Bulletins and News Discussion from March 10th to March 16th, 2025 - The New World Struggles To Be Born; Now Is The Time Of Proxy Wars - COTW: Myanmar

Image is from Wikipedia's article on the war..

I've wanted to cover Myanmar for a while now but haven't had the needed knowledge to write much more than "This situation really sucks." After doing a little reading on the situation, I feel even more confused. A decent analogy is the Syrian Civil War, at least while Assad was in power (though it's still pretty true today) - many different opposition groups, some co-operating with the United States, others not. The main government supported partially by an anti-American superpower, but who could live with that government collapsing if there are deals to be made with the group coming into power. A conflict kept going and exploited at least partially by the United States and other imperial core powers, though with plenty of genuine domestic animosity and desires for political independence.

Recently, the Myanmar government - the mainstream media uses "junta", which is probably accurate despite the connotations - has promised elections at the end of 2025. This doesn't seem likely to happen, and even if it did, how this would work in a country as war-torn as Myanmar is unclear. The government is losing territory and soldiers at a quick pace; they now hold only 21% of the country, though that 21% does at least comprise many of the cities. It's difficult to get a handle on the number of people affected because civil wars and insurgencies have been ongoing in some shape or form for decades, but we're talking at least millions displaced and thousands of civilians killed.

Here's a comment by @TheGenderWitch@hexbear.net from fairly recently that covers the situation in Myanmar:

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978 comments

UK, US and Israel have been doing fighter and bomber exercises together. Likely target is Iran.
https://skwawkbox.org/2025/03/11/uk-fighter-jets-conduct-joint-exercise-with-us-israeli-aircraft-likely-target-iran/
- Nuclear talks between Iran, Russia, and China are happening in Beijing on Friday.
  Will they throw Iran under the bus (
  )? They did just hold joint naval exercises, though, so maybe they will surprise with some kind of security guarantees in exchange for giving up nukes (also
  ).
- The B-52 bomber flying off of the coast of Israel with Israeli fighter escorts and then UK escorts happened 9 days ago on 4 March 2025. I managed to see it on FlightRadar24 here. The image in the article is a composite image, I don't think there are any images of UK and Israeli jets taking part in a joint escorts as of late. All seperate escorts. The B-52s are being hosted at RAF Fairford in the UK. I think there are four of them there, doing exercises as far out as Libya, Qatar, Jordan, Sweden, Romania, Bulgaria, and of course Israel. Since the photo in the article is a composite, here's the actual pictures from the exercise. Israeli F-15Is and F-35Is, and British Eurofighter Typhoons.
  
  Interesting notes: New START fin is clearly visible on the B-52, it can carry nuclear weapons, it is not a de-nuclearised B-52. F-35Is in full stealth configuration, all weapons in internal weapons bays. Interesting loadout for the Eurofighter Typhoons, probably on their way back from operation Shader (daily anti ISIS Iraq-Syria border patrol). Typhoons are armed with Meteors (extra long range air to air missile), ASRAAMs (short range air to air missile), Paveways (laser guided bombs) and Brimstones (air to ground missiles). And of course the built in ECM system. F-15I carried JDAMs (GPS guided bombs) and different air to air missiles (AIM-120 AMRAAM long range, AIM-9 Sidewinder short range, two AIM- 7 Sparrow medium range, and two Python short range Israeli domestically built).
  I wouldn't say the direct target is Iran, these joint exercises are taking place all over the world, from Sweden to Libya, likely as part of Trump's "peace through strength" policy. If B-52s were to attack Iran, they wouldn't even enter Iranian airspace, they'd launch long range cruise missiles that can be equipped with conventional or electromagnetic pulse warheads (in the CHAMP missile). Electromagnetic pulse weapons would be useful in disabling a nuclear power plant or enrichment facility without causing physical damage, which could lead to radiation spreading.
  The four B-52s at RAF Fairford:

978 comments