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FriedButter

FriedButter

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‘We are attacking Iran’ – Netanyahu​

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel is already carrying out direct attacks on Iran and is making every possible effort to prevent Tehran from attaining nuclear weapons.

Answering a reporter’s question in Tel Aviv on Thursday about why Israel is conducting attacks on Iran’s proxies rather than attacking the country directly, Netanyahu replied: “Who says we are not attacking Iran, we are attacking.”

Israel claims Iran was involved in plotting the October 7 attacks, when around 1,200 people were killed and scores taken hostage in the surprise Hamas raid near Gaza. Israel retaliated by launching an intense military bombardment of the Palestinian enclave, so far leaving about 24,000 dead, according to local health officials. The operation is aimed at wiping out the militant group, West Jerusalem says.

Israel has previously openly accused Iran of aiding Hamas “with money, training and weapons and technological know-how” and intelligence.

“Iran is standing behind it. We are in conflict with Iran. Imagine not what Iran can do to us, to destroy us,” Netanyahu said, claiming he will only agree to a deal that grants West Jerusalem security control over all of Gaza.

Iran has denied any role in the Hamas assault on Israel, with Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani saying such accusations were “based on political reasons.”

Netanyahu added that “Iran is the head of the octopus and you see its tentacles all around from the Houthis to Hezbollah to Hamas.”

Iran has widely been seen by Israel and the US and as the major destabilizing power in the Middle East, allegedly supplying weapons, military expertise, and training to Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The US has previously alleged that Iran is “deeply involved” in Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, claiming that it has provided the rebels with drones, missiles, and intelligence. Tehran has denied the allegation, insisting that “resistance groups” are acting independently and “not taking orders from Tehran to confront the war crimes and genocide committed by Israel.”

Israel rarely publicly admits to attacking Iran directly, but the Islamic Republic has long been a target of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his several terms in power.

In December former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett revealed that Israel had attacked an unmanned aerial vehicle base in Iran and assassinated a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander. Bennett, who was Israeli prime minister from June 2021 to June 2022, made the admission in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal.
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FriedButter

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(Baltic States) to build ‘concrete bunkers’ on Russian border​

Estonia announced on Friday that it intends to build hundreds of bunkers along its border with Russia. Fellow NATO members Latvia and Lithuania have signed on to the project as well.

Defense ministers of the three Baltic states met in Riga and approved the construction of what they called “anti-mobility defensive installations” on their eastern borders “to repel possible Russian aggression.” Estonia and Latvia border Russia directly, while Lithuania shares a frontier with Belarus.

“We are undertaking this effort so that the people of Estonia can feel safe,” said Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur. He added that the Ukraine conflict has shown that “in addition to equipment, ammunition and manpower, we also need physical defensive structures at the border.”

As part of the so-called “Baltic Defense Line,” Estonia pledged to build hundreds of concrete bunkers, each about 35 square meters in size and capable of housing 10 soldiers. They would be placed along the 294-kilometer border with Russia and linked with a network of support points and supply lines.

Landmines, razor wire and “dragon’s teeth” anti-tank obstacles will be stored nearby so they can be quickly deployed in case they are needed, Kaido Tiitus, an aide at the Defense Ministry, told the state broadcaster
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. The bunkers reportedly need to be able to survive a direct hit from a 152mm artillery shell.

The initial budget for the program is €60 million ($65 million). Construction is supposed to begin in early 2025. According to Tiitus, the most difficult part of the process will be buying the land that is currently privately held.

“There is a big question mark over selling land in south-east Estonia, for example, because people there do not want to sell land, the land is important to them, whether it has some kind of traditional value or whether it’s purely farmland that keeps people’s souls alive in that far corner of the country,” he said.

The Estonian Defense Ministry has estimated that around 600 bunkers will be necessary for the project, according to the outlet Postimees. Tiitus said the fortifications would “not be designed as eyesores or to disrupt everyday life.”

Border fortifications have had a controversial history in Europe since France’s Maginot Line, built between the world wars to defend the border with Germany. Nazi armies ended up going around the series of concrete bunkers and gun emplacements, defeating the French in just six weeks.

Albania’s Communist leader Enver Hoxha had more than 750,000 concrete bunkers built around the country between 1967 and 1986, to fortify against possible invasions from both NATO and the Soviet bloc that never materialized.
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As part of the so-called “Baltic Defense Line,” Estonia pledged to build hundreds of concrete bunkers, each about 35 square meters in size and capable of housing 10 soldiers. They would be placed along the 294-kilometer border with Russia and linked with a network of support points and supply lines.
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I don’t get the paranoia these Baltic NATO states have. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania is basically building the Maginot Line 2.0
 
ficker22

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FriedButter said:
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I don’t get the paranoia these Baltic NATO states have. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania is basically building the Maginot Line 2.0
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And us Germans and french gonna pay for this stuff probably.

I talked to a lituanian costudent and he jokingly said a fourth of the baltic economy is german development assistance.
 
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Biscuits

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ACuriousPLAFan said:
That was a fun while, lol.

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Yeah, whoever claims it's an "attack" on either side is either being an idiot or purposefully regurgitating American party line. They both just destroyed mutually inconvenient terrorists.

Iran has a habit of not regarding the sovereignty of their neighbors, this is no different and no more criminal than when US doesn't regard the sovereignty of middle eastern countries. Iran's behavior is a fair counter and defensive stance against US aggression. Countries like Iraq or Syria welcome Iranian help, but when they go into a relatively well functioning country like Pakistan like they do with Iraq, that crosses a line, and Pakistan showed them that.
 
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xypher

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BoraTas said:
Recently they also:
- Retired 2 LPDs because of the lack volunteers.
- Retired a frigate just after its modernization because of the lack of volunteers.
- Couldn't find a new head to the submarine branch and are looking to return one from retirement.
- revealed that they don't have a deployable replenishment vessel right now.

All the mental gymnastics on the internet about "why the Chinese fleet is actually weak" burst me out laughing when I look at the actual state of Western militaries.
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"You are missing one thing - unlike those dirty Chynese now the supapowa westerners have the experience of not colliding two vessels, this means that 1 British boat is now stronger than all Chinese ships combined" - Reddit probably.
 
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Biscuits

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xypher said:
"You are missing one thing - unlike those dirty Chynese now the supapowa westerners have the experience of not colliding two vessels, this means that 1 British boat is now stronger than all Chinese ships combined" - Reddit probably.
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Nah, you don't understand how American cope works.

How it actually works:

"America might have its hand in ensuring that 2 British vessels collided, you see, America's real enemy in the region has never been China, or the Houthis. What US is trying to do is to *control* its allies. Undoubtedly, the CIA had planned this collision, and the MI6, MSS etc were completely unable to stop them. By colliding these 2 vessels, America is weakening Britain and forcing Britain to depend more on on them. Britain was insufficiently loyal to NATO before, but now they will be forced to wholly devote themselves on a new level to US."

Like an anime protagonist seeing their friends being defeated, the more weaker the US bloc becomes, the stronger US actually becomes. By that reasoning, defeats inflicted on the US bloc can be rationalized as spiritual victories.
 
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Overbom

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FriedButter said:
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I don’t get the paranoia these Baltic NATO states have. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania is basically building the Maginot Line 2.0
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Maginot Line was a successful defensive line which served its purpose of blocking the Germans attacking France directly from their shared border. That Germany successfully conquered France is more of an indictment of the French military strategic planning
 
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