(End of the American Dream)—In recent months, quite a few pundits have been openly warning us that World War III has begun.  Sadly, those pundits are quite correct.  Right now, a historic global struggle is being waged by two very powerful alliances.  The “western alliance” made up of the United States, Europe, Israel and their allies is engaged in a battle for supremacy with the “eastern alliance” made up of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Syria and their allies.

Over the past week, this battle for supremacy has erupted on a couple of new fronts, but most Americans have no idea what is really going on.

Just look at what is happening in Syria.  Most Americans have no idea that radical Sunni Muslims backed by the western alliance just conducted a highly successful offensive on Syria’s second largest city and are threatening to overthrow the Assad regime once and for all…

The Syrian military and its ally Russia conducted deadly joint air raids Monday on areas that Islamist-led rebels seized control of over the weekend. The strikes were a response to a lightning offensive by the rebels that saw them wrest control of swathes of northwest Syria from government forces.

The conflict that started more than a decade ago took a significant turn several days ago, catching many — including, it seems, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and his Russian backers — by surprise. On Saturday, rebels, including many with the U.S.-designated Islamic terrorist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), took control of the major city of Aleppo in northern Syria.

The rebels seized Aleppo’s airport and started pushing into towns and villages in the countryside around the city on Sunday after leaving piles of dead government soldiers in the streets. Observers said the rebel forces were often met with little to no resistance by regime forces, but by Monday the pace of the surprise offensive appeared to have slowed, with Assad and his Russian backers ramping-up their response.

While she served as Secretary of State during the Obama administration, Hillary Clinton was instrumental in starting the civil war in Syria.  That civil war caused a massive refugee crisis that western Europe is still wrestling with to this day.

Now the civil war in Syria has freshly erupted, and if Assad gets toppled that will be a major victory for the western alliance.

Of course the eastern alliance does not plan to go down without a fight.  Over the weekend, Iraqi militia groups that are backed by Iran “have been pouring across the border into eastern Syria”…

Widespread reports, including observers on the ground, have indicated that Iran-backed Iraqi militias have been pouring across the border into eastern Syria to assist Damascus in repelling the Islamist militant advance after Al Qaeda splinter group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham took over Aleppo this weekend.

A Syrian army officer has told Reuters that Iraqi militia forces crossing the border are “fresh reinforcements being sent to aid our comrades on the frontlines in the north.”

Many of the fighters have been identified as belonging to the Kataib Hezbollah and Fatemiyoun groups. The US has long been in an internecine conflict with Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq, with over the years periodic rocket fire even targeting the US Embassy in Baghdad, as well as various bases which host remaining American troops.

And it appears that Iranian military forces could be on the verge of intervening directly in the conflict…

Boroujerdi told a news conference in Damascus that Iran was ready to render military assistance to Syria. “Iran’s military aid will be provided as soon as Tehran receives a request from the Syrian government. We are going to announce it immediately,” the Iranian deputy said.

Boroujerdi, who is heading an Iranian delegation, arrived in Damascus on Wednesday for talks with Syrian Vice-Premier and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is expected to meet Boroujerdi on Thursday.

The Iranian deputy stressed the importance of the four-sided coordination of efforts by Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria in fighting terrorism.

Iran normally prefers to fight their wars using proxy forces.

But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Meanwhile, Israel’s ceasefire with Hezbollah seems to be breaking down already…

The ceasefire in Lebanon, barely five days old, is near collapse as of Monday after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel, following the Biden-Harris administration’s erroneous claim that Israeli surveillance drones violated the agreement.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported Monday that two Hezbollah rockets had been fired at Har (Mount) Dov, a strategic mountain that Breitbart News visited last Thursday and which Hezbollah claims, wrongly, is Lebanese.

If Hezbollah is forced to keep their forces in Lebanon in order to contend with the IDF, they won’t be able to intervene in the conflict in Syria. Ultimately, so many of these conflicts are interrelated.

Ukraine is hoping that at least some Russian forces get diverted to Syria to help the Assad regime, because last month the Ukrainians lost a great deal of territory…

Ukraine has endured a tough three months in which Russian forces made gains across the front, which are likely continue over winter, a military analyst has said.

“The trend is very worrying, and there’s no reason to expect the situation to calm down in December either,” Emil Kastehelmi, from the Finnish-based Black Bird Group, told Newsweek.

In an X, formerly Twitter, thread, the OSINT analyst said that, in the three months to December, Moscow’s troops had captured around 617 square miles in Ukraine and 190 in Russia’s Kursk oblast, where Ukrainian forces had staged an incursion but where they have lost the western flank, as well as positions in the Donbas region.

Ukraine is the one place where the western alliance is losing badly, and western politicians are extremely determined to turn things around.

But the truth is that unless NATO gets directly involved, Ukraine will definitely lose.

As the war drags on, Ukrainian soldiers are deserting from their posts in staggering numbers…

More than twice as many Ukrainian soldiers have been charged with desertion this year than in 2022 and 2023 combined, the Financial Times has reported. The spike in desertions has hampered Kiev’s ability to replenish its thinned-out ranks.

Ukrainian prosecutors opened 60,000 cases against deserters between January and October of this year, the British newspaper reported on Saturday, noting that those convicted face prison terms of up to 12 years.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have already died on the killing fields of eastern Ukraine.

Let us hope for an agreement that will bring the endless slaughter to an end.

Before I conclude this article, I want to mention one more nation where the great battle between east and west has suddenly erupted.

In Georgia, angry protesters that are being backed by the western alliance have been clashing violently with the police for days.  Just like we witnessed in Ukraine in 2014, it appears that this could be an attempt to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Georgia…

Days of protests have rocked Georgia following the government’s controversial decision to delay the former Soviet country’s bid to join the European Union.

Tensions have been brewing for months in the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million people, where critics accuse the ruling Georgian Dream party of following increasingly authoritarian, pro-Russia policies in a turn away from the West that has tempered hopes for Georgia’s long-promised path to EU membership.

The protests have been met with a violent police crackdown as the ruling party and thousands of protesters become locked in a deepening battle over the country’s future and whether Georgia should forge closer ties with Russia or Europe.

The U.S. and Europe would love to see a “color revolution” that removes the Georgian Dream party from power.

Of course the Russians and other eastern alliance nations would very much like to avert such an outcome.

I just wish that every country would be allowed to do what they want without outside interference.

But that isn’t going to happen, is it?

Sadly, the great struggle between east and west that we are witnessing is just going to continue to intensify, and at this stage it should be obvious to everyone that it is not going to have a happy ending.

We live in such perilous times, and if you have not been paying much attention to what is going on around the world now would be a great time to start.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

If they become convinced that we are planning to hit them before they can hit us, that could motivate them to do something really, really stupid.  We are closer to nuclear war than we have ever been before, and we definitely do not need western leaders making provocative statements that are only going to make things even worse.

For example, during a conference in Brussels NATO’s top military official said something that is now making headlines all over the globe.  The following comes from an article posted on MSN News entitled “NATO considers preemptive strikes amid rising tensions with Russia”…

NATO Military Committee Chairman Admiral Rob Bauer stated during a conference in Brussels that NATO leadership is contemplating the possibility of conducting precise preemptive strikes on Russian territory in the event of an armed conflict between Moscow and the Alliance.

It is now being claimed that Bauer was not actually talking about a pre-emptive strike on Russia.

But if you look at his actual words, it certainly seems like that was precisely what he was talking about…

During a question-and-answer session after his address at the European Policy Center in Brussels, Bauer said, “The idea was we are a defensive alliance, so we will only sit and wait until we are attacked, and then when we are attacked, we will be able to shoot down the ‘arrows’ that come to us,” referring to a Russian strike.

He also said that when responding to any attack, it would be “smarter” to “attack the archer, that is…Russia—if Russia attacks us. So you need to have a combination of deep precision (strikes) with which you can take out the weapons systems that are used to attack us.”

Needless to say, the Russians were not amused.

In fact, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov believes that Bauer was essentially announcing NATO’s “real plans”…

The North Atlantic Alliance has ignored all diplomatic protocol, allowing itself to make statements about the possibility of preemptive strikes on Russia, top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov said.

“Just the other day, Mr. Bauer, NATO Military Committee Chair, explicitly stated that it’s no longer enough, and ensuring the defense of the North Atlantic Alliance member states requires strikes on targets in Russia that NATO believes may pose a threat to the bloc. I think there’s nothing to comment on here; it’s just that they have forgotten all etiquette, publicly announcing their real plans,” he noted at the 20th meeting of the heads of security and intelligence agencies of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.

If the Russians become convinced that we are going to hit them first, that will make it much more likely that they will hit us first. We really need to get the Russians to understand that we have no plans to do that.

Meanwhile, a French news source is reporting that European leaders continue to discuss “sending Western troops and private defense companies to Ukraine”…

As the conflict in Ukraine enters a new phase of escalation, discussions over sending Western troops and private defense companies to Ukraine have been revived, Le Monde has learned from corroborating sources. These are sensitive discussions, most of which are classified – relaunched in light of a potential American withdrawal of support for Kyiv once Donald Trump takes office on January 20, 2025.

That is insane!

What in the world are they thinking?

No matter what Donald Trump does when he gets into the White House, our European allies fully intend to continue to escalate this war.

It is madness.

On top of everything else, this week the New York Times has reported that the Biden administration has actually discussed the possibility of arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons.

When Dmitry Medvedev heard about this, he went ballistic…

Moscow will consider any threat of nuclear arms being supplied to Ukraine by the US as preparation for a direct war with Russia, former president Dmitry Medvedev has warned. The actual transfer of nuclear weapons would be tantamount to an attack on the country under Russia’s new nuclear doctrine, he added.

On Tuesday, Medvedev posted a message on Telegram that was quite ominous…

“Give nuclear weapons to a country at war with the largest nuclear power? The idea is so absurd that it raises suspicions about a paranoid psychosis in Joe The Walking Dead and all those who would advise such a move.”

He continued, “Yet I must comment on the nonsense: 1) The very threat of transferring nuclear weapons to the Kyiv regime can be considered preparation for nuclear conflict with Russia;

2) The actual transfer of such weapons can be equated to an act of attack on our country under article 19 of the Fundamentals of State Policy in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence.

The consequences are obvious.”

I don’t think that the Biden administration has any intention of giving Ukraine nuclear weapons right now.

But the fact that they are talking about it is really freaking out the Russians.

I really wish that cooler heads would prevail, but instead both sides just continue to escalate matters.

Over the past few days, Ukraine has launched more long-range missiles provided by NATO into Russian territory, and now the Russians have announced that they are preparing another “response”…

Russia is preparing a response to Ukrainian ATACMS attacks on Kursk Region, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday. Last week, US President Joe Biden authorized Kiev to use US-supplied long-range missiles against targets deep inside Russia’s internationally recognized borders.

In an official statement on Telegram, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that over the past three days, Ukraine’s forces had conducted two long-range strikes on Kursk Region using Western weaponry.

As I discuss in this video, many are anticipating that the Russian “response” will be even larger than last time.

Let us hope that the Russians only use conventional weapons, and let us hope that they limit their targets to Ukraine.

Because the Russians have previously identified a U.S. base in Poland as a potential target, and the Biden administration is making it clear that such a strike would trigger NATO’s Article 5…

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said Monday that the U.S. has a ‘rock-solid’ commitment to NATO’s Article 5, should Russia strike the new U.S. anti-missile base in Poland. Article 5 is NATO’s principle of collective defense, that if one NATO member is attacked, all other NATO members go to war with the attacker, a world war-style response.

“We take our Article 5 commitments to our NATO Allies incredibly seriously. It’s rock-solid, and that’s not going to change,” Kirby said on Monday, according to Remix News.

Kirby was responding to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who on Thursday said that Russia is considering attacking a new U.S. anti-missile base in Poland.

We are dangerously close to a point of no return.

Once nuclear missiles start flying, there will be no going back.

The Russians have been working extremely hard to prepare for a nuclear war, and meanwhile the U.S. is still relying on hopelessly outdated systems from the 1970s and 1980s.

We must change course while it is still possible to do so.

Unfortunately, it appears that we are about to witness another series of escalations which will push us even closer to the unthinkable.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Trump’s win means he gets the chance to roll back socialism and restore constitutionalism against their will on the domestic front while pursuing their common priority internationally. This was the same general trade-off Reagan had, but, importantly, Trump’s agenda adds the component of anti-“one world” globalism. In this context, Trump’s “nationalism” might better be termed “international federalism” because it clearly presumes an international order in which nations remain cooperating independent sovereigns and not mere components of single global Marxist conglomerate like the neo-Soviet European Union strives to be.

They surrendered to Trump not just because he beat them politically, but because Vladimir Putin beat them militarily in Ukraine. When their military failure became so obvious in 2023 that they could no longer contain the situation with war propaganda, they fell back to Plan B: the much riskier Israel/Hamas gambit, which is mostly limited to the Iran problem and related Middle East objectives. I have contended since it happened that the all-too-real Oct. 7, 2023, massacre was allowed to happen for that purpose. I believe they let slip the rabid dogs of Hamas deliberately to shift the “Eye of Sauron” media focus away from Ukraine (which I disapprove), and create the justification for de-nuking Iran (which goal I endorse, if not the duplicitous staging.)

Are the elites truly that evil? Ask the hundred million plus innocent unborn babies they’ve slaughtered worldwide (including in Israel) by normalizing abortion as a population-reduction tactic. Or maybe we should ask the entire generation of dead and maimed Ukrainian men sacrificed as cannon fodder proxies in a 100% preventable NATO- orchestrated war.

Let’s review what’s really happening in the world of geopolitics – as seen from outside the bubble of neocon propaganda constantly being spewed by the corporate media of the U.S., U.K. and European Union.

Massive corruption and abuse of power by the Bush/Clinton/Obama/Biden tag-team cabal over the past several decades has bankrupted America, poisoned much of the world against us and driven a growing alliance of would-be competitors to formalize and implement a plan to end our global hegemony. The greatest threat their BRICS network represents is to the U.S. dollar’s dominance as the world’s reserve currency. If BRICS develops a way to dethrone the dollar, we will (supposedly) collapse like a house of cards under an avalanche of debt we have no ability to pay – some $36 trillion worth – or higher by some accounts. Our fall would be swift and spectacular – creating a political vacuum into which the BRICS nations would flow to replace us with their vision of a new multi-polar order.

Obviously, that existential threat has – in the warped minds of the elite megalomaniacs who rule us – warranted extreme measures, which included the anti-Trump color revolution and coup of 2020, facilitated by the global deployment of their COVID bio-weapon and imposition of de facto medical martial law. In one fell swoop they intended to crush the rapidly growing worldwide populist uprising that threatened their grip on the levers of national and international power AND at the same time intimidate the BRICS nations into submission in classic Mafia style.

To invoke the old Chinese idiom, they intended to “kill the chicken to scare the monkey.” But to their shock, the populist chicken (led by the MAGA movement in the U.S.) didn’t die. Instead it got stronger and began pushing back even harder, not just against the fake vaccine but also against government-coerced censorship, manipulative fake-news narratives, forced DEI lunacy and child-grooming … and the proxy war in Ukraine. That was only possible because MAGA’s champion, Donald Trump, did not retreat after J6 but redoubled his efforts.

So now we’ve all been rewarded with front-row seats to the greatest show on earth as a greatly wiser and fully unshackled President-elect Trump begins the process of draining the swamp and restoring America’s greatness – not just domestically, but internationally.

I think President Trump can prevent World War III during his delayed second term by doing three things:

First, by embracing some form of the BRICS multi-polar vision on the condition that the dollar remains the sole world currency for international trade. This would further his goal of withdrawing the United States from the roles of international policeman, babysitter and financial sugar-daddy, while earning the appreciation and respect of those BRICS nations being entrusted as true partners in international matters, no longer treated as mere vassals of the U.S. This would mean ending the top-down divide-and-conquer polarization model for international relations established long ago by the British Empire and replacing it with the model of international federalism mentioned above.

Second, by developing a partnership with Putin and Russia based upon our mutual Christian history and cultural foundations to 1) fully drain the swamp of Marxism globally, starting with the European Union; and 2) constrain Islamist expansion everywhere, starting with Islamist-targeted Christian nations like Nigeria. In my view the only reason Russia is militarily allied with Shiite Iran is to counter the U.S. alliance with the Sunni majority headed by Saudi Arabia. A U.S./Russia alliance on Islam and Middle East policy would completely transform the geopolitical dynamics, provide the opportunity to compel Iran to de-nuke without resort to military force, and protect Israel from destruction by the Islamic world by removing Russia’s incentive to ally with Israel’s enemies as a tactic of self-defense. Russia instead would be an ally of Israel, which I believe Putin would prefer.

Three, the lynchpin making the prior elements possible would be NATO and the Russian Federation entering into a mutual non-expansion agreement. What’s really driving all these currently failing international policies is the Mackinder theory of geopolitics held forever by the British (and by extension the Americans) that if Russia gains control of the Eurasian plateau it would become an unstoppable world power. If Russia formally abandoned any dream of a restored Soviet Union (which I don’t think it wants) and NATO ended its encroachment/encirclement strategy for containing Russia, then the threat of WWIII would fade dramatically.

All this, of course, assumes that the elites won’t start WWIII before Trump’s inauguration. I’ll address that issue in my next column.

On Tuesday, Ukraine fired six long-range missiles that were provided by the United States into Russia. On Wednesday, Ukraine fired twelve long-range missiles that were provided by the United Kingdom into Russia. This is literally insane.

What would we do if another superpower was using Canada or Mexico to launch long-range missiles at us? Needless to say, there would be millions of Americans screaming for us to use nukes against that superpower.

Well, right now there are millions of people inside Russia that want their government to use nuclear weapons against the United States and Europe.

Of course if there is a full-blown nuclear war, there won’t be any winners.  As I pointed out in this video, more than 90 percent of the U.S. population would eventually end up dead.

We should be doing all that we can to find a way out of this mess.

The war in Ukraine is not good for anyone except for the military-industrial complex, and so leaders on both sides should be seeking to sit down at the negotiating table while it is still possible to do so.

But instead of pushing for negotiations, a number of countries in Europe appear to be preparing for war.

For example, on Monday Sweden began to distribute more than 5 million copies of a booklet “advising its citizens how to prepare for war”…

Sweden on Monday started to distribute copies of a booklet advising its citizens how to prepare for war, as Nordic countries teach people how to brace for a potential Russian attack.

The 32-page brochure, which is also available in English and several other languages, advises citizens on warning systems, how to seek shelter during an air raid and even psychological and digital security.

Why would Sweden need to prepare for war? Nobody is going to attack Sweden.

Something doesn’t smell right.

Sweden has not had to fight a war for a very long time, but apparently top Swedish officials believe that this is a very real possibility…

Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin made waves in January when he warned: “There could be war in Sweden.”

Sweden’s then army chief Micael Byden also alarmed many when he days later said “Swedes have to mentally prepare for war.”

Sweden has not gone to war in more than two centuries.

Meanwhile, Finland and Norway are also suddenly interested in getting their citizens prepared for war…

As Norwegian paper Aftenposten recently reported, Norway’s citizens have also received similar “emergency preparedness” pamphlets because “in the worst case” acts of war could also affect Norway.

Finland’s government, too, has released a digital booklet to prepare citizens for “incidents and crises,” stating that the country “has always been prepared for the worst possible threat, war.”

In particular, Finland has become quite paranoid.

They are actually constructing a 10-foot-tall wall that is going to be 200 km long when it is finally finished…

Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) border with Russia and Helsinki has maintained a higher level of preparedness.

But after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Helsinki announced plans to build a 200-kilometre border fence with Russia.

Three meters (10 feet) tall and topped with barbed wire, it is due to be completed by 2026.

Why would the Russians invade Finland?

The Russians have their hands quite full with Ukraine, and that isn’t going to change any time soon.

Once again, something is not adding up.

In Germany, an incredibly detailed document that is a thousand pages long contains intricate plans for a war with Russia…

According to a 1,000-page document entitled ‘Operationsplan Deutschland’, Germany would reportedly host hundreds of thousands of troops from NATO countries and serve as a logistics hub for sending huge quantities of military equipment, food and medicine toward the front.

A report by Der Spiegel in the summer said as many as 800,000 soldiers from the security bloc could be hosted by Germany as they transit to posts further East.

The German army is also instructing companies and civilians on how to protect key infrastructure and mobilise for national defence, envisaging a situation in which Russia expands drone flights, spying operations and sabotage attacks across Europe.

Why are they spending so much time and energy preparing for a hypothetical war with Russia?

If the Russians become convinced that an all-out war with NATO is inevitable, they won’t invade Europe with conventional forces.

Instead, they will use their nukes.

And the Europeans won’t be the first to get nuked.

We will.

As I have relentlessly warned my readers, Russia has been preparing to fight a nuclear war with the United States for a long time.

Their strategic nuclear arsenal is far superior to our own, their anti-missile systems are far superior to our own, and the subs that they would use to deliver a devastating first strike are so quiet that we cannot even track them effectively.

So let’s find a peaceful solution to the problem in Ukraine before events spiral completely out of control.

Because right now we are closer to nuclear war than we have ever been, and the death and destruction that a full-blown nuclear war would cause would be unthinkable.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

“For the first time, Ukraine’s Defense Forces struck Russian territory with ATACMS ballistic missiles,” RBC Ukraine news agency reported Tuesday.

RBC Ukraine said the military facility near the city of Karachev in the Bryansk region was successfully hit with ATACMS. This location was about 115 kilometers (71 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

ATACMS flew more than 140 km and hit a target in the Bryansk region, russia.

This means that the strike permit applies not only to Kurshchyna, as the Western media wrote about it. This attack also showed that the air defense of the russian Federation will have big problems with… pic.twitter.com/0Y1PU8g1Nt

— Jürgen Nauditt (@jurgen_nauditt) November 19, 2024

“Indeed, for the first time, we used ATACMS to strike Russian territory. The strike was carried out against a facility in the Bryansk region, and it was successfully hit,” one source told the local media outlet.

Separately, media outlet Kyiv Post stated the 67th arsenal of the Main Directorate of the Missile and Artillery Directorate of Russia was hit. The facility reportedly had large stockpiles of anti-aircraft missiles, munitions for multiple launch rocket systems, artillery ammunition, and guided bombs, much of which was supplied by North Korea.

Kyiv Post noted:

Russian media sources, including residents on social networks, reported explosions coming from within the Karachev district, and suggesting that a “military base” was being attacked. The Russian Astra Telegram channel shared videos of the incident, while local reports said that there had been strikes on this arsenal in late 2023 and again in June and October this year.

Bloomberg revealed more details about the attack:

Russian Defense Ministry confirmed Ukrainian armed forces launched a strike with US-made ATACMS ballistic missiles at a military object in Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine, Interfax reports. 

• 5 missiles were shot down, 1 damaged; no casualties reported
• Missile debris caused fire in a military installation

Here’s alleged footage of the strike:

For the first time in history! The Armed Forces of Ukraine today struck a facility on the territory of the Russian Federation with ballistic ATACMS from the United States, – media reports citing sources. pic.twitter.com/kO4Qs9ASPr

— MilitaryNewsUA (@front_ukrainian) November 19, 2024

Earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that President Vladimir Putin signed new changes to Russia’s nuclear weapons doctrine.

Peskov said the new modifications signify “the use of Western non-nuclear rockets by the Armed Forces of Ukraine against Russia can prompt a nuclear response.”

Peskov’s comments were made shortly after President Biden approved Ukraine’s use of ATACMS against military targets deep inside Russia.

In markets, US equity futures and European equities fell on the news.

Global bonds climbed on World War III threats. The yield on the US 10-year slid about seven basis points to 4.34% & dollar surged.

“The market reaction is logical, one could feel already yesterday that the tension, was rising,” said Andrea Tueni, head of sales trading at Saxo Banque France, who was quoted by Bloomberg, adding, “For the moment the market reaction is contained, some are still in a wait-and see- mode.”

Even though the Russian leader warned the US and its European allies against using ATACMS against Russian military facilities within its borders, which could spark a direct conflict, the Biden-Harris team of warmongers and the Europeans continued pushing the world closer to World War III.

One of Harris’ biggest supporters…

Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. views this ultra-dangerous ploy by the lame-duck Biden administration as a move by radical far-left Democrats in the White House to push the world dangerously closer to WW3 before his father takes office.

“The Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives,” he said on X Sunday.

God help us all. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing and expanding the circumstances under which nuclear weapons may be used.

#BREAKING: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing and expanding the circumstances under which nuclear weapons may be used.

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) November 19, 2024

Maybe I’m smoking the hopium pipe on this one but the idea that Russia, after nearly three years of war with Ukraine, is ready to tangle with NATO seems absurd. But here’s the thing. If there’s a one percent chance that we’re on the verge of World War III, then we have to address it. Moreover, I would not put it past the UniParty Swamp and their puppet masters in the Globalist Elite Cabal to try to start a war before Donald Trump is inaugurated. This is, after all, 2024 and if we’ve learned anything this year it’s that the bad guys have no limits to their depravity. Here’s Snyder…

(The Economic Collapse Blog)—Now Joe Biden has really done it.  By giving the green light to long-range missile strikes deep inside of Russian territory, he has brought us closer to nuclear conflict than ever before.  As you will see below, Russian officials have become convinced that “NATO has gone to war with Russia”.  I feel like I am watching a slow-motion train wreck that I am powerless to stop.  I have been warning about this for so many years, and now it is here.  Steve Quayle, Henry Gruver, Dumitru Duduman, Marty Breeden and so many others have also warned America about what is coming.  If we stay on the path that we are on, nuclear weapons will be used.  Do we really want to go down that road?

The corporate media here in the United States is trying really hard to convince us that Joe Biden’s decision wasn’t really a big deal.

But the Russians sure do think that it was a big deal…

In Moscow, meanwhile, senior lawmaker Leonid Slutsky slammed Mr. Biden, accusing him of deciding “to end his presidential term and go down in history as ‘Bloody Joe’.”

Senator Vladimir Dzhabarov, meanwhile, told Russia’s state-run Tass news agency that Biden’s decision represented “a very big step toward the beginning of the third world war.”

The official newspaper of the Russian state, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, warned “the madmen who are drawing NATO into a direct conflict with our country may soon be in great pain.”

And according to the Washington Post, one former Kremlin official is warning that “Moscow now believes NATO has gone to war with Russia”…

A former Kremlin official told The Washington Post that Moscow now believes NATO has gone to war with Russia and that “they will proceed accordingly.” The official spoke on the basis of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

That is rather chilling. Of course that language echoes something that Vladimir Putin said himself back in September…

Putin had personally warned against the eventuality previously, issuing a warning in September that U.S. permission for Ukraine to fire American-supplied long-range missiles at his country, “would mean that NATO countries, the United States, and European countries, are parties to the war in Ukraine.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov referenced that previous statement by Putin when he was specifically asked how the Russian government is viewing the latest developments…

“And here the position of our President, the position of the Russian side, was very clearly and unambiguously formulated by our Head of State in his statement that he made in St Petersburg.

“It says everything very clearly. I simply recommend that you read these words of the President once again.”

Wow.

War with Russia is here.

Sergey Markov was asked if Vladimir Putin would actually use nuclear weapons once long-range missiles start falling deep inside Russian territory, and he warned that in a worst case scenario “nuclear war happens before Christmas of this year”…

Asked if Putin would use nuclear missiles in response, Mr Markov said ‘not now’ and said it was more likely that bases in eastern Europe could be hit by smaller, tactical nuclear missiles.

But he added: “I think Biden, Macron and Starmer want escalation which could lead to, from my understanding, in the worst scenario, the nuclear war happens before Christmas of this year.

“Probably you will not be able to say ‘Merry Christmas’ because you will stay in the hole trying to hide away [your] family from the nuclear catastrophe. It can develop very, very quickly.”

Personally, I don’t think that it will happen quite so fast. But we are definitely on a road that leads to nuclear war.

After Biden’s announcement, U.S. Representative Thomas Massie stated that Biden had just committed an impeachable offense…

By authorizing long range missiles to strike inside Russia, Biden is committing an unconstitutional Act of War that endangers the lives of all U.S. citizens. This is an impeachable offense, but the reality is he’s an emasculated puppet of a deep state.

I agree with Massie 100 percent.

But there won’t be a move to impeach Biden now.

Most Republicans in Congress are way too lily-livered to do anything like that.

Donald Trump Jr. was also horrified by Biden’s decision…

Trump Jr., 46, tweeted that the “military-industrial complex” is trying to undermine his dad before he takes office by pushing the war further into chaos.

“The Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives,” he tweeted.

Yes, Joe Biden is still in the White House, but this was a decision that Donald Trump should have been allowed to make.

Trump needs to come out and immediately denounce what Biden has done, but if he does that he will be accused of “colluding with Putin” and that is something that Trump very much wants to avoid. But Trump can’t be concerned about what others will think at this point.

We are literally on the brink of nuclear war, and we are running out of time to reverse course. In fact, Sweden is so concerned about the possibility of nuclear war that it has “issued five million pamphlets warning its citizens to stockpile food and water”…

Sweden has issued five million pamphlets warning its citizens to stockpile food and water – just hours after Volodymyr Zelensky’s chilling video address to Vladimir Putin warned US missile strikes “will speak for themselves.”

If our leaders had any sense, they would be doing the same thing.

But instead, they keep assuring us that the Russians are bluffing and that they would never actually use nuclear weapons.

In the end, we shall see who was bluffing and who was not.

Interestingly, on Monday it was being reported that Internet cables under the Baltic Sea have been “suddenly disrupted”…

Two undersea internet cables in the Baltic Sea have been suddenly disrupted, according to local telecommunications companies, amid fresh warnings of possible Russian interference with global undersea infrastructure.

A communications cable between Lithuania and Sweden was cut on Sunday morning around 10:00 a.m. local time, a spokesperson from telecommunications company Telia Lithuania confirmed to CNN.

Did the Russians do that? Were they trying to send us a message?

I just wrote about how vulnerable our undersea Internet cables are last week.

Cutting two cables is not going to disrupt much, but what if the Russians started cutting dozens of cables?

We really are in uncharted territory. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, because right now the road that we are on only leads to pain.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

In a Thursday meeting with family members of Major Sajjad Mansouri – who was reportedly killed during the Oct. 26 Israeli strikes – Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Army Major General Seyyed Abdolrahim Mousavi promised a “crushing” blow to Israel.

“We will determine the time and manner of our response. There will be no hesitation when the time comes, and our reply will surely be crushing,” he said according to Tehran-based news outlet Iran Front Page News, echoing threats issued by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier this month when he said Tehran would issue a “crushing response.”

Similarly, Deputy Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Ali Fadavi on Thursday said, “The entire world will bear witness as the complete downfall of the Zionist regime fulfills the triumph of righteousness over falsehood.”

Of course Israel has already promised that it will respond to any attack by hitting Iran even harder than it did last time.

In fact, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is suggesting that Iran’s oil fields could be a target…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted that the IDF would hit Iranian oil fields should Tehran make good on its threat to launch another ballistic missile attack on Israel.

“Another attack on Israel would simply cripple Iran’s economy,” Netanyahu said in an unusual English-language message he directed at the Iranian people.

Can you imagine what that would do to the price of oil?

Israel’s defense minister wants to go a step further.  He is publicly suggesting that now is the time to wipe out Iran’s nuclear facilities…

Grossi’s comments came during a news conference Thursday and just three days after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday said that Iran was “more exposed than ever [for] strikes on its nuclear facilities.”

“We have the opportunity to achieve our most important goal – to thwart and eliminate the existential threat to the State of Israel,” he added.

If Israel goes after those nuclear facilities, there will be no turning back.

Both nations would start pummeling one another until only one side is left standing.

Meanwhile, the IDF is now bombing Syria on a daily basis…

Israeli attacks on Syria have become daily, and now the United States is ramping up its own attacks in the northeast of the country as well.

On Thursday Israeli warplanes launched attacks on two residential buildings in the Damascus suburbs – one in Mazzeh and the other in Qudsaya, which lies west of the capital. Regional reports said that many people were killed, and Syrian state SANA posted photos of bombed-out apartments.

Israeli Army Radio in a rare acknowledgement appeared to confirm the Israeli attack while claiming the fresh attacks targeted the Syrian headquarters the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group, which is fighting alongside Hamas in Gaza, and has held Israeli citizens captive since Oct.7, 2023.

We really are on the brink of an uncontrollable regional war in the Middle East, and it should deeply alarm all of us that Turkey has decided to officially cut off all relations with Israel…

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey has officially severed relations with Israel, according to reports in Turkish media.

News outlet Medya Ege reported Erdogan to have said, “We, as the State and Government of the Republic of Turkey, have cut off relations with Israel. We do not have any relationship with Israel at this point. Period.”

This is such a dangerous time.

Donald Trump will not take office for more than two months, and nobody in the Middle East really cares what the lame duck Biden administration has to say at this point. I have a feeling that things will soon get really, really crazy in the region.

In Ukraine, Russian forces just launched a very large missile attack against the capital city of Kyiv…

As world diplomacy is working overtime in this transitional period in America, the Russian Federation forces continue in their overwhelming campaign against Ukraine.

After almost four months of ‘saving missiles’, this early morning (13), explosions rocked Kiev as Russia launched its first missile attack on the Ukrainian capital since August.

Kiev citizens have been expecting a missile attack for a while now, worrying that it could deal a new blow to the hobbled energy system and cause blackouts during the winter.

The Ukrainians are extremely concerned about what will happen once Trump gets into the White House, and it is being suggested that Ukraine could actually build “hundreds of nuclear warheads for rudimentary bombs” if U.S. financial support for the war is pulled…

Ukraine has enough plutonium to construct hundreds of nuclear warheads for rudimentary bombs akin to the first atomic weapons dropped on Japan by the US in 1945, a new report has revealed.

A briefing paper prepared for Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said Kyiv could develop small dirty bombs within months if Donald Trump pulls US military aid.

Despite giving up its nuclear arsenal in 1996, Kyiv is still in control of nine operational reactors and has significant expertise on how to build the weapons.

The Ukrainians are losing the war, and I think that they have become so desperate that they would actually use such weapons.

Of course the moment that the Ukrainians use a dirty bomb, the Russians will nuke them into oblivion.

Speaking of the Russians, it is being reported that 12,000 North Korean troops are now assisting the Russian Army as it attempts to retake the Kursk region…

It was revealed last month that 12,000 North Korean troops had been sent to Ukraine to fight on behalf of Russia. Now, they are reported to have been deployed to Kursk as part of the Russian counter-offensive, while Pyongyang this week ratified a landmark new defence pact with Moscow.

The North Koreans also just tested a nuclear missile that has enough range to reach the continental United States, and they continue to threaten to invade South Korea.

We will want to watch North Korea very carefully in the months ahead.

We will also want to watch the situation in Taiwan.  Apparently, the Taiwanese government is interested in a “massive $15 billion military weapons deal” once Trump’s term begins…

Taiwan has told the incoming Trump administration it is interested in securing a massive $15 billion military weapons deal with the United States, the Financial Times reported exclusively on Tuesday (November 12).

Taiwanese defense has been brought to the forefront of the world stage amid heightened tensions with China, whose government denies Taiwan’s independence and wants to annex the island nation through war if necessary.

Citing anonymous Taiwanese official sources, the FT said Taipei’s inquiries about a defense deal include interest in procuring the Aegis destroyer, and possibly 60 F-35s, four Advanced Hawkeyes, 10 retired vessels and 400 Patriot missiles.

Needless to say, the Chinese would be absolutely furious if such a deal actually happens.

Our relations with China have been going downhill for quite a while now, and it appears that the incoming administration will have “China hawks” in quite a few key positions…

President-elect Donald Trump has apparently decided to appoint China hawks Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz to the positions of secretary of state and national security adviser respectively.

In addition, Fox News host Pete Hegseth – who once said “China is building an army to defeat America” to the post of defence secretary, while John Ratcliffe is set to be CIA chief. Ratcliffe has called China the top threat to American interests.

This could offer the clearest indication yet of Trump’s intent when it comes to China and Taiwan. While the presidential election winner has called out Taiwan for what he sees as stealing US jobs in the past, chances are he knows the US will have to come to the island democracy’s defence should Beijing invade or blockade.

For a very long time, I have been relentlessly warning my readers about an apocalyptic war with Russia, an apocalyptic war with China, and an apocalyptic war in the Middle East.

Two of those wars have already started, and I believe that it won’t be too long before the third one erupts. Ultimately, historians will probably regard all of these wars as part of one gigantic global war.

We are the World War III generation, and most people out there won’t even realize what is happening until it is too late to do anything about it.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

When that agenda failed (lockdowns blocked, mask mandates ignored, vaccine passports defeated and the CDC caught inflating vaccination numbers), the WEF and Klaus Schwab conveniently disappeared from the media radar.

When globalists tried to permanently establish ESG as a way of life for corporations, they introduced the Council For Inclusive Capitalism, run by Lynn de Rothschild and partnered with the Vatican. When ESG was exposed for what it really is (a bridge to full bore communism in which corporations enforce far left social engineering), the CIC vanished from the limelight as quickly as they appeared.

That said, there is one globalist group that has consistently been in the background during most of these operations – The Atlantic Council. Whenever there’s a propaganda push in play to misdirect the western public, whenever there’s a policy initiative to take away your freedoms, whenever there’s a regional war that might explode into a world war, I always end up finding the fingerprints of the Atlantic Council.

The council was deeply involved in covid propaganda from 2020 onward and they also have their hands in climate change propaganda, but their bread and butter is regional proxy wars.

In my recent article ‘Globalists Are Trying To Escalate The Ukraine War Into WWIII Before The US Election’, I outlined how the council is deeply interwoven into the escalation of the Ukraine war through their Eurasia Center and their Scowcroft Center. They have been stoking conflict in the region for at least a decade with the intention of drawing NATO forces into a direct confrontation with Russia.

In a report published by the Atlantic Council in 2014 titled ‘A Roadmap for Ukraine: Delivering on the Promise of the Maidan’, the group notes:

“Last fall, as Ukrainians massed on the Maidan to demand a better government and closer ties to Europe, the Atlantic Council began to mobilize on Ukraine. An Atlantic Council delegation visited Warsaw and Kyiv in March to map out our strategy, and during the visit of Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to the Council that same month, we launched a one hundred- day campaign to galvanize the transatlantic community behind Ukraine’s democratic future in Europe.

As the crisis worsened, we convened at the highest levels, making vital connections between Ukrainian, American, and European policymakers and thought leaders. We deployed our substantial expertise to launch “red team” exercises that anticipated Russia’s actions and outlined strategies to respond to likely scenarios. Our rapid response working groups (“tiger teams”) made recommendations on issues fundamental to Ukraine’s success. An Atlantic Council delegation delivered this report, which brings all of these findings together, to Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and other leaders in Kyiv the first week of July. The findings are also being shared with American and European policymakers…”

On Ukraine’s security policy, the Council advised both NATO and Ukraine officials.  The document goes on to outline how NATO could covertly and overtly engage with Ukraine to strengthen their chances of joining with the EU over time; a move which Vladimir Putin claims was one of the very reasons for his invasion of the Donbas.  Finally, the paper described how NATO could foster a proxy war against Russia through Ukraine without directly declaring war on Russia.  As the Council states:

“Russia’s aggression provides an opportunity of strategic clarity and urgency that should be used to expedite building a robust, modern, and capable Ukrainian defense and security establishment…”

I believe the Atlantic Council is a root instigator behind every globalist scheme to trigger a larger war between the East and the West. Their ideal scenario seems to be the creation of a proxy conflict that acts as a first domino in a chain that leads to world war, a bit like DARPA’s “Linchpin Theory” which I have written about in the past.

To be clear, the council is not only interested in Ukraine and Russia. They’re happy to embroil Americans in a larger war wherever they can.

This past week, the Atlantic Council has published another war scenario report dealing with Iran titled ‘The Future of US Strategy Toward Iran: A Bipartisan Roadmap For The Next Administration’. The goal of the report is to influence a new defense doctrine with a mission to insert the US directly in the middle of the burgeoning war between Iran and Israel.

As the report states:

“In simple terms, the goal was to develop a US policy toward Iran, not a Democratic or Republican one. We termed the effort the Iran Strategy Project (ISP). And when we began recruiting experts to join our advisory committee and working group, we did so with two overriding principles in mind. First, ideological diversity and bipartisanship could not just be talking points—they were requirements. The wild swings of US policy toward Iran over the last decade created significant policy gaps that Iran exploited to more rapidly advance its regional malign influence and nuclear program…”

The assumption in the notion of a “bipartisan” posture on Iran is that there is common ground to be harvested between conservatives and leftists when it comes to war in the region. To be sure, the Democrats and the Neo-Cons are in full agreement on most things.  But Neo-Cons are not conservatives and the political base on both sides of the aisle has little interest in another war in the Middle East.

The wild card here is Trump. The establishment media reports that Iran hacked the Trump campaign’s election strategies and gave them to the Harris camp. There are also rumors spread by US intelligence agencies that Iran was working to have Trump assassinated.  Are these claims true? There’s little public evidence available to prove it.

Maybe Iran really wants to take Trump down. Or, maybe this is part of a plot to ensure that Trump backs a full blown war with Iran should he win the election.  Trump has said repeatedly that he intends to end the war in Ukraine upon his return to the White House. This would ruin over a decade of planning by the Atlantic Council. But what if they can sink the US into a different conflict with the same potential for a world war? That’s what Iran is – Another linchpin.

The council asserts that they will seek to tie the US inexorably to the fate of Israel by positioning a permanent American military force in the region:

“Deterring the threat posed by Iran and its proxies requires a multifaceted approach that includes maintaining an adequate military presence in the region and a willingness to respond with appropriate force to attacks on US interests and those of US allies; working with allies to enhance cooperation on regional security; collaborating with partners on ways to reduce conflicts and instability that create openings for Iran to exploit; and expanding security cooperation beyond traditional realms.”

They also want the US to create its own red line declaration; if Iran obtains nukes, then Iran must be destroyed (keep in mind, it is confirmed that Israel already has its own nuclear arsenal).

“The United States needs to maintain a declaratory policy, explicitly enunciated by the president, that it will not tolerate Iran getting a nuclear weapon and will use military force to prevent this development if all other measures fail. To support this policy, the United States should refrain from stressing that it does not seek conflict with Iran; announce that it will conduct yearly joint exercises with Israel, such as Juniper Oak.”

Juniper Oak was a joint live fire war exercise organized by US and Israeli defense forces in 2023 which is viewed as a theoretical trial run for an attack on Iran. War between Iran and the US has been a sought after outcome for globalists for a long time, but it seems to me that they are particularly interested in roping Trump into the agenda.  The following statement from the Atlantic Council report is highly suspicious:

“Because assassination plots against current or former US officials are a direct threat to US sovereignty, and in order to enhance deterrence, the United States needs to consider a standing policy of a kinetic military response against Iran in retaliation for a successful—or even close to successful—plot…”

This seems to be a direct reference or message to Trump concerning the rumors of Iran contracting his death. Given there have been at least two assassination attempts on Trump so far, I would not be surprised if after he wins the election new information is suddenly released linking Iran to at least one attack.  I would also expect a major terror attack in the US within the next year (real or false flag).

This is not to say that Trump wants war; I can’t make that claim one way or the other yet.  To his credit he was one of the few presidents that avoided the expansion of US conflicts during his first term. But as I warned back in 2016, he had a LOT of ghouls in his cabinet whispering in his ear. Keeping the Atlantic Council (among others) away from the Oval Office and Trump should be a priority in 2025.

The council appears to be positioning for a war under either administration – A war with Russia under Harris or a war with Iran under Trump.  I’m not a fan of Islamic fundamentalism, but a conflict between the US and Iran is exactly what the globalists want because it can easily metastasize like a cancer.

The council notes that there are already 40,000 US troops spread across the Middle East, and that this force could be reorganized into a contingent for rapid response to Iran, along with new troops added over time. Of course, they acknowledge that Iran’s situation has changed over the years, with far closer strategic associations with China and Russia:

“This requires recognition that Iran’s relationship with Russia and China has evolved in a manner that makes it difficult to convince either country to support new economic or military restrictions against Iran…”

In other words, the council understands that a war with Iran could escalate into a larger conflict with Russia and perhaps China.

The fight between Israel and multiple nations in the Middle East does not concern me. I have no stake in the success of either side. I’m an American and I care about America, but there are powerful people out there that WANT us to become invested in foreign wars. They want us to pick a side and they want us to cheer for American troops being sent to fight and die over these foreign conflagrations.

The greater concern here is that one day these proxy wars and regional wars will explode into something that lands on our doorstep. In the past Americans have been lured into apathy when it comes to foreign entanglements because we never have to deal with them in our daily lives. They’ve always been out of sight and out of mind. In the next war, we may not have that luxury.

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In other words, we are on the brink of the sort of all-out war between Israel and Iran that I specifically warned about in a chapter entitled “The 3 Wars Of The Apocalypse” that was featured in a book that I published last year.  I know that virtually everyone in the U.S. is really focused on the upcoming election at the moment, but what is going on in the Middle East right now is really big news.

We just witnessed the largest Israeli attack on Iran ever.  It is being reported that “dozens of fighter jets” were involved in a massive operation that struck targets all over Iran and Syria…

Dozens of fighter jets hit ballistic missile factories, air defence batteries and missile launchers. Israel launched a simultaneous attack on military targets in central and southern Syria. Among the pilots and navigators involved in the Iran strikes were a number of women, praised by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) for their bravery.

It is thought the secret research base near Tehran was developing ‘kamikaze drone’ technology, designed to loiter over a target until instructed to attack.

According to Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari, the Israelis now have “broader aerial freedom of operation in Iran”, and this will make it easier for the IDF the next time it becomes necessary to strike the Iranians…

Israel’s first open attack on Iran targeted missile production facilities and air defense systems, the military said Saturday, tempering fears of a broader foray but giving Israeli aircraft the ability to operate more freely in Iranian skies as the region entered a new phase of escalation.

“Israel now has broader aerial freedom of operation in Iran,” an Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said in a statement after the attack concluded. The remarks signaled Israel’s willingness to strike Iran in the future, even as Israeli officials said the attacks were tailored to minimize casualties and allow Iran to deny major damage.

The Biden administration is trying to play down the size and scope of the Israeli operation, and Joe Biden is desperately hoping that the Iranians will choose not to respond…

“It looks like they didn’t hit anything other than military targets,” President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters in Philadelphia, said of the Israeli strikes. “I hope that this is the end.”

We should all hope that this is the end of it. But it appears that the Iranians have already made their decision.

The Daily Mail is reporting that Iran has “vowed revenge” and that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is using the phrase “no limits” to describe what Iran might do…

Iran vowed revenge yesterday after Israel’s missile blitz on Tehran destroyed up to 20 key military sites, including a top-secret research facility.

Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran had ‘no limits’ in defending its interests and was obliged to take retaliatory action.

Those are very strong words.

And we are being told that Araghchi has already delivered a letter to the United Nations that declares that Iran has the right to respond to the Israeli attack…

Iran’s top diplomat has condemned Israel’s unprecedented attack on multiple military sites across the Islamic Republic and has asserted Tehran’s right to respond to the latest escalation amid a year-long Middle East conflict in a letter obtained by Newsweek.

The letter was attributed to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and sent Saturday to United Nations (U.N.) Secretary-General António Guterres and U.N. Security Council President Pascale Christine Baeriswyl via Iranian Permanent Representative to the U.N. Amir Saeid Iravani.

According to Araghchi, Iran “reserves its inherent right to legal and legitimate response to these criminal attacks at the appropriate time”.

To me, it sounds like the Iranians do not plan to respond immediately. But a response is definitely coming. And the Israelis have already warned that they will hit Iran again if the Iranians strike back.

So this is it. The big war between Israel and Iran is here.

Of course the big war between Israel and Hezbollah has already been raging. In recent days, fierce fighting in southern Lebanon has resulted in a substantial number of Israeli casualties…

Ten Israeli soldiers were killed and at least 28 more wounded to varying degrees amid heavy battles against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Israel Defense Forces announced Thursday and Friday.

The soldiers were killed in three separate incidents in just over 24 hours. Since the start of the ground offensive in Lebanon, 27 soldiers have fallen amid the heavy fighting.

In the most recent incident, five reservists serving in the 8th Hazaken Brigade’s 89th Battalion were killed, and 19 others were wounded, with four in serious condition, when a Hezbollah rocket struck a supply point at a building in a southern Lebanese village.

We aren’t hearing much about this from the big news networks in the United States, are we?

If they give too much attention to what is going on in the Middle East right now, that could make Kamala Harris and the Biden administration look bad, and so they are being pretty quiet about it.

The big news networks in the United States are also being pretty quiet about the stunning Russian advances that are happening in eastern Ukraine…

With Russia advancing at the fastest rate in eastern Ukraine since the first months of the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been pleading with the West to allow Kyiv to fire deep into Russia with Western missiles.

The Biden administration’s plan for the war in Ukraine has completely and utterly failed.

Billions and billions and billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars have been poured into that war, but the Russians are still winning. In fact, the Russians are gobbling up more territory with each passing day. And now the Middle East is on the verge of erupting in flames.

We were warned about these wars way in advance, but most people still aren’t paying much attention.

What will it take before most of the population finally starts waking up?

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

The detailed 194-page document includes an overview of chief nuclear-armed powers and rivals of the United States, focusing especially on countries with “mature nuclear weapons programs” which are said to be “increasing stockpiles” or else “modernizing their legacy stockpiles by incorporating advanced technologies to penetrate or avoid missile defense systems” – such as North Korea.

“Countries are also developing nuclear weapons with smaller yields, improved precision, and increased range for military or coercive use,” the DIA says.

One nation’s program is gaining the most attention as a result of the DIA report, and that’s China. The intelligence agency assesses the country under President Xi is undergoing a huge and rapid expanse of its nuclear arsenal, which is the biggest in its history, assuming the projection is accurate.

The “Nuclear Challenges 2024” assesses that China is on track to possess more than 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030.

The report contextualizes that this accelerated growth is being drive primarily by China’s strategic competition with the Untied States.

Below is a section providing the DIA’s bird’s eye view summary of China’s nuclear arsenal plans and expansion:

China. Beijing has far surpassed earlier growth estimates assessed in 2018, and is currently exceeding 500 deliverable nuclear warheads in its stockpile. By 2030, we estimate that China will have more than 1,000 operational nuclear warheads— most of which will be fielded on systems capable of ranging the continental United States. China probably also seeks lower-yield nuclear warhead capabilities to provide proportional response options that its high-yield warheads cannot deliver. For example, China is increasing its stockpile of theater-range delivery systems, such as the DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).

Below is a current snapshot of the global nuclear stockpile situation, as it stood by middle of this year…

You will find more infographics at Statista

As Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, currently, there are estimated to be 9,585 nuclear warheads in military stockpiles for potential use across nine countries, with Russia and the U.S. accounting for 8,088 of these.

There are also an estimated 2,536 retired warheads that are yet to be dismantled. China has added 90 nuclear warheads to its arsenal since January 2023, increasing from 410 warheads to 500.

This is according to data from the peace research institute SIPRI. India and North Korea have also expanded their arsenals, bringing their total figures to an estimated 170 warheads and 50 warheads, respectively.

The two European nuclear powers, France and the UK, together have 515 operational nuclear warheads. With the exception of North Korea, none of the nations in possession of nuclear warheads have tested them since the 1990s.