CENTCOM

21WIRE + Antiwar.com | U.S. officials still doubling down on the 'success' stories of a failed pull-out mission in Afghanistan.

Antiwar.com | US military wants to maintain the ability to bomb Afghanistan by repositioning forces in neighboring countries.

Preparing for war against Iran in Syria. Effectively, US will have missile, air and military bases in the north-east, south-east (Al Tanf) and the south in Israel. Effectively, Syria will be surrounded on 3 sides by hostile state militaries with Turkey holding a malevolent position in the north. A weakened, divided and distracted Lebanon will not be much help.

Sending no warning to Russia or Turkey, the US bombed an array of targets within Idlib, Syria, killing numerous civilians and threatening the hard-earned truce across the province, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The air raid led to “multiple casualties and destruction” around two villages in the Idlib province, where a fragile ceasefire between government forces and militants is still in place, the Russian Reconciliation Center said on Sunday. The airstrike, carried out on Saturday, “endangered the truce” and “violated all previous arrangements.”

Recently dispatched B-52s and ships are an act of theatrical bravado that ignore the real threat.
Scott RITTER
National Security Advisor John Bolton’s announcement this week that the U.S. is deploying a carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region seemed perfectly framed to put America on a war footing with Iran. And it is.

The coalition launched thousands of airstrikes and tens of thousands of artillery strikes on the city. U.S. troops fired more artillery into Raqqa than anywhere since the Vietnam War.

F. William Engdahl explains how the ‘ghost’ of Zbigniew Brzezinski is shaping Washington’s geopolitics across Eurasia – Russia, China, Iran…all targets on the grand chessboard.
IMAGE: North Tehran by day. (Patrick Henningsen @21WIRE)
F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook

Increasingly, it appears that the recent U.S. coalition missile strikes on Syria have utterly backfired: instead of weakening Syria or degrading its military capabilities, the attack may have actually served to strengthen Syria’s defenses.

Think of it as the most momentous military planning on Earth right now.

The US has quietly stepped up secrecy over its air wars in Afghanistan and Yemen since President Donald Trump entered office.
The American Civil Liberties Union called the new practices – discovered by the Bureau through interviews with past and present US military officials – “deeply disturbing”.