Tamarama comments

World leaders are being weak on this - too weak.

The US needs to be roundly condemned. It's unacceptable.

Nations should use stronger language to condemn the US for this - should ALL be condemning them.

This is a disgraceful act by a country that sees itself beyond the global checks and balances.

As does their ME dog.

U.S. forces struck Iran's three main nuclear sites, President Donald Trump said late on Saturday, and he warned Tehran it would face more devastating attacks if it does not agree to peace.

This is staggering. Simply staggering.

I cannot believe the US would do this. It's bad enough that Israel are at it, but the US as well.

Unhinged.

Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported on Saturday that President Donald Trump's government was demanding that its Asian allies, including Japan, spend 5% of GDP on defense.

You cannot be given a clearer picture of what the US really is, than this.

An industrial military complex that sews seeds of fear and doubt in it's 'allies' minds so they will buy the weapons and military hardware it makes. War, it is crystal clear, is excellent business for the US. Those that cannot see this are simply blind.

Japan should say no, in fact Japan should say no to spending 3% of GDP on defence, because Japan has the right to self determine what it will do. If the US doesn't like it, then it can pack up it's bases and go home. Or re-locate to Taiwan - maybe that's a better solution. That's will really get the Anti-China crowd's juices flowing, eh?

jbone

but you can make it with 90% enriched uranium and the process of going from 60% to 90% is very quick.

Yes, but they didn't enrich uranium to 90%, did they?

Jbone

What were they planning to do with that level of enriched uranium if not create a nuclear weapon?

News flash, tiger. You can't make a nuclear weapon with 60% enrichment.

And whilst I admit that it is not a good look unless it truly is for scientific purposes as they claim, it does not warrant full scale war by Israel. Not by a long shot. Particularly given that Israel have 80-90 nuclear weapon that they themselves developed outside of the Nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

You can't make up that kind of hypocrisy, can you.

Think back to the pretext used by the US to invade and capture Saddam Hussein - that he had developed 'weapons of mass destruction' and was the biggest threat to peace in the Middle East. The US invaded Iraq, overthrew his regime, he was ultimately executed and it all urned out to be completely false. A complete US fabrication.

In this case, Israel has unilaterally attacked Iran though clearly with US support and blessing with the 'belief that Iran are attempting to develop nuclear weapons' - but there is little to no hard evidence of that. Donald Trump is rather unbelievably considering joining the fight - so they have gone from apparently negotiating with Iran a few weeks ago to suddenly flipping the switch on war.

At least in this case, Iran are talking to Europe about a solution, to which Trump has responded:

"Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe, Iran wants to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help on this one," he says.

In the Israel/US alliance you have a Genocidal Zionist Madman in Netanyahu pulling the strings in Israel, and the least competent and stable US President in history making key decisions in the Middle East. It's a worst case scenario for the region, and for Iran.

Europe needs to step up, needs to be bigger in this issue to curd the US/Israel lunacy.

TaiWaniSnotchina

“Sailing in international waters can’t possibly be an act of aggression”

Unless it is done by China, apparently.

This is provocative by Japan. Didn’t the original incident quoted in the article occur in international waters and involve a Japanese surveillance plane flying close to the Chinese aircraft carriers? That’s also provocative.

This disappoints me, frankly. There’s no need for Japan to behave like this.

How is this guy a US President?

You cannot overstate the depravity and evil of this bait and kill program Israel are using on starving Palestinians. This is one of the worst crimes against humanity I have ever heard of - it’s the same kind of evil as capturing people, walking them into a concrete bunker and gassing them.

And the world just sits and says nothing.

Imagine the same scenario, in a different context. Imagine a psychopathic Canadian regime baiting hungry Americans across the border with Burgers and fries, and shelling them with tanks and drones.

Would the world sit quietly and say nothing?

isabelleJune 17  10:44 am JST

Mr KiplingToday 06:52 am JST

Panel? It is the US master who wants Japan to increase "defense" spending primarily on US manufactured weapons.

Ah, the "blame the US" card. The traditional, tired tactic of the pro-PRC/Russia crowd in their pathetic attempts at deflection.

He's exactly right though, it doesn't matter that you don't like the truth. It's just factually accurate.

The US strategy is not only to sell arms to Japan, but to embed Japan as a partner in weapons production - both of which primarily serve US Industrial interests.

Full stop.

The full responsibility for this lays with Israel, all but the most biased observers can see this.

Nobody expects Iran to sit on it's hands while Israel pounds it from the air.

Underworld

Non proliferation has been settled, hence the non-proliferation treaty. When it was ratified, nations who already had nukes were allowed to keep them, and no other nation was allowed to develop them.

Iran is a signatory to the NPT.

Unlike Israel, who didn't sign and have gone on to procure of develop 80-90 Nuclear weapons in the meantime. And, isn't subject to IAEA inspections as a result.

If I were Iran, or any other country in the Middle East, I'd be mighty worried about that.

Saddam Hussein must have have had a cold, chilling moment when the US came for him over his apparent 'weapons of mass destruction'. A moment where he fully understood the true nature of the power imbalance in the world.

Taiwanischina

So everybody gets nukes? How is that going to work out? Israel has the good sense to deny their nukes.

So, you're suggesting that only a privilege few can have nuclear weapons? How to you determine that? And why would any one particular group get to decide who can have what?

We don't have another country that supports terrorism to the same level as Iran.

That's not what I asked. Re-read the question.

It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu."

Exactly right. Israel is the US's rabid dog in the Middle East. Stop the US tax payer funding, and watch Netanyahu wet his pants.

NB

NBToday  06:46 am JST

The nuclear proliferation must be stopped.

Israel and the US has nukes. It's more than a little hypocritical of them to tell others they can't have them.

However, they will also distribute their nukes to their proxies, thus putting the whole world under a grave and unprecedented risk.

Abject, hyperbolic nonsense. Name one country in the world that 'distributes their nukes'? Just one.

TaiwanIsNotChinaToday  06:35 am JST

Just imagine how much this is costing the US in military readiness. And runs the risk of blowing up the oil market.

It's certainly costing you as a US tax payer.

How embarrassing.

41 people. 41.

I had an exchange yesterday with someone here who clearly has a limited handle on the history of this situation in Palestine/Israel, and part of his rationale for Israel attacking the Palestinians was that Hamas had a history firing rockets at Israel. Here was my response:

True, though the 'rockets' have generally been home made contraptions that may have killed an estimated 30-40 people since 1988.

Israel exceeded the casualties of 37 years of Hamas 'rocket' attacks in a single killing session yesterday. In the same time period, Israel killed around 14,000 Palestinians. That's not including the numbers since October 2023, which if you do include go up to around 50,000 people.

Then there's the annexation (read: stealing) of Palestinian territory - which is nearly 30,000 square kilometres of Palestinian territory since 1948, about 77.5% of historic Palestine.

Those who are in any doubt about how imbalanced the ledger actually is in this conflict are either wilfully ignorant, or unable to evaluate the situation objectively and critically.

The numbers don't lie.

gaijintraveller

Sorry, Israel, I do not feel sorry for you. Your aggression has led to retaliation. There is no doubt about who the aggressor is.

A lot of people feel this way now, rightfully so.

Even back in October 2023, these boards were quite full of people commenting about Palestinians getting what they deserved for Hamas' attack and being very pro-Israel, with little to no understanding of why it had happened at all. At this point, most of that appears to have evaporated.

To those who have a better grasp of the big picture, Israel has actually been visiting misery and oppression on the Palestinians since 1948. They have been given a kind of 'Hall-Pass' on that because of their history, which itself has been bad, and people recognise and understand that. But the truth is, Israel has taken that hall pass and completely abused it. They have killed, stolen from and abjectly mistreated the Palestinians for 77 years, and in the last couple, simply conducted a genocide against them. Israel has turned into a monster.

I also have no sympathy for them whatsoever at this point, and Iran has every right to strike back at them.

JBone

I might be worth you remembering that Israel's inability to peacefully manage it's place in Palestine and the Middle East is currently costing you personally. A portion of what you currently earn as a member of the US armed forces, or whatever you do, is taken from you and given directly to Israel.

You are paying for that. You are gifting them your money, because they cannot manage their situation responsibly as a respectful and considerate country in the Middle East. They can't build relationships, only destroy them. They can't negotiate mutually respectful and beneficial agreements and abide by them, they do the opposite.

You are paying for that incompetence.

Garlic Eater

In my haste, I forgot to mention the 'annexation' (stealing, in another man's terms) of nearly 30,000 square kilometres of Palestinian territory by Israel since 1948, which was remiss of me.

Israel has taken control of 77.5% of historic Palestine since 1948.

Make sure you include that in your narrative, because those are simple, historically accurate facts.

Garlic eaterToday  06:36 am JST

@GuruMick

Did you know Hamas are legitimately designated a terrorist organization.

Legitimately by only 35 countries of the 195 - all largely US allies.

Did you know they had been carrying out terrorist rocket attacks against Israeli cities for decades.

True, though the 'rockets' have generally been home made contraptions that may have killed an estimated 30-40 people since 1988. About the same number of starving Palestinians the Israeli's kill at controlled food distribution event at the moment.

And Israel took it on the chin until finally Hamas shot Israeli’s attending dance parties and took hostages, some of whom were beheaded on social media feeds?

If you think this is true, time to do some proper reading. Like real, objective, unbiased reading. Around 14,000 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the same time period.

LancetToday  06:20 am JST

Unprovoked aggression by a nuclear armed state against a non-nuclear state.

Iranian sovereignty violated in a clear breach of the UN Charter.

Civilians in Tehran targeted and killed.

Where is the outrage from Europe and the "international community" and "rules-based order"

Waiting for Europe to seize Israel's assets and impose sanctions on Tel Aviv.

Waiting....

Exactly. The silence is deafening, isn't it. Western Hypocrisy at it's worse.

By this measure, if the Arab states created a 'coalition of the willing' and bombed Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa etc into a similar state to Gaza over the next couple of years, it would only be fair and right for the rest of us just sat around twiddling our thumbs.

The BBC quotes Trump as saying the Israeli attacks on Iran are 'Excellent'.

Process that for a minute, think about it.

You have a completely unhinged, fully armed ultra nationalist Israeli regime, funded by the US tax payer and loudly and publicly backed by their equally unhinged President, attacking and striking several countries in their region, but now starting a full scale war with Iran and targeting nuclear facilities in the process.

Israel are not only internally genocidal, they are regionally minacious - the mad dog of the Middle East.

bass4funk

No, Israel is not trying to kill Muslims or any Muslim nation

You are right, they are succeeding in killing Palestinians wholesale, not merely trying.

Spot on mate.

A couple of Israeli quotes in the BBC for you. Just let this sink in, given what they have been subjecting the Palestinians to:

A journalist for Israel's Haaretz newspaper and a resident of Tel Aviv, Gideon Levy, has just spoken to the BBC about Iran's missile attacks on the city earlier this evening.

In an interview for Newshour, Levy, who had been seeking refuge in a public shelter in the city, says: "We heard quite loud the explosions. Not a very pleasant feeling.''

And,

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said that Iran crossed "red lines" on Friday when its missiles targeted civilian areas in response to Israel's recent wave of attacks.

"Iran has crossed red lines by daring to fire missiles at civilian population centres in Israel," he said in a statement.

Wow on that one.

Not a sliver of irony either, it would seem.

Yet Israel's massive strikes on Iran will test that promise as never before, potentially setting up a showdown with his base as Trump decides how much support the United States will offer.

Since October 2023, US taxpayers have funded the Israeli military to the approximate tune of $22 Billion USD. That's just gift money, it's not intended to be paid back. That's a lot of support arleady.

When I get my domestic tax return at the end of the year, I get a little wheel graph breakdown of where my taxpayer dollars het spent. You know, Education, Health services, welfare etc.

Do the US taxpayers have a little slice of their pie that says: Military Aid for Israel? And given that Israel are currently committing genocide with those dollars, AND, trying their level best to start a major war that will require more of your tax dollars and possibly American lives, are you OK with that?

Is that what you pay tax on your hard earned for?

GuruMickToday  06:17 am JST

Israel hasn't been able to "remove the Hamas threat,', nor the "Hezbollah threat "

That's because Israel, and others more broadly fundamentally misunderstand what Hamas is, Mick. Hamas is the manifestation of a normal human reaction in the face of sustained and systematic oppression over decades, namely, resistance and a will for liberty.

History is full of cases where rebels are lauded as national heroes. Take for example, say, the American Revolutionary War, where American rebels (freedom fighters) fought against the oppression of British colonial rule. National heroes. Founding fathers of the modern US State.

And when you strip away the flags, colours, belief systems etc, exactly the same scenario in Palestine.

"We knew everything," Trump said of the Israeli attack plans.

"I tried to save Iran humiliation and death. I tried to save them very hard because I would have loved to have seen a deal worked out," Trump said. "They can still work out a deal, however, it’s not too late."

Earlier, Trump posted on Truth Social: "Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left."

Course they did - they even helped shoot down the incoming retaliatory missiles overnight.

This attack may tip the scales into a bigger war in the Middle East. How long are the other countries going to just sit by and let Israel kill Palestinians holus bolus, and attack other countries in the region at will (So far - Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq?). Us Taxpayer funded rogue state, right now.

Good, it's important that countries like Japan says this clearly.

As Mick says, now Japan needs to pressure for a 2 State solution - and the main party to pressure on this is Israel's primary patron, benefactor and funder - the American taxpayers.

Time for them to call the shots on how and what their hard earned dollars are getting in the ME.

NB

Killing the tiny Jewish nation would not solve the ilnesses of the world. The Jews defend themselves.

I didn't say kill, I said do damage - to infrastructure. I hope they destroy Israeli Nuclear facilities in return.

That would be magnificent.