As the war in the Middle East escalates and there is still pressure to help arm Ukraine, and the Pentagon and its allies are pushing for a military budget of $1 trillion a year or more to deal with the perceived threat from China, they could well break the bank,
The Israelis know that if Iran responds to an Israeli attack, the Iranians will have to weigh whether or not to hit the important THAAD batteries and radars to have an effective counter-response,
America has the resources. The question is not the availability of resources, but the willingness to deploy them, which is running out,
My hunch is that in the end, the United States will address this by leaning on Europe to foot more of the bill for Ukraine,
Interest on the debt is on track to be larger than the Pentagon budget by the end of this decade, and we have many, many unpredictable needs upcoming—disaster relief being just the most obvious,
The Biden administration has gone out of its way to avoid acknowledging the application of this law,
It’s important to note that there were legal standards during the entire course of this conflict, and the Biden administration has just not enforced them. It may be the situation is so dire in northern Gaza that the political calculations have changed, and that they may actually finally decide to implement US law. But it’s really long past the point at which they should have done so,
So far, the Biden administration has tried to characterise the fortification of existing deployments and authorisation of new deployments as fragmented or individual incidents. However, what emerges is a comprehensive and robust introduction of US forces into situations where involvement in hostilities is imminent without any congressional authorisation as required by the law,
I interpret it as being intended to try to win over Uncommitted [National Movement] voters and others in swing states who have made clear that they are opposed to this administration’s unconditional support for Israel,
Thus far, Congress has not required the administration to explain how exactly Iran firing on Israel undermines US security,
Rather than force de-escalation or act to rein in Israeli officials, President Biden is redoubling efforts to reassure Israeli leaders that he is in lockstep with them as they deliberately barrel towards regional war and escalate a genocidal campaign against Palestinians,
While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests,
I’m not gonna speak to that today,
A letter jointly signed by both the secretary of state and secretary of defence indicates a heightened level of concern, and the not-so-subtle threat here, whether the administration carries through with it or not, is that they will actually impose consequences under these various legal and policy standards,
So they may feel that whatever political constraints the administration may have felt it was operating under, they may feel less constrained by,
We may end up having American casualties, and to put soldiers in that type of vulnerable situation for something that is not the defense of the United States itself, I think, is a very serious step taken by the administration,
I think the administration may be thinking that by offering this, they can convince the Israelis not to go that far,
Israel's mantra has been, you know, with ‘Never Again,’ meaning we will defend ourselves by ourselves, obviously working with allies, but that we should be able to defend our country and not be dependent upon others,
It's inescapable to see it as anything else [than escalation], the United States is now actually sending troops. We did not do that in Ukraine,
Why are we keeping U.S. troops in harm’s way in Iraq and Syria with no clear mission or defensive strategy, while deploying critical defense systems like THAAD to Israel?"