Israel Attacks Lebanon, US Sends Troops to Israel, Youtube Censorship, US Missile Strikes in Russia, more...

Radio Interview on Political Misfits 24/09/24

Welcome back to Political Misfits , where we bring you news, politics and culture - without the red and blue treatment. I’m John Kiriakou here with Michelle Witte.

We’re joined by foreign affairs and security analyst Mark Sleboda.

Live Updates: Thousands Flee Southern Lebanon as Israel Strikes Hezbollah Targets - The New York Times

In Lebanon's Capital, Israel's Strikes Stoke Fears of a Full-On War

Live updates: Thousands flee homes in Lebanon as toll from Israeli strikes rises to 558, officials say

Video: Former CIA director Leon Panetta says Israel-Hezbollah conflict has ‘crossed a threshold’ | CNN

Debate over Ukraine weapons restrictions divides allies, administration

Biden, Addressing U.N., Will Argue His Vision Has ‘Produced Results’

Israel has continued striking Lebanon, concentrating attacks on the south of the country, but also hitting targets in portions of the east and the north. More than 550 people are dead, according to Lebanese officials, nearly 2,000 wounded, and many more are now displaced. Israel’s justification for this series of attacks over the past week is that for months now, tens of thousands of Israelis have been displaced from the north, because of the relatively low-level exchange of fire that’s been underway with Hezbollah for nearly a year now. A week ago, Israel set that as a war goal. As with many of Israel’s war goals, this maybe can be achieved through escalated conflict, but definitely could be achieved with a ceasefire in Gaza - though even that would be kicking a can down a road without some longer term plan for coexistence that no one here expects to get from this Israeli government. 

Amid Israel-Hezbollah strikes, Lebanon says only US can stop fighting | Reuters

So. If Israel’s goal is for its citizens to be able to return to towns along its border with Lebanon, how quickly will this new operation, Northern Arrows, achieve that? 

The US announced yesterday that it was sending more American troops to the region, but wouldn’t get more specific than that. The US has about 40k troops there already, but they won’t say how many more are going or where they’ll be stationed. Reuters was pointing out that this lack of detail is unusual, and I wanted to get your response. According to Reuters, the US is usually very forthcoming about troop numbers and directions in instances like these, because they intend for these deployments to be deterrents to further conflict. In this case, however, Reuters analyzes that the US doesn’t want to do anything to escalate things further, and that’s why this announcement has been so vague. I will say, for once, that makes some sense, but I wanted to see if you have any other idea why Washington would say they’re sending more troops to the Middle East but not give any more detail than that.  

https://www.yahoo.com/news/iran-president-warns-irreversible-consequences-173224589.html

What do you make of the comments of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian so far? Yesterday in New York, he said once again, that Iran wants peace, that Israel is attempting to draw the region into war, and that Iran doesn’t want to be the cause of instability in the region. How long will Iran refuse the bait? And do you expect Israel to take action against Iran directly if it continues this restraint?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/24/ukraine-weapons-limits-biden-permission-atacms/

On the topic of American restraint, the Washington Post today has a piece out on the US maintaining restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western missiles, refusing, so far, to officially allow Ukraine to use those weapons to strike deeper into Russia. When Joe Biden and Kier Starmer met earlier this month, there was a lot of speculation that the White House would give Kiev the OK it wanted. But that hasn’t happened - and the debate, according to the Post, is dividing both Washington and Kiev, but also Washington and some European allies, as well as Washington itself. Are you surprised that Biden is maintaining these restrictions? Do we have to give Joe Biden some credit right now for balking at escalating this war?
‘Private deal’ could let Ukraine fire missiles into Russia (thetimes.com)
SITREP 9/20/24: Ukraine Allies Squeezed by Weapons Drought as Clock Ticks (substack.com)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/iran-president-warns-irreversible-consequences-173224589.html

OK. Mark, tell us what happened to your YouTube channel yesterday! 

(2) Youtube Has Censored "The Real Politick with Mark Sleboda" and other channels critical of US foreign policy of Hegemony. (substack.com)

https://www.rt.com/russia/604424-tiktok-deletes-sputnik-accounts/

Is this related to the ongoing crackdown on Russian media? Because just a couple of days ago, TikTok announced that it had removed a bunch of accounts - namely, RT International, Sputnik Serbia, Sputnik Afrique, Sputnik Africa, Sputnik International, Sputnik Brasil, Sputnik Mundo and Sputnik Indonesia. TikTok’s statement on the move yesterday began like this: “Over the last week, our work to protect TikTok during the US elections has included:

• Removing accounts associated with Rossiya Segodnya and TV-Novosti for engaging in covert influence operations on TikTok which violates our Community Guidelines. Previously, these accounts were restricted in the EU and UK. Globally, under our state-affiliated media policy, their content was also ineligible for the For You feed to limit attempts to influence foreign audiences on topics of global events and affairs, and their accounts were labeled as state-controlled media to provide important context about the source of the content. The removed accounts will be reported in our September Covert Influence Operations report.

OK - for one, I don’t know what they’re accusing the accounts of doing, but calling yourself “Sputnik Indonesia,” for example, and being labeled Russian media doesn’t seem very covert to me. But also … what does Sputnik Brasil - with an S - Sputnik Mundo, Sputnik Serbia - what do these accounts have to do with the US election? What’s this actually about?