World War 3

Leave it to Trump to start WWIII. I hope if America does start the draft again that it's soon because I'm over 35 now and have a toddler and a newborn, so my family won't die for no reason. #makeamericafightawaragain


Jerome

If they had the draft in Australia I wouldn't make the cut since I have a Disbility and would'nt be fit enough to hold a backpack over 10kgs or a rifle so I'd be safe hopefully.
 
If they had the draft in Australia I wouldn't make the cut since I have a Disbility and would'nt be fit enough to hold a backpack over 10kgs or a rifle so I'd be safe hopefully.


Didnt they try the draft or conscription as they called it back in WW1 and it failed twice.
 
A major conflict is generating in the Middle East. Two tankers are sabotaged in the Persian Gulf and the Straight of Hormuz may be closing, choking off a third of world oil and causing prices to soar. The players for ultimate stakes here are Iran and Israel, with the US and friends fanning the flames.
 
Pretty sure it's just the US annoying the region again.
B-52's can be pretty annoying, I agree. Too bad we don't have those battleships we used to deploy over there in the good old days, the ones with the 16" guns. But seriously, I think the US is trying to provoke Iran into doing something crazy, something ultimately self-destructive.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil futures rose on Monday on increasing concerns about supply disruptions in the Middle East even as investors and traders fretted over global economic growth prospects amid a standoff in the Sino-U.S. trade talks.

Brent crude futures were at $71.77 a barrel by 1134 GMT, up $1.15.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were at $62.49 per barrel, up 83 cents.

Saudi Arabia said on Monday that two Saudi oil tankers were among vessels attacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, condemning it as an attempt to undermine the security of global crude supplies.

The UAE said on Sunday that four commercial vessels were attacked near Fujairah, one of the world's largest bunkering hubs. The port lies near the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important oil export waterways.

Iran's foreign ministry called the incidents "worrisome and dreadful" and asked for an investigation into the matter.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are the largest and third-largest producers, respectively, in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
 
Pretty sure Iran isn't that dumb.

And it has good reason not to be - w/ the Belt and Road and International North–South Transport Corridor both projected to pass through Teheran, Iran will soon be pretty much at the centre of the commercial world. As long as they can ignore US sanctions and military provocations for a decade or so, they'll come out of it on top. And the US has to be careful with their provocations, least they trigger World War.

Speaking of that, I wonder who was behind the Fujarah Port attacks? Iran has nothing to gain from it. On the other hand, the US-Saudi front would get a nifty excuse to "police" the Hormuz Strait.
 
Speaking of that, I wonder who was behind the Fujarah Port attacks? Iran has nothing to gain from it. On the other hand, the US-Saudi front would get a nifty excuse to "police" the Hormuz Strait.

Good question. I've heard the Fujairah attacks, which is outside the Strait of Hormuz, has involved as many as 9 ships attacked by small boats, but no video confirmation is available.
 
More tankers have been attacked, set ablaze and abandoned in the waters near the Persian Gulf. The price of oil is going up. The US is blaming Iran, as is the UK. Iran is saying it's a US false flag. In either case, it looks as though escalation towards open war is building in the Middle East. China is supporting Iran. Most excellent news for arms manufacturers, but there are probably some downside risks. Real men love loud noises and stinking smoke. Real men are looking forward to lots of fun.
 
More tankers have been attacked, set ablaze and abandoned in the waters near the Persian Gulf. The price of oil is going up. The US is blaming Iran, as is the UK. Iran is saying it's a US false flag. In either case, it looks as though escalation towards open war is building in the Middle East. China is supporting Iran. Most excellent news for arms manufacturers, but there are probably some downside risks. Real men love loud noises and stinking smoke. Real men are looking forward to lots of fun.

I don't really know anything about Iranian patrol boats or how to spot a fake - is the video genuine?
 
I don't really know anything about Iranian patrol boats or how to spot a fake - is the video genuine?
Does an image on a screen or page have to be genuine in order to induce real actions? No. That is the power and utility of mythmaking, propaganda and fake news. We respond like chattel when others control the symbolic content of our encounters.
 
Raise your hand if you didn't see this coming, from a lightyear away.

My hand is firmly down. The Sixteen Year Old was watching t'news with me earlier and said "This is the Bay of Tonkin all over again". And he's not really that bright, bless him.

Does an image on a screen or page have to be genuine in order to induce real actions? No. That is the power and utility of mythmaking, propaganda and fake news.

I'm not disputing the power of fake news, I'm simply wondering if we think the footage genuinely represents what we're told it represents.
 
The video I saw looked like one of them 7/11 surveillance tapes or one of the so called UFO tapes, so grainy it could be anything.
 
Yes, when your government tells you it is real, as it is doing, you have a strong tendency to accept it as real. Otherwise you are a conspiracy theorist.

The US government has been participating in so many shenanigans over the last 7 decades or so, and now with the orange Willy Waver in charge who wants to earn his war stripes, you can be anything but a conspiracy theorist.
 
Who the hell knows. There are so many plausible scenarios and so many competing interests.

It's probably unlikely that the Ayatollah or Rouhani would order this kind of strike, especially with the PM of Japan visiting. Maybe the IRGC is itching for a fight and Soleimani has gone rogue? I guess that's plausible, but I don't really get why.

False flag? Perhaps. There are certainly adequate motivations for Saudi Arabia to stage something like this and I wouldn't put it past MBS to risk some innocent lives to setup Iran.

Israel? Significantly less likely. I don't see Bibi going scorched earth on civilian tankers.

Other actors? The motivations would have to be more complex and you start to get into the fringe here.

I don't know exactly what the video is supposed to prove, even if it's totally above board. It could be Iran attempting to remove evidence of their actions...but it could also be Iran trying to extract evidence to investigate the attack themselves, as they are probably aware they aren't going to get a fair shake if the US controls the narrative.

I just can't see a reason for Iran to carry out this kind of attack, at this time. But again, who the hell knows.
 
Im going with false flag


  • The Japanese owner of one of the oil tankers attacked near Iran on Thursday says the vessel was struck by a projectile and not by a mine.
  • "We received reports that something flew towards the ship," says Yutaka Katada, president of Kokuka Sangyo.
  • On Thursday, U.S. Central Command said that the Japanese oil tanker, Kokuka Courageous, had an "unexploded limpet mine on their hull following an initial explosion."
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/14/oil...with-us-that-mine-caused-blast-near-iran.html

The Japanese owner of one of the oil tankers attacked near Iran on Thursday said the vessel was struck by a projectile and not by a mine, which is what U.S. officials assessed as the source of the blast.


Looks like the hawks are at it again is my opinion
 
More good news: aggressive US attacks against Russia's power grid are in the works.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-escalates-online-attacks-on-russias-power-grid/ar-AACV9BZ

About the same type of dramatic and misleading headlines and articles that within most of the media is now commonplace.
The quotes from below which state the possibility of potential targets is the only actual facts presented.

Key words from the quotes are "potential" and "prepared".

All the other drivel is created made up BS conjecture by the author which holds about as much factual content as the Coyote buying an ACME rocket and riding it trying to catch the Roadrunner in a Loony tunes cartoon.

"But in a public appearance on Tuesday, President Trump’s national security adviser, John R. Bolton, said the United States was now taking a broader view of potential digital targets

Speaking on Tuesday at a conference sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Bolton said: “We thought the response in cyberspace against electoral meddling was the highest priority last year, and so that’s what we focused on. But we’re now opening the aperture, broadening the areas we’re prepared to act in.”
 
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