loading . . . How an Australia weapon is helping Trump and Israelâs illegal war on Iran First of all, here's what we have for you this week:
* **Launching our Discord:** A new community for Lamestream subscribers.
* **Killer Grabs:** Quotes from around the traps.
* **Australia is sending a weapon "fundamental" to winning wars, according to US generals** â****_By Scott Mitchell_
* **The Good Ones:** A thrilling new series, reminiscing about the 2003 Oscars and a podcast to take your mind off things.
When we launched _Lamestream_ 10 months ago, in the middle of Israel's devastating campaign of destruction and slaughter in Gaza, the legacy media's structural inability to report accurately and fairly had been on display for nearly two years.
Even though we report on these issues every day, it is still shocking how few lessons have been learnt when it comes to reporting on this new, illegal war on Iran, which has now extended into a horrific bombing campaign aimed at Lebanon.
The only takeaway from this is that our once respectable media institutions have no genuine desire to lift their standards, and are entirely comfortable sticking to the path of least resistance offered by deferring to the Israeli and US war machines, and refusing to antagonise the Australian government. It's a deep shame, but thankfully there are alternatives â like us.
There is no single issue that demands journalists, and their editors, get it right more than war â particularly a war that Australia has now signed up too. Today, Scott takes a closer look at Australia's military commitment to the war on Iran and whether the government's claim that we are only providing "defensive" support" actually stacks up.
Australia is sending a weapon âfundamentalâ to winning wars, according to US generalsAustralian media reports have downplayed the governmentâs âsmall contributionâ to the war with Iran, but one asset weâre sending is a weapon the US doesnât have, and American generals have described it as âfundamentalâ to winning wars.LamestreamScott Mitchell
**Introducing Discord!**
We're always thinking about ways to grow the _Lamestream_ community and provide more for subscribers. Today, we're excited to launch our official Discord server.
Discord is a social platform that operates like a chat room or a forum (if you're under 30 and don't know what either of those are, I'm sorry). We want it to be a hub for _Lamestream_ supporters to interact with one another, with us, and to discuss the news, current affairs, the media, our episodes, stories and more.
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Listen to this week's Lamestream podcast
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## Killer Grabs
> "I donât know about it." â **President Donald Trump, on the missile strike that hit a girl's school in Iran, killing 165 people, mainly children.**
He seemed to know a lot about it when it claimed Iran blew up its own school, even going as far as to suggest they used a US-made Tomahawk missile. But when a US investigation backed up reporting from _The New York Times_ that showed it was actually a US bomb, all of a sudden the President has no idea what it's about.
It says a lot that this incident is worse than any individual massacre of civilians by the US that occurred during the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan but has already faded into background noise.
> "We made it abundantly clear that we do not support the words and phrases that were used by the terrorists prior to the Bondi massacre" â **Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls on his government's new law that prohibits the phrase "From the river to the sea".**
The problem for Tim is that there is no evidence the Bondi attackers ever used "from the river to the sea", nor is there any evidence of their involvement in any pro-Palestine action.
A spokesperson for the minister later said he "misspoke". All good I guess, except the law is still on the books and two people have already been arrested.
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Thereâs a new and powerful weapon that the United States Air Force has been trying to get its hands on for years, and some of the most decorated officers to ever serve in the Air Force believe itâs crucial if the US is to âprevail whenever the next conflict unfoldsâ.
Last year, President Donald Trumpâs new leadership at the Pentagon wanted to axe the entire program, but it was saved after the remarkable intervention of sixteen retired four-star generals, including four former leaders of the US Air Force.
The generals came out publicly against the Pentagon, urging Congress to overrule it, and secure the future of US air power by acquiring the weapon: Australiaâs E-7 Wedgetail.
The United States still doesnât have one of these planes, but they might now have access to its capabilities thanks to the Albanese government, which sent one to support the US and their allies in their bombing campaign against Iran this week.
The E-7 Wedgetail has been _described in the Australian media_ humbly and as a â _small contribution_â, along with the 85 ADF personnel to crew and maintain it and a batch of air-to-air missiles likely to be fired by UAE aircraft.
âThese are important defensive weapons,â the Prime Minister _told parliament_ this week, using precisely the same words _Defence Minister_ Richard Marles chose.
What Australiaâs political leaders and media havenât told the public is that the Wedgetail is âfundamental to projecting air power and winning conflicts,â according to _the letter_ sent to Congress by some of the most decorated US Air Force commanders alive.
The truth is, it is easily the most significant contribution Australia could make to Trump and Benjamin Netanyahuâs illegal, objective-less and chaotic war on Iran. Its unique capabilities mean the Wedgetail could quite literally help tip the balance of the war, if Australia allows its powers of surveillance, targeting and command to be used by Israel and the US â and there can no longer be any doubt that is exactly what the government will do.
âDespite Mr Albaneseâs diplomatic language that it will only be used for defence, the Wedgetail ...] will provide intelligence for US and Israeli air strikes,â the _Herald Sun_ [_reported_ this week, in what was intriguingly the only mainstream report that emphasised how valuable this would be.
And it became clear that the initial request for the Wedgetail came directly from the US, even if the formal written invitation was from the UAE, after Foreign Minister Penny Wong _refused to answer questions_ to that effect six times.
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