Jarh L. Rodriguez’s Reviews > War > Status Update

William McRaven former US special operations commander said: As Americans, we should be frightened—deeply afraid for the future of the nation. When good men and women can’t speak the truth, when facts are inconvenient, when integrity and character no longer matter, when presidential ego and self-preservation are more important than national security—then there is nothing left to stop the triumph of evil.

Polls in Israel since October 7 showed 65 percent of Israelis opposed a two state solution, a complete reversal from 2012 when polls indicated 61 percent of Israelis supported it

“Giving the Palestinians a state after the worst terror attack in Israel’s history and the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust? That makes total sense” said Dermer sarcastically

[yet a Palestinian state is long overdue. It was mandated by UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (II) in 1947 before Jewish militias revolted, kicked out the Brits, and expelled 700k Palestinians from their homes]

Before October 7, because of a 16-year blockade by Israel, 95 percent of Palestinians living in Gaza already did not have access to clean water and 80 percent relied on humanitarian aid for food

Biden would privately refer to Netanyahu as “a bad fucking guy” and a “liar”

The United Stated was the first nation to recognize the state of Israel, 11 minutes after its founding, 75 years ago

US intelligence said Hezbollah was not planning an attack. Biden told Bibi to not attack Lebanon preemptively so as to not escalate the Gaza war [genocide] into a regional war. Bibi said he will discuss this with his cabinet taking into account Israeli interests first. Biden said US will support Israel if it gets attacked but NOT if it starts it.
[this was 2024ish. The rest is history]

Netanyahu had approved of Qatar aid to Hamas on the grounds that it would contain and stabilize Hamas in Gaza. For him, a contained Hamas leadership in Gaza was his preference, as it greatly reduced pressure on Israel to negotiate a two-state solution with the Palestinians. There was no push to recognize Hamas as a head of state. Now it was obvious Bibi’s strategy was a catastrophic failure

"The way you usually win wars is they run out of people, they run out of money, they run out of weapons," [Lindsay] Graham said “So who's going to run out of people, money, and weapons first”

Ukraine was Russia’s buffer separating it from NATO, which has expanded over the last three decades to include over a dozen former Soviet and Soviet-aligned republics