Are we heading for a military draft? The Trump administration proposed adding an automatic draft registration into the upcoming Defense bill. This would mean that all American men between the ages of 18 and 26 would be automatically registered for the draft. It does not mean that they would be drafted. Yet. The Biden administration tried to do this in its 2024 Defense bill but that provision was removed before the bill was passed. The Trump administration is just picking up where Democrats left off because war is bipartisan. The uniparty is aligned on sending your (not their) sons to war. President Trump hinted at this in his recent post, “our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest.” Key phrase: Loading up. This isn’t just talk. The pieces are already falling into place. Automatic registration is already active in several states. Lawmakers are dressing this up as a cost saver by cutting outreach. Really? We’ve spent $42 billion on Israel’s war with Iran. Are we supposed to believe they’re concerned about spending money on marketing materials? I guess they’re desperate because on top of this, the U.S. Army just bumped the enlistment age from 34 to 42. You don’t expand eligibility, automate registration, and flood the headlines unless you’re getting ready for something. At least that’s how we see it. The post Signed Up by the System appeared first on Redacted.

Remember when people put Eiffel Tower overlays on their social media profiles after the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks that killed 12 people? Why don’t Israeli attacks on Lebanon garner that level of response? Maybe—just maybe—social media solidarity movements are not organic. Huh. Israel has pledged to continue the attacks, tepid condemnation or not. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said this to Israelis on Thursday, “We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force, and we will not stop until we restore your security.” The U.S. has also pledged to stay battle-ready. On Thursday, President Trump said that the U.S. military will stay ready for any “appropriate and necessary… lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded Enemy.” He said that if a “REAL AGREEMENT” is not reached, the battle will resume. Why the emphasis on REAL AGREEMENT? Because he is refuting the details that were publicized after Israel violated the agreement, namely, that Israel would withdraw from Lebanon and that Iran would proceed with nuclear enrichment. Vice President JD Vance was scheduled to go to Pakistan this weekend to work on that REAL AGREEMENT, alongside Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, but on Wednesday the President said that he may not send the Vice President over “safety” concerns. Iran has said many times that they do not want to re-open discussions with Witkoff and Kushner. Who could blame them? Every time they go to the negotiation table with those two feckless lackeys, they get bombed by the U.S. and Israel again. Sending those two knuckleheads, with or without the Vice President, shows a REAL lack of good faith but I guess that’s what we’re doing. The post Selective Outrage appeared first on Redacted.

Israel has named its attacks on Lebanon “Operation Eternal Darkness.” In other words: hell. Hundreds of civilians were killed after Israel dropped over 150 bombs in just 10 minutes on civilian areas in Lebanon. Israel says it will continue these attacks under the guise of targeting Hezbollah—similar to how civilians were killed in Gaza during operations against Hamas. This is a clear breach of the ceasefire that President Trump announced with Iran on Tuesday, and Iran is not willing to let it go. In a statement released Wednesday, it pointed to the ongoing assault on Lebanon, along with violations of Iranian airspace. Israel’s actions are completely out of bounds. It took less than a day to violate the ceasefire, and Netanyahu is openly saying, “Our finger is on the trigger.” The question is whether the U.S. has any will or power to make Israel stop attacking Lebanon, or Gaza, for that matter. The U.S. government allowed the utter destruction of Gaza with only cursory condemnations. Why would they take a different stance on Lebanon? Trump administration officials are now saying that Lebanon was never part of the ceasefire deal with Iran, which is simply not true. Is this finally getting hard to ignore? It’s starting to look that way. Many world leaders have condemned Operation Eternal Darkness. Qatar has expressed its disgust with Israel, releasing a statement today: “The State of Qatar condemns the series of heinous Israeli airstrikes that targeted wide areas in Lebanon and resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries.” And now Spain’s prime minister is urging the European Union to suspend its trade and diplomatic ties with Israel, with Turkey also stepping up, publicly rebuking Israel’s actions. The outrage is growing, but whether it leads to action is another story. The post Beirut Bombarded Despite Ceasefire appeared first on Redacted.

Not even 24 hours after the ceasefire with Iran was declared, the president’s tone has already shifted. Trump is once again turning to threats, this time of the economic variety. The President took to Truth Social to lay down his latest warning: “A Country supplying Military Weapons to Iran will be immediately tariffed, on any and all goods sold to the United States of America, 50%, effective immediately. There will be no exclusions or exemptions.” Can he do that? Recall that the Supreme Court ruled that he could not use the 1977 emergency law that the administration had been using to impose those levies at will. There is, technically, another lever Trump could try to pull: Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which allows tariffs of up to 50 percent. The problem? That law is meant to address discriminatory trade practices against U.S. goods, not weapons sales, so if the Trump administration tries it, it would be a legal stretch. The White House hasn’t responded when asked what legal authority, if any, the president plans to use to back up this latest threat. Whether he’ll be able to make good on it or not, announcing his intention to limit Iran’s defenses mid-ceasefire is an interesting way to reinforce a truce. The post Truce Undermined appeared first on Redacted.

On Tuesday, President Trump announced that talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir led him to agree to postpone his destructive plans for Iran for two weeks, conditional on the “Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the complete, immediate, and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz.” Trump also reported that “we have already met and exceeded all military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive agreement concerning longterm peace with Iran.” Do these “exceeded objectives” include the United States’ failed uranium extraction, the loss of multiple U.S. aircraft, and the inability to force Iran to reopen the Strait? Trump also noted that the U.S. received a 10-point peace plan from Iran, and that he believed it was a workable basis on which to negotiate. However, this plan was already circulating before Tuesday, so it is interesting that Trump is now endorsing it. Still, can the U.S. ensure that points one and three of the plan are carried out: “Guarantee that Iran will not be attacked again” and “End to Israeli strikes on Lebanon?” If Israel is not restrained, it is likely to continue those actions regardless. Frustration with Israel’s actions appears to be growing, along with a clear lack of trust—reflected in the decision not to inform it of the current ceasefire until the final moments before it was signed. In that context, multiple Trump advisers have told The New York Times, off the record, that they opposed Netanyahu’s push for war with Iran. It remains to be seen whether or not Washington will continue to go along with Israel’s hard sell over the next two weeks. For now, though, as far as Trump is concerned, it was, apparently, a big day for world peace. The post Two-Week Timeout appeared first on Redacted.