Category Added in a WPeMatico Campaign
Is the Kuwait Airport Attack a Turning Point in the Iran War?: The purported ceasefire crafted between President Donald Trump and the Islamic Republic of Iran has entered a new, bizarre place. On the one hand, Trump continues waxing eloquent about his beautiful deal with the Iranians. Meanwhile, the other two parties in the war, the US ally of Israel and Iran, keep shadow boxing.
You see, Iran has insisted that the ceasefire include Israel and Lebanon.
Summary and Key Points: Vladimir Putin still tells his country that victory in Ukraine is coming. But the war has now lasted longer than World War II did for Russia, and the people best positioned to know — including one of Russia’s own top academics — have quietly reached the opposite conclusion: this war cannot be won, not without an occupation that is simply impossible.
The Ukraine War and a Look to History
U.S. Army Pvt.
Kremlin Warns Of “New Paradigm” In Ukraine War: Here’s What That Means: As Ukraine finds its feet as a drone operator, conducting deeper and deeper strikes into Russian territory using inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the Kremlin is now claiming that the war has entered an “entirely different paradigm.”
The warning comes after Russia launched one of its largest aerial attacks of the war so far, firing 656 drones and 73 missiles at targets across the country overnight. The strikes hit Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Poltava, and Zaporizhzhia.
When Ukraine’s parliament confirmed its new defense minister this January, it made a bet almost no country at war would dare: it handed its military to a tech entrepreneur who has never served in uniform. But Mykhailo Fedorov is no ordinary bureaucrat — years before he ran a ministry, he ran the digital campaign that put Zelensky in office. And after Russia invaded, he pulled off what may be the single most important non-combat move of the war: persuading Elon Musk to flood Ukraine with Starlink, then, later, to switch the Russians off, stalling one of their advances.
The greatest danger facing the United States in its war of choice against the Islamic Republic of Iran is not a sudden decision by President Donald Trump to launch a full-scale invasion of the country populated by more than 90 million people. It’s what’s known as “escalation-by-exhaustion.”
Currently, there’s little evidence in Trump’s repertoire that he is chomping at the bit to repeat the same mistakes as former Republican President George W. Bush: invading an ancient Mideast country with insufficient troop levels, a lack of political will, and no plan for any fallout.
The United States is drawing down both its emergency oil reserves and commercial stockpiles as the war with Iran continues. In an effort to stabilize global energy markets, the United States is depleting its own reserves while Washington works to secure a lasting deal that would see the Strait of Hormuz reopened and Iran prevented from obtaining a nuclear weapon. New data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed another major decline in U.S.
Summary and Key Points: On paper, the Iran war is winding down: Trump says a deal could come within days, and his secretary of state says Tehran is suddenly willing to discuss things it called off-limits weeks ago. On the ground, it looks like the opposite. This week a drone-and-missile strike tore into Kuwait’s international airport — dragging a country that had stayed out of the war directly into it — while the Strait of Hormuz remains choked shut months after a ceasefire was meant to reopen it.
The JH-XX or J-36 is an American designation for a suspected Chinese regional stealth bomber, reportedly developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC). It is suspected that the J-36, the first of China’s sixth-generation aircraft, was the stealth fighter-bomber that Western intelligence agencies have been tracking for some time. The J-36 is a highly unusual aircraft with a trijet configuration and a tailless, diamond delta wing layout. Its overall role in the PLAAF remains ambiguous, although its size suggests it is a multi-role strike aircraft.
How Long Can Russia Last in the War Against Ukraine?: The Russo-Ukrainian war is in its final stages. I predict that an extended ceasefire and peace talks will occur in about three months. Russia will not be negotiating from a position of strength, but Ukraine will. The defenders have put up a valiant fight and have decimated Russia’s best troops and military hardware. Ukraine is also winning with adroit psychological warfare. They just launched a flight of one-way drones to frightfully disrupt an economic conference in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin’s hometown.
Summary and Key Points: On the surface, the Iran war has stalled into a tense ceasefire. Underneath, the regime is coming apart: prices are soaring, exports have collapsed, and a government can no longer reliably pay the troops it’s counting on. Iran is using the lull to rebuild — but the same pause has handed Washington a menu of ways to push the regime past the edge, short of the ground war the headlines keep warning about.
America Has Options When It Comes to Iran
F-22 Raptor Elephant Walk. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
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