Retired Army Special Forces officer Mike Nelson criticized Hegseth's rhetoric, stating, 'That's a necessary end to achieve goals through military force - you have to kill people to achieve them. That's not the end. It's a weird obsession with death for the sake of it.'
The economics are hard to ignore. Shooting down a drone with AeroVironment's LOCUST laser system costs less than $10, using just two to five seconds of laser energy. Compare that to the interceptor missiles currently used against Iranian drone swarms, which cost orders of magnitude more and are in short supply across allied arsenals.
"We have a great opportunity in our movements to learn how to be opponents without being enemies," says Tanuja Jagernauth. This perspective emphasizes the importance of maintaining respect and understanding even amidst conflict.
The conduct of War is, therefore, the formation and conduct of the fighting. If this fighting was a single act, there would be no necessity for any further subdivision, but the fight is composed of a greater or less number of single acts, complete in themselves, which we call combats, as we have shown in the first chapter of the first book, and which form new units.
It's my responsibility to protect them, and so I've been patrolling the city streets following armed, masked thugs trying to kidnap my neighbors. On July 10, Caravello was present at the site, and, according to witnesses, he was arrested directly after he attempted to dislodge a tear gas canister from underneath a protester's wheelchair.
This was not random violence. This was a planned attack motivated by extremist ideology and inspired by a violent foreign terrorist organization. With this, she promptly raised the profile of both the suspects, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, and of ISIS itself. It hardly seemed to matter that no evidence has surfaced that directly ties these men to the larger movement.
Four days into this situation in the skies over Tehran, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said, 'We're not at war right now.' This was, rather, a 'very specific, clear mission-an operation.' Operation does seem to be the preferred word in government talking points, even as it encompasses assassinating an ayatollah, torpedoing an Iranian naval ship, blowing up fuel depots and a desalination plant, and losing the lives of (so far) eight American service members along the way.
On the night of Saturday, March 6, Israeli forces struck three sets of oil depots ringing Tehran - west, east, and south - simultaneously. The explosions were massive. Nearby residential areas were destroyed. Millions of liters of gasoline, diesel, and petroleum derivatives ignited, sending columns of black smoke thousands of feet into the air.
Today every senator, every single one, will pick a side: Do you stand with the American people who are exhausted of forever wars in the Middle East? Or stand with Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth as they bumble us headfirst into another war?
The hacktivist threat in the Middle East is highly lopsided, with two groups, Keymous+ and DieNet, driving nearly 70% of all attack activity between February 28 and March 2. In all, a total of 149 hacktivist DDoS claims were recorded targeting 110 distinct organizations across 16 countries. The attacks were carried out by 12 different groups, including Keymous+, DieNet, and NoName057(16), which accounted for 74.6% of all activity.
The Houthis, a Zaydi Shiite Islamist rebel group, which the U.S. has designated as a foreign terrorist organization, are among Iran's most powerful and resilient allies. They are a key part of the so-called Axis of Resistance, an informal Iran-led military coalition in the Middle East. During his speech, al-Houthi suggested that the Houthis were ready to lend military support to Iran: 'We are fully prepared for any necessary developments,' he said.
Dare, or the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, was created in 1983 by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County school district. From the start, the program was a success. Its stated goal was "to equip elementary-school children with skills for resisting peer pressure to experiment with tobacco, drugs and alcohol." The initiative was embraced by police departments and politicians, and within just a few years the Dare curriculum had spread to more than three-quarters of the country's school districts.
Yet, at least one time, it was. This is a story I heard from Dave Hannaman, who worked at an Army human resources organization when I met with him many years ago. (Dave died in 2021.) Dave had been in the Army, including a stint as a "tunnel rat" in Vietnam. He was one of the brave soldiers who would go down into the tunnels the Viet Cong had constructed and booby-trapped. He was that kind of guy.
OPINION - The global terrorism landscape in 2026 - the 25 th anniversary year of the 9/11 terrorism attacks - is more uncertain, hybridized, and combustible than at any point since 9/11. Framing a sound U.S. counterterrorism strategy - especially in the second year of a Trump administration - will require more than isolated strikes against ISIS in Nigeria, punitive counterterrorism operations in Syria, or a tougher rhetorical posture.
Among the rebels who, on December 8, entered Damascus and put an end to almost 14 years of conflict and the Assad family regime one of the cruellest and longest-lasting in the Middle East was one who spoke Spanish with a slight Caribbean accent. Dr. Bachar Alkaderi, a graduate of the University of Medical Sciences of Havana, specializing in general and thoracic surgery, became, through the twists of fate and history, a revolutionary commander.
Entering the cyber world is stepping into a warzone. Cyber is considered a war zone, and what happens there is described as cyberwar. But it's not that simple. War is conducted by nations (political), not undertaken by criminals (financial). Both are increasing in this war zone we call cyber, but the political threat is growing fast. Cyberwar is a complex subject, and a formal definition is difficult.
The US is mounting its largest military buildup in the Middle East since 2003. Here's a list of the weapons and hardware that it's sent to the region as the Trump administration pressures Iran to strike a deal that would limit its nuclear and military capabilities.At least a dozen warships collectively worth an estimated $50 billion have been deployed to the region.
I lived in Argentina in the mid-1980s, just after the fall of the brutal military dictatorship that ruled from 1976 to 1983. The country was taking its first, shaky steps back toward democracy. It was a time of great hope, but also of grave uncertainty - because while the generals were gone, the political culture that enabled them remained. Like most of the nation, I was captivated by the pioneering trials of the military generals that promised to restore justice.
Lawmakers described routine death threats, armed protesters in galleries, and explicit fears for spouses and children. Several said the June 2025 assassination of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband fundamentally changed how they assess the risks of staying in office. Case in point: Connecticut State Rep. Corey Paris, 34, reported death threats and calls for violence against him and his family last year after he posted on social media encouraging people to share information on ICE activity.
Coercive cohesion is the cement of the system: The ability of parallel security and political institutions to keep acting together, even when legitimacy erodes. When that cohesion holds, the system absorbs shocks that would more conventional states would fall under. Iran is not a single pyramid with one man at the apex. It is a heterarchical, networked state: Overlapping hubs of power around the Supreme Leader's office, the Revolutionary Guards, intelligence organs, clerical gatekeepers, and a patronage economy.
The strike is a response to the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota. In the days since, calls for a nationwide shutdown have spread rapidly across social media, shared by activists, nonprofits, and everyday people urging a halt to economic activity. Celebrities including Pedro Pascal, Edward Norton, and Jamie Lee Curtis have amplified the message to their followers.
Democratic strategist Michael Hardaway told MS NOW that President Donald Trump absolutely wants to see anti-ICE protesters fighting pro-ICE protesters in the streets because it will give him a reason to invoke the Insurrection Act. The former advisor to President Barack Obama and the ex-communications director for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) shared his opinion on Alex Witt Reports on Saturday.