With the broadening of the American Neocon war on Russia into a War on the World, currently encompassing most of the Middle East but threatening to expand to the Far East in the wake of the Taiwan elections, the most basic question facing Americans is: Will Zhou’s identification with forever war and forever escalating war tarnish the entire Dem brand? My own view is that at some point Dem politicians will largely distance themselves from the Zhou brand and their base voters will vote them back in. Only the presidential ticket will be in play as a result of the War on the World. It’s difficult to see a down ticket shift resulting from this. The reason is that the GOPers, the stupid party, have largely bound themselves to Zhou’s wars—at least to the extent that they will not present a convincing alternative to the Dems for disenchanted anti-war voters. With that pessimistic prognostication out of the way, let’s do a brief update.
As universally predicted, the three days of airstrikes on Yemen have failed to deter the Houthis, who continue to attack commercial shipping. They also maintain that they will now broaden their attacks to include vessels of countries not associated with Israel but associated with the US attack on Yemen. In another “baffle them with BS” ploy, Zhou apparently assured Iran that the US is prepared to go to war with Yemen—as if three days of airstrike somehow don’t constitute acts of war. I doubt Iran was baffled by this. They know that the US is not prepared for a real war beyond ineffectual airstrikes. Iran probably regards this as good news, the US descending into another quagmire:
Reuters wrote today that the President of the United States sent a special message to Iran about the attacks of the Houthis and assured Iran that the United States is fully prepared for war with Yemen.
Today, the US carried out airstrikes on Yemen and the airport in Sana'a for the 3rd time. Damage was minimal because the Houthis had already evacuated and hidden all military equipment and army. And yesterday they again attacked ships connected to Israel without a problem.
Biden quickly learned the lesson that an airstrike against Yemen accomplishes absolutely nothing, it is total nonsense, and all it has accomplished is to completely close the Suez Canal to commercial shipping.
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The Telegraph wrote that British aircraft carriers would not join the war because of a "crisis among military personnel", probably because the British did not want to go to war in the name of genocidal Israel.
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British Independent wrote that all Gulf countries allowed Britain and America to use their airspace to attack Yemen, except the Sultanate of Oman.
This means that Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are officially joining the US coalition in the war with Yemen. Aramco will probably be targeted, and US and UK due to the jump in the price of oil, will bring Europe even more into a big financial crisis.
Netanyahu, a master of BS, tried to employ his own version of the “baffle them with BS” strategy. Since it was directed at the knuckleheads who fund the Israel Lobby in America it was probably more effective than Zhou’s gambit:
"I told US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken that our primary goal, and yours as well, is to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon."
Rrrrright. Genocide in Gaza, launching missiles at Yemen—that’ll do the trick! Well, that was a signal to American proxies like Lindsey! to keep the rhetoric against Iran hot. But the message doesn’t seem to be filtering through to normal Americans. The more they see of this war, the less they like it.
The same appears to be increasingly the case in Israel, at least to the extent that Israelis generally are sick of Netanyahu and are becoming more suspicious of claims of victory. This is fueling open divisions within the ruling coalition (via Israeli channel 13):
"Great tensions in Netanyahu's cabinet"
Gallant nervously left the cabinet meeting and shouted: "Stop interrupting my work!"
Israeli Defense Minister abruptly left a war cabinet discussion due to his advisers being blocked from entering.
Both his assistant and military secretary were barred, contrasting the Prime Minister's armed assistants present.
Megatron: Tensions and quarrels in the cabinet are becoming a daily thing. After 3 months of fighting, Hamas is still fighting hard and shows no signs of falling.
On the other hand, the losses of the Israeli army are huge and the IDF will not be able to hide them for a long time. The economy due to the Houthi blockade and Hezbollah attacks is in very bad condition.
Massive anti-government protests and clashes with the police in Tel Aviv
Meanwhile, protests in Western capitals and cities are not abating. The political class is getting nervous with the Neocon conduct of the War on the World. Is there and endgame? Not in sight.
US attacks, not going to work. The Brits tried to subdue these people in the 1970s and did not work. Need a good comparative situation? Think of the Taliban in Afghanistan. A Tough, simple, and "believing" society that believes it is right. You can bomb these people to kingdom come and sooner or later they will bounce right back.
<<The Telegraph wrote that British aircraft carriers would not join the war because of a "crisis among military personnel", probably because the British did not want to go to war in the name of genocidal Israel.>> That plural is utterly cute. There are two British aircraft carriers, I have seen them both at the same time in Portsmouth harbour. Last I heard the newer one, Prince of Wales, after being repaired in Scotland, having broken down near the Isle of Wight, had gone on a jolly to USA. The crew visited Disneyworld. They came back to Portsmouth in December '23.
Since the ship did not break down even once on this voyage it was deemed a massive success. I'm open to correction here but the ship has not yet carried any aircraft.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1wyO6mjSkDspdXChgqRsIT0RgoNA&hl=en_US