Saturday, June 6, 2026

Iran’s president offers resignation, citing total takeover by IRGC commanders

 

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Just a brief posting… I wrote in my analysis three months ago, in March, “The U.S. Is Hunting the Wrong Enemy in Iran.” I noted that this is not, and should not be, about the Iranian people. Nor is it about “radical Islam.”

It is about the power of the tyrannical IRGC and their street thugs, the Basij. There can be no successful end to this war as long as the IRGC controls the nation. They cannot afford to lose. If they do, they lose everything and must answer to the Itanians so long repressed by the IRGC. I believe most of their members will die rather than give up the power and the illicit income they enjoy, riding on the backs of the Iranian people.

The IRGC has painted itself into a corner. It is a very powerful corner, with the benefit of the defender. From here, they must win diplomatically against a foe more interested in the next election than in the miscalculation of a swift victory in Iran. Anything less than their ouster or demise looks to the world like a victory over a very large paper tiger that has the world’s most capable military, but politicians with weak spines.

I believe, as well, that Mojtaba Khamenei, if he is even alive, is probably not the true leader of Iran. That is the image presented, but I see him as more likely a puppet that the IRGC pays fealty to, yet one it controls by deciding what information to provide or withhold. Everything goes through “The Office of the Supreme Leader,” a la the information-filtering servants in Gulliver’s Travels.

The article below was published late yesterday by Iran International, a London-based publication. It is not squeaky clean, either. They get the news right, as they did here, but slant their editorial content. Investigative reporting by The Wall Street Journal has detailed that the channel's initial launch and funding came via corporate structures linked to the Saudi Arabian royal court and figures close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. To the article:

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian

“Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has submitted an official letter of resignation to the Office of the Supreme Leader, a source familiar with the matter told Iran International.

“In the letter sent on Sunday, Pezeshkian stressed that the president and the government have effectively been excluded from major and vital decision-making processes in the country, and that the vacuum created by this situation has enabled hardline factions within the IRGC to take control of affairs, the source said.

“Pezeshkian added that under such circumstances he is unable to run the government and carry out his legal responsibilities, and for that reason has requested to step down immediately.

“It is not yet clear whether Mojtaba Khamenei will accept the president’s resignation, but the contents of the letter point to a deep and unprecedented rift at the highest levels of power.

“This comes after months of tensions between the government and the Islamic Republic’s military-security institutions. Iran International previously reported that the IRGC had gradually restricted many presidential powers and effectively taken control of key parts of the government.

“According to informed sources, the situation has left Pezeshkian’s administration trapped in a political and executive deadlock, preventing diplomatic negotiations from moving forward [emphasis mine] and the completion and implementation of desired changes to the cabinet structure.”

© Joseph L Shaefer 2026


This Saturday June 6, the Miami-Dade Military Museum presents a D-Day remembrance on its 82nd anniversary.

 June 3, 2026

Hello Members and Friends of the Association,

This Saturday June 6, the Miami-Dade Military Museum presents a D-Day remembrance on its 82nd anniversary.

https://www.miamimilitarymuseum.org/

The DAV Chapter 12 has presented the museum with an as yet unassembled granite bench which I had Gemini AI

assemble for the purposes of this message. FYI, there is no bronze plaque in front of it.








FUNERAL FOR SGM ROY REEL

 Brothers:  I want to provide you with confirmation and the following information of the Memorial Service for SGM Roy Reel:

 

  • The burial service will take place on June 23, 2026 at 10:00AM
  • The burial service will be conducted at the Garden of Memories located at 4207 E Lake Avenue, Tampa, FL 33610.
  • There will be a full military Honor Guard being coordinated by LTC(R) Danny Paul.
  • We will form up as a Detachment by the grave site and after the honor guard has concluded their duties, we will come to ATTENTION and the FINAL ORDERS will be read and copies presented to Roy’s son, Russell and daughter, LoriPlease bring and wear your Green Beret.
  • We will render a HAND SALUTE to honor one of our own and then remain AT EASE while the Chaplain gives a eulogy.
  • Immediately following the service, there will be a reception at the funeral home located very near the burial site.

 

It is my hope that if you served under SGM Reel you will want to honor his life of service to the Special Forces community. If you only know him by the history shared by those who knew and respected him, you come and recognize a valued member of the Brotherhood.

 

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to me…

 

De Oppresso Liber

 

 

 

 

Chris R. Bell, MSG (R)

Special Projects Officer

Special Forces Legacy Initiatives (SFLI)

(727) 244.1016

SpecialProjects@SFLI.org


Saturday, May 30, 2026

Florida: Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday Passes Legislature

 

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NRA-ILA: Institute for Legislative Action

Florida: Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday Passes Legislature

Today, May 29th, marks the last day of the Florida special session. HB 7031-E received final passage and will soon be transmitted to Governor's desk for his consideration. 

HB 7031-E includes holiday sales tax exemptions for ammunition, firearms, and firearm accessories. Their amended agreement includes suppressors as firearm accessories, and the sales tax exemption will be from September 1st, 2026, to December 31st, 2026.

NRA thanks Primary Sponsor and House Ways and Means Chair Wyman Duggan, House Speaker Danny Perez, Senate Majority Leader Jim Boyd, Senate President Pro Tempore Jason Brodeur, and all legislators who voted in favor of HB 7031-E.

Please stay tuned to the NRA-ILA website and your inbox for future updates.

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

FRIENDS AND ALLIES, GROUPS AND TEAMS, REMEMBRANCE AND RESPECT... Joseph L. Shaefer May 25

 May 25, 2026

Hello Members and Friends of the Association,

Memorial Day Salute from BG (R) Joseph Shaefer (SF Chapter 76 member)

Memorial Day is not merely the beginning of summer. It is not just a 3-day weekend by act of Congress, and not just the time we fire up the barbecue and have a picnic. It is, and should remain, a thoughtful time. It is a time to consider our own lives and to honor others who are now gone.

͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­

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Veterans Day in the United States is a celebratory time, a time for Veterans to pause and remember, and a time for all others to honor those who defended the nation, whether on the front lines of ground warfare, in the skies above, at sea, or anywhere else where veterans serve, even if from thousands of miles away.

Memorial Day is different. It is not merely the beginning of summer. It is not just a 3-day weekend by act of Congress, and not just the time we fire up the barbecue and have a picnic.

It is, and should remain, a thoughtful time. It is a time to consider our own lives and to honor others whose names we might not even know. Veterans, on this day especially, remember those who died too young. We honor those we served with who are, fortunately, still alive. For the rest of the nation, it started as a decoration of the graves of those who gave “their last full measure of devotion.”

The US seldom fought alone. We Americans sometimes do our share of chest-thumping, with those who never served most often in the forefront of such pomposity.

“We’re #1!” they shout. “America for Americans!” -- as if almost all of us did not have forebears that came from somewhere else.

Many times, we have been #1. But if #2 wasn’t on our right flank and #3 wasn’t on our left flank, we might not be here today. Our friends and allies have fought alongside us for as long as any of us have been alive.

From World War I to World War II to Korea, to Vietnam, to Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran today, and many lesser-known conflicts in between, there have been Allies and Friends alongside us.

General Eisenhower understood the essential value of friends and allies. His was a heavy burden. He had to command as many failures as successes before and after D-Day. On that fateful day, it fell to him to decide who the most battle-hardened troops were from sea, air, and land.

Charles de Gaulle, who had represented Free France from London, lobbied hard that France was a major power and deserved recognition. But the French had no seasoned military at that point. Instead, Ike decided that the assault on Normandy would be:

Americans on the right flank at Utah and Omaha beaches.

British on the left flank at Sword Beach.

British & Canadians to hold the vital center at Gold and Juno Beach.

Normandy Tourisme

Without each of them doing the work that day demanded, there would have been far more wounded and dead lying on those godforsaken beaches. In the months that followed, these three Allies and Friends, augmented by the military and resistance forces of the nations they liberated, fought and died together.

I have thus far spoken of the national level, or of the Corps and Army levels of ground warfare. But very few of us were engaged at that level in our short or long careers. Let us now think of Groups and Teams. That’s where the lives are most in danger. With Allies and Friends moving forward an inch at a time together, here is a prime example of how we met as Groups and Teams, fought together, and succeeded at the tip of the spear:

The First Special Service Force was a group of some 1,800 integrated Canadians and Americans whose reputation for unconventional warfare, commando raids, and fierce fighting made them so feared by Nazi forces that the Germans dubbed them the “Devil’s Brigade.” This small union of men so distinguished themselves in North Africa, Italy, and France that they were ultimately awarded the US Congressional Gold Medal for their extraordinary service – Canadians as well as Americans.

Six years later, in Korea, a group of Canadians and Americans outnumbered 10 to 1, called in artillery from allied New Zealanders all the way to within feet of their own positions. Many died at the hands of the Chinese enemy, but not nearly as many if any of those three allies had not been there for each other. They were all awarded the US Presidential Unit Citation.

CANADIAN FORCES IN KOREA, 1951 | Imperial War Museums

Imperial War Museums

My first, but certainly not last, experience working with US allies came early in my military career. I deployed with the 10th Special Forces Group (Green Berets) to US ally Norway to train with their Spesialstyrker (Special Forces). Later, I became the CO of a Special Forces A-Team (now called an Operational Detachment-Alpha—ODA). It doesn’t matter what it is called; the point was then and is today, it is not just an A-Team, but “a Team.”

I could easily review each war since Korea and document members of the Teams and Groups of Allies and Friends who made the ultimate sacrifice, believing in the same desire to oppose tyranny that United States military men and women have done and continue to do on outposts around the world every day.

Wars of the World

Instead, I offer only this small suggestion. This Memorial Day 2026, set aside just one minute, 60 seconds, for a break from what you are doing to remember and respect their sacrifice on this one day we have set aside to remember the Fallen. Americans, of course. But if you believe the world’s democracies will always be set upon by autocrats and terrorists, then Remember and Respect those in the free world who have fought and died in each other’s arms so we may today live as free men and women.

Allies and Friends, Groups and Teams, Remembrance and Respect.

© 2026, Joseph L. Shaefer
 
 

Joe Pruett on behalf of

Ed Pijuan

President

 

Chapter 76 Facebook Site: https://www.facebook.com/SFA-South-Florida-Chapter-76-111343950710574/

 

Chapter Blog is located at http://SFACH76.Blogspot.com/

 

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ED PIJUAN

PRESIDENT

 

ROGER KIDDER

VICE PRESIDENT

 

ED BELLO

2nd VICE PRESIDENT & WEBMASTER

 

AL HERNANDEZ

SECRETARY

 

JASON PSALTIDES

SECRETARY

 

JIM TRICE

TREASURER

 

TOM HOUSE

SERGEANT-AT-ARMS

_________________

 

DAN POIRIER

CHAPTER 76 BLOGGER

 

JOE PRUETT

COMMUNICATIONS