“Reports suggest India may have also targeted the Kirana Hills—an underground military storage site housing both nuclear and conventional weapons—near Mushaf Airbase in Sargodha.”

if this is even remotely true, this means India, or those behind her skirts, are working to degrade Pakistani stockpile and nuclear potential .

It means those with already nuclear “first-use” policy, the weaker conventional and numerical side, and already paranoid in face of trumped-up aggression, will now have a lower threshold use.

It informs why in last two days their DM said full war is inevitable and they then convened their nuclear security decision committee.

It means the risk of mutual conflagration horror of the subcontinent is far advanced, with far less steps left on the escalation ladder

wow. The First A.I.-generated War?? This may be the Ghost of Kiev on steroids. Brought to you by same Perfide Albion curator… but the dirty deed is done now, regardless of how it was detonated. Swords drawn, and bloodied…

ignore the 5% poison and narrative he promotes, but the Last Drang assault of the Last Satanic Empire of the Mind which he describes is spot on.

💠@ejmalrai:
⭕ The death toll from Israel’s ongoing war crimes and collective genocide in Gaza may reach 109,000—an overwhelming majority of them civilians. This staggering figure underscores what can only be described as a deliberate campaign of extermination, executed with impunity and shielded by international complicity and inaction.
[it was already considered multiples early in 2024 by statisticians in eminent scientific journals. And common sense dictates as well, given amount of ordinance poured onto such a tiny pen in such a short amount of time]
⭕ Russia has little reason to take Europe’s latest posturing seriously. With no spine to back their threats and no unified military backbone, European leaders have issued yet another hollow ultimatum to President Vladimir Putin: accept a ceasefire within 24 hours or face “massive” sanctions and expanded weapons transfers to Ukraine.

This theatrical move—coordinated by Britain, France, Germany, and Poland—was preceded by a joint phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump, during which Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed readiness for direct negotiations with Moscow. But behind the dramatic declarations lies a simple truth: neither Europe nor Ukraine is in any position to dictate terms.

Issuing ultimatums while lacking leverage only reinforces Moscow’s view that the West is flailing. Russia sees through the bluff, and without American firepower firmly behind the threats, European warnings ring empty.
[even WITH “American firepower” – when will it dawn on all??]

💠@imetatronink:
⭕📜 The Ashes Will Come First

“The trajectory of events is not amenable to the voice of the people.”
⭕🔻 ₦₳V𝚜𝚝é𝚟𝚊 🇷🇺 ᴢ: There is a fight inside the Trump administration, for the soul of the Trump administration, between the neocons and people like Witkoff. You can see it in the media, on the attacks on Witkoff, and others.

During Trump’s first admin, the neocons won. This time? The jury is out.
🔻 Olga Bazova: They will always win. In fact, they already have. Rubio alone is the testament to it.
🔻 ₦₳V𝚜𝚝é𝚟𝚊 🇷🇺 ᴢ: This is the wrong attitude. It is full of pessimism and defeat.

Whether, or not, they win is up to us. Our actions have an effect on the world.
[LOL]
🔻 Olga Bazova: Your optimism borders naivety. It’s simply not possible. But it’s the neocons who are going to destroy the empire at the end.
🔻 ₦₳V𝚜𝚝é𝚟𝚊 🇷🇺 ᴢ: Nothing is impossible. It is up to us to make the changes needed. Don’t be so impotent.
🔻 WS: I remain convinced what I have written below is true.

To whatever extent it ever truly was, America will never be made great again. Something great may eventually rise from its ashes, but the ashes will come first.
reposts his older, “🤔 We are led to believe the course of empire is shaped by whom we elect. It is plainly not so.

There is a continuity of oligarchic power and policy stretching back many generations.

It imposes its will.

The trajectory of events is not amenable to the voice of the people.”
⭕🤡🌍 The Coalition of the Impotent Clowns
links:
🔻 Margarita Simonyan: This is what diplomats call “weaponizing the peace process,” which not only prolongs conflict, but contaminates any future negotiation.

Britain has form on this – from the Opium Wars to Ireland to the colonies.

Though at least they used to have the decency to win wars before they started threatening the natives with peace. |media|
🔻 Ed H. Hanna: That’s an appropriate name for them.

They may also be accurately called “Coalition of the Defeated.”
⭕ cont thread:
Zerohedge is waxing silly again about “evil” China.

As though it matters anyway.

The US cannot stop the Iran / China oil trade.

Sanctions are futile.

The US Navy doesn’t have the ships to enforce a blockade.

China will escort tanker convoys with warships if necessary.
🔻 Silvie Amst: “The US Navy doesn’t have the ships to enforce a blockade.”
The US Navy has those ships now. It will not have them soon after starting to enforce a blockade
🔻 WS: The US Navy cannot put more than about 60 warships to sea at any given time.
⭕🔻 JP MOGAN:
The Chinese do not have the naval power to project force out of the SCS
🔻 WS: China has the largest navy in the world, by a significant margin. It is, by far, the most powerful littoral naval power on the planet.
🔻 JP MOGAN: How will China escort tankers if they dont have the blue water navy to project force out of the SCS.

Delusional.

No one is contesting they have a large littoral navy.
🔻 WS: You are misinformed.

From the South China Sea to the Persian Gulf is mostly a littoral passage.

China’s navy has been designed to secure that route.

The US navy and air forces cannot project sufficient power to block seaborne trade in the Indian and western Pacific oceans.
🔻 JP MOGAN: No, its not. Furthermore, the constraints of a littoral fleet are largely logistical, not just limitations due to size.

Yes, the American navy is and has been capable of projecting the necessary force to cut off China from the sea, especially in the Indian Ocean.
[after Yemeni exposure! Yet this appears the precise continuing imperial playbook. To get neighbors of China to suicide themselves, EVEN as US Navy is rendered obsolete. They CANNOT change script so late and so deep into the Last Drang. The mad Passion of the Worst. Into the Breech then]
🔻 WS: Delusional.
🔻 JP MOGAN: Sorry, the US has a far more advanced blue water fleet, from its carrier groups to its attack submarines, and the ability operate for an extended period at sea that the Chinese do not have.

That’s not to say they won’t, but they currently do not.
🔻 excelsior: Retards like you should probably watch less movies. Sorry, but no. You cannot blockade China; this is retarded and brain dead Reddit fan fiction. Stop repeating this. Go ahead and try and see what happens.
[they will. The sheer lunacy is carved into the very stars, like the Murder-Suicide against Iran, and the last two months’ humiliating futility we witnessed against Yemen, and next the exposure of western air junk in Pak-India.. they ARE insane]
⭕🔻 DD Geopolitics: 🇷🇺 Putin began his Victory Day press conference by thanking all international guests — but made sure to personally highlight North Korea.

“I was glad to thank the commanders of the Korean People’s Army and send warm greetings to the DPRK special forces.”

He emphasized their professionalism and heroism in joint operations near Kursk against the Kiev regime. |media|
🔻 WS: When I argue the DPRK is a strong military power, many scoff.

When I argue Iran is a very strong military power, many scoff.

When I argue the US could not win a war against Russia or China, many scoff.

Meanwhile Yemen controls the Bab-el-Mandeb.
🔻 #Liderazgoinnovador: Ciao Will, non rimanere nell’amarezza, la guerra cognitiva è così cosà.
E come va il tuo giardino a casa? Vaghe stelle dell’Orsa…
Penso alla campagna, sono in una grande città che amo, ma per come sta andando il mondo penso che sia una potenziale trappola per topi…
🔻 bond, James bond: Only the foolish and those with a late 20th-century geopolitical vision are so stupid as not to have at least a small doubt about the true capabilities of these countries. The example of Yemen should have been a powerful warning.
⭕🔻 Dagny Taggart:
Putin: negotiations should not become a prologue to Ukraine’s rearmament

“We are committed to serious negotiations. Their purpose is to eliminate the root causes of the conflict, to establish a long-term, lasting peace for the historical perspective. We do not rule out that during these negotiations it will be possible to agree on some new truces, a new ceasefire, and a real truce that would be observed not only by Russia, but also by the Ukrainian side, would be the first step towards a long-term, sustainable peace, and not a prologue to the continuation of the armed conflict after rearmament, the replenishment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the feverish digging of trenches and new strongholds,” the Russian president said.
🔻 WS: Putin has never once veered from his repeatedly stated terms, going back to February 2022, and reiterated with great clarity in the celebrated Tucker Carlson interview of February 2024:

📜 The Vladimir Putin Interview – Part Two
🔻 Emmanuel Consoli: l’OTAN souhaite imposer un Minsk 3…🔥⚖️🕊️
🔻 Johanna deMartin: Consistent, as only a true statesman with strategic vision and awareness of their place in the global picture can be be. It is rare.
⭕‼️ Tariff Bear Market

As I recall, Trump’s top tick for China tariffs was 245%. Now he’s floating a reduction to only 50% “as soon as next week”.

It will go lower yet.
🔻 Ed H. Hanna: My assessment is that, “as early as next week,” Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports will be reduced to approximately 30%.

In my view, a 30% tariff on Chinese imports is very substantial, and the majority of these tariffs will be borne by American businesses and consumers.
🔻 MyVeganDogs: Trump is turning into a discount manager from the “Bargain basement”
🔻 Seeji Sundarakshan: a MAGA cap sourced from China by the US buyer for $3 and sold in America for $18 will have a tariff of $1.5 that could be shared by the buyer and the end customer. No biggie. 🤷🤷‍♂️
🔻 shahv: Fifty percent is not low, neither is 30. Both higher than smoot Hawley that wrecked several foreign economies. 80 is the same as 400 anyway, it’s a full trade barrier.

Hahaha! There WAS a Modi who showed up in Moskau for the Victory Day.. the same Modi who after a bloodless and pleasant coup in the hot summer of 2023 hosted the sweating Frau Nuland in Africa over tea and cookies and then sent her on her way without an audience with his boss, General Abdourahamane Tchiani.

💠 @Sputnik Africa:
⭕ Russian Defense Minister Holds Talks With His Nigerien Counterpart

Key statements made by Andrey Belousov during the bilateral meeting:

• Belousov expressed gratitude to Modi for attending the Victory Day celebrations;
• The arrival of the Nigerien minister testifies to the fact that the Victory over fascism is a common holiday;
• Russia is committed to expanding military ties and supports the AES’ effort to build a new regional security architecture and independent foreign policy;
• Cooperation with African partners is a long-term strategic priority, personally overseen by the Russian president;

Key statements made by Corps General Salifou Modi:

• Modi thanked Belousov for the invitation to the Victory Day anniversary;
• The Nigerien minister expressed gratitude for Russia’s attention and support for Niger and the Sahel Confederation.

👉 During the talks, the parties discussed current areas of interaction between the defense departments of Russia and Niger.

⚡️🇷🇺For the first time in 11 years, a passenger train arrived at Donetsk station

▪️The train was moving along the Debaltseve-Donetsk route.
➖"In 2014, despite shelling and artillery, our employees continued to send trains, evacuate passengers, and escort them to a bomb shelter.… pic.twitter.com/JWfnH7LMce

— SIMPLICIUS Ѱ (@simpatico771) May 9, 2025

💠@LauraRuHK:
⭕ RIA Novosti published a map showing which countries are represented at the Victory parade in Moscow, either by their head of state or by other officials. It’s very illustrative. 51,9% of the world population is represented at the parade… and is predominantly Asian. Russia’s pivot to the East is working.
[Russia is SO isolated]

💠@Fotros Resistance:
⭕ 🇮🇷| Imam Khamenei:

Muslims should not forget about Palestine

The malicious policies being implemented in the world today against nations are aimed at making the issue of Palestine fade into oblivion.

Muslim nations must not allow this.
With various rumors, meaningless talk, and the introduction of irrelevant new issues, they try to distract minds from the Palestinian cause.

The minds should not be distracted from Palestine either. The crimes committed by the Zionist regime in Gaza and Palestine are not something to be ignored.

The entire world must stand against them.

(Death to Israel chants)

We must stand not only against the Zionist regime itself… but also against its supporters!

(Death to America chants)

Yes — your assessment is correct.
The Americans are, in the truest sense of the word, fully supporting them.

In the realm of politics, statements are made that may mislead people into thinking otherwise. But that is not the reality. [The leader is here saying very clearly that the Americans are not to be trusted…]

The truth is, the oppressed people of Palestine and Gaza today are not just facing the Zionist regime —
they are also facing America, and Britain.
[this appears a lecture-speech he held yesterday commemorating martyrdom anniversary of Raisi]
⭕ 🇮🇷| Imam Khamenei:

My firm belief is that, by God’s grace, Palestine will be victorious over the Zionist occupiers. This will certainly happen.

The Zionist regime has a fleeting, superficial appearance of strength —
it may show itself [as strong] for a while, but it is bound to fall. There is no doubt about that.

The appearances we see—these actions and advances in Syria or elsewhere—are not signs of power, but rather signs of weakness, and they will lead to even greater weakness, God willing.

We hope that the Iranian nation and all faithful nations will, with their own eyes, witness the day of Palestine’s victory over the aggressors and usurpers.
⭕ 🇮🇷🇸🇦| Something is being cooked

Iran FM arrives in Jeddah to hold discussions on a “range of issues”. His visit comes a day before the new round of talks with US & ahead of Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia.

💠@Intel Slava Z:
⭕ 🇮🇳🇵🇰Ah, now we are just finding out that Rubio also got in touch with Indian FM Jaishankar.

This, after his calls with Pakistani military chief and FM.

This pretty much confirms that the US is now actively involved in efforts towards de-escalation. And that is reflected by what appears to be coordinated messaging from India and Pakistan in the last hour.
[de-escalation, or pouring flammable materials in copious forked-tongue quantities??]

💠@Sputnik Africa:
⭕ 🚨 Pakistan launches operation Bunyaan-un-Marsoos against India – reports 🇵🇰⚔️🇮🇳

Multiple sites across India are reportedly being targeted as part of the operation, according to Geo News.

A BrahMos missile storage facility in Beas, Punjab, is said to have been destroyed.
⭕ 🇵🇰 Pakistan convenes top Security Council following military operation against India – reports

Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has called a meeting of the National Command Authority (NCA) following the launch of Pakistan’s military operation Bunyan-ul-Marsoos against India, The Times of India reported.

The NCA is Pakistan’s highest-level security decision-making body, comprising senior civilian and military leaders. It oversees key national defense matters, including nuclear weapons policy.

This escalation follows Indian strikes on key Pakistani posts and military bases near Jammu, which were allegedly being used to launch tube-launched drones, according to ANI, citing security sources.
⭕ ❗️Pakistan is moving troops to the border, which indicates “an offensive intent to further escalation,” the Indian army reports

Pakistan attacked civilian targets in India using drones, long-range weapons, loitering munitions and fighter jets, the Indian side also stated.
⭕ ❗️The whole world is shaking because of the Russian Oreshnik missile system, Traore says

The president of Burkina Faso made the statement in Moscow at a meeting with students of the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology.
[we ain’t seen nuthin yet. The damned and the beautiful require much more shaking. Indeed, at the end of which they should have the equivalent of “shaken-baby-syndrome”]
⭕ UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan Extended for One Year Amidst Security Council Disagreements

• The UNMISS is now set to continue until April 30, 2026 with 12 members of the UN Security Council voting in favor, while Russia, China, and Pakistan chose to abstain.
• The US-drafted resolution faced delays before its final passage due to disputes over wording related to gender, climate change, and human rights, necessitating a temporary extension.

🇷🇺 Following the vote, representatives from Russia, China, and Pakistan voiced criticisms. Russia, while supporting UNMISS’s work, accused the US of exerting “pressure on the government of South Sudan.”

👉 Similarly, China argued the resolution imposed “excessive pressure” not reflective of the “realities on the ground”.
[the most important part of this news, and why I posted, is to note who joins Russia and China in voting. Note the Junta also gave a Nyet to the Saudi moneybags who were in the air leaving their territory en route to India, when they started the retaliation against India. It is completely predictable the Saudis were in Pakistan last night to threaten withholding of future moneys, in order to let India have the optical victory; that is always how Legion works – Economic Hitmen take many forms and suits. What days, of complete realignments and all being forced to get off the fence. Now, will India see reason, and stop permitting herself to be suicided by the Anglo-Zionists??]

I agree with him. All this blather about separation between Orange and Nutty are smoke and mirrors. The desert bedouins are being milked with merciless precision. And the Murder-Suicide is being set up. No more, no less

just watch the first 2.5 min – numerology of new pope and inevitable connections to the Trumpet of the Moshiach

💠@imetatronink:
⭕ 🔥 “Stay in Your Place”

Major General Hossein Salami, Commander-in-Chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, delivers a bold warning to the United States and Israel.

Most Americans laugh at the Iranians. I suspect that is a miscalculation. |link|
⭕ 🧵 Interesting Debate Thread

If patience is a virtue, then I achieved a saintly degree of holiness today. 😏 |Poor Sal|
🔻 Rummana Daoud: I don’t know how you tolerated that guy to be honest. I wanted to scream into a cushion at his ignorant refusal to see the strength, resilience and intelligence of the Yemeni military. A more than worthy adversary of the USA!
🔻 WS: Like the majority of regular folks in America, @mercoglianos is a good guy whose entire life experience has been filtered through the lens of American exceptionalist delusions. I try to be patient with such people. One day they’ll see their error; truth will triumph in the end.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping): Haha…filtered! I have been around the world a few times so my view is pretty well rounded. Everyone from every country believes in their exceptionalism.

The idea that it is unique to America is a false narrative.

However, my distain for the Houthis have nothing to do with American exceptionalism but their wanton attacks and terrorizing of innocent mariners.
🔻 SenshelMenshel Coastguard: There’s no point with him 🫠
🔻 cognitivedissonanceeverywhere: The Houthis control what happens in the Red Sea, not the US Navy. The sooner the penny drops with that fact the better, but it won’t with these imbeciles. This attitude is not going to break without significant pain.
⭕ ‼️⚓️ Tail Between Its Legs

The always-thorough @KitKlarenberg with an update on the current state of affairs in The Battle of the Red Sea, in which the US claims a great victory as the USS Trembling Puppy runs away yet again.

* HIGHLY RECOMMENDED * |link|
🔻 AT: The US ships also served as an intercepting / early warning system against Yemeni missiles launched towards Israel. If they leave the Red Sea, that capability is gone.
🔻 WS: I figure they’ll leave 1 or 2 destroyers to lurk around in the northern Red Sea, but the cruiser, two destroyers, and the carrier will, I suspect, go back to the US. Supposedly the USS Ford will replace the Trembling Puppy, but I’ll be surprised if the Ford goes to the Red Sea.
🔻 Kit Klarenberg : God bless you Will 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡
🔻 cognitivedissonanceeverywhere: The delusions there still are over Western military superiority are quite incredible. It’s a psychological problem at this point.

⭕🔻 Olga Bazova: Trump has suggested re-opening Alcatraz.
🔻 WS: You can check out anytime you’d like, but you can never leave.
⭕‼️ Mismatch

India and Pakistan are discovering that, in a battle between 20th century fixed-wing fighter aircraft and Russian-designed air defense missiles, the fighters lose far more often than they win.
🔻 Timbot2002: As far as I have heard the PL-15 AAM used to shoot down the Rafales has no Russian analogue or antecedent. It seems to be a Chinese missile.
🔻 WS: With their resources and growing expertise, the Chinese will likely surpass everyone before too much longer.
🔻 Timbot2002: Well, every good student eventually graduates after all.
🔻 Wajid ali khan: Still Pakistan shot 3 of them including French Rafael. Pakistan is using chinese weapons and j-10C, JF17-Thunder. It means Chinese jets and weapons are far superior than europeans.
🔻 WS: The Chinese missiles being used are almost all based on Russian models and designs.

Since the beginning of the missile era (1950s), Russian missilry has always been superior to its rivals.
🔻 Wajid ali khan: Chinese air to air missiles did the job for Pakistan. Rafael are advanced fighter jets and chinese technology did help Pakistan to shot it down. Chinese weapons based on Russian technology but Chinese doing better than russians now they took Russian technology to another level.
🔻 WS: Yes, the AAMs used by Pakistan are Chinese versions of Russian missiles — particularly the R-37.

Perhaps the Chinese have improved upon the original R-37 design, but it was introduced in 1985. I have seen no evidence to suggest Russian missile tech is no longer “best in class”.
🔻 SpremiteSedla: R-37M wreaked havoc among UAAF.
With new tactics they proved R-37M as the best in its the class.
🔻 cognitivedissonanceeverywhere: There is a huge amount of soul searching amongst Western commentators and analysts that their much vaunted expensive aircraft are useless. The cope over Israel’s failed attack on Iran was the first indication.
🔻 bordernick: Very little is spoken of that, presumably Iranian air defences locked on to the planes and israel had to abort their attack?
🔻 WS : All I can say is that, if indeed the attack was the devastating success Israel claimed it was, they would have followed it up with strike after strike after strike …

But they haven’t gone anywhere near Iran since then.
🔻 bordernick: Maybe F35 aren’t as stealthy as they thought, that Yemeni missile launched at the airport was a message too.
🔻 cognitivedissonanceeverywhere: There were supposed to be three or four waves to that attack culminating in the decapitation of the Iranian leadership. It comprehensively failed at the air defences. This is why they want to neuter Iran and its military now through ‘diplomacy’.
⭕🔸 If indeed the October 26, 2024 attack on Iran was the devastating success Israel claimed it was, they would absolutely have followed it up with strike after strike after strike after strike.

But they haven’t gone anywhere near Iran since then. |link|
🔻 Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn: Stop being reasonable, logic has no place here.
[he’s not only back, but positively loquacious! But he does have a point – we’re dealing with psychopathic messianic fruitcakes with neither filter nor reverse gear]
🔻 cognitivedissonanceeverywhere: Hence why they’re now trying to disarm Iran via smoke and mirrors diplomatic means cloaked under the guise of ‘weapons of mass destruction’. That will fail also. These people have absolutely no reverse gear no matter how much they fail.
⭕ ‼️ Little Prince of Peace

Everyone in the world needs to watch this. |link|
[lovely. Can we hang both sets of elites and end this nonsense?? Note the role of the presstitute!]
🔻 Per W. Myhre – TheEvaluator: What a great person. There is hope in this world.
🔻 There is No Spoon: bro, I have a brain 👏👏👏
🔻 Dee Landers: The kids are alright. What a great soul he is. He got it.
🔻 Patrick: Truth trumps all. He is joyful.
⭕ 🤔 Anyone else get the feeling the events in India / Pakistan are about 95% kabuki theater and 5% real war?
🔻 Soapy: They’ll play the same Iran/Israel dance because war is terrible for both sides. This is a good thing because escalation would be bad for all powers regionally and globally. There is no globally acceptable resolution to the problem if Kashmir.
🔻 Dark_Chicago: They are both terrified at the prospect of a full war.
Pity.
[is this an incognito tweet by the new Papa?]
🔻 Gaius Julius Trump: Bollywood Blitz
🔻 Life is an Adventure: We learned that Chinese fighters and their missiles are the real deal. That’s the biggest takeaway.
⭕ retweet:
🔻 Sony Thang: The U.S. didn’t invent Hitler.

It bet on him.

Just like it bet on Ngô Đình Diệm in Vietnam.

Just like it bet on Mobutu in Congo.

Just like it bet on Pinochet in Chile.

Just like it bet on Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.

Just like it’s betting on Banderites in Ukraine.

It’s not about ideology.

It never was.

It’s about control.

The West doesn’t care who pulls the trigger—so long as it’s aimed at its enemies.

And when the fire gets out of control?

They rewrite the script.

Drape the corpse in democracy.

And call it liberation.
🧵 The Eurasian Entente and the End of American Hegemony

In the years preceding the Ukraine War, the dominant view was that the China/Russia partnership was a tenuous marriage of convenience. In the face of much ridicule, I consistently argued against this perspective.

1/
[links:
🔻 Arnaud Bertrand: “Xi Jinping wrote an article in Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta ahead of his 4-day trip to Russia (he does this whenever he visits a country).

There are quite a few significant statements in there.

Probably the main one is when he writes that “80 years ago, just forces all over the world, including China and the Soviet Union, united to fight a common enemy and triumphed over fascism. Today, 80 years later, unilateralism, hegemony and acts of bullying are inflicting severe harm, and humanity once again stands at a crossroads. Where to go next, what to choose: solidarity or division, dialogue or confrontation, universal gain or a zero-sum game?”

No brownie point for guessing who he’s referring to… And frankly, he isn’t wrong.

He adds that “it is important to firmly defend the post-war international order”, and in particular “the creation of the United Nations” which he says “was perhaps the most important decision made by the world community at the end of World War II.”

On the UN he writes: “The more complex the international situation becomes, the more important it is to protect and ensure the authority of the UN, to firmly uphold the UN-centric world order based on international law, the basic norms of international relations based on the goals and principles of the UN Charter, to consistently promote the formation of an equal and orderly multipolar world, universally accessible and inclusive economic globalization.”

All in all, this is a continuation of what we’ve now been seeing for quite a few years: China has become the great power that most staunchly supports multilateral institutions and international law, just as the U.S. is growing increasingly revisionist and dismissive of rules.

Which is par for the course in a great power transition: China’s rise was enabled thanks to the current world order so they’ll naturally seek to preserve it more than the US who are bound to see the current order as having simultaneously enabled their relative decline.

In the article Xi also naturally has some words on the China-Russia relationship which he characterizes a force preserving the world from hegemony: “China and Russia are significant powers that make a constructive contribution to maintaining global strategic stability and improving global governance. The world needs justice, not hegemony.”

He precises that “China-Russia relations […] are not directed against third parties” but that they are a “strategic link in promoting the multipolarity of the world and forming a community with a common future for mankind.”

He also warns that China-Russia relations aren’t “subject to [the] influence [of third parties]”, probably a reference to talks of American attempts to effect a so-called “reverse Kissinger.”

He writes that “both sides should jointly resist any attempts to sow discord in the friendship and mutual trust between China and Russia, without being distracted by short-term plots and opportunistic situations.” Which probably serves as a way to reassure Russia that China isn’t considering giving up on the friendship but also a warning that they shouldn’t either.

All in all, Xi’s article is a clear window into current Chinese strategic thinking. China is positioning itself as the defender of the post-WWII international order against “hegemonic” forces, casting the United States as the revisionist power. And the U.S. is increasingly obliging, validating China’s arguments.

It’s a very Daoist “wu-wei” (effortless action) approach: rather than directly confronting American power, China is harnessing the present momentum and redirecting it, achieving goals through alignment with existing forces rather than through direct opposition. What emerges is an incremental transformation: China doesn’t need to overthrow the international order when it can simply outlast American commitment to it.” |link| ]
🔻 WS: I have long been convinced a Russia / China partnership is a perfectly logical and mutually beneficial course of action for the neighboring Asian superpowers — and that it contained all the elements for an enduring and harmonious relationship.

2/
🔻 WS: Here in 2025, my perspective on the issue continues to be vindicated by events.

In fact, the cooperative anti-hegemonic movement in Asia has gained even greater momentum — particularly in light of Iran’s increasing prominence as a third-pole in an expanding entente.

3/
🔻 WS: Iran is already well-positioned, and arguably destined to become the dominant power in southwest Asia. Iran shares a maritime border with Russia, and China is forging both maritime and land-links with Iran.

4/
🔻 WS: The accelerating dissolution of American global hegemony cannot be arrested.

Russia, China, and Iran have correctly concluded that, if they act in concert, they constitute a military / economic power bloc that the rapidly evaporating empire cannot hope to defeat.

5/
📜 All for One and One for All
🔻 WS: I submit it is therefore naive in the extreme for anyone to entertain the notion that this Eurasian Entente is susceptible to the impotent intrigues the gasping empire may concoct in a futile attempt to disrupt its continuing coalescence.

6/
⭕‼️ This is a literary work; a rhetorical flourish.

I’m a fan of the ancient art of hagiography. This is almost excessively hagiographic.

At the end it self-indulges in presentist advocacy.

That said, it tells a compelling story of a unique unit in WW2.

* HIGHLY RECOMMENDED *
links:
🔻 Zlatti71: The Night Witches of WWII |link|
🔻 Halide Edip: The Night Witches are discussed rather thoroughly
in Vasily Grossman’s account of the war in the post Stalingrad account of his excellent novel Stalingrad,
where his pre Stalingrad account is contained in the also excellent novel Life and Fate |link|

Choosing an adopted Peruvian as the Last Pope appears satanic mockery. Mete.

One of my very first papers as a child was on the Incas.. A unique civilization. Advanced, with a roads system, terraced agriculture like the Yemenis, written language, etc. Yet, like the Aztecs, as soon as the Conquistadores came, they genuflected, were annihilated even though submissive, and rapidly left the stage of History.

In hindsight, it appears all those mini-empires of Latin America, overtly worshipping spirits (djinn), were instructed to suicide themselves for the coming one-world empire under the West. The djinn are tribal and spread worldwide like us humans, having as diverse languages and customs – and elite.

As today we witness the hitherto unfathomable process of the Europeans and USUK suiciding themselves for the final stage of the Plan, to raise the Moshiach in the Holy Land. History repeats, cycle and track, one era after the other, as they come undone for their lord. And all are fated to be recycled under the Tree of Life, no??

💠@imetatronink:
⭕⚡️ The Yemeni Destroyed the Entire US Drone Fleet

Since late 2023, the Yemeni have shot down 22 MQ-9 Reaper drones. And, in the process, they exposed the obsolescence of this entire class of drones, including the MQ-1C Gray Eagle — 500 units in total.

All will now be retired.
🔻 Grant David Gillham: Why would you expect them to have an unlimited service life?
🔻 WS: Non sequitur.

This has nothing to do with “service life”. In the summer of 2023 the MQ-9 and MQ-1C were considered “state of the art” reconnaissance / attack drones. The Yemeni demonstrated, beyond dispute, that they simply cannot operate in a non-permissive environment.
🔻 Grant David Gillham: They are not “state of the art” any longer. Nothing on the battlefield dominates forever. Technology evolves.

Air war doctrine always begins and ends with air superiority. See 8th Air Force losses, WW2.

My analysis is correct.
🔻 WS: You proffered no analysis. You made an implied assertion.

This class of US drones was EXPOSED as obsolete on the battlefield, against a third-world military. And that is the proximate causal factor in their premature retirement.

The Yemeni effectively destroyed them all.
🔻 Grant David Gillham: They are old and obsolete. No weapons system lives forever on an evolving battlefield.

You act surprised. You shouldn’t be.
🔻 WS: The MQ-9 was introduced in 2007; the MQ-1C in 2009 — damn near brand new by US military standards.

When did you discover they are “old and obsolete”? 🤣

And do you also know the aircraft carrier is obsolete in a non-permissive environment?
📜 Dinosaurs of the Deep Blue Sea
🔻 Grant David Gillham: They are not new. Look at the rapid advancement in warfare technology over the last two decades.

Carriers are indeed at the end of their service effectiveness. So are manned aircraft.

Hypersonic technology, remotely piloted and assisted by AI will dominate the air. Space based weapons delivery systems as well.

Flying 20 year old drones in airspace that the US doesn’t control gives you the results you see. If you want weapons to operate unfettered in hostile airspace then you need better technology.

Planners know this. They’re dumping this equipment to make room for new acquisitions. They don’t care about the losses. They have an unlimited amount of money.
🔻 WS: There was no thought given to retiring these platforms until the Yemeni exposed them so undeniably over the past year and a half.

You are falsely suggesting that their abrupt retirement is unrelated to their embarrassing showing in the skies of Yemen. But that cope won’t fly. 😏
🔻 Grant David Gillham: No. I’m suggesting that their “retirement” is a result of their inability to function effectively in airspace not controlled by US forces. The Pentagon dumped them into the fight to use them up. Now on to the next platform.
🔻 WS: There is no replacement platform. The MQ-9’s most important role was persistent surveillance of enemy targets. That capability is now lost to the US until a replacement can be found, which will likely take many years.
🔻 Grant David Gillham: How do you know?

Satellite technology is very capable. It’s the way of the future.
🔻 James O’Malley: You are literally a babbling ignoramus.
🔻 Grant David Gillham: No, my analysis is correct.
[this could be sentient A.I.. disturbing days]
🔻 John Bulkeley: LOL, “The aircraft carrier was effectively proven obsolete in 1945.” Wow, you really don’t know what you’re talking about. And the only reason I’m answering you is that your ignorance amuses me. Carriers have been used in every war since 1945 and some of them could not have been fought without them. Put down the Kool Aid and crack open a history book every now and then. And I would wager the Houthis would also disagree with you after being on the receiving end of 2 carrier battle groups and God knows how many drones and bombers. Give it up, son, before your tongue snaps out of your mouth and slaps you.
🔻 WS: The US Navy has not faced any adversary capable of shooting back at them since 1945. Well … at least not until late 2023, when CSG-2 (USS Brave Sir Robin / CVN-69) was “traumatized” by the relatively modest firepower the Yemeni threw at them. (I am quoting one of the pilots from the air wing.)

In any case, you are making a fool of yourself now. You have stepped far out of your league, and have revealed the unwarranted vanity of your pretensions to a knowledge of naval history and the state of naval affairs globally here in 2025.
🔻 AT: Exactly. And in the end, it doesn’t even matter why these drones became obsolete, what’s important is that they are, and that the US has no replacements for them
🔻 Rowandc50000: Dont the americans have 300 reaper drones in stock?
🔻 WS: Enough to blast wedding parties and tribal councils 25 days a month for a full year, and never use the same drone twice.
🔻 Rowandc50000: Guess this war will drag on for a while then. 22 down 278 to go
🔻 WS: They aren’t sending them anymore. The Yemeni were going to have to build a new wing onto the Reaper Debris Museum.
🔻 Johanna deMartin: Brilliant, and very fair to count the entire retired fleet a victim/victory of the Houthis.
🔻 SHADOWSOUNDMUSIC: No need… Directed energy baby .. we why fly, we own the sky.
🔻 Big if True: Coupled that with the downed Rafael jets by Chinese J10C it’s obvious western military hardware is inferior. In real time it’s demonstrating the superiority of Chinese military tech. Will have profound impact on global military procurement and maybe even alliances
🔻 TheSmartMonnaie: and amazingly India bought 31 of these for 3.3 billion last year … after they started getting shot down.
🔻 WS: So India paid $106M each for 31 obsolete drones that the US builds for about $30M each.

Brilliant.
⭕🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping):
Trump says Houthis will stop attacking ships in the Red Sea

▶️US president makes landmark announcement but details still murky
▶️‘Neither side will target the other, including American vessels, in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping,’ Omani foreign minister Badr Albusaidi said on social media platform X.
▶️Responses from Houthi media and officials do not explicitly say they will stop attacking all commercial vessels in the Red Sea, although there have been no reported attacks in recent months |link|
🔻 WS: According to the Yemeni, Trump has entirely misrepresented both the nature of the “negotiations” and who capitulated to whom.
reposts his older:
‼️ In other words, the US Navy has had enough of this game, and their magazines are empty. So the Americans promised to stop launching strikes against Yemen so long as Yemen promises to not launch strikes at the USS Trembling Puppy as it once again beats a hasty retreat.
🔻 WS: reposts older:
💥 BOOM!

Now the other shoe drops.

The Trembling Puppy lost another F/A-18 to the bottom of the Red Sea.

I’ll bet they’re already transiting the Suez Canal, and Captain Soggy Cookie is packing his bags.

What a debacle Operation Whack-A-Mole turned out to be.
🔻 John Bulkeley: Nice to know you take the word of some Yemeni hack. It really doesn’t matter who agreed to what, as long as the Houthis stop firing missiles at US warships and merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, then the military operation was a success. After the last massive Israeli and US attacks, I think it was the Houthis that were trembling, bud, and the photos prove it.
[on second thought, they probably downed or engineered through timing the downing of the flying coffin in the Red Sea. They anticipated, like zionazi ramping up extermination in the day before “ceasefires” – that the Yanquis would do the same before fleeing. So they got in their retaliation first. what days]
🔻 WS: Cope all you want. Meanwhile, the USS Trembling Puppy is running away yet again, and the Yemeni remain the gatekeepers of the Bab-el-Mandeb.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping): Your gate is on fire. |link|
[the last argument of defeated nazis before they flee. “See – we can exterminate you. It shows we remains exceptional and gods. Arbiters of Life and Death.”]
🔻 WS: Meh. Burning a bunch of oil tanks in Hodeidah is unrelated to control over the Bab-el-Mandeb.

The US et al. have been bombing Yemeni civilian infrastructure for over a decade, and yet they cannot disarm them.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping): |meh|
[he’s down to impotent mockery and self-delusion]
🔻 Yasha: You’re just a clown, Sal. Nothing more.
[not fair. A broken soldier raging against the entire Cosmos. It was seen during the end days of the regime of the Great Pharaoh too. His people weren’t merely the superpower of their day – they also had the top centers of education and worldly knowledge. This made Moses a most unusual man in all human history; he had the best of both worlds – the ephemeral and the eternal.

And the ancient Egyptians went mad at being exposed so thoroughly as criminal little men – in spite of their power and reach. They were morally atomized and delegitimized in front of all, especially themselves. An unbearable humiliation that led to them engaging in ever more vicious barbarism and to live to kill and annihilate and oppress. Sound familiar?? I am not talking about zionazis, who never had pretensions and know their role in our world]
🔻 mo elias: @mercoglianos is an american chauvinist.
The Yemenis don’t attack “all commercial vessels”.
They’re enforcing a legal blocade and successfully fought off the US illegally bombing them (again).

Also, the article he linked is clear the blocade on israeli-linked ships continues.
🔻 Tron Swanson: So, for the record, when Ukraine embarrasses Russia it’s “lol a country with no navy kicked your ass”

When Yemen is responsible for the loss of 3 fighter aircraft and 20 drones it’s “well, actually”
🔻 AT: I didn’t expect to see you [Sal] reduced to gloating about destruction, but here we are.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping): I am not gloating. But the statement about the US military retreating is inaccurate.

And to be clear, the Houthis repeatedly attacked ships that had no connection to Israel and killed four innocent mariners. I understand their view of Gaza, but killing other innocents does not justify their actions.
🔻 Bradley Mark Parsons: Whose actions are justified in this world? It’s a power contest. If we had the power to forcibly knock out the Houthis, we would. if they had the power to take out a carrier, they would. Neither does, so we all agree to stalemate for now, which hopefully opens the Red Sea.
🔻 WS: The Yemeni agreed to no such thing, and they remain the gatekeepers of the Bab-el-Mandeb. The Yemeni did nothing but agree to let the USS Trembling Puppy withdraw without attacking it again.

(I don’t understand why people do not read what has actually been said by the representative of Ansarullah. 🤦‍♂️)
🔻 Bradley Mark Parsons: Didn’t they agree to not attack US ships if we stop the bombing?
🔻 WS: reposts older:
‼️ In other words, the US Navy has had enough of this game, and their magazines are empty. So the Americans promised to stop launching strikes against Yemen so long as Yemen promises to not launch strikes at the USS Trembling Puppy as it once again beats a hasty retreat.
🔻 WS: The greater embarrassment is that he fails to understand that there is a direct correlation between the US/Israel targeting civilian infrastructure in recent weeks and the loss of US persistent surveillance over military targets due to the destruction of the MQ-9 fleet.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping): The US has over 300 MQ9s. They are designed to take fire and not put pilots at risk…hence unmanned.
🔻 AT: Yes, and they are shot down with ease by modern AA systems. What is the use of sending a 30 million dollar drone to a conflict where it will not survive for long, most likely not long enough to relay back any useful information?

These drones have been relegated to conflicts against countries that do not possess AA systems, and the number of such countries is getting smaller and smaller.

Hezbollah was downing the Israeli equivalent drones just as easily
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping): How many flights have been accomplished versus the number shot down?
🔻 WS: Seriously? That’s your retort? 22 have been shot down — the last several in close succession.

And, most revealingly, after the last one was shot down, THE US STOPPED SENDING THEM!

That simple fact tells you all you need to know. It became an exercise in futility.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping): Yes. How many flights have there been?

I don’t know, but that would be an interesting stat.
[a focused and partial historian of a dead Order. Looking Forwards to the Past. Willing it to manifest again. Triumph of the Will. Leni was brilliant. She had the best of Muses from the Pit at her disposal. One of my favorites. Her instruction: Monsters can be shaped by will, and en masse too]
🔻 🇪🇨 wayemeru: The interesting stat is that there are no more flights. The reality is US kit is only designed to work against countries without air defense. The Houthis are making anti-air missiles in caves and even that was too much. Now they only bomb the port because they can stay offshore.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping): The Houthis are assembling weapons sent by Iran. They are not ‘making’ anything.
🔻 WS: I think this is very likely mostly true, although I also think it grossly underestimates the competence and military savvy of the Yemeni warriors who have been prevailing against powerful enemies for over a decade now.
🔻 CattleMutt™: Enough for us to learn that they’ve been superceded by Houthi technology. That’s pretty troublesome going forward, cheerleader or not.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping): Not a cheerleader. I look terrible in a skirt and with pom-poms.
[this is how the intellectual milieu of Pharaoh died too, their first death, before being drowned physically in the second one in the Red Sea. Self-ridicule. The lot of the damned and the beautiful. Read Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald and weep to see the first disintegration of the idle classes. A death far worse than alzheimers or any dementia]
🔻 WS: I was tempted to ask Grok to create an image of you in a cheerleader outfit, with big pompoms. But then I thought about what it would like, and resisted the urge. 😏
🔻 WS: I do not know how many MQ-9 sorties were flown up to the point they were withdrawn from the battlefield.

But we do know that, in the last month, the MQ-9s were getting shot down within a very short period of time after they entered Yemeni airspace / missile range.
[i suspect EVERYTHING is being dictated, esp tempo, by the civilizational-states. I said it in early 2024. They were willing to endure barbarity and terrible pain, in the process of boiling the frogs, according to preparing the recipe to their own taste. At the end of the tasting, there would be no westerner remaining in W Asia, at least without explicit permission. This is why there cannot be a ceasefire – just as Putin mocks the West in similar vein. When the nazi internationale rolled the totalen krieg dice, they already lost it all. On all fronts]
🔻 AT:
Let’s just recap what happened here:
1. Israel breaks the ceasefire in Gaza
2. Yemen attacks Israel and re-imposes the blockade in response
3. US attacks Yemen to get them to stop
4. Yemen attacks the US ships and destroys a bunch of their hardware
5. US and Yemen agree to stop attacking each other. In the meantime, the blockade and attacks against Israel go on

Was the original purpose of the US attack on Yemen met?
🔻 WS: It is arguably the most humiliating strategic defeat the US Navy has ever suffered.

And the Yemeni remain fully in control of shipping in the Red Sea. Ships will continue to pass only at their good will and pleasure.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : If you think this is the most humiliating, I have a recommended reading list for you.
🔻 WS: That’s because you have willfully blinded yourself to the strategic and military realities at play. You cannot accurately assess the matter. You refuse to understand the significance of the fact that Yemen (+Iran) have been able to effect a selective blockade of the strategic Bab-el-Mandeb. Likewise, Iran is the gatekeeper of the Strait of Hormuz.

The US Navy is not able to secure the seaborne logistics routes via the Red Sea and into the Persian Gulf. The US Navy could not operate in the Persian Gulf in a state of war against Iran. Therefore the US cannot prosecute a successful war against Iran.

Iran and its Yemeni allies have defeated US strategic designs and effectively nullified US naval power in the entire region. CVN-75 now has no choice but to go back home, its mission in the Red Sea frustrated by a weaker power that has nonetheless achieved its strategic objectives via asymmetric means.

Until more Americans come to grips with the cold hard realities of how the global military calculus has been radically altered, then the risk of a catastrophic war escalates.

You need to wake up, Sal. And help others around you wake up, too.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : The Houthis have not blockaded anything, as demonstrated by the 60% of ships that still sailing through the BAM.

What they have done is raise the insurance to do business, akin to a teenager getting a speeding ticket and jacking up a family’s car insurance, making it more economical to take a detour.

No trade has been stopped, and instead, the Houthis have just brought down destruction on their citizens and caused shortages for people in Eritrea, Sudan, and other nations along the Red Sea.
🔻 WS: You should be embarrassed to assert such nonsense. The Yemeni have imposed a “selective blockade” for eighteen months and running, and anyone who denies that reality is either woefully misinformed or deliberately mendacious. I hope in your case it’s the former and not the latter.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : I suggest you go talk to the ship operating companies and ask them why they have not returned to the Red Sea when there has not been an attack since January.

A 0.5% war risk is what is keeping them away. Plus, they are making more money putting their ships on the longer routes, allowing them to push rates up and employ more vessels.

The Houthis are not as effective as they think they are. Just look at the profits for the shipping companies for 2024 & insurance companies. |link|
🔻 WS: You can rationalize the “selective blockade” any way you’d like. Its reality remains.

But here is the most telling fact: since the USS Brave Sir Robin (CVN-69) had a close call with a ballistic missile during its most recent Red Sea cruise, no CSG deployed to the Red Sea has dared go much further south than a line extending east from the Egyptian southern border.

Why? Simple. They have feared to come within striking distance of the more capable, but shorter range, ASBMs that the Yemeni have.

This is the same reason CVN-71, CVN-72, and now CVN-70 never strayed out of the blue waters of the northern Arabian Sea. (Although the Iranians did permit the USS Teddy Bear to make a very brief port call in Bahrain last year.)

When the USS Fraidy Abe ventured closer last year to launch its first-ever F-35C mission, it was shocked to have a Yemeni ASBM splash down about 200 yards away. It then IMMEDIATELY turned about and made a beeline back to San Diego.

There can be no doubt the US Navy WANTS to be able to put an east-coast-based CVN into the Arabian Sea via the Suez Canal. But they have not dared risk it since the Brave Sir Robin’s close call.

You obviously do not follow these issues as closely as many other people do.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : You know they have aircraft, and the ship does not need to be right off Yemen.

They are called aircraft ‘carriers’.
🔻 WS: I understand perfectly well the combat radius of a CVN’s air wing.

And, in order to get close enough to not be compelled to in-air refuel, the Fraidy Abe ventured close enough to the Yemen coastline to launch its PR sortie of F-35Cs — and almost ate an ASBM as a result.
🔻 John Bulkeley: Do you know how full of crap you are? Seriously, there was a bunch of pirates called the Houthis that terrorized a major trade route, we showed some force by bombing them, and they stopped. Just like the Somali pirates that were defeated, so were the Houthis. Deal with it.
🔻 WS: You are misinformed, and hopelessly propagandized. That’s too bad. But your ignorance of things as they really are , and as they really have been, will have no bearing on things as they really will be.

The US is staggering blindly into the abyss of a disastrous war.
[not blindly. With Eyes Wide Open. The Murder-Suicide is the irresistible Allure of the End Times. The very nectar of their abominable gods]
🔻 John Bulkeley: What also seems to escape a lot of people is the fact that it’s much more preferable losing a drone, regardless of its cost, than a fighter jet with a pilot in it. That’s why we have drones, to reduce the number of OUR casualties while flying dangerous missions. And even at that some 800 missions were flown for the loss of a few drones. And as time passes, even the cost of drones will decrease, making them even more attractive.
🔻 WS: Your understanding of the distinct purposes of fighter/bombers and MQ-9 drones is deficient, and attests that you don’t pay attention to the details of the points I have made.

Fighters cannot provide persistent surveillance. Long-duration drones can. The necessary withdrawal of the MQ-9 from the battlefield is precisely the reason the US/Israel resorted to bombing static civilian infrastructure targets — and therefore were not able to disarm the Yemeni, who continued to launch drone/missile salvos against CSG-8 right up until the strike group’s magazines were exhausted and they were forced to flee.
🔻 Seeji Sundarakshan: Sal somehow fail to accept that fact that Trump has conceded to the Houthis.

Houthis never said that they are going to block all shipping – only that’s connected to Israel and they have implemented that. Undeniable fact.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : Except, out of 113 ships attacked by the Houthis, only 28% were connected to Israel.

Due to the indiscriminate nature of the attacks, it raised the war risk insurance on all vessels traversing the area and led to 72% of the ships being attacked not connected to Israel. |link|
[this is how professionals do it – massage a sea of data to smother the Truth.. whilst never addressing the essential element: there is a team out there, carefully vetting the provenance, true owners and recipients of cargo, even within a hundred layers of shell companies.. EVERY single one of the Yemeni targets was so accurate, that the nazi internationale was forced to (1) deploy Emirati agents to attack random non-zionazi ships to besmirch Yemenis and muddy the waters, (2) suicide the US Navy to militarize the entire Red Sea which was the real mission, not to subdue Yemenis which they knew was impossible, so as to drop all/most sea trade, thereby obscuring how their own was unable to transit..]
🔻 Beto Ochoa: Kinda like how farmers in Toyota pickups effected a strategic defeat of Oceania in Afghanistan.
🔻 notapianokey: The Second Gulf War was the beginning of the end.
The win was easy, the insurgency was the real war.
The West is run by children who take orders from Hedge Fund Managers ~ men who do not understand limits.
They are Gods
🔻 WS: In your X bio, you lay claim to being knowledgeable about naval history. If that is so, then you should also understand what I have written below — but it appears you do not grasp this essential element of understanding.
📜 Dinosaurs of the Deep Blue Sea
🔻 WS: Nor do you appear to understand this essential concept:
🧵 How to Lose A Carrier Strike Group in An Afternoon
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : If the aircraft carrier is obsolete, why is China building them.

It is the most versatile naval platform in existence. 50 years of service. Able to change air wings and technology. Can be continually replenished at sea.

And about a half dozen have been parked off Yemen over the past year and they have not touched them yet.
[LOL. Sal shoulda auditioned for The Devil’s Advocate. A pleasant faced smooth operator]
🔻 WS: Because the Chinese are vain and believe they must possess aircraft carriers in order to qualify as a superpower.

I note the Russians are NOT building them. They are wiser than the Chinese when it comes to these questions.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : In what major conflict does a Navy not lose ships? No one is saying that carriers are unsinkable.
🔻 WS: I believe ALL surface warships are exceedingly vulnerable in the context of 21st century firepower, and that aircraft carriers are the most vulnerable of them all.

In a putative naval war between the US and China in the western Pacific, I believe ALL the aircraft carriers, on both sides, will be destroyed in the early days of the conflict.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : I note that the Russians can’t build one and the one they have is not a real model of efficiency. |link|
[LOL. Salty day to definitely forget for our Sailorman Sal. This is photo of the last Soviet aircraft carrier the Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov. It tended to belch a lotta dark smoke for whatever reason. But who’s laughing today, after the 2018 unveiling of true wunderwaffen and the SMO??]
🔻 WS: I think it reflects poorly on your understanding of Russia, Russians, and Russian ship-building competence that you believe they CAN’T build one. Nor is the Admiral Kuznetsov, built during the nadir of Soviet power, representative of Russian power and competence here in 2025.
[Good Lord. Walk away. This is like a muscled 25-year-old pummeling a 5-year-old in the sandlot. He ain’t gonna EVER admit to Reality. It is what it is. End stage madness of the little loyal minions of all defeated empires]
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : The Russians can build some good submarines and small combatants. There is a logistical issue in building large ships like a carrier. This is why they have their LNG carriers built in Korea.

They are focusing their resources on subs, frigates and nuclear icebreakers.

I am well aware of Russian shipbuilding capacity.
🔻 BigJalter: “Have not touch” need some big asterisks there lol. There has been a few acknowledged close calls before they unceremoniously ran away is it not?
🔻 FPO: The future will see more DRONE CARRIERS with an array of drone types, fewer personnel, and integrated with leadership at Norfolk, PH, and the Pentagon.

New $14b carrier strike groups will be obsolete the first time one is disabled by anti ship missile.

We only have 13.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : We only have 11, and one is always being refueled.
🔻 WS: And for many years now, the US Navy has only been able to simultaneously deploy a maximum of THREE combat-capable carriers, for lack of qualified crew and air wings.

For that matter, the US Navy cannot simultaneously put to sea more than about SIXTY surface warships. It’s a sad state of affairs.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : Why have more than 3 carriers deployed at any one time? That leaves 6 back for conducting training, overhaul, and maintenance.

Also, what other Navy can keep 1/3 of its fleet deployed at any one time around the globe?
🔻 WS: I said 3 “combat-capable” aircraft carriers. And my statement is true. They can float about 5 simultaneously, of which 3 can be combat-capable, 1 used for training cruises (like both the Ford and Washington have done in the past few years), and the 5th is incapable of doing anything meaningful.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : |more glitzy stats|
🔻 WS: I rest my case.

USS George Washington CVN-72 is NOT combat-capable. It has been shuttling back and forth between San Diego and Japan for several years running. It just sits at its berth.

Is the USN now trying to outfit a 4th or 5th combat-capable CSG? Probably. But they’re not able to do so NOW.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : |tongue out, eyes shut|
🔻 WS: You cannot find a time in the past several years when the US Navy has been able to simultaneously deploy more than THREE combat-capable CSGs. It simply has not happened.

You are mistaken if you believe otherwise
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : George Washington underwent it’s Refueling and Complex Overhaul from 2017 to 2023 – it’s nuclear refueling.

She departed Norfolk in April 2024 and deployed to Japan to replace Reagan in Nov 2024.

So, several years between San Diego and Japan is wrong. She left Japan in 2015.
🔻 WS: I stand corrected on its homeport. I knew it had come from the east, but had forgotten that it did a tour around South America before going to Japan.

My point still stands: The US Navy has not been able, for several years now, to simultaneously deploy more than THREE CVNs.
[thank you! Now the sad little fella has a little O2. He won’t jump the next Bridge]
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : There are three deployed right now, plus Washington in Japan and Ford completing her pre-deployment workups. That is half of the operational aircraft carriers
🔻 WS: The Washington is NOT combat-capable at present. Nor is the Ford.

My point remains incontrovertible. I have been talking about this for many years in a row — ever since 2017 when I opened my Twitter account. I watch it closely. It has NEVER, during that period, not been true.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : If that is the case, how is it you did not know George Washington was in Norfolk for refueling for 6 years?
🔻 WS: I watch the combat-capable CSGs.

I confess I did not realize the Washington was laid up for SIX YEARS for refueling. How utterly embarrassing.

In any case, CVN-73 is clearly NOT combat-capable at present. The Nimitz is now the only combat-capable CVN in the western Pacific
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : 4 deployed and Ford working up.
🔻 WS: Again, the Washington is NOT combat-capable at present. Nor does it even attempt to ACT as though it is. It sits at its berth in Yokosuka.

Neither is the Ford. It tried to ACT like it in the eastern Mediterranean a couple years back, and it turned into a total debacle
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : And Vinson in the Indian Ocean, Truman in the Red Sea, and Ford in the Atlantic, getting ready to relieve Truman, with Washington and Lincoln available; with Nimitz, that is 6.
[wow. my toddler can count to six too, in several languages. But I read it as SIX BIG FAT TARGETS at zero hour]
🔻 WS: CSG-1 (CVN-70), CSG-8 (CVN-75), and CSG-11 (CVN-69) are the only combat-capable carrier strike groups at present. This is an incontrovertible FACT.

Well … except actually CVN-75 (USS Trembling Puppy) has skedaddled from the Red Sea, and is no longer combat-capable
🔻 Craig Van De Vooren: “If the aircraft carrier is obsolete, why is China building them.”

Hahahahahah – “Well, Billy is jumping off the bridge too, so . . .”
🔻 Modsognir: Chinese carriers operate under a land based missile umbrella. US carriers do not.
🔻 WS: This is a valid point. But I still believe ALL aircraft carriers are acutely vulnerable to the firepower that can be arrayed against them here in 2025.
🔻 IQWACP: The ACC as power projection is dead, Ansar Allah is evidence of that
China is likely going to use them a platform for testing, flexibility in its capacities and have mobiles assets in and around its waters
China will not its AAC for bullying and intimidation half the world away
🔻 Malooga: Legendary exchange. I like Sal on American shipping, but the ideological haze obscures acceptance of reality on issues of warfare.
🔻 ChainObserver: Sal is partially right in that it suits the ocean carriers to avoid the Red Sea right now, but his wider explanation feels a bit like those Americans who insist the US won the Vietnam War. The US carrier groups accomplished a whole load of nothing.

The flaw I see in Sal’s reasoning is that we can’t be sure that if it didn’t suit the ocean carriers to go around Africa that they would be confident in the protection of the US Navy

it’s not like the Houthis need to attack a container ship every week to have a deterrent effect on traffic in the Red Sea. They only need to get lucky every now and then – or alternatively face down a US Carrier group.
🔻 WS: 🎯

Most of those who make pretensions of understanding military matters have no conception of what “strategic victory” even means.

That is precisely what this thread has revealed today.
🔻 WS: The US Navy does not DARE to run an aircraft carrier through the narrow gauntlet of the Bab-el-Mandeb at this point in time.

They WANT to do it, but they fear the potential consequences.
📜 Geography
🔻 Francesco Dall’Aglio: With all due respect, it seems to me that “there is a logistical issue” in building nuclear icebreakers as well. It’s not the simplest ship to build. Do you think the US could build them? (Honest question, not trying to be a wiseass).
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : We build nuclear aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines…so yes.
🔻 Francesco Dall’Aglio: And why doesn’t the US build nuclear icebreakers then? Probably their strategy does not involve them, otherwise they would. Isn’t it possible that the Russian strategy does not involve carriers? After all what should they do with a carrier, bomb Hawaii with its planes?
[lovely. The last two Qs are Third Rail Qs. They shall not be answered. And the first too painful to seriously answer, as with the Sentinel Program, hypersonics, serious air defense, and such issues]
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : Because they have needed icebreakers. The only heavy icebreaker requirement has been the yearly resupply to McMurdo in Anarctica.

If the US develops the north slope of Alaska LNG, they will need some.

Russia needs them to keep the Northern Sea Route open.
🔻 Francesco Dall’Aglio: This was precisely my point: the US does not need them, therefore they don’t build them. Why should that be different for the Russians regarding carriers? 1/2

Or better, why do we assume that who builds carriers and submarines could build icebreakers as well, but don’t assume that who builds icebreakers and submarines could build carriers as well? 2/2
[well done Francesco. That’s how to get under the guard of Exceptionals. Echo their own faux-charm and naivete: start slow and innocent, then slip in the Yemeni dagger]
🔻 Craig Van De Vooren: “I am well aware of Russian shipbuilding capacity” + “the Russians can’t build one” = 0

The Russians CAN build what ever they want to.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : Mongolia can build whatever it wants to, also. They just don’t.
[don’t get me started with number of abused logical fallacies. I can even feel the wince of old WS]
🔻 Craig Van De Vooren: Mongolia can’t build whatever they want.

Just deal with reality, Sal.
🔻 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) : The reality is that Russia could build a carrier; albeit a broken one
[takes one to know one! Ok, enough. You get the idea. He’s getting pummeled on his own threads.. The loons are trying to cycle through Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s process… but they ain’t got much time at the current pace of events]
🔻 AT: And to pour salt on that wound, French jets were just downed by Pakistan using Chinese jets and missiles. Exposing the inadequacy of Western military hardware has turned from a trickle into a flood.

It’s so funny that what was supposed to be a warning from US to Iran (the destruction of Yemen’s military capabilities), has turned into a warning from Iran to US (imagine what we can do to you).

I guess the negotiations will continue for the foreseeable future.
⭕Cringe-inducing.

CVN-78’s most recent deployment turned into a debacle. Now it is being suggested that it may replace the USS Trembling Puppy CVN-75.

IMO, the USS Gerald R. Ford is likely the single most vulnerable aircraft carrier in the US Navy’s inventory.
links:
🔻 U.S. Fleet Forces: USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) is the most capable, adaptable, and lethal platform in the world, maintaining the Navy’s capacity to project power on a global scale through sustained operations at sea. |link|
🔻 Brandon: |link|
🔻 WS: Excellent analysis, Brandon.

If the Yemeni have a few Oniks missiles in their quiver, that would surely explain the extreme fear the US Navy has attested in terms of attempting to venture into the southern Red Sea, let alone run the gauntlet of the Bab-el-Mandeb.
🔻 Ed H. Hanna: Two months ago, the U.S. Navy had a GOLDEN opportunity to preserve its dignity and perceived — excessively inflated — capabilities (which have now been exposed as a mere paper tiger) BY SIMPLY DOING NOTHING.

Now — understandably — after the humiliation inflicted upon the USN by Ansar Allah (Houthis) in the Red Sea, they feel compelled to make such ridiculously exaggerated statements.
🔻 Rune: P-800s are not hypersonic. They are a very capable missile, but Mach 2,9. It’s their netcentricity, sensor fusion, +semi-autonomous manoeuvre + tactical algorithms-all Soviet 1970s inventions-that make them dangerous, along with a typically large warhead.
[i’m getting smoothie PTSD vibes, even without the calculus.. too many techno, A.I-ish military lingo that’s supposed to sound smart and new and intimidating, but heralds our collective extermination by Legion. And the criminals will use it on innocents worldwide, after the live-testing is worked out in Gaza]
⭕ ‼️ BREAKING: US TESTING NEW SUPER-TECH REPLACEMENT FOR DRONE FLEET DESTROYED BY YEMEN. |link|
⭕ ‼️⚓️ So, as suspected, it was another salvo of drones and a missile that unnerved the USS Trembling Puppy such that they lost another F/A-18 to Davy Jones’ Locker, then fled in haste to the Gulf of Suez.

I think we’ve seen the last of the Trembling Puppy for a good long while.
[links the above bulletin by Yemeni Armed Forces, which Amarynth reposted as a post on main site]
🔻 David Procino: The Houthis are the only ones left with their reputations intact these days
🔻 The Greatest Primarch 🏴‍☠️: Fascinating. Makes me think that this loss of a second F/A-18 likely contributed to USA’s decision to call off the attacks on Yemen.
🔻 Truth Matters: China and Russia are watching. The US will not survive in a kinetic war with either of them. The only option the US has left is nukes. Thankfully, Russia and China both have enough to turn the planet into ashes. It’s time to stand to the bullying empire.
🔻 Michael Phillip: Insh’Allah
🔻 ghost of 155: Is this the one with the cookie Redditor captain?
⭕ ⚓️ China Sub Reveal

Apparently China did some sort of public “un-boxing” presentation of their new Type 094 submarine. They made bold claims: 30 kn; 400 m depth; 14k km SLBMs; MIRV.

Exceedingly impressive, if true.

Here is some rando’s summary on it: |link|
🔻 Dennis B: For balance of power in a multi-polar world it is best that China equalizes their submarine force to that of the US.

My understanding is that they started very far behind.

If they catch up quick that should give neocons many sleepless nights.
🔻 WS: I would bet the Russians have given them some valuable assistance. The Russians build first-rate submarines. And Chinese innovation & craftsmanship is ridiculously underestimated by Americans.

Meanwhile, the state of affairs in the US sub fleet is shocking.
retweet:
⭕ retweet:
🔻 Tarik Cyril Amar:  Defiance

💠 @DDGeopolitics:
⭕ 🇨🇦 Alberta Could Hold Independence Referendum in 2026

The Premier of Alberta has announced that the province may hold a referendum on seceding from Canada in 2026.

Alberta’s leadership is increasingly frustrated with federal policies, arguing that the recently re-elected Liberal Party does not represent the interests of the province’s residents.

was this third warjet in six months, and second in a week, that we know of, the tipping point? Note Orange immediately took a knee and called for timeout via offices of Oman. This serves Yemen quite well as they can focus solely on the zionazi lunatics, without being distracted and having to play ping-pong against the US Navy

💠@ejmalrai:
⭕ retweet:
🔻 Arnaud Bertrand: The FT is right. Gaza will be seen by history as the collapse of any remaining Western claims to moral authority.

There is no recovering from that.
[even if Defeat against Russkie and the Islamic Resistance on the two hot fronts weren’t baked in, the Moshiach has ensured the former used Host is irretrievable. A new normal was established. The former Order is unbearably odious, even to 99% of the youth within the Garden]
⭕ One missile fired from Yemen against Ben Gurion airport sent 3 million Israeli to shelters. 30 Israeli attacks on Yemen sent tens of thousands of Yemeni to the streets to watch and defy the aggressors.
⭕ The US intelligently stopped the bombing on Yemen due to the lack of objectives, the empty outcome and the high cost versus no gain.
⭕ Well done, Ansar Allah.

Following former US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a breakthrough deal with the Yemeni group to end all attacks on American assets, the Pentagon has reportedly ordered all military operations and personnel targeting Yemen to stand down. This decision represents a major setback for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—already facing an ICC arrest warrant for war crimes—who has long sought to entangle the United States in a broader war against Yemen, and potentially Iran.

What makes the move even more striking is that Israel was deliberately excluded from the negotiations and left in the dark about the agreement. The terms, as reported, include an end to Yemeni attacks on US military and commercial vessels—but crucially, do not extend any such protection to Israeli ships or cargo moving through the Red Sea. Yemen’s position is clear: its truce is with Washington, not Tel Aviv unless the humanitarian siege – considered a war crime and crime against humanity – on Gaza is lifted.

For Israel, this diplomatic bypass is more than just a snub—it underscores its growing isolation and its failure to co-opt the US into expanding regional conflicts under the pretext of collective security.
⭕ Israel is reportedly preparing for a full-scale invasion and potential reoccupation of Gaza, a move driven in part by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and imposed on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is already facing an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for alleged war crimes.

Ironically, this development may not be entirely bad news. An Israeli ground presence in Gaza would eliminate the distance currently provided by airstrikes, bringing occupation forces into direct contact with a local resistance that, under international law and the UN Charter, retains the legitimate right to armed struggle against occupying forces.

Once on the ground, Israeli troops will no longer have the benefit of operating from the air with impunity; they will become exposed, vulnerable, and entangled in a territory where resistance is not only expected, but historically rooted.
⭕ Excluding Israel from the US-Yemen cessation of hostilities is a hit to Benjamin Netanyahu, a prime minister with an ICC arrest warrant for his war crimes. No Israeli ship or merchandise will cross the Red Sea as long as Israel maintains an unlawful humanitarian siege on the civilian population in Gaza.
[but a greater, and fatal, concession shall be made for the temporary exposure..]