The Long March of Presidential Power That Led to War on Iran
Presidents have sidestepped Congress to launch limited military strikes for decades. Trump’s decision to attack Iran is an aggressive escalation.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/u...
Since 1991, Navy subs have launched scores of cruise missiles in combat, but the torpedo attack off Sri Lanka is a return to form after 80 years www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/u...
Breaking News: The U.S. conducted joint military operations with Ecuador against “designated terrorist organizations,” the Pentagon said. The U.S. Southern Command called it an effort to “combat the scourge of narco-terrorism,” but did not provide other details. nyti.ms/4cld7aV
CENTCOM acknowledges using PrSM missiles -- a short-range ballistic missile that would have been banned under the former INF Treaty -- against Iran x.com/centcom/stat...
Trump wants to destroy Iran's entire arsenal of ballistic missiles as well as their production facilities, both of which are largely underground. The job is even harder as the missiles can be disassembled, spread out and reassembled later www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/u...
This x ♾️
A large group of people, mostly men, standing in the rubble of a collapsed building. A headline reads: "Strike on Girls’ School Kills 115, Iranian State Media Says" Photo by Mehr News Agency
At least 115 people, most of them likely children, were killed in a strike on a girls’ elementary school in Iran on Saturday, health officials and state media said. It was not immediately clear which country hit the school. Our reporters are trying to confirm details of the attack. trib.al/HxXybV9
US military begins search for fallen POWs in wreckage of Subic Bay ‘hell ship’
Breaking News: Three U.S. troops were killed in action and five others were seriously hurt, the Pentagon said, announcing the first American deaths in President Trump’s war with Iran. Follow live updates.
SCIF = Some Closet in Florida
A military officer who hopes to attend a prestigious school said Pete Hegseth's cancellation of education at elite schools was deflating and may cause them to leave the service, BI's Kelsey Baker reports: www.businessinsider.com/pentagon-heg...
Texas people! The great Matt Gallagher and I are headed your way next weekend to run a free day of writing workshops!
Come join us on Saturday, March 7, courtesy of the Fairfield University MFA in Creative Writing.
www.fairfield.edu/news/press-r...
A West Point cadet was dismissed from the Army after he pleaded guilty to using artificial intelligence to create a fake nude photo of a woman and then threatening to publicly release the image if she did not provide him an actual nude photo of herself.
Read the full story:
...which we shed light on here: They were not only “advised” by CIA paramilitaries, but directly paid and formally controlled by them, even after they were ostensibly integrated into the Afghan NDS after a disastrous shootout between a CTPT and the Kandahar police in 2009.
Since 2022, Matthieu Aikins and I have been investigating the CIA’s Afghan surrogate commandos, known in Afg as the Zero Units but officially called the CTPTs by the CIA. These units’ existence has been publicly known since 2010, but their relationship with the CIA is still an official secret...
Trump, July 19: "All three nuclear sites in Iran were completely destroyed and/or OBLITERATED. It would take years to bring them back into service."
Witkoff, Sunday: "They're probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material."
“Rarely in modern times has the United States prepared to conduct a major act of war with so little explanation and so little public debate.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/u...
Breaking News: President Trump told reporters that he was considering a limited military strike on Iran to pressure it into a deal amid negotiations on its nuclear program.
You see this in Iraq, Afg, and every other civil war. Thanks to @pjmatt.bsky.social for pointing out the examples in “The Hardest Place” of the US military and CIA being unwittingly weaponized in timber business disputes (Korengal) and to settle old grudges from the 1980s jihad (Waygal):
This is what a large proportion of the violence in internal conflicts looks like: a state relying on regular people for intelligence, regular people weaponizing the state within their own communities, and security forces not knowing/caring what’s motivating the sources whose information they act on.
WATCHDOG REPORT: Giving U.S. military commanders clear, specific procedures to follow in the critical hours after service members unexpectedly go missing could improve the odds of saving their lives.
Our dataset, while only identifying a small fraction of the US weaponry that has been deployed in Gaza, provides new insight into a number of deadly strikes where US weapons likely killed civilians. Read the investigation by @easybakeovensz.bsky.social here: www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/01...
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its escort ships deployed to the Caribbean will be sent to the Middle East and are not expected to return to their home ports until late April or early May. The ship’s crew was informed of the decision on Thursday, U.S. officials said.
US military averaged just under one air strike per day in Somalia in the first month of 2026. The highest or second-highest monthly Somalia strike numbers ever, rivaled only by Dec 2025.
2025, the highest year for Somalia strikes yet, had 140+ strikes (10-15 most months).
“Authorities traced one of the .50-caliber guns used in the assault to a store in Texas. The owner, investigators found, had sold nearly 500 guns that ended up in the hands of the C.D.N., including a .50-caliber machine gun and at least six .50-caliber rifles.”
So uh Ring just up and said they've got a huge centralized private surveillance network they can leverage all at once huh
In praise of librarians
MK-84 2,000-pound bomb with a JDAM kit hitting a building in Gaza after an IDF notice.
Bellingcat recently asked the IDF about the lack of evacuation distances in public evacuation notices in Gaza, which are included in notices in Lebanon, so interesting to see a 100m distance in the notice here.
