Kaboom

AI Overview

Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian tech giant Yandex's data centers have coincided with a sharp, measurable drop in automated network traffic, leading to claims—and public debate—about a reduction in pro-Kremlin social media bots. 

Key Effects and Claims

• Cloudflare Traffic Drops: Internet-monitoring data from Cloudflare Radar showed a massive decline in automated HTTP requests and bot traffic tied to Yandex networks, plunging by roughly 94% to over 99% from recent peak levels following strikes on facilities in Sasovo, Kaluga, and Vladimir. 

Zelenskyy's Statements: 

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated during the Warsaw Security Forum that social media platforms felt "easier to breathe" on, noting a noticeable decrease in hostility, discord, and automated pro-Kremlin provocation. He attributed the shift directly to the disruption of the infrastructure behind the bots. 

Tech Expert Skepticism:

• Cybersecurity analysts and researchers have urged caution, pointing out that the dropped Cloudflare metrics measure all automated traffic—including legitimate search-engine crawlers and general cloud tools—rather than directly proving that state-sponsored social media bot farms were permanently disabled. 

Wider Digital Outages:

• The physical damage to Yandex infrastructure caused broad offline disruptions across Russia, affecting various digital services, cloud computing, banking apps, and media websites alongside the changes in network traffic. 

It's hard for me to gauge the actual effect - if any. There are sources arguing against the assertion that the bots got taken out, and there are some saying it was almost a wipeout.

Did Ukrainian strikes on Yandex data centres cause Russian bot activity to plummet?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said social media had become less hostile following Kyiv's strikes on Russian technology giant Yandex's data centres, as web users report plummeting bot activity.

Ukrainian strikes on Russian technology giant Yandex's data centres have been followed by a dramatic decline in automated online activity, raising questions about whether the attacks may also have disrupted Moscow's influence operations abroad.

The sudden drop fuelled speculation in Europe and the United States about just how much of the political debate on social media might have been driven by Russian bots.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy weighed in on Monday, saying social media platforms had become noticeably less hostile.

"When we started responding to Russia's operation against our data centres and when our strikes reached Yandex data centres, it suddenly became a little easier to breathe on many social media platforms," Zelenskyy said addressing the Warsaw Security Forum.

"A lot of people, a lot of people noticed it, and there was less hate, less division and fewer provocations because there were fewer bots."

"And it's pretty clear where those bots were coming from," he added.

"If they disappeared when Yandex went offline, this proves again and again that Europe is not the source of the problems."

"Europe is not the one making everything more difficult," he said.

Three data centres targeted

Three data centres operated by Yandex, often described as Russia's equivalent of Google, were hit by Ukrainian drone strikes over the past few days.

The facilities were located in Sasovo, in the Ryazan region, the Kaluga region, south-west of Moscow and the Vladimir region, east of the Russian capital, where the latest strike was reported on Sunday.

The attacks damaged the company's infrastructure and disrupted services. Yandex confirmed that operations at its Vladimir facility had been suspended following a drone strike.

"Following a drone attack, the infrastructure of the Vladimir data centre was damaged," the company said in a statement published on Telegram.

"Operations at the data centre have been completely suspended. The remaining infrastructure resources are unstable and the platform is down."

According to an analysis of Cloudflare Radar data, automated traffic originating from Yandex's network fell by approximately 94% on Sunday compared with its average levels in the second half of September.

However, the figures also include legitimate automated traffic, such as search-engine crawlers, and do not establish whether Kremlin-linked social media bots were affected.

Political repercussions across Europe and the US

In Germany, claims of a sharp decline in online activity surrounding the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) circulated widely following the attacks, although no independently verified figures have emerged.

Czech MEP Tomáš Zdechovský questioned the apparent coincidence between the disruption and the reported decline in activity around the party.

"If confirmed, this is telling: Russian data centres get hit, and online activity around AfD suddenly plummets," he wrote on X.

Similar claims emerged in Britain, where online activity associated with Reform UK was also reported to have declined following the attacks.

In the United States, social media users reported fewer apparently automated pro-conservative responses on X, the platform owned by Elon Musk.

The speculation has attracted attention from prominent political figures and commentators, including Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist and supporter of Donald Trump, Russian opposition figure and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, and Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Russia.

The debate comes just weeks before the US congressional midterm elections in early November, amid longstanding concerns about foreign interference and the influence of automated accounts on political discourse.

Trump's War

AI Summary

According to AP News, the United States military is deploying roughly 9,000 additional troops and a third aircraft carrier to the Middle East amid rising tensions.

U.S. officials stated that the new deployments aim to bolster regional security and provide strategic flexibility as the conflict with Iran evolves.

📊 Deployment Overview
• Additional Personnel: Roughly 9,000 to 10,000 sailors and Marines.
• Total Naval Strength: Over 20,000 sailors and Marines in the area.
• Overall Presence: Approximately 50,000 total U.S. troops stationed across the Middle East.

🚢 Key Naval Assets
• USS Theodore Roosevelt: Aircraft carrier strike group deployed from San Francisco.
• USS Makin Island: Amphibious readiness group carrying the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
• Other Carriers: The USS George Washington and USS George H.W. Bush are also operating in the region.

⚠️ Strategic Context
• Warnings: President Donald Trump warned that new strikes against Iran remain an option following the upcoming U.S. midterm elections.
• Strait of Hormuz: Confrontations and energy route security remain central to the military buildup.

Third aircraft carrier and thousands of troops head to Mideast as Trump weighs new Iran strikes

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military is dispatching roughly 9,000 troops aboard a group of ships to the Middle East, a U.S. official said Thursday. The bolstering of the American military presence comes as President Donald Trump warned anew that new strikes against Iran could be on the horizon.

The troop movement, which includes a third aircraft carrier, underscores the rapidly evolving dynamic of Trump’s war against Iran as he ponders his next move, with midterm elections in the United States looming large and new signs that the nature of the conflict may be becoming more complex.

Trump has threatened that a post-midterm election escalation — despite his initial promises to Americans of a campaign that would last a matter of weeks — remains a viable option. Further complicating matters, Trump told reporters Thursday that early indications suggest that Iran is linked to the FlyDubai co-pilot who stabbed his captain and tried to crash an Israel-bound flight on Wednesday.

In an exchange with reporters at the White House, Trump raised the connection when asked by a reporter if there were any links between the pilot behind the attack and Tehran.

“I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is ‘yes,’ but we’re working on it right now,” Trump said, without offering details.

Trump added that if the link to Iran is established, the United States would retaliate. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed in a Fox News interview earlier Thursday that investigators believe the FlyDubai suspect underwent “Islamist, radical indoctrination” but did not provide further details.

“Oh, they’ll be hit very hard, don’t worry,” Trump said. “You just ask them. They know what happened. They’ll be hit very hard.”

Thousands of US sailors and Marines head to the Middle East
Meanwhile, the group of ships now en route to the Middle East together carry over 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines.

It includes the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which recently deployed with the cruiser USS Chosin, and the USS Makin Island amphibious readiness group, which includes the USS John P. Murtha and USS Anchorage amphibious landing ships.

It could mean that three carriers are in the region as early as the end of October, according to the U.S. official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.

Given the personnel already in place in the Middle East, the move would bring the U.S. naval presence to an unusually high number of more than 20,000 sailors and Marines as well as hundreds of aircraft. The Navy previously had three carrier strike groups in the Middle East in April for the first time since 2003.

The carriers USS George H.W. Bush and the USS George Washington are in the region now, along with the USS Boxer amphibious readiness group. The Washington is typically deployed to the Pacific Ocean, but it was moved to the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln, whose arduous deployment resulted in the crew being at sea for more than 260 days straight.

Trump explains why he rejected Iran’s latest truce proposal

Trump, in a Time magazine interview published Thursday, also raised the prospects of new strikes, saying it is “possible” that he will ramp up bombing in Iran after the Nov. 3 elections in the United States.

When pressed, Trump said he could not go into further detail about his strategy.

“I can’t tell you that because look, you know, you’re asking, where are you going to bomb?” Trump said.

He said in the interview, conducted Monday, that he rejected the latest ceasefire proposal from Iran because “things that I wouldn’t have approved a year ago I wouldn’t have today.”

Trump cited as an example an offer from Iran to “open up” the Strait of Hormuz, the key energy shipping corridor, but said the overall proposal was “not good enough.”

The war shows signs of getting more complicated

Asked if the increasingly unpopular war would threaten Republican Party chances in November, Trump at first responded, “It’s possible.” But then he added, “It should help, because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”

The president said “100% of the people” oppose Iran having nuclear attack capabilities “including worldwide.”

“So, when you say it that way, it would help,” Trump added. “If you don’t say that, it could hurt.”

Yet, there’s also growing concern that Tehran might be turning to asymmetrical tactics following the FlyDubai attack and another suspicious incident in the U.K.

Authorities believe that Iran might be looking to shift strategy just as the U.S. finds greater success in loosening Iran’s grip over the Strait of Hormuz and getting Gulf allies’ oil to market, while a Navy blockade is shutting down Iran’s own oil exports.

British authorities announced on Thursday the arrest of a dual U.K.-Iranian national on suspicion of plotting a terror attack following a security incident at a U.S.-run military air base in England that British authorities have linked to Tehran.

The arrest of the 27-year-old man in Central London came after U.K. authorities arrested five men, all British nationals in their 20s and from London, in the early hours of Sunday on suspicion of explosives and terror offenses close to the RAF Fairford air base

The base has been used by American bombers to strike Iran. The suspects have since been released on bail.

Keith

The Chinese helped Iran kill Americans on the ground in the Middle East.

Maybe Keith is overstating it when he says we're at war with China, but Trump's War of the Stoopid could be quietly widening - it sure as hell ain't exactly cooling down.

And this whole fucked up thing is proving one of the big assertions from the 90s. ie: Free trade keeps the peace.

We'll have to figure out how to keep the imperialists and mercantilists from using it as just another weapon in just a different kind of war, but if you have more goods flowing, you're going to have a lot fewer people shooting at each other.

War may be OK for the handful of companies that supply the bullets, beans and band aids, but war is definitely not good for the vast majority of people caught up in it, whether they're directly in the line of fire or simply trying to muddle through in an economy being crippled by it, just because a few stupid politicians either can't figure out how to stop it, or they're too busy looking for ways to profit from it.

So fuckin' sick of this stoopid fuckin' timeline.

Iran

I remember when the old analog gas pumps had to be re-jiggered to accommodate prices nobody thought would ever occur.

There are stories coming out now that the signs used by gas stations to advertise their prices have reached their max as the price goes over $10 a gallon in California.

This is bad, and it's gonna get worse.

Iran Update

I get the feeling Trump is bored with it, and he's leaving it all up to his underlings so he can just blow it off, thinking that gives him some kind of plausible deniability as he skates away. Of course, he'll blame Hegseth or the generals or Barbra Streisand, or whatever the fuck.

The problem Hegseth's got now is that he's losing what little support he had. He's firing everybody with the brains and the guts they have to have to serve at those upper levels, so whoever's left will likely just pull the levers they're told to pull and the greatest military force in the history of the galaxy will just fizzle out with a resounding pffft.

And the bigger problem is that nobody can get thru to either Hegseth or Trump that this war is a waste of time, energy, money, material, and people. Continuing it is a perfect example of the Sunk Cost Fallacy.

The Lincoln In Thailand

5,000 sailors and Marines on shore leave for the first time in 9 months - in a place known for being kinda wild and crazy.

Like a spicy blend of Spring Break, meth, booze, and resentment.

What could possibly go wrong.

USS Abraham Lincoln docks in Thailand after 9 months at sea

The crew will get a chance to “rest and recharge” in the beach destination of Pattaya, after reports of deteriorating conditions aboard the aircraft carrier.

PATTAYA, Thailand — The USS Abraham Lincoln has arrived in Thailand, where its crew of thousands disembarked after a 286-day deployment at sea that prompted concerns over mental health, food shortages and sewage problems.

The aircraft carrier, which spent most of its nine-month deployment in the Middle East supporting the U.S. war with Iran, docked in Laem Chabang. Some 5,000 sailors and Marines are expected to bus into nearby Pattaya, a popular beach destination known for its nightlife.

Troops aboard the Lincoln reportedly faced shortages of fresh food, plumbing mishaps and frustration over the open-ended nature of their deployment.

“Our arrival in Laem Chabang provides a well-deserved opportunity for our Sailors and Marines to rest and recharge,” Rear Adm. Robert E. Loughran said in a statement.

The Thai government has said troops won’t be allowed to enter the infamous Soi 6 red-light district — but they will be granted access to the raucous Walking Street. Navy personnel have also been told they are not allowed to buy marijuana, which is legal for medical use only in Thailand but in practice is widely accessible.

Locals are hoping for an economic influx. A burger shop near the main strip was draped in American flags, while security was beefed up at the Hard Rock Hotel, where some troops are expected to stay. The hotel held a welcoming ceremony upon their arrival Wednesday. Thai police provided backup to the hotel’s usual security.

The War

Trump fucked it up - surprise surprise - and now he needs to shove it all down the memory hole.

Funny how the people who lost their shit over 13 dead Americans when we left Afghanistan are now actively ignoring 18 dead Americans because Trump was looking for a quick dopamine hit by killing thousands of Persians.

And BTW, he's never going to regret any of it - IMO, he gets off on it.

The USS Lincoln Problem

Boots are for feet - not to eat.

He Understands Nothing

It's not illegal to "leak" false information. You can't prosecute somebody for lying to the press poodles.

But Trump, as usual, is hellbent on punishing the truth-tellers.

Trump vows jail for ‘treasonous leakers’ over missile shortage report in latest Truth Social rant

President rages that any insiders who spoke to the press will be ‘hunted down’ and face ‘long term jail sentences’ after White House denies confrontation with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over weaponry used against Iran

President Donald Trump has reacted angrily to reporting that he confronted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over a alleged munitions shortage caused by the Iran war, threatening the “leakers” who spoke to the press with jail.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Trump had accosted Hegseth at Camp David in Maryland after a Cabinet meeting last Friday, saying he thought the problem “had been fixed,” only for the White House to call the story “100 percent fake news.”

Trump in turn lashed out on Truth Social after midnight, writing: “The U.S. has massive amounts of ‘munitions,’ especially of certain types. Additionally, large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed.

“Defense companies are building the largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history. The ‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. Long term jail sentences will be sought!”

The Post cited as the basis for its reporting two people familiar with the matter, who said Hegseth had answered the president by blaming his deputy, Stephen Feinberg, for the shortages and for not making sure Trump was fully informed.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded by telling the newspaper that the incident in question “literally never happened” and added that Trump “has the utmost confidence in Secretary Hegseth.”

Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell also denied the story, telling the Post: “Secretary Hegseth did not mislead anyone about our munitions posture, and he did not blame Deputy Secretary Feinberg. These claims about depleted stockpiles, internal disagreements… are equally fictional.”

The Independent reached out to the White House, and was referred to Leavitt’s statement, and also to the Department of Defense for comment.

Hegseth had publicly praised Trump at Camp David for having the “courage to undertake Epic Fury and this Iranian regime and ensure they never have a nuclear weapon… and, frankly, the courage to negotiate with people that have shown no willingness to do so honestly.”

With the conflict now approaching its sixth month, the U.S. Army has reportedly significantly depleted its stockpile of long-range missiles, raising concerns about the military’s readiness for potential future engagements.

Sources told Reuters this week that “virtually all” of the Army’s crucial surface-to-surface weapons – the Army Tactical Missile Systems and Precision Strike Missiles – have now been utilised.

Analysts say such weapons, which cost over $1 million each, would be important should any conflict with China erupt.

A report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies released in late July similarly found that while the military had 2,330 Patriot systems and 452 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems before the war, it now has only an estimated 759 to 827 Patriots and 234 to 278 THAADs left.

Hegseth himself has previously sought to stamp out alleged leakers from the Pentagon, moving last year to make mandatory non-disclosure agreements and lie detector tests a requirement for staff.

However, 15 current and former officials subsequently told CNN the result had been the creation of a culture of distrust and paranoia that left staff uneasy and impaired decision-making.

Trump’s jail threat against the leakers meanwhile follows a similar warning he issued last month against the “vandals” and “sleazebags” he continues to insist sabotaged the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, who he said would “pay a big price for the damage done.”

The Department of Justice has since backed away from prosecuting four people accused of tearing up the pool, infuriating the president still further.

Round And Round We Go

SAUDI JOINS STRIKES ON IRAN
MISSILES LAUNCHED AT US BASES
PENTAGON WEAPONS DEPLETED
OIL PRICES SPIKE

Trump Rages He Will 'Beat The Fucking Shit Out of' Iran After Surprise Attack

Markets Brace for One of Most Uncertain Fed Days in Years

RED CROSS: BLOOD SUPPLY REACHES CRISIS LEVELS

Limits distribution to hospitals

The Trump administration says they need billions more for weapons, but knowing what we know about how Trump and his stooges lie about everything all day every day, what are we supposed to believe?

Why the fuck do we let this shit go on?

US weapons stockpiles continue to dwindle with permanent end to Iran war nowhere in sight

The US military’s weapons stockpiles, including its inventory of crucial air defense missiles, remain severely depleted following a major flare up of the war with Iran in recent weeks, according to three sources familiar with recent Pentagon data and a new report by outside analysts.

A substantive settlement to end the conflict remains elusive, and the shortage of the missiles could impact the US’ ability to engage on other fronts.

In a Monday report, researchers from the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank estimated that fewer than 827 Patriot interceptors remain in US stockpiles, and fewer than 278 THAAD ballistic missile interceptors are left. The three sources familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to discuss the US stockpile, told CNN that the CSIS estimates were close to internal government figures.

The figures represent a significant depletion of the pre-war stockpile, which CSIS estimated numbered around 2,200 Patriots (of the platform’s two most-modernized variants) and 452 THAAD missiles. The systems are the US military’s primary means of taking down incoming enemy ballistic missiles, and each interceptor missile costs millions of dollars.

“Diminished stockpiles may force the United States and its coalition partners to take more risks with interceptions. There are no good alternatives to Patriot and THAAD for ballistic missile defense. Navy ships, with Standard Missiles that can intercept such threats, generally are too far away,” the authors of the CSIS report wrote.

President Donald Trump expressed his desire to replenish “the more sophisticated stuff” when asked about munitions stockpiles aboard Air Force One on Monday, but the president held that the inventories are “in very good shape.” And Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators last week that without the additional funding it’s asking for, the Pentagon will “not get the munitions” it needs.

CNN previously reported that Caine cited the dwindling munitions stockpile in a Friday meeting with Trump during which the commander-in-chief was weighing a major escalation in the war. Trump, whom Caine and others briefed on additional downsides to ramping up the conflict, announced a pause in strikes against Iran after the meeting. But that pause may have been short-lived. On Tuesday US and Saudi forces conducted joint strikes on Iranian proxies in Iraq, and after the US military announced it intercepted a “surprise attack” by Iran on US forces in the Middle East.

The report’s lead author, CSIS defense analyst and retired Marine Corps Col. Mark Cancian, told CNN earlier this month that continued fighting with Iran could deplete stockpiles so low that it could impact the US military’s ability to fight with China or even North Korea.

NBC News reported that US commanders, motivated by a desire not to waste their interceptor missiles, are opting not to shoot down Iranian projectiles that are on track to hit unpopulated areas of US bases in the region. The reported tactic signifies a change from prior air and missile defense practices in the region, where a US-manned Patriot detachment defended a mostly evacuated Al-Udeid Air Base, Qatar, against a wave of Iranian ballistic missiles in June 2025.

The Defense Department has accelerated its efforts to expand interceptor missile production in recent months, including two deals inked this week to boost Patriot and THAAD rocket motor manufacturing, but a spokesperson declined to answer questions about when the expansion will lead to results.

Analysts say it could take years to fully replenish the US stockpile of high-end munitions, like Patriot missiles, due to the lead time for producing those weapons.

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, in a July 28 statement identical to two sent to CNN on the topic since April, said the military “is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the President’s choosing. We have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the U.S. military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our people and our interests.”

Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have largely blamed former President Joe Biden’s administration for the munitions shortages. But the issue has been exacerbated by the war with Iran, during which CSIS assesses the US military has fired more than 60% of its key Patriot and THAAD interceptors.

The pending request from the Pentagon for supplemental defense funding includes several provisions related to the stockpile. Hegseth argued to Senate appropriators in a hearing on the supplemental funding ask last week that the Biden administration “took munitions one-for-one and sent them to Ukraine and had tried to replace them with the same bureaucratic process that was too slow and didn’t replace them in real time.”

But lawmakers of both parties have argued that the shortfalls are bigger than any one administration and require bipartisan support to resolve.

“The shortfalls in munitions have been well known to this committee for some time,” said Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in last Tuesday’s appropriations hearing. “While these munitions shortfalls have been years in the making, they are growing increasingly urgent.”

Capt Mestyanek

Gardens Of Stone - the dialog (at about 35:50) between James Caan, James Earl Jones, and a gung ho DB Sweeney. Sweeney is arguing in favor of volunteering for Vietnam, saying the VC have nothing but bows and arrows. "How do you beat a helicopter with bows and arrows?"

James Caan rebuts with, "How're you gonna beat an enemy who's willing to fight helicopters with bows and arrows?"

If just 3½% of a population simply stand up and say no, even the most hardass regime will fall.

Dead Americans

"Temporary data disruption" --President BF Stolenvalor

Belle

Because Trump is a REMF, and fuckin' loser.

A Triple TACO

1. Toll booth
2. E Jean Carroll gets paid
3. ICE suspends vehicle stops

Ukraine & Russia v Putin

First it was the Wagner Group, now it's a less concentrated, but more widespread threat to mutiny.

The First Casualty Of War

What we've spent on the operations being conducted against Iran is separate from the damage Iran has rained down on "the best, most unbeatable gosh darned military ever."

And that cost is estimated to be anywhere between $200B to well over a trillion if we factor in the broader economic damage.

Oh yeah - almost forgot - Trump has told us again that it's over and we've won - which makes it somewhere between 12 and 40 times now.

And also too: US Casualties are minimum 16 dead and 543 wounded.

How Iran Devastated an American Naval Base—and Caused a U.S. Recalculation

Satellite imagery reveals for the first time the extent of what Iran destroyed at Naval Support Activity Bahrain

When the Iranian missiles and drones came for the nerve center of America’s naval operations in the Middle East, some of them hit their mark.

The U.S. Navy base in Bahrain was repeatedly targeted between late February and June. Strikes that got through caused extensive damage, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of satellite imagery, social-media footage and interviews with current and former servicemembers—damage that the Pentagon hasn’t publicly acknowledged. Hit hard were the command headquarters and at least a dozen other buildings, along with two satellite communications terminals.

The military said no one was killed at the base, known as Naval Support Activity Bahrain, and that the strikes didn’t significantly impact operations. The U.S. evacuated most personnel but has kept a small staff on the ground.

Over the course of the war, “Centcom rightfully prioritized the protection of people over buildings, and our strategy of protecting people worked. Iran shot more than 8,000 missiles and drones and only two hits resulted in U.S. fatalities,” said Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East. Hawkins also said the U.S. military inflicted far more damage to Iran than it received, with the U.S. striking more than 13,500 targets.

The extensive damage done to America’s sole naval base in the Middle East—along with hits to at least 20 U.S. sites across the region, including military installations and diplomatic facilities—has the U.S. re-evaluating its entire footprint in the region, according to U.S. officials familiar with the deliberations.

Damaged sites include warehouses, a water tank, two satellite communications terminals and a communications management facility, and the headquarters building for the U.S. Navy in the Middle East.

The military is now considering revamping the base in Bahrain, reducing the U.S. presence in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and moving some bases or base functions west, farther from the reach of Iranian missiles and drones, according to the officials familiar with the deliberations.

Structures that were attacked may not be rebuilt. Command and control nodes could be moved underground. And military capabilities could become more spread out across the region, the officials said, though they cautioned that no decisions had been made.

Israel is one of the locations being considered for basing, according to two of the officials. The country hosted dozens of U.S. aircraft, including jet fighters and refueling planes, during the war.

The U.S. government pressed commercial satellite imagery providers in April to restrict access to images showing destruction at American bases as well as the broader conflict zone, making it difficult to see the full scope of the damage. Officials said the move would help protect U.S. forces.

Pentagon officials have frustrated lawmakers by declining to discuss the cost of the U.S. damage with Congress. In response to a request for comment, the Pentagon pointed to remarks made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Capitol Hill.

Pressed for an estimate at a May congressional hearing, Hegseth replied: “What is the cost of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon?”

Pentagon comptroller Jay Hurst told Congress last month that the department’s estimated cost of the war, then at $29 billion, didn’t include damage to U.S. bases.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated in a report published Tuesday that the total cost of the war was about $40 billion. That estimate included their calculus of $2.2 billion to $5.1 billion in damage to U.S. bases, based on structures that CSIS identified as damaged.

The Journal used satellite images and social-media footage to identify which buildings on the Bahrain base were damaged. To estimate what it would cost to construct buildings of the same types today, the Journal reviewed a publicly available Defense Department cost model as well as procurement reports. The estimates only cover construction, and don’t include other costs that ​could factor into the total if the buildings were to be rebuilt, such as debris removal and reinforcement. ​

The estimated construction costs at NSA Bahrain totaled about $400 million.

What Iran hit at NSA Bahrain

Less than 150 miles from Iran’s southern coast, NSA Bahrain has been the anchor of American naval power in the Middle East for more than three decades. The base can host every type of ship in the U.S. fleet, and has played a critical role in countering Iranian weapon smuggling, minelaying and tanker attacks.

The base is divided into three sections: a waterfront area focused on ship operations; next to it, the main base, home to administrative and command buildings; and a Navy-leased warehouse and annex complex. Iran hit all three.

Iran damaged part of the headquarters for the Navy's Fifth Fleet, which covers the Middle East. The building is no longer usable, according to a U.S. official.

About 300 feet northwest, the Naval Security Forces training building was destroyed. The NSF provides security for the base and routinely conducts emergency preparedness drills.

Less than a quarter-mile east, the base’s emergency management warehouse, which houses ambulances, sustained damage.

In the waterfront area, a potable water tank and adjacent warehouse were damaged.

Less than 300 feet southeast, the main dining hall and a barracks that can house roughly 450 personnel sustained damage.

On the far side of the base lies an annex the Navy leases from a Bahraini company called the Banz Group. Three sections of a warehouse group in that area took some of the heaviest damage.

Task Force 59, the Navy’s first drone and artificial intelligence unit, historically housed drones in one bay of the complex. Established in 2021, Task Force 59 has been charged with using unmanned drones and AI systems to monitor key Middle East waterways.

In the full accounting of damages, building construction may be the smaller part of the cost, depending on what was inside, said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser at CSIS who co-wrote the think tank’s costs report.

Two AN/GSC-52B satellite communications terminals were destroyed in the opening hours of Iran’s retaliatory strikes, along with a communications management facility. The terminals, which enable near real-time military communication, cost about $20 million each, according to CSIS.

Throughout the base, the damages “exposed weakness and vulnerabilities across the board,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, co-chair of the National Commission on the Future of the Navy, a bipartisan panel created by Congress, and co-author of an April analysis by the American Enterprise Institute on damage to U.S. bases.

NSA Bahrain was built long before Iran possessed the arsenal of precision missiles and drones it has today, and the war revealed its vulnerabilities.

“We’ve been there for more than 50 years, and the base grew up the way the base grew up,” said retired Vice Adm. John “Fozzie” Miller, who commanded U.S. naval forces in the Middle East. “I think there are some things we would do differently.”

As the only U.S. posting in the Middle East where families could live, the base functioned like a small American city, with a softball field, restaurants, a naval exchange and a school. Sailors who spent weeks at sea would pull into Bahrain and head to the base to decompress.

“When I was there last time, they were having a dance party,” said Cancian, who was based at NSA Bahrain twice.

Now, retired Navy Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, who commanded U.S. naval forces in the Middle East, said he expects the U.S. to keep a presence in Bahrain, which is considered a strong ally. “We keep a Fifth Fleet headquarters there, and the question is probably not does that go away, but what does it look like when this is over?” he said.

This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with the King of Bahrain and other leaders in the Middle East to reaffirm the U.S.’s commitment to their security.

“We stand united on regional stability, a free and open Strait of Hormuz, and preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” Rubio said on social media. “Iran’s attacks on Bahrain were unacceptable, and the United States stands with the people and government of Bahrain.”

Rubio also stopped in the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait but skipped Saudi Arabia, which restricted U.S. base and airspace access during the war, deepening a rift that has accelerated Washington’s reassessment of its posture there. Gulf partners have welcomed the ceasefire but remain anxious about Iran’s long-term threat and the durability of American commitments.

Before the war, some military officials warned that bases in the Gulf were exposed. A proposal to move installations farther west was floated in Trump’s first term but never acted on.

“We defended our installations admirably, but the munitions that got through hit infrastructure required for us to conduct operations,” said Dr. Ravi Chaudhary, a former assistant secretary of the Air Force. “This is the byproduct of 10 years of Iran adapting its strike technologies for greater range and accuracy.”

The decisions the U.S. makes now—what to reconstruct, what to abandon, how far to pull back—will define its presence in the Middle East for a generation.

The War Comes Home To Moscow

What If

... we had leadership like this again?

Eisenhower jotted this down some time shortly after the first waves had either started across the English Channel, or disembarked into the landing craft, a mile or so off the coast of Normandy.

The fact that he put the wrong date at the end of the thing is believed to be a hint at how worried he was - anxious about possibly sending 150,000 troops into a death trap.

Can you imagine Donald Trump even thinking such thoughts? Taking full responsibility for something as enormous as the invasion of Europe? And writing it down?

Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold, and I have withdrawn the troops.

My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available.

The troops, the air, and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.

More War & Higher Prices

As per usual, Trump struts around calling himself a hero for "stopping the war in the Congo", while he's busily ramping up the US military to fight it.

- and in the meantime, our anti-war POTUS is making everybody's lives worse with his stupid fucking "ideas" on trade, economics, and foreign policy -

Today's Belle

You fight a war in order to change the landscape - to make things more conducive to furthering your policy objectives.

Trump has handed Iran the perfect means to raise their stature on the world stage, prove their potential to exert influence, and show us all that as long as we're dependent on the largesse of the Dirty Fuels Cartel, we will never be free from the grip of whoever chooses to be the biggest asshole.

We've been watching Iran beat Trump like a rug at spring cleaning, and his biggest failure may be that he's got a fair bunch of people in the world thinking that Iran has somehow become the good guys.

NO MATTER WHAT,

NOTHING'S GOING TO

MAKE ME FORGET

ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES.