#iraq pm

[secular-jew]

More common sense headlines from the religion of pieces

Iraqi MP Habib Al-Halawi: Inshallah, We Will Kill The Americans Like Flies; Our Youth Were Inspired To Volunteer For Jihad By The Blood Of Nasrallah, Mughniyeh, Soleimani; From Time To Time We Need More Pure Blood 

Al Jazeera Reporter Visits One Of Al-Assad Regime's Narcotics Manufacturing Facilities, Shows How Captagon Pills Are Produced And Concealed As Legitimate Medicine, Then Sent For Export

[harrison-abbott]

Do you not find Tony Blair a repulsive creature?

The fact that he would even team up with William Hague, of all people, is extra baffling. 

Did you know, also, it was Blair and New-Labour who introduced Tuition Fees in the UK? Which folk tend to forget. And this, of course, was not nearly their greatest crime. 

Blair is literally a war criminal; why is he still trying to make, what he perceives as, positive societal changes?

[the-busy-ghost]

One of many downsides to recent political news is that Tony Blair seems to think that he's suddenly become Relevant again, why can I not get away from this man

[thethief1996]

Israel has cut water, electricity and food to Palestinians in Gaza. They are buying 10.000 M16 rifles and plan to distribute to civilian settlers in the West Bank to hunt down Palestinians. They're bombing the only way out of Gaza through Egypt, after telling refugees to flee through it, and have threatened the Egyptian government in case they let aid trucks pass through. Entire families, generations, are being wiped out and left to wander the streets hoping they don't get bombed.

Palestinians are using their last minutes of battery to let the world know about their genocide and are being met with a wall of "What about Hamas? What about the beheaded babies? Killing children on either side is bad!" even though the propaganda claims have been debunked over and over again. How cruel is it to ask somebody to condemn themselves before their last words? Or before grieving the loss of their entire families? When there's no such disclaimer to Israelis even though their government has shown over and over genocidal intent? Like who are you even trying to appease? What will your wishy washy statement do against decades of zionist thought infiltrating evangelical and Jewish stablishmemts?

Take action. Israel will fall back if public opinion turns its tide. The UK fell back on its bloody decision to cut aid to Palestine under public scrutiny. The USAmerican empire spends $3.8 billion dollars annually solely on this proxy war while its people suffer under a progressively military regime as well. News outlets are canceling last minute on Palestinian speakers while letting Israelis tell lies unchecked. Palestinian refugees are being targeted in ICE establishments and mosques are already being hounded by the FBI. France and Germany have banned pro-Palestine protests, while Netherlands and the UK have placed restrictions . You have the chance to stop this from turning into repeat of the Iraq war.

I want to do something but there's hardly anything for me to do from Brasil besides spreading the word and not letting these testimonies fall on deaf ears. I'm asking you to do this same ant work from wherever you are.

Follow:

Eye On Palestine (instagram / twitter)

Mohammed El-Kurd (instagram / twitter)

Decolonize Palestine (website with a chronological explanation of the occupation and debunking myths)

Muhammad Shehada (twitter)

Plestia Alaqad (directly from Gaza. Many of her videos are interrupted by bombs)

If there's a protest in your city, please attend. Here's an international calendar of events:

Friday, October 13

ALBUQUERQUE, NM (US) – Fri Oct. 13, 3 pm, UNM Bookstore, University of New Mexico. Organized by Southwest Coalition for Palestine.

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA (US) – Fri Oct 13, 6 pm, Sproul Hall (Vigil), University of California Berkeley. Organized by Bears for Palestine.

DOUAIS, FRANCE – Fri Oct 13, 6:30 pm, Place de’Armes.

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN – Fri Oct 13, 5:30 pm, Brunnsparken. Organized by Palestinska samordningsgruppen Gothenburg.

GREENSBORO, NC (US) – Fri Oct. 13, 4 pm, Wendover Village, 4203 W Wendover Ave, Greensboro, NC. Organized by Muslims for a Better NC.

LONDON, ENGLAND – Fri Oct 13, 5 pm, Keir Starmer’s Office, Crowndale Center, 218 Eversholt St, London. Organized by IJAN UK.

MEANJIN/BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – Fri Oct 13, 6 pm, King George Square.

MIAMI, FL (US) – Fri Oct 13, 4:30 pm, Bayfront Park. Organized by Troika Kollectiv.

NAPOLI, ITALY – Fri Oct 13, 4:30 pm, Piazza Garibaldi, Napoli. Organized by GPI and Centro Culturale Handala Ali.

NGUNNAWAL/CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA – Fri Oct 13, 5:30 pm, Carema Place.

PERTH/BOORLOO, AUSTRALIA – Fri Oct. 13, 5:30 pm, Murray Street Hall, Boorloo/Perth. Organized by Friends of Palestine WA.

PORTLAND, OREGON (US) – Fri Oct 13, 3 pm, 1200-1220 SW 5th Ave, Portland.

PORT RICHEY, FL (US) – Fri Oct 13, 7:30 am, Route 19 and Ridge Road, Port Richey. Sponsored by: Florida Peace Action Network; Partners for Palestine; CADSI

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA – Friday, Oct. 13, 7 pm, UP Main Campus, DSA Building opposite Thuto. Organized by PSC UP.

WITSWATERSRAND UNIVERSITY (SOUTH AFRICA) – Fri Oct 13, 1 pm, Great Hall Piazza, Flag demonstration. Organized by Wits PSC.

Saturday, October 14

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND – Sat, Oct. 14, 2 pm, St. Nichlas Square. Organized by Scottish PSC.

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – Sat Oct 14, 2 pm, Aotea Square, Queens St, 291-2997 Queen St. Organized by PSN Aotearoa.

DETROIT/DEARBORN, MICHIGAN (US) – Sat Oct 14, 2 pm, Ford Woods Park, 5700 Greenfield Road. Organized by SAFE, PYM, SJP, Handala Coalition, more.

DUNDEE, SCOTLAND – Sat, Oct. 14, 2 pm, Place TBA. Organized by Scottish PSC.

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND – Sat, Oct 14, 2 pm, Princes Street at Foot of the Mound. Organized by Scottish PSC.

FRANKFURT, GERMANY – Sat Oct 14, 3 pm Hauptwache, Frankfurt am Main. Sponsored by Palestina eV, Migrantifa Rhein-Main and more.

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND – Sat. Oct 14, 2 pm, Buchanan Steps. Organized by Scottish PSC.

HOUSTON, TEXAS (US) – Sat Oct 14, 2 pm, City Hall, 901 Bagby St. Organizd by PYM, PAC, USPCN, SJP and more.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – Sat Oc 14, 12 pm, Church St. Organized by FRFI.

LONDON, ENGLAND – Sat Oct 14, 12 pm, BBC Portland Place, London. Organized by a broad coalition.

MILANO, ITALY – Sat. Oct 14, 3:30 pm, Piazza San Babila. Organized by Young Palestinians of Italy, UDAP, Palestinian Community, Association of Palestinians.

ORLANDO, FLORIDA – Sat Oct 14, 3 pm, Lake Eola at Robinson and Eola, Orland. Organized by Florida Palestine Network.

TORINO, ITALY – Sat. Oct. 14, 3 pm, Piazza Crispi. Organized by Progetto Palestina.

VALPARAISO, CHILE – Sat Oct 14, 6 pm, Plaza Victoria, Valparaiso. Organized by Comite Chileno de Solidaridad con Palestina.

WASHINGTON, DC (US) – Sat Oct 14, 1 pm, Lafayette Square. Organized by AMP.

Sunday, October 15

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS – Sun Oct 15, 2 pm, March from Dam Square to Jonas Daniel Meijer plein.

NAARM/MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – Sun Oct 15, State Library Victoria.

TARDANYA/ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA – Sun Oct 15, 2 pm, Parliament House.

AUSTIN, TEXAS (US) – Sun Oct 15, 3 pm, Texas Capitol. Organized by PSC ATX.

GADIGAL/SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – Sun Oct 15, 1 pm, Sydney Town Hall.

SANTIAGO, CHILE -Sun Oct 15, 11 am, Plaza Dignidad, Santiago. Organized by Comite Chileno de Solidaridad con Palestina.

[khizuo]

Remaking the Tumblr post for Maha’s fundraiser so that we don’t have the defunct gfm attached. Before scrolling past this, please read it in its entirety.

1. She is currently in a lot of danger. A while ago she was half outed as trans. People around her are suspicious and are looking through her phone. She is terrified of police involvement if they find evidence that she is trans. On top of this, Iraq is going to be bombed again soon, this month.

2. We don't have a lot of time. Since Trudeau resigned, the new Canadian PM is likely to be Poilievre, who is running on an extremely anti-immigrant policy. She needs to be in Canada before the next election happens, which could be as early as late March. This means we need to raise as much money as we can ASAP.

3. We're shooting to raise $15,000 by the end of January. She needs this money to make the flight and to pay living expenses once she reaches Canada. Please, please donate if you are at all able. If you cannot donate, please share this fundraiser with people you know who can donate. Share it with your friends, family, on social media, on discord, anywhere.

4. Maha has been trying to leave for years. She worked three jobs to try to raise money to leave, but her savings got destroyed because she developed cancer from USAmerican bombs. The previous GFM was abandoned and Maha was unable to get the money. We really, really can’t delay things further.

The fact that our post for Maha’s first fundraiser got over 10k notes is absolutely amazing. I’m sure we can do it again and raise enough money for her to leave this time. If you reblogged the previous post, please reblog this one as well. Please donate what you are able, and share <3

[kawuli]

you know, the thing that leaves me completely out of fucks for "don't vote" arguments, more than anything else?

the 2000 election

Bush won by Supreme Court decision. If they'd counted all the ballots in Florida he would've lost, but he successfully sued to stop the count.

We all learned what a "hanging chad" was. It was awful.

Less than a year later, airplanes flew into a bunch of big important buildings.

Nader got near record green party votes. Al Gore was the famously boring VP for Clinton, the guy who decided the way to win was to be a Democrat who acted like a Republican. Clinton and UK PM Tony Blair were the champions of neoliberalism.

why in the fuck would you want to vote for that guy? the dumb kid of the old president didn't seem too bad, anyway. he was a Compassionate Conservative! is that really so much worse than neoliberals?

it's hard to play alternate history with this stuff, but imagine if Al Gore had been president on 9/11. We probably still get a war in Afghanistan, everybody wanted that one except Congresswoman Barbara Lee, D-CA. I think it's a pretty good bet the US doesn't invade Iraq.

Can you imagine how much better off we'd be if instead of 8 years of a climate denier president we'd gotten the guy who wrote "An Inconvenient Truth"? If we'd managed even to do the wimpy version of cap and trade?

You can't KNOW these things. That was one Trouser of Time and we're down a different one.

But 537 votes in Florida made a hell of a lot of difference. I don't want to be one of the 600 or so people who were running late after work and didn't want to wait in another goddamn line.

Because you just never know what's going to happen

[cricketcat9]

Jean Chretién, former Canadian PM is 91 today and he gave himself a birthday present. He told Donald J. Trump to piss off in the The Globe and Mail. Here's his excerpt from his column:

"Today is my 91st birthday.

It’s an opportunity to celebrate with family and friends. To look back on the life I’ve had the privilege to lead. And to reflect on how much this country we all love so much has grown and changed over the course of the nine decades I’ve been on this Earth.

This year, I’ve also decided to give myself a birthday present. I’m going to do something in this article that I don’t do very often anymore, and sound off on a big issue affecting the state of the nation and profoundly bothering me and so many other Canadians: The totally unacceptable insults and unprecedented threats to our very sovereignty from U.S. president-elect Donald Trump.

I have two very clear and simple messages. To Donald Trump, from one old guy to another: Give your head a shake! What could make you think that Canadians would ever give up the best country in the world – and make no mistake, that is what we are – to join the United States?

I can tell you Canadians prize our independence. We love our country. We have built something here that is the envy of the world – when it comes to compassion, understanding, tolerance and finding a way for people of different backgrounds and faiths to live together in harmony.

We’ve also built a strong social safety net – especially with public health care – that we are very proud of. It’s not perfect, but it’s based on the principle that the most vulnerable among us should be protected.

This may not be the “American Way” or “the Trump Way.” But it is the reality I have witnessed and lived my whole long life."

...

We also had the guts to say no to your country when it tried to drag us into a completely unjustified and destabilizing war in Iraq."

...

Mr. Trump has accomplished one thing: He has unified Canadians more than we have been ever before! All leaders across our country have united in resolve to defend Canadian interests.

...

We also have to understand that Mr. Trump isn’t just threatening us; he’s also targeting a growing list of other countries, as well as the European Union itself, and he is just getting started. Canada should quickly convene a meeting of the leaders of Denmark, Panama, Mexico, as well as with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, to formulate a plan for fighting back these threats.

Every time that Mr. Trump opens his mouth, he creates new allies for all of us. So let’s get organized! To fight back against a big, powerful bully, you need strength in numbers The whole point is not to wait in dread for Donald Trump’s next blow. It’s to build a country and an international community that can withstand those blows.

Canadians know me. They know I am an optimist. That I am practical. And that I always speak my mind. I made my share of mistakes over a long career, but I never for a moment doubted the decency of my fellow Canadians – or of my political opponents.

I am 91 today and blessed with good health. I am ready at the ramparts to help defend the independence of our country as I have done all my life.

Vive le Canada!"

Do I think Canada is the best country in the world? That’s debatable. But I'd rather poke my eyes out than have Trump as my President. I hope Canadian politicians take Mr. Chretién's opinions to heart.

BTW, the PM who said no to the Iraq war was Jean Chretien: it very much offended Mr. Bush at the time, and we were banned from the "friends and allies" circle

[tamamita]

Whats the diff bewteen daesh & Al-qaeda?

Al-Qaeda sprung out as a rebel group against the pro-soviet communist government of Afghanistan with the leadership of Bin Ladin. Al-Qaeda is far more concerned about the interest of Muslims in SWANA and seek to overthrow the Muslim governments which they consider corrupt. Bin Ladin was more concerned about building up an islamist vanguard against the Western powers and its "Jewish" elite, and favoured large-scale, dramatic attacks against strategic or symbolic targets, such as the twin towers. While Al-Qaeda adopts some sectarian policies, they do not carry out attacks against Muslims of different branches.

DAESH is a global jihadist group concerned with the establishment of a global caliphate. It began initially as al-Qaeda of Iraq (not affiliated with Al-Qaeda despite its name) following the illegal invasion of Iraq. Composed of Iraqi Baathists, tribal Sunni leaders, etnical groups and Salafists. Al-Zarkawi was the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and would encourage his followers to carry out attacks against any group that did not swear allegience to their cause. As a precursor group to ISIS, they were far more sectarian and sought to establish an Islamic emirate in Iraq and its environs, often with the sole purpose of eliminating the local Shi'as, non-Muslims and Sunni "apostates". When Zarqawi was killed following a US lead operation, Abu Bakr al-BAghdadi, a former Guantanamo inmate, would shore up support due to the brutal policies of the Iraqi PM Nour al-Maliki, which affected Iraq's Sunni minority, ultimately leading to the formation of ISIS. The Islamic State embraces some of al-Qaeda's goals, but see expansionism as an effective tool to recruit new fighters and while also carrying out indiscriminate bombings against its enemies. As opposed to al-Qaeda, ISIS is also known for its atrocity propaganda, which it sees as an effective tool for mass recruitment.

In short: Al-Qaeda is concerned with the enemies from far away (the west). ISIS is concerned with the enemies nearby (literally everyone.).

[girlactionfigure]

🟣LEADERS SAY, MEET THE TERRORISTS - Real time from Israel  

🎗️WHILE THE HEALTH - of the released hostages is said to be ok, one of the hostages lost 2 fingers during the kidnapping and will likely require repair surgery.  The hostages have been taken to Sheba-Tel HaShomer hospital for a comprehensive check, psychological evaluation and rehabilitation and for reunification with their larger families (their mothers were at the transfer station.)

▪️ENDING PRESIDENT BIDEN SAYS - “The second phase of the deal includes the release of Israeli soldiers, and a permanent end to the war - without Hamas being in power or able to threaten Israel.”

▪️FORMER UK PM SAYS - Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson: ‘What a picture of Hamas - thousands of armed young men mocking the brave, defenseless and completely innocent women. How is this supposed to promote reconciliation?’  (( This is an example of cognitive dissonance - how to deal with reality that is at complete odds with expectations?  Mr. Former PM: it was NOT supposed to promote reconciliation, it was supposed to promote POWER. ))

▪️PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP SAYS - last night: Hopes to meet Netanyahu "soon," but did not specify a date.

.. "Thank you to Steve Witkoff, the new Middle East envoy. He is a great negotiator and he helped us bring about a historic agreement in the Middle East."

.. Incoming US Ambassador Mike Huckabee: “A two-state solution? No. There was a Palestinian state – it was called Gaza. Look how it ended.”

▪️POLITICAL REPORTER AMIT SEGAL SAYS - “Silencing a different opinion and silencing legitimate positions is a dubious patent that led to October 7, why the attempts to recreate it?” speaking of those trying to shut up the opinion of Fin. Min. MK Smotrich (and former Nat. Sec. Min. MK Ben Gvir) on their position that this deal is VERY DANGEROUS to Israel.

▪️MEET THE TERRORIST - One of the terrorists expected to be released in the deal is Saeed Arar from the village of Qarwat Bani Zaid, a member of the cell that kidnapped and murdered Sasson Nouriel.  One of Sasson Nouriel's other kidnappers was Ali Kadi who was employed by Nouriel in a candy factory in Jerusalem. He was released in the Shalit deal,  deported to Gaza, and became the commander of the Nuchba terror battalion that initiated the October 7 massacre.

▪️MEET THE TERROR “CHILDREN” - among the released ‘children’ terrorists:

•17-year-old: carried out a shooting attack in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood - “east” Jerusalem.

•15-year-old: carried out a shooting attack in the City of David - “east” Jerusalem.

•Noel Mahmoud Abed: carried out a stabbing attack at the Commissioner's Palace - “east” Jerusalem.

•Saj Imad: Tried to stab a soldier in Farm 7 (not sure, I think in Samaria).

▪️HAMAS THANKS - for the hostage deal: Iran, Hezbollah, the Shia militias of Iraq, and the Houthis.  Missing are Qatar, Turkey, and Russia.

▪️VIOLENT ISRAELI PROTEST - The army received a report of violent disturbances in the villages of Turmus Iya and Sinjil in Samaria, in which Israeli civilians set fire to a house and vehicles. IDF and Border Guard forces were deployed to the area and used force to disperse the demonstrations - which were targeted at the home villages of released terrorists who previously murdered.

▪️AIR TRAVEL - British Airways will return to Israel on April 5 and operate the route between Tel Aviv and London. Initially, there will be a daily flight, and from April 20 there will be two daily flights.

♦️LEBANON - reports of artillery fire across the border in the western sector.

❗️NOTING THE HEZBOLLAH CEASEFIRE EXPIRES on the 26th - 6 days.

[asynca]

I got accused of antisemitism for supporting Palestinians on Twitter (YOU ONLY CARE ABOUT THE CONFLICT BECAUSE YOU HATE JEWS!!!) but I can assure you I've hated the bullshit conflicts the US carries out and supports since the 90s.

Here is a picture of me with the puppets of Sadam Hussein, John Howard (Australian PM at the time), and George Bush Jnr from a 100,000+ strong protest in Melbourne in 2003 against the invasion of Iraq. I'm smiling because back then I still thought the government could not possibly ignore the will of so many Australians to pursue clearly fictional weapons in Iraq. But I guess the oil companies pay political parties pretty damn well, because the invasion went ahead. Later, the US admitted they had no evidence of weapons of mass destruction and were lying when they said they did.

[freetheshit-outofyou]

@sadrcitysocialclub, In reference to the PTSD post. Folks often say "Man, you left the war 17 years ago, it can't hurt that bad anymore." what they don't understand is it was 17 years ago for them, it was last night for me. "June 26, 2007, 3:51 PM

By Brian Mockenhaupt

I Miss Iraq. I Miss My Gun. I Miss My War.

A year after coming home from a tour in Iraq, a soldier returns home to find out he left something behind.

A few months ago, I found a Web site loaded with pictures and videos from Iraq, the sort that usually aren't seen on the news. I watched insurgent snipers shoot American soldiers and car bombs disintegrate markets, accompanied by tinny music and loud, rhythmic chanting, the soundtrack of the propaganda campaigns. Video cameras focused on empty stretches of road, building anticipation. Humvees rolled into view and the explosions brought mushroom clouds of dirt and smoke and chunks of metal spinning through the air. Other videos and pictures showed insurgents shot dead while planting roadside bombs or killed in firefights and the remains of suicide bombers, people how they're not meant to be seen, no longer whole. The images sickened me, but their familiarity pulled me in, giving comfort, and I couldn't stop. I clicked through more frames, hungry for it. This must be what a shot of dope feels like after a long stretch of sobriety. Soothing and nauseating and colored by everything that has come before. My body tingled and my stomach ached, hollow. I stood on weak legs and walked into the kitchen to make dinner. I sliced half an onion before putting the knife down and watching slight tremors run through my hand. The shakiness lingered. I drank a beer. And as I leaned against this kitchen counter, in this house, in America, my life felt very foreign.

I've been home from Iraq for more than a year, long enough for my time there to become a memory best forgotten for those who worried every day that I was gone. I could see their relief when I returned. Life could continue, with futures not so uncertain. But in quiet moments, their relief brought me guilt. Maybe they assume I was as overjoyed to be home as they were to have me home. Maybe they assume if I could do it over, I never would have gone. And maybe I wouldn't have. But I miss Iraq. I miss the war. I miss war. And I have a very hard time understanding why.

I'm glad to be home, to have put away my uniforms, to wake up next to my wife each morning. I worry about my friends who are in Iraq now, and I wish they weren't. Often I hated being there, when the frustrations and lack of control over my life were complete and mind-bending. I questioned my role in the occupation and whether good could come of it. I wondered if it was worth dying or killing for. The suffering and ugliness I saw disgusted me. But war twists and shifts the landmarks by which we navigate our lives, casting light on darkened areas that for many people remain forever unexplored. And once those darkened spaces are lit, they become part of us. At a party several years ago, long before the Army, I listened to a friend who had served several years in the Marines tell a woman that if she carried a pistol for a day, just tucked in her waistband and out of sight, she would feel different. She would see the world differently, for better or worse. Guns empower. She disagreed and he shrugged. No use arguing the point; he was just offering a little piece of truth. He was right, of course. And that's just the beginning.

I've spent hours taking in the world through a rifle scope, watching life unfold. Women hanging laundry on a rooftop. Men haggling over a hindquarter of lamb in the market. Children walking to school. I've watched this and hoped that someday I would see that my presence had made their lives better, a redemption of sorts. But I also peered through the scope waiting for someone to do something wrong, so I could shoot him. When you pick up a weapon with the intent of killing, you step onto a very strange and serious playing field. Every morning someone wakes wanting to kill you. When you walk down the street, they are waiting, and you want to kill them, too. That's not bloodthirsty; that's just the trade you've learned. And as an American soldier, you have a very impressive toolbox. You can fire your rifle or lob a grenade, and if that's not enough, call in the tanks, or helicopters, or jets. The insurgents have their skill sets, too, turning mornings at the market into chaos, crowds into scattered flesh, Humvees into charred scrap. You're all part of the terrible magic show, both powerful and helpless.

That men are drawn to war is no surprise. How old are boys before they turn a finger and thumb into a pistol? Long before they love girls, they love war, at least everything they imagine war to be: guns and explosions and manliness and courage. When my neighbors and I played war as kids, there was no fear or sorrow or cowardice. Death was temporary, usually as fast as you could count to sixty and jump back into the game. We didn't know yet about the darkness. And young men are just slightly older versions of those boys, still loving the unknown, perhaps pumped up on dreams of duty and heroism and the intoxicating power of weapons. In time, war dispels many such notions, and more than a few men find that being freed from society's professed revulsion to killing is really no freedom at all, but a lonely burden. Yet even at its lowest points, war is like nothing else. Our culture craves experience, and that is war's strong suit. War peels back the skin, and you live with a layer of nerves exposed, overdosing on your surroundings, when everything seems all wrong and just right, in a way that makes perfect sense. And then you almost die but don't, and are born again, stoned on life and mocking death. The explosions and gunfire fry your nerves, but you want to hear them all the same. Something's going down.

For those who know, this is the open secret: War is exciting. Sometimes I was in awe of this, and sometimes I felt low and mean for loving it, but I loved it still. Even in its quiet moments, war is brighter, louder, brasher, more fun, more tragic, more wasteful. More. More of everything. And even then I knew I would someday miss it, this life so strange. Today the war has distilled to moments and feelings, and somewhere in these memories is the reason for the wistfulness.

On one mission we slip away from our trucks and into the night. I lead the patrol through the darkness, along canals and fields and into the town, down narrow, hard-packed dirt streets. Everyone has gone to bed, or is at least inside. We peer through gates and over walls into courtyards and into homes. In a few rooms TVs flicker. A woman washes dishes in a tub. Dogs bark several streets away. No one knows we are in the street, creeping. We stop at intersections, peek around corners, training guns on parked cars, balconies, and storefronts. All empty. We move on. From a small shop up ahead, we hear men's voices and laughter. Maybe they used to sit outside at night, but now they are indoors, where it's safe. Safer. The sheet-metal door opens and a man steps out, cigarette and lighter in hand. He still wears a smile, takes in the cool night air, and then nearly falls backward through the doorway in a panic. I'm a few feet from him now and his eyes are wide. I mutter a greeting and we walk on, back into the darkness.

Another night we're lost in a dust storm. I'm in the passenger seat, trying to guide my driver and the three trucks behind us through this brown maelstrom. The headlights show nothing but swirling dirt. We've driven these roads for months, we know them well, but we see nothing. So we drive slow, trying to stay out of canals and people's kitchens. We curse and we laugh. This is bizarre but a great deal of fun.

Another night my platoon sergeant's truck is swallowed in flames, a terrible, beautiful, boiling bloom of red and orange and yellow, lighting the darkness for a moment. Somehow we don't die, one more time.

Another night, there's McCarthy bitching, the cherry of his cigarette bobbing in the dark, bitching that he won't be on the assault team, that he's stuck as a turret gunner for the night. We'd been out since early that morning, came back for dinner, and are preparing to raid a weapons dealer. Our first real raid. I heave my body armor onto my shoulders, settling its too-familiar weight. Then the helmet and first-aid kit and maps and radio and ammunition and rifle and all the rest. Now I look like everyone else, an arm of this strange and destructive organism, covered in armor and guns. We crowd around a satellite map spread across a Humvee hood and trace our route. Wells, my squad leader, rehearses our movements. Get in quick. Watch the danger zones. If he has a gun, kill him. I look around the group, at these faces I know so well, and feel the collective strength, this ridiculous power. The camaraderie of men in arms plays a part, for sure. The shared misery and euphoria and threat of death. But there is something more: the surrender of self, voluntary or not, to the machine. Do I believe in the war? Not important. Put that away and live in the moment, where little is knowable and even less is controllable, when my world narrows to one street, one house, one room, one door.

We pack into the trucks after midnight, and the convoy snakes out of camp and speeds toward the target house. I sit in a backseat and the fear settles in, a sharp burning in my stomach, same as the knot from hard liquor gulped too fast. I think about the knot. I'll be the first through the door. What if he starts shooting, hits me right in the face before I'm even through the doorway? What if there's two, or three? What if he pitches a grenade at us? And I think about it more and run through the scenarios, planning my movements, imagining myself clearing through the rooms, firing two rounds into the chest, and the knot fades.

The trucks drop us off several blocks from the target house and we slip into the night. As always, the dogs bark. We gather against the high wall outside the house and call in the trucks to block the streets. The action will pass in a flash. But here, before the chaos starts, when we're stacked against the wall, my friends' bodies pressed against me, hearing their quick breaths and my own, there's a moment to appreciate the gravity, the absurdity, the novelty, the joy of the moment. Is this real? Hearts beat strong. Hands grip tight on weapons. Reassurance. The rest of the world falls away. Who knows what's on the other side?

One, two, three, go. We push past the gate and across the courtyard and toward the house, barrels locked on the windows and roof. Wells runs up with the battering ram, a short, heavy pipe with handles, and launches it toward the massive wood door. The lock explodes, the splintered door flies open, and we rush through, just the way we've practiced hundreds of times. No one shoots me in the face. No grenades roll to my feet. I kick open doors. We scan darkened bedrooms with the flashlights on our rifles and move on to the next and the next.

He's gone, of course. We ransack his house, dumping drawers, flipping mattresses, punching holes in the ceiling. We find rifles and grenades and hundreds of pounds of gunpowder. And then, near dawn, we lie down on the thick carpets in his living room and sleep, exhausted and untroubled.

Many, many raids followed. We often raided houses late at night, so people awakened to soldiers bursting through their bedroom doors. Women and children wailed, terrified. Taking this in, I imagined what it would feel like if soldiers kicked down my door at midnight, if I could do nothing to protect my family. I would hate those soldiers. Yet I still reveled in the raids, their intensity and uncertainty. The emotions collided, without resolution.

My wife moved to Iraq partway through my second deployment to live in the north and train Iraqi journalists. She spent her evenings at restaurants and tea shops with her Iraqi friends. We spoke by cell phone, when the spotty network allowed, and she told me about this life I couldn't imagine, celebrating holidays with her colleagues and being invited into their homes. I didn't have any Iraqi friends, save for our few translators, and I'd rarely been invited into anyone's home. I told her of my life, the tedious days and frightful seconds, and she worried that in all of this I would lose my thoughtfulness and might stop questioning and just accept. But she didn't judge the work that I did, and I didn't tell her that I sometimes enjoyed it, that for stretches of time I didn't think about the greater implications, that it sometimes seemed like a game. I didn't tell her that death felt ever present and far away, and that either way, it didn't really seem to matter.

We both came back from Iraq, luckier than many. Two of my wife's students have been killed, among the scores of journalists to die in Iraq, and guys I served with are still dying, too. One came home from the war and shot himself on Thanksgiving. Another was blown up on Christmas in Baghdad.

Thinking of them, I felt disgusted with myself for missing the war and wondered if I was alone in this.

I don't think I am.

After watching the Internet videos, I called some of my friends who are out of the Army now, and they miss the war, too. Wells very nearly died in Iraq. A sniper shot him in the head, surgeons cut out half of his skull—a story told in this magazine last April—and he spent months in therapy, working back to his old self. Now he misses the high. "I don't want to sound like a psychopath, but you're like a god over there," he says. "It might not be the best kind of adrenaline for you, but it's a rush." Before Iraq, he didn't care for horror movies, and now he's drawn to them. He watches them for the little thrill, the rush of being startled, if just for a moment.

McCarthy misses the war just the same. He saved Wells's life, pressing a bandage over the hole in his head. Now he's delivering construction materials to big hotel projects along the beach in South Carolina, waiting for a police department to process his application. "The monotony is killing me," he told me, en route to deliver some rebar. "I want to go on a raid. I want something to blow up. I want something to change today." He wants the unknown. "Anything can happen, and it does happen. And all of the sudden your world is shattered, and everything has changed. It's living dangerously. You're living on the edge. And you're the baddest motherfucker around."

Mortal danger heightens the senses. That is simple animal instinct. We're more aware of how our world smells and sounds and tastes. This distorts and enriches experiences. Now I can have everything, but it's not as good as when I could have none of it. McCarthy and I stood on a rooftop one afternoon in Iraq running through a long list of the food we wanted. We made it to homemade pizza and icy beer when someone loosed a long burst of gunfire that cracked over our heads. We ran to the other side of the rooftop, but the gunman had disappeared down a long alleyway. Today my memory of that pizza and beer is stronger than if McCarthy and I had sat down together with the real thing before us.

And today we even speak with affection of wrestling a dead man into a body bag, because that was then. The bullet had laid his thigh wide open, shattered the femur, and shredded the artery, so he'd bled out fast, pumping much of his blood onto the sidewalk. We unfolded and unzipped the nylon sack and laid it alongside him. And then we stared for a moment, none of us ready to close that distance. I grabbed his forearm and dropped it, maybe instinct, maybe revulsion. He hovered so near this world, having just passed over, that he seemed to be sucking life from me, pulling himself back or taking me with him. He peeked at us through a half-opened eye. I stared down on him, his massive dead body, and again wrapped a hand around his wrist, thick and warm. The man was huge, taller than six feet and close to 250 pounds. We strained with the awkward weight, rolled him into the bag, and zipped him out of sight. My platoon sergeant gave two neighborhood kids five dollars to wash away the congealing puddle of blood. But the red handprint stayed on the wall, where the man had tried to brace himself before he fell. I think about him sometimes, splayed out on the sidewalk, and I think of how lucky I was never to have put a friend in one of those bags. Or be put in one myself.

But the memories, good and bad, are only part of the reason war holds its grip long after soldiers have come home. The war was urgent and intense and the biggest story going, always on the news stations and magazine covers. At home, though, relearning everyday life, the sense of mission can be hard to find. And this is not just about dim prospects and low-paying jobs in small towns. Leaving the war behind can be a letdown, regardless of opportunity or education or the luxuries waiting at home. People I'd never met sent me boxes of cookies and candy throughout my tours. When I left for two weeks of leave, I was cheered at airports and hugged by strangers. At dinner with my family one night, a man from the next table bought me a $400 bottle of wine. I was never quite comfortable with any of this, but they were heady moments nonetheless.For my friends who are going back to Iraq or are there already, there is little enthusiasm. Any fondness for war is tainted by the practicalities of operating and surviving in combat. Wells and McCarthy and I can speak of the war with nostalgia because we belong to a different world now. And yet there is little to say, because we are scattered, far from those who understand.

When I came home, people often asked me about Iraq, and mostly I told them it wasn't so bad. The first few times, my wife asked me why I had been so blithe. Why didn't I tell them what Iraq was really like? I didn't know how to explain myself to them. The war really wasn't so bad. Yes, there were bombs and shootings and nervous times, but that was just the job. In fact, going to war is rather easy. You react to situations around you and try not to die. There are no electric bills or car payments or chores around the house. Just go to work, come home alive, and do it again tomorrow. McCarthy calls it pure and serene. Indeed. Life at home can be much more trying. But I didn't imagine the people asking would understand that. I didn't care much if they did, and often it seemed they just wanted a war story, a bit of grit and gore. If they really want to know, they can always find out for themselves. But they don't, they just want a taste of the thrill. We all do. We covet life outside our bubble. That's why we love tragedy, why we love hearing about war and death on the television, drawn to it in spite of ourselves. We gawk at accident scenes and watch people humiliate themselves on reality shows and can't wait to replay the events for friends, as though in retelling the story we make it our own, if just for a moment.

We live easy third-person lives but want a bit of the darkness. War fascinates because we live so far from its realities. Maybe we'd feel differently about watching bombs blow up on TV if we saw them up close, if we knew how explosions rip the air, throttle your brain, and make your ears ring, if we knew the strain of wondering whether the car next to you at a traffic light would explode or a bomb would land on your house as you sleep. I don't expect Iraqi soldiers would ever miss war. I have that luxury. I came home to peace, to a country that hasn't seen war within its borders for nearly 150 years. Yes, some boys come home dead. But we live here without the other terrors and tragedies of war—cities flattened and riven with chaos and fear, neighbors killing one another, a people made forever weary by the violence.

And so I miss it.

Every day in Iraq, if you have a job that takes you outside the wire, you stop just before the gate and make your final preparation for war. You pull out a magazine stacked with thirty rounds of ammunition, weighing just over a pound. You slide it into the magazine well of your rifle and smack it with the heel of your hand, driving it up. You pull the rifle's charging handle, draw the bolt back, and release. The bolt slides forward with a metallic snap, catching the top round and shoving it into the barrel. Chak-chuk. If I hear that a half century from now, I will know it in an instant. Unmistakable, and pregnant with possibility. On top of a diving board, as the grade-school-science explanation goes, you are potential energy. On the way down, you are kinetic energy. So I leave the gate and step off the diving board, my energy transformed."

[darkmaga-returns]

Three days after Bashar al-Assad was overthrown, Israel is doing whatever it wants in Syria, including openly stealing more land, destroying Syria’s air defense capabilities, and launching hundreds of strikes. Its ongoing assault has also included reports that Israeli tanks were within 25 kilometers of Damascus.

Despite Israel’s blatant and repeated violations of international law in Syria, the international community has done… absolutely nothing to stop them. While Saudi Arabia and Qatar have released statements condemning Israel, they have yet to take action (and it’s not expected).

Meanwhile, the U.S. and Turkey are openly joining in on the assault on Syria with strikes of their own, claiming they’re “protecting their interests” in the region. Clearly, those interests are NOT the Syrian people.

SOURCE LINKS:

9 Dec. 2024 - Israeli warplanes conduct strikes across Syria

10 Dec. 2024 - Operation 'Bashan Arrow': IDF destroys over 350 Syrian Military targets

9 Dec. 2024 - Israeli Ambassador tells UN Security Council that strikes on Syria are ‘limited and temporary’

10 Dec. 2024 - UN Security Council appears united on Syria, say diplomats

8 Dec. 2024 - After buffer zone, 'Israel' occupies Syrian Mount Hermon

10 Dec. 2024 - Mount Hermon: Why control of Syria's highest peak matters

10 Dec. 2024 - Report: Israeli tanks reach point 25km from Damascus

8 Dec. 2024 - Israeli Ground Forces Cross into Syria, Officials Say

9 Dec. 2024 - Qatar, Saudi, Iran, Iraq condemn Israel’s ‘dangerous’ land grab in Syria

10 Dec. 2024 - Israel claimed it destroyed Syria’s military fleet, says it will set up ‘sterile defensive zone’ in Syria

9 Dec. 2024 - Israel, US and Turkey launch strikes in Syria to protect interests

9 Dec. 2024 - US Backs Israel’s Land Grab in Syria

10 Dec. 2024 - Opposition leader appointed PM in Syria

9 Dec. 2024 - US Considering Removing HTS From Terror List After Syria Takeover

[rangikuxmatsumoto]

It’s already been said, but god, are we fucked.

My string of consciousness from behind tears in under the cut. It is heavy, so if you aren’t of the right mindset right now, please don’t read but I need to get these thoughts off my mind.

Yesterday morning, I cried – a mix of anxious fear and also of hope. I’m 35 years old, my first presidential election that I could vote in was in 2008, Obama’s first term. I still remember the hope.

I remember 2012, and 2016. I wish I didn’t remember 2016. How disappointed I was in the people of this country then. I remember the anger and the rage felt by my fellow democrats, by my fellow women. I told myself I’d fight, I’d always fight, but I was 27 then, younger, not yet worn down from years that were to follow.

Then there was 2020. I thought we saw the light, learned from our mistake. I remember the joy, watching people dance in fountains and pop bottles of champagne on Tiktok in Chicago and New York.

Then came January 6th. My sister messaged me over chat during work “Go turn on your TV”, I watched in real time to events of January 6th. How could our country come to this? Believe me, I’ve never been a “USA USA” chanting type person, outside of the Olympics, this country has flaws, we aren’t perfect. But we have been a beacon of hope to the world – I’m afraid we’re now a beacon of the end. I always believed the notion of “Those who do not learn history are damned to repeat it” and clearly y’all missed a lot of history classes.

Yesterday, I cried.

I cried when I went to bed at around 10:30 PM EST, I wasn’t trying to look at the election results. I couldn’t, because I felt sick to my stomach. I always know the South is going to go red, there’s no helping those shithole states – I say this living in North Carolina, the first swing state to fall red. On the bright side, we did keep a democratic governor and attorney general. Still, I once had hope that North Carolina would fall blue even by the slimmest of margins, that Georgia would stay blue. But no.

I woke up around 1:11 AM, the results hadn’t been called yet, but one story was on my phone “Harris won’t address supporters” and with it a picture of a grown man, face buried in his palms, crying. The blurry faces behind him, all in tears.

I cried then as well. Face buried in my pillow, trying to stay quiet.

Some might say “It’s just 4 years” it’s not. The ramifications of what happens in these next four years are far reaching, two potential Supreme Court seats may open and with a super conservative majority. The average length of a SCOTUS position, 22.7 years. So, it’s not 4 years. Meaning that the rest of my life, I can be affected by those rules – and they will come.

I cried this morning. They aren’t the body wrecking sobs that I feel because I’m just so tired of this shit. God, not to go on the Millennial rant here but can I stop having to face these world shifting events? We lived through 9/11, The Iraq War, the Great Recession, the list goes on and on – I’m fucking tired of it.

And today, I having to come to terms with what the next four plus years will be. What I stand to lose, and I’ve already lost.

The worst part of this is the one thought that has stuck with me. It wasn’t “I need to keep fighting” it’s I’m too tired to fight. I guess, it’s best said, “They’ll never take me alive” because all I thought about was killing myself. Ending it. I’ve never had these thoughts before, not seriously. Sure I’ve been depressed before, but not to the point I haven’t been able to push away the “I want to die” thought.

It might be better if I did. I know it’s just the depression speaking, that I’ll wake up tomorrow still depressed but not wanting to die. And in a couple days, I’ll still be depressed but the anger will set it. It’s different stages of grief, maybe not in the right order and I don’t think I’ll ever come to acceptance but I’ll get somewhere.

There is another thought that is lingering behind that “I wanna kill myself” one, of “fuck around and find out” – you see, I may be fine in 4 years, certainly won’t be better but I could be fine. But those stupid fucks that voted Republican that are single incomes, living paycheck to paycheck, ohhhh they’re about to get a rude fucking awakening. And I’m going to fucking love to see it.

But for now, I need some space, some time, I’m going to cry a lot. I may not be too talkative on Discord or here.

[sortyourlifeoutmate]

I am concerned about Simon Jenkins, Guardian columnist.

Recently he opined in a column that us letting Ukraine fire back at Russia would amount to reckless escalation, an opinion (and a column) so ludicrous it prompted me of all people to send the newspaper a snarky email. Nothing came of it, but still. Maybe the “Don’t shoot back it’ll only upset the enemy” approach is one that hasn’t been given a chance yet?

But yes, he’s now back with another banger: why aren’t ex-PM’s being given a second bite at the apple, given that they’ve got experience? Surely that’s worth something? Why are we going with non-entities, untried and untested, rather than men who’ve learnt a thing or two from their time in office?

Um. Because they’re all shit, Simon.

Why is William Hague not standing as Tory leader rather than mere chancellor of Oxford? He is hale and hearty at 63. Is David Cameron also over the hill at 57? Come to that, where was Tony Blair, then 66, when the Labour party chose Keir Starmer as leader?

As an opener he gives you a lot to unpack. It’s hard to know where to start. Their age isn’t really the issue, at least not to anyone outside of politics. The issue is that they had their chance, and they fucked it up. And we all saw it. We all lived through it. William Hague at least has the benefit of never having had a chance to fuck it up, but I very much doubt he’d want to go back in now, given what’s happened to his party in the interim. The other two? Whoof!

(This is leaving aside of course the perhaps delicate issue of Tony Blair being, you know, a bit of war criminal? More than most ex-PM’s, I mean. Or was going into Iraq one of those mistakes born of inexperience? Not something he’d do again?)

Yes they had all “failed” in some respect during their own tenure in government, but they know the ropes and have the wisdom of experience. We don’t sack a manager for losing a game.

Well, no, but they do get sacked for being consistently shit and, recall, you brought up Tony Blair and David Cameron as your examples. Ahem.

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak were leaders under cruel circumstance, in the form of Covid and its aftermath. Neither succeeded, but both, one hopes, will be wiser as well as older after the experience – and that wisdom is of value to the nation.

Not meaning to devolve so soon into ad hominem attack but are you high, Simon? Boris and Rishi? Older certainly, but wiser? Wisdom is relative, really, and if you start from a negative how far do you expect someone to get? These are men who should be kept far, far, far away from any significant office, not because their previous time was tarnished by inexperience and stricken with misfortune, but because they are both profoundly, obviously unsuited for it. Like, for real.

We did not evict William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli, Ramsay MacDonald and Stanley Baldwin, Winston Churchill and Harold Wilson for losing an election. All of them went on to win their parties a return to power.

THE PAST, SIMON! THEY WERE IN THE PAST! When Gladstone was born (admittedly not when he got into politics) we still had slavery! Things have changed!

Most prime ministers after leaving office – like many holders of top jobs – speak of the same thing. It is: if only they could have their time again, they would do things differently. What they got wrong was almost always due to inexperience. Leaders should have no right to a second term, but denying them one denies the country the choice of experience over novelty.

Their experience isn’t worth shit given they’ll be confronting new challenges, new things for them to get wrong because it’ll be the first time they’ve run into them. A few years down the line they can be sadly pining for more second chances.

It is hard to imagine a corporation run by a board whose members have so little experience of what they are supposedly producing.

Um. I’ll just, uh – I’ll just leave that there… no comment needed. I think we… think we all know…

It is grim to think that the four candidates on offer as next Tory leader are really the best British politics can supply.

It might be! It’s also true! If your machine is a broken heap of shit it’ll tend to turn out garbage! Whoopsie-doodle, our political class are all self-serving morons! How’d that happen? Best get some more Oxbridge graduates in here, sharpish! That’ll sort it! More landlords! It has to balance eventually!

We might not wish for a return to the days of Blair or Cameron, Gordon Brown or George Osborne, John Major or Hague. But that is to assume they will have learned nothing from their experience, and therefore have nothing to offer.

That’s exactly right, Simon! They do have nothing to offer! Remember how Tony Blair recently tried to get us all ginned up for his ID card idea again? He has literally learned nothing.

Just…

A key element here is that these men are out of politics. Out of politics a lot of politicians start to sound alarmingly reasonable (some of them, anyway, at least comparatively). They start saying things normal people might say! Start saying things that make sense! Maybe that’s that wisdom and experience Simon is talking about?

No. That’s because they’re out of politics. The moment they got back into it, if they did, all of that goes out the window. The job is such that you cannot be like that. You are put back into a mould and you go back to being shit, because that’s what the job calls for. You are being pulled in a thousand directions at once and cannot make normal, reasonable decisions. You make what seems like the least-worst choice but only through the lens you’ve had stapled to your face by being inside government. It makes perfect sense to you on the inside, surrounded by other people on the inside, deafened by clamouring voices. From the outside, you look insane.

‘Knowing the ropes’ and ‘having experience’ are indeed very valuable things, but with politicians the problem is often that the only experience they have is of being a politician and knowing how politics works, a skillset entirely useless in the real world and, indeed, it could be argued a significant factor in why politics usually sounds like it’s happening on a different fucking planet.

Like, we’re down to the dregs. That’s especially obvious with the Tory leadership competition. That shit is cracked, those people are all insane and are caught in a death-spiral where they have all convinced themselves it’s a contest that’ll be won by the biggest lunatic.

At a local level you might find a handful of MP’s who aren’t terrible, who still have at least some awareness of the outside world. The higher up you go though, the longer they spend swimming around Westminster, the more detached they’ll get – it’s just how it is. You spend all day around those types of people while being one of those types of people, talking to them, having them talk to you, getting lobbied, you’ll see the world differently.

And so we ended up with this revolving carousel of men and women whose sole selling point was them having experience. Experience of anything useful? No. You’re Minister for Such-and-Such now! You know nothing of what you’re in charge of, of course, but you were Minister for So-and-So five years ago so you know how the system works. Chop chop. We have a plan to try and make work.

I’m not sure what the remedy might conceivably be, but there needs to be something to anchor politicians in the real world. Maybe have Keir pay for his own fucking glasses, I don’t know.

Oh, and Simon? Fuck off.

[usafphantom2]

Marines hit operational status with second carrier-capable F35-C unit

Todd SouthJul 31, 2024 at 04:56 PM

A West Coast Marine F-35C Lightning II squadron has achieved initial operational capability.

The Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 311, Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, hit that key milestone Wednesday, 1st Lt. Madison Walls, wing spokeswoman told Marine Corps Times. The status means a unit can employ, maintain and train on the jet.

The Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, unit conducted its first independent live ordnance operations July 25.

“Initial operational capability is a milestone and achievement in readiness,” said Lt. Col. Michael Fisher, commanding officer of VMFA-311 in a statement. “It’s all on the backs of the Marines out there. What they do in their day-to-day actions is what made this possible.”

The squadron, also known as the Tomcats, flew more than 900 sorties, which equals nearly 1,700 flight hours and another 800 simulator hours and 2,400 maintenance actions to reach initial operational capability, according to a service release.

“The Tomcats have a storied history that includes legends such as Ted Williams and John Glenn, and participation in every major conflict since World War II,” Maj. Gen. James Wellons, commanding general of 3rd MAW, said in the release. “Today’s Marines add another chapter to that legacy with the introduction of the F-35C and fifth-generation capabilities to VMFA-311.”

Marine Corps Cpl. Larry Casas, a fixed-wing aircraft mechanic with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 311, directs Capt. Joshua G. Falgoust, an F-35C Lightning II pilot. (Lance Cpl. Jennifer Sanchez/Marine Corps)

In 2020, the squadron deactivated its AV-8 Harrier jets and then reactivated in April 2023 with 84 Marines and one F-35, reflecting the Marine Corps’ move to fifth-generation fighter aircraft. The transition has resulted in a gradual reduction in Harriers and F/A-18 Hornets.

The Corps’ two F-35C squadrons, VMFA-311 and VMFA-314, are both stationed at Miramar.

The VMFA-314, or Black Knights, reached initial operational capability in 2020, Marine Corps Times previously reported.

The F-35C is specifically engineered for carrier-based operations, featuring heavier landing gear and enlarged, foldable wings designed to facilitate catapult launches and arrestments on aircraft carriers. The foldable wingtips also facilitate easier storage on the carrier deck.

The “C” variant holds more fuel than other versions of the single-seat jet, with nearly 20,000 pounds of internal fuel capacity for long-range flights.

“The next step for VMFA-311 is full operational capability, attained when VMFA-311 receives its complete inventory of ten F-35C aircraft, projected for fiscal year 2025,” according to the release.

The Marine Corps has used the F-35B for years. The “B” variant, built to use short runways and flat-decked amphibious assault ships, is capable of short take-offs and vertical landings.

Currently, the Corps has eight operational F-35B squadrons and two training squadrons, totaling over 100 F-35B aircraft globally.

Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.

@DefenseNews.com

[militarymenrbomb]

if you're not into stories, just pass this up.

I don't know if it's true or not, but it's from a Reddit that claims to post true gay military stories from followers.

Hook up in Iraq: part 1 the glory hole at the rec ctr

I was Air Force guy deployed to this location on the lower part of Iraq. I won’t disclosed the name but it’s kinda like NATO cuz they had Italian military that’s it and US of course. There were lots of muscular American civilian security all around. There is a holy site right outside the gate. And you have to go to the rec ctr to make a reservation to see it. That’s when I discovered the gh at the men’s bathroom lol. I went one of the toilet and saw the hole . I almost died laughing . It has a sign , come between 9 pm and- midnight to get serviced. I was who tf did this. It’s not a big base so you kinda remember a few hot military guys if they go to the gym, get their laundry or shop at the px. I got curious so I went the following night and hid on the other stalls. Put an “out of service sign “ cuz no one cleans that bathroom omg ! lol if they do prolly once a week !

I hear footsteps so I put my feet up so no one sees me. The giver is posted and just waiting . lol! He has certain brand of shoe that I can recognize if I see him. I heard second footsteps. I can’t see who it is cuz I’m all the way to the left stall . I heard door closed. And some sucking motions and moaning! lol. I was nervous and excited at the same time that I started jerking off while squatted and trying not to make some noise. He came few mins later and left. I would say about 20 mins later the 2nd guy came . I can see the top of his head cuz he was tall af! Blond hair for sure. Same thing but this time the stalls were rocking like he was fucking him. And they’re both moaning so he must be getting fucked. lol. I was so hard I wanted to cum but I’m like in difficult position lol so I didn’t . I edged and edged . The last guy took about an hour to come in. Nothing special but he tried to open my door I was so scared. Good thing he realized it’s out of service or I would have been busted. Omg! As soon as the receiver left I was so tired so I left through the emergency exit. It’s safe cuz there was no light outside . I scoped it the day before my exit route ! lol! I was trying to see who the shoes belong too but first few weeks I can’t so I gave up! But when I went to pick up my laundry, there was a cute army guy in pt gear who had the same brand of shoes . I never asked or talk to him but every time I see him, I waved at him . He was prolly confused at. lol !