August 14th, 2026 | Weekly Issue
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Pentagon Admits To Committing Major Civilian Massacres in Yemen Last Year
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In a civilian casualty report, the Pentagon acknowledged that at least 153 civilians were killed in its Yemen bombing campaign in 2025, though the number is an undercount
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The Pentagon has admitted in its annual report on civilian casualties to Congress that it committed two large-scale massacres of civilians in Yemen during its bombing campaign against the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, last year, which War Secretary Pete Hegseth dubbed “Operation Rough Rider.”
In the report, the Pentagon acknowledged that the bombing campaign killed at least 153 civilians and injured 243, numbers that are a significant undercount. According to the Yemen Data Project, at least 238 civilians, including 24 children, were killed, and 467 civilians were injured.
The Pentagon acknowledged that civilians were killed in three strikes, including two that were among the deadliest US attacks on civilians in recent decades: the April 16, 2025, bombing of the Ras Isa fuel port in Hodeidah, and the April 25, 2025, strike on a migrant detention facility in the northern Saada province.
At the time of the bombing on Ras Isa, Yemeni media reported that it involved a double-tap strike that killed rescue workers, and it was clear that a large number of civilians were killed, though the strike received virtually no media coverage in the US. The Pentagon report acknowledged the strike killed 80 civilians, though the Yemen Data Project and Airwars put the number at 84. The Pentagon also said 171 civilians were wounded in the strike, which aligns with Airwars’ numbers.
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Pentagon Drafting New Nuclear Strategy To Expand Options for Tactical Nuclear Weapons Use
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The strategy is being overseen by Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's policy chief, who has long called for the US to prepare to fight a "limited nuclear war"
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The Pentagon is reportedly drafting a new nuclear strategy that’s expected to emphasize the use of tactical nuclear weapons to give the president more “options” in a potential nuclear conflict.
The strategy, first reported by NBC News, is being drafted by the Pentagon’s policy chief, Elbridge Colby, who has for more than a decade called for the US to develop additional capabilities to fight a “limited nuclear war.”
The idea would be to shift the US nuclear strategy away from the focus on using strategic nuclear weapons to wipe out an adversary’s nuclear capabilities and focus more on the possibility of using smaller, tactical nuclear weapons in a “regional” conflict.
“If you actually want extended deterrence to be credible, you have to provide the nation’s political leadership with nuclear capabilities that common sense indicates you could actually use,” a source told NBC. “Otherwise you’re reducing our leadership’s options to extreme choices that the adversary won’t find credible.”
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Hegseth Says Congress Should Pay Tribute to Lindsey Graham by Approving $1.5 Trillion Military Budget
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He made the comments at a ceremony renaming Joint Base Charleston to Joint Base Lindsey Graham
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US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called on Congress to approve his request for a $1.5 trillion military budget for 2027 during remarks at a ceremony in South Carolina for the renaming of Joint Base Charleston to Joint Base Lindsey Graham in honor of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died unexpectedly last month.
Hegseth claimed that before he died, Graham told him that the $1.5 trillion request was the best military budget he’d ever seen.
“As we gather here today, the War Department is seeking a historic generational investment of $1.5 trillion for American warriors. And Lindsey himself said, to me in his office, ‘this is the best military budget I’ve seen since I’ve been in Congress,'” Hegseth said, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon.
“This department pays tribute to Lindsey Graham in the naming of this base, but there could be no greater tribute than Congress could give than to invest in our warriors for the full $1.5 trillion,” he added. Hegseth said that he had known Graham for nearly 20 years, going back to when he was a member of a veterans group pushing for the US to escalate the war in Iraq.
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Influential Retired IDF General Says Gaza Should Remain ‘Destroyed for Generations’
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A retired Israeli general who has had significant influence on Israel’s operations in Gaza has called for the Palestinian territory to remain in a state of devastation “for generations,” Middle East Eye reported on Monday, citing Israeli media.
“Israel has no interest in Gaza being rebuilt, it is better for us that it be destroyed for generations to come,” Ret. Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland told Israel’s 103FM radio station.
“The greater the despair in Gaza and the greater the destruction, and the greater the monument to what they did on October 7, years to come, that is good,” added Eiland, who previously headed Israel’s National Security Council.
Eiland was responsible for crafting what became known as the “general’s plan,” a proposal to destroy northern Gaza by forcibly evacuating civilians from the area, cutting off all aid, and considering anyone who remains as a hostile militant.
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Report: Turkey Suspects Israel Fabricated Trump Assassination Plot To Derail US-Iran Diplomacy
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Turkish officials told Middle East Eye that the intelligence about the alleged plot came from Israel
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Turkish officials suspect that an Israeli intelligence report about an Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump at the NATO summit in Ankara last month was a ruse designed to derail diplomacy between the US and Iran, Middle East Eye reported on Tuesday.
The Washington Post first reported on Monday that the US thought there was a credible enough threat against Trump that he secretly swapped planes when he departed Turkey. The president flew into Ankara on a new version of Air Force One donated by Qatar, but made a public show of departing on the older Air Force One, saying he was doing so for “old time’s sake.”
According to the Post report, after boarding the older Air Force One, Trump was then moved to a third plane, an Air Force C-32A, via a catering truck. Some White House staffers and reporters on the older Air Force One thought President Trump was also onboard as they flew to the UK, making them unwitting decoys.
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The Silver Lining: The Donald’s Impending Defeat in Iran May Finally Bring the Empire Home
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David Stockman | August 10th
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It is damn obvious that Washington has lost Donald Trump’s idiotic war on Iran. After all, it is now five months since the opening salvos of Operation Epic Fury on February 28, which was advertised to last only 3-4 weeks. Instead, the conflict has settled into a grinding, inconclusive stalemate at best, and, more importantly, a strategic fiasco that reveals the bankruptcy of America’s entire Empire-based foreign policy.
The fact is, the War on Iran was misbegotten from the get-go because Iran posed no credible threat whatsoever to the homeland security of the United States. Period. Full stop.
In that regard, no American president has ever launched a war on such thin, specious grounds: The one and only reason for unleashing the bombers and missiles on February 28th was to honor the request of a so-called “ally” in furtherance of his desperate need to maintain a 61-vote coalition in the Knesset.
That’s right. The Donald took America to war lest Netanyahu be thrown from office, tried and convicted for years of egregious corruption and put behind bars where he belongs.
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