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Victor Davis Hanson: America Always Aided Europe—So Why Are We Shut Out Now?​

Iran’s regime shows cracks as internal divisions and economic pressure mount under renewed U.S. strategy. Questions swirl about NATO allies, global hypocrisy, and whether America is carrying the West yet again. A sharp breakdown of what’s really happening—and what comes next.
 


It’s day 33 of the war, and my hometown is still being heavily bombed.

Iranians are only now, with great difficulty, realizing that for all these years, they have essentially been living inside a massive military base the size of a country.

They’re finally understanding why Iran, despite all its resources, has remained so poor: because all the money has been spent preparing the regime for its apocalyptic final war.

None of this is defensive. It’s all offensive.

After every strike, Israel posts reports in Persian explaining exactly what it has hit. The main reason for cutting off the internet is so that people won’t see or understand what’s really happening.

Underground missile cities, bunkers built beneath residential neighborhoods, tunnels upon tunnels upon tunnels. It’s horrifying. This regime must go.
 
searcher said:
www.militarytimes.com

US F-15E fighter jet shot down over Iran

A search and rescue operation is underway for survivors.
www.militarytimes.com www.militarytimes.com

www.twz.com

F-15E Down In Iran, Rescue Operation Ongoing (Updated)

The F-15E went down under unknown circumstances and U.S. combat search and rescue assets have been seen deep in Iran. Photos show what appear to be parts of a U.S. Air Force F-15E, amid claims and counterclaims from the US and Iran.
www.twz.com www.twz.com
Click to expand...


www.militarytimes.com

US forces rescue downed F-15 crew member in Iran, search for second continues

One of two U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle pilots shot down by enemy fire in Iran has been rescued.
www.militarytimes.com www.militarytimes.com
 

Prof. Ted Postol: Iran Already Achieved NUCLEAR DETERRENCE Against Israel​

 


I just got off the phone with someone who works in defense policy in Washington. What they told me should end every "Trump is reckless" argument permanently.

"Every single president since Clinton received the same intelligence briefing on Iran's nuclear timeline. Every single one was told the window was closing. Every single one chose to kick it down the road because the political cost of acting was higher than the political cost of waiting."

Trump got the same briefing. 60kg of 90% enriched uranium. 4 weeks to breakout. Material for 2 bombs.

He chose to act knowing it would tank his approval to 35%.

He chose to act knowing his own base would split.

He chose to act knowing NATO allies would refuse to help.

He chose to act knowing gas prices would spike.

A senior analyst I know at a major think tank put it this way: "The difference between Trump and every president before him isn't intelligence. They all had the same data. The difference is courage."

Read that again.

Every president had the same file on their desk. Only one opened it and did something.

I'll keep you updated. Turn on notifications. 🚨
 
Israel intends to take over the Middle East, always has. Just needed some dumb muscle to do the heavy lifting....
 
I'm sure Shanaka is well informed and telling the truth....LOL
 


I just heard from a source very close to top of the White House that, following today’s shootdown of an F-15, an A-10, and the successful hits on multiple helicopters and other aircraft, the WH is choosing further escalation, including US troops on the ground. This would be madness. I truly hope that someone in the Pentagon or elsewhere can prevent this from happening. If anything was proven today, it’s that Iranian AD is still very capable and very intact.

Any US ground operation will be heavily reliant on helicopters and other slow-moving airframes. Despite the assertions of both the Pentagon and POTUS, it is crystal clear that we have not reduced Iranian AD to the point where a ground operation is even a remotely wise decision. Let alone potentially inserting by air and then being exclusively reliant on an air corridor for things such as resupply and CASEVAC. History is replete with examples where this reliance has been disastrous.

Further, the hard part would be after troops were on the objective. Our lack of manpower leaves little room for maneuver, and once static (which would be required), Americans will become a stationary target for the entire inventory of Iranian indirect fire capabilities on Iranian soil, and it is a recipe for failure.

Simply put, this is not an existential war for the US's survival. It’s a war of choice that should never have happened in the first place, and POTUS should be finding a way out, rather than clumsily and recklessly sacrificing America’s finest.
 


BREAKING: According to CENTCOM, the second U.S. Air Force CSAR team sent into Iran to rescue the crew of the downed F-15E of the 494th Fighter Squadron has successfully located and rescued the second crew member.

He ejected, survived the crash, and is now safe in Iraq.

This is good news for the 48th Fighter Wing community at RAF Lakenheath—both crew members of the downed F-15E are now safe.

Also, the crew members of the second HH-60W helicopter involved in the rescue operation of the second crew member, which was shot upon by means of MANPADS, are also safe.

Left video below shows the second HC-130J involved in this operation over Khark Island and the right video shows the first one near Yasuj.

#OperationEpicFury #OperationLionsRoar
 


Food for thought.

Trump, Hormuz and the End of the Free Ride

For half a century, Western strategists have known that the Strait of Hormuz is the acute point where energy, sea power and political will intersect. That knowledge is not in dispute. What is new in this war with Iran is that the United States, under Donald Trump, has chosen not to rush to “solve” the problem. In Hegelian terms, he is refusing an easy synthesis in order to force the underlying contradiction to the surface.

The old thesis was simple: the US guarantees open sea lanes in the Gulf, and everyone else structures their economies and politics around that free insurance. Europe and the UK embraced ambitious green policies, ran down hard‑power capabilities and lectured Washington on multilateral virtue, secure in the assumption that American carriers would always appear off Hormuz. The political class behaved as if the American security guarantee were a law of nature, not a contingent choice. Their conduct today is closer to Chamberlain than Churchill: temporising, issuing statements, hoping the storm will pass without a fundamental reordering of their responsibilities.

Trump’s antithesis is to withhold the automatic guarantee at the moment of maximum stress. Militarily, the US can break Iran’s residual ability to contest the Strait; that is not the binding constraint. The point is to delay that act. By allowing a closure or semi‑closure to bite, Trump ensures that the immediate pain is concentrated in exactly the jurisdictions that have most conspicuously free‑ridden on US power: the EU and the UK. Their industries, consumers and energy‑transition assumptions are exposed.

In that context, his reported blunt message to European and British leaders, you need the oil out of the Strait more than we do; why don’t you go and take it? Is not a throwaway line. It is the verbalisation of the antithesis. It openly reverses the traditional presumption that America will carry the burden while its allies emote from the sidelines.

In this dialectic, the prize is not simply the reopening of a chokepoint. The prize is a reordered system in which the United States effectively arbitrages and controls the global flow of oil. A world in which US‑aligned production in the Americas plus a discretionary capability to secure,or not secure, Hormuz places Washington at the centre of the hydrocarbon chessboard. For that strategic end, a rapid restoration of the old status quo would be counterproductive.

A quick, surgical “fix” of Hormuz would short‑circuit the dialectic. If Trump rapidly crushed Iran’s remaining coastal capabilities, swept the mines and escorted tankers back through the Strait, Europe and the UK would heave a sigh of relief and return to business as usual: underfunded militaries, maximalist green posturing and performative disdain for US power, all underwritten by that same power. The contradiction between their dependence and their posture would remain latent.

By declining to supply the synthesis on demand, and by explicitly telling London and Brussels to “go and take it” themselves, Trump forces a reckoning. European and British leaders must confront the fact that their energy systems, their industrial bases and their geopolitical sermons all rest on an American hard‑power foundation they neither finance nor politically respect. The longer the contradiction is allowed to unfold, the stronger the eventual synthesis can be: a new order in which access to secure flows, Hormuz, Venezuela and beyond, is explicitly conditional on real contributions, not assumed as a right.

In that sense, the delay in “taking” the Strait, and the challenge issued to US allies to do it themselves, is not indecision. It is the negative moment Hegel insisted was necessary for history to move. Only by withholding the old guarantee, and by saying so out loud to those who depended on it, can Trump hope to end the free ride.
 
Goldhedge said:

Victor Davis Hanson: America Always Aided Europe—So Why Are We Shut Out Now?​

Iran’s regime shows cracks as internal divisions and economic pressure mount under renewed U.S. strategy. Questions swirl about NATO allies, global hypocrisy, and whether America is carrying the West yet again. A sharp breakdown of what’s really happening—and what comes next.
Click to expand...

In short we are shut out now because we started an illegal war and no-one wants anything to do with it. Nato is supposed to be a defensive tool not offensive.
Goldhedge said:
Click to expand...

Has the US even entered the strait yet? The last I knew trump was keeping the carriers far away from the strait. About the only smart move he's made since he started this shit show.

I really hope he doesn't put boots on the ground. Our service members deserve better. There is no way this is over in a few weeks if we do boots on the ground either. Once that happens this goes multi years. Our only hope is congress cuts him off at 60 days and forces him to end this. Unfortunately we know how much congress loves war. Boots on the ground rather quickly will also make it harder to pull out in 60 days. You cant put them on the ground and pick them all up that quickly.
 
No doubt we are going in. It's just a matter of when and where and who is going with us.
 
By ourselves, though if we do conquer Iran, Israel will tell us how to run it. No good reason for anyone else to get involved.
 
Persia is occupied by a Religious fanatical government.

So is Europe, fanatical, but not religious in the least.

 


🚨 ABC News confirms: Iran used advanced passive infrared detection to shoot down the American F-15.

Passive infrared detection does not emit radar signals.

It cannot be detected or jammed by American electronic warfare systems.

It is invisible to the technology America has spent trillions building its air superiority around.
 
Viking said:
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I dropped the needle on this video and have several comments.

This guy has an agenda. Nobody 'wants' war, but there is 'something' going on besides Israel.

I look at politics with a jaundiced eye.

Everyone is saying Israel controls the US.

Sure, there are many arrows pointing to this being true, but then I think "Is this true, or is this what they want us to believe?"

Just like "OBL took out the twin towers." That's what they want us to believe, but if anyone has been paying attention we know that's not true. OBL even said "Look to your own government." If anyone takes a moment to dig they will discover he was correct!

Jesse on Fire shows the obvious Ai video as being factual. I think Bibi is dead. He's either dead, or seriously messed up in the hospital. Why else create two Ai videos attempting to convince us otherwise?

He also pulls in Fear porn - Harry Truman, Hiroshima and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan. I doubt that is going to happen. In fact that is the actual reason we're in Iran. To make sure THEY don't get ahold of nuclear power and take out Israel.

IF anyone here is paying attention, Iran already boasted they have nuclear material to get the job done. They are the ones willing to nuke Israel. They also have sent missiles to neighboring Arab muslim nations! Not a 'good neighbor'!

We already know Israel has had the bomb for decades and they haven't used it trying to take out Iran!

Of anyone alive, Obama created this problem. Trump is cleaning it up! For these reasons I think we're doing what should have been done already.

Nothing is as it seems.
 
GROK: does iran have nuclear material?

Yes, Iran has nuclear material, specifically a significant stockpile of enriched uranium, though its exact current status, location, and accessibility remain uncertain due to limited IAEA access and damage from military strikes.

iaea.org

Key Details on Iran's Enriched Uranium Stockpile
As of mid-June 2025 (just before major Israeli and U.S. strikes), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran held approximately 440.9 kg (about 972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% U-235. This is "highly enriched uranium" (HEU) and represents a major proliferation concern.

armscontrolcenter.org

Enrichment to 60% is a short technical step from weapons-grade levels (typically ~90% U-235). According to IAEA metrics, roughly 40–50 kg of 60%-enriched uranium could theoretically suffice for one nuclear weapon if further enriched (with experts estimating the full pre-strike stockpile could support material for around 8–10 weapons if processed).

pbs.org

Iran also maintains larger quantities of lower-enriched uranium (e.g., up to 5% or 20%), but the 60% stockpile is the most sensitive.

Impact of 2025–2026 Strikes
In June 2025, Israel and the United States conducted strikes on key sites including Natanz, Fordow, and the Isfahan nuclear complex (which includes storage for much of the HEU). These damaged or destroyed many centrifuges and enrichment infrastructure, severely disrupting Iran's ability to produce more enriched uranium.

thebulletin.org

Much of the 60% enriched material was reportedly stored at Isfahan (possibly in underground tunnels). Some may have been destroyed, relocated, or made less accessible, but the IAEA estimates that a substantial portion—potentially around 200 kg or more—likely survived at Isfahan, with remnants possibly at other sites.

cnn.com

As of early 2026, the IAEA has been unable to fully verify the current size, composition, or whereabouts of the stockpile due to lack of access to damaged facilities. It cannot confirm whether Iran has suspended all enrichment activities.

understandingwar.org

Current Status (as of early 2026)
Iran is not actively enriching uranium to higher levels at the moment, according to U.S. officials and IAEA observations (enrichment facilities appear heavily damaged or inoperable). However, there are reports of activity around sites like Isfahan, and Iran has not provided full transparency.

armscontrol.org

Iran maintains it has no intention of building nuclear weapons and that its program is for peaceful purposes. It has offered in negotiations to dilute (down-blend) some of the HEU, but disputes remain over inspections, facility dismantlement, and moving material out of the country.
No public evidence indicates Iran has produced weapons-grade (90%+) uranium or assembled a nuclear weapon. Intelligence assessments (including from the U.S.) have historically assessed that Iran is not currently pursuing an active weaponization program, though the enriched material provides a latent capability.

Broader Context
Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a non-nuclear-weapon state, but it has been found non-compliant with safeguards in some areas, and it is the only such state to have accumulated uranium at 60% enrichment. The situation involves ongoing diplomatic tensions, with negotiations involving the U.S., Oman, and others.In summary: Iran possesses nuclear material in the form of a large stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium (near-weapons-grade), though military strikes have damaged its production infrastructure and created significant uncertainty about the material's precise status today. The IAEA continues to monitor and seek better access.
 
Every nation has their own version of propaganda. The US is no exception. With the MIC and Israel always pushing for more war it's no wonder we have gone into so many countries in the ME and destroyed them. Every war justified, every dollar spent justified. Looking back on all of it, was any of it even true?
Iraq, the #1 sponsor of terror groups and ties to 9/11 and weapons of mass destruction. Looking back there was no evidence of any of that.

Afghanistan, had to go kill al Qaeda once and for all. The very group we created to fight Russia. We did secure the poppy fields which Al Qaeda had almost wiped out. Other than that we left the country, left 80 billion in weapons behind and continue to send them 40 million a week or 2 billion a year. (I think that qualifies the US as being the biggest sponsor of terror groups)

Syria, we were going to wipe out isis. Mission accomplished except they are still around.

And now we have Iran, same ol propaganda. 25 or 30 years of hearing they are only weeks or months away from having a nuke. Yet they dont have one despite having the capabilities to make one. If they were going to make one and blow up Israel then why didn't they? China and Russia kept them in check and no way they were going to let them use a nuke on anyone and screw up the world economy and the flow of oil.

They were getting ready to attack Israel? Then why didn't they? As we are seeing now they were certainly capable but they didn't until they were attacked 1st. Not once but twice in the last year. So why wait to attack Israel until the US has carrier groups and missile destroyers in place? The narrative we are being sold doesn't pass the sniff test. We have 3 countries involved in this and 2 of their leaders are known to outright lie. One of them is not Iran. Trump and Bibi both lie like a persian rug to their people to try and sell more war. It might work in Israel but it's no longer working in the US. People are tired of endless wars and this will turn into another endless war.
 
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