Guest Post by John Helmer
The sudden change of US warfighting plans in defence of Israel, disclosed on Saturday by General Lloyd Austin, the US Defense Secretary, reveals the trap which Russia, China, and Iran have opened, and the desperate measures the US has taken as it falls in.
Austin announced that he has “redirected the movement of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group to the Central Command area of responsibility. This carrier strike group is in addition to the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, which is currently operating in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. It will further increase our force posture and strengthen our capabilities and ability to respond to a range of contingencies.”
“I have also activated the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery as well as additional Patriot battalions to locations throughout the region to increase force protection for U.S. forces.”
The Eisenhower’s new destination has not been announced. US military media are claiming it will be the Persian Gulf or the Red Sea, or both.
The Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR) is officially the Arab and Iranian territories east of the Mediterranean shoreline, focusing on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, and targeting Iran, Russia, and China.
“In a small change that could have major meaning,” Pentagon officials are telling their press, “the U.S. is changing its plans for the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group. The change could place the strike group in waters where Chinese warships have been active in recent months. Last week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that the Eisenhower strike group would head to the eastern Mediterranean instead of Europe as had been planned. Sailing in the eastern Mediterranean would have put the strike group to the west of Israel. But that plan changed after a week in which U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq came under fire from Iran-backed militias, and a U.S. Navy ship in the Red Sea downed missiles launched from Yemen…On Saturday, Austin said in a statement the strike group will now go to the ‘Central Command area of responsibility.’ Central Command covers a vast amount of Middle East territory, including the Persian Gulf and Red Sea.”
The purpose of “these steps,” Austin said, is to “bolster regional deterrence efforts, increase force protection for U.S. forces in the region, and assist in the defense of Israel.” The priority order is a switch. Israel comes last – Iran, Russia and China come first.
For the first time too, the US command has acknowledged what President Vladimir Putin meant when he said in Beijing last Wednesday, October 18, that he has deployed MiG-31s armed with Kinzhal missiles within range of the Eisenhower.
Austin added for Sunday television viewers in the US: “If any group or any country is looking to widen this conflict and take advantage of this very unfortunate situation that we see, our advice is: don’t. We maintain the right to defend ourselves, and we won’t hesitate to take the appropriate action.”
The US doctrine of self-defence while attacking states like Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, and Somalia isn’t new. In September 1969, when Libyan Army Captain Muammar Qaddafi took control of his country, he carefully skirted the US Air Force (USAF) base at Wheelus (Mellaha), which was stocking nuclear weapons at the time; Qaddafi then squeezed the US forces out of Wheelus over twelve months, but the USAF evacuated its nuclear weapons swiftly.
Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon don’t have time; the Israelis even less.
But Austin’s rush to change the sailing orders for the Eisenhower and fly THAADs and Patriots to US bases in the Arab territories reveals he’s short of time too. This is because the entire portfolio of US air defence systems is being defeated. The Russian Kinzhal has defeated the US Patriot batteries around Kiev; the Hamas swarms of drones and rockets defeated Israel’s Iron Dome on October 7. THAAD has been tested in combat once, against a Houthi missile, rocket and drone attack against Abu Dhabi targets in January 2022. “Several were intercepted, a few of them [weren’t].”
The USS Carney’s firing against Houthi missiles and drones in the Red Sea has exposed how vulnerable that southern line of attack against Israel would be if the Houthis try swarming instead of testing their ordnance, as they did against the Carney. Originally, in the Pentagon version of Friday, October 19, three Houthi missiles and several drones were intercepted on their way to Israel. A day later, CNN revised the story by reporting “a US official familiar with the situation” to say there had been a “nine-hour duel” and four cruise missiles and fifteen drones came down.
Tongue-biting and stammering are clinical symptoms of the mind which knows what to say but has difficulty getting it out; this usually causes loss of self-esteem. When General Austin is speaking like this, it signals the mind doesn’t know what to say, and is desperate for self-esteem.
Austin also signalled that the Pentagon is preparing rapid deployment forces for evacuation of air and ground base soldiers and airmen in Jordan, Syria and Iraq if they are swarmed by protesters. “I have placed,” Austin said, “an additional number of forces on prepare-to-deploy orders as part of prudent contingency planning, to increase their readiness and ability to quickly respond as required.” The likelihood that the Pentagon is laying plans for US ground troops to fight to keep the bases is low; secret Congressional briefings are bound to leak if that possibility is entering the US presidential race at this stage.*
Instead, these are Kabul Airport type evacuation missions. The fear in the Biden White House, and the Democratic National Committee, is that US military personnel or other officials may be taken hostage following swarm attacks by the Arabs across the region.
According to a military source near Washington, “Biden got them out of Kabul. [President Jimmy] Carter didn’t get them out of Teheran. If CENTCOM has anything in mind it’s missile defence capability, readiness and base security – and figuring what the hell the Chinese are up to.”
Left: US aircraft wreckage in Iran following the failure of the hostage-rescue mission known as OPERATION EAGLE CLAW in April 1980. Right: read the new history of US operations against the Arab world.
Russia and China are saying little, doing more.
By redeploying the Eisenhower from the eastern Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, the US has moved the aircraft carrier out of range of Russian Kinzhals in the Black Sea. However, in the Persian Gulf, the Eisenhower will be within shooting distance of MiG-31s and the Kinzhal in the Caspian Sea, as well as other long-range Russian missiles.
Left: According to a US state propaganda agency, Russia has
fired long-range ballistic missiles from the Caspian to targets in the
Ukraine, including Kiev, between May and October of 2022; flight
distance was about 1,800 kilometres. Right: The red line from
international waters and airspace of the Caspian to the mid-Persian Gulf
is about 1,700 kms.
In the Red Sea, the US fleet will be within range of several types of Iranian ballistic missiles against which there have been no US combat tests to date. Click here to review the Iranian missile armoury, including estimated range, payload and accuracy. There is ample evidence that the general staffs of Russia, China, and Iran are currently coordinating in the Persian Gulf, where there was a visible surface navy exercise in March, and since then much that is invisible in intelligence-gathering and sharing, targeting, early-warning systems, and the like.
According to this source, the anti-air and land target capabilities of the DC-10 missile arming the Chinese Navy’s Type-052D destroyer now in the Persian Gulf “poses a number of security challenges for the United States. The DH-10 has a low flight altitude that increases its stealth capabilities against the air defense radars. The DH-10 can also be updated during its flight with new targeting data, allowing it to change targets. The stealth capabilities employed by the DH-10 allow it to confuse or outmaneuver the radars and defenses around ships in the region.”
In March 2023, Reuters reported from Beijing on the naval
exercise in the Gulf of Oman with vessels from Russia, China and Iran:
“The 2023 edition of the ‘Marine Security Belt’ exercises will help
‘deepen practical cooperation among the navies of participating
countries’, China's Defense Ministry said.” Source: https://www.reuters.com/
A Moscow military reporter comments: “in my view, Russians and Chinese should cut to the chase and say, you can try sorting it out with Israel, but here is the red line. Obviously, that red line has no meaning if it is not with the capability to deliver on the threat.”
“Hanging out with or near Israel just became very dangerous,” according to a US military source familiar with the situation. “I think the Houthi firing, trap or not, scared the shit out of them [Pentagon]. The number of drones and missiles the Carney ‘shot down’ keeps going up. It’s not just the missiles they are worried about. Iranian drone technology, and their capacity to get them into the hands of their allies, must be causing alarm. What scares them about the Chinese task force is the range of its cruise missiles as well as its capacity to link up with Iranian and (I assume) Russian air defence radar and targeting networks. They’ve all been practicing together.”
“Every American and allied base in the region is now under a joint, mutually supportive, Russian, Iranian and Chinese umbrella. In short, a trap.”
[*] American voter disapproval of President Biden's foreign
policy performance is growing; the current negative spread of 19 points
is approaching the worst it has been in Biden's term. His trip to Israel
and unqualified support for the Israeli war against the
Palestinians have gained nothing for him from American voters.
Source: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/
NOTE: on Israel’s southwestern front, Egypt is bringing up
armoured forces to the El Arish-Rafah area. Media reports from Qatar
suggesting the reason is to combat Palestinians moving into the Sinai
from Gaza are false.
“Urgent Local sources and eyewitnesses reported to the Sinai
Foundation the arrival of large military reinforcements to the Rafah
border area on Thursday afternoon [October 19]. The sources said that
the reinforcements included officers, soldiers, military vehicles,
jeeps, and tanks.” -- source: https://twitter.com/
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
Oh vey!
“increase our force posture”
Oy gevalt.
When the first planned carrier sinking occurs, the “force posture” will feel like a broom stick rammed so far up the corporal klinger brigades ass it will set the neo-cons atwitter asking for more, up theirs.
Let’s not confuse one thing with another. This is neither a mistake, nor is it a trap, this is a deliberate provocation intended to trigger a false flag.
I iz in yur house. U no can farm me.
Carrier USS George Washington is underway too.
Sure are putting a lot of targets out there.
It is a plan to get rid of ships named after evil old slave owning white men, and begin a new program for war ships named such as ” The Wakanda ” or ” The Ru Paul”, because Africans invented boats and planes and all kinds of other stuff.
good stuff ⭐️
Completely powered by solar panels and an all food made from bugs. Only LGBTQ+++ crew allowed and all weapons giant arrows launched by enormous rubber bands to reduce their carbon footprint. All stores to be loaded through the stern. The USS Bath House Barry.
They’ll be launching dildos and bongs with those giant rubber bands.
Thay wuz kangs n shit
Thanks for reminding us of the contributions of Afroghanistanis.
No worries…………merca has a secret defense weapon for ships.
A faggot fungus dome over each ship.
The author never says it but I will . Russian and perhaps Chinese hypersonic missiles may be the end of the Naval Aircraft Carrier era that began in WW2 . Those things are more just sitting ducks than they have ever been . It doesn’t make me happy to say it either , I spent 4 years down in the machinery Rooms ( two boilers and one main engine were all housed in one big engineering space , there were four such main machinery rooms ) of one . Unless perhaps the pentagon has some anti missile tech up there sleeves with which defend against these hypersonic missiles that we don’t know about , which for some reason I highly doubt . I’m dreading hearing that a super carrier has been sent to Davy Jones locker room .
A lesson first learned in the Falklands war. One cruser lost to a French Expect missle of no special abilities and another lost to a diesel submarine torpedo attack. Well, maybe not learned. Submarines are starting to enter a similar phase of becoming vulnerable as magnetic detection becomes better and AI starts looking for the faint V-trail left by everything moving through water.
The Russians, having previously shown us the futility of manned flight against air defense missiles have now shown the futility of large scale arms attacks against a modern intelligence recon and strike systems.
Just as an aside, we see we have no answer in our technological arsenal to meet the challenge of facing Russia on the battlefield as shown by recent studies that we would lose 25,000 per week in a ground war against Russia and 15,000 month in a naval war against China – therefore we need a draft! No mention of how to get men and equipment to Europe to fight Russia or even where the equipment comes from. Equally lacking is discussion of where the ships will come from to put 15,000 sailor on every month. Overproduction of “elites” anyone?
We seem to be entering a phase where projection of power through military force is failing, and not just for us. We have also seen our ability to use financial sanctions as power crumble and the sanctioned do better than the sanction party.
So what does the future hold? How to project power and influence events? Well, money always works – just ask the Biden family. But more generally wet work is the new way forward. Follow Ukraine’s example of attacks on the Kremlin and apply the phrase “people ARE policy” to target individuals who further the war effort of your enemy. (This is really no different than Bill Clinton’s targeting orders in Kosovo.) Considering the loss of life when the sharp ends of the spear slug it out, the loss of life through targeted killings would be better, and Greener!
So who get hit? First you would take politicians like Ladybug Graham, but just for the PR value. Take missle company A and hit the top 2 or 3 layers of corp. leadership, the top 10 shareholders (and where that is a hedge fund, the top 3 there) and the leading lights in the R&D and Production areas.
It would not get past three without making a huge impact on military production and financing.
This works against us, because we have open borders! But when it does, protect your family and community but stay calm. It is just the snake getting its fangs pulled.
That was an Exocet missile……..I think the ship was the hms Coventry.
And you are right……….the age of the carrier………..like tanks……..is over.
It’s quite possible they are “bait.”
On 7 December 1941, the “latest thing” the carriers were at sea. Many of the ships left docked in Pearl were considered “old.”
In WWI, at the Dardanelles, the British ships going into that battle, especially being sitting ducks in those waters, were referred to as “Those are old ships anyway” by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill.
The crews were not even thought of.
… but Biden cares about our service men! Right?
“According to a military source near Washington, “Biden got them out of Kabul.”
Those anonymous ‘military sources’ are getting worse lately. I think that one might have been Hunter Biden.
We are The Spanish Armada and hypersonics are the British “PT Boats”.
The Spanish Armada was destroyed in part by an early blizzard north of Scotland. About this time of year too.
It’s all fun and games until a capital ship or the whole flotilla gets sunk. Then think about ICBMs being unleashed.
What’s an icbm?
Intra-cranial-bowel-movement?
I don’t think I could support a draft for any war beyond an invasion of the US. Maybe if Canada or Mexico were invaded and we were next. Beyond that no way. No way in Hell.
H R – I would rather rely on the Men Who Want to be Left Alone, than our woke military in defending the American homeland.
Lloyd Austin, the general who oversaw our catastrophic flight from Afghanistan is in control. Nothing to be worried about with this affirmative action hire.
bikini bottom thanks you for our new $10 billion dollar reef!
Our queers and niggers can handle it.
The globalists have said that they want to collapse the United States and Russia at the same time in order to get rid of those forces that would inhibit their one world government. Yes, they will have one temporarily, but it won’t last long and I don’t think it will turn out the way they planned.
Maybe the US military should just pack up, go home, and defend its own borders. What a concept.
USN Warship sunk by false flag attack in three…
Two..
One…
Sorry, but to make it easier you should just NUKE that area. Everybody will go at one time. No suffering and better – no enemy left to fight. Go in and do a clean mop-up operation. Risk no lives, or armor or equipment.