Adm. James Kilby, the US Navy’s chief of naval operations, has claimed that the US recently launched the “largest airstrike in the history of the world” in an attack on Somalia.
Kilby said US fighter jets fired 125,000 pounds of bombs “from a single aircraft carrier into Somalia.” A US official told Business Insider that Kilby was referring to a February 1 bombing of ISIS fighters in northeast Syria’s Golis Mountain range in the Puntland region.
The official said 16 F/A-18 Super Hornets launched the strikes from the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman as it was operating in the Red Sea, and that the attack targeted a sprawling cave complex. The head of Somalia’s Puntland region claimed at the time that 46 ISIS fighters were killed by the US bombing.
The February 1 strike marked the first time the US bombed Somalia under the new Trump administration. Since then, the US has launched another 24 strikes on the country, according to AFRICOM press releases, in attacks that have targeted both ISIS in Puntland and al-Shabaab in southern and central Somalia.
The pace of airstrikes marks a significant escalation in the US air war in Somalia. For comparison, in all of 2024, the US launched nine airstrikes in the country. President Trump also dramatically escalated the bombing campaign in his first term and set the record for the number of US airstrikes in Somalia in a single year at 63 in 2019.
Kilby also discussed the US bombing campaign in Yemen, which ended when President Trump announced the ceasefire with the Houthis on May 6. In about a month and a half, the US military said it launched over 1,000 strikes on Yemen, and the attacks killed more than 200 civilians.
Kilby said the Harry Truman and its strike group launched 670 strikes on Yemen and engaged 160 drones and missiles that the Houthis fired at Israel, US warships, and shipping lanes.
This 'largest airstrike in the history of the world' is a practice run for Iran and alos a message to Iran's leadership. Oman says the US an Iran are meeting in Rome today. The old saying from the US, "Do you want the silver or the lead?"
So, all those WW2 documentaries showing squadrons of B-25's and -29's massing to blitzbomb German and Japanese cities, are all outdone by fewer F-18's than the combined player count on the field of an NFL game ?
I call "f**king exaggeration" on Kill-bee's part.
The US couldn't subdue the Houthis.
US bombs the **** out of an African country with no air force to speak of. News quiet, and not a single black elected official in the US will peep a peep. Not the First Black President (who I was told in the '90s was Bill Clinton) nor the Other First Black President (Obama) Maybe Spike Lee will take a break from the Knicks' playoff run to put an X hat on and call a press conference? Not so much? Not so much. Not even Cory Booker and his streetwise invisible buddy T-Bone have been heard from!
"Peace President" doing peace stuff.
Cha-ching
Peace loving Chinese are supporting democracy and freedom just across the border in neighboring Kenya.
The contrast between human rights in China and homelessness in the US is a stark reminder of who today's good guys are.
Estimated homeless in the US: 653,104. Estimated homeless in China: 2,579,000.
What's that in percent of population? We are talking 347M compared to 1.4B. Improving Homelessness is part of it's 14th 5 year plan and it doesn't have people sleeping on it's cities' streets.
What's the US Plan?
Based on the population difference, the rate of homelessness is about the same (assuming similar definitions and the honesty of either government’s figures, which aren’t safe assumptions).
As for people sleeping on the streets, yes, China has that too.
Did you forget to mention our 5 year plan to reduce homelessness?
If the past history of Five Year Plans indicates the future performance of Five Year Plans, a Five Year Plan to reduce homelessness would likely triple homelessness.
sayeth the insular ideologue
Ooh, I like that one! Tom "Insular Ideologue" Knapp! I think I may get a pro-wrestling robe with that printed on the back.
ty, I’m a big fan of alliterative verse
For reference, the current attic insulation standard on new construction in Canada is R-50; R-60 further north, likely in the Territories, maybe even Edmonton latitude.
In case you need to quantify your alleged insularity ?
The difference is China has brought about 800 million out of poverty post ww2 and the opium wars. The US is going the other way, into poverty and homelessness.
Universal healthcare and education focusing on self sufficiency and civics might turn the country toward a better course. Legalizing drugs administered by a licensed MD at no charge would change the drug scene. Mao did a three strike program with strike three being pull the drugged out weeds the country cannot afford. That won't fly nowadays.
The difference is that you like to fantasize about China.
If I fantasize anything it is that the US I thought I knew as a young bare foot boy raised on a dirt road and then a young man man working in downtown San Fransisco might one day actually exist.
Later, in my late thirties, when Reagan flew over my fireproof, earthquake and storm safe sculptured ferrocement house, he told the nation that people like me living in the hills brought bile to his throat.
Ferrocement was eventually priced out of the low cost housing and water tank business by bureaucratic engineering requirements more expensive than the structures themselves. Third generation ferro businesses were eliminated and so I started ferrocement.com to help people who might appreciate low cost sculptured structures in other countries. That was in 1999.
China became my number one source of visitors in 2000. I honored that fact by exploring their internet news when it became available in English.
My observations through foreign news includes many countries that US brain washers try to make me hate. I stick with sources that carry the ring of truth like http://antiwar.com . You can believe me when I tell you that I have driven across the US on blue highways both north and south many times and looked at many pictures of Chinese progress in the last twenty-five years.
In my view, there is nothing in human built US that can compare to the grandeur of China today. Additionally, the verbal positions articulated by Chinese leaders is matched by very few US leaders and thinkers.
World map of civilian gun ownership. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ccde46496097d31f852b108825456c4b4be833f8fe63f9703ff619fb0f6c15a2.png
Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the US. https://www.cdc.gov/firearm-violence/data-research/facts-stats/index.html
Not only are firearms not the leading cause of death for any demographic, they’re not a significant cause of death for any demographic. They don’t fire themselves unless they’re exceptionally defective.
Not only are you a liar, you're clearly a Second Amendment nutter.
Gun-Related Deaths: Firearms Remain Leading Cause of Death for Children and Teens, and Disproportionately Affect People of Color.
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/guns-remain-leading-cause-of-death-for-children-and-teens
I consider the Second Amendment very, very secondary to the absolute and unalienable human right to own, possess, and defensively use any weapon one damn well pleases without anyone else’s permission. The Second Amendment is just a particular regime’s pretense of respect for that right.
As for deluding one’s self into believing that firearms are biological agents with wills of their own, well, everyone’s entitled to his religious beliefs, I guess.
20% of public school graduates do so functionally illiterate, 16% of America’s adult population is functionally illiterate and an additional 130 million are unable to read beyond the 6th grade level.
According to the World Bank China's adult literacy rate is 97%, 100% age 15-24.
@ThomasLKnapp
An educated and literate population is required for democracy and freedom to exist.
I read news from countries US brain-washers try to teach me to hate.
26,000 Americans die each year because they can't afford healthcare. In stark contrast, China's healthcare system provides near-universal coverage to its population, with over 95% covered by the basic medical insurance system.
Healthcare is widely recognized as a fundamental human right. This right is enshrined in international human rights instruments and is considered essential for the enjoyment of other human rights.
The US healthcare system, while spending more per capita than other developed nations, consistently performs poorly in comparison on measures of quality, access, efficiency, equity, and outcomes. It ranks last among 10 developed nations on overall health care outcomes, with lower life expectancy and higher rates of preventable and treatable deaths.
US Launches ‘Largest Airstrike in the History of the World’ while plotting the 21st assassination attempt of Burkina Faso's President Ibrahim Traoré from the Ivory Coast. When it comes to warmongering the US is nothing if not multitaskers.
TThe US is addicted to bombing nations that cannot defend themselves. It's a way of using the old military stocks to get new ones.
The amount of Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza surpasses that of World War II.
Israel has dropped over 70,000 tons of bombs on the Gaza Strip since October 7, exceeding World War II bombings in Dresden, Hamburg, London combined, according to human rights monitors.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/amount-of-israeli-bombs-dropped-on-gaza-surpasses-that-of-world-war-ii/3239665