What we know so far about rescue of US airman in Iran … and Trump’s “expletive-laden” social media post

What we know so far about rescue of US airman in Iran … and Trump’s “expletive-laden” social media post

The US has rescued the missing crew member of the US F-15 fighter jet which was shot down on Friday over southern Iran.

US President Donald Trump confirmed the rescue on social media on Sunday morning after the US military “pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations” in its history. The officer is “now SAFE and SOUND!” he added.

Two crew members were on board the jet, and both ejected from the plane. One of them had already been rescued by US forces.


Trump issues expletive-laden social media post

Warning: The below post contains very strong, uncensored language that some may find offensive.

US President Donald Trump has published an expletive-laden post on his Truth Social platform, in which he threatens Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Seriously? The BBC is upset about that?

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Conrad Black: Middle East is on the brink of peace, thanks to Trump

Conrad Black: Middle East is on the brink of peace, thanks to Trump

Even after President Trump’s televised address on Wednesday night, the obtuseness and antagonism of the Napoleonic military geniuses in much of the world’s media think that the Iran War could be a quagmire and stalemate without a formal Iranian surrender. Trump repeated that his objectives are the permanent end of Iran’s nuclear military ambitions and of its support of terrorism in much of the world. In furtherance of that he will strike them “very hard” for another month or so. This can only mean that he will, if necessary use amphibious or airborne forces to take over the distribution of Iran’s oil, while destroying its power grid and closing its ports as tightly as its airspace. This is a logical conclusion of the war, in which the United States has incurred eight fatalities in combat and five others accidentally. Neither this small number nor the material cost of about $50 billion is onerous to the United States.

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#MilitaryTok reactions to Iran war stray from White House messaging: ‘Now I’m regretting everything’

#MilitaryTok reactions to Iran war stray from White House messaging: ‘Now I’m regretting everything’

As Trump’s administration aims to bring ‘warrior culture’ back to the military, young service members express anxiety and snark online over potential deployment

Iposts coming from the White House were to be believed, the US-Israel war on Iran looks something like scenes from Top Gun, Braveheart and Deadpool – or how a fifth-grade boy might imagine combat. The Trump administration has also presented Operation Epic Fury as a video game, borrowing gen Z parlance to describe the US armed forces as “locked in” on the conflict.

Such macho posturing squares with secretary of defense Pete Hegseth’s desire to bring “warrior culture” back to the military. The former Fox News host has railed against DEI, “fat troops” and “beardos” (troops with beards), and envisioned a military full of “the right people” who fit his imposed standards of virility and masculinity.


Only at the Guardian!

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Iran has 48 hours to make a deal, says Trump, or US will unleash ‘hell’

Iran has 48 hours to make a deal, says Trump, or US will unleash ‘hell’

US President Donald Trump on Saturday said Iran had 48 hours left to make a deal on opening the vital Strait of Hormuz or face “Hell”.

“Remember when I gave Iran 10 days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

The waterway is vital to the global oil and gas trade.


Also …

Search for missing US crew member of downed fighter jet enters second day

US search and rescue efforts for the missing second crew member of the downed F-15E fighter jet continued into a second day as Iran came under heavy bombing and Israel extended the war in Lebanon.

A pilot had been rescued on Friday after the F-15E Strike Eagle became the first US plane to be downed over Iran during the five-week-long war, but the second of the two-strong crew has not been accounted for.

Iranian media released pictures of a wreckage, including a distinctive F-15 tail fin, and a used ejector seat on Friday, with state media and businesses in the country offering a bounty if the missing crew member could be captured

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Chinese firms market Iran war intelligence ‘exposing’ U.S. forces

Chinese firms market Iran war intelligence ‘exposing’ U.S. forces

As the war in Iran erupted five weeks ago, social media sleuths across Western and Chinese platforms flagged a wave of viral posts detailing equipment at U.S. bases, the movements of American carrier groups and granular breakdowns of how military aircraft were assembling for strikes on Tehran.

The intelligence came from a fast growing new market: Chinese firms — some with links to the People’s Liberation Army — marrying artificial intelligence with open-source data to market information they claim can “expose” the movements of U.S. forces.

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Iran Uses Asymmetric Warfare to Inflict Pain From a Weakened Position

Iran Uses Asymmetric Warfare to Inflict Pain From a Weakened Position

Iran’s downing of two U.S. warplanes is the most striking evidence yet that, despite enormous military losses, Tehran can still significantly raise the cost of continuing the conflict for the U.S. and Israel.

The shootdowns were the most successful demonstration of Iran’s military strategy to inflict tactical defeats on the U.S. and its allies in hopes not of winning militarily, but of surviving and sapping their will to continue the fight.

The F-15E jet fighter and A-10 attack plane were the first U.S. or Israeli aircraft to be shot down in thousands of sorties flown in Iranian airspace. A massive search and rescue effort extricated one crew member but at least one additional crew member was unaccounted for.

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Britons cool on America and the ‘special relationship’

Britons cool on America and the ‘special relationship’

More than two in five voters think Britain is too close to the United States and should distance itself from the “special relationship”, polling for The Times has found.

The YouGov survey found that the number of people who thought the UK was too close to the US had risen by nine percentage points to 43 per cent since April last year, the last time the question was asked.

Only 18 per cent believed that the UK should get closer to the US and 29 per cent said the relationship now was about right. Ten per cent said they did not know.

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A Foolish NATO Was a Big Loser in the Iran War

A Foolish NATO Was a Big Loser in the Iran War

NATO endures on American backing while many allies demand U.S. action abroad but withhold it when asked, exposing a widening gap between rhetoric and responsibility.

NATO members are not legally required to join any member’s military operations that are not formally sanctioned by the alliance or not aimed at protecting the homelands of the membership.

But they often do just that.

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1 rescued after U.S. fighter jet crash in Iran; search ongoing for crew member

A U.S. fighter jet crashed in southern Iran on Friday, prompting a frantic search and rescue operation and the recovery of one of the two downed crew members, U.S. officials said.

The condition of the rescued crew member was not immediately clear, and an intense effort was still underway to recover the second, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing operation.

h/t Mauser

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Iran’s president sends propaganda letter addressed to Americans, claiming nation is not a threat to them

Iran’s president has sent a propaganda letter to Americans claiming his country harbors no enmity to ordinary US citizens, according to state-owned outlets.

Despite years of conflict and state-sponsored terrorism, President Masoud Pezeshkian insisted that the idea that Iran was an enemy of the American people was “neither ⁠consistent with historical reality nor ⁠with present-day observable facts.”


“We were only kidding with that Death to America stuff”

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Trump defends decision to attack Iran, says conflict is ‘nearing completion’

Facing economic and political headwinds a month after launching a surprise attack on Iran, President Donald Trump defended the increasingly unpopular conflict Wednesday night, but assured the nation that the military activity in the Middle East was “nearing completion.”

In a speech from the White House, Trump said the United States was on track to complete all of its military objectives “shortly, very shortly” but first there would be a period of military buildup: “We’re going to hit them extremely hard,” he said. “Over the next two to three weeks, we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Age.”


WAPO’s recap of the President’s Address

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President Trump Addresses The Nation

‘I came, I saw, I conquered:’ Trump set to claim victory in Iran at primetime address

President Donald Trump will use a primetime Oval Office address Wednesday night to declare that the month-long war in Iran is winding down, against a backdrop of spiking oil prices and increasingly dismal poll numbers.

The president has telegraphed that message in interviews, social media posts and public comments over the past 24 hours, laying the groundwork for a speech that is expected to claim that all military objectives have been met, according to six people familiar with the planning and granted anonymity to speak candidly. He also intends to harshly scapegoat NATO allies for the biggest unresolved matter of the war, Iran’s ongoing restrictions of shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

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