Woodrow Wilson issued Germany an ultimatum in the third and final letter related to the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in May, warning any subsequent sinkings would be perceived by the United States as "deliberately unfriendly".
.jpg)
A refinery strike at Bayonne became increasingly violent.
Voters in Alberta voted for prohibition.
Last edition:
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Matthew, Chapter 24.
What do we mean by the defeat of the enemy? Simply the destruction of his forces, whether by death, injury, or any other means—either completely or enough to make him stop fighting. . . . The complete or partial destruction of the enemy must be regarded as the sole object of all engagements. . . . Direct annihilation of the enemy's forces must always be the dominant consideration.
Carl von Clausewitz.
I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.
Isoroku Yamamoto.
It didn't work.
The United States did not destroy Iran's nuclear program, it merely set it back several months.
That was, quite frankly, a pretty predictable outcome. Indeed, I predicted it.
The question is, now what?
Iran has learned that its security is, in fact, in building a nuclear weapon. It's going to do it.
The only way to stop that would be a ground invasion of Iran, which we don't have the stomach to do, and which Israel can't do.
Israel gambled that they could take control of the air, and that this was the time to do it. That set up the scene for the US to come in with the GBU-57A/B MOP, which they gambled we would.
We committed them.
It failed.
Military gambles are always judged in hindsight. Japan didn't take out the U.S. Navy on December 7, 1941, as the carriers weren't at Pearl Harbor. If they had been, the story would be different. The Germans didn't defeat the Soviets in Operation Barbarossa, but they came close. If it had worked, it would be regarded as one of the greatest military feats of all time, rather than a disastrous miscalculation.
We'll see what happens here, but my guess is that by this time next year, Iran has the bomb.
June 26, 2025
United States and Israel v. Iran
As per usual, the administration simply accuses everyone who disagrees with them of lying or insulting servicemen. That's complete and utter nonsense. The objective was a tough one and the odds were against it.
Hegseth held a press conference today that was essentially a rant due to these questions being brought up. It was pathetic.
The big difference here, as compared to other Trump counterfactuals, is that the Trump smokescreen will evaporate with a mushroom cloud.
The question is how soon.
cont:
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared victory in the recent war and discounted the damage caused by American airstrikes. His tone was absolutely defiant.
June 27, 2025
United States and Israel v. Iran
After criticizing ‘warmonger’ Liz Cheney, Hageman backs U.S. intervention in Iran
I"m quite certain that Donald Trump could declare war on the entire world and Wyoming's delegation would support it.
June 29, 2025
Israel v. Hamas
As its seemingly now become too routine to take notice of, we will note that the fighting is still going on in Gaza. The humanitarian crisis carries on, and Israeli strikes this week killed 72 people.
June 30, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
The war in Ukraine, the one that Trump promised to end upon being nominated but then later stated that was "hard", is heating up.
Looks like Trump was full of crap about his magical negotiation powers. Where's that "art" of the deal?
Anyhow, Russia launched its biggest aerial of the war so far, firiging a total of 537 aerial weapons at including 477 drones and decoys and 60 missiles. 249 were shot down and 226 were lost.
The Russians have amassed 50,000 troops near Sumy.
Israel v. Hamas
Israel has ordered evacuations from norther Gaza.
United States and Israel v. Iran
An interesting post:
The inmates are running the asylum! That is what it looks like to me. Their entire administration is not based on anything that resembles sanity.
And on the same topic:
Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @AdamKinzinge· 12h
So what seems clear from the intel, is that we probably should have reloaded the B2s, and gone for a second round. Instead the impulsive toddler was desperate to have a strong ending to the movie and declare a cease fire.
This is a show to him, entertainment, and he’s the “star”
July 4, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
Kyiv is getting pounded by a large scale drone attack.
The US has halted many weapons transfer programs to Ukraine on the basis that the US needs to rebuilt its own arms stockpile.
July 8, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
Roman Starovoyt, age 53, who had been fired as Russian transportation minister just hours prior, was found dead from a gunshot wound in his car. Russian authorities stated suicide might be a possibility.
He's also been the governor of Kursk relatively recently.
July 9, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did not inform the White House before he authorized a pause on weapons shipments to Ukraine last week. Currently it seems Trump will resume them.
Trump reports he's upset with Putin, probably for busting the bubble that Trump has any persuasion over him. Trump's efforts at bringing about peace have failed.\
July 14, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
It appears that the US will be increasing military aid to Ukraine, funneling the new arms through other NATO countries.
Trump has indicated that if Russia doesn't end the war in 50 days he will impose 100% secondary tariffs.
July 17, 2025
Israel v. Hamas
An Israeli artillery shell hit the compound of the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip, killing three people and wounding 10 others, including the parish priest.
It would seem Trump's much vaunted ceasefire didn't hold.
I suspect as these were Catholic deaths, there won't be much press on it.
Syrian Civil War
Heavy fighting has been going on between Druze and Bedouin tribes in the southern Syrian province of Suwayda, as another ceasefire has collapsed a day after Syrian troops pulled out of the area.
The area has a Druze majority.
July 20, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
The war Trump did end upon being nominated or sworn into office has been seeing some massive Russian drone assaults, including a 300 drone raid yesterday.
Israel v. Hamas
Israeli troops fired yesterday toward crowds of Palestinians seeking food from distribution hubs run by a U.S.- and Israeli-backed group in southern Gaza, killing at least 32 people. An air strike also occured.
Gee. . . it's almost like Trump didn't get peace in Gaza either.
Syrian Civil War
A ceasefire seems to be holding including Israel.
Last edition:
An American Apollo spacecraft and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft docked in orbit, marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.
Occurring at 3:19 Eastern Time, Colonel Leonov welcomed General Stafford with the English words, “Glad to see you.” General Stafford, replyied in Russian,“A, zdraystvuite, ochen rad vas videt” (“Ah, hello, very glad to see you.”).
Protestors thew a Molotov cocktail and Crown Prince Akihito, and his wife, Princess Michito, on Okinawa.
Last edition:
The Potsdam Conference between Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill and Harry Truman commenced.
The immediate topic was the governance of postwar Germany.
The British participated in a carrier raid on Tokyo.
German Field Marshal Busch, the former commander of Army Group Center on the Eastern Front, died at the military hospital in Notts at age 60 due to a heart attack.
The King, Queen and Princess Elizabeth visited Ulster.
Last edition:
The name is nearly blasphemous. The device itself was called the "Gadget".
Nuclear power, sadly, arrived in the form of a weapon. It had not, however, yet been used that way.
British soldiers were taking advantage of the relaxation of the fraternization rules by chatting with German women. We often hear of the calorie deprivation of the Second World War, but, while not seeking to be vulgar, the young woman on the far right clearly hadn't been too calorie deprived in the late stages of the war.
Related threads:
Last edition:
The first meeting of the Inter-Allied Council for Berlin took place in which the USSR agreed to hand over civilian and military control of West Berlin to the UK and US.
The Japanese destroyer Sakura hit a mine and sank in Osaka Harbor.
The 8th Air Force began to redeploy from Europe to Okinawa, where they were to receive B-29s after initially having a training role. The redeployment of its aircraft to the continental US also began on this day.
The US used napalm on resistant Japanese targets on Luzon.
.jpg)
Fadil Hoxha became President of the Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija.
Last edition:
Under Secretary of the Navy Ralph Bard suggested giving Japan a warning about the atomic bomb.
US forces completed the occupation of Luzon's Cagayan Valley. The island is accordingly nearly fully under US control.
The I-165 was sunk east of Saipan by a US PV-2 Harpoon.
The USS Bunker Hill was struck by a kamikaze resulting in the death of 373 men.
Dr. Emil Hacha, age 73, the former president of the German sponsored "Bohemia-Moravia Protectorate," died in the Prague prison hospital while awaiting trial.
Edward Stettinius resigned as Secretary of State to take up the post of ambassador to the United Nations.
Last edition:
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
You can't say civilization don't advance... in every war they kill you in a new way.
We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israel claimed Tuesday to have killed a top Iranian general as it traded more strikes with its longtime foe, and U.S. President Donald Trump warned residents of Tehran to evacuate while demanding that Iran surrender without conditions.
Thank you very much.A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive, precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime. Fordo, Natanz and Esfahan. Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise.Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror.Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not. Future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier.For 40 years, Iran has been saying. Death to America, death to Israel. They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs, with roadside bombs. That was their specialty. We lost over 1,000 people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East, and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate in particular. So many were killed by their general, Qassim Soleimani. I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen. It will not continue.I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we've gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel. I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they've done. And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight, and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades.Hopefully, we will no longer need their services in this capacity. I hope that's so. I also want to congratulate the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan 'Razin' Caine, spectacular general, and all of the brilliant military minds involved in this attack.With all of that being said, this cannot continue. There will be either peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight's was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal. But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes. There's no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight. Not even close. There has never been a military that could do what took place just a little while ago.And I want to just thank everybody. And, in particular, God. I want to just say, we love you, God, and we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East. God bless Israel and God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you.
The legality of this is really questionable, as is the wisdom, and effectiveness, of it. And the development of the US openly taking a part in a Middle Eastern War, started by Israel, on behalf of Israel, is a dangerous development. The US has never done that before.
As war is an extension of politics by other means, and all politics is local:
June 23, 2025
The United States and Israel v Iran
Since the US B-2 missions (which were impressively flown out of Missouri in the longest bombing mission of all time), there have global reactions to the strike, some of which praised it. It's clear that European nations generally support them.
Russia issued a statement in which it condemned them and indicated that now other nations may transfer nuclear weapons to Iran. How much Russia can be trusted in regard to anything it states is a clearly open question, but being concerned about this possibility, particularly as Pakistan is nearby, is perhaps merited. Likewise, being concerned about what rogue state North Korea may do is also warranted.
Iran itself has indicated that it will close the Straits of Hormuz and that it will otherwise retaliate.
The morality of this action is debatable and interesting. It's clearly an act of war with no clear exist strategy based on the hope of Iranian concession. However, the argument can be made that waiting until Iran had a nuclear weapon, which they are clearly working on, would put the world in an untenable position.
That it is an act of war was interestingly noted when a Congressman on This Week said Iran could "sue for peace". You only sue for peace in a declared war, which this is not.
A group of Congressmen have put together a war powers resolution seeking to limit further US action. It's all Democrats save for one Republican. If history is our guide, politically most Americans will support action against Iran, at least at first. If things drag on, they'll be discontented. In the short term condemning the strike is probably a bad political move, but in the long term it might not be. If Iran is not cowed into submission, and perhaps its regime can't afford to be, we'll either have to materially support an ongoing Iranian air war indefinitely or become more involved in it. People repeatedly are noting that there will not be "boots on the ground", and there very likely won't be on a largescale, but on a small scale there may very well be. If Iran closes the Straits of Hormuz the U.S. Navy will have to reopen them, and that will be a major task.
cont:
Yeoman's Fourth Law of History at work, and Donald Trump demonstrating that he doesn't know how economies work.
June 24, 2025
The United States and Israel v Iran
On the Iranian retaliation, which was muted:
Apparently a cease fire has been agreed to, although there may have been some post agreement fighting.
A ceasefire isn't a peace agreement. What's going on, and what was achieved, are the real questions.
And of course, Trump is acting weird.
And this:
We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.
Donald Trump.
June 24, 2024
United States and Israel v. Iran.
An early assessment holds that Iran's nuclear facilities were not destroyed, only damages, and they're merely set back in the production of an atomic weapon a few months.
Can't say I'm surprised.
So the US attack may have simply reinforced the Iranian desire for a nuclear weapon.
cont:
A report by an expert on NPR Politics holds that there's no way that Iran's nuclear program was destroyed.
Last edition:
Today in World War II History—June 23, 1940 & 1945: June 23, 1945: In the last airborne assault of the war, paratroopers of the US 11th Airborne Division land near Aparri in northern Luzon.
