Category: War and Peace

U.S. Military and Defense Dept. Have Hidden Extent of Damage to Aircraft, Buildings and Vehicles

By Cameron Adams / Daily Beast / Sep. 15 2026 

Bombshell leaked photos have exposed the extent of serious damage to buildings, aircraft and vehicles at U.S. positions in the Middle East after punishing attacks by Iran.

President Donald Trump’s war is now in its seventh month, with no clear timeline for when it might end. The damning photos contradict Trump’s repeated claims that the conflict has been “won” and that Iran’s military has been decimated by the U.S.

The photos, leaked to CBS News by active service members on condition of anonymity, tally with an inspector general’s report released on Monday. In it, the Pentagon watchdog revealed that “hundreds” of buildings used by the U.S. and “dozens” of aircraft had been damaged or destroyed by Iranian attacks.

By Steve Rodriguez

Students of history, politics and military affairs are familiar with the classic definitions of war formulated by Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz. Back in the 1800’s, Clausewitz defined war as both “a continuation of politics by other means” and “an act of violence aimed at compelling an opponent to fulfill one’s will.”

However, as done with other traditional concepts, President Donald Trump is attempting, while demonstrating great frustration with his inability to defeat Iran, to unravel the conventional understanding of war. Some Trump critics are brushing off these attempts at redefining and/or rebranding as nothing but the silly tantrums of a man-child. However, I contend the president’s efforts have some serious implications for certain American institutions.

While trying hard to divert attention from the unforeseen length of the Iranian War – one which was supposed to end after a week of bombing – Trump has previously labeled the war as a “little excursion”, and most recently “not a big thing” and “small potatoes.” In playing this game of semantics, we should expect nothing less from someone who referred to the January 6, 2021 insurrection as a “day of love.”  Yet, we must remain aware these attempts to change the definition of war have unintended consequences.

Join veterans and others to protest the ongoing war in Iran …. time to bring the troops home.

By Tanja Kropf / Explore Clairemont / Sept. 2, 2026

Linda Vista has always been a scrappy neighborhood, fighting to avoid being overlooked, with fiercely loyal residents leading the charge to protect their home turf. One of Linda Vista’s earliest scrappy residents was a woman who fought the pending evictions of Linda Vista’s public housing residents and led the way for them to become proud homeowners instead.

[Please go to original for all the great links.]

A neighborhood of small homes and big dreams
Besides being a Linda Vista resident, Margaret Hottell was the editor and founder of the local newspaper, the Linda Vista Reflector. In 1952, she used it as the platform for her movement to keep her neighbors, who were military and defense workers, in the homes they’d lived in for a decade. The Defense Housing Act of 1951 had recently passed, allowing the enforcement of certain guidelines that were squeezing residents like the Hottells out of their homes.

Housing in Linda Vista was erected at a fever pace in the early 1940s. Despite the City of San Diego’s objections, the federal government pushed forward, building thousands of homes as World War II raged on. San Diego’s population had exploded 67% from 1939 to 1945, and military families and employees of local defense companies desperately needed homes. The federal government chose Linda Vista because the land was cheap, vacant, and easy to acquire. The Linda Vista Housing Project became the largest low-income defense housing project in the world.

A group of eight or ten of us

By Steve Rodriguez

The NY Times recently reported that while departing Turkey after the NATO summit last month, President Donald Trump hid in an airport catering container and was taken to a military jet for a secret flight out of the country. The ruse involved Trump appearing to get on Air Force One but then secretly evacuated via an opposite side exit where he hid inside an airport catering container.

This container was subsequently transported by a catering truck to the military jet. According to the NY Times account, this action was taken in response to a credible threat posed by an Iranian terrorist cell armed with shoulder fired missiles. Most of the staffers and reporters on Air Force One were not notified of the president’s emergency evacuation or the threat, and continued the flight as unsuspecting passengers.

By Ed Pilkington / The Guardian / August 12, 2026

Military families and Congress members are sounding the alarm about an intensifying mental health crisis onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as its 5,000 sailors and marines endure a record-breaking deployment at sea tied to the war with Iran.

Two leading specialist military papers, the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes, are reporting that there have been multiple attempts by sailors to jump overboard as poor conditions and mental stresses on the Lincoln reach the breaking point. The crew is in its ninth month at sea, and has spent 250 days consecutively without making land – a record for an aircraft carrier in modern times.

Worried families vented their anxieties about loved ones onboard the Lincoln at an emotional town hall meeting with navy leaders in San Diego last Thursday, Stars and Stripes reported. One spouse among the 200 or so family members said that her husband had texted her that day saying “he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow”.

The families’ worries were expressed directly to navy leadership, represented at the town hall by the acting navy secretary, Hung Cao, and other top officials.

A woman at the meeting told Cao that the navy had “broken trust between us and the leadership”, the paper reported.

The Navy Times gave details of thwarted suicide attempts onboard the aircraft carrier during the current deployment. Annabelle Loma told the outlet that her husband had tried to jump overboard after his spell at sea kept being extended.

By Debbie L. Sklar / Special to the OB Rag

(All photos courtesy of the Ocean Beach Woman’s Club)

The Ocean Beach Woman’s Club is a familiar landmark to many OB residents — a historic building at the corner of Bacon Street and Muir Avenue that has hosted meetings, fundraisers, celebrations and community gatherings for generations.

But the story of the club is about more than a century-old building. It is about the women who kept it alive through changing times, shifting generations and the challenges faced by many longtime civic organizations.

Founded in 1924, the Ocean Beach Woman’s Club recently celebrated its 100th anniversary and continues its mission of community service, friendship and philanthropy with members ranging from their 20s to their 90s. Some of the most interesting chapters in the club’s story are found in the details — the unexpected turns, personal connections and challenges that shaped the organization over the decades.

Here are 10 things behind the Ocean Beach Woman’s Club.

1. The club’s first “home” was a disappearing landmark

When the Ocean Beach Woman’s Club was founded in 1924, members did not have a permanent clubhouse. Early meetings were held in rented locations, including Ocean Beach’s Flatiron Building at Abbott Street and Newport Avenue.

By Cathy Bussewitz / Associated Press PBS News / July 31, 2026

American oil and gas giants raked in massive spring profits while fighting between Iran and the U.S. impeded petroleum shipments and consumers around the world paid more for fuel and confronted shortages.

The conflict, now in its sixth month, halted most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that previously served as a delivery route for a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas. With global supplies constrained, prices for Brent crude, the international standard, soared from about $70 to above $100 a barrel for much of March, April and May, and at one point reached $126.

The money that oil companies accrued between the beginning of April and the end of June could receive extra scrutiny this year. Gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices climbed sharply during that period, increasing costs for drivers and airline passengers. Supplies ran low in some countries, leading to sporadic fuel rationing in Australia and government office closures in Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Exxon Mobil on Friday reported that its second quarter profits doubled to $14.53 billion, boosted by record diesel production. The oil giant, based in Spring, Texas, brought in $116.02 billion in revenue, up 42%.

Chevron, based in Houston, nearly quadrupled its profits to $12.07 billion and revenue jumped 56% to $70.06 billion.

Six of Europe’s largest oil companies posted combined first-quarter profits of $22 billion, more than 40% higher than last year.

A Classic Story of Mid-West Immigrants Coming to Southern California During the War

By Philip Roger Shafer

Retold by His Daughter Micaela Porte 

Chapter 1

The Idea  — It started with the letters. The letters from California. The letters from my father’s friend, Walter, had been arriving for over a year, who moved there to work for the defense industry.

Father read them to us at the dinner table. We could hardly believe it. Roses and oranges in winter? A postcard of snow-capped mountains in the background and fruiting orchards in the foreground from Burbank, California.

It was January, 1944. We lived in Columbus, Ohio. I think we all dreamed a lot of California that year.

Christmas had been dreary. Dreary weather, dreary long war rationing, dreary death of Uncle Sydney, prisoner of war, my mother’s young brother, she was so sad. Dreary death of my dad’s mother, Grandma Emma, from a long illness, he was so sad.

I wasn’t sad about death and war. I was ten. I loved sledding, but I busted my front teeth in a jump and all the dental work was making me sad.

“Dear Phil and Edith,

Happy New Year 1944, glad we are alive.
Friends, you must move to California. The place is booming, towns forming overnight. Ask for a transfer, we need good Bell Men.

The war drags on, our condolences to you for the lost of your loved ones in this tragedy…

I miss the snow sometimes, for about 15 minutes at Christmas. Our winter coats hang unused in the hall closet.

Give our love to the family,
Happier New Year to all,

by Ernie McCray

With the tragedy
at the mosque
still on my mind
I’ve been thinking
of a wonderful book
I just finished,
“The Future is Peace,”
written by Aziz Abu Sarah,
a Palestinian,
and Maoz Inon,
an Israeli,
who, rather than focusing on their ethnicities,
choose to view themselves
as human beings
who are trying to cultivate