Brett Wilkins Jun 16, 2025
Flight-tracking websites showed dozens of Air Force aerial refueling planes departing from military bases in the United States and heading to Europe on Sunday, fueling speculation of direct U.S. involvement in the widening Israeli-Iranian war.
Military-focused news sites reported that around 30 U.S. Air Force KC-135R and KC-46A tankers were identified by flight-tracking software in what The Times of Israelcalled an “unprecedented mass deployment” to Europe.
Wasn’t Trump the peaceful dove?
No US president is a peace dove. Between supporting proxie wars to police actions to declared war, they all end up getting people killed by bombs.
Everyone knew he wasn’t going to be able to curtail democratic elections without the excuse of a war. This is on schedule.
I always thought Trump could curtail democratic elections without the excuse of war … by relying on a convenient terrorist attack instead.
Nah, a war in the middle east is normal. Nobody would accept a normal situation as justification to cancel elections.
No.
We had a lot of “I’m willing to make deals with anyone” rhetoric from the Trump campaign that low-info voters took to mean he was anti-war.
But the underlying Pentagon leadership hasn’t significantly changed between Biden and Trump (or Bush and Trump, for that matter). Its all the same neoconservative think tanks writing variations on Project For A New American Century for the modern government.
The idea that you were going to elect an anti-war president went out the window during the primaries. Vanishingly few federal office holders have shown opposition to attacking Iran. Less than what we had in 2003 against Iraq.
Everyone from Richie Torres to Mike Lee seem on board with a brand new Holocaust in the Middle East.
That’s not strictly true. Trump purged a lot of leadership that was loyal to the Constitution rather than personally to him.
But your overall point about the war-hawkishness remains valid.