Ballistic missiles and drones from Yemen fired into Israel.  

IDF said to be ramping up ground assault into northern Gaza.

Meanwhile China is evidently sending 5 ships to the Middle East to "Keep an eye on things." Not sure what they think their presence will do.

And supposedly unrelated, Thursday night the US bombed weapons stockpiles in Syria in retaliation for recent attacks on US troops by "Iranian Proxys."

This concludes your update. ?

On 10/20/2023 at 4:17 PM, Jumper_Dad said:

Two US hostages released today. Pressure being put on US to stop Israeli ground invasion, if they want the rest of the US hostages back.

I don't know what Hamas thinks they are going with the hostages at this point.  If they kill them, that is going to be a pretext for U.S. military action against them.  It will also be a massive PR hit.  Can you imagine if they killed a lot of foreigners on the Internet?  It would basically ruin their one card to play in public relations.

US sending 300 additional support troops to Middle East bases. Specifically mention were EOD and communications soldiers being sent.

25 attacks directed at US troops over the last few weeks.

US with a STRONG Naval presence all around the Middle East. 

Until Iran gets smacked in the face this thing is going to go on and on, and get bigger and bigger. 

Not even sure who it was or even whose show it was, but a guy was on the radio this afternoon talking about Egypt. 

His take was that Egypt is loaded with US weaponry from Abrams Tanks to F-16s. He was saying that Egypt is ripe for a coup and those weapons could easily fall into hands we'd rather that they didn't. He went further to say that Egypt gets actively involved in any military action, that Iran would jump in immediately. 

Looks like Egypt is another hot spot to keep an eye on.

5 hours ago, Jumper_Dad said:

Not even sure who it was or even whose show it was, but a guy was on the radio this afternoon talking about Egypt. 

His take was that Egypt is loaded with US weaponry from Abrams Tanks to F-16s. He was saying that Egypt is ripe for a coup and those weapons could easily fall into hands we'd rather that they didn't. He went further to say that Egypt gets actively involved in any military action, that Iran would jump in immediately. 

Looks like Egypt is another hot spot to keep an eye on.

I watched a long form interview on the BBC last night with someone that knows a lot about Lebanon.  In short, my takeaway is Lebanon is nothing more than an Iranian proxy and Hezbollah is in charge, not anyone from Lebanon. 

5 hours ago, theguru said:

I watched a long form interview on the BBC last night with someone that knows a lot about Lebanon.  In short, my takeaway is Lebanon is nothing more than an Iranian proxy and Hezbollah is in charge, not anyone from Lebanon.

Iran is pulling all of the strings, for sure.

1 minute ago, Jumper_Dad said:

Iran is pulling all of the strings, for sure.

I have watched so many people give their professional opinion on this and it appears to be an absolute consensus.  This war is just getting started...

41 minutes ago, theguru said:

I have watched so many people give their professional opinion on this and it appears to be an absolute consensus.  This war is just getting started...

Russia certainly showed us that most wars don't start and end quickly.  When I started seeing people referring to China, Russia and Iran the new axis of evil though, ugh that's troublesome.  

It would seem that a lot of Europe is very unstable right now as well.  I know it's hard to believe everything we see and hear on the internet/media outlets.  But it seems like European culture has been shifting for decades now and it's really showing with what's happening in Israel right now.  

Captagon is big business for Syria.

Just now, doomer said:

Captagon is big business for Syria.

I had to Google it doomer:

Fenethylline, commonly known by the trademark name Captagon, is a synthetic amphetamine-type stimulant that has been clandestinely produced in southern Europe and trafficked through Turkey to the consumer markets on the Arabian Peninsula.

On 11/1/2023 at 7:40 PM, sportsfan41 said:

It would seem that a lot of Europe is very unstable right now as well.  I know it's hard to believe everything we see and hear on the internet/media outlets.  But it seems like European culture has been shifting for decades now and it's really showing with what's happening in Israel right now.  

I feel like the culture is shifting worldwide and not necessarily for the better. 

7 minutes ago, theguru said:

I had to Google it doomer:

Fenethylline, commonly known by the trademark name Captagon, is a synthetic amphetamine-type stimulant that has been clandestinely produced in southern Europe and trafficked through Turkey to the consumer markets on the Arabian Peninsula.

I would recommend to check out some more info as well.  "Syria is now the epicenter of Captagon production".  There is an enlightening article..."The Syrian Economy at War", written by COAR (center for operational analysis and research) that is available on line.