Author: Steve Balestrieri

Over 40-years ago, Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, and took 98 hostages. The majority of them would be held for 444 days until they would be freed just before Ronald Reagan became President.  The events that unfolded during the crisis would put in motion the creation of the United States Special […]

After the Iranian missile attack on the joint U.S./Iraqi bases, many are wondering what happens next. And then, will the U.S. still be forced to leave Iraq, after Iraqi lawmakers passed a non-binding resolution to kick out American troops from the country?  First of all, some of what will transpire will have to do with […]

“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” ― Winston S. Churchill As about 30 rockets crashed down on joint U.S.-Iraqi bases last week where an American contractor was killed and several U.S. and Iraqi troops were wounded, Americans were still ignorant that this is what happens when you […]

Well, in an earlier piece, I tried to tell you that open war with Iran is a really, really remote possibility. Now we’ll flip-flop it a bit (that’s the beauty of the internet) and assume that war between the United States and Iran isn’t only possible, but we will attempt to outline how it might […]

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have created a new combat force that they are calling the “Multidimensional Unit” and are assigning soldiers from across the military to it. According to the Israelis, this combined unit is the first of its kind in the world. Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the IDF’s Chief of Staff, ordered the […]

This is the type of phone call you never want to receive…”I’ve got some bad news for you.” Oh shit, those never are the first words you want to hear out of an old SF friend’s mouth when you get a call early on a weekend morning.  My buddy “S.” was a friend from some […]

Perhaps the most bizarre belief to come out of the events from last week’s airstrike against Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, was that it was going to automatically trigger WWIII. The fear was that Soleimani’s elimination was going to be the Archduke Franz Ferdinand moment that was the match in 1914 […]

A joint United States-Kenyan airbase near the border with Somalia was attacked by al-Shabab jihadists early on Sunday morning. There are no reports of casualties yet, as American officials described the situation as “fluid.”  The fighting occurred at Camp Simba in Lamu county in eastern Kenya near the Somali border. The terrorists used a suicide […]

Just a day after a U.S. drone attack killed Major General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force, and several others, including members of the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces, another airstrike hit two vehicles killing five militiamen. The number of casualties was confirmed in a statement by the Popular […]

The United States conducted an airstrike that not only took out the Iranian Quds Force (also known as Qods) commander General Qassem Soleimani, but also Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis the deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). President Trump said that the United States decided to order the drone strike after they learned […]

A riot left 16 inmates dead at a central Mexican prison in Cieneguillas. Five other inmates were wounded in the two-and-a-half-hour melee in which inmates fought each other with handguns and knives.  Mexican security officials stated that the riot broke out at approximately 14:30 hrs local time at the Cieneguillas’ Regional Center for Social Reintegration […]

After a day of angry protests in front of the United States embassy in Baghdad, violence continued again on Wednesday as security personnel fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters trying to scale the walls of the embassy.  The violence began after Iranian proxy forces launched yet another missile attack on an American base […]