[DoD] Following Operation Eagle Claw, the 1980 Iran hostage rescue attempt, significant lessons were learned, including the need for the creation of a U.S. Special Operations Command and improved joint training, planning and execution.
Today, 45 years after Operation Eagle Claw, those lessons, as well as the professionalism and dedication of the service members involved in the ill-fated mission, were remembered during a ceremony held at Arlington National Cemetery.
OPERATION LEAD-UP
On Jan. 16, 1979, the pro-American Iranian government under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi abdicated. In the weeks that followed, the U.S. evacuated about 54,000 military and civilians from Iran as Islamic fundamentalists, led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, fomented anti-American demonstrations.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
04/27/2025 09:52 ||
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#1
Having worked SOTF & JSOC as civilian IT Consultant (88-92) and had Walt Shumate (The Mustache) as my next door neighbor and safety officer until his death. It was interesting to hear a 1st hand view of the mission.
Right or wrong, from what I heard.
Putting together what I heard, I came away with the personal opinion feeling the mission was hamstrung due to, too many DOD branches involved and a lack of defined DOD leadership roles and DC needing a political solution.
More than a few said that's why JSOC & T-160 were created.
[Federalist] Not a day seems to go by without some activist lower court judge issuing an overreaching injunction blocking part of President Trump’s agenda. How can you further damage what you no longer possess ?
Throughout Wednesday and Thursday alone, judges across multiple venues handed down decrees barring numerous executive actions taken by the president since returning to office. From DEI to election policy, these cases are but a few of the more than 170 lawsuits Democrats and left-wing political actors have filed to sabotage Trump and the 77 million Americans who voted for him.
Despite this clear effort to destroy American democracy via a judicial coup, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) seems to have no interest in stopping it. The nation’s highest court has had ample opportunities to halt these lower court judges’ destructive antics but has repeatedly declined to do so.
The first notable instance of this cowardice came to fruition in early March. In a 5-4 decision, a majority on the court declined a request from the Trump administration to shut down a ruling from a Biden-appointed district court judge. The judge had ordered the State Department and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to disburse roughly $2 billion in foreign grants to nongovernmental groups.
[NY Post] To most Americans, the big problem with the Democratic Party is that it has moved too far left in recent years. If you’re among those who believe that, brace yourself.
The worst is yet to come.
A serious push is underway to move the party even further away from the political center, embrace economic plans close to pure socialism and launch radical woke culture battles.
It sounds like a bad joke, but it’s really happening. And it’s a movement that goes beyond the socialist fever dreams of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Although some of the push is a reaction to Donald Trump’s election in November and his embrace of America First policies, the fury reflects more than just Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Consider the lead sentence in a recent fundraising email.
“Democratic voters want a more progressive party,” began a pitch from a far-left group called Justice Democrats.
To my surprise, a legitimate national poll supports the claim, and others hint at the same trend.
Survey USA, in a poll taken earlier this month, found that 50% of Dems said they want the party to “become more progressive,” 24% said it should “stay the same” and just 18% said “become more moderate.”
Go for it, guys — become your truest selves to most efficiently drive away the rest of the normies, and sending even more of you into political exile.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2025 05:12 ||
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#1
It is a strategy that will maximize donations and minimize electoral results.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/27/2025 11:36 Comments ||
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[RedState] Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shocked the Defense establishment Thursday when he ordered the dismissal of dozens of Defense advisory committee members. "To support the new strategic direction and policy priorities of the Department, we require fresh thinking to drive bold changes," wrote Hegseth in a memo dismissing the committee members. "Therefore, informed by the recently concluded 45-day review, I direct the conclusion of service of all members of each DoD advisory committee, board, or panel subject to the attached memorandum (hereafter collectively referred to as 'DoD advisory committees'), consistent with applicable law."
While most of the attention has focused on the demolition of the Defense Policy Board and the defenestration of Obama factotum and harbinger of geopolitical disaster, Susan Rice, the impact goes much farther; see Hegseth Makes Move About Advisory Board That's Sure to Infuriate Dems...Especially Susan Rice — RedState.
Federal advisory committees are ubiquitous. "Federal advisory committees are created by Congress, Presidents, and executive branch agencies to gain expertise and policy advice from individuals outside the federal government. While they may be called by other names—such as task forces, panels, commissions, working groups, boards, councils, or conferences—the practical purpose of federal advisory committees typically remains the same: to facilitate an exchange of policy ideas among experts and affected parties and to provide recommendations to the federal government. Since 1972, many federal advisory committees have been subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA; 5 U.S.C. Chapter 10)."
The Department of Defense has 41 advisory committees created under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, ranking it fifth among federal agencies in terms of committees. Health and Human Services has about 260.
One or two makes sense, or even five or ten if they’re specialized, but these numbers are absurd. Are the committee members paid, or is this all from the nobility of their heart?
#1
This isn't about R and D. "the Left"? In the Pentagon? Absurd.
IT's about the deep state, our real rulers, vs. America First who is trying to seize control of power and put it back in the hands of the people.
#2
Rice, Obama, Brennan are all senior officers of the Deep State and have been for years. You simply cannot put a price on free D.C. office space, clearances, and access to NIPRNET/SIPRNET (secure communications).
Hegs knows these Deep State moles do NOT "advise" they simply instruct and direct.
#4
Biden fired Sean Spicer out of one of those positions. Sean sued and lost if Federal Court. The verbiage of the ruling set a precedent that Trump is using to pump the federal septic tank.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/27/2025 11:34 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] The issue of Hezbollah’s arms is "present on the table of indirect dialogue between President Joseph Aoun and Hezbollah’s leadership" and Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri
...perennial Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians... is following up on the matter, the PSP’s al-Anbaa news portal quoted "credible sources" as saying.
The sources attributed the latest "conflicting stances" by Hezbollah’s leaders to "raising the ceiling of its demands regarding its role in the reconstruction of the South, its political future and the number of members who will be integrated into the army and security forces."
"What President Aoun mentioned prior to his travel to Doha about his rejection of repeating (Iraq’s) Popular Mobilization Forces in Leb ...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade.... and his rejection of the creation of a special army unit for Hezbollah’s fighters are part of this dialogue, to which (Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim) Qassem responded in an escalatory tone," the sources added.
"Some escalatory stances of Hezbollah’s leaders reflect personal wishes based on a wrong analysis of the U.S.-Iranian negotiations and of the directions of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard," the sources went on to say.
[IsraelNationalNews] The fall of Bashar al-Assad was supposed to signal the beginning of a new era in Syria. After years of civil war, mass slaughter, and regional chaos, many hoped that Assad’s downfall would allow for a genuine peace to emerge — a Syria rebuilt, reformed, and reintegrated into the global community.
But in the Middle East, hope is often the first casualty.
The reality on the ground tells a darker story. Assad may be gone, but the forces that sustained him have not disappeared. The Alawite sect, once his iron fist over Syria, remains intact, battered but dangerous, operating from the shadows. And in Assad’s place has emerged a new strongman: Ahmed al-Sharaa, a man Western policymakers are already dangerously close to misreading.
Sharaa presents himself as a pragmatist. He speaks the right language: peace with Israel, joining the Abraham Accords, removing foreign fighters, rebuilding Syria’s shattered economy. It is a tantalizing message, especially for an exhausted United States eager to disentangle from endless Middle Eastern entanglements, and for an Israel that prefers a quiet northern front to a chaotic one. Sharaa tells American congressmen and Israeli envoys what they want to hear — and they are tempted to believe him.
But belief in Sharaa’s promises is a mistake that could cost Israel dearly.
Ahmed al-Sharaa is no moderate. He is not a Gorbachev seeking glasnost. He is the polished product of a radical Islamist movement that cut its teeth on the battlefields of Syria’s civil war. His organization, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, was once Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria. Though it rebranded and distanced itself from direct ties to al-Qaeda years ago, the underlying ideology — Islamist supremacism, militant opportunism — remains embedded in its DNA.
What Sharaa has mastered is not moderation, but marketing. He understands that in the post-Assad vacuum, survival depends not on brute force alone but on international legitimacy. He knows that Syria’s economy, decimated by war and international sanctions, cannot recover without foreign investment, aid, and a lifting of economic isolation. He knows that waving the banner of peace — however insincere — is his ticket to that relief.
This is not the first time the world has been tempted by promises of Syrian moderation. Hafez al-Assad and Bashar al-Assad both played this game expertly, promising cooperation when convenient, only to revert to terror and repression once their immediate goals were achieved. The Alawite regime survived not by embracing reform, but by weaponizing diplomacy, playing enemies against each other, and using periods of false peace to strengthen their grip.
Sharaa, for all his fresh image, is drawing from the same playbook.
His flirtation with normalization should be seen for what it is: an act of political desperation, not a sincere transformation. His regime faces internal instability, growing resentment from Syria’s Sunni majority, and the continued threat of insurgent groups. Economically, Syria is on life support, with entire sectors collapsed and basic services nonexistent. Joining the Abraham Accords, or at least talking about it, is a way to pry open the gates to international assistance — not a reflection of a real philosophical shift toward coexistence.
Israel, in particular, must approach Sharaa’s overtures with ice-cold skepticism. While he may speak of peace, Sharaa remains ideologically hostile to Israel’s existence. His Islamist backers still harbor deep-seated animosity toward the Jewish state. The Syrian people, after years of regime propaganda and a national narrative built around resistance to Israel, are not prepared for genuine normalization. Even if Sharaa were sincere, he would be politically incapable of delivering real peace. Genuine peace - as distinct from submission to superior force - is, simply, not part of Arab Islamic "culture". Hell, history shows, it's not really a part of the rest of human cultures.
...The United States should be equally wary. The temptation to view Sharaa as a convenient partner for regional stability is strong, especially in a political climate where American voters want fewer foreign entanglements. But the lessons of the past two decades are clear: cosmetic moderation by authoritarian or Islamist leaders almost always conceals deeper currents of extremism and instability.
...For Israel, for the United States, and for anyone serious about regional stability, the correct posture is firm skepticism. Dialogue can occur, but without illusions. Military deterrence must be maintained. Economic pressure must remain until Sharaa proves, not with words but with irreversible actions, that he is willing to dismantle the Islamist and militant infrastructure that threatens the region.
A strong yes to every word.
Posted by: Grom the Affective ||
04/27/2025 02:03 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
