Brett Wilkins Jun 16, 2025

Flight-tracking websites showed dozens of Air Force aerial refueling planes departing from military bases in the United States and heading to Europe on Sunday, fueling speculation of direct U.S. involvement in the widening Israeli-Iranian war.

Military-focused news sites reported that around 30 U.S. Air Force KC-135R and KC-46A tankers were identified by flight-tracking software in what The Times of Israelcalled an “unprecedented mass deployment” to Europe.

  • @sudo@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    189 hours ago

    This would have to be the most unpopular war in US history and yet I think everyone Trump has surrounded himself with is telling him to do it.

    • @Doorbook@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      111 minutes ago

      It is clear that Israel want this war. And they clearly can’t do anything without the US and the UK at least. However, they commited insane genocidal attack in Gaza which might have been part of their plans to provoke a reaction that justify a war against Iran.

      When that didn’t work and Trump made a deal with the Houthis in Yemen without their knowledge and was close to a deal with Iran they pulled the plug and basically put the US government under a situation where the have to join their war sooner or later eventhough it is not a good time for the US to do it.

      lets imagine Trump administration just gone. Any other adminstration have a few options:

      • play a defensive rule, which cannot last for long as Iran have the means to a long term missile attacks, and Israel being small and there is a few main cities that can be targeted. Along with cost which will run their budgets down.
      • stop supporting Israel, which will make their allies nation to reach to China or Russia for guarantee protection and the US will lose its defense credibility.
      • forcing a ceasefire, which is impossible and Israel keep violating all their ceasefires. As they would like to the war to happen they will force it through escalation.

      Along with the fact that Israel own the Congress, the Senate, and the US administration based on how many officials visit Israel and publicly endorsed by AIPAC, there are literally no other option.

      The question now is how to make sure it is a popular war, it seems like they were trying to do it by the 6 day mark but couldn’t. The US government has two part, Zionist and MAGA supremacist, and the MAGA supremacist don’t want to be controlled by Jewish people and it feel as this is what stopping the US from joining now.

      Most likely, they came to the conclusion that they will have to stage a false flag attack on US bases or assets to make it easier for the public to accept this war. This has been publicly stated by AIPAC speakers through out the years before 9/11, where now it feels more like a false flag as Benjamin Netanyahu keep mentioning “New York will be next”.

    • @Naevermix@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      14 hours ago

      I think Trump is attempting to scare Iran into accepting his nuclear deal. The only problem with this tactic is that Iran might not believe him as they know how deeply unpopular the war would be.

    • @smayonak@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      87 hours ago

      This might sound insane but every single wartime president has gotten a huge boost to their approval ratings due to media networks circulating pure propaganda nonstop. Even NPR will start doing positive coverage.

      • @sudo@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        65 hours ago

        The consent manufacturing machine will rev up like it always does. There’s already attempts to get us on board with a the fantasy of a regime change. As though that won’t lead to another ISIS or Libya.

        But I really don’t think the average liberal boomer is going to fall in line behind Trump like they did Bush. And certainly not anyone younger. Dem leadership is probably already on board though.

        • @smayonak@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          25 hours ago

          I don’t know if he’s serious about regime change in iran. He seems to negotiate from a raft of threats and lies. Hopefully it’s all for show but if the war does go down my guess for approval ratings is over 60%. Not quite Bush I or ii numbers due to decline in news consumption.

          • @sudo@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            35 hours ago

            I doubt anyone in power is deluded enough to think they can actually reinstate the Shah or something. They probably just want to bomb every piece if infrastructure in Iran and not worry about them for a few decades.

            But regime change absolutely is the fantasy they are trying to sell liberals.

      • @Ledericas@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        37 hours ago

        the exception was covid, there was a huge downturn in recruitments, and they were getting worried. but military propaganda: top gun maverick helped boost numbers up. also the fact that they loosen some restrictions to join the military too. i was in a forum of people joining, during the obama years, and it was getting tougher to join. its mostly due to medical conditions that prevent people from joining.

        • @smayonak@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          1
          edit-2
          6 hours ago

          It was perceived that he was losing the war and lying to the public about the successes that they claimed to have achieved.

          But winning wars, even unjust ones, always gets the president brownie points in the eyes of the public and corporations