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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Are people surprised? Republicans are war hawks even more so than the Libs.
You’d be surprised. There are quite a few on lemmy that still do the both sides are the same. Oddly trying to do anything to form a new progressive is also something they don’t seem interested in either.
Biden ran on getting back into the deal with Iran, then insisted that Iran must completely return to fulfilling their side of the deal before we would consider returning to ours.
Both sides are not the same but Biden shouldn’t be let off the hook for his sudden flip on this issue.
Its one thing to be unhappy with the democrats. Its another (and self defeating) to not want to expand the progressive wing inside of it (or to form a new party and go for local elections) and to not stall alt right republicans everywhere else.
Absolutely, I just don’t think it actually helps Democrats in the long run to pave over their often deep flaws. If we were harder on Democrats 30 years ago, we probably wouldn’t have Trump today.
Nobody is paving over anything, you just cannot help yourself but shit on them theoretical shit that Biden didn’t even fucking do yet.
Biden didn’t even fucking do yet.
Yet? I’m not sure how to argue with someone who thinks Biden is still president. It doesn’t seem worthwhile.
Both sides are the same because Biden said something that suggested he might be hard on Iran (definitely couldn’t be a negotiating tactic)?
Yes I know how you ended your comment, I was replying to the rest of it.
(definitely couldn’t be a negotiating tactic)?
No, it definitely wasn’t a “negotiation tactic”. It was meant to avoid negotiating without Biden’s adoring masses noticing that he did a 180. He caved to AIPAC, as he would continue to do throughout his term.
Why the hell would Iran go back to fulfilling it’s obligations under the agreement when the US was still ignoring it’s obligations? Why would it bother negotiating with a country that doesn’t honor negotiated agreements? Everyone in the foreign policy space knew exactly what it was.
Yes I know how you ended your comment,
Then why the fuck did you haul out “both sides”? Why are so many people desperate to throw everything into that frame?
Yeah when liberals kill a wedding party or hospital at least they act sad.
Oddly trying to do anything to form a new progressive is also something they don’t seem interested in either.
Its okay to not like liberals, but that part of my original comment is important.
I read that and it made me sad because that will literally never happen in my potential grandchildren’s lifetimes
Same, but
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.
We still need to get the ball rolling. The institutions and networks we need will take a lot of time to build. I know a lot of our fellow lefties don’t want to interact with anything government, but doing so with the goals of harm reduction gives us space to lay the roots and set up the next generation for success. If we are serious about things we need follow ups for our protests and making the best efforts we can in our sub-ideal situations.
I would rather build a real, actual house for people than a system of oppression built on violence.
And before you say “habitat for humanity Jimmy Carter “ it’s the same catty bureaucracy I’ve found everywhere.
I would rather build a real, actual house for people than a system of oppression built on violence.
And that does not happen overnight, if you don’t follow up protests, and some voting.
But only against countries that pose no threat to them i.e. they are chickenhawks. At least Biden could do the bare minimum to help Ukraine.
They are jingoists, and jingoists are no different than schoolyard bullies who want to appear tough so they loudly proclaim how tough and big they are, which includes an occasional show of force against those they believe won’t/can’t defend themselves to reinforce their image of being the biggest Tough Guy™ around.
If they win, they win. If they lose, it’s because they decided it wasn’t worth their time and left willingly, not because they lost.
This country has always been stuck up its own ass.
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And considerably more than the bare minimum to help Israel
Dude, USA is the country that is involved in most wars - starts them / finances them / whatever. And they usually find a dummy excuse to preserve their facade of doing good.
Face the truth - you are the bully of the world and the ruling party does not matter.
Who are you even replying to
Was I ever in denial that the USA likes to play bully and world police? Let’s not forget our history about the rest of the Western nations, they’re hardly angels themselves. We’re all the same people anyways. Actually that reminds me of a good ole George Carlin quote, “We come from that northern European, basically the northern European genes, the blue eyes. Those blue eyes. Boy everybody in the world learned real quick, didn’t they? When those blue eyes sail out of the north, you better nail everything down motherfucker.”
Agreed. I wanted just to emphasize that the party does not make much of a difference in regards to wars.
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.
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
Also indicates complete air superiority in guessing Israel has removed a fair amount of threat
This will drive oil prices up.
This will give the oil companies a reason to …
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…
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.
Oh good. They’re just fueling speculation and not any war machines. /s
Air sharks at a smell of a big conflict in the ME.
Are these american military bases useful for europe anymore? Do we need them? I always thought they were a nato thing, but nowadays I don’t know. If europe is alone against the russians anyway and we cant count on nato, maybe we should just tell the american military to leave europe?
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.
$$$
Without war, American capitalist hegemony cannot sustain itself. It’s so sickening…
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”.
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.
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
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.
Bingo. Plus if it drags on, he can attempt to stay in power because there’s a war.
That’s basically Bibi’s strategy. :(
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.
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.
So NOW they want to have bases in Europe?
Maybe they are invading Greenland. Or it is a ruse and they are invading Canada.
“How to start WW3 in 10 seconds”.
“How to lose WW3 in a day”
Armchair theory is that the US large platform bombers will be used to credibly threaten repeated bunker buster hits on Fordow nuclear site. This could pressure Iran to surrender its entire nuclear program including that site.
Currently Israel doesn’t have the capability by itself to destroy the site but US bombers possibly could.
That doesn’t make a lick of sense. To use an analogy, that would be like eating lunch with me and I say “I’m going to take your apple,” so you’re response is to give me your whole lunch, including the apple.
I mean, it’s actually much worse than that, because in this case losing your lunch means losing your best chance to defend yourself and opening yourself to future attacks, maybe on breakfast and dinner.
worry not. remember this is TACO Don… he’ll chicken out again
Yeah, it seems fairly impossible he’ll get fully into the war, and even lending a few bunker busters would be surprising when that’s risking a blowback on American forces.
I would guess that Trump is expecting Khamenei to cave, because that’s what he’d do. Most likely, he won’t, Trump will be confused, and this will drag on and on until a regional nuclear exchange is on the table.
This comment will age poorly if he don’t.
He also said if he was president there’d be no more wars, so this obviously totally super duperly cannot happen.
We need to fix the voting system. ALL pacs should be banned and campaign spending should be limited.
We just want fucking healthcare and affordable housing.
Other Americans just want fucking guns and affordable discrimination. It’s a sad day.
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.
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.
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.
Best I can do is a Trump smartphone.
You had a chance at that in Zuck’s metaverse…
Don’t worry. You’ll get it if you can be drafted.
And it will last you till your death (several days later).
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
You don’t, because almost none of you vote for socialist candidates.
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.
This is the truth.
Americans have shown where their priorities lie, time and time again.
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
Yeah. Unfortunately it’s been obvious to a lot of us for awhile that it would only come from the ashes of this country.
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.
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.
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.
Zomg, Boeing planes being flown above enemy territory as surprise kamikazes (surprise to the pilots & crew).
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.
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.
Spite can be a powerful motivator.
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.
following it with more blame instead of action.
I don’t see blame anywhere?
[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.
I’m not trying to convince anyone of something. I’m just telling why you’re being downvoted, and it’s not because of the content of your 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.
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Hahaha WHAT? You’re a liar for saying I’m a sexist and for saying I said those things in DMs. Post whatever evidence you want, you asshole. I dare you.
Do you also go around saying men raped you when they didn’t?
God, I was hoping I wouldn’t run into people like this here on Lemmy. I thought Lemmy would be different.
At least it took over a year or two until I ran into one again. That’s to Lemmy’s credit.
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.
Many people just aren’t serious enough to take actions that are material beneficial. We want leftist ideas, but no one wants to form a party or vote for one.
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.
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.
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If anyone has good reasons to think otherwise, my anxiety needs something to believe in rn
Surprise attack on Ukraine?
you are making it worse somehow (But I did laugh at the absurdity of it all, so thank you)
Lol same reaction. I don’t think it’s too absurd, sadly 😔
Chuckle… Oh shit!
Well, you’re dependent on tramp’s judgement at this point (panik)…on the one hand his caveman brain knows “oil price spike bad” and he can say no to bibi (kalm)…but he’s an idiot and easy to manipulate, so maybe he’ll fuck that up too (panik).
Oil price spike is actually very profitable for oil company and bad for not oil company
Realistically it would be a normal thing to build up forces in the area to monitor and contain the conflict in case of further escalation by either party. Especially with Iranian proxy liable to strike at international shipping in the red sea and straight of Hormuz.
So this could just be a nothing burger. I hope.
Edit: okay yeah. No. 🍊 Is absolutely involving the military in there.
That doesn’t’ really seem plausible based on the scale of the deployment.
So much for keeping the US out of 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.
There is no “and”. The shareholders are the machine.
Yes we are a shithole country
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.)
I can’t believe he’d just… Lie to us like we’re a court, Congress or himself or something.
I noticed you didn’t say anything about a wife/ex-wife
We don’t have to lie to those, we just put those into our golf courses ya ijit
Slowing weapons production??? While there are still citizens to vaporize to manufacture consent for yet more war???
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
