Brett Wilkins Jun 16, 2025
Flight-tracking websites showed dozens of Air Force aerial refueling planes departing from military bases in the United States and heading to Europe on Sunday, fueling speculation of direct U.S. involvement in the widening Israeli-Iranian war.
Military-focused news sites reported that around 30 U.S. Air Force KC-135R and KC-46A tankers were identified by flight-tracking software in what The Times of Israelcalled an “unprecedented mass deployment” to Europe.
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If the shit hits the fan, I want too see every single fucking MAGA voter at a US Army recruiting office signing up for 11 Bravo, Grunt Infantry.
Grunt infantry is redundant
Yeah, I should have placed parenthesis around infantry.
Eh, maybe cav scout or something in the 92 family (NOT 92R), we don’t want those asshats walking around with an M4/203 and frags.
Yes we do. Maybe they’ll blow themselves up.
Right. This could ultimately increase the median intelligence level…
Nah they’ll just cry on tiktok about how they “never expected this at all” so that people feel sorry for them. Even though they fucked everyone around them.
We just want fucking healthcare and affordable housing.
Sorry, best I can do is 2 trillion more for Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and the like. They’re desperate man, they haven’t had a war for like 12 minutes, they need to be fed.
Zomg, Boeing planes being flown above enemy territory as surprise kamikazes (surprise to the pilots & crew).
Lockheed Martin did October 7?
Basically 9/11 truther style conspiracy nonsense going on here.
What?
It was a joke about how we have no money to spend on healthcare for the population, but we always jump to throw endless cash at defense contractors to supply the military…
Haha… good joke. I didn’t see your mention of healthcare in your previous comment.
It’s typical of conspiracy theorists to say “it was just a joke” when called out on their bullshit. You may go back to doing “your own research in the internet” now.
You have no idea what you’re talking about. Enjoy your weekend.
Best the turnip can do is a gold colored overpriced shit phone.
Not to worry, it’s made in china, shipped from china, and then people in detention centers will be forced by ICE to package it for that bonus fascism feel for those that believe it’s made in the US and and they’re getting a deal on the T-Mobile package that costs almost 2x other providers for the same service.
Best I can do is a Trump smartphone.
And human rights. Due process. Rule of law and respect the constitution. Less inflation. More progress on our environment. Rebuild some infrastructure. Invest in some technologies of the future rather than the past. Leadership that understands basic economics and actually the art of the deal
Other Americans just want fucking guns and affordable discrimination. It’s a sad day.
Don’t worry. You’ll get it if you can be drafted.
But don’t expect any medical treatment after your service if you’re a Democrat or unmarried: ‘Extremely disturbing and unethical’: new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans
They deserve medical treatment but what service destroying other countries?
The hell did you want me to call it then? “Military service” is a completely common expression to use, and it applies whether we like what they’re doing or not.
And before you get any bright ideas: no, I’m not American and no, I don’t support what their military does. This kind of completely pointless semantic wankery just really activates my almonds
Best we can do is give more people PTSD and then deny them disability or treatment for it. America loves dead soldiers, we can’t go too long without having a new batch.
Be that as it may, we also only seem to vote for people that we know aren’t going to actually do what they say, except on the issue of immigration.
We just want fucking healthcare and affordable housing.
Trumps response is to offer army barracks and MREs, in exchange for you becoming cannon fodder in his delusional war games.
Yeah. Unfortunately it’s been obvious to a lot of us for awhile that it would only come from the ashes of this country.
You don’t, because almost none of you vote for socialist candidates.
This is the truth.
Americans have shown where their priorities lie, time and time again.
The media told them
Hillary is the most qualified candidate in historyonly Biden can beat Trump, because he appeals to moderates, where things like free healthcare and not locking immigrants in cages only appeals to far left loonies.The average American wants these things, its just we cant risk the Republicans winning so we have to run on the republican platform from 4 years ago.
None of which are socialist.
They are all systematically weaved out of the closed, private two-party system.
Only idiots are excited about wars.
Americans in a nutshell
US is about to go to war the day before I go down to the states to get an MRI, lovely.
edit: So idiots are excited about wars, but I’m also an idiot for not being excited about wars? Fair enough then, I can’t win.
USian here who is also getting an MRI tomorrow. Fun coincidence and I wish you well on your alien abduction simulator!
The fortunate thing for you and me, and the unfortunate thing for humanity as a whole, is that daily life in the US is generally pleasant and undisturbed by brutal overseas military actions.
That’s a general theme of this place though. The country is massive and geographically isolated/protected while the military is spread all over the world doing shit all the time.
Just got back home from getting my MRI. IT band syndrome in both of my knees, no tears or degeneration. I feel much better after hearing that!
My knees are both still kind of sore but at least I know why now lol
I’ll start physio and maybe get some better shoes and then hopefully I’ll be as good as new.
This would have to be the most unpopular war in US history and yet I think everyone Trump has surrounded himself with is telling him to do it.
This might sound insane but every single wartime president has gotten a huge boost to their approval ratings due to media networks circulating pure propaganda nonstop. Even NPR will start doing positive coverage.
The consent manufacturing machine will rev up like it always does. There’s already attempts to get us on board with a the fantasy of a regime change. As though that won’t lead to another ISIS or Libya.
But I really don’t think the average liberal boomer is going to fall in line behind Trump like they did Bush. And certainly not anyone younger. Dem leadership is probably already on board though.
I don’t know if he’s serious about regime change in iran. He seems to negotiate from a raft of threats and lies. Hopefully it’s all for show but if the war does go down my guess for approval ratings is over 60%. Not quite Bush I or ii numbers due to decline in news consumption.
I doubt anyone in power is deluded enough to think they can actually reinstate the Shah or something. They probably just want to bomb every piece if infrastructure in Iran and not worry about them for a few decades.
But regime change absolutely is the fantasy they are trying to sell liberals.
Bingo. Plus if it drags on, he can attempt to stay in power because there’s a war.
That’s basically Bibi’s strategy. :(
It also isn’t true. LBJs approval rating absolutely tanked because of the Vietnam war.
Johnson’s approval ratings had dropped from 70 percent in mid-1965 to below 40 percent by 1967
https://millercenter.org/president/lbjohnson/foreign-affairs
It was perceived that he was losing the war and lying to the public about the successes that they claimed to have achieved.
But winning wars, even unjust ones, always gets the president brownie points in the eyes of the public and corporations
the exception was covid, there was a huge downturn in recruitments, and they were getting worried. but military propaganda: top gun maverick helped boost numbers up. also the fact that they loosen some restrictions to join the military too. i was in a forum of people joining, during the obama years, and it was getting tougher to join. its mostly due to medical conditions that prevent people from joining.
Vietnam was pretty unpopular tbh.
But was it in the beginning? I’m not old enough to remember what it was like when it started but clearly there was a lot of propaganda. The unpopularity seemed to manifest over time, as there was no goal and people dying over something most americans didn’t care about.
Or at least that’s my impression.
It’s not even hard to look this up, or maybe I already have the context having loved the 90s history channel. Vietnam had majority support for the first few years. But it was one of the first conflicts that was widely televised. Americans had never so quickly seen how fucked up war was, so support dropped off quickly. Weapons were also becoming a lot more fucked up during this time as well, adding to the visual horror.
I don’t personally know, but as far as I could tell, people in the USA were largely ok with the Vietnam war, until they started to draft people to send to Vietnam who never wanted to be in a military.
I don’t know, I’m neither american nor old enough. However, since it was a different time and, as you so brilliantly told, the propaganda machine was at its summum. So there is no way to know how really unpopular things were. However, looking at the civil rights movement and the hippie era that was happening et the same time, we could conclude that it could have been more unpopular.
Don’t forget that the majority of trump voters are in favor of a war, particularly against a country they have seen as an enemy for a very long time - not forgetting the fact that it is also a muslim country, of which they are very biaised against.
You could say that there are no fundamental differences between the iranian government and the one they are willing to implement on US soil, except the fact that they are both centered around two different religions, however similar might their doctrines be.
To Trump voters, however, those words don’t have any weight as, again, iranians are seen as an enemy of the so-called freedom. That makes this war quite popular by essence.
It is clear that Israel want this war. And they clearly can’t do anything without the US and the UK at least. However, they commited insane genocidal attack in Gaza which might have been part of their plans to provoke a reaction that justify a war against Iran.
When that didn’t work and Trump made a deal with the Houthis in Yemen without their knowledge and was close to a deal with Iran they pulled the plug and basically put the US government under a situation where the have to join their war sooner or later eventhough it is not a good time for the US to do it.
lets imagine Trump administration just gone. Any other adminstration have a few options:
- play a defensive rule, which cannot last for long as Iran have the means to a long term missile attacks, and Israel being small and there is a few main cities that can be targeted. Along with cost which will run their budgets down.
- stop supporting Israel, which will make their allies nation to reach to China or Russia for guarantee protection and the US will lose its defense credibility.
- forcing a ceasefire, which is impossible and Israel keep violating all their ceasefires. As they would like to the war to happen they will force it through escalation.
Along with the fact that Israel own the Congress, the Senate, and the US administration based on how many officials visit Israel and publicly endorsed by AIPAC, there are literally no other option.
The question now is how to make sure it is a popular war, it seems like they were trying to do it by the 6 day mark but couldn’t. The US government has two part, Zionist and MAGA supremacist, and the MAGA supremacist don’t want to be controlled by Jewish people and it feel as this is what stopping the US from joining now.
Most likely, they came to the conclusion that they will have to stage a false flag attack on US bases or assets to make it easier for the public to accept this war. This has been publicly stated by AIPAC speakers through out the years before 9/11, where now it feels more like a false flag as Benjamin Netanyahu keep mentioning “New York will be next”.
$$$
Without war, American capitalist hegemony cannot sustain itself. It’s so sickening…
I think Trump is attempting to scare Iran into accepting his nuclear deal. The only problem with this tactic is that Iran might not believe him as they know how deeply unpopular the war would be.
I think Trump is attempting to scare Iran into accepting his nuclear deal.
Israel wouldn’t tolerate any deal though. They want no deal and permanent sanctions on Iran. Besides, we are well past talking about any nuclear deal.
So what’s the game plan, they’re going to bomb Iran into submission? That strategy has never worked in the history of warfare. They’d need boots on the ground and direct US involvement. And even then, this didn’t work in Afghanistan, nor Iraq.
Are the bombs working? No. Are we going to keep bombing them? Yes.
– President Biden on Operation Prosperity
This War Will Destabilize The Entire Mideast Region And Set Off A Global Shockwave Of Anti-Americanism vs. No It Won’t
– The Onion, 2003
Sounds like the perfect time for Canada, Greenland/Denmark and Panama to launch their preemptive strike and ensure regime change and eliminate US WMD.
If I woke up to discover that all of DC was a smoldering crater and those countries all offered us protected refugee status under Canada’s leadership, the strangest part would be living through world-changing history and having a GOOD feeling about it for once.
Healthcare at a reasonable cost you say?
Count me out in.
A leader who isn’t a complete fucking moron?
Also count me in.
You’d have to hit wall st and silicone valley at the same time.
lol yeah, okay
commondreams.org is on my PiHole block list for some reason, is it a low quality news source, or some such? It’s not a news outlet I’ve heard of, at least.
Edit: Ah, because it’s a shell going to a CDN that scoops up data and such, seemingly.
www.commondreams.org (blocked www.commondreams.org.cdn.rebelmouse.com)
Yeah it’s a clickbait site for people who think they’re too smart to fall for clickbait.
God I hate Republicans.
Trump is absolute garbage on every single scale and stat, but it’s the republican voters who got us here. Fuck every republican voter.
If they feel safe leaving their homes, you’ve failed.
Let’s not pretend that the Democrats wouldn’t also side with Israel
Not if the democrats keep electing the same type of candidate. The trouble began when they shoehorned in Hilary, would Bernie have ran in 2016 the world would be a better place.
Venture?
Bernie, autocorrected
Ah ok. Lol, for a moment I thought you might have meant Jessie Ventura
Lol. Whilst that would not have solved many problems. In retrospect I would’ve preferred that timeline.
Yeah, would still probably be an improvement on this one.
What got us here is the same two parties cycling in power for a century. If you believe war is red fault alone and that voting blue will change anything, you are part of the problem.
Hate is not going to get you anywhere.
Yes some of them voted for him but a bunch of them didn’t.
Stop being defeatist… inform yourself… look at the numbers. Look at the evidence. Get active.
If you’ve wondered why everything looks like a coup since he got in, perhaps it is because it is one.
https://lemmy.world/post/31401705
https://electiontruthalliance.org/
Edit: the upvote/downvote ratio on a comment like this shows how rapidly Lemmy is turning into Reddit. Nobody cares about the data, if you remotely sound like defending the GOP down the chute you go.
It’s your loss America. I’ll sleep fine as long as we don’t have electronic voting systems here.
It’s not that we don’t agree with you, it’s that your kinda acting like a dick. Change your tone and you might get a better reception.
And leading with “hate is not going to get you anywhere” and following it with more blame instead of action.
Find your local mutual aid group. Volunteer. Protest. Get involved.
[you’re] kinda acting like a dick
I really don’t see it. I see only advice trying to help them get a healthier point of view. 🤷♂️
Change your tone and you might get a better reception.
This has literally the same vibe.
Edit: didn’t realize the response was a different user.
I’m not trying to convince anyone of something. I’m just telling why
you’rethey are being downvoted, and it’s not because of the content ofyourtheir post. I’d post differently if I were trying to make a sincere point.I’m not the one who made the “dick” comment…
I’m not trying to convince anyone of something.
You’re saying they should change their tone. 🤷♂️ Meh. Whatever you say.
spoiler
asfasdfasdfas
Spite can be a powerful motivator.
It’s really Democrats and independents who got you there. Unconvinced ones, though. Republicans did what they do, just enough Democrats and independents stayed at home.
I fucking hate this rhetoric which is: OIL! GAS! BUY OIL! BUY GAS! KEEP PUTIN HAPPY! OIL! GAS!
No one was taking the ‘war’ between Israel and Iran seriously last week after the initial surge in oil price because the USA was like… “yeah, nah”. Now, after a quick call from Putin and bam, all this BS about how the US is pandering for war to drive commodity and share prices up when it’s a nothingburger.
Remember kids, buy oil, buy gas and do as you’re told.
I think RATM had something to say about your last 4 words
“Thank you sir, may I have another!”
Retail traders beg to differ though and are doing as they’re told.
We need to fix the voting system. ALL pacs should be banned and campaign spending should be limited.
A-10 movement always preceeds ground deployments. They moved those to Kuwait at the end of March. This has been coming for a while, its not an unplanned thing like it appears.
Also indicates complete air superiority in guessing Israel has removed a fair amount of threat
Where are those informations diskussed? If the information was out in March then Lemmy as a whole is not good at filtering the relevant news.
For A-10s theres probably 4 active squadrons, 2 national guard, 1 reserve 74th (Georgia), 75th (Georgia), 354th (Fairbanks), 190th (Boise national guard), 107th (michigan) is in Afghanistan
45th/47th reserve, not sure
They are phasing all A-10s out and replacing with other aircraft, f-16s for the 25th.
25th has a great insignia:
Thank you.
The news community over at Hexbear.net made abundant analysis of this
This is basic dictator playbook, problems in domestic politics, start a war and problems change to foreign policy.
Putin has done this multiple times now, and Trump is following up.
Putin has done this multiple times now, and Trump is following up.
The United Russia party has had a chokehold on Russian elections practically since the day the USSR was dismantled.
There’s a lot more to their socio-economic dominance than Russia just starting new wars. RU controls the national media, they have deep roots in petrochemicals and finance and real estate, they’re mobbed up, they have control of the military across the officer’s corps, and they’re embedded all through local government.
Putin could be the biggest peacenik hippie in Russia and that party wouldn’t budge from its perch.
He’s doing these wars because he’s fascist. Not because he’s doing 11D politics chess.
Starting a war isn’t really 11D thing, it is more like “me big army, me attack” vibe. Even the orange orangutan can figure that one out.
Russia has two exports, fossil energy and war. They know nothing else.
Putin and his party are one and the same.
Russia has two exports, fossil energy and war.
Russia is the only country left with a functioning space program. Also, one of the few remaining virgin steel manufacturers, in large part thanks to their domestic supply of iron and cheap energy. And, like Ukraine, it is a major regional breadbasket (one of the knock on effects of the war has been a one-two punch to cereal exports into Africa and the Middle East).
They don’t have the manpower that China and India enjoy, so they never properly built up their high end service and manufacturing base, even in the Soviet Era. But the “Russia’s just an oversized gas station” line doesn’t hold up to any kind of close inspection.
60% of their export is fossil energy, it is a banana republic
60% of their export is fossil energy
China, India, and Turkiye have been ravenous in their demand for petrochemicals. These sectors have been growing at a breakneck pace.
it is a banana republic
Which large US business conglomerate is extracting fruit produce from Russia through armed occupation at below market rates?
This is why I say Canada, Greenland, and Mexico are not safe. Added to the fact that all 3 countries have lots of resources the US needs.
Don’t forget panama
If the US ever try to take out the Panama channel it would fuck up bigly international commerce. Basically only the US military is going to use it because no insurance company is going to cover ships going through them, and without insurance ships can’t even leave port.
Not take out. Take over. And therefore control said trade.
Wouldn’t this cause catastrophic domestic problems though. I think the US would tear itself apart trying to go to war with either of those three. Greenland perhaps less-so but still incredibly distasteful.
They won’t defend their own democracy. They won’t defend mine.
As if any USA president wouldn’t be doing the same thing.
So much for keeping the US out of war…
I can’t believe he’d just… Lie to us like we’re a court, Congress or himself or something.
Trump wants to try for an illegal third term and he thinks that being in the middle of a war will help his chances. “Don’t change horses mid-stream” or whatever bullshit.
i mean that’s definitely what’s keeping netanyahu in power, and what makes him want to keep all of their wars going
so if it works for netanyahu it will work for trump
Slowing weapons production??? While there are still citizens to vaporize to manufacture consent for yet more war???
There has never been a decade in the entire history of the US in which it has not been at war. Come to think of it, there are probably like 10 years total, over 250, where there was not direct military action. I think. Have not recently checked the spreadsheet I keep.
Machines gotta eat
And shareholders gotta profit.
Something like 17 years total.
That means that for 222 out of 239 years – or 93% of the time – America has been at war. (We can quibble with the exact numbers, but the high percentage of time that America has been at war is clear and unmistakable.)
Yes we are a shithole country
Early 2000’s era nostalgia goin real hard
Yeah… Bad headline; this is completely precedented.
Operation Desert Shield, redux, again. Hey at least the music of the era is relevant again
The worst part of anti-war music is that it never stops being relevant. Blast off! It’s party time!
I didn’t call it, but there’s nothing quite like a war to distract the population from rampant decline at home.
This one is weird though, Iran is allied with Russia. Israel is allied with the US. Historically, this made sense.
But Trump and Putin playing war together would benefit both of them. It allows Putin to pull out of Ukraine because “Iran provided us much help and they need us now.” And it allows Russia to maintain the war economy. It benefits Trump because he wants to play war.
Neither leader would have any actual skin in the game, it’s just people’s lives that would never contribute in another meaningful way to their power.
I don’t like this. This is feeling more 1984 than 1984.
Edit: I like this even worse after I read the specifics of the KC-135R and KC-46A. Each can carry about 200,000 lbs of additional fuel. A single F-15E can hold 13,000 lbs internally. 30 KC-135Rs can refuel an entire F-15E 460 times. Israel has 7 KC-130H (60,000lbs) and 7 Boeing 707s (which is what the KC-135 was based on). This isn’t just escalation, this is staging for invasion.
The nice thing about Americans going to war is that it reduces the amount of dodge owners drag racing late at night. Silver linings.
Not to mention that this gives him a legitimate reason to invoke the alien enemies act, not that he needed them in the first place, but it will tie up the courts even further.
It allows Putin to pull out of Ukraine
Why would Putin pull out of Ukraine? Russia is currently advancing and has a much better position in this war of attrition, and the more it keeps gaining, the better the “peace terms” will be in the end. Putin’s not fearing for his next term since elections in Russia are manipulated, the Russian economy is alive and well, and in military terms he’s in no hurry
Both Putin and Trump are approaching dead-ends in their current campaigns. This ICE stuff can’t end well for him with so many people out last weekend, and Putin is well stuck in Ukraine, as you say. Whilst they may not be personally interested in the future of Iran and them having nukes by itself, they may need this to save their skin, actually.
Before COVID, 2020 started off with Trump drone striking a foreign diplomat and nearly starting WW3.
Ukraine could throw a wrench in their plans by simply not accepting whatever Putin offers. He’s then left with “stay out of it and stay in Ukraine” or “join Trump and risk Ukraine flanking into Russian territory”
They hope Iran does something, that warrants NATOs article 5 to be triggered. Either the other Nato countries follow along, weakening Europe, or they don’t, which basically desolves NATO and thus, weakening Europe.
No one in Europe still counts on the US in case of an article 5 situation
Come on now, you don’t need to invoke some BlueAnon conspiracy to explain why the US would attack Iran; it’s been champing at the bit to do so for decades.
US is going to be bankrupt by the time he is done his second term.
I mean, that’s just on brand for him. If anything, he has shown a talent for bankrupcy.
