"Peace, Peace," Says the President, but what we See Is War, War Evermore

More WAR headlines involving the US ALL OVER THE WORLD flooded the news this weekend AND TODAY than I've seen in years.

Sep 30, 2025

In my weekend Deeper Dive, I covered the rapidly rising amplitude of “Risks of the First Direct War between NATO and Russia.” I laid out all the speculation about Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s rushed meeting with all of the top brass in all branches of the US military and placed them in the contest of all the rapid changes in posture around Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Now, I’m going to lay out the numerous new turns of war and conflict that have arisen just one day since. The one thing clear from all of the stories presented was an exponential rise of events with strong threats of World War III being spoken that are starting to sound like more than Putin’s normal saber rattling. Now that Trump gave Europe his approval of shooting down any Russian planes that stray over European air space, things are rapidly heating up.

Here are the big war stories that opened up further since the weekend Deeper Dive:

Large wave of air tankers deployed from US to Europe

Today, we got news today that the US is deploying a wave of air tankers to Europe, as a nation does when it readies its logistics for a major air battle:

The timing coincides with President Trump’s scheduled last-minute meeting with senior military leadership in northern Virginia on Tuesday. Historical precedent is very notable here: the last comparable mass tanker deployment … preceded U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure by five days.

We’re talking no small number of these huge areal tankers:

Roughly a dozen U.S. Air Force KC-135R/T “Stratotanker” Aerial-Refueling Tankers are currently up from a number of airbases across the United States, heading northeast and preparing to cross the Atlantic towards Europe, with several appearing to be enroute to RAF Mildenhall in England,… which typically implies that the U.S. or NATO is responding to an urgent military need … but this can also be done for exercise purposes….
Other assets are airborne which are not visible on ADS-B tracking data.

US considering supplying Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, capable of hitting Moscow

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week revealed in an interview with Axios that he asked President Trump on to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, which would allow Ukrainian forces to strike deep into Russia, even as far away as Moscow.
Zelensky made the dubious argument that this would force President Putin to the negotiating table to make significant compromise and end the war. Zelensky suggested that the Ukrainians might not even have to use the Tomahawks it was given, only that the threat alone could be enough to scare Putin.

Vice President JD Vance said today that President Trump and his war council are seriously evaluating Ukraine’s request.

“I know we’re having conversations this very minute about the issue.”

Putin has already declared that any Western missiles with a range that will reach Moscow from Ukraine are a bright red flag; even as several requests have been made by US allies for the US to supply such missiles.

Trump has so far shown an unwillingness for such brazen escalation, and has yet to even pull the trigger on threatened secondary sanctions, to the chagrin of hawks in Europe.
However, Trump has also reportedly grown increasingly frustrated with Russian President Putin’s unwillingness to engage in peace negotiations without Kiev making clear first that it’s ready to make serious territorial and other concessions.
This is probably why Zelensky is utilizing his argument that Tomahawks would somehow force Putin to the negotiating table.

Of course, Ukraine has already used drones to strike Moscow, but these small drones carry a lot less bang, though, for the buck, the bang they deliver is cheap and easy.

On the Ukraine front, we’ve also just learned that …

Putin is preparing to deliver a major speech this week.
The president of Belarus has stated that, if Europe does shoot down any Russian planes, Russia’s retaliation will be immediate.
NATO is increasing its presence in the Baltic region due to drone incursions over several Danish military bases.
Russia has been increasing its bombardment of Urkaine’s historic capital, Kyiv.
Zelensky has said he expects new EU sanctions on Russia this week.

Trump agrees with Netanyahu: Hamas to be fully terminated

President Trump and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House today, ahead of Trump and Hegseth’s big meeting this week with all generals and admirals. After his meeting he announced that Israel is going to finish off Hamas one way or the other. They presented a joint ultimatum for Hamas, which Trump claimed has the backing of Arab nations as well:

Hamas must either agree to the plan and fully adhere to it, or ““Israel will finish the job” with Trump’s full blessing. All Hamas must agree to is to allow Trump to completely take over control of Gaza in order to re-develop it and to disempower itself entirely and forever. Trump said all the hostages must also be released under the plan.

Technically, Gaza will be governed by a “Board of Peace,” but Trump will head the Board of Peace, and UK’s former Prime Minister Tony Blaire will also take a high-level position on the board. Trump says both sides are close to a deal that he hopes will bring “eternal peace” to the Middle East.

Trump emphasized, if Hamas doesn’t accept then Israel will have the “absolute right and full backing... to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas.” In reality it seems this is all an elaborate scheme for the US to simply and fully greenlight to total and permanent military takeover of Gaza.

(Not to mention Trump’s development of Gaza as the Riviera of the Middle East, a plan he was very excited about earlier this year.)

In the video, Trump states,

People ask, “Is this true. Are you really doing peace in the Middle East? This is the most incredible thing we’ve heard.” Some think it’s the biggest thing they’ve ever heard.

Hamas is out no matter what in a deal that is ultimately unconditional surrender. The reward, if they accept the deal, is that Hamas members who commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Upon agreement “full aid” will also be provided throughout Gaza,…

including rehabilitation of infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, and entry of necessary equipment to remove rubble and open roads. Entry of distribution and aid in the Gaza Strip will proceed without interference from the two parties through the United Nations and its agencies, and the Red Crescent….
No one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return. We will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza.

The plans for Gaza will go forward with or without Hamas’s agreement. However, if Hamas does not agree to have NO role in governing Gaza and to allow the destruction and/or confiscation of all their military capabilities and tunnels, they will be annihilated by war “until the job is done.”

Israel agrees to not occupy or annex Gaza after the transition is completed.

(All the details of the agreement can be read in the story highlighted among the headlines below.)

War with Venezuela advances

President Trump just placed his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, in charge of the war against drug cartels in Venezuela. Miller has already played a leading role in directing attacks on Venezuelan boats believed to be shipping drugs to the US.

The strikes on the Venezuelan boats allegedly carrying narcotics, which the administration has claimed were necessary because interdiction did not work, have been orchestrated through the homeland security council (HSC), which Miller leads as the homeland security adviser….
The previously unreported role of Miller – and his massive influence with the president – also explains how striking Venezuelan boats became a major priority, and why Trump has been happy to deploy extraordinary military force to the region.

The war on drugs is raging without congress having declared it (as usual in recent decades), and the president is using emergency declarations as his basis for being able to conduct these warring actions (also as usual now more routinely than ever before).

As his argument supporting the actions, Miller has said Venezuela’s President Maduro is the head of the terrorist cartel.

“It is not a government, it is a drug cartel, a narco-trafficking organization that is running Venezuela.”

As usual nowadays, the war begins, and and Team Trump will find out later from the slow and deliberative Supreme Court whether it was legal, after much of the bombing is over.

While strikes have been limited to boats, ostensibly in international or US waters, the military is now drafting up plans for a land invasion of Venezuela, potentially to begin in a matter of weeks.

In recent weeks, the U.S. military struck at least three boats from Venezuela allegedly carrying narco-traffickers and drugs that could threaten Americans, President Donald Trump said on Truth Social. The administration has not provided evidence that drugs were on all of those boats. But an official in the Dominican Republic, alongside one from the U.S. Embassy there, did say at a press conference Sunday that drugs were found in the water after one strike.

(Think “yellow cake” and “weapons of mass destruction” during the Saddam Hussein epoch to recall how carefully accurate we are about such declarations when we have a mission we want to accomplish. One of the stories includes videos and still photos of the boats being taken out.)

So far, the strikes and threats have had no effect on Maduro’s power hold.

Trump is “prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice,” the senior administration official said….
The U.S. has deployed at least eight ships with more than 4,000 personnel to the waters in the region recently and sent F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico, according to the U.S. military.

You don’t move that many ships, planes and soldiers without some pretty big plans.

Trump administration officials have not ruled out regime change as another aim of these military operations, and they have increased pressure on Maduro himself.

Again, all as usual.

The military police state encroaches on US cities

If Obama or Biden were taking the kinds of military action Trump announced over the past three days in US cities, it would be the talk of the Right side of town everywhere.

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he will send troops to Portland, “authorizing Full Force, if necessary” to handle “domestic terrorists” as he expands his deployments to more American cities.

Trump has directed the Department of Defense to “provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland” and to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, which he alleged are “under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.” It seems to those living there like hyperbole.

Those actions might be merited, if the statements about those attacks were true, but Trump has provided no evidence of attacks of any kind or plans of attack, and the liberal mayors of those liberal cities claim there are no attacks happening. Last noted,

people jogged along the Willamette River, relaxed by a riverside fountain or rode bikes on a sunny fall day.
“Where’s the emergency?” asked resident Allen Schmertzler, 72, who said he was “disgusted” by the president’s decision…. “This place is not a city that’s out of control,” he said. “It’s just a beautiful place.”

So, as the birds were singing, the president was preparing for his amphibious landings, I guess.

Portland, has had its out of control moments, of course, just like upcoast, equally liberal Seattle; but, right now, all seems calm on the Western Front. It may not be so calm once the denizens of the cities start seeing the troops roll in. Trump has also places Chicago and Memphis in his sights and has deployed the Marines in LA.

Maybe he’s just cleaning up America where it needs cleaning’ or will we find, by the end of the year, he has ginned up enormous civil unrest around America in places that had been lying relatively calm until the military stormed in. The military does have a way of turning up the amplitude. It does seem a bit like big government taking control from the locals, mostly in the areas where Trump has a lot of political enemies. (On the other hand, they are cities that can certainly stand to have the trash put out.)

Without a clear national security threat, it is, again, hard to say what the legal justification is for actions that are normally allowed only during extreme emergencies under presidential emergency powers, which are increasingly seeming like daily powers to use at the president’s discretion.

“This unilateral action represents an abuse of executive authority, seeks to incite violence, and undermines the constitutional balance of power between the federal government and states,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote in a letter to Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Another one for Trump’s Supreme Court.

Whatever happens, the president has already pre-authorized “full force,” whatever that means. Probably something short of all the bombs you need, but with pre-authorization of “full force” already made without qualifications, who draws the lines on such vague language governing major powers?

Digging down to China

Trump also decided to amp up preparation for war with China. His Pentagon made the decision to double the number of missiles in production in order to be ready for a possible war with China.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon has outlined an aggressive push to expand missile production, a move aimed at preparing for potential conflict with China….
Military leaders are urging contractors to double or even quadruple the output of 12 critical weapons systems, including Patriot interceptors, Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles, the Standard Missile-6 and Precision Strike Missiles….
The drive follows concerns over depleted missile stockpiles after Russia’s war in Ukraine and the more recent conflict between Israel and Iran, which saw the U.S. fire hundreds of high-end interceptors.

One thing is for sure: You cannot keep shooting them off like its Fourth of July sale in Ukraine and Israel and Iran and Yemen and other places without doing some serious restocking.

Defense firms have reportedly begun expanding capacity. Boeing recently completed a 35,000-square-foot factory expansion for Patriot seekers, while Northrop Grumman has invested more than $1 billion to boost rocket motor output, according to the WSJ.

The news proved to be outstanding today for the stocks of corporations that are part of the “military industrial complex” that President Eisenhower once warned about. Those people are very, very happy with the president.

Still, there are some people questioning whether the Pentagon’s goals are achievable without significantly more funding.

No problem. Money is infinite these days, and we have Big Beautiful Bill, barring, of course, that possible government shutdown on Wednesday morning (also seen in the stories below).

The government just may have something to fight about with China. More news over the weekend since the writing of my Deeper Dive revealed that China’s President Xi is making the giving over of Taiwan part of his deal over tariffs.

Xi Is Chasing a Huge Concession From Trump: Opposing Taiwan Independence
… Xi Jinping is now chasing his ultimate prize, according to people familiar with the matter: a change in U.S. policy that Beijing hopes could isolate Taiwan.
As President Trump has shown interest in striking an economic accord with China in the coming year, the people say, the Chinese leader is planning to press his American counterpart to formally state the U.S. “opposes” Taiwan’s independence….
For Xi, the difference between not supporting Taiwan’s independence and explicitly opposing it is more than semantics. It would signal a shift in U.S. policy from a neutral position to one that actively aligns with Beijing against Taiwanese sovereignty—a change that could further cement Xi’s hold on power at home.

Of course, it doesn’t have to end in military conflict. Trump may just give in to get what he wants for the US in a trade deal. He tends to be a completely transactional president. On the other hand, we’ve seen with Ukraine, where it looked for sure like he was pulling support away from Ukraine, only to turn and give it (or, at least, sell it) more military support than any president has to date.

The people close to the White House say the administration is focused on deterring China from taking military actions against Taiwan and encouraging Taipei to increase its spending on key capabilities like drones and munitions to bolster its self-defense….
Rejecting Beijing’s Taiwan independence narrative is a key to deterrence, the people say, as doing so would deny China a potential pretext for conflict that mirrors Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

So, just a little bit of war in the news today, here and there. The peace president has been hard at work. Who knows? Maybe his heavy hand and extensively long arm of the law will be what it takes to get all nations and leader of the world in line and restore peace in the Middle East. Or, equally likely, it may just blow the whole world up. I guess we soon shall see, whether we want to or not.

Please consider sending this list of just the conflict developments that have happened since Saturday to friends and family if they are interested in that sort of thing:

(The stories for my weekend Deeper Dive about all the big events going into the weekend appear highlighted at the top of the news section on war. Right after those is a second section of highlighted headlines that cover all the war stories above that emerged since then, which were the sources for today’s editorial.)