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.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      4 days ago

      Sorry, best I can do is 2 trillion more for Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and the like. They’re desperate man, they haven’t had a war for like 12 minutes, they need to be fed.

      • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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        Zomg, Boeing planes being flown above enemy territory as surprise kamikazes (surprise to the pilots & crew).

      • kautau@lemmy.world
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        Not to worry, it’s made in china, shipped from china, and then people in detention centers will be forced by ICE to package it for that bonus fascism feel for those that believe it’s made in the US and and they’re getting a deal on the T-Mobile package that costs almost 2x other providers for the same service.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      And human rights. Due process. Rule of law and respect the constitution. Less inflation. More progress on our environment. Rebuild some infrastructure. Invest in some technologies of the future rather than the past. Leadership that understands basic economics and actually the art of the deal

      • Corn@lemmy.ml
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        The media told them Hillary is the most qualified candidate in history only Biden can beat Trump, because he appeals to moderates, where things like free healthcare and not locking immigrants in cages only appeals to far left loonies.

        The average American wants these things, its just we cant risk the Republicans winning so we have to run on the republican platform from 4 years ago.

        • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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          None of which are socialist.

          They are all systematically weaved out of the closed, private two-party system.

      • kayky@thelemmy.club
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        This is the truth.

        Americans have shown where their priorities lie, time and time again.

  • Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world
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    God I hate Republicans.

    Trump is absolute garbage on every single scale and stat, but it’s the republican voters who got us here. Fuck every republican voter.

    • kingofras@lemmy.world
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      Hate is not going to get you anywhere.

      Yes some of them voted for him but a bunch of them didn’t.

      Stop being defeatist… inform yourself… look at the numbers. Look at the evidence. Get active.

      If you’ve wondered why everything looks like a coup since he got in, perhaps it is because it is one.

      https://lemmy.world/post/31401705

      https://youtu.be/AaKFx5rxdmA

      https://smartelections.us/

      https://electiontruthalliance.org/

      Edit: the upvote/downvote ratio on a comment like this shows how rapidly Lemmy is turning into Reddit. Nobody cares about the data, if you remotely sound like defending the GOP down the chute you go.

      It’s your loss America. I’ll sleep fine as long as we don’t have electronic voting systems here.

      • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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        It’s not that we don’t agree with you, it’s that your kinda acting like a dick. Change your tone and you might get a better reception.

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
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          And leading with “hate is not going to get you anywhere” and following it with more blame instead of action.

          Find your local mutual aid group. Volunteer. Protest. Get involved.

          • Victor@lemmy.world
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            following it with more blame instead of action.

            I don’t see blame anywhere?

        • Victor@lemmy.world
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          [you’re] kinda acting like a dick

          I really don’t see it. I see only advice trying to help them get a healthier point of view. 🤷‍♂️

          Change your tone and you might get a better reception.

          This has literally the same vibe.

      • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
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        Edit: the upvote/downvote ratio on a comment like this shows how rapidly Lemmy is turning into Reddit. Nobody cares about the data, if you remotely sound like defending the GOP down the chute you go.

        Many people just aren’t serious enough to take actions that are material beneficial. We want leftist ideas, but no one wants to form a party or vote for one.

    • gdog05@lemmy.world
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      I can’t believe he’d just… Lie to us like we’re a court, Congress or himself or something.

    • flandish@lemmy.world
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      There has never been a decade in the entire history of the US in which it has not been at war. Come to think of it, there are probably like 10 years total, over 250, where there was not direct military action. I think. Have not recently checked the spreadsheet I keep.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      Trump wants to try for an illegal third term and he thinks that being in the middle of a war will help his chances. “Don’t change horses mid-stream” or whatever bullshit.

    • known_unknown@lemmy.world
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      Slowing weapons production??? While there are still citizens to vaporize to manufacture consent for yet more war???

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    I didn’t call it, but there’s nothing quite like a war to distract the population from rampant decline at home.

    This one is weird though, Iran is allied with Russia. Israel is allied with the US. Historically, this made sense.

    But Trump and Putin playing war together would benefit both of them. It allows Putin to pull out of Ukraine because “Iran provided us much help and they need us now.” And it allows Russia to maintain the war economy. It benefits Trump because he wants to play war.

    Neither leader would have any actual skin in the game, it’s just people’s lives that would never contribute in another meaningful way to their power.

    I don’t like this. This is feeling more 1984 than 1984.

    Edit: I like this even worse after I read the specifics of the KC-135R and KC-46A. Each can carry about 200,000 lbs of additional fuel. A single F-15E can hold 13,000 lbs internally. 30 KC-135Rs can refuel an entire F-15E 460 times. Israel has 7 KC-130H (60,000lbs) and 7 Boeing 707s (which is what the KC-135 was based on). This isn’t just escalation, this is staging for invasion.

    • Tillman@lemmy.world
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      The nice thing about Americans going to war is that it reduces the amount of dodge owners drag racing late at night. Silver linings.

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        yea its a distraction from all the protests, its really making him look bad, but he has the msms focusing on this instead, plus he was using the parade and the shootings as another distraction as well. right now the news practically ignoring the protests. using the. BANNER strategy, flood the MSM with so much crap its hard to focus on one thing. its also known as the firehood of falsehood which is a Russian strategy for propaganda.

    • 13igTyme@lemmy.world
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      Before COVID, 2020 started off with Trump drone striking a foreign diplomat and nearly starting WW3.

    • l_isqof@lemmy.world
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      Both Putin and Trump are approaching dead-ends in their current campaigns. This ICE stuff can’t end well for him with so many people out last weekend, and Putin is well stuck in Ukraine, as you say. Whilst they may not be personally interested in the future of Iran and them having nukes by itself, they may need this to save their skin, actually.

    • Rozaŭtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      Neither leader would have any actual skin in the game, it’s just people’s lives that would never contribute in another meaningful way to their power.

      Cold War 2: now with more stupid!

    • Jack_Burton@lemmy.ca
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      Ukraine could throw a wrench in their plans by simply not accepting whatever Putin offers. He’s then left with “stay out of it and stay in Ukraine” or “join Trump and risk Ukraine flanking into Russian territory”

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    I’d just like to take this opportunity to say “fuck you” to all the service people flying these planes, planning the logistics, and otherwise operating at the behest of our sadistic federal government. Sure, the civilian leadership is ultimately at fault here, but y’all are humans with agency. I’m no longer carving out culpability from these goddamn people anymore. Fuck you terrorists. If we escalate yet another war, I’ll plan to spit on you when you arrive back broken and dead. Bring on the downvotes.

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      It’s been decades that our military has been nothing but an imperialist boot. There is no moral ground to stand on in signing up. Work fast food.

      • SelfHigh5@lemmy.world
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        But fast food won’t guarantee housing or healthcare. Military recruitment preys on those with nowhere else to go.

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        Decades implies that it once (in USAs history) wasn’t so, which is false. The rest of it if very true tho.

    • chunes@lemmy.world
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      How hard is it to just not kill others?

      Apparently really fucking hard for some.

    • AlecSadler@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      Instead of “thank you for your service” I guess we’ll have to start saying, “fuck you for your service”

    • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
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      I was thinking the same about the national guard deployed to LA.

      I was hoping to find at least one article that focuses more on that part, but until then: what you said.

      We - everywhere - need to talk about soldiers as people, not “the military”.

    • kayky@thelemmy.club
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      The nuremberg defense didn’t work for the nazis, why should it work for zionists?

  • eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz
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    Anyone else get the feeling WW3 has already started but we just haven’t realised it yet?

    • Match!!@pawb.social
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      Imagine starting WW3 the weekend after 3% of your population came out to protest for other reasons. Your war weariness debuff will hit 100% in one turn.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      It’s not a world war if it’s not from the Austrian region of Germany, otherwise it’s just sparkling aggression.

      • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
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        Austrian region of Germany? I presume with that level of geography you must be American.

        • AgentRocket@feddit.org
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          I think it’s a joke abaut how closely related the countries were, when they started the first 2 WWs (and maybe Hitler being Austrian)

        • Corn@lemmy.ml
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          Austria had already been annexed by Germany when WWII started

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            Also Hitler was Austrian. Also Austrians are Bavarian.

            Coincidentally, the current German minister of the interior is Bavarian and facing multiple criminal complaints regarding inciting subordinates to commit crimes.

    • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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      Yeah, like which of the recent events will be in future textbooks as the trigger for WWIII, and how will it all lead back to WWI (like WWII is basically a direct consequence of conditions of pre-WWI and major events related to the war & post-war treaties - WWIII in this config is a consequence of WWI/WWII & the forced hegemony/colonialism of USA that followed).

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        WW2 happened like 25 years after WW1.

        It’s already been over 80 years since the start of WW2, so I’m not sure you can really assume that they’ll be that related.

    • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      Yeah. It feels that way. What defines a world war anyway? Is it just when “most” countries become engaged in a major conflict?

      • hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
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        Both world wars look like “clear lines” to you after the fact. Of course you can just point at, say, Ferdinand getting assassinated and go “yeah that’s what started WW I” but do you think anyone at that time thought “yup that’s going to start the mother of all wars”?

        As others have pointed out they absolutely didn’t look like clear lines when they were kicking off.

      • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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        They have been.

        Months after assassination of Ferdinand the actual fighting began, and most projected it would be just anther war (common at the time in Europe, tho less common each century). People living through it knew nothing about it upfront.

        We wildly think of WWII beginning with the invasion of Poland, but it took months for everyone (England included) to realise it wasn’t a war between two countries.

        Not to mention how WWI & WWII are basically the same war in two seemingly inevitable parts.

        And we have had a ton of proxy and/or cold wars between Russia & USA since WWII ended.

    • Gsus4@mander.xyz
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      But only against countries that pose no threat to them i.e. they are chickenhawks. At least Biden could do the bare minimum to help Ukraine.

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        They are jingoists, and jingoists are no different than schoolyard bullies who want to appear tough so they loudly proclaim how tough and big they are, which includes an occasional show of force against those they believe won’t/can’t defend themselves to reinforce their image of being the biggest Tough Guy™ around.

        If they win, they win. If they lose, it’s because they decided it wasn’t worth their time and left willingly, not because they lost.

        This country has always been stuck up its own ass.

    • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
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      You’d be surprised. There are quite a few on lemmy that still do the both sides are the same. Oddly trying to do anything to form a new progressive is also something they don’t seem interested in either.

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        Biden ran on getting back into the deal with Iran, then insisted that Iran must completely return to fulfilling their side of the deal before we would consider returning to ours.

        Both sides are not the same but Biden shouldn’t be let off the hook for his sudden flip on this issue.

        • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
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          Its one thing to be unhappy with the democrats. Its another (and self defeating) to not want to expand the progressive wing inside of it (or to form a new party and go for local elections) and to not stall alt right republicans everywhere else.

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            Absolutely, I just don’t think it actually helps Democrats in the long run to pave over their often deep flaws. If we were harder on Democrats 30 years ago, we probably wouldn’t have Trump today.

            • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              Nobody is paving over anything, you just cannot help yourself but shit on them theoretical shit that Biden didn’t even fucking do yet.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          Both sides are the same because Biden said something that suggested he might be hard on Iran (definitely couldn’t be a negotiating tactic)?

          Yes I know how you ended your comment, I was replying to the rest of it.

        • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
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          Oddly trying to do anything to form a new progressive is also something they don’t seem interested in either.

          Its okay to not like liberals, but that part of my original comment is important.

            • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
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              Same, but

              A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.

              We still need to get the ball rolling. The institutions and networks we need will take a lot of time to build. I know a lot of our fellow lefties don’t want to interact with anything government, but doing so with the goals of harm reduction gives us space to lay the roots and set up the next generation for success. If we are serious about things we need follow ups for our protests and making the best efforts we can in our sub-ideal situations.

              • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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                I would rather build a real, actual house for people than a system of oppression built on violence.

                And before you say “habitat for humanity Jimmy Carter “ it’s the same catty bureaucracy I’ve found everywhere.

                • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
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                  I would rather build a real, actual house for people than a system of oppression built on violence.

                  And that does not happen overnight, if you don’t follow up protests, and some voting.

    • BingoBongoBang@lemmy.world
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      Dude, USA is the country that is involved in most wars - starts them / finances them / whatever. And they usually find a dummy excuse to preserve their facade of doing good.

      Face the truth - you are the bully of the world and the ruling party does not matter.

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        Was I ever in denial that the USA likes to play bully and world police? Let’s not forget our history about the rest of the Western nations, they’re hardly angels themselves. We’re all the same people anyways. Actually that reminds me of a good ole George Carlin quote, “We come from that northern European, basically the northern European genes, the blue eyes. Those blue eyes. Boy everybody in the world learned real quick, didn’t they? When those blue eyes sail out of the north, you better nail everything down motherfucker.”

        • BingoBongoBang@lemmy.world
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          Agreed. I wanted just to emphasize that the party does not make much of a difference in regards to wars.

  • kayky@thelemmy.club
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    Time to waste hundreds of billions defending israel while our infrastructure crumbles and our citizens still go without healthcare.

    Again.

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    This is basic dictator playbook, problems in domestic politics, start a war and problems change to foreign policy.

    Putin has done this multiple times now, and Trump is following up.

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      This is why I say Canada, Greenland, and Mexico are not safe. Added to the fact that all 3 countries have lots of resources the US needs.

      • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        Wouldn’t this cause catastrophic domestic problems though. I think the US would tear itself apart trying to go to war with either of those three. Greenland perhaps less-so but still incredibly distasteful.

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    The silver lining is that this will accelerate the decline of the US Empire which in turn will weaken Israel. Although this will be too late for the millions who have been or are still to be killed because of these psychopathic regimes.

    • Doorbook@lemmy.world
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      Israel is a project, literary run by people not their in the first place, so even if US Empire collapse they will move their money to the next dominant power.

      • Mrkawfee@lemmy.world
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        I don’t think China gives a shit about Zionism. There’s no natural pool of evangelical Christians to brainwash.

        China is self-sufficient and has advanced military tech that is at least equivalent to what the US has. Israel has nothing to offer it besides localised spying or murdering people.

        Russia is a possibility but it has always found common cause with the Arab nations and Iran so wouldnt be as reliable. It’s also not as powerful.

        The US is the only sugar daddy for this parasitic colony.

  • wax@feddit.nu
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    I wonder where we’d be today if Trump didn’t pull out of the nuclear agreement with Iran. Might not have made a difference, who knows.