Posts Tagged ‘Diego Garcia’

Iran Strikes: Day 25

Tuesday, March 24th, 2026

The Iran war continues, with attacks on energy grids and refineries across the Persian Gulf, (maybe) another bunker buster strike, serious regime confusion, countries reporting impending shortages, and part of the 82nd Airborne moving into the theater.

  • ZeroHedge has piece up that starts with a nice state-of-play summary.
    • WSJ, Fox reporting 3,000 elite Army [82nd] Airborne soldiers to be ordered to Middle East. Axios says US awaits Iran response to proposed Thursday peace talks.
    • Backchannel diplomacy vs skepticism: Abbas Araghchi reportedly signaled openness to negotiations with the US via envoy Steve Witkoff, but Israel has appeared cool on deal prospects or offramp.
    • Heavy exchange of fire and testing red lines: Iran continues missile and drone waves targeting Israel and US bases, amid reports of overnight airstrikes on military and gas infrastructure near Isfahan.
    • Iran reshuffles its security leadership, appointing Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr: he’s a former IRGC commander and replaces the assassinated Ali Larijani.
    • Iran halts natural gas exports to Turkey: follows last week’s Israeli strike on the massive South Pars gas field; QatarEnergy declares force majeure on some LNG contracts due war.
  • “The Israeli Air Force recently struck an Iranian nuclear research and development site in Tehran, the military announces. According to the Israeli army, the “strategic” site at the Malek Ashtar University was used by Iran’s military industries to develop components for nuclear weapons. Malek Ashtar University, subordinate to Iran’s defense ministry, is under Western sanctions over its activities relating to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.”
  • Gas infrastructure isn’t the only thing hit in Isfahan. Coalition forces also hit “a building belonging to the electronics industries of the Ministry of Defense and the “Isfahan nuclear complex, damaging command and control center,” and “the headquarters of the Basij and Revolutionary Guard intelligence in Najafabad, Isfahan.”
  • Iran tried to hit Diego Garcia with missiles, some 2,800 miles away, and failed. This suggests that Mark Felton may have been too optimistic when he said Iranian missiles couldn’t hit London.
  • This falls into the “Big if true” category: “Three heavy bombers of the U.S. Air Force are currently conducting heavy strikes on the underground missile base of the IRGC Aerospace Force in Yazd, central Iran (Al-Qadir missile base). A total of six bunker-buster bombs have been dropped on the site by either B-1B heavy bombers flown from RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom or B-2A Spirit stealth bombers flown directly from Whiteman AFB in the United States.” I haven’t seen enough of Babak Taghvaee’s work to gauge the accuracy of this. (The few bits of his I’ve read have seemed accurate.) It seems like the sort target we would hit, but not knowing which bomber hit these targets suggests a source lacking firsthand knowledge. If anyone has a better bead on Taghvaee’s accuracy, feel free to share it in the comments below.
  • Not just over the Strait: The Warthog is also engaging Iranian back militias in Iraq.

  • VDH on the state of the war:

    Victor Davis Hanson has spent fifty years studying how wars end. When he says the tide is turning, it’s worth listening to why.

    His argument isn’t based on what the Pentagon is saying. It’s based on how everyone else is behaving.

    𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀. VDH’s rule: Europeans never agree to go anywhere near a conflict unless they think the winning side has already been determined. They didn’t help in the early days. Now they’re starting to move. That movement is not idealism. It’s a calculation. They’ve looked at the battlefield and decided which way this ends.

    𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝘂𝗹𝗳 𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗼-𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. The Saudis, the Emiratis, the Qataris — these governments have survived for generations by reading the regional climate with precision. When they expel Iranian military attachés, when they intercept Iranian missiles over their own capitals and say nothing about American strikes, when the UAE reaffirms its $1.4 trillion investment commitment to the United States mid-war — they are not making ideological statements. They are placing bets. And they are betting on the United States.

    𝗔𝗹 𝗝𝗮𝘇𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗮. This is the one that should stop you cold. Al Jazeera — the Qatari state media network, historically critical of American military action, the network Tucker Carlson and the anti-war right love to cite against Israel — is now calling the U.S. bombing campaign brilliant and effective, and saying it has been underestimated. When the media outlet of a nation that hosts both the largest American air base in the Middle East and a Hamas political office starts praising American military effectiveness, the message is unmistakable: 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘯.

    𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹. A-10 Warthogs and Apache helicopter gunships are now flying strike missions in Iranian airspace at will. VDH’s point: you only deploy those aircraft when there is effectively no air defense left to threaten them. They are slow, low-flying, close-support platforms. Their presence confirms what the Pentagon has been claiming — Iran has no meaningful air defense remaining.

    Iran’s strategy now is rope-a-dope. Run out the clock. Wait for American public opinion to shift. Hope the midterms create political pressure on Trump to stop. It is the only play they have left.

    VDH’s conclusion: if Trump sees it through — and he believes he will — the regime falls. Not in years. 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝗼𝗻.

    (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)

  • Trump the Chaos Magician strikes again.

    Since President Trump revealed contacts with the Islamic Republic, we’re seeing something very telling inside Iran: chaos at the top.
    Regime officials are either turning on each other, pointing fingers, accusing one another of negotiating with the United States or in their own media and social platforms, they’re warning against character assassination of figures like Ghalibaf or Rouhani, because suspicion is spreading inside the regime itself.

    Some are even calling for arrests or worse. Others are publicly shaming officials, accusing them of secret talks.

    This is the atmosphere on the Islamic Republic’s side of social media. Total panic.

    (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • Jim Geraghty wonders “Why Are We Lifting Sanctions on Iranian Oil During a War with the Mullahs?” It’s a good question, though Trump seems to have a more intuitive grasp of alternating between carrots and sticks in negotiations than anyone I’ve ever seen. Also: “We have seen oil tankers carrying Russian oil divert from China to India in the aftermath of the Treasury Department’s lifting of sanctions on their cargo: ‘At least seven tankers carrying Russian oil have switched their destinations mid-voyage from China to India, according to Vortexa Ltd., with all of India’s major refiners now in the market for the country’s crude.'”
  • “Three explosions in Bushehr following attacks on the airbase and airport in Iran.” Bushehr is reasonably close to Kharg Island.
  • “Iran launches 10 million rial note.” Hyperinflation is rarely a sign of military strength. Also: The 5 million rial note was introduced “just weeks earlier.”
  • Lebanon expels Iran’s ambassador.
  • Reports of power outages in Kuwait.
  • The Guardian (usual caveats apply) is saying that “Hundreds of petrol stations across Australia run out of fuel,” but Australian Energy Minister Chris Bowen states “Australia’s fuel supply remains strong and there are no immediate plans to ration fuel,” though the article admits “localized shortages.”
  • In Japan, gasoline prices have evidently hit record highs and the government is tapping national reserves, but tankers from UAE and Saudi Arabia bypassing the Strait of Hormuz are on the way.”
  • “Taiwan has about 11 days of liquefied natural gas reserves—a limited buffer that has become critical after Iran disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off key supplies from Qatar. Because Taiwan relies heavily on LNG to power its grid and semiconductor industry, any prolonged disruption could force energy rationing and threaten chip production.”
  • “Philippine president declares ‘national energy emergency‘, citing risks to fuel supply created by Middle East war.”
  • “The Bahrain Defense Force announces the death of an Emirati soldier during the response to Iranian attacks.”
  • “Iran executes 19-year-old champion wrestler Saleh Mohammadi, two others in horrific public hangings.”

    • Once again, this is just what I’ve been able to gather over the last few days. Feel free to share anything I missed in the comments below.

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    Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad, Military | 8 Comments »

    “Starmer Is A Wanker!”

    Saturday, February 7th, 2026

    We touched on the deepening unpopularity of UK Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer in yesterday’s LinkSwarm, but Beege Welborn has a more in-depth and amusing look at a PM whose poll numbers are hitting record lows.

    It’s no secret what I think of this milquetoast cockroach.

    And the prime minister of England has been doing a pretty thorough job of making himself dispensable to the British public all on his own with his authoritarian carrying-ons, his embrace of foreign cultures and peoples over his own, onerous economic burdens, and his unfathomable drive to obliterate whatever respectable standing the United Kingdom still had in the world.

    Popularity of Amelia meme snipped.

    [There’s] a new theme song in the streets when Brits get together for a protest – one that they all know the words to.

    Numerous versions of this ditty can be found on YouTube.

    Keir Starmer’s fortunes were wobbling so badly that he cancelled twenty-seven local council elections scheduled for this May in an attempt to keep his Labour majority.

    OOPS

    Make that 29.

    He had to withdraw the deal to pay to give away the strategically essential Chagos Islands to the Chinese-cozy, rapacious Mauritians when the United States blew a gasket over being lied to about the ‘why,’ and invoked a 1966 treaty he and his toadies had overlooked.

    But it wasn’t until this week, when the avalanche of Epstein files dumped by our Department of Justice reached out and touched more than the formerly known as Prince Randy Andy that Starmer’s future suddenly looked bleak.

    Known as ‘The Prince of Darkness,’ Lord Peter Mandelson was an intimate of both Starmer’s and, as we now know, Jeffrey Epstein’s. There had been questions about the relationship between the two of them, especially with Mandelson’s position high atop the Labour pyramid, but he denied any close contact.

    Or so Starmer says now.

    Starmer, however, had always acted a bit impulsively around Mandelson. Like when he reportedly appointed him as the UK’s ambassador to the United States without anyone’s by-your-leave.

    Well, darn it, says Two Tier Keir now after the revelations.

    The “Two-Tier Keir” jib comes from his government favoring illegal aliens over native Brits.

    I messed up. I believed the scoundrel.

    Prime Minister Keir Starmer remains under pressure this evening over his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador in 2024 – despite his connections to the late financier Jeffery Epstein.

    Lib Dem leader Ed Davey and the Conservatives’ Kemi Badenoch have pushed for MPs to have votes of confidence in the PM, with Badenoch saying “it’s a question of when, not if he goes”.

    Reform leader Nigel Farage called it “the biggest scandal for 100 years”, and said Starmer’s apology was “weak”. Green Party leader Zack Polanski, meanwhile, told BBC’s Newsnight yesterday that it was “the right thing” for Starmer to step down.

    And there is also pressure inside Labour.

    Salford MP Rebecca Long-Bailey has called it a “catastrophic misjudgement” for the PM to appoint Mandelson, while Rachael Maskell told the BBC that it’s “inevitable” that Starmer has to step down.

    Mandelson was the frontman for massaging the Chagos deal.

    The Epstein files have revealed that Lord Mandelson was leaking sensitive government information to the disgraced and convicted millionaire paedophile, something Starmer was specifically quizzed about last September.

    “That enquiry led to a response on November 19 that no departmental record could be found of any information or communication from Lord Mandelson to Mr Epstein on these issues.”

    And the litany of lies, obfuscations, and prevarications from Starmer regarding Mandelson and his relationship with Epstein is astonishing.

    There were years of photographs and evidence, even without the absolutely damning refuse floating up from the DoJ release.

    Yet Starmer still forged ahead.

    …A Channel 4 Dispatches documentary on Epstein in 2019 revealed that Mandelson had phoned Epstein in prison trying to arrange a meeting with the boss of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon.

    Mandelson has been a Labour functionary at one level for decades, and yet his only idea to try and contact a prominent American businessman was to call up a convicted pedophile in prison? Doesn’t sound like the sort of man who should run a post office, much less an embassy.

    It was public knowledge that as well as staying in Epstein’s homes in New York and Paris, he had stayed on Little St James – Epstein’s private sanctuary that the press widely referred to as “paedo island” – and that he had flown on Epstein’s private jet, nicknamed the Lolita Express.

    I KNOW NUZZINK

    …No wonder, then, that Labour MPs are now fuming at Sir Keir’s suggestion that it was somehow the fault of the security services that he was blinded to Lord Mandelson’s dodgy past.

    Sir Keir announced in December 2024, before any Foreign Office vetting had been done, that Lord Mandelson was his choice to replace the highly capable Dame Karen Pierce as British ambassador to the US.

    The Prime Minister wanted George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor, to do the job, but was persuaded by his chief of staff – and Mandelson protégé – Morgan McSweeney that the man who had twice resigned from the Blair government over his ties to wealthy men was the right person for the job.

    McSweeney is Starmer’s chief of staff, and as head of Labour Together, also his front man against Trump and Twitter and Starmer’s efforts to silent dissenting media voices.

    Sir Keir had been given a two-page report on Mandelson by the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team, which carried out preliminary due diligence on all of the candidates for the ambassadorial role, and which amounted to a summary of publicly available information.

    Can Starmer survive? Possibly. All sorts of of politicians have brazened out scandals that were thought to be sure career-enders (Bill Clinton comes to mind). But Starmer seems historically unpopular:

    Sir Keir Starmer’s popularity has hit a grim low, new polling shows. Three-quarters of Britons now have an unfavourable opinion of the Prime Minister, according to YouGov’s tracker.

    This is up three points from last month, when 72% had a negative view of Sir Keir. Just 18% see him in a positive light, giving him a net score of -57. It marks his worst rating to date and equals his predecessor Rishi Sunak’s lowest point as prime minister.

    If Starmer falls, “Labour candidates to replace him as PM include Red Queen” Angela Rayner, Blairite Wes Streeting, retread Ed Miliband (face of their 2015 general election defeat and a NetZero fanatic), and Shabana Mahmood, who, despite her ethnic background, is evidently an immigration hardliner, so its questionable whether the Islamophilic Labour cadres would elect her. Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, another rumored candidate, isn’t currently in parliament.

    But expect many more chants of “Starmer is a wanker!” as long as said wanker continues to occupy No. 10 Downing Street.

    (Hat tip: Director Blue.)

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    Posted in Elections, Foreign Policy, Social Justice Warriors | 2 Comments »

    Iran: Uncle Sam’s Stick Gets Bigger

    Saturday, June 21st, 2025

    Here’s an update on our previous report of a buildup of U.S. military assets for a possible strike on Iran.

    We already knew that the USS Carl Vinson and USS Nimitz were in-route or on-station in the Middle East. Now the USS Gerald R. Ford, the most modern aircraft carrier in the fleet, is deploying to Europe, which means it could steam to the Eastern Mediterranean.

    Suchomimus has a video up about the U.S. moving still more assets to the region, including two more B-2s.

  • The number of B-2 bombers either at or in transit to Diego Garcia was previously four, but is now up to six.
  • “This satellite image shared today but dated June 19th shows 22 KC-135 Stratotankers, 55 F-16s and 10 C130 Hercules transporters at Prince Sultan Air Base in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.”

    • As previously noted, the B-2 can carry the 30,000 lb GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator. It’s generally thought that one will not be enough to penetrate the 80 meters of reinforced concrete protecting the Fordow nuclear centrifuge complex, but that two should should be able to do the job. Six, on carried by each B-2, should crack the complex wide open like a sledgehammer hitting a watermelon.

    Rest in peace, prop comic.

    Nah, actually it will be more like using a sledgehammer to drive a spike into someone’s skull.

    Rest in peace, Phineas Gage.

    This now concludes today’s selection of inappropriate metaphors.

    There’s still no guarantee that President Trump will order an attack, but America’s military has assembled the exact assets to rid the world of Iran’s nuclear weapons program once and for all.

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    Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad, Military, video | 2 Comments »