US-Europe World Affairs

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This is the ideal direction that will spark an extensive political and economic reform in Iran, impacting the broader Middle East with the highly positive outcomes —including peace, partnerships, and prosperity—while cultivating the regional landscape with the authentic  Freedom, Human Rights, and Democracy.  Catherine S. Schmidt, Director and Editor in Chief.

Securing a strategic control of Kharg island will be a decisive victory for the U.S. and Israel to end the long decades of mayhem by the Islamic regime in Iran. At the same time, this exotic azure island—much like Iwo Jima and Okinawa to Japan—stands as the golden gateway to freedom for 90 million Iranians.

Achieving this transformation requires the United States to secure the island and establish it as a permanent military base.

This initiative promises immense, long-term benefits for the United States, Israel, the Iranian people, neighboring nations, and for the world.

A sustained U.S. military presence will be essential to rebuild the nation. This partnership will be critical to resurrecting Iran from five decades of suffering under the oppressive Islamic regime, heavily compromised by the influences of China and Russia.

The United States possesses the unique, empowering capabilities and the political and cultural exceptionalism that appeal profoundly to the Iranian people.

This influence has the potential to transform Iran, allowing it to rise from its current ashes to emerge as a vital regional partner— not only for Israel and neighboring countries, but ultimately as a premier ally for the United States.

 

 

Acknowledgment: Article by Catherine S. Schmidt, Director and Editor in Chief. 

 Image-1 Iran and Kharg Island ©U.S Europe World Affairs May 2026. 

The humanitarian crisis, internet blackout, the economic collapse, political chaos, will all demand the final step: the United States and Israel’s military intervention to liberate Iran. (Catherine S. Schmidt)

Speech by Catherine S. Schmidt in a political event in support of U.S Military Intervention in Iran. Hamburg/Germany May 19, 2026

Catherine S. Schmidt, Director and Editor in Chief.

To Military Personnel in the U.S. Armed Forces.

You are the first line of defender, and the final beacon of hope in the World.

When darkness threatened to swallow whole continents—as it did across Europe and Asia in the horrifying hours of World War II,  it was the U.S Armed Forces who broke that darkness, and liberated millions.

And today, where nations under the heavy chains of tyranny, yearning for the breath of liberation—like those 90 million defiant in Iran, or elsewhere in the world where freedom is denied—

the name of the United States Armed Forces is whispered as the unshakeable promise for Freedom: the ultimate Defender, the true Liberator.

  May God bless, protect all of you in every mission you undertake.

 

Acknowledgments: Image, U.S flag ©U.S Army Europe and Africa. By Catherine S. Schmidt, Director and Editor in Chief. (Copyrighted material)

May God continue to protect the President and his family, the Law-Enforcement, and the United States of America.

Led by U.S Army Europe and Africa, the multinational SWORD 26 is Army’s annual exercise previously executed as DEFENDER series, this year redesigned and planned to be conducted from late April into part of May 2026. 

While the exercise DEFENDER had its main objectives on the strategic deployment of U.S troops and rapid transportation of military logistics and equipment across the Atlantic to Europe.  

Sword 26 has a shift to more:

• Operational lethality and in-place forces;
• Integrating and deploying cutting-edge technology into modern combat field to increase operational efficiency.

Sword 26 stands as a transformative exercise to examine and solidify the highly advanced cutting-edge capabilities, inter alia, AI-enabled Command and Control (C2) systems, multi-domain integration and counter drone defense system for modern military battlefield. 

This shift aligns with the U.S. Army’s focus on warfighting modernization concept while supporting NATO’s broader transformational goals particularly on the Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative (EFDI).

Across the High North, and the Baltic region, Sword 26 will take place in: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland. Sweden, Turkiye, and the United Kingdom. It brings over 15,500 elite personnel—consisting 6,000 U.S. troops with 9,500 military personnel from NATO.

Highlights of the Sword 26

• Strengthening collective defense, security, and deterrence;
• Assessing and operationalizing NATO’s regional plans particularly along the Eastern Flank;
• Transitioning from traditional warfighting into next-generation combat technologies across all domains (land, air, sea, cyber, and space);
• Leveraging the full spectrum of AI-driven tech for the drones, counter-UAS platforms to transform real-time data into the decisive insights which define mission success.

 

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Acknowledgments: Sources/Image and logo ©DoD/US Army Europe and Africa.Music©Social media. Article by Catherine S. Schmidt, Director and Editor in Chief.

Excerpts from the speech of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, April 9th 2026

“If peace is to have a chance, if the hope for freedom is to be kept alive, the United States must play a powerful and active role in world affairs.

When President Reagan offered those words at a gathering of the Reserve Officers Association on January 27, 1988, the world was a very different place. 

The Berlin Wall still held people’s hopes and dreams captive.  More than 100 million men, women, and children lived in European countries behind an Iron Curtain.

Those differences notwithstanding, what President Reagan knew then, and what I know today, is quite simple:

American leadership is absolutely essential if freedom is to be the rule and not the exception.

As Prime Minister of the Netherlands and now as Secretary General of NATO, I have developed an unflinching appreciation for the value of American leadership.” ©NATO 

NATO Secretary General speech at the Ronald Reagan Institute, Washington, DC April 9 2026 ©NATO