This is just one of those things designed to give US officials credibility. Because it's fairly obvious that China isn't going to invade this year unless a real crisis (beyond elections) occurs, so you can just make up any old shit about why they're not going in, like "Oh, every Chinese military official has severe and debilitating diarrhea. Yeah, they're just shitting their pants non-stop. Will take months and months to sort this out." and when China doesn't invade, you can make yourself appear a very serious military analyst who "predicted correctly about the shitting pants crisis that is causing the Chinese military to collapse." This isn't something the American military actually believes, and virtually everybody on the planet will forget this article was ever published in approximately 36 hours.
A bittersweet victory given all the destruction, but a victory nonetheless. And if they cannot defeat Hamas, they definitely cannot defeat Hezbollah. The fall of the Zionist entity continues to approach.
It looks like Israel is airstriking further into Lebanon in response to Hezbollah dealing massive damage to the Meron base, which seems like a major base of operations for the Israeli military and has radars and jamming equipment that help their aerial operations. Latest airstrike is south of Tyre.
The Israeli propaganda strategy feels like a further iteration of the one used in Ukraine:
- State with full authority and confidence that this new tactic you have invented is going to work and the threat will soon be minimized.
- Discuss in the media about the future of the territory after this with no non-victory scenarios envisaged.
- The tactic does not seem to be working.
- Think of new tactic.
- Without mentioning that the previous tactic even existed, move on to the new tactic.
- Go back to Step 1.
e.g.
- "We are going to bombard Gaza with bunker busters to destroy the tunnel network; the depths at which these bombs impact is sufficient to destroy them."
- "So, who wants to live in the settlements we'll create when we conquer Gaza?"
- "Listen, Gaza is a pretty large area when you're trying to saturate it with bunker busters..."
- "A ground offensive may be necessary."
- "We are going to go on a ground offensive into Gaza and destroy Hamas."
...
- "We are going to go on a ground offensive into Gaza and destroy Hamas."
- "So, we're considering making Gaza either a water park or a holiday resort after the war is over..."
- "Patience is required for our soldiers to complete the work; we have almost finished destroying Hamas in our offensive - look at all the territory we hold!"
- "New analysis suggests that we need to destroy Hamas' strongholds."
- "We are going to reach and occupy hospitals throughout Gaza as Hamas is using them as bases and storing weapons in/under them."
...
- "We are going to reach and occupy hospitals throughout Gaza as Hamas is using them as bases and storing weapons in/under them."
- "Anybody down to have a concert in Gaza after all this is done?"
- "While we haven't yet found the tunnels we expect under Al-Shifa, further excavations and searches are taking place to discover them."
- "Their bases aren't here, fuck. Let's try and flood the tunnel network with seawater?"
- "We have full confidence that we can fill the tunnel network with seawater to destroy Hamas once and for all."
...
- "We have full confidence that we can fill the tunnel network with seawater to destroy Hamas once and for all."
- "These beaches are so lovely, we could totally have a beach resort here!"
- "The tunnels have a large volume, and it's not going to be obvious when they're full until the water stops pumping in. Patience, please."
- "We may not actually be able to defeat Hamas."
- "Let's move all the Palestinians to African countries so we can just occupy Gaza indefinitely and siege Hamas to death over many months."
...
- "Let's move all the Palestinians to African countries so we can just occupy Gaza indefinitely and siege Hamas to death over many months."
- "With all the Palestinians simply moved and not killed, it's slightly better on our Western consciouses in the long-term!"
- "Well, yes, some African countries aren't agreeing to take the Palestinians, but..."
- (to be decided)
- (to be decided)
It's pretty clever, because from their point of view (and thus from the point of view of the Zionist Propaganda Torment Nexus that is Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc) there aren't ever any Israeli Ls, just a series of soon-to-be Ws that everybody memoryholes 3 weeks after those soon-to-be Ws were announced. Like, it appears to be a steady march towards victory with all these discrete steps taking Israel closer to winning, rather than actually a series of giant losses that is bleeding the Israeli military and state dry. They failed to destroy the tunnels with bunker busters. They failed to meaningfully control even the above-ground section of the Gaza Strip. They failed to find any strongholds in the hospitals. They failed to flood the tunnels. They will fail to move the Gazans to countries abroad. All the while, the thousand cuts of the Resistance is slowly and steadily draining their blood into the sand.
My son failed to beat Iudex Gundyr and is now dead because he didn't use his estus flask in time. This is the 8th time this has happened to me. Natural selection is taking a while to kick in but soon enough, my sons will be parrying Pontiff Sulvayhn with the best of them. Thank you, Darwin!
Make sure you leave out Nancy Pelosi's podium and similar gifts near your chimney for a patriot to steal on this most blessed of days. If you've been good, Trump Claus will come by on his magical flying golf cart and give you holiday cheer. Just make sure you're not on the naughty list or they'll drop a tear gas canister down your chimney instead!
The KN-23B is a serious contender for the title of the world’s most capable class of surface-launched short range ballistic missile - a category which includes all surface-to-surface ballistic missiles with ranges under 1000km.
This is genuinely fascinating, I was totally unaware that the DPRK's non-hypersonic ballistic missile capabilities were superior to that of a Russian equivalent. The raw power of Juche once again impresses me.
I guess we are now piecing together why Russia has been more actively making friends with the DPRK over the last year or so.
Also, the Daily Mail (so, automatic grain of salt) is reporting:
Drastic shortages of sailors have forced the Royal Navy to decommission two of its warships, it was reported last night. HMS Westminster and HMS Argyll were allegedly retired so their crews could transfer to the service's new Type 26 frigates. The news comes as UK sailors were sent to the Red Sea to protect merchant vessels from Houthi rebels. The retirement of HMS Westminster is controversial as it underwent expensive repairs in 2017 and only recently returned to service.
...
The decommissioning of the ships comes as record numbers of sailors, such as navy divers and engineers, are signing off. Many have been headhunted by private sector companies who can double their wages.
According to Maldivian media reports, 2 israeli-affiliated oil tankers were targeted by unknown drones in the west and northwest of Maldives in the past few days.
Initial reports indicate that both tankers were seriously damaged by explosions. The oil tankers were supposed to pass through the Strait of Bab al-Mandab.
The oil tankers were targeted by drones at a distance of 2,000 kilometers, reportedly from thr Bab al-Mandab area.
given how much economic power the US has over Iraq, I really hope China or Russia can step in and help them if the US decides to cut off Iraq's funds in retaliation if Iraq decides it's time to reclaim their sovereignty
people are voting for Biden in the primaries? I don't think I could name a more pointless activity if you put a gun to my head