Base operated at maximum rates during major combat operations in Operation Iraqi Freedom from March 19 to May 1, 2003. During that time, the 363rd Fuels Management Flight issued more than one million gallons per day. Officials had previously expanded the fuel storage capacity at Prince Sultan from two million to more than 15 million gallons.
So as you can see, every time the U.S. has decided to go to war in the Middle East, Prince Sultan Air Base has played a leading role.
And now after all this time we have suddenly returned.
This time around, it appears that the U.S. is planning for a very long stay. According to NBC News, existing roads and runways will be reinforced and expanded, and the U.S. military is even going to “build a medical facility”…
While Prince Sultan Air Base is an active facility, portions of the base will need an upgrade to accommodate the U.S. military, including reinforcing and expanding roads and runways, one U.S. official said. Base housing will also need updating, the official said, and the U.S. will build a medical facility. Many of the U.S. service members deployed there over the past few weeks are engineers preparing the base for the new mission.
Apparently whoever is in charge of making these sorts of decisions is not very optimistic about peace with Iran.
A tremendous amount of money and effort is required for a project like this, because it is basically the equivalent of putting up a small American city in the middle of nowhere. The base covers “well over a hundred square miles”, and all the way back in 2002 Wolf Blitzer called it “a little sliver of America in the middle of the Arabian Peninsula”…
“By the time the base complex was completed in 1999, it had cost the government of Saudi Arabia more than $1 billion and covered well over a hundred square miles,” found Air Force historian Daniel L. Haulman.
Food was also a priority. Baskin-Robbins ice cream set up shop as did other popular vendors such as Pizza Inn and Burger King. In time, the exchange provided a small haven of food, shopping, and diversion. “It’s a little sliver of America in the middle of the Arabian Peninsula,” enthused CNN’s war correspondent Wolf Blitzer, who visited the base in December 2002 as forces there prepared for intensifying action against Iraq.
I suppose that the Saudis want us to be as comfortable as possible if we are going to fight a war that will greatly benefit them.
After all, the Saudis and the Iranians have been engaged in a proxy war for many years, and so the Saudis would be absolutely thrilled to see the U.S. military bomb the living daylights out of them.
And Saudi Arabia’s minister of state for foreign affairs actually sounds quite eager for the action to start…
“Any attack on the freedom of navigation is a violation of international law,” Adel Aljubeir said in a Twitter post.
“Iran must realise its acts of intercepting ships, including most recently the British ship, are completely unacceptable. The world community must take action to deter such behaviour,” he added.
But as I discussed in a previous article, if the American people truly understood what a war against Iran would be like, there would be millions of protesters in Washington D.C. right now trying to stop it from happening. It would be a horrible, bloody, apocalyptic war that would set the entire Middle East ablaze, and it would set the stage for the sort of nightmare scenarios that I have been relentlessly warning about.
Unfortunately, so far only a very small portion of the U.S. population seems alarmed about any of this.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is rapidly preparing for war, and Prince Sultan Air Base is now buzzing with U.S. military activity for the very first time since the invasion of Iraq.
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.
It has become exceedingly clear that if the U.S. and Iran go to war, the entire region is going to be set ablaze. Iran has already threatened to hit Israel extremely hard if the U.S. attacks, and hordes of Hezbollah fighters are massing along Israel’s borders right now in anticipation of a military conflict. As you will see below, it is estimated that Hezbollah now has 150,000 missiles of their own pointed at Israel, and one Hezbollah military officer recently warned that they “will fire the first shot this time”. The war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 was highly destructive, but the truth is that it isn’t even worth comparing to what the next conflict will be like. Today, Hezbollah is the most heavily armed terror organization the world has ever seen, and their forces are battle-hardened after spending many years engaged in the bloody war in Syria. After victory after victory in that struggle, now those same fighters are being deployed along the Israeli border. The following comes from the Daily Beast…
Hezbollah’s forces, battle-hardened in the Syrian civil war, have begun redeploying toward the Israeli border, not only in Lebanon, but in Syria opposite the Israeli-occupied side of the Golan Heights.
Hezbollah fighters who spoke to The Daily Beast say their organization is hurting from sanctions and ready to initiate hostilities—if and when Tehran deems that necessary.
All Tehran has to do is give the order and those forces are going in.
In fact, one Hezbollah commander that was interviewed by the Daily Beast is openly admitting that “we will fire the first shot this time”…
“The sanctions now have us preparing for dealing with the Israeli front,” says “Commander Samir,” a Hezbollah officer in charge of 800 fighters on Lebanon’s border with Israel. He declines to use his real name because he is not authorized to speak to the media. “We will fire the first shot this time,” he says.
As I keep warning, we are literally on the verge of World War 3 breaking out in the Middle East.
The moment U.S. missiles start hitting Iran, the Israelis will have to go on full alert because they will be attacked.
One Hezbollah official even said that “if any missile hits Iran, it will be treated like Israel did it”.
And let there be no doubt – Hezbollah is fully capable of raining down hell on Israeli cities. According to a report in an Israeli news source from late last year, it is estimated that Hezbollah’s arsenal of missiles and rockets has now risen to 150,000…
The Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah’s arsenal of missiles and rockets has grown to 150,000, Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) revealed Sunday.
Speaking at a conference hosted by the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies on Sunday, Erdan highlighted the increasing military presence of Iran and its allies along the Israeli border, Israel Hayom reported.
Can you imagine the devastation that would be caused by 150,000 missiles and rockets being fired into an area roughly the size of New Jersey?
Yes, the Israeli military would intercept some of them, but many would get through.
Of course Israel has even more firepower, and they would undoubtedly win the conflict. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that Israel would “act with tremendous force” if a war with Hezbollah were to erupt.
Unfortunately, it probably would not be just Hezbollah that Israel would be fighting. The Iranians have also been “providing training and support” for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. And it definitely raised eyebrows when a delegation from Hamas visited Tehran over the weekend. The following comes from the Jerusalem Post…
The head of the political bureau of the Hamas terrorist movement, Ismail Haniyeh said on Saturday that he hoped that a visit by a senior Hamas delegation in Tehran over the weekend would provide “important results,” according to a Hamas press release on the terror group’s website.
In the end, Israel could find itself fighting Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Iran simultaneously, and such a war would be unlike anything we have ever seen before.
And the violence would not just be limited to the Middle East. In a previous article, I detailed the enormous presence that Hezbollah already has in North America, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad definitely have a presence here too.
Could you imagine the chaos that we would see if all of those terrorists were suddenly unleashed and they started destroyed “soft targets” all across America?
So the Trump administration should think very, very carefully before going to war with Iran. Because once it starts, there will be no going back.
At this point our border security is a complete and utter joke, and conservative activists have been documenting for years that illegal immigrants can hop back and forth across the border with ease. For highly organized terror organizations, getting operatives into the United States is not exactly a problem. They are here, and when the right moment comes, they will strike.
I have been loudly calling for the U.S. government to secure our borders for many years, but it hasn’t happened, and now we could pay a very great price for our foolishness.
All it is going to take is one wrong move for war to erupt. Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are all preparing to fight, and all of them would throw literally everything that they have at the United States and Israel.
We do not want to fight a war against hordes of apocalyptic terrorists that hate us with a passion that most westerners cannot even imagine. It would be a horrible, bloody, nightmarish war, and none of our lives would ever be the same again.
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.
Why aren’t more Americans concerned that we could be on the verge of an apocalyptic war with Iran? If there was still any doubt, what happened on Friday made it exceedingly clear that we are literally on the brink of seeing World War 3 erupt in the Middle East. And as I detailed yesterday, a war with Iran wouldn’t be anything like our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If the American people truly understood what a war with Iran would be like, there would be millions of protesters in front of the White House right now trying to stop it from happening. Without a doubt, the Iranian government is deeply evil, but the Iranians also possess weapons of mass destruction and they control a vast global terror network unlike anything the world has ever seen before. A full-blown war with Iran would be the stuff that nightmares are made out of, and it would unleash death and destruction on an unimaginable scale all over the planet. Perhaps it is already too late to stop what is going to happen, but I very much hope that is not true.
After news broke on Friday that Iran had seized two British oil tankers, President Trump told the press that “Iran is in big trouble”…
President Donald Trump said Friday that the Islamic Republicn of Iran has endangered itself by seizing a pair of British oil tankers in the Persian Gulf.
‘Iran is showing their true colors,’ he told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House has he departed for a weekend in New Jersey.
‘Iran is in big trouble.’
That doesn’t mean that airstrikes are imminent, but it does mean that we are a lot closer to military conflict than we were before.
Personally, I have no idea what Iran is thinking. When the Iranians seized a British oil tanker named “Stena Impero” on Friday, it made headlines all over the world…
The U.K.-flagged Stena Impero, which has a crew of 23 aboard, “was approached by unidentified small crafts and a helicopter during transit of the Strait of Hormuz while the vessel was in international waters,” Stena Bulk, the shipping company that owns the vessel, said in a statement. “We are presently unable to contact the vessel which is now heading north towards Iran.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard forces, in a statement on their website, say the ship was seized for “non-compliance with international maritime laws and regulations” and is being brought to an unnamed Iranian port, according to the Associated Press. Websites tracking the ship’s path showed it turning sharply in the direction of Iran’s Qeshm Island, instead of its intended destination of Saudi Arabia.
Of course it is also possible that the Iranians are being set up. According to Iranian media, the Stena Impero “had turned off its GPS locator” and had “tried to enter the Strait of Hormuz in an area where most ships exit”.
If those claims are true, then that certainly puts a much different spin on the story.
Almost an hour later, the Iranians briefly seized a second oil tanker, but after issuing a warning the Iranians let it go…
Approximately an hour later, a Liberian-flagged tanker operated by a British company was also seized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and was seen on maritime tracking services making a turn toward Iran. Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency later claimed that the second ship, known as the Mesdar, was warned to comply with environmental regulations before being allowed to continue on its way.
Needless to say, the British government is deeply concerned about these developments, and Iranian officials are being warned of “serious consequences” if the Stena Impero is not immediately released…
UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned Iran of “serious consequences” if its military does not return control of the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero, according to Sky News. He said British action will be “robust” but also emphasized “we’re not looking at military options” at this early stage.
Hunt said he’s seeking to urgently speak to Iran’s foreign minister, currently unreachable as he’s on a plane flying back from a UN meeting in New York, and hopes the crisis will be resolved diplomatically.
Of course this is just the latest in a long string of incidents which have steadily brought us closer to war. I covered the developments which we witnessed on Wednesday and Thursday in this article, and the following is a timeline of events which the Daily Mail put together…
May 12: Four commercial oil tankers attacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. Washington accuses Tehran, which denies all involvement.
June 13: A Japanese and Norwegian fuel tanker are hit by mysterious blasts while passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Again, Iran denies involvement.
June 14: U.S. Military releases video ‘proving’ Iranian involvement in the earlier attacks.
June 20: Iran downs a $130m US surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz
July 4: Royal Marines Commandos detain the Grace 1 Iranian tanker in Gibraltar which is accused of busting EU Syrian sanctions
July 11: Iran tries to interfere with a UK-registered tanker but is warned off by the Royal Navy.
July 14: Iran seizes the Panama-flagged ‘Riah’.
July 18: The USS Boxer shoots down an Iranian drone over the Strait of Hormuz which it claimed was endangering the vessel.
July 19: Iran seizes British-flagged ‘Stena Impero’.
July 19: Iran seizes a second British-linked vessel, the Mesdar.
Before I end this article, I want to make a couple of observations about Iran.
Firstly, the Iranians are obviously not afraid of a war with the western powers, because otherwise they would not dare to seize oil tankers.
What is making the Iranians so confident? Could it be possible that they have weapons that we don’t know about?
Secondly, the Iranians may feel like they have been pushed so far into a corner that they have no choice but to push back.
Let me give you one example of what I am talking about. Two Iranian cargo ships arrived in Brazil earlier this year, but now they are trapped because the Brazilians won’t sell them enough fuel to get home…
Reuters explained on Friday that the cargo ships Bavand and Termeh arrived in Brazil a few months ago to deliver a shipment of petrochemical fertilizer and pick up loads of corn. The Bavand was loaded up with 50,000 tons of corn and the Termeh is supposed to take on another 66,000 tons.
Carrying food back to Iran is legal under U.S. sanctions and Iran buys a great deal of corn from Brazil, but unfortunately for the Iranian captains, the Petrobras subsidiary that sells maritime fuel in Brazilian ports cited the U.S. sanctions and refused to refuel the ships. The Iranian government might need to send a tanker loaded with fuel all the way to Brazil to get the cargo vessels and their loads of corn.
The U.S. policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran was intended to get them to fold, but instead it might just be making them so frustrated that they will lash out in anger and set off the spark that causes World War 3 to erupt.
And the U.S. military has been preparing for a coming war with Iran for quite some time. Last month U.S. troops began arriving at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, and U.S. fighter jets are scheduled to arrive in August…
In June the U.S. military began moving equipment and hundreds of troops back to a military base in Saudi Arabia that the U.S. deserted more than 15 years ago, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the deployment.
Over the coming weeks the deployment to Prince Sultan Air Base, intended to counter the threat from Iran, will grow to include fighter jets and Patriot long-range missile defense systems, the officials said. The Patriots have already arrived at the base and should be operational in mid-July, while the aircraft are expected to arrive in August.
The moment missiles start flying back and forth, the price of oil is going to go into the stratosphere and the global financial system will be thrown into chaos.
And when terror attacks on western soil start happening, people will be desperate for the violence to stop, but by then it will be too late.
It appears that we are about to get a war that we do not need and that we do not want, and this comes at a time when so many other elements of “the perfect storm” are coming together.
Unfortunately, I don’t see a lot of urgency among the American people to try to stop this war from taking place. I think that a lot of people simply do not believe that it will actually happen, and many others seem to assume that we will beat the living daylights out of the Iranians without much damage on our end. Of course a large chunk of the population is so addicted to entertainment that they have absolutely no idea what is going on in the rest of the world.
Yes, there are a few voices that are speaking out against a war with Iran, and that is a good thing.
But for the most part we are sleepwalking toward World War 3, and once it begins there will be no turning back.
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.
What if what you have been told over and over again is not really the truth? For weeks, the mainstream media has been telling us that Iran is getting dangerously close to having nuclear weapons. And now that the Iranians have publicly admitted that their uranium stockpile has exceeded the limit set by the nuclear deal, there is a lot of buzz that either the United States or Israel may soon strike Iran in order to prevent their nuclear program from proceeding even further. But of course once the missiles start flying, it is going to be just about impossible to stop a major war from erupting in the Middle East. Before we get involved in such a war, we better make absolutely certain that Iran does not already have nuclear weapons, because a war with a nuclear-armed Iran could be absolutely cataclysmic. If the Iranians felt that the survival of their regime was on the line, they would not hesitate to throw everything that they have at Israel and at U.S. forces in the region. Unfortunately, very few people are talking about the well known evidence that Iran has had their hands on nukes for a long time.
In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a mad scramble for the nuclear weapons that were being held by Kazakhstan and Ukraine. According to former CIA spy Reza Kahlili, during that time period Iran received at least two nuclear warheads from Kazakhstan…
Kazakhstan, which had a significant portion of the Soviet arsenal and is predominately Muslim, was courted by Muslim Iran with offers of hundreds of millions of dollars for the bomb. Reports soon surfaced that three nuclear warheads were missing. This was corroborated by Russian Gen. Victor Samoilov, who handled the disarmament issues for the general staff. He admitted that the three were missing from Kazakhstan.
Meanwhile, Paul Muenstermann, then vice president of the German Federal Intelligence Service, said Iran had received two of the three nuclear warheads and medium-range nuclear delivery systems from Kazakhstan.
If Iran did get two nuclear warheads from Kazakhstan, that is definitely very troubling, but not enough to cause Armageddon.
However, the bad news doesn’t stop there. According to Kahlili, when Ukraine finally transferred their nuclear weapons back to Russia, there “was a discrepancy of 250 nuclear weapons”…
To make matters worse, several years later, Russian officials stated that when comparing documents in transferring nuclear weapons from Ukraine to Russia, there was a discrepancy of 250 nuclear weapons.
Last week, Mathew Nasuti, a former U.S. Air Force captain who was at one point hired by the State Department as an adviser to one of its provincial reconstruction teams in Iraq, said that in March 2008, during a briefing on Iran at the State Department, the department’s Middle East expert told the group that it was “common knowledge” that Iran had acquired tactical nuclear weapons from one or more of the former Soviet republics.
This discrepancy was also reported by the media in Russia, and one Russian journal even suggested that those 250 nuclear warheads could have been sold to Iran…
On April 3 the Russian journal Novaia Gazeta reported that 250 nuclear warheads with a total yield of 20 megatons were not returned by Ukraine to Russia.
Novaia Gazeta suggested the warheads could have been sold to a third country, possibly Iran.
The 200-kiloton warheads were due to be returned to Russia in 1992 after Ukraine declared itself a nuclear-free zone following a payment by Moscow to Kiev of approximately $500 million. The missing warheads were inventoried on papers Ukraine submitted to Moscow that were officially accepted by Russia.
If Iran is sitting on 250 nuclear warheads, it would be absolutely suicidal to get into a full-blown war with Iran.
Of course the mainstream media in the U.S. has been repeating the “fact” that Iran doesn’t have nukes for so long that most of us no longer question it.
But in 2002, one Russian general unequivocally stated that “Iran does have nuclear weapons”…
Sometime a slip of the tongue is so incredible that no amount of doctoring can explain it. And sometimes a slip of the tongue is as intentional as could be. Take an appearance by Russian Deputy Chief of Staff Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky. He gave a briefing on Friday in Moscow during the Bush-Putin summit and was asked about whether Iran actually fired the Shihab-3 intermediate-range missile in a successful test earlier this month. The second question was whether Iran can threaten Israel, Russia or the United States with its nuclear and missile programs.
Then the Russian general takes a surprise turn: ‘Now, as to whether or not Iran has tested something like that. Iran does have nuclear weapons,’ Baluyevsky said. ‘Of course, these are non-strategic nuclear weapons. I mean these are not ICBMs with a range of more than 5,500 kilometers and more.”
And all the way back in 1998, two members of the U.S. House of Representatives publicly stated that the intelligence that they had been shown indicated that the Iranians already had nukes…
Representative Jim Saxton (R-NJ), chariman of the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, told the Jerusalem Post ‘I believe that Iran already has nuclear weapons and that our policy should reflect that.’ Representative Bill McCollum (R-FL), also a member of the task force, said that evidence collected by the group ‘indicates Iran possesses nuclear capability.’ He added that ‘for years, we have received reliable information that Iran has been obtaining nuclear weapons’s parts and supplies from the former Soviet republics in Central Asia. Not only have we not dismissed these reports, but over these six years there has been a growing volume of supporting evidence.’
In addition to potentially obtaining nukes from elsewhere, the Iranians also aggressively developed their own nuclear weapons program for many years prior to agreeing to Obama’s nuclear deal. Just a couple of years ago, a former director of the CIA and several other former U.S. officials made it very clear that they believe that Iran has probably already developed their own nuclear weapons…
We assess, from U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency reports and other sources, that Iran probably already has nuclear weapons. Over 13 years ago, prior to 2003, Iran was manufacturing nuclear-weapon components, like bridge-wire detonators and neutron initiators, performing non-fissile explosive experiments of an implosion nuclear device, and working on the design of a nuclear warhead for the Shahab-III missile.
Thirteen years ago Iran was already a threshold nuclear-missile state. It is implausible that Iran suspended its program for over a decade for a nuclear deal with President Obama.
You can dismiss all of this and continue to push for war with Iran if you would like.
But what are you going to do when Iran uses their nukes and millions of people end up dead?
Iran is run by a bunch of apocalyptic nutjobs that hate us with a passion that is absolutely overwhelming. If World War 3 breaks out in the Middle East, they would use nuclear weapons against us without even thinking twice about it.
Thankfully they do not have missiles that can reach North America, but they do have missiles that can hit U.S. targets all over the Middle East, and all of Israel is in their range.
Of course if Iran starts using nukes we will definitely nuke them back, and such a turn of events would lead to scenarios that are absolutely unthinkable to most of us right now.
Maybe it is already too late to stop a war with Iran from happening. I certainly hope that isn’t true, because the death and destruction would be off the charts even if Iran doesn’t have nukes.
The next several months are going to be absolutely critical, and we will see what happens. Let us pray for peace to prevail, because the alternative will be more horrible than most of us can even imagine.
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.
As if on cue, a mysterious attack on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz has brought us to the brink of an apocalyptic war in the Middle East. On Sunday, four commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf, including two Saudi oil tankers, were seriously damaged in deeply disturbing “sabotage attacks” that immediately sent shockwaves across the entire Middle East. Nobody took responsibility for the attacks, and at first nobody was being blamed, but now an “initial U.S. assessment” is pointing a finger at Iran. The following comes from the Wall Street Journal…
An initial U.S. assessment indicated Iran likely was behind the attack on two Saudi Arabian oil tankers and two other vessels damaged over the weekend near the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. official said, a finding that, if confirmed, would further inflame military tensions in the Persian Gulf.
The assessment, while not conclusive, was the first suggestion by any nation that Iran was responsible for the attack and comes after a series of U.S. warnings against aggression by Iran or its allies and proxies against military or commercial vessels in the region.
And an article in the Daily Mail had some more specific details about the U.S. assessment…
An American military team’s initial assessment is that Iranian or Iranian-backed proxies used explosives Sunday to blow large holes in four ships anchored off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, a U.S. official said Monday.
The official said each ship has a 5- to 10-foot hole in it, near or just below the water line, and the team’s early belief is that the holes were caused by explosive charges.
So here we go.
If President Trump can be convinced that Iran was behind the attack, he will probably want to “send them a message”.
And if Iran strikes back militarily, events may begin to spiral out of control very rapidly.
On Monday, before we knew the outcome of the U.S. assessment, Trump directly threatened the Iranians…
President Donald Trump threatened Iran with a “bad problem” Monday following news that Saudi Arabian oil tankers were sabotaged near the Persian Gulf.
“It’s going to be a bad problem for Iran if something happens, I can tell you that,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office. “They’re not going to be happy.”
Asked to clarify what he meant by a “bad problem,” Trump responded: “You can figure it out yourself. They know what I mean by it.”
It seems so crazy to think that we could soon be at war with Iran, but events seem to be rapidly pushing us in that direction.
Even before the attacks on the oil tankers, U.S. officials had already come up with a plan to possibly send “up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East”. The following comes from Axios…
At the direction of national security adviser John Bolton, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan last week presented top White House national security officials with a plan to send up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East in the event that Iran “attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons,” the New York Times reports.
Details: The plan was reportedly presented during a meeting about the Trump administration’s broader Iran policy, attended — among others — by Bolton, CIA director Gina Haspel, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.
The New York Times pointed out that a similar number of troops were used when the U.S. invaded Iraq.
But Iran is not Iraq. The Iranians have a military force that is vastly superior to what the Iraqis had at that time, and Iran has also developed weapons that possess immense destructive power.
From a strategic standpoint, the worst thing that the U.S. could do would be to stage 120,000 troops in just a handful of locations directly across the Persian Gulf from Iran. Rather than just sit there and wait to be invaded, the Iranians would likely strike the bases where our troops are being staged. With the weapons that the Iranians now possess, the losses would be absolutely catastrophic.
Let us hope that nothing like that ever happens.
If the U.S. just sends air and naval assets into the region, the Iranians will probably not act rashly. But if the U.S. actually decided to deploy 120,000 troops, the Iranians would definitely consider it an existential threat, and they would use everything at their disposal to survive.
Iran has been planning for this conflict for many years, and the U.S. should not rush into such a war without seriously considering the consequences.
Surprisingly, even the British are urging caution…
‘We are very worried about the risk of a conflict happening by accident, with an escalation that is unintended really on either side,’ Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned.
‘Most of all, we need to make sure we don’t end up putting Iran back on the path to renuclearization. Because if Iran becomes a nuclear power, its neighbors are likely to want to become nuclear powers. This is already the most unstable region in the world, and this would be a massive step in the wrong direction.’
We are truly living in apocalyptic times, and it isn’t going to take much to take peace from the Earth.
One more thing – if the U.S. goes to war with Iran, the Iranians have already promised to hit Israel extremely hard in response.
And if Iranian missiles start flying at Israel, the Israelis will hit back even harder.
Both sides possess weapons of absolutely immense power, and so we could be talking about death and destruction on an apocalyptic scale.
Nobody should want to see such a war, because that would be the kind of war that nobody wins.
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.
The Iranians are openly threatening to start firing missiles at Israel if Trump decides to attack Iran. And this threat should not be taken lightly, because Iran has a highly sophisticated ballistic missile arsenal, and Hezbollah has approximately 150,000 missiles pointed directly at Israel right now. If the order is given, the Iranians and their proxy Hezbollah could rain an enormous amount of death and destruction down upon Israel, and of course Israel would hit them back even harder. We are talking about a scenario that could potentially trigger World War 3, and the Iranians apparently believe that the possibility of such an outcome will keep Trump from taking military action against them. The following comes from the Times of Israel…
A senior Iranian official on Sunday dismissed the US military buildup in the region as psychological warfare, saying that the US will not attack for fear of provoking an Iranian assault on Israel.
“The US military forces’ deployment in the Persian Gulf is more of the nature of psychological warfare. They are not ready for a war, specially when Israel is within our range,” Iranian Parliament’s Vice-Speaker Ali Motahhari said on Sunday, according to the FARS news agency.
In addition to its own missiles, Iranian proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip have hundreds of thousands of rockets aimed at Israel.
Perhaps the Iranians are correct and the U.S. has no intention of starting a war. But we have already seen that the Trump administration has not been afraid to engage in a campaign of “maximum pressure” that has pushed us to the brink of military conflict. In recent days the Trump administration has decided that they will not allow Iran to sell oil to anybody at all, and the crushing sanctions that were imposed on Iran last year have been absolutely devastating for the Iranian economy…
The sweeping unilateral sanctions that Washington re-imposed when it quit the agreement a year ago have dealt a severe blow to the Iranian economy, pushing the value of its currency to record lows, driving away foreign investors and triggering protests.
And for good reason: the plunging value of the rial has affected the prices of imported staples as well as locally produced goods. According to the Statistical Center of Iran, the cost of red meat and poultry has increased by 57% over the past 12 months; milk, cheese and eggs by 37%; and vegetables by 47%.
The Iranians are growing deeply frustrated, and they appear to be convinced that an alliance headed up by the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia would love to see regime change in Iran.
For example, just consider these recent remarks from Iran’s foreign minister…
And as Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said, Tehran is convinced that what he calls “the B Team”—Bolton, Bibi, bin Salman, and bin Zayed, the last three being Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and effective ruler of the United Arab Emirates—are determined to force regime change in Iran. “President Trump says that the pressure will bring Iran to its knees,” said Zarif.
“The other day, Secretary Pompeo was asked if he was planning a coup d’état in Iran. And you know what he said? Any diplomat, even if they’re planning a coup, would deny it! But he said, if I were planning a coup, I wouldn’t tell you. Sometimes people say what’s in the back of their mind,” Zarif added. (The exact quote, according to Axios, came in a speech by Pompeo to an Iranian-American group, in which he said, “Even if we [were], would I be telling you guys about it?”)
And Zarif is probably correct on this point. If the U.S, Israel and Saudi Arabia could snap their fingers and establish a completely new government in Iran, they would almost certainly do it.
But all attempts to encourage an internal revolution have fizzled, and a full-blown war would seem to be unthinkable.
The Iranians have made their military a core priority in recent years, and they have developed weapons systems of immense destructive power. At one time they would have been intimidated by a U.S. carrier group being moved into the Persian Gulf, but those days are long gone. The following comes from Reuters…
“An aircraft carrier that has at least 40 to 50 planes on it and 6,000 forces gathered within it was a serious threat for us in the past but now it is a target and the threats have switched to opportunities,” said Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the Guards’ aerospace division.
“If (the Americans) make a move, we will hit them in the head,” he added, according to ISNA.
And on Friday, Ayatollah Yousef Tabatabai Nejad boldly declared that our ““billion-dollar fleet can be destroyed with one missile”…
The ISNA news agency quoted hardliner Ayatollah Tabatabai-Nejad in the city of Isfahan as saying: “Their billion-dollar fleet can be destroyed with one missile.
“If they attempt any move, they will face dozens of missiles because at that time government officials won’t be in charge to act cautiously, but instead things will be in the hands of our beloved leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.”
Of course Nejad is exaggerating, but the truth is that our fleet will definitely be sitting ducks in the Persian Gulf. If the Iranians wanted to do so, they could definitely take the entire fleet out.
We are so close to war, and let’s hope that nobody starts getting itchy trigger fingers.
Iran is run by a bunch of nutjobs that believe that war with the U.S. and Israel is inevitable. Meanwhile, war hawks John Bolton and Mike Pompeo are the top foreign policy officials in the Trump administration and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has already shown us what he is capable of doing.
We need someone to step forward and be a voice of reason before we plunge into a nightmarish apocalyptic conflict that we will not be able to escape, and that voice of reason may have to be President Trump himself.
In the end, it will be Trump that makes the final call on any war with Iran, and that decision will have enormous implications for all of us.
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.
This is the closest that the U.S. has been to a war with Iran in decades, and yet most Americans are either clueless or they don’t seem to believe that it could actually happen. And I certainly don’t think that President Trump wants a war, but he is surrounded by war hawks that have been pushing an extremely aggressive “get tough” policy with Iran. The Trump administration just canceled the waivers that were allowing other nations to continue purchasing Iranian oil, and the goal of that move is to reduce Iranian exports to zero. But oil exports are 40 percent of the Iranian economy, and the Iranians understand that this move could absolutely cripple their economy. The Iranians have threatened to close the straight of Hormuz in retaliation, and that would almost certainly provoke a U.S. military response. In addition, it is being reported that on Wednesday the Iranians will announce that they are taking steps to restart their nuclear program…
On Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is expected to announce small steps to resume his country’s nuclear program. According to the New York Times, that will include conducting research on centrifuges that can make nuclear fuel, and curbing nuclear inspections from observers.
Of course the truth is that the Iranians never fully abandoned their nuclear program in the first place, but that is supposed to be a big secret.
In any event, tensions between the U.S. and Iran have now reached frightening levels.
On Sunday, White House National Security Adviser John Bolton announced that the USS Abraham Lincoln and four B-52 bombers are being sent to the Middle East as a message to Iran…
Four B-52 Stratofortress bombers are being sent to the Mideast to support the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in moves aimed at countering threats from Iran, U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.
The B-52s, from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, are deploying to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, a hub for U.S. air operations in the region, CBS News reported.
Apparently there was some intelligence which indicated that Iran was planning a possible attack on U.S. forces in the region, and Bolton said that these deployments would make it very clear that any assault would be “met with unrelenting force”…
The deployments would “send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States’ interests, or on those of our allies, will be met with unrelenting force,” he said in a statement. “The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces.”
In response, the Iranians accused the U.S. of engaging in a form of “psychological warfare”.
In addition to everything else, CNN is reporting that it appears that the Iranians have been “moving short-range ballistic missiles aboard boats in the Persian Gulf”, and this has deeply alarmed U.S. officials…
Intelligence showing that Iran is likely moving short-range ballistic missiles aboard boats in the Persian Gulf was one of the critical reasons the US decided to move an aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers into the region, according to several US officials with direct knowledge of the situation.
The concerns over the movement of the missiles was one of multiple threads of intelligence from various sources that led the US to believe Iran had a capability and intention to launch strikes against US targets.
If both sides rattle their sabers for a while but nothing ever comes of it, we will be fine.
But if someone goes a little bit too far and the missiles start flying, we could be soon engaged in a conflict that could literally spark World War 3.
While they are certainly no match for the U.S., the truth is that the Iranian military is quite strong, and they possess weapons of immense destructive power. And in the event of a military conflict with the U.S., the Iranians have already said that they will hit Israel too.
And if Israel gets hit, they will certainly strike back at Iran extremely hard.
The Iranians absolutely hate both the United States and Israel, and recent moves by the Trump administration have pushed the Iranians into a corner. The following comes from Pat Buchanan…
Did President Donald Trump approve of this? For he appears to be going along. He has pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions. Last week, he canceled waivers he had given eight nations to let them continue buying Iranian oil.
Purpose: Reduce Iran’s oil exports, 40% of GDP, to zero, to deepen an economic crisis that is already expected to cut Iran’s GDP this year by 6%.
Trump has also designated Iran a terrorist state and the Republican Guard a terrorist organization, the first time we have done that with the armed forces of a foreign nation. We don’t even do that with North Korea.
A cornered animal is extremely dangerous, and at this point the Iranians may feel as if the only option they have left is to lash out.
As a first step, they could potentially close the Strait of Hormuz, and that would instantly create a global oil crisis. Here is more from Buchanan…
Iran has also warned that if we choke off its oil exports that exit the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, the Strait could be closed to other nations. As 30% of the world’s oil shipments transit the Strait, closing it could cause a global crash.
In 1973, when President Nixon rescued Israel in the Yom Kippur War, the OPEC Arabs imposed an oil embargo. Gas prices spiked so high Nixon considered taking a train to Florida for Christmas vacation.
Of course a potential war with Iran is not even on the radar for most Americans these days. Most of us are preoccupied with other things, but if the missiles start flying this will instantly become the top news story on the entire planet.
Wars never start in a vacuum. In every major war throughout history, there has always been a series of steps that has ultimately resulted in the outbreak of war.
Without a doubt, the U.S. and Iran are moving toward war. That doesn’t mean that one will happen, and we better hope that it doesn’t, because it would have all sorts of apocalyptic consequences.
So let us hope that cooler heads prevail.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any “cooler heads” among Iranian leadership, and Trump has surrounded himself with war hawks like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo.
In the end, Trump himself will make the final call on any conflict with Iran, and let us hope that he makes the right one.
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.
On Wednesday afternoon, senior U.S. officials gathered at the White House to discuss possible military options for Venezuela. Meanwhile, the Russians are warning of grave consequences if the U.S. invades, and so the stage is being set for a potential showdown between the world’s two foremost military powers. Previously, administration officials had hoped that the Venezuelan people would rally around Juan Guaido to such a degree that it would not require military intervention to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, but that hasn’t happened. In fact, Guaido’s big push to start a revolution in the streets over the past few days has ended up being a total flop. The following comes from Yahoo News…
Guaido had called for the “largest march” in Venezuela’s history and said on Twitter that “millions of Venezuelans” were in the streets in “this final phase” of his move to oust Maduro.
But by late afternoon, many of the protesters in the capital Caracas were drifting home.
Despite Guaido’s calls for the military to support him, the armed forces leadership has so far remained loyal to Maduro, who has been in power since 2013.
In the long-term, the situation in Venezuela isn’t going to change much if the U.S. is able to replace one socialist president (Maduro) with another socialist president (Guaido). Socialism always ends badly, and the people of Venezuela are going to have to decide for themselves that they don’t want socialism any longer.
But that isn’t what this is about. U.S. officials have decided that it is time to impose their will on the people of Venezuela, and they have determined that Maduro must go. If Guaido cannot create a successful internal revolution, then other options will be explored.
And as I mentioned in the opening paragraph, there was a very, very important gathering of top U.S. officials at the White House on Wednesday afternoon…
Senior U.S. administration officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, and National Security Advisor John Bolton, will meet at the White House Wednesday afternoon. With the situation on the ground still “extraordinarily fluid,” according to Shanahan, the U.S. says it is still weighing military options.
Don’t you wish that you could have been a fly on the wall for that meeting?
Of course we already know what Pompeo and Bolton are thinking. This is what Pompeo just told Fox Business…
“Military action is possible. If that’s what’s required, that’s what the United States will do.”
In other words, if Guaido can’t get the job done, our boys and girls are going in.
And John Bolton has repeatedly insisted that “all options are on the table” regarding Venezuela, and he just told reporters the following about potential Russian interference…
“This is our hemisphere,” he told reporters outside the White House. “It’s not where the Russians ought to be interfering. This is a mistake on their part. It’s not going to lead to an improvement of relations.”
So precisely what would Bolton like us to do about it?
The Russians already have troops and military equipment in Venezuela, and they are there with the permission of the Venezuelan government. Does Bolton really want us to attack and risk a war with Russia?
And for what? Venezuela certainly has a lot of oil, but the truth is that there is no fundamental national security interest at stake in Venezuela.
Unfortunately, there is a growing consensus in Washington that something must be done about Venezuela, and the hysteria has already reached absolutely ridiculous levels. For example, just consider the words of U.S. Senator Rick Scott…
“Here is what is going to happen. We are in the process, if we don’t win today, we are going to have Syria in this hemisphere. So, we can make sure something happens now, or we can deal with this for decades to come. If we care about families, if we care about the human race, if we care about fellow worldwide citizens, then we’ve got to step up and stop this genocide.”
Did you catch that?
Apparently, if you are not in favor of a U.S. invasion of Venezuela, you don’t “care about families” and you don’t “care about the human race” either.
In response to those comments, this is what Tucker Carlson had to say…
When was the last time we successfully meddled in the political life of another country? Has it ever worked? How are the democracies we set up in Iraq, in Libya, in Syria, and Afghanistan right now? How would Venezuela be different? Please explain — and take your time.
Are we prepared for the refugees a Venezuelan war would inevitably produce? A study by the Brookings Institution found that the collapse of the Venezuelan government could force eight million people to leave the country. Many of them would come here. Lawmakers in this country propose giving them temporary protected status that would let even illegal arrivals live and work here, in effect, permanently, as many have before, with no fear of deportation. Are we prepared for that?
If we are going to ask members of our military to shed their blood, it had better be for a really, really good reason.
And switching out one socialist leader for another socialist leader in Venezuela definitely does not qualify.
Of course that is the best case scenario.
In a worst case scenario, a U.S. military invasion of Venezuela would spark a war with Russia, and the Russians are making it very clear that there will be “grave consequences” if we attack…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Pompeo by phone on Wednesday that further “aggressive steps” in Venezuela would have grave consequences, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is getting dangerously close to war with Iran as well. The Iranians are threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for Washington cutting off all their oil exports, and if the Strait of Hormuz gets shut down all hell could break loose.
U.S. officials want to “get tough” with all of our enemies around the world, and that is fine as long as you know what are you doing.
Because even one miscalculation can result in missiles flying back and forth, and once peace is taken from the Earth things could get wildly out of control very rapidly.
So let us hope that cooler heads prevail, because right now we are quickly approaching a tipping point.
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.
Juan Guaido has initiated a violent uprising in an attempt to overthrow Nicolas Maduro, and it appears that the U.S. may be preparing to intervene in the conflict militarily. The USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker accurately tracks the current positions of U.S. naval assets, and according to them the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has left port on the east coast and the USS Theodore Roosevelt has left port on the west coast. In both cases, each aircraft carrier was originally slated for “training” exercises, but now there is lots of speculation that they are both steaming south toward Venezuela. Since there has been no official confirmation from Washington, let me stress that once again that any talk about the potential destination of these carriers is just speculation. But considering what is taking place in Venezuela at this moment, it certainly would not surprise anyone if the waters off Venezuela is precisely where they are heading.
Earlier today, the Intel_Radar Twitter account created quite a stir with a series of seven tweets…
BREAKING: US Navy deploys two aircraft carriers, both southbound, one from each coast, amid Venezuela crisis.
#Venezuela#Maduro#GuaidoUpdate 1 : Eisenhower left Virginia headed South, on the same day Roosevelt deployed out of San Diego headed for the Panama Canal.
#Venezuela#Freedom#Guaido#Maduro#Cuba#USNavyUpdate 2 : US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (MMSI:368962000|CS:NIKE) departed Norfolk ~2019-04-26, was off AIS for 4 days, and seems to be headed South, off the US East Coast.
#Venezuela#Maduro#Guaido#Freedom#US_NavyUpdate 3 : American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier (ARC) RoRo Integrity (IMO:8919934|MMSI:367063310) departed Mexico with a fake destination, “hiding their destination”.
Update 4 : USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has earned a number of awards, including the Battle “E” in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1990, 1998, 1999, 2006 and 2012 as the most battle efficient carrier in the Atlantic Fleet.
#Venezuela#Maduro#Cuba#Guaido#FreedomUpdate 5 : 6248 kHz LSB Venezuela naval freq still active. Also morse code in background.
Update 6 : A US Navy fast combat support ship departed Norfolk just a little bit ago.
If all of this information is true, it would certainly seem to indicate that something is up.
Could it be possible that the U.S. is about to go to war with Venezuela?
If you are not familiar with what happened in Venezuela on Tuesday, here is a pretty good summary…
It was a ploy that from its outset felt like a long shot. Before dawn Tuesday, Juan Guaido, flanked by his political mentor Leopoldo Lopez and a handful of soldiers who had broken ranks, issued a message to Venezuela and the world: The time to topple Nicolas Maduro’s authoritarian regime was right now.
By dusk, with Maduro still firmly in control of the military command, Lopez had sought refuge in the Chilean ambassador’s residence in Caracas and the streets were beginning to empty of the protesters who had heeded Guaido’s call to join what he called Operation Liberty.
Either Guaido is completely suicidal, or he is coordinating with the U.S. and he believes that U.S. military help in on the way.
The second option seems more likely, and on Tuesday John Bolton even admitted that “a deal had been struck” with key members of Maduro’s regime…
The whole episode was so bizarre — with Guaido seemingly lacking the military might to have any chance at all — that it was hard to understand the day’s events. One explanation, as related by National Security Adviser John Bolton, was that a deal had been struck behind the scenes and that key members of Maduro’s regime had agreed to flip, paving the way for Guaido to easily assume power.
Well, either Bolton was bluffing or those officials double-crossed him, because it just hasn’t happened.
And perhaps that would help to explain this very angry tweet from Bolton…
.@vladimirpadrino, @Ivanr_HD, @MaikelMorenoTSJ: Your time is up. This is your last chance. Accept Interim President Guaido’s amnesty, protect the Constitution, and remove Maduro, and we will take you off our sanctions list. Stay with Maduro, and go down with the ship.
In response to Bolton’s tweet, one top Venezuelan official posted the following…
Dream on
@AmbJohnBolton … Not today!#TrumpHandsOffVenezuela
Subsequently, Bolton once again told the press that “all options are on the table” when it comes to Venezuela…
Bolton later told reporters that the U.S. would consider intervening in Venezuela.
“We want, as our principal objective, the peaceful transition of power, but I will say again as the president has said from the outset and as Nicolas Maduro and those supporting him — particularly those who are not Venezuelan — should know, is all options are on the table,” Bolton said.
But if the U.S. goes into Venezuela, it will be a full-blown war against a seasoned military with more than 300,000 troops in a country twice the size of Iraq.
In addition, the Russians and the Cubans already have troops there, and they have no intention of pulling their forces out.
In other words, an invasion of Venezuela could potentially spark World War 3.
But John Bolton doesn’t seem fazed by any of that. He is a hardcore war hawk, and he has been calling for military conflict for years. If you will remember, he actually called for a pre-emptive war against North Korea just two months before joining the Trump administration…
For John Bolton, the national-security adviser, the summit represented a conundrum. Two months before he entered the White House, in April, 2018, he had called for preëmptive war with North Korea. During the past two decades, Bolton has established himself as the Republican Party’s most militant foreign-policy thinker—an advocate of aggressive force who ridicules anyone who disagrees. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, he argued that Kim’s regime would soon be able to strike the United States with nuclear weapons, and that we should attack before it was too late. “The threat is imminent,” he wrote. “It is perfectly legitimate for the United States to respond to the current ‘necessity’ posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons by striking first.”
We truly live in ominous times, and many are deeply concerned that Bolton seems to have so much influence over U.S. foreign policy right now.
Ultimately, we don’t know what is going to happen next, but it is interesting to note that White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney also used the phrase “all options are on the table” during an interview with Maria Bartiromo…
“The only messages I think we are trying to get out there is that we want to make sure the Russians and the Cubans know they are not supposed to get involved and that we do and have said a bunch of times that all options are on the table” said Mulvaney during a conversation with FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo from the Milken Institute Global Conference Opens a New Window.
They are making it very clear that a full-blown invasion of Venezuela is a real possibility, and most Americans have absolutely no idea what that would mean.
We are talking about a conflict that would be several magnitudes greater than the Iraq war, and it could be right around the corner.
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.
On Thursday, rockets were fired at Tel Aviv for the first time since 2014, and Israel responded by hammering Hamas with airstrikes. This latest exchange has brought Israel closer to another war with Hamas than ever. But as you will see below, Israel is also on the brink of war with Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. And on top of everything else, the most pivotal election in Israel in many years is on April 9th. If more rockets are fired at Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot afford to look weak because that could cost him a lot of votes in this very tight election. But he must walk a very fine line, because a military response that is seen as too harsh could potentially spark a major regional conflict.
Everyone knows that Israel is simply not going to tolerate rockets being fired at Tel Aviv, and so it was quite a shock to learn what had happened on Thursday. The following comes from the Jerusalem Post…
The Israeli military confirmed that two rockets were fired towards central Israel on Thursday evening, with at least two loud explosions heard in the Gush Dan region.
According to the IDF, although the Iron Dome missile defense system was activated, there were no interceptions as both rockets fell in open territory.
It was the first time sirens were activated in Tel Aviv since the last war with Gaza in 2014 and several Israelis were treated for shock.
It was inevitable that there would be a substantial response from the Israeli military, and airstrikes were conducted very rapidly. According to Fox News, a Hamas naval base was one of the primary targets…
The strikes were occurring in Khan Younis, roughly 15 miles south of Gaza City, according to The Associated Press. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
A Hamas naval base was targeted, the outlet reported, citing Palestinian media.
Originally, Hamas had seemed to deny responsibility for the rocket attacks, but the IDF later confirmed that they were fired by Hamas…
We can confirm that the rockets fired from
#Gaza at#TelAviv earlier tonight were launched by the Hamas terrorist organization.
If Hamas doesn’t fire any more rockets, this will probably be the end of it for now.
But with Hamas, things are never truly over.
Meanwhile, Israel is also on the brink of war with Hezbollah in the north.
In recent days, Israel has been dealing with massive tunnels that Hezbollah has constructed for the purpose of rapidly moving military forces into northern Israel. So far, five tunnels have been discovered, but there are probably a lot more.
We are being told that the tunnels are absolutely enormous. Reportedly, they are large enough “to move heavy military equipment”…
For the first time since 1973, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confronts the very real prospect of a sizable incursion. Years of fighting alongside Russian and Iranian forces in Syria have transformed Hezbollah into a formidable military force capable of launching such a raid, relying on coordinated infantry, artillery, and even armor and drones. This represents a major leap from Hezbollah’s small hit-and-run tactics in the 2006 Lebanon war.
The tunnels are integral to this new threat. Built in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 prohibiting Hezbollah’s rearmament in this area, they are reportedly wide enough to move heavy military equipment and large troop units.
Hezbollah’s leadership continues to threaten Israel with a new war, and it has been estimated that they have built up an arsenal of approximately 150,000 missiles for the next conflict.
Israel is roughly the same size as New Jersey. Just imagine what would happen if 150,000 missiles were suddenly fired at towns and cities all over New Jersey, and you will have some idea of what Israel is potentially facing.
Of course the Israeli military is far superior to Hezbollah’s forces, but if Israel has to fight Hamas and Hezbollah simultaneously that would be a real challenge.
And then there is Syria. After eight years of civil war, you would think that Syria would have had enough fighting by now.
Unfortunately, as I pointed out in a previous article, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad just threatened to attack Israel if the Israelis do not leave the Golan Heights. The following comes from the Jerusalem Post…
Syria vowed to attack Israel unless it withdraws from the Golan Heights, World Israel News reported on Thursday.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad submitted an official warning to the head of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) Kristin Lund, in what seemed to be an attempt to prevent official US recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the Golan.
Can you imagine the stress that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must be going through right now? A major election is less than a month away and he is literally fighting for his political life, and meanwhile several of Israel’s neighbors appear to be preparing for war with his nation.
And Iran appears to be eager for a fight too. A few weeks ago, a top Iranian general threatened to completely wipe Israel off the map…
Asked by a reporter in Tehran about Israeli threats to strike Iranian forces deployed in Syria, Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami was quoted by Iranian news outlets as saying, “Our strategy is to erase Israel from the global political map. And it seems that, considering the evil that Israel is doing, it is bringing itself closer to that.”
He added: “We announce that if Israel does anything to start a new war, it will obviously be the war that will end with its elimination, and the occupied territories will be returned. The Israelis will not have even a cemetery in Palestine to bury their own corpses.”
And Netanyahu also seems to anticipate that a conflict with Iran is coming. The following comes from NBC News…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu startled Iranians and even the White House on Wednesday with a strident call for Israeli-Arab action against the government in Tehran that was translated by his office as urging “war with Iran.”
Although Israeli officials tried to soften the reference by altering the English translation, the provocative comment was likely to further the perception that Israel, its Gulf Arab neighbors and the United States are interested in using military action to topple the government of Iran.
I have been warning that a major war is coming in the Middle East for a long time, and now we are closer than ever.
Let us hope for peace, but as we have seen in the past, any peace in the region is always just temporary.
Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran are all fundamentally committed to the complete and total destruction of the state of Israel and nothing is going to change that. War is coming at some point, and it is going to be extremely bloody.
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.
The winds of war are blowing once again, and it isn’t going to take much to spark a major conflict in the Middle East. This week is the eighth anniversary of the beginning of the civil war in Syria, and after the nightmare that the people of Syria have been through, you would think that the Assad regime would be eager for peace. But instead, Assad appears to be ready to go for broke. If Syria can spark a Middle East war that results in the complete destruction of Israel, Assad would be remembered as a hero in the Islamic world forever. Instead of a legacy of civil war and crushing poverty, Assad’s legacy would be one of wartime leader that brought total victory over Syria’s most hated enemy. But of course such a conflict would be a huge risk, because if it went badly the city of Damascus would be completely flattened and the nation of Syria as we know it today would be entirely destroyed. And considering how overwhelmingly powerful the Israeli military is, it would seem to be a very foolish risk to take. Unfortunately, Assad does not appear to be thinking rationally. On Thursday, Syria officially threatened “to attack Israel unless it withdraws from the Golan Heights”. The following comes from the Jerusalem Post…
Syria vowed to attack Israel unless it withdraws from the Golan Heights, World Israel News reported on Thursday.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad submitted an official warning to the head of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) Kristin Lund, in what seemed to be an attempt to prevent official US recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the Golan.
Of course Israel is never going to leave the Golan Heights. We all know how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu feels, and on Monday his main opposition in the upcoming election expressed similar sentiments…
Blue and White party politicians Gabi Ashkenazi, Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz and Moshe Ya’alon visited the Golan Heights on Monday and vowed never to give it up.
“We will increase the numbers of residents in the Golan, sending a resounding message to all – we will never relinquish the Golan Heights,” Gantz said.
Let us hope that Syria is bluffing, because if Syria attacks the Golan Heights it will start a war.
And it is a war that Syria could not possibly hope to win on their own. But Assad doesn’t plan to take on Israel by himself.
Over the last several months, Israel has repeatedly attacked Iranian forces inside Syria. The Iranians have been fighting on Assad’s side in the Syrian civil war, and the Israelis are afraid that when everything is all said and done that the nation of Syria will end up being totally dominated by Iran. The following comes from Haaretz…
For Iran, its domination of Syria is key to achieving its long-standing dream of a “Shiite crescent,” extending through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, to the Mediterranean and of establishing a permanent ground, air and naval presence on Israel’s border. Iran’s ability to do so has been impeded to date only by the small and dwindling U.S. force in eastern Syria and hundreds of Israeli airstrikes that have, so far, successfully thwarted Iran’s efforts.
Although Israel has become a powerful and essentially secure state, capable of demonstrating restraint in the face of the many challenges it faces, this would constitute a dire and unacceptable change in the balance of power, one that Israel cannot tolerate and must prevent – even at the expense of war.
The Iranians have stated that they are no longer going to tolerate Israeli airstrikes, and their military leadership is fully ready to go to war. If war does erupt between Israel and Syria, it seems very unlikely that Iran would stay out of it.
And without a doubt, Iranian targets would be among the first to get hit in a war between Israel and Syria, and the Netanyahu administration has been very clear that Israel is preparing for a war with Iran…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu startled Iranians and even the White House on Wednesday with a strident call for Israeli-Arab action against the government in Tehran that was translated by his office as urging “war with Iran.”
Although Israeli officials tried to soften the reference by altering the English translation, the provocative comment was likely to further the perception that Israel, its Gulf Arab neighbors and the United States are interested in using military action to topple the government of Iran. It comes at a particularly delicate moment, as the Trump administration uses a U.S.-organized summit in Warsaw and this week’s 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution to try to rally the world against the government in Tehran.
Such a war would be incredibly bloody, and the moment that missiles began to fall on Tel Aviv the Israelis would not hesitate to use nukes on Damascus and Tehran.
Let us hope that cooler heads prevail.
Meanwhile, the situation in Venezuela continues to unravel as well. Sunday was the fourth day for the nationwide blackout, and Nicolas Maduro is blaming the failure of the power grid on a U.S. cyberattack…
Socialist President Nicolas Maduro – who is facing a challenge to his rule by the leader of the opposition-led congress, Juan Guaido – has blamed the blackout on an act of “sabotage” by the United States at the Guri hydroelectric dam, but experts say it is the outcome of years of underinvestment.
“The national electrical system has been subject to multiple cyberattacks,” Maduro wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “However, we are making huge efforts to restore stable and definitive supply in the coming hours.”
Hopefully the U.S. was not behind the cyberattack, because a cyberattack is an act of war.
And since nobody has asked the U.S. Congress for permission to go to war, such an attack would be in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution.
In addition, relations with North Korea are rapidly deteriorating as well. In fact, Kim Jong-Un appears to be preparing to provoke the U.S. by launching a missile…
Following President Donald Trump’s stalemate talks with Kim Jong-Un, it appears North Korea may be preparing to launch a missile or rocket some time soon.
Earlier this week North Korea sparked outrage after satellite images revealed the nation was ‘rapidly rebuilding’ its Sohae Launch Facility, a long-range missile launch site.
New images reveal activity may have also resumed at a second site near Pyongyang, known as Sanumdong, where intercontinental ballistic missiles and satellite-launching rockets are assembled.
We truly do live at a time of “wars and rumors of wars”, and this could very easily be a year of war for the United States.
Unfortunately, our military is not in very good shape right now. In fact, in RAND’s recent “simulated World War III scenarios” the U.S. just kept on losing…
In simulated World War III scenarios, the U.S. continues to lose against Russia and China, two top war planners warned last week. “In our games, when we fight Russia and China, blue gets its ass handed to it” RAND analyst David Ochmanek said Thursday.
RAND’s wargames show how US Armed Forces – colored blue on wargame maps – experience the most substantial losses in one scenario after another and still can’t thwart Russia or China – which predictably is red – from accomplishing their objectives: annihilating Western forces.
“We lose a lot of people. We lose a lot of equipment. We usually fail to achieve our objective of preventing aggression by the adversary,” he warned.
Over the past decade, the U.S. military has been dramatically transformed, and not for the better.
But even if our military was in the condition that it should be, we should still not desire war, because in this day and age weapons of mass destruction have made full-blown war between major powers absolutely unthinkable.
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.
A respected foreign journalist living in Ukraine is warning that a war that most Americans cannot even imagine “teeters on the razor thin edge of becoming real”. When Russia opened fire on Ukrainian Navy vessels and captured three of their ships, it made headlines all over the globe. An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was hastily arranged for Monday at 11 AM, and hopefully there will be a positive outcome from that meeting. Because right now Moscow and Kiev are on the brink of war, and once a Russian invasion happens there will be no turning back. At that point the U.S. would have a major decision to make, and if we chose to defend Ukraine that could mean that we would suddenly find ourselves fighting World War 3.
Most people don’t realize that this crisis has been simmering for over a week. The following is from a U.S. News & World Report article that was posted on November 19th…
A dispute over shipping lanes is threatening to reignite the 4-year-old simmering war between Ukraine and Russia following confrontations sparked by both sides in recent days.
Russian border guards on Monday detained Ukrainian fishing vessels in the Sea of Azov, a strategically important body of water contained to the north by Ukraine, to the west by the Crimean Peninsula and to the east and south by Russia. Monday’s incident came days after Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed Kiev for detaining Russian commercial ships also in the Azov in what he described as “a totally illegal move” and which Kremlin officials have warned may prompt retaliation.
When you realize what has already taken place, it puts the most recent events in an entirely different context.
The Russians blocked the Kerch Strait in retaliation for having had their own commercial vessels detained by the Ukrainian government.
And when the Ukrainians decided to test the Russians by sailing Ukrainian Navy vessels into the Kerch Strait, the Russians decided not to back down. The following comes from Sky News…
Russia has opened fire on Ukrainian ships and captured three vessels in a major escalation of tensions off the coast of Crimea.
Three sailors have been wounded after the Ukrainian navy said two artillery boats were hit by the strikes in the Black Sea.
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko called an emergency session of his war cabinet and said he will propose that parliament declare martial law.
So the truth is that neither side is exactly “innocent” in this situation.
The Kerch Strait is absolutely critical, because it is the only way into and out of the Azov Sea…
The strait connects the Azov Sea with the Black Sea and runs between the Crimean Peninsula and Russia. It’s a shallow, narrow stretch of water just two to three miles (3.2 to 4.8 kilometers) wide at one point near the Chuska landspit.
The strait is an important economic lifeline for Ukraine, as it allows ships leaving the port city of Mariupol to access the Black Sea.
It’s also the the closest point of access for Russia to Crimea, a peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014. The international community has largely not recognized Russia’s annexation of Crimea, but that did not stop Russia from building a bridge over the Kerch Strait connecting Crimea to mainland Russia. The Kerch Strait bridge was opened in May.
In addition to asking for a declaration of martial law, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has also been gathering with his top military leaders. Poroshenko is pledging that Ukraine will not take any “offensive” military actions, but he also says that they are ready to defend against any attacks from Russia.
The Russians are accusing Poroshenko of manipulating this crisis in order to pump up his flagging approval ratings for the upcoming presidential elections. There is a very real possibility that Poroshenko could lose, and he is desperate to stay in office.
Of course the Ukrainians are blaming Russia for everything, and Poroshenko says that what happened on Sunday “was an act of war”…
Finally, Ukraine has called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting over ‘Russian aggression’ while Ukraine’s secretary for national security, Oleksander Turchynov, accused Russia of engaging in an act of war: “We heard reports on incident and have concluded that it was an act of war by Russian Federation against Ukraine”.
At this point, it is unclear what the Russians will do next.
Hopefully they will see that a full-blown invasion of Ukraine would not be wise.
But if they decide that such a war is inevitable, they will move with lightning speed as we have seen in other conflicts. For example, Russia had already annexed Crimea before the rest of the world even started talking about it. And we all remember what happened in Georgia.
If and when Russia finally pulls the trigger, their forces will be halfway to Kiev before the mainstream media in the western world even realizes what is happening.
And if Russia does invade, the Trump administration will be under tremendous pressure from Republicans, Democrats and other NATO members to intervene. Already, there has been some very tough talk from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo…
It’s yet unclear how far the U.S. is willing to go in support for Ukraine. In a joint statement after Klimkin’s meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week, both sides “condemned Russia’s aggressive actions against international shipping transiting the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait to Ukrainian ports” and agreed that “Russia’s aggressive activities in the Sea of Azov have brought new security, economic, social, and environmental threats to the entire Azov-Black Sea region.”
But if we directly intervene in a military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, that could very easily trigger World War 3.
Most Americans are not concerned that a conflict between Russia and Ukraine could potentially affect the United States, but the threat is very real. In fact, according to foreign correspondent Nolan Peterson such a war “teeters on the razor thin edge of becoming real”…
This is the most dangerous moment I’ve seen in Ukraine in years. Tonight, a war that many people in America can only imagine thanks to Hollywood movies, teeters on the razor thin edge of becoming real. Tonight in Ukraine we go to sleep not knowing what tomorrow will bring.
Let us hope for peace, because right now the world is becoming a more chaotic place with each passing day…
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is publisher of The Most Important News and the author of four books including The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters.
Could it be possible that the U.S. is heading for a major war? If you ask most Americans that question, they will look at you like you are crazy. For most people in this country, war with either Russia or China is not something to even be remotely concerned about. But the Russians and the Chinese both see things very differently. As you will see below, Russia and China both seem to be under the impression that war with the United States is coming, and they are both rapidly preparing for such a conflict.
Let’s start with Russia. After repeatedly slapping them with sanctions, endlessly demonizing their leaders and blaming them for just about every problem that you can imagine, our relationship with Russia is about the worst that it has ever been.
And when the Trump administration announced that it was withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, that pushed things to a new low. In the aftermath of that announcement, Russian official Andrei Belousov boldly declared that “Russia is preparing for war”…
He said: “Here recently at the meeting, the United States said that Russia is preparing for war.
“Yes, Russia is preparing for war, I have confirmed it.
“We are preparing to defend our homeland, our territorial integrity, our principles, our values, our people – we are preparing for such a war.”
Here in the United States, there is very little talk of a potential war with Russia in the mainstream media, but in Russia things are very different. Russian news outlets are constantly addressing escalating tensions with the United States, and the Russian government has been adding fuel to that fire. For example, the Russian government recently released a video of a mock nuclear strike against their “enemies”…
Russian submarines have recently carried out a mock nuclear attack against their “enemies.” The Russian government has released footage of the atomic strike and it is sparking fears that the third world war is quickly approaching.
The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has published shocking videos that show a range of nuclear missile drills including a submarine carrying out a mock atomic strike. These videos are the latest in a series of escalating war-games ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to The Express UK.
I’ll give you just one guess as to who the primary enemy in that drill was.
And what Russian President Vladimir Putin recently told the press about a potential nuclear war was extremely chilling…
If any nation decides to attack Russia with nuclear weapons, it may end life on Earth; but unlike the aggressors, the Russians are sure to go to heaven, President Vladimir Putin has said.
“Any aggressor should know that retribution will be inevitable and he will be destroyed. And since we will be the victims of his aggression, we will be going to heaven as martyrs. They will simply drop dead, won’t even have time to repent,” Putin said during a session of the Valdai Club in Sochi.
Under normal circumstances, Putin would never talk like that.
But these are not normal times.
Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping is ordering his military to focus on “preparations for fighting a war”…
China’s President Xi Jinping ordered the military region responsible for monitoring the South China Sea and Taiwan to “assess the situation it is facing and boost its capabilities so it can handle any emergency” as tensions continue to mount over the future of the South China Sea and Taiwan, while diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing hit rock bottom.
The Southern Theatre Command has had to bear a “heavy military responsibility” in recent years, state broadcaster CCTV quoted Xi as saying during an inspection tour made on Thursday as part of his visit to Guangdong province.
“It’s necessary to strengthen the mission … and concentrate preparations for fighting a war,” Xi said. “We need to take all complex situations into consideration and make emergency plans accordingly. “We have to step up combat readiness exercises, joint exercises and confrontational exercises to enhance servicemen’s capabilities and preparation for war” the president-for-life added.
So who are the Chinese concerned that they may be fighting against?
Needless to say, the United States is at the top of the list…
The president instructed the military to ramp-up opposition to ‘freedom of navigation’ exercises being undertaken by the US, Australia, France, the UK, Japan and others through the waterway through which arterial shipping lanes have grown since the end of World War II.
Tensions over the South China Sea have been increasing for several years, and starting a trade war with China in 2018 has certainly not helped things.
At this point, even many U.S. analysts can see the writing on the wall. For instance, just consider what Harvard Professor Graham Allison recently told Steve LeVine…
He said, if history holds, the U.S. and China appeared headed toward war.
Over the weekend, I asked him for an update — specifically whether the danger of the two going to war seems to have risen.
“Yes,” he responded. The chance of war is still less than 50%, but “is real — and much more likely than is generally recognized.”
Of course we didn’t get to this point overnight. Tensions with Russia and China have been simmering for quite a while, and both of those nations have been rapidly modernizing their military forces. For much more on this, please see my recent article entitled “Russia And China Are Developing Impressive New Weapons Systems As They Prepare For War Against The United States”.
Sadly, the vast majority of the U.S. population is utterly clueless about these things.
But those that are serving in the military have a much better understanding, and one recent survey found that about half of them expect the U.S. to be “drawn into a new war within the next year”…
Nearly half of all current military troops believe the United States will be drawn into a major war soon, a jarring rise in anxiety among service members worried about global instability in general and Russia and China in particular, according to a new Military Times poll of active-duty troops.
About 46 percent of troops who responded to the anonymous survey of currently serving Military Times readers said they believe the U.S. will be drawn into a new war within the next year. That’s a jarring increase from only about 5 percent who said the same thing in a similar poll conducted in September 2017.
Those numbers are jarring.
Some major stuff must be going on behind the scenes in order to go from 5 percent to 46 percent in a single year.
We truly are living in apocalyptic times, and our world seems to be getting more unstable with each passing day.
We should hope for peace, but throughout human history peace has never lasted for long. Major global powers continue to edge closer and closer to conflict, and that is a very dangerous game to be playing.
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is publisher of The Most Important News and the author of four books including The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters.
The Last Days Warrior Summit is the premier online event of 2018 for Christians, Conservatives and Patriots. It is a premium members-only international event that will empower and equip you with the knowledge and tools that you need as global events begin to escalate dramatically. The speaker list includes Michael Snyder, Mike Adams, Dave Daubenmire, Ray Gano, Dr. Daniel Daves, Gary Kah, Justus Knight, Doug Krieger, Lyn Leahz, Laura Maxwell and many more. Full summit access will begin on October 25th, and if you would like to register for this unprecedented event you can do so right here.
After North Korea successfully tested a hydrogen bomb on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis warned that the United States is more than capable of “the total annihilation of a country”. Unfortunately, the North Koreans may have already gotten to the point where they are capable of the same thing. Just a handful of North Korean nukes could kill millions of people and render the largest cities in South Korea or Japan completely uninhabitable, and so a nuclear war with the North Koreans should be avoided at all costs. Sadly, global events seem to be relentlessly pulling us in that direction.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a magnitude-6.3 earthquake was registered in North Korea at the same time that the North Koreans claim that they conducted a “perfect” test of a hydrogen bomb. This test was reportedly 10 times more powerful than North Korea’s last nuclear test, and the North Koreans are also claiming that this bomb was small enough to be fitted on an inter-continental ballistic missile.
North Korea should have never been allowed to get to this point. But the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations just kept kicking the can down the road year after year, and now we are facing a crisis with no good solution. Because it is absolutely unthinkable for us to allow North Korea to have an entire fleet of nuclear missiles capable of hitting targets in the United States, but it is also absolutely unthinkable to start a war in which potentially tens of millions of people could die.
North Korea is honeycombed with very deep underground tunnels. Even if we knew exactly how many nukes North Korea has, and even if we knew where they all were, there is still no possible way that we could get them all with a first strike.
But even if we could, North Korea is entirely capable of killing millions in South Korea and Japan with chemical, biological and conventional weapons. Before he left the White House, Steven Bannon had the following to say about the situation that we are facing on the Korean peninsula…
“Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that ten million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us,” Bannon told the American Prospect.
In this case, Bannon is exactly correct, and any members of Congress that would suggest differently are simply lying to you.
At this moment, there is no military solution to the North Korean crisis, but our top military leaders continue to talk as if there is…
US Defense Secretary James Mattis vowed “a massive military response” to any threat from North Korea against the United States or its allies in a statement outside the White House after a meeting with President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and top national security advisers Sunday.
Mattis said Trump wanted to be briefed on each of the “many military options” for dealing with the North Korean nuclear threat.
In fact, Mattis went so far as to suggest that the “total annihilation” of North Korea is a potential option…
“We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea, but as I said, we have many options to do so.”
As he was leaving church on Sunday, President Trump also suggested that a pre-emptive strike on North Korea is very much on the table…
As he left church, Trump was asked, “Will you attack North Korea?”
Trump answered, “We’ll see.”
In addition, on Twitter Trump warned that he was considering “stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea”…
The United States is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea.
Of course China is North Korea’s biggest trade partner, and if we immediately tried to cut off all trade with China it would throw the global economy into a nightmare scenario.
But a trade war with China is not our only concern. Last month, The Global Times (a Chinese state newspaper) threatened the United States with a shooting war if it attempted to bring about regime change in North Korea…
‘If the US and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so.’
This is the tensest that things have been on the Korean peninsula since the Korean War ended in 1953.
One false move and literally tens of millions of people could die.
Most Americans have absolutely no idea what a military conflict with North Korea would mean. We are talking about death and destruction on a scale that would be absolutely unprecedented. The following is an excerpt from one of my previous articles…
Could you imagine what would happen if a North Korean nuke hit Tokyo or Seoul?
Even one nuke could kill millions in those densely populated cities, and financial markets all over the world would almost instantly implode.
And North Korea also has some of the largest chemical and biological weapons stockpiles on the entire planet. Within moments of an attack, thousands of North Korean artillery pieces and rockets would start raining fire on Seoul, and even just a few chemical or biological warheads would cause immense devastation in that city of about 10 million people.
In addition, North Korean forces are poised to invade South Korea at literally any moment, and the only way that South Korea could survive such an invasion would be direct intervention by U.S. forces.
On top of everything else, what if the North Koreans were able to successfully launch a nuke or two toward our major cities? Or what if they already have the technology to set off an EMP blast high in the atmosphere above the continental United States? Or what if their agents that are already embedded here start releasing biological agents in our major cities?
These are nightmare scenarios that most Americans never even consider, but they would be very real possibilities in the event that we go to war with North Korea.
Sometimes a military option is the best option, but this is not one of those cases.
There is no way that a military strike on North Korea would end well, and our top brass already knows this.
So let us hope that cooler heads prevail, because at this moment we are literally standing on the brink of World War 3.
Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.
On August 21st, approximately 25,000 U.S. troops will join “tens of thousands” from the South Korean military to conduct a “major military exercise” that is already triggering threats from North Korea. Considering the fact that any sort of provocation could cause a nuclear war to erupt on the Korean peninsula, is this really a wise thing to do? The more research that I do on this upcoming solar eclipse, the stranger things become. When I first started hearing about this eclipse many months ago, I didn’t pay too much attention, but now after looking into it extensively I do believe that it is going to be quite significant.
And I didn’t even know about this major military exercise that will happen during the eclipse until today. The following comes from MSN…
The U.S. military is preparing to launch a major military exercise with South Korea in coming days, and faces a dangerous balancing act: How do you reassure allies in the region that you are ready for a war with North Korea without provoking an actual conflict in the process?
The annual Ulchi-Freedom Guardian exercise is scheduled for 10 days beginning Aug. 21, and will include about 25,000 U.S. troops along with tens of thousands of South Koreans. The exercise focuses on defending South Korea against an attack from the north, and each year triggers threats and rebukes from North Korea. But it comes at an especially sensitive time now, following the exchange of a series of threats between President Trump and North Korea.
Another thing that we just found out is that meteorologists are warning that a major hurricane could potentially start approaching the east coast of the United States during the time of the solar eclipse. It has been almost 12 years since a major hurricane made landfall in this country, and so it is very odd that this would be happening all of a sudden.
As I have discussed previously, many believe that the upcoming solar eclipse and the 40 day period that follows may be some type of “warning” for America. And traditionally, this 40 day period has been a time of repentance for the people of Israel…
On August 21, a total solar eclipse will mark a trail from the Northwest US to the Southeast Atlantic Seaboard. The eclipse will occur on the last day of the Hebrew month Av, a day known as Yom Kippur Katan, the “small day of repentance.” The morning after the eclipse, Jews will begin blowing the shofar every morning for a 40-day period of profound repentance leading up to Yom Kippur. This corresponds to the 40 days Moses was on Mount Sinai atoning for the Jewish people.
It is also very interesting to note that this eclipse comes exactly 33 days before the “Revelation 12 sign” that will appear in the heavens on September 23rd. The first state that the solar eclipse of August 21st will cross will be Oregon, and many have noted that Oregon is our 33rd state. And the solar eclipse will finish crossing the nation on the 33rd parallel in the state of South Carolina.
So is that just a coincidence?
It might be.
Another extremely interesting fact is that the very first large city that the path of the eclipse will cross is Salem, Oregon. Of course Salem is short for Jerusalem, and it turns out that the path of the eclipse will reach Salem at just about the same time that the sun is setting in Jerusalem.
Another coincidence?
Maybe.
Seven years after the eclipse on August 21st, another one will cross our nation in 2024. Together, the paths of those two eclipses will mark a giant “X” directly over the middle part of the country. And amazingly, the combined time of the totality of those two eclipses will be seven minutes.
And this eclipse is just the beginning. Over the subsequent 40 days there are quite a few critical events that people are buzzing about. The following list comes from one of my previous articles…
August 23 – A FEMA exercise known as “EarthEX2017” will simulate “catastrophes such as mega earthquakes, cyber terrorism or high altitude electromagnetic pulse attacks”…
An exercise sponsored by FEMA and the U.S. Department of Energy set to take place on August 23 called EarthEX2017 will wargame responses to catastrophes such as mega earthquakes, cyber terrorism or high altitude electromagnetic pulse attacks.
The exercise will simulate a “subcontinent-scale, long duration power outage, with cascading failures of all other infrastructures,” according to the official Earth Ex website.
“Black sky events” are defined as, “Catastrophic occurrences caused by man or nature that bring society to its knees.”
September 1 – This marks the start of FEMA’s annual “National Preparedness Month“.
September 1 – The U.S. State Department’s ban on U.S. citizens traveling into North Korea goes into effect. Many are concerned that this is yet another sign that we are moving toward war with North Korea.
September 11 – This will be the 16th anniversary of 9/11.
September 20 – Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset.
September 21 – The UN International Day Of Peace
September 23 – This is the date of what has become known as “the Revelation 12 sign”. If you are not familiar with this alignment yet, the following is a very brief summary…
On September 23rd a unique astronomical alignment of the Sun, Moon, constellation Virgo, constellation Leo, and planets Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Venus is going to fulfill this passage from the book of Revelation:
And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.
September 24 – Very important national elections will be held in Germany.
September 29 – Yom Kippur begins at sunset, and it concludes on September 30th. Of course September 30th will be the end of a 40 day period that began back on the day of the Great American Eclipse on August 21st.
September 29 – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says that the debt ceiling will be breached on this day if Congress does not raise it by then.
September 30 – If Congress does not pass a budget by the end of this day, there will be a government shutdown just like we witnessed in 2013.
And all of this comes at a time when anger, hatred and racial tension are reaching a fever pitch in this country.
Let us pray for peace both at home and abroad, because at this moment we are rapidly approaching a boiling point.
Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.
Should the U.S. take military action against North Korea? If you ask many Americans this question, they will tell you that we should, but as you will see below some of those same people cannot even find North Korea on a map of the world. And most Americans seem to have no idea that if we start bombing North Korea that it could literally start World War 3. The North Koreans have warned us that if we strike them they will respond by firing missiles at South Korea, Japan, Guam and potentially even targets in the continental United States. It would be a war in which potentially millions of people could die, and in the end there would be no “winner”. If a single North Korean nuke detonated in Seoul, Tokyo or another major city, it would be a disaster on a scale never seen before in modern human history.
So we should definitely not enter into a conflict with North Korea lightly. But according to a poll that just came out, 62 percent of Americans consider North Korea to be a “very serious threat”, and 50 percent favor “the U.S. taking military action against North Korea in response to its development and testing of weapons that could reach the U.S. mainland”.
Right now, the Trump administration is definitely stuck between a rock and a hard place. Because North Korea already has missiles that can reach the continental United States, and they are working on developing an entire fleet of ICBMs that would be capable of wiping out the entire nation. But like I discussed in the opening paragraph, a direct military strike risks the chance of starting the most catastrophic war in modern history.
Sadly, most Americans know very little about North Korea or about why it is important. In fact, Jimmy Kimmel discovered that many Americans cannot even find it on a map of the world…
I hope that people start waking up, because we are getting closer to war with North Korea with each passing day.
Earlier this week, President Trump threatened North Korea with “fire and fury” if the North Koreans didn’t back down.
North Korea almost immediately responded by threatening to bomb our military bases on Guam.
In response to that threat, President Trump promised to do things to North Korea that “they never thought possible”…
‘Maybe it wasn’t tough enough. They’ve been doing this to our country for a long time, for many years, and it’s about time that somebody stuck up for the people of this country and for the people of other countries,’ Trump countered. ‘So if anything, maybe that statement wasn’t tough enough.’
Trump said Kim Jong-Un should be ‘very, very nervous’ about U.S. retaliation. ‘Because things will happen to them like they never thought possible, OK?’ he said.
Not too long after that, the North Koreans responded with an angry statement that promised “a shameful defeat and final doom” for the United States…
Moments ago, North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency responded to the latest iteration of mutually-assured threats of destruction, blasting that it will “mercilessly wipe out the provocateurs making desperate attempts to stifle socialist country” and adds that “the U.S. will suffer a shameful defeat and final doom if it persists in extreme military adventure, sanctions and pressure.”
This exchange would probably be humorous if millions of lives were not hanging in the balance.
In the end, President Trump is going to have a decision to make, because the North Koreans are not going to back down in this nuclear game of chicken. In fact, they have already clearly stated that there will be no negotiations when it comes to their nuclear weapons program…
‘We will, under no circumstances, put the nukes and ballistic rockets on the negotiating table,’ North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said, effectively declining to engage in talks about the nuclear program.
So either President Trump is going to have to back down, take military action or find another way to deal with North Korea’s nukes.
Let there be no doubt – the North Korean people are fully prepared for war. They are trained to hate America from birth, and enmity toward our nation is one of the key pillars of their society.
This week, a massive rally was held in Kim Il-sung Square that was intended to demonstrate their solidarity…
TENS of thousands of North Koreans have been pictured raising their fists in a show of strength at a mass rally yesterday after Donald Trump threatened to destroy the regime.
Incredible snaps show Kim Il-sung Square in the capital Pyongyang filled with people carrying placards plastered with propaganda slogans.
Party supporters carried signs with messages like “Strike the United States with nuclear thunderbolt!”, “Those who touch us will not escape death” and “A revenge attack of annihilation”.
Even though many Americans are completely oblivious to what is going on, that is not the case in Japan. Patriot missiles are being moved into position in Tokyo, and sales of bomb shelters are going through the roof…
Pictures show how a PAC-3 Patriot missile unit has been moved in to a compound at the Defence Ministry in the capital after officials said they could shoot down North Korean rockets if they pass overhead.
Sales of bomb shelters in Japan are said to have increased as tensions continue to rise in the region while officials in Seoul have vowed to bolster their defences. But South Korean citizens – long accustomed to its neighbour’s fearsome rhetoric – are staying remarkably calm as the crisis unfolds, it has been reported.
Officials in Hawaii, meanwhile, say they are working on how to warn its 1.4million residents in the event of an attack.
Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, but I have been saying this for quite a while now and yet we continue to move toward war.
Yes, the United States could defeat North Korea militarily, but in the process millions (or even tens of millions) of people could die, and such an outcome is absolutely unthinkable.
Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.
Are we on the verge of a nuclear war with North Korea? It has now been confirmed that North Korea has successfully created a miniaturized nuclear warhead, and last month they tested a missile that can reach at least half of the continental United States. Since 1994 the U.S. has been trying to stop North Korea’s nuclear program, and every effort to do so has completely failed. Last September, the North Koreans detonated a nuclear device that was estimated to be in the 20 to 30 kiloton range, and back in January President Trump pledged to stop the North Koreans before they would ever have the capability to deliver such a weapon to U.S. cities. But now the North Koreans have already achieved that goal, and they plan to ultimately create an entire fleet of ICBMs capable of hitting every city in America.
Right now, North Korea and the Trump administration are locked in a game of nuclear chicken. Kim Jong Un’s regime is never, ever, ever going to give up their nuclear weapons program, and so that means that either Donald Trump is going to have to back down, find another way to deal with North Korea, or use military force to eliminate their nuclear threat.
And time is quickly running out for Trump to make a decision, because now that North Korea has the ability to produce miniaturized nuclear warheads, the game has completely changed. The following comes from the Washington Post…
North Korea has successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles, crossing a key threshold on the path to becoming a full-fledged nuclear power, U.S. intelligence officials have concluded in a confidential assessment.
The new analysis completed last month by the Defense Intelligence Agency comes on the heels of another intelligence assessment that sharply raises the official estimate for the total number of bombs in the communist country’s atomic arsenal. The U.S. calculated last month that up to 60 nuclear weapons are now controlled by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Some independent experts believe the number of bombs is much smaller.
The truth is that nobody actually knows how many nukes North Korea has at this point, and they are pumping out more all the time.
Yes, the Trump administration could order an absolutely devastating military strike on North Korea. But if the North Koreans even get off one nuke in response, it will be the greatest disaster for humanity since at least World War II.
But at this point Trump doesn’t sound like someone that intends to back down. In fact, on Tuesday he threatened North Korea with “fire and fury” if they keep threatening us…
“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Trump said from the clubhouse at his golf course in Bedminster, N.J. “He has been very threatening beyond a normal state, and as I said they will be met with the fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.”
In response to Trump’s comments, the North Koreans threatened to hit Guam with a pre-emptive strike…
If Trump thought that his bluff would be sufficient to finally shut up North Korea, and put an end to Kim’s provocative behavior, well… bluff called because North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency reported moments ago that not only did N.Korea escalate the tensions up another notch, but explicitly warned that it could carry out a “pre-emptive operation once the US shows signs of provocation”, and that it is “seriously considering a strategy to strike Guam with mid-to-long range missiles.”
Most Americans appear to be completely oblivious to the seriousness of this crisis. Once we hit North Korea, they will respond. A single nuke could potentially kill millions in Tokyo, Japan or Seoul, South Korea. And the North Koreans also have some of the largest chemical and biological weapons stockpiles on the entire planet. If things take a bad turn, we could see death and destruction on a scale that is absolutely unprecedented.
And if the North Koreans launch an invasion of South Korea, we will instantly be committed to a new Korean War and thousands upon thousands of our young men and women will be sent over there to fight and die.
There is no possible way that a military conflict with North Korea is going to end well. If things go badly, millions could die, and if things go really badly tens of millions of people could end up dead.
But members of the Trump administration continue to insist that “a military option” is on the table…
In an interview broadcast Saturday on MSNBC’s Hugh Hewitt Show, national security adviser H.R. McMaster said the prospect of a North Korea armed with nuclear-tipped ICBMs would be “intolerable, from the president’s perspective.”
“We have to provide all options . . . and that includes a military option,” he said.
Of course letting North Korea construct an entire fleet of ICBMs that could endanger the entire planet is not exactly a palatable option either. The Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations all kicked the can down the road year after year, and now we facing a nightmare problem that does not appear to have a good solution.
Unfortunately for Trump, time has now run out and a decision has to be made…
“Today is the day that we can definitely say North Korea is a nuclear power,” Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest, told USA TODAY. “There is no more time to stick our heads in the sand and think we have months or years to confront this challenge.”
Let us pray that a way can be found to derail North Korea’s nuclear program that does not involve us going to war.
Because the moment that U.S. forces start striking North Korea, the North Koreans could literally unleash hell if they are inclined to do so.
It appears that we are now closer to nuclear war than we have been at any point since the Cuban missile crisis. A nuclear holocaust was avoided back then, and hopefully a way will be found to avoid one now.
Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.
We are just inches away from the outbreak of World War III, and yet most Americans seem completely oblivious to what is happening. On Friday, North Korea conducted a missile test which proved that it now has the capability of hitting major U.S. cities in the western half of the country. Every diplomatic effort to end North Korea’s nuclear program has completely failed, the Chinese have shown that they do not intend to do much of anything to intervene in this crisis, and the United Nations is a dead end. Given enough time, the North Koreans will build hundreds of ICBMs capable of delivering nukes to cities all over America, and the Trump administration has already indicated that they will never accept this. If no other way can be found to derail North Korea’s nuclear program, President Trump will almost certainly order a military strike, and that could set off a war in which millions could die.
Personally, I am stunned that North Korea’s missile test on Friday didn’t receive more attention from the mainstream media, because the truth is that this was the biggest step toward war on the Korean peninsula since 1953…
After North Korea’s missile launch on Friday, the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists shared its fears that the country’s latest weapon had the capacity to reach major US cities.
When it launched the missile on Friday, North Korea aimed it on a high trajectory which allowed the weapon to crash in to the Sea of Japan.
The ground range of the test was 6,500 miles, according to multiple agencies, and it had a flight time of around 47 minutes.
If the missile had been fired at a standard trajectory, it could have easily reached Los Angeles, Denver or Chicago.
In other words, more than half the continental United States is now within range of North Korean missiles…
Preliminary data from the launch reveals that half, if not most, of the continental U.S. would be in range of the missile tested Friday.
“Looks like it pretty much can get to New York, Boston and probably falls just short of Washington,” David Wright, co-director and senior scientist for the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told CNBC.
This is supposed to be a red line for President Trump, and it will be extremely interesting to see how he responds in the days ahead.
On Twitter, Trump sounded like a man that is completely out of patience with North Korea…
“Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!”
In addition to Trump, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley is also indicating that time for diplomatic maneuvering has run out…
“The time for talk is over. The danger the North Korean regime poses to international peace is now clear to all.”
The Trump administration has already made it very clear that they will not be going to the UN Security Council with this matter because they believe that would be a dead end.
At this point, the available options for dealing with North Korea are narrowing rapidly, and direct military action appears to be gaining favor. In fact, General Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy released a statement on Saturday night warning that the U.S. is ready to use “rapid, lethal and overwhelming force”…
The U.S. and its allies are prepared to use “rapid, lethal and overwhelming force,” if necessary, against North Korea, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces warned Saturday night.
The statement from Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, U.S. Pacific Air Forces commander, came after the militaries of the U.S., South Korea and Japan spent 10 hours conducting bomber-jet drills over the Korean Peninsula.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced that American citizens are now banned from traveling to North Korea. That is the kind of action that you would take just prior to a war.
But an attack on North Korea would not be easy. We don’t even know exactly how many nuclear weapons they actually have, and they are promising to start launching nukes if we choose to strike them…
“If the Yankees . . . dare brandish the nuclear stick on this land again . . . the DPRK will clearly teach them manners with the nuclear strategic force,” the spokesman said.
North Korea is honeycombed with underground tunnels and bunkers. There is no possible way that we could hit all of their nukes on a first strike, and if the North Koreans even get off a single nuke in response it is going to be an unprecedented disaster.
Could you imagine what would happen if a North Korean nuke hit Tokyo or Seoul?
Even one nuke could kill millions in those densely populated cities, and financial markets all over the world would almost instantly implode.
And North Korea also has some of the largest chemical and biological weapons stockpiles on the entire planet. Within moments of an attack, thousands of North Korean artillery pieces and rockets would start raining fire on Seoul, and even just a few chemical or biological warheads would cause immense devastation in that city of about 10 million people.
In addition, North Korean forces are poised to invade South Korea at literally any moment, and the only way that South Korea could survive such an invasion would be direct intervention by U.S. forces.
On top of everything else, what if the North Koreans were able to successfully launch a nuke or two toward our major cities? Or what if they already have the technology to set off an EMP blast high in the atmosphere above the continental United States? Or what if their agents that are already embedded here start releasing biological agents in our major cities?
These are nightmare scenarios that most Americans never even consider, but they would be very real possibilities in the event that we go to war with North Korea.
I just don’t see how a direct military conflict with North Korea could possibly end well. For those that still doubt this, please consider the words of General Mark Milley…
“A war in the Korean Peninsula would be highly deadly. It would be horrific,” warned Gen. Milley. “The United States military along with the South Korean military would utterly destroy the North Korean military — but that would be done at high cost.”
“But we are at a point in time where tough choices will have to be made,” he continued. “We are going to have to make conscious decisions that are going to have significant consequences and I will just stop there. It’s not going to be a pretty picture — I can tell you that. It’s going to be very violent.“
A war with North Korea would be the most disastrous event for our planet since World War II, and it is something that we want to avoid at all costs.
Unfortunately, events are moving us in the direction of such a war very rapidly now, and it is very difficult to see how we are going to avoid such a scenario.
Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.
Is the escalating conflict in Syria setting the stage for World War III with Russia? On Sunday, a U.S. Navy F-18 shot down a Syrian Army SU-22 near Raqqa. This represents a major escalation by U.S. forces, because this is the very first time that the U.S. military has shot down a Syrian warplane since the civil war began back in 2011. Needless to say, the Russians were not pleased by this at all. In fact, according to the Independent the Russians have just announced that all U.S. warplanes flying over Syria will now be treated as “targets” by the Russian military…
Russia has said it will treat US warplanes operating in parts of Syria where its air forces are also present as “targets” amid a diplomatic row caused by the downing of a Syrian jet.
The country’s defence ministry said it would track US-led coalition aircraft with missile systems and military aircraft, but stopped short of saying it would shoot them down.
A hotline set up between Russia and the US to prevent mid-air collisions will also be suspended.
The Russians have some of the very best anti-aircraft systems on the entire planet, and they would be more than capable of shooting down our jets.
So let us hope that the Russians don’t cross that line, because the anti-Russian hysteria in Washington would go to an entirely new level if footage of U.S. jets being blown out of the sky started running 24 hours a day on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.
But if U.S. forces keep striking the Syrian military, at some point the Russians are not going to hold back any longer. According to the Washington Post, Sunday’s incident was “the fourth time within a month that the U.S. military has attacked pro-Syrian government forces”…
The Pentagon said the downing of the aircraft came hours after Syrian loyalist forces attacked U.S.-backed fighters, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, in the village of Ja’Din, southwest of Raqqa. The rare attack was the first time a U.S. jet has shot down a manned hostile aircraft in more than a decade, and it signaled the United States’ sharply intensifying role in Syria’s war.
The incident is the fourth time within a month that the U.S. military has attacked pro-Syrian government forces.
Most Americans have absolutely no idea how close to war we are in Syria. One wrong move and we could easily find ourselves in another war in the Middle East which would be far more serious than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ever were.
That is because we probably wouldn’t just be fighting the Syrian government. We would also likely be fighting both Russia and Iran.
On Sunday, Iran escalated the conflict themselves by firing a number of missiles into eastern Syria…
Iran’s military said Sunday that it has launched several missiles into eastern Syria, targeting Islamic State fighters in retaliation for the twin attacks that rocked Tehran on June 7.
The strikes are the first time Iran has fired missiles at another country in three decades and represent a major escalation of Iran’s role in the war in Syria.
For the United States, there is nothing to be gained by getting involved in the civil war in Syria. President Assad is definitely a bad guy, but so are the radical jihadist groups that are trying to overthrow him.
We say that we are conducting operations in Syria in order to fight ISIS, but ISIS forces in Syria are on their last legs at this point. If we allowed the Russians and the Iranians to focus on finishing off ISIS in Syria, that would free up U.S. resources to focus on ISIS strongholds in Iraq and elsewhere.
And once ISIS is completely vanquished, what will our policy in Syria be? Will we be dragged into a conflict that the Trump administration has always said that it wanted to avoid? The following comes from CNN…
And yet now, as the Trump administration enters its sixth month, the US is being drawn into the very conflict its inaction had been intended to avoid. And as forces the US supports face danger from forces supporting the Syrian regime, the questions will get louder: What is US policy in Syria? And will the fight against ISIS lead the US into a war against Assad?
I will try to explain why things have gotten so complicated in the region.
In 2011, the “Arab Spring” was raging all over the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and their Sunni allies in the region wanted to use that “opportunity” to overthrow President Assad in Syria, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her team decided that would be a wonderful idea. So massive protests against the Syrian government were organized, and money and arms were funneled to anti-Assad groups.
Pretty soon a horrible civil war broke out, and it has now raged on for six long years. The Syrian refugee crisis that we are dealing with today is the direct result of this civil war that Hillary Clinton had a hand in starting.
And everything was going according to plan at first. The radical jihadist groups that Saudi Arabia and Turkey were backing were winning, and it looked like Assad was going to lose.
But then Russia, Iran and Hezbollah intervened, and that totally turned the tide of the war.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and their allies are still absolutely determined to find a way to win the war in Syria, and they see the U.S. as the key. They would love to get the U.S. into the war, but so far the U.S. has been hesitant to get fully involved in another quagmire in the Middle East.
But the Trump administration is unlikely to completely stop operations in Syria either, because Trump very much wants to have a positive relationship with the Saudis.
As ISIS continues to lose more territory, U.S. forces will increasingly find themselves operating in very close proximity to Syrian, Russian and Iranian forces.
We have already had four incidents of conflict between the two sides within the last month, and if we are not very careful we could end up in a major regional war in the Middle East.
So let us hope that cooler heads prevail, because we definitely don’t need another pointless war on our hands.
Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to “solve” the North Korean problem, and the North Koreans have repeatedly promised to use nuclear weapons in response to any attack by the U.S. military. So what happens if both sides are not bluffing? For eight years, Americans had become accustomed to Barack Obama making threats and never following through on them, so it surprised a lot of people when Trump actually backed up his words by striking Syria after publicly pledging to do so. Now Trump has publicly committed to take military action in North Korea, and I am absolutely convinced that he is not bluffing. But if Kim Jong-Un is not bluffing either, and I don’t think that he is, that means that we are on the verge of what could be a horrifying military conflict with the North Koreans.
The critical moment could actually be just hours away. Foreign journalists in North Korea have been instructed to be ready to witness a “big and important event” on Thursday, and many believe that this “event” could be the testing of a large nuclear device.
And if it doesn’t happen on Thursday, it may happen during the birthday anniversary of North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung on Saturday. According to a report that just came out, the North Koreans have placed a nuclear bomb “in a tunnel” in preparation for a test detonation during the celebration on Saturday…
In a striking development involving the rapidly changing North Korean geopolitical situation, moments ago Voice of America reported Steve Herman reported that according to US government and other sources say, North Korea has “apparently placed a nuclear device in a tunnel and it could be detonated Saturday AM Korea time.”
Needless to say, publicly testing a nuclear bomb at this stage would be the ultimate act of defiance by North Korea, and it is likely that such a move would push Trump over the edge.
But even without a nuclear test, it is believed by many that Trump is on the verge of striking North Korea anyway. In fact, Jack Posobiec claims that a source has told him that an attack on the North Koreans is “imminent”…
Rebel TV’s Washington Bureau Chief Jack Posobiec warned to his followers on Twitter Tuesday that a strike on North Korea is “imminent.”
“Breaking: North Korea Strike Imminent,” Posobiec tweeted. “From [the] same source that warned me about Syria strikes last Thursday morning.”
But striking North Korea is much different than striking Syria.
In order for any attack to be successful, the U.S. military would have to locate every single North Korean nuclear device and either destroy or retrieve them all in the initial assault, because Kim Jong-Un has promised to use nuclear weapons if the U.S. strikes.
Unfortunately, that would not be easy. North Korea’s cities are honeycombed with underground tunnels and bunkers, and simply locating where all of their nukes are being held would be just about impossible. And so destroying or retrieving all of those weapons is going to take time. Just consider the results of a “recent Pentagon war game”…
A recent Pentagon war game against the fictional country of “North Brownland,” a country whose dynastic family regime had nuclear weapons that had to be recovered during a regime collapse, found that US troops didn’t fare well in retrieving those weapons. V-22 Osprey aircraft were cut off from the rest of the allied forces and surrounded by the enemy. The result was the United States would have to fight through the countryside to the North’s estimated 100 nuclear-related sites. In all it took the US 46 days and 90,000 troops to secure those weapons.
If North Korea was able to fire off a single nuke, the operation would be a total disaster for Donald Trump and the U.S. military.
And even if we somehow got all their nukes, North Korea also has one of the largest arsenals of chemical and biological weapons on the entire planet. Could you imagine how the world would view Trump if footage of thousands of people in Seoul and Tokyo choking on nerve gas started circulating all over the planet?
If Trump bungles this thing and a scenario such as that plays out, we will lose South Korea and Japan as friends forever.
Personally, the only way that I can see an attack on North Korea being a success is if Kim Jong-Un is actually bluffing and he decides not to use his vast arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.
Is Trump willing to bet the lives of countless numbers of South Korean and Japanese citizens on the fact that Kim Jong-Un is bluffing?
That would be incredibly foolish, because I don’t think that Kim Jong-Un is bluffing. I believe that the moment the U.S. attacks, the North Koreans will open fire with thousands of rockets and artillery pieces. The following comes from Business Insider…
North Korea will open with artillery and rocket fire from positions on the North slopes of the mountains just across the border. The North has the world’s largest artillery force with 10,000 pieces in their arsenal. The bulk of these forces are at the border, with much of the rest around Pyongyang and near Nampo, the site of their electricity-producing dam. It is likely that the South Korean capital of Seoul, just 35 miles from the border, would be the first target and would be devastated in the opening salvos.
The initial barrage would be followed by a massive invasion of South Korea, and vast numbers of U.S. ground troops would be needed to keep South Korea from being completely overrun.
Needless to say, China is completely freaked out by the prospect of a new Korean War. They are urging Trump “to find a peaceful solution to the crisis”, and it is being reported that the Chinese have put their forces on “nationwide alert”…
China has put its military on “nationwide alert” while ordering 25,000 more troops to prepare to be sent to the North Korean border as tensions build.
Citing the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a nongovernmental organization in Hong Kong, the Oriental Daily News reports that Beijing has ordered troops from all five of its military regions to be on high alert due to the escalating crisis in the region.
You can see some video of Chinese vehicles moving toward the border with North Korea here. Just like during the original Korean War, the U.S. could ultimately end up in a direct military conflict with China if things spiral completely out of control.
So I don’t know why so many people are excited about a potential war with North Korea. Millions of people could die, and it could be the spark that sets off World War III. Thankfully there are watchmen out there such as Steve Quayle that are deeply concerned about what is coming…
“ITS ALWAYS THE CHILDREN” -WE ARE WATCHING THE NEO- CONS AND GLOBALISTS INITIATING WW3 BEFORE OUR EYES-WHAT ABOUT ALL THE ABORTED CHILDREN AND THE SLAUGHTERED CHILDREN AT THE HANDS OF THE WORLD’S CHILD TRAFFICKERS,MURDERERS AND CANNIBAL- OCCULTISTS AND THE COLLATERAL DAMAGE AND LOSS OF INNOCENT LIVES IN THE MIDDLE EAST WARS-DO THEIR LIVES EVEN COUNT OR MATTER? HAVE YOU ALSO NOTICED HOW ALL THE PEDOPHILE AND RITUAL SLAUGHTER REVELATIONS OF CHILDREN HAVE DIS- APPEARED FROM THE PUBLICS EYES ,EVEN WITHIN THE ALT PRESS-I STAND BY MY CLAIM THAT I HAVE SPOKEN CONSISTENTLY FOR THE LAST 5-7 YEARS -THAT BEFORE GOD ALLOWS AMERICA TO BE DESTROYED BY THE RUSSIANS AND CHINESE ,THROUGH A NUCLEAR WAR ,HE WOULD REVEAL THE SINS OF THE NATIONS LEADERS TO THE PEOPLE ,AND THE PEOPLES SINS BEFORE A HOLY GOD- PRESIDENT TRUMP ACTED INITIALLY AS A PROSECUTING ATTORNEY POINTING OUT THE SINS OF THE NATIONS LEADERS AND EVEN DEMANDING HILLARY TO BE JAILED. I SUBMIT THAT THE POLARIZATION IN THIS COUNTRY IS NOW AT ITS MAXIMUM (PRE-CIVIL WAR) IMPACT POINT, AND ALL THAT IS LEFT IS FOR GOD TO ENFORCE HIS DECREE AND CARRY OUT HIS JUDGMENT AS HE HAS IN ALL OF HISTORY. IN MY OPINION ,PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS BEEN CO-OPTED BY THE SECOND MOST POWERFUL FORCE IN THE UNIVERSE, WHICH IS CONTROLLED FROM BEHIND THE SCENES BY THE DRAGON (SATAN) AND HIS REBELLIOUS ANGELS-THERE WILL BE NO MORE MEDIA, WHEN GOD ARISES AND SCATTERS HIS ENEMIES -AND THEN ITS DECISION TIME AS TO WHERE ONE SPENDS ETERNITY! JESUS SAID THE WHOLE WORLD LIES IN EVIL ONE(UNDER SATANS POWER AND AUTHORITY) AND THE ONLY WAY TO OVERCOME THIS IS THROUGH THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION AND THE INDWELLING OF HIS HOLY SPIRIT-JESUS STATED IN LUKE 10:19
Luke 10:19 King James Version (KJV)
19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.THE SPIRITUAL NATURE OF WAR IS HERE -THE GATES OF HELL HAVE OPENED-
Right now, Google searches for “World War 3” are at their highest level ever.
Whether the trigger is North Korea, Syria or something else, it is becoming clear that we are entering a very ominous period of time, and the American people will soon learn firsthand about the horrors of modern warfare.
Whenever the world starts going crazy, investors instinctively begin flocking to precious metals. So it wasn’t exactly a surprise when gold and silver prices started to move upward aggressively as global leaders continued to talk about the possibility of World War III and nuclear conflict. The price of gold spiked to a five month high on Tuesday, and as I write this article gold is currently sitting at $1277.10 an ounce. Right now silver is at $18.35 an ounce, and many analysts believe that it is poised for a dramatic jump in the weeks and months to come as global tensions continue to rise. Google searches for the phrase “going to war” are the highest that they have been at any point in recent years, and many people out there are starting to understand that the U.S. could soon be facing military conflicts in Syria and in North Korea simultaneously.
In response to persistent threats from the Trump administration, the North Koreans are promising that they will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons if they are attacked by the U.S. military.
In particular, an article that was just published in North Korea’s official state newspaper says that U.S bases “in South Korea and the Pacific operation theater but also in the U.S. mainland“ would be targeted.
Most analysts do not believe that North Korea has any missiles that can reach the U.S. mainland, so that is probably an empty threat, but they can definitely hit Seoul, Tokyo and all U.S. military bases in South Korea and Japan.
And even if the U.S. was able to locate and take out all North Korean nukes in an overwhelming first strike, the North Koreans would still have thousands of artillery guns and rockets aimed at Seoul. Military analysts in the western world have estimated that North Korea could fire off up to half a million rounds within one hour of being attacked, and the devastation that such a barrage would cause in Seoul would be beyond anything that we have ever seen in the modern world.
Personally, I have come to the conclusion that it is going to be nearly impossible to conduct a conventional military assault on North Korea that does not result in an absolutely catastrophic death toll.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump appears determined to do something anyway. A couple of days ago we learned that he “has ordered his military advisers to be ready with a list of options to smash North Korea’s nuclear threat”, and on Tuesday he told the world that the U.S would “solve the problem” whether China helps or not…
Trump, who has urged China to do more to rein in its impoverished ally and neighbor, said in a tweet that North Korea was “looking for trouble” and the United States would “solve the problem” with or without Beijing’s help.
Just like he did with Syria, Trump’s words have now committed us to taking military action in North Korea.
Let us hope that any military action is delayed for as long as possible, but it is definitely alarming that Trump boasted to the Fox Business Network about the “very powerful” naval armada that is sailing toward North Korea right now…
“We are sending an armada. Very powerful,” Trump told Fox Business Network. “We have submarines. Very powerful. Far more powerful than the aircraft carrier. That I can tell you.”
Meanwhile, it is being reported that the Chinese have deployed 150,000 troops to their border with North Korea as they continue to warn both sides against taking military action.
Over in the Middle East, things continue to get even more tense as well.
Russia and Iran have pledged to “respond with force” to any additional U.S. attacks, but the Trump administration is not showing any signs of backing down. In fact, White House press secretary Sean Spicer has substantially lowered the threshold for more military conflict by suggesting that the use of “barrel bombs” may be enough to justify another attack. Considering the fact that everyone in the Syrian civil war has been regularly using barrel bombs for many years and that approximately 13,000 were used in 2016 alone, it is very alarming for Spicer to say such a thing.
On Tuesday, Trump told the American people that “we’re not going into Syria”, but what happens if he orders another missile strike and the Russians and Iranians respond by shooting down some U.S. aircraft or by sinking an entire aircraft carrier?
I can guarantee you that members of Congress from both parties will be absolutely screaming for war if CNN starts endlessly playing footage of a U.S. aircraft carrier sinking after it has been struck by the Russians or by the Iranians.
We are so close to World War III erupting in the Middle East, and there was no need for the U.S. to get involved in the first place. According to former CIA officer Philip Giraldi, evidence continues to mount that Assad had absolutely nothing to do with the chemical attack that Trump got so upset about…
Philip Giraldi, former CIA officer and director of the Council for the National Interest, stated on the Scott Horton show that “military and intelligence personnel” in the Middle East, who are “intimately familiar” with the intelligence, call the allegation that Assad or Russia carried out the attack a “sham.”
Giraldi said the intelligence confirms the Russian account, “which is that they [attacking aircraft] hit a warehouse where al-Qaeda rebels were storing chemicals of their own and it basically caused an explosion that resulted in the casualties.” Moreover, Giraldi noted, “Assad had no motive for doing this.”
Investors that can see the writing on the wall are already getting out of stocks and into precious metals while there is still time to do so.
Because if we get into a direct military conflict with Russia and Iran in Syria, global financial markets will crash and gold and silver will soar into the stratosphere.
And of course a similar scenario would play out if we attack North Korea and the North Koreans respond by firing off nuclear or chemical warheads at targets in South Korea and Japan.
I did not expect that we would be on the verge of World War III less than three months into the Trump administration, but here we are.
These are perilous times, and those that are wise are moving their money and are making key preparations before things spiral completely out of control.
Did World War III begin on April 6th, 2017? After Donald Trump fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Syria on Thursday night, millions of Americans were cheering, but the cheering isn’t going to last for long if a new world war erupts. What is amazing to me is that this happened on the 100th anniversary of the United States entry into World War I. The U.S. officially entered that war on April 6th, 1917, and now 100 years later to the day Donald Trump has essentially declared war on Syria.
If you think using the term “World War III” is alarmist, you might want to tell that to the vast numbers of people that are buzzing about a new world war all over social media. If you don’t yet understand why a strike on Syria could be so dangerous, go back and read my article from yesterday. If we continue striking Syria, we could very easily find ourselves in a direct military conflict with Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.
Hopefully last night will be the full extent of U.S. military action. If Donald Trump and his national security advisers pat themselves on the back for “looking tough” and decide that was enough, we probably won’t see a major regional war break out.
But if the U.S. decides that regime change is necessary and continues to conduct more strikes, we will have war. And unfortunately, there are already signs that this may happen. On Friday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley stated that the Trump administration “is prepared to do more”…
“The United States took a very measured step last night,” Haley said. “We are prepared to do more. But we hope that will not be necessary. It is time for all civilized nations to stop the horrors that are taking place in Syria and demand a political solution.”
I don’t understand why so many Americans seem to have a thirst for war.
I have been studying war virtually all my life. When I was just a small boy, I would check huge volumes on World War I, World War II and the Korean War out of the library and read them cover to cover. And let me tell you, war is hell. Nobody should actually want to see war, and now we are closer to the next world war than we have been in decades.
Needless to say, the Russians are extremely angry about what Trump has done. Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced it as an “illegal act of aggression”, and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says that the U.S. came “within an inch” of a direct conflict with Russian forces…
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said the US air strike on a Syrian air base came “within an inch” of militarily clashing with their forces.
He said the action taken by the Americans was in breach of international law and their own internal procedures, and accused Washington of “barely avoiding combat clashes with Russia”.
In a post on Facebook, Mr Medvedev said the air strike had “completely ruined relations” between the two superpowers.
What in the world is Trump thinking?
The Russians very much wanted Trump to win the election because they felt that there was a very high probability of war between our two nations if Hillary Clinton would have won.
And the Russians were quite right to think that.
So the Russian people rejoiced greatly when Trump won, because they thought that it would be a new day for relations between our two great countries.
But after last night that hope is dead.
In fact, historians will probably mark April 6, 2017 as the day when the relationship between the United States and Russia officially died.
And it didn’t take long for the Russians to start to respond. The following comes from Business Insider…
The Russia Foreign Ministry announced that it suspended an agreement to avoid clashes between Russian and US-led coalition jets over Syrian airspace, while Reuters reporter Idrees Ali reports that Russia withdrew from a deconfliction channel, which the US used Thursday night to warn Russian forces of the incoming cruise-missile strikes (which took place Friday morning local time).
In addition, it has been announced that Russia will be significantly bolstering air defenses in Syria, and according to Fox News a Russian warship has been dispatched to confront the two U.S. naval vessels that fired the cruise missiles at Syria…
A Russian warship entered the eastern Mediterranean Friday and was heading toward the area where two U.S. Navy destroyers launched missile strikes into Syria, Fox News has learned.
The Russian frigate, Admiral Grigorovich RFS-494, crossed through the Bosphorus Strait “a few hours ago” from the Black Sea, according to a U.S. defense official.
Here in the United States, we need to start making our voices heard very loudly so that President Trump will understand that most Americans do not want to go to war in Syria.
And of course the same thing can be said about a potential war with North Korea. After last night’s cruise missile display, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is warning that his nation is on the “brink of war” with the United States.
One of the angles that is not getting a lot of discussion in the mainstream media is how the events of last night were viewed by the Chinese.
Donald Trump grew up in New York City at a time when the mafia still had a dominant presence, and to put a “hit” on another rival across town when you are sitting down for a meeting with a top boss from another family sends a very, very powerful message.
The fact that Trump ordered those 59 cruise missiles to rain down on Syria at the exact moment when he was having dinner with the president of China is going to be remembered by the Chinese for a very, very long time. In Asian cultures respect is a very big thing, and the Chinese had to be deeply embarrassed by what just happened last night.
On top of everything else, the truth is that Donald Trump blatantly violated the U.S. Constitution by conducting a military strike against Syria without the approval of Congress. This is something that U.S. Senator Rand Paul pointed out very clearly in an editorial that was released on Friday…
The Constitution clearly states that it is Congress that has the power to declare war, not the president. Even the War Powers Resolution, shoved forward by hawks as justification, clearly states criteria under which the president may act – a declaration of war, a specific statutory authorization, or a national emergency created by an attack on the United States.
That’s it. Absent those criteria, the president has no authority to act without congressional authorization. Congress must stand up and assert its authority here and now.
Conservatives always protested whenever Barack Obama violated the U.S. Constitution in this manner, and so they should protest when Donald Trump acts in the same fashion.
A lot of people will read this article and they aren’t going to grasp the importance of what is going on because they do not understand where all of this is ultimately heading.
But there are some of you that have major alarm bells going off in your head because you have been listening to the warnings and you know what comes next.
We have entered a season of time that myself and other watchmen have been warning about for many years. I just can’t believe that it is starting to happen so quickly. Many had been hoping for a time of peace and prosperity during a time of “reprieve” under Donald Trump, but you can forget that now.
The events of April 6th, 2017 have changed everything, and most Americans are completely unprepared for what will soon follow.
We are closer to the start of World War III than we have been in decades. In part 3 of this series of articles, I discussed the fact that President Trump’s team was preparing a “military response” in Syria and that a “coalition” is being formed to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power. Well, as I am writing this article the missiles have started flying. Cruise missiles from a U.S. Navy vessel in the Mediterranean Sea have hit multiple targets inside Syria, and many fear that what we have just witnessed could be the beginning of a broader conflict.
Trump should not have done this, because according to the U.S. Constitution the president needs the approval of Congress to go to war. Fortunately there are still a few members of Congress that still care about the Constitution and that are bold enough to point out this fact. One of those members of Congress is U.S. Senator Rand Paul…
Earlier on Thursday, Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) announced he would oppose any military action without a vote in Congress.
“The President, if he decides to do something in Syria, he would come to Congress and ask for a declaration of war. Short of Congress voting on it, I’m opposed to illegal and unconstitutional wars,” Paul told Fox News radio show ‘Kilmeade and Friends’.
Now that the missiles have started flying, it may be too late to stop this war from happening.
But that does not mean that we shouldn’t try to stop it. Now is the time to raise our voices and to let Donald Trump know that we do not want this war.
And what is especially tragic about all of this is that Donald Trump is taking us to war because of a misunderstanding. Rand Paul’s father, former presidential candidate Ron Paul, is among many that believe that there was “zero chance” that Assad would have deliberately used chemical weapons against those innocent people…
Pointing out that the prospect of peace in Syria was moving closer before the attack, with ISIS and Al-Qaeda on the run, Paul said the attack made no sense.
“It looks like maybe somebody didn’t like that so there had to be an episode,” said Paul, asking, “who benefits?”
“It doesn’t make any sense for Assad under these conditions to all of a sudden use poison gases – I think there’s zero chance he would have done this deliberately,” said Paul.
As I discussed in part 1 of this series, the incident in Syria’s Idlib province on Tuesday was almost certainly a false flag attack that was designed to pull the United States and other western powers into the war.
And since I wrote that article, more evidence that this was a false flag attack has continued to emerge…
Evidence which has emerged in the aftermath of the attack at Khan Sheikhoun indicates that not only was the nature of the attack misreported by the media, but that certain individuals on the ground in Syria may have had foreknowledge of the attack up to several days before it happened. On April 3rd, 2017, an anti-Assad journalist tweeted that the next day he would be launching a media campaign to cover airstrikes on the Hama countryside, including the use of chemical weapons. It is not clear how the reporter was able to know that chemical weapons would be used an entire day before the attacks occurred.
Observers further noted that on April 1st, 2017, a doctor on the ground in Khan Sheikhoun, Dr. Shajul Islam, had received several shipments of gas masks in the days running up to the chemical incident. The revelations on Twitter fueled speculation that opposition figures were aware of the chemical attack days before it actually happened, contesting the narrative that the Syrian government was responsible. Daily Mail has reported that Dr. Shajul Islam was at one point sought by the British government in connection with the abduction of two journalists in Syria, and security services have stated that Islam and his brother may have had ties to ISIS executioner “Jihadi John.”
In addition, it is very interesting to note that the “White Helmets” were ready and waiting with their cameras to film the attack when it happened. The White Helmets are funded by George Soros and they have been closely affiliated with al-Qaeda in the past. They very much want to see Assad removed from power, and so they would greatly benefit from the U.S. getting involved in the war in Syria.
And let us not forget that it turned out that Assad had absolutely nothing to do with the infamous “chemical attack” that he originally got the blame for in 2013…
The narrative for the August 2013 attack in Ghouta, which Barack Obama cited as the pretext for a long awaited U.S. attack on government targets in aid of jihadist rebels, completely collapsed after it emerged that the casualties were the result of an accident caused by rebels mishandling chemical weapons provided to them by Saudi Arabia.
The United Nations’ Carla Del Ponte also said that evidence suggested rebels had used sarin nerve gas.
As journalist Seymour Hersh reported in December 2013, intelligence officials told him that the entire narrative was a “ruse” and that “the attack was not the result of the current regime.”
If Donald Trump would have just waited until all the facts were known, it is quite likely that he would have seen that there was absolutely no need to attack Syria at all. This is something that I discussed on the Alex Jones Show on Thursday, and hopefully we can spread this information far and wide before it is too late.
Because if the U.S. does something very foolish in Syria, there is a very real possibility that it could actually cause World War III to erupt. I included the following quote in part 3 of this series, but I want to share it again because it shows how much is at stake. According to The Intercept, one of the military options that has been presented to Trump is a “saturation strike” that would result “in Russian military deaths”…
The proposed strike would involve launching Tomahawk cruise missiles to overwhelm Russian air defense systems used by the Syrian military. The Russian government currently helps maintain the air defense sites and advises the Syrian military.
According to both U.S. military officials, the current proposal would likely result in Russian military deaths and mark a drastic escalation of U.S. force in Syria.
One U.S. military official said the decision to allow the strikes, which would kill Russians, signals a significant change in policy by the Trump administration. A decision by Trump to go forward with the plan would be a reversal from the Obama administration, which denied multiple air strike proposals that would likely cause Russian personnel casualties in Syria.
I cannot even begin to describe how foolish it would be for Trump to make such a move.
Hopefully Trump will stop listening so much to his generals and will begin to listen to some common sense.
When Obama was considering military action against Syria in 2013, Trump strongly urged him not to do it…
In one September 5, 2013 all-caps rant, Trump tweeted, “AGAIN, TO OUR VERY FOOLISH LEADER, DO NOT ATTACK SYRIA – IF YOU DO MANY VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN & FROM THAT FIGHT THE U.S. GETS NOTHING!”
“Don’t attack Syria – an attack that will bring nothing but trouble for the U.S. Focus on making our country strong and great again!” Trump tweeted four days later.
During the presidential campaign, Trump also bashed Hillary Clinton for her disastrous foreign policy, tweeting, “Crooked Hillary Clintons foreign interventions unleashed ISIS in Syria, Iraq and Libya. She is reckless and dangerous!”
Trump was right on the money when he originally said those things, and hopefully he will go back and read those tweets and take his own advice.
We live at a time when the world is becoming increasingly unstable, and many of the things that I have been warning about for a very long time are starting to come to pass.
Nothing good is going to come out of an attack on Syria. Other than “looking tough”, there is nothing to be gained for the United States, but there is so much that could go tragically wrong.
In 2013, the American people very loudly let Barack Obama know that they did not want a war with Syria.
If we want to stop a war with Syria in 2017, we need to be even louder than last time, because President Trump seems determined to act very quickly.
So if you do not want us to go to war with Syria, raise your voice right now, because tomorrow might be too late.