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submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

more like thucydideez nuts, gottem

A reminder that as the US continues to threaten countries around the world, fedposting is to be very much avoided (even with qualifiers like "in Minecraft") and comments containing it will be removed.

Image is of a satellite image from MizarVision, a Chinese firm that has recently shown pride in being sanctioned for showing uncensored images of the Middle East. The West is not allowing up-to-date satellite imagery of the region to hide destruction.


As always, my weekly summary/preamble is in spoilers below.

preambleMilitary news remained relatively subdued last week, with the main front continuing to be the Lebanon border. With dozens of vehicles destroyed and many more Zionist casualties, they are now desperately searching for a solution to the FPV drone threat, with certain analysts characterizing the whole situation as the entity stumbling foot-first into a bear trap (hence the megathread title). Unfortunately for them, two better and more resourceful militaries have spent the last year or two also searching for a solution and have generally failed - with anti-drone strategies consisting mainly of 1) build your own cheap drones designed to physically intercept their cheap drones and 2) separate your forces up rather than conducting large frontal assaults WW2-style and accept that you're gonna have to fight for many months to gain substantial ground. This also explains why they're so eager to kickstart a civil war in Lebanon, although as I've stated before, I don't personally know whether that would be a silver bullet given how the Lebanese army has been deliberately not allowed to become a threatening force due to Zionist fears, and indeed, I don't know how many Lebanese citizens and soldiers would fight against the only force in their country fighting against an army trying to annex their territory and which murders hundreds of people at a time in aerial bombings on their cities.

Aside from the ever-worsening global economic catastrophe, the main event has been the US visiting China. Trump clearly intended to time the summit such that it took place after subjugating Iran and perhaps also Cuba. However, with the former goal not even remotely achieved, and the latter goal delayed - hopefully indefinitely, though the US still seems pretty intent on it - it all amounted to a big nothingburger. Marxist economist Michael Roberts has written up a great piece on the current state of the US-China economic conflict, stating among things that, despite the last decade of US sanctions and economic warfare, the Chinese economy has done extremely well, building up their own domestic industries to replace commodities lost from sanctions. China has, up to this point, refused to withdraw its aid from Iran, and seems to be looking to start moving its tankers through the Strait via Iran's new tolling mechanism.

China obviously continues to maintain its position on Taiwan, and Trump has continued the US tradition of respecting this in words and disrespecting it in actions, but it's becoming clear to everybody but the most delusional diehards that the US will not be fighting China in and around the Pacific for at least a couple decades, and likely never will. There is little choice. The Ramadan War has definitively proven that the US has been severely militarily and logistically weakened over the decades despite skyrocketing military budgets, and much of their equipment, strategies, and tactics are woefully outdated for the modern battlefield. The prospect of the US fighting a war against China and not immediately losing has gone from "almost implausible" to "hilariously absurd". Unable to meaningfully impede China, the US will have to content itself to increasingly ineffective sanctions campaigns and bullying/overthrowing nations that do not currently have much of a capacity to resist. In that vein, one hopes that Iran and friends will share their expertise in drone technology and underground fortification around the world. The age of the tunnel is upon us.


Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

Please check out the RedAtlas!

The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine

If you have evidence of Zionist crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA reports on the Zionists' destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


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[-] Tervell@hexbear.net 46 points 14 hours ago

https://archive.ph/QX3f7

US to cut troops in Europe

Pentagon plans to reduce deployment to lowest level since before Ukraine invasion

more

The Pentagon said on Tuesday that it would reduce the number of US soldiers stationed in Europe to levels last seen before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The defence department said the decision to reduce the number of brigades on the continent from four to three was “the result of a comprehensive, multi-layered process focused on US force posture in Europe”. It marks the latest move by the Trump administration to pressure European allies to take more responsibility for military defence, although critics warned that it would weaken Nato deterrence against Russia. The announcement comes following a week of confusion after the US abruptly cancelled the planned rotation of 4,000 US troops to Poland, blindsiding officials in Warsaw. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell on Tuesday said the delayed deployment to Poland was temporary and came as a result of the decision to reduce the overall number of Brigade Combat Teams in Europe. He said the “final disposition” of US forces would be “based on further analysis of US strategic and operational requirements, as well as our allies’ own ability to contribute forces towards Europe’s defence”.

The US deployed additional troops to Europe following the Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 and sent more troops after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Jim Townsend, deputy assistant secretary of defence for Europe and Nato policy during the Obama administration, said the deployments “are based on our concept of the threat to Europe, and the role the US needed to play in Europe with force structure, to deter the Russians”. “If we are pulling troops out willy-nilly, this pell-mell retreat, what messages does that send?” he said. During Donald Trump’s second term, US officials have sought a dramatic overhaul of the Nato alliance, urging European leaders to shoulder more responsibility for the continent’s defence. Vice-president JD Vance earlier on Tuesday said the US had not decided whether the 4,000 troops would eventually be sent to Poland. “Those troops could go elsewhere in Europe. We could decide to send them elsewhere,” he said.

The Pentagon said earlier this month that it intended to withdraw forces from Germany, whose leader Friedrich Merz’s critical comments about Trump have caused a rift with the US. However, Trump does plan to attend the G7 leaders meeting in France in June despite these tensions, the White House confirmed on Tuesday. US General Alex Grynkewich, the most senior Nato military officer, said on Tuesday that he did not immediately expect the US to draw down more than 5,000 soldiers from its European footprint. “It’s all that I’m expecting in the near term,” Grynkewich told reporters. Alongside the 4,000 soldiers whose planned dispatch to Poland has been cancelled, the Pentagon said earlier this month it was curtailing the scheduled deployment of a battalion equipped with long-range missiles to Germany. There has been growing concern in some European capitals that Washington could decide to reduce American forces in Europe more significantly. Trump has repeatedly demanded that European countries take more responsibility for defending the continent. “We are not talking about pulling every single American troop out of Europe. We are talking about shifting some resources around in a way that maximises American security,” Vance said on Tuesday. “I don’t think that’s bad for Europe. That’s encouraging Europe to take more ownership.”

The Pentagon said the reduction would encourage “Nato allies to take primary responsibility for Europe’s conventional defence” and added that it remained in “close contact” with Warsaw. Polish deputy prime minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on social media on Tuesday that US defence secretary Pete Hegseth had confirmed in a phone call the US “commitment to Poland’s defence and security remains unchanged”. He added the Pentagon was preparing a new plan for the deployment of American forces across Europe. “The process of repositioning US Army forces and assets in Europe is ongoing but no decision has been made to reduce American military capabilities in Poland,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said.

[-] companero@hexbear.net 27 points 12 hours ago

[...] critics warned that it would weaken Nato deterrence against Russia

That's the whole point. The US is engineering the conditions for another major proxy war against Russia in the Baltics.

[-] jack@hexbear.net 37 points 13 hours ago

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine

this phrasing is so annoying

[-] Big@hexbear.net 28 points 12 hours ago

Uuhm sweaty, it's actually "Russia's illegal full scale aggressive invasion of Ukraine"

this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
109 points (100.0% liked)

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