Author: Will Porter

While Paris continues to flirt with the possibility of a troop deployment in Ukraine, recent reports that French Foreign Legion soldiers have already arrived on the battlefield may not be what they seem.

The claims appear to have originated with a Russian war blogger known as ‘Military Chronicle,’ who runs a popular Telegram channel and is active elsewhere on social media. In an April 12 post on VK, the channel alleged that the “first units of the French Foreign Legion” had been stationed in the city of Slavyansk, but cited no sources to support the assertion.

Continue reading “French Troops in Ukraine?”

The United States and a long list of Western allies have pledged additional arms shipments to bolster Ukraine’s war effort, including anti-aircraft missiles and tank-killing Javelins. Fierce clashes with Russian forces continue in cities from Kiev to Kharkiv, meanwhile, as local residents report civilian deaths and damage to infrastructure by Russian bombardment.

Awash in Weapons

While President Joe Biden had already greenlit $200 million in “lethal aid” to Kiev in December, another $350 million weapons package was approved last week, including Stinger antiaircraft missiles – shoulder-fired munitions with a range of around 2.5 miles – Javelin anti-tank systems, as well as small arms and ammunition.

The move marks the first time Washington has agreed to provide Stingers to Ukrainian forces, who could use them to down Russian helicopters, and follows pleas from Ukraine’s defense minister for additional anti-air weapons, suggesting they be shipped in through Poland.

Continue reading “Ukraine Warzone Flooded With Foreign Weapons as Fighting Rages On”

Beijing will not tolerate continued American intervention in Taiwan, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said after a group of US defense officials visited the island for a show of support. The trip came just days after another US warship transited the Taiwan Strait, a move China has repeatedly slammed as “provocative.”

The US delegation was led by a number of current and former security officials – among them the hawkish Obama-era Pentagon staffer Michele Flournoy and ex-Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mike Mullen – to show Washington’s “continued robust support for Taiwan,” according to a US official cited by Reuters.

Continue reading “US Will Pay ‘Heavy Price’ for Taiwan Meddling, China Warns”

In a modern era of global military empire, mass indiscriminate NSA data-grabbing, and unaccountable killer cops, an age-old issue vital to liberty is often overlooked or forgotten: that of conscription. On this Veterans’ Day, while most solemnly reflect on the valiant service of their fathers, uncles, and grandfathers in one of the many blood-soaked American military conflicts of the last century, let us not forget those given no choice in the matter.

In the United States, it’s only been about four short decades since the "draft" – i.e. total and outright government-mandated slavery – has been out of favor with the policy-crafting class. But for many decades in the US, and for thousands of years all around the world, politicians and war-makers have freely employed such slave labor, attained from any poor soul that was called upon to provide it.

Today, then, instead of spewing forth blind reverence and adoration for soldiers and veterans, let’s examine the institution of conscription, briefly review its history, and show its particular relevance to human liberty. The amount of suffering and loss that is attributable to conscription is likely incalculable, and, more importantly, its wane in popularity in the US may only be temporary in the face of the ongoing "perpetual war for perpetual peace".

Continue reading “Conscription, History, and Why It Matters”

In recent media appearances, ex-chief of the CIA’s bin Laden unit, Michael Scheuer, came out strongly against the latest American military campaign in Iraq. Echoing past criticisms, thoroughly voiced in his books Through Our Enemies Eyes, Marching Toward Hell, and Imperial Hubris, Scheuer offers a case against the new Iraq intervention based on his 20+ years of experience as a US intelligence officer, as well as an intimate and detailed knowledge of Islamic extremism.

In Scheuer’s view, another US military intervention in the Middle East against groups such as the Islamic State (IS) will not meet its stated objectives, and will fall into the same errors made in past operations of a similar character. Continuing this policy, he says, will only help to motivate and radicalize Muslims the world over, and will provide exactly the impetus IS needs to step up their drive to establish a long-sought Islamic caliphate in the Levant region.

From a 23 September article published to Scheuer’s home on the web, Non-Intervention.com:

And why should we have refused to re-intervene in Iraq?

Because IS is cutting the heads off Westerners to lure America into re-intervening. Why? Because U.S. military intervention in any Muslim country means more donations, recruits, and popular support for IS, al-Qaeda, and other like-minded organizations. US intervention in the Iraq-Syria theater will, over time, make everything it is designed to stop much worse.

For those familiar with Scheuer’s point of view, these comments aren’t out of the ordinary, yet they nonetheless provide a distinct contrast to the general view adopted today by the American public at large. In a recent poll, Americans in substantial majorities are shown to see Sunni insurgents like the Islamic State as an imminent threat to the US national interest, and are increasingly supportive of military action against them.

Continue reading “Former bin Laden Hunter Says Islamic State Needs US To Intervene”

Since the cataclysmic events that took place on the morning of September 11^th 2001, an extended series of consequences have unfolded with an alarming rapidity. Between vast escalations of military activity abroad, the passing of draconian laws, like the Patriot Act and the NDAA, the instituting of the Department of Homeland Security, and the ramping up of domestic spy programs through the NSA, 9/11 has served as a catalyst for a radical change in how America conducts itself both at home and around the world. In the weeks and months following the incident, the American people were bombarded with a veritable hurricane of bald-faced lies and assertions based on dubious "intelligence". Before they could begin to wrap their heads around the significance of the events taking place around them, their government had already set plans into motion to wage a decades-long military conflict in the Middle East, a conflict which rages at full force to this day. In fact, recent developments in Iraq regarding the Islamic State militant group, or ISIS, elevate the issue of the 2003 Iraq War to the highest importance.

Among the general populace, a widely-accepted narrative has developed which attempts to make sense of all that has happened since September 11^th. Very broadly, the narrative contends that Islamic extremists have declared war on the United States, and this alone serves to explain and justify the long string of wars that have been waged in the name of the global "War on Terrorism" ever since. What’s most surprising about the public narrative is that it offers almost no explanation at all of how or why Iraq was, directly or indirectly, implicated in the 2001 terror attacks on New York and DC. At best, the public storyline suggests only a vague connection between Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. Any substantial explanation of this tie, however, has seemingly fallen away into the ethereal memory hole of American historical conscience.

Continue reading “9/11 & Iraq Revisited: Remembering How We Were Lied Into War”