Lines of Demarcation Stiffen Within the United States
Following the fighting in south Texas, internecine clashes between domestic groups and even states themselves within the United States have seemingly intensified. While rioting has broken out anew in multiple cities, protesting the activities of the right-wing militia known as “The Triarii,” as well as the Texas state government’s cooperation with them, federal authorities have begun intensive investigations into the actions of the Texas governor, as well as what appears to be full-scale war preparations on the part of the Triarii.
Support or opposition for the investigation has fallen out along largely state and partisan lines, though several of the Middle American states that have opposed it have large urban populations that have protested their state governments’ stance on the matter. The current—and continuing—disruption of power grids and supply chains has become yet another source of friction, contributing to the spreading chaos. Rumors abound of federal task forces preparing to move into the dissident states, while militias and even state National Guard units are being mobilized to respond.
The rumors about open armed clashes between Triarii and People’s Revolutionary Action in several “border states” have yet to be confirmed.
A hard split appears to be happening within the United States, and only time will tell what the future holds.
Our Government’s Schizophrenia Gets Worse
As my readers will know, I’ve been chronicling the cognitive dissonance which has characterized the US government and its policies for years. Conflicting narratives and special interests have been tearing our country apart while the fat cats line their pockets and laugh at us. But now we seem to have reached a new level of insanity.
A lot of people didn’t notice, due to the disaster that wiped out more than half of our power grid while terrorist attacks paralyzed our supply chains—probably the worst such disaster since 2020—but we entered a new war last year. How much it had to do with the power grid and the terror attacks I don’t know. There are secrets on top of secrets here, and reliable open-source information is hard to come by, especially since the Internet took a hit along with the power grid. But while to many of us, absorbed with our own problems, the fighting in Europe might be just one more footnote in a world gone to crap, the fact is that the US Army and US Navy have been fighting over there since this started.
But they’re not the only ones. The so-called “right-wing militia” called the Triarii—an organization that can arguably be said to be doing what the US government doesn’t want to—has also been engaged over there. In fact, reliable sources have told me that they were issued a Letter of Marque and Reprisal—the first such in over a hundred fifty years.
That’s right. The Triarii are fighting under contract for the United States government in Europe. At the same time, that same government is trying to destroy them for holding the line in Texas. Those of us who live outside of the Beltway—or Portland, or California, or New York—know all too well what’s been going on down on the border. And the Triarii stepped up and did what had to be done to stop it. But that can’t be borne by the pols, so now there’s an “investigation.”
Are they heroes or villains? There’s a debate to be had there, but the nutcases in DC seem to want to say “Both” at the same time.
Europe Descends Further Into Chaos
Following the attack that killed most of the New European Council at their inauguration ceremony in Strasbourg, the security situation has only worsened, as confusion rules. While the United States insists that the survivors of the New European Council are the only legitimate governmental body to decide the course of Europe’s future, the American State Department seems to be the only voice that thinks so. Paris and Berlin continue to waffle, Czechia has openly declared all connections to the former European Union null and void, and the breakaway republic of Nouvelle Gallia, which now controls nearly a quarter of southern France, has declared the European experiment officially dead.
Meanwhile, as the remaining units of the European Defense Corps tighten their control over the Chemnitz region, where they have held their ground since the lightning offensive that took down the European Defense Council, violence has continued to spread across Europe, as numerous groups have seized upon the chaos to attack their own enemies or attempt to seize power in numerous cities and regions. The extent of outside influence has yet to be determined, but sources insist that Russian provocateurs—who have already fueled chaos on the border with Poland—are already active in Germany and France.
More and more municipalities are turning to private security forces, as the US Army appears to be vastly overextended. So far, the largest such contractor also doubles as a humanitarian aid distributor, One-World Holistic Security Concepts, based out of Shanghai.
Open Fighting Between Iranian and Turkish Forces
As the Turkish Army continues to clash with Peshmerga fighters in the mountains above Soran, a new offensive has crossed into Iranian territory near Urmia, claiming that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been supporting the Kurdish Peshmerga against the Turks. So far, Tehran has issued no statement.
This marks a new high in Turkey’s drive for regional dominance, following their proxy actions in eastern Greece, Crete, and Syria over the last year, and open advances into northern Syria, resulting in the seizure of Manbij and a renewed siege of Aleppo. Furthermore, reports of activity by Turkish special forces have started to come out of places in Eastern Europe and Africa.
Turkey is on the march, as the power axes of the last century begin to shift.
Iranian-Saudi War Heats Up
The Iranian forces that have been sitting in the UAE for the last six months have begun to move again. Surprisingly, instead of driving directly west to attack Riyadh, they have turned north, paralleling the Qatari border and driving on the Al-Ahsa Oasis. Shelling and air attacks began at midnight yesterday, and Iranian forces appear to have cut the oasis off from reinforcement from both Qatar and the Saudi military.
At almost at the same time, a renewed offensive against Saudi-allied forces in South Yemen kicked off with a series of drone strikes and suicide bombings that nearly decapitated the Popular Force Committees that have sworn allegiance to the late President Hadi’s former chief of security, Ezdeen Samei. Samei himself escaped unscathed, but this latest setback to the Arab coalition that has been engaged in continuous warfare with the Houthis and their Iranian supporters could be enough to break the coalition unless the Saudis can rally renewed support.
Given the situation in Saudi Arabia itself, this seems unlikely.
Exhaustion? Or Merely the Eye of the Storm?
At first glance, it looks like the wars that have wracked our world for the last year might have come to a pause. Violence in the Middle East continues apace, but that has continued nearly nonstop for decades, now. The proxy war between Shi’a and Sunni Muslims has been going on for a very long time (decades to centuries, depending on who you ask), and is unlikely to end anytime soon. But the major clashes in Europe seem to be at an impasse, as the European Defense Council has been taken from power, and while rumors abound that the majority of their military forces have refused to surrender, Europe has been relatively quiet now for over a month.
Questions have been raised about the losses of extremely expensive, high-technology weapons systems over the last year of on-again, off-again combat. While none of the combatants have released numbers, analysts say that the United States and the former European Union states now have less than half of the high-technology assets—be it aircraft, armored vehicles, or missiles—remaining that they possessed at the beginning of the conflict. And in most cases, there are no resources or even facilities to replace those losses.
With the United States embroiled in internal strife, rampant crime, and still desperately trying to recover from the power grid disaster of last year, the likelihood that the battered American forces will be able to do much more than hold some of the ground they’ve taken seems slim. Nation building in a severely divided Europe will be a difficult mission, especially given the other players involved, who have not expended nearly the resources that the US, Germany, and France already have…
China’s Influence Grows
Despite backing off along the Line of Actual Control with India, China stands poised to take the place it has long desired—that of the world’s sole superpower and economic and cultural hegemon. With a growing domination of the ports and sea lanes—though primarily through economic rather than military means—China’s is the only economy that has so far not succumbed to the devastating blows of the last year. And Beijing is already maneuvering to cement that dominance. With most of the rest of the world distracted or wounded by war, terrorism, economic collapse, and ecological devastation, the Age of China may well be at hand.
Area Denial releases on Kindle and Paperback September 21st.