The United States and Israel are both revelling in inflicting the maximum possible death and suffering on Iran. After the genocide in Gaza, on a far larger field in Iran, those in power in Israel and the USA have a lust to kill and they revel in impunity.
The Epstein files reveal the same dynamic. We live in a society where those who obtain power wish to exercise it in the cruellest possible ways against the most defenceless. It appears to be a feature of late Western capitalist society, where sociopathic tendencies are essential to obtaining power, in a society which rejects altruism and cooperation as concepts and promotes competition, self-love and ruthlessness.
Iran is showing commendable fighting spirit, but as my last article stated, American military power should not be underestimated. They have the ability to destroy Iran from the air, to obliterate the institutions of the state and all of the key civilian infrastructure. Electricity, water, healthcare, education, administration, policing all can be knocked out just as they were systematically in Gaza and – on a scale insufficiently recalled – in Iraq.
Trump is already asking Congress for $50 billion to fund the operation and replenish stocks. The scale of destruction Netanyahu envisages will cost at least half a trillion dollars from the US Treasury. But there is nothing that can stop them.
I witnessed close up over five months the 80 to 100,000 homes destroyed in Lebanon by Israel in the last three years. We have all seen what they did to Gaza. The notion they cannot do this to Iran is simply wrong. It requires a colossal effort of will, a mania for killing, a vast amount of money and the depletion of the US arsenal. But they can do it.
Only political action by the peoples of the West against their leaders can stop it.
Iran and its allies have been the only physical opposition to the creation of Greater Israel. If the physical destruction of Iran is achieved, Greater Israel will be established at pace. One of the world’s greatest civilisations will lie in ashes, covering millions of corpses, but none of that will prevent the extraction of oil.
Pete Hegseth, American Secretary for War, simply comes over as a Nazi thug. He plainly is enjoying this as much as Netanyahu, Ben Gvir or Smotrich. He has gloatingly promised “Death and destruction from the sky, all day long”. He repeatedly signals ever-escalating bombing.
The Iranian Red Crescent has listed the bombing destruction so far. It includes:
- 5,535 civilian residential units
- 1,041 commercial units
- 65 schools
- 14 hospitals and medical centres
- 13 Red Crescent Society bases
By contrast, there has been no credible claim that Iran has inflicted widespread civilian damage. It has very tightly targeted specific facilities – collateral damage seems almost entirely confined to debris from intercepted drones and missiles.
But we know the US/Israel axis targets hospitals and medical facilities. It is proven beyond doubt in Gaza, and I witnessed it in Beirut.
In gloating about US military superiority, Trump advised Iranian civilians:
“Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere.”
Yet they are deliberately bombing residential buildings, exactly as in both Lebanon and Gaza. Trump is attempting to terrorise Iran into “unconditional surrender”.
At the Battle of Waterloo – an epic, large-scale and unmissable event – approximately 15,000 people died on the field of battle (more died later of wounds in an age before antibiotics). You are supposed to believe that the Iranian government in January killed twice as many demonstrators as died at Waterloo. This using only small arms and despite the complete lack of visual evidence of killing on anything like that scale.
At the same time you are supposed to believe that tens of thousands of tonnes of the highest explosives have been dropped into the centre of cities all across Iran but that these are “precision attacks” killing very few civilians.
It is obvious nonsense.
AI targeting only adds a new layer of dystopia to an entirely vicious and unnecessary war. The indifference of the Western media to the slaughter of 160 Iranian schoolgirls leads to really difficult questions about the type of society the West has become. Racism is just the beginning of the problems.
The effort to coerce the Kurds into yet again fighting for the USA, only to be abandoned when no longer deemed helpful, is reckless in the extreme. It is bound to lead to further war and fragmentation in Iraq. The repercussions in Turkey are potentially extreme – and possibly may jolt Erdoğan from his complacent furthering of the US/Israeli agenda.
Civil war is close in Lebanon. The traitorous Zionist regime of General Aoun has no forces capable of taking on Hezbollah; but the other Zionist puppet al-Jolani has concentrated forces on the border with the Bekaa Valley ready to attack Hezbollah from the East while they fight Israeli invading forces in the South. Macron has indicated he may send troops and armour to assist Aoun.
This entire conflict sounds like a dreadful regional disaster in which millions could die – and it is. But to the US and Israeli Zionists, the prospect of a devastated region is precisely what they wish to achieve to facilitate Israeli expansion and American seizure of resources.
There is an urgent need for regime change – in the West. The only way for this carnage to stop is for the people of the West to remove their Zionist-controlled ruling classes.
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I just came across an email in my inbox from Change.org with three petitions relating to Iran, with a link to a bunch of other Iran-related petitions, one of which was entitled:
Iran: Urgent UN action to stop mass killings in Iran (35,000 killed in 48 Hrs)
in which it says the following:
Credible reporting indicates a large-scale, organised crackdown over two consecutive nights, 8 and 9 January 2026, during an ongoing internet shutdown. Iran International has reported that at least 35,000 people were killed, citing senior government and security sources and describing a multi-stage verification process based on accounts linked to state bodies, medical data, eyewitness testimony, and information from doctors and nurses across multiple cities.
This is surely complete and utter bollox. Yeah, tens of thousands of people supposedly just stood there when the shooting started and let the IRGC or whoever mow them down…. with machine guns supposedly. I just happened to come across the official figure in an article I read a few days ago, and it was five thousand and something. I mean once people start being shot and killed you’d be pretty stupid to go out and protest again and, as such, the five thousand and something figure sounds much, much more plausible.
https://www.change.org/p/iran-urgent-un-action-to-stop-mass-killings-in-iran-35-000-killed-in-48-hrs?source_location=movement_page
And five thousand and something is a helluva lot anyway!
Just this second occured to me to do a search…
Estimates of the death toll from the Tiananmen Square crackdown in June 1989 vary widely, with official Chinese reports claiming over 200 deaths, while other sources suggest the number could be as high as 10,000 based on leaked documents. Most independent estimates range from several hundred to several thousand fatalities.
Search Assist
There’s a lot of evidence that the death toll in Tiananmen Square was supposed to be as high as 10,000, but the Chinese protesters didn’t cooperate and just went home, but the “correct” figure was used regardless. An internet search for pictures of the dead bodies turns up nothing despite the presence of Western reporters like Jeff Widener, who took the famous “Tank man” photograph. You don’t just hide 10,000 bodies round the corner, it’s about 1,500 cubic metres of flesh. As Goebbels said “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. ” and that was before there was in internet to multiply it millions of times.
It is a good job western governments do not massacre demonstrators.
Oh, hang on:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Paris_massacre
Or, earlier, the Amritsar massacre:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jallianwala_Bagh_massacre
That would be the Iran International that Craig called “dodgier than Al Capone’s accountant.”
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/05/mi5s-fake-terror-plots/
They’re getting a LOT of algorithmic amplification right now; your guess is as good as mine why. Actually your guess is probably the same as mine.
They are not a trusthworthy source; let’s leave it at that for now.
Time to rehearse the zionists’ atrocity propaganda about a state under savage assault by Israel and the USA. Five thousand murdered Iranian protesters is their new Hamas mass rape hoax.
“Credible reporting”. Western hasbara making up facts on the fly again. This is propaganda aimed at creating confirmation bias in the expat Iranian community who think, or claim to think, that having the Pahlavis back in charge would be a “good thing”. For women, of course. Interestingly, this demographic is key to most CIA regime change efforts – the best-established faction are 2nd gen Cubans who fled Castro with their loot from the corrupt Batista regime, people like Rubio. We see the same thing with expat Venezuelans like Machado and Guaido, colonial brats mourning the loss of wealth. Also in Georgia, where EU tried to co-opt the young and foolish for a regime change, Vietnam for anyone who remembers that far back, and in Hong Kong. CIA was working to drive a wedge into Iranian society, but failed. Still trying, but it only works on those who really want to believe the fantasy.
“Credible reporting indicates a large-scale, organised crackdown over two consecutive nights, 8 and 9 January 2026, during an ongoing internet shutdown.”
Unfortunately, someone seems to have clipped the “In..” off the start of the first word in this sentence, probably whilst doing a cut and paste.
Indeed, Craig……the unprovoked, homicidal brutality of the U.S of Zion is horrific enough, but what drags it down into demonic levels of subhuman barbarity is – as you say – the sheer malevolent glee and celebration of pain, suffering & death displayed by the psychopathic perpetrators. Government by shadenfreude – lit….shadow joy; exemplified by monkey-suited wannabe ” Avenger ” ( what shall we call him? hmmm……Zyklon, maybe? ) Hegseth, proselytized by ” Rapture ” enthusiast and more-Zionist-than-Yahu, Mikey ( don’t ) Meet The Huckerbee and salivated over by ” Ladybug ” Lindsey; facilitated by hollow-souled perma-smirking ( other-people’s ) Estates Agent – Kushner + ” 1st openly gay whatever-the-fck-he-is ” Bessent – great how so many members of * formerly oppressed minorities * have absolutely no problem inflicting pain on other – still – oppressed groups, innit?
What a fckn collection of deranged psycho/sociopaths. Amerika The Grotesque; from sea to shit-filled sea, morally drowning in ceaseless waves of amber + red+blue+white domestic & global hyper-violence. It will be their downfall.
Only empires in terminal decline behave with such incredibly reckless wanton destruction and demented thrashing in the depths to stay afloat. Not waving, but dying
“great how so many members of * formerly oppressed minorities * have absolutely no problem inflicting pain on other – still – oppressed groups, innit?”
As I have pointed out before, the chief desire of the oppressed seems to be not to stop oppression, but to change places with the oppressors.
Historically and in great measure that has been the case, B: but not always/everywhere. Though their voices have been/are suppressed to the point of near inaudibility, there, eg are many Jewish people – in many cases direct or offspring of victims of Nazi concentration camps – who are totally appalled & opposed to what Israel is doing in Gaza and elsewhere. Likewise the majority of victims of awful sexual or other types of abuse DO NOT in turn become victimisers. So, to me anyway, it’s still dismaying/disappointing when this does happen. As I’ve said before…….you would think that victims of any type of violence would be the last people to inflict such on anyone: that some do is depressing; that most don’t is reassuring
The trouble is that, although it’s not everyone who has that reaction to oppressors, there are always enough for the cycle of oppression to continue, like bullying in schools or the Army.
The high-rise building in Kuwait that Iranian action has put on fire is where the USA-bootlicking Kuwaiti dictatorship runs its sovereign pension fund from. This isn’t as big as its main sovereign wealth fund, but it’s still pretty big and these are early days.
Those who say the USA will probably win this war are speaking far too soon.
” Those who say the USA will probably win this war are speaking far too soon.”. Yes, Brian, at the very least, this latest example of Yankee imperialism will be much more costly – to itself – than it’s delusional hubris is desperately trying to convince – primarily its domestic audience, but also, the rest of the world it will be.
As others have speculated…….the fear is that the U.S of Z is * allowing * the Iranians to inflict damage on Dog’s Own Land & satellite vassals as prelude/ pretext to bringing out the hardest of Nuclear hardware and either using it with impunity or surreptitiously, ie ” oh look, we, quite fortuitously, bombed an Iranian nuclear weapon manufacturing facility, phew, just in time to prevent them using it to kill honest, upright Americans in, eg Akron Ohio and other parts of Dog’s Own Land Mk2.”
At this stage, we can put nothing past White House/Pentagon/Senate Triumvirate of Terror. Not only to destroy Iran, also ‘ pour encourager les autres ‘: and, possibly more prosaically, because they are losing and rather than countenance the – supposed – humiliation of another tail-between-legs retreat from a foreign misadventure, go for the endgame option
The west seems to have underestimated Iran’s capabilities if this very informative interview with Alastair Crooke by Chris Hedges is anything to go by https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/can-israel-and-the-us-sustain-irans
The obvious thing for the US to do next is to seize the Iranian shore of the Straits if Hormuz.
Gallipoli 2.0?
i abhor the Zionist attack on Iran, but reallistically it would be relatively easy for the USZ to take over the Iranian islands in the Hormuz
The systematic carnage from Palestine to Lebanon to Iran by israel could only be found in racism. It is the deep disdain, dehumanization and hatred that a majority of israeli jews feel towards non-jews that cause this psychotic, sadistic killings. No sane people or nation for that matter go on and start massacring people from nation to nation without being conditioned and brainwashed to do it.
Israeli jews are brought up to hate palestinians, iranians, arabs, christians etc , this is a supremacist state on par with nazi Germany.
Take this poll from 2018:
“Over half of respondents said they agreed to some extent with the statement: “Most Jews are better than most non-Jews because they were born Jews.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-poll-shows-strong-anti-arab-sentiment-among-israeli-jews/
Also speaking on regime change, regime change in the West would not lead to anything. From left to right politicians support this throughout the West, the western world is a lost cause.
No, the people that hold the key to change is the arab leaders or rather arab world. The arab world must rid itself from their pro-western/israeli leadership and kick out the american troops/bases that make this attack possible because the arab world should know that after Iran, the arab world will be the next target for israel.
Edward Said must roll in his grave if he could witness the treachery by the arab world:
“Without any doubt, however, the extraordinary success of this unparalleled and immoral effort has been in large part due not only to the campaign’s carefully planned and executed detail, but to the fact that the Arab side has been practically non-existent. When our historians look back to the first 50 years of Israel’s existence, an enormous historical responsibility shall rest damningly on the shoulders of the Arab leaders who have criminally — yes, criminally — allowed this to go on without even the most meagre and half-hearted response”.
https://mediamonitors.net/propaganda-and-war/
Yeah, right. Iran is attacked by a nation on the other side of the world and somehow this is the fault of its neighbours in West Asia.
Bayard
Yes obviously since the neighbours are the ones enabling the attack on Iran not to mention the genocide. Just yesterday I read how Jordan boasted how they stopped some hundred missiles and drones from Iran towards Israel and/or american targets. They become part of the war as soon as they let US/Israel use their territory/airspace/soil.
No need to see the arab world as some incompetent people with no agency or leverage whatsoever or being reduced to pure pawns of the West.
Before you criticise the “Arab world” for not rising up to remove the regimes that the West has installed, you might consider what you are doing to encourage an uprising in your own country, or failing that, in a neighbouring Western country that supports the US/israeli invasion, and, if you are not doing that, why you are not doing it.
“regime change in the West would not lead to anything.”
Sometimes throwing a term back into the face of the enemy that used it first isn’t effective. It can become like satirical stage comedy.
Sometimes it is effective.
But sometimes to build an analysis on appropriated terms is a trap.
And often there’s a law of diminishing returns.
The word “regime” is used in the US and satellite countries to denote government and constitutional arrangements in countries that are considered “inferior” and changeable or recolonisable by bombing, invasion, coup funding, or other pressure. It’s never used for e.g. the monarchist arrangement in Britain (which has no constitution). That arrangement is not even distinguished from the country itself, even though you would have thought UK = regime, Britain = country (cf. Fifth Republic = regime, France = country) was easy to understand. But brain cells and active-mindedness are in short supply.
Never lose sight of the fact that getting rid of the ruling scum and the exploitative society they maintain is what’s needed, and this can only be successful globally even if obviously it must start somewhere.
This said, if the streets of central Westminster were to be blocked by a large camp of anti-war protestors saying they want “regime change”, I know which side I’d be on.
Populist-Powellite regime change, on the other hand, would continue the dynamic of the existing society – some of the methods and arrangements of which are obviously in decay – and is likely to occur.
The hell with any regime the ruling scum try to impose, however populist, democratic, or pitchfork-participatory it may be.
“The poshboy regime’s vessel is ludicrously called ‘His Majesty’s Ship The Prince of Wales’, it’s sailed by the ‘Royal Navy’, and it carries planes piloted by the ‘Royal Navy’ and other planes piloted by the ‘Royal Air Force’.”
On top of all that, it’s a “Queen Elizabeth-class” aircraft carrier.
What a shame Barry Mannakee, George Smith, and Virginia Giuffre aren’t alive to comment.
If the Mediterranean seabed were a person, it would probably vomit when it makes this ship’s acquaintaince.
Lets wait and see who they’ve chosen, and will the US/Israel, and their increasingly compliant minions (On Iran) – try to assassinate him.
“A new Supreme leader has been chosen in Iran and will be announced soon, according to a member of Assembly of Experts.”
The Tehran Times which provides a lot if insight into life in Iran in its many aspects has been stuttering of late on the internet but is available in a truncated form just now.
Article by Garsha Vazirian summarises the situation well.
“TEHRAN — They came for the children first. Then they came for the hospitals, the cultural treasures, the residential neighborhoods, and also—in an act of such breathtaking illegality that it has stunned even seasoned observers—they came for the nation’s leader himself.”
On Minab
“The massacre of innocence
The Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, Hormozgan province, was struck on the morning of February 28, the first day of the bombing campaign.
The strike was remarkably precise. The building, which satellite imagery confirms had been walled off from any adjacent military infrastructure since 2016, was hit with such force that concrete roofs collapsed onto classrooms where girls aged seven to twelve were studying.
168 of them did not survive. At least 95 more were wounded, many grievously”.
Even a New York Times visual investigation concluded that the school “was severely damaged by a precision strike that occurred at the same time as attacks on an adjacent naval base.”
Official statements that U.S. forces were attacking naval targets near the Strait of Hormuz “suggest they were most likely to have carried out the strike.”
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/524523/The-atrocious-assassination-of-a-nation
Starmer and Cooper’s Orwellian notion of “defensive support” is a total obscenity. If it means anything at all it should apply only to support for Iran,
This doesnt look too good for the US.
“US attempted a landing from a ship at Hormuz. It didn’t go as planned. US soldiers dead and taken prisoner before US forces retreated in a blazing ship pursued by IRGC.”
I rather think Trump is going to land the 82nd Airborne on the Iranian shore of the strait of Hormuz. There’s no other way of ensuring the strait remains open for oil exports. The strait is so narrow that even field guns can fire at ships attempting to pass, let alone anti-ship missiles. If Trump is really going to double down, and attempt to force Iran to “surrender”, it’s the only way to avoid catastrophe in the world oil market. But it’s a genuinely bad idea; the US troops would be picked off in the mountains by infiltrating Iranian troops, rather like in Afghanistan.
Iran has hyper sonic missiles with terminal phase maneuverability and has a formidable navy and submarine fleet armed with ‘the Hoot’ which is an Iranian super cavitation torpedo claimed to travel at approximately 360 km/h (220 mph), several times faster than a conventional torpedo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoot_(torpedo)#See_also
While Iran has no nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs) or ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), its focus on mini-submarines like the Ghadir-class and advancements in torpedo technology such as the Valfajr make it a formidable regional power in maritime security.
The Ghadir-class mini-submarines represent an important part of Iran’s expanding submarine capabilities. With a reported fleet size of 15-23 vessels, the Ghadir-class submarines are small, coastal diesel-electric boats, ideal for operations in shallow waters. These submarines are equipped with two 533mm torpedo tubes and have the ability to launch torpedoes or anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs).
Capturing the Iranian side of the Strait will not open passage, Iranian mines of every description are ready to be activated, even short range missiles fired from deeper inland Iran would any foolish tanker owner. This is a war for all the marbles i.e. We all lose.
The Bay of Pigs again but with an aircraft carrier.
Big propaganda opportunity here.
Offer to swap each USA soldier for 108 or 150 prisoners held in Zionist jails, Guantanamo, or the Gulf. Choose 108 or 150 or whatever the number of young girls was who were slaughtered in Minab.
Or offer to swap each USA soldier (an adult volunteer who is paid to risk his or her life for the burgermuncher regime) for a Palestinian CHILD prisoner abducted and held by the Zionists.
Agree to allow Red Cross access if it is also allowed to Palestinian prisoners held by the Occupation.
I rather think that the Iranians are salivating at the prospect of US “boots on the ground”. After decades of economic and financial sabotage, and bombardment from afar by unseen foes sitting in comfortable cockpits, finally a chance to get their hands on those enemies! The Iranians won’t much mind how many of their own people die, if they can just kill some Americans. Professor Marandi, not apparently a bloodthirsty man, smiled quite broadly when asked if Iran was prepared for a ground invasion.
And to be honest, they are fully justified and quite right. For the Americans to get a bloody nose and their teeth knocked out would be one of the best things that could happen for the rest of the world.
Lets hope it true.
“Bahrain, King fled the country and people took to the streets, overthrowing the Israeli-funded government of Bahrain”
Bahrain is 70-80% Shi’a, with a Sunni minority king and army. The last time a revolt occurred, during the Arab Spring, if I remember correctly, Saudi sent troops over the causeway to suppress the uprising, an operation which succeeded. This time, do the Saudis have the troops to send? They must have a renewed anxiety themselves about the Shi’a of the Eastern Province of Saudi, a Shi’a majority province that just happens to contain all the Saudi oil-fields….
Bahrain is where ex-“Prince” Andrew was considering fleeing to before this war started. (Abu Dhabi in the UAE was also on the list.)
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/royals/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-getting-passport-36830784
Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi will probably be more concerned with keeping his own regime on a life-support system than propping up his Bahraini colleague’s reign.
Meanwhile, in Buckingham Palace…
One wonder how Iran itself will be able to sustain and cope with the assassination campaign by israel, of every new ayatollah that they will declare. israel just today threatened that they will instantly target any new leader that Iran put forward.
Maybe Iran should put Trump forward as the new ayatollah, then sit back and watch Israel target him, Doh ! 😉
The obvious way is to make sure Israel never knows where the new leader(s) are. Iran is a very big country and it’s been done in plenty of different parts of the world in the past. There will be a whole craft to it.
“The Epstein files reveal the same dynamic. We live in a society where those who obtain power wish to exercise it in the cruellest possible ways against the most defenceless. It appears to be a feature of late Western capitalist society, where sociopathic tendencies are essential to obtaining power, in a society which rejects altruism and cooperation as concepts and promotes competition, self-love and ruthlessness”.
I connect both the Epstein filth and the Pentagon filth with the words George Orwell gave his marvellously true yet diabolical creation O’Brien:
“He paused, and for a moment assumed again his air of a schoolmaster questioning a promising pupil: ‘How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?’
“Winston thought. ‘By making him suffer,’ he said.
“‘Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing’”.
– George Orwell (O’Brien to Winston Smith, “1984”)
From the BBC’s thread on Iran:
‘… there is worry about possible chemical substances in the smoke rising from burning oil storage tanks into the city’s sky.’
POSSIBLE!!
From oil storage tanks! Because the BBC isn’t sure about that. It could be that chemical-free oil we’ve heard so much about. If that happened in the UK it would be a humanitarian and ecological disaster, but the further south we go oil loses all it’s toxic chemicals which are replaced by mono-cellular unicorns, and it’s a good thing, isn’t it Winston?
Trump has lost his mind, here flanked by Hegseth and Witkoff [who else] pontificates on the war with Iran, the first question he is asked… who killed the 179 Iranian schoolgirls on the first day of the US bombing? Trump.. the Iranians of course, the interview goes downhill from there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B1vEY56PNw
I don’t suppose anyone thought to ask him who killed all the Israelis on 7 October 2023?
re: usefulness of this war for Chinese military planning
Chinese seize the rare opportunity to surveil and analyze US conduct 24/7.
And steadily gather an encyclopedia of US military planning and execution.
Know thy enemy…
https://x.com/pati_marins64/status/2030042916803203411
“(…)
The United States has handed the Chinese an encyclopedia on its military doctrines.
The war involving the US and Israel is being monitored and recorded in real time by LEO satellite constellations such as Jilin-1, which are even capable of capturing 4K UHD video.
Today, China operates at least three LEO constellations comprising at least 300 satellites dedicated to espionage or dual-use purposes.
From the images constantly released about American bases, it is clear that the Chinese are building a true encyclopedia on U.S. naval and air doctrines.
Every ship positioning, fiend tactics, refueling time, ammunition resupply, everything is being monitored by Chinese satellites. This includes the exact location and behavior of air defenses, their mapped reaction times, missile trajectories, and reprogramming durations.
Nothing escapes the Chinese gaze. In this conflict, they have already mapped and publicly released data on multiple American bases in the region, even identifying the exact number and models of aircraft on the ground.
The war against Iran is giving the Chinese something they never had in the Ukrainian theater: the opportunity to study and document American forces in detail.
To give you an idea, in 2025 the Chinese recorded a video of Atlanta’s airport purely to demonstrate their capability.
I believe the same kind of videos are being produced daily on the American front against Iran.
Never in history has a U.S conflict been observed from the skies at this level, both tactically and strategically.
The price of the Iran war is high in many ways, as I have always said.
And this single episode is giving the Chinese decades of planning and improvement in one go.
(…)”
further excellent coverage nakedcapitalism:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/03/iran-war-more-trump-bluster-as-us-and-israel-weapon-stocks-thin-and-claims-of-success-questioned-report-of-plans-to-send-special-forces-to-seize-nuclear-material-among-signs-of-us-troop-mobilization.html
There is no sign of Iran being unable to cope with the situation.
William Schryver suggested that the USS Gerald Ford has been ordered to defend US allies against new missiles and provide ISR. That doesn´t sound like classic supremacy.
Whether or not we will see troops.
Read a report recently that speculated that all the R&D into humanoid robots by China might result in future chinese troops being robots. Scary but possibly achievable:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6T-Ea5CfRE
We´ll see…
fwiw I regard these as showcase
However I find it very interesting how China tries to get hold of the technology and sort of get ahead of progress also to preempt potential dangerous development.
Excellent article by Simon Tisdall in the Guardian about Trump’s war against Iran. His conclusion is that Britain should declare independence from America !
Yes, but flawed by Tisdall’s regrettable comparison with the Ukraine. Now those are war-crazed Nazis a good liberal can get behind!
It’s the standard British neocon rant about Trump.
Righteous fury deriving from .. ‘most bitter of all, [Trump’s] unforgivable betrayal of Ukraine and appeasement of Russia.’ (That is, his unconscionable interest in an end to the bloodshed.)
Simon relies on readers such as yourself who choose not remember what Trump’s liberal predecessor was doing to Gaza just over a year ago (with the aid of liberal governments in Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia etc).
He tells readers – in March 2026 – that Sir Keir Starmer is ‘an honourable man’.
I see the Guardian elected against reader feedback.
Yes, closing the comments, even to the relatively tame comments the Guardian moderators let through, always looks a sure sign something ‘important’ is afoot for the rulers, and they don’t want the plebs getting a look-in just yet.
“He tells readers – in March 2026 – that Sir Keir Starmer is ‘an honourable man’.”
Like Brutus: “But Sir Keir says they are terrorists; And Sir Keir is an honourable man.”
This is the kind of thing we’ve come to expect from the US.
“Trump is considering the possibility of seizing Kharg Island which is the main oil export terminal for Iran, and handles around 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports – Axios reports”
Its nice to have friends, even more so if they are powerful ones.
“After the loss of key facilities at the Ali Al-Salem Air Base, US forces have transferred their command and control operations to the building of the Kuwait Social Insurance Fund.
It took China only hours to locate it, and Iran destroyed it with a drone”
I think no matter what he does, Bibi’s plan for “a greater Israel” is completely doomed and will blow up in his face.
If you look at the plan, a superior race with lots of vassals doing their bidding, Israels’ record so far is pretty miserable.
Instead of ‘enslaving’ the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, they oppressed them and drove the angry ones out to Jordan, Syria and the Lebanon. They then, having destabilised their neighbours, had to attack the refugees in the camps (Sabra and Chatila etc) and send the IDF into Gaza, the Lebanon and Syria. And now they’ve decided they are ready for Iran, whilst Trump remains gullible.
The Iran venture will fail, the rest of the world will turn against Israel, the Brave and Fearless Runnaway Bibi will do nothing to save the diaspora of jews around the world, and will probably bring down the curtain on this insanity by firing a (defensive and pinpoint accurate of course of course) nuclear weapon at Tehran.
How on earth did we let it come to this -by voting in cowards, idiots and bureaucrats for decades.
Serves us right.
“Joy at Death and Destruction”.
The Zionazis are boasting about the contamination they have caused to fall in rain on Teheran, and also about the fact that the Iranian Red Crescent is advising that such precipitation is extremely dangerous, warning of skin burns and severe lung damage.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/black-clouds-over-tehran-rain-down-oil-drops-after-israel-strikes-oil-facilities/
This is chemical warfare against millions of civilians.
The Zionists are absolutely loving it. And, guess what, they are describing it in biblical-sounding terms:
“The strikes sent up pillars of fire that could be seen in videos as a glow against the Saturday night sky. It appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war. With the sun blotted out Sunday morning, disoriented people in the Iranian capital had to turn on their lights to see through the gloom. (…) On the streets of Tehran, security forces directed traffic while wearing special coats and masks to protect themselves.“
Maybe 10 years ago, Israel could have negotiated a sustainable deal with their neighbours that would have been very much in their favour. Sustainable in that all parties involved would have had too much to lose if it collapsed. But Israel thought “No, we’ll grab a bit more before we settle”. Well now their position has weakened markedly. They are facing effective offensive missiles and people are fleeing. Their chief patron is struggling to maintain its hegemony and looking to retreat to Fortress America. Their Kompromat operations have been revealed, the Western leaders they control with it are dropping off the twig and the next generation will be more careful. The Western public is turning against them and even their media mates are sounding a bit uncertain. But I can’t see them settling for what they could get now. Instead they’ll throw the dice again and again until one day they lose catastrophically. That day might not be far off.
So a few months ago (last September I think it was), Trump the Cnut said that Hamas chopped babies in half, and now, today, he’s saying that the Iranians cut babies heads off and chop women in half. The woman being interviewed on LBC (in a vid posted two hours ago) relates it starting at around 1min 50secs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mlYDZaYP0w
Presumably the Iranians have only just started doing this, for surely he – or one of his nazi buddies, and especially Netanyahu – would have told us weeks or months ago that they were doing such things. Or could it be that Trump’s reason for spouting such shit is because approval for his attack on Iran is very low (12%in a recent CNN poll), and so he’s now coming up with atrocity propaganda to try and increase the approval rating. And justify the carpet bombing of Iran and killing and maiming thousands of women and children and sick and elderly and non-combatant men. And all based on massive falsehoods.
Just came across the following by chance, posted on March 4th, and last updated a couple of days ago:
Who bombed a girls’ school in Iran? A visual investigation
New satellite images suggest ‘precise targeting’
…Almost immediately after the bombing, there were competing narratives about who struck the school — and whether it was intentional — from people on social media and from official sources. Iranian state media said it was a “brutal attack by the American-Zionist enemy.” Others suggested in social media posts it was a failed Iranian missile that hit the school.
CBC’s visual investigations team reviewed and verified multiple videos from the scene showing several distinct smoke plumes, indicating the area was hit more than once. This was confirmed by satellite imagery released Wednesday by Planet Labs, which revealed multiple impact craters within the complex.
“It was precise targeting of a military facility for the IRGC,” said a military researcher at Factnameh, an Iranian fact-checking group out of Toronto, whose identity CBC News has agreed to keep confidential.
“According to satellite images, the impacts shows a pattern of precision guided munitions … there shouldn’t be any mistakes.”
The researcher says the fact a school was struck shows it was “either the fault of a weapons system or a huge mistake [U.S. Central Command] made with intelligence gathering.” [or deliberate!]
Another expert consulted by CBC News, Wes Bryant, a U.S.-based military analyst and munitions expert, says the findings suggest that the strike on the school was not an accident.
“This absolutely was deliberately targeted,” said Bryant. “It is improbable that the strikes on the school and medical facility were merely misses.”
“All targets [were] hit at centre point or near centre point of the structures,” Bryant said….
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/iran-school-bombing-investigation-9.7114994
“Trump the Cnut said that Hamas chopped babies in half, and now, today, he’s saying that the Iranians cut babies heads off and chop women in half.”
It’s just the modern day equivalent of the insults that the rival armies used to hurl at each other before a battle. At the start of WWI, the British were accusing the Germans of “bayonetting babies”. It’s just a ritual, it doesn’t have to be true.
Our news make rather strange coverage of the events, and they feature frightening reports about Trump calling on priests to bless him for war.
And also that Peter Hegseth has tattoos of “Deus Vult” and similar items on his body and is making statements about the religious nature of this conflict.
Is it true? Please answer anyone/
On the day General Soleimani died, Iran was an example of resilience for me, and an example of Truth. Their armed forces shot down a plane carrying civilians, mistaking them for a military target. After an investigation, the Iranian authorities admitted their guilt, and this won my heart, because I stand against any kind of lies.
I view truth as the highest virtue. Saying exactly what your eyes see is perhaps the only way to interact with reality.
Does anyone else have the same feeling that we are being asked to accept another version of events?
In a Theatre of War – any version but the Truth
There are regular “prayer meetings” at the White House with Evangelical* religious figures “laying hands” on Trump to bless him. “Calling on priests to bless him for war” probably isn’t a misreading of the situation, although I don’t think Trump was the original instigator of these meetings (they came to him, not the other way around) and the term “priests” is a bit off. Understandably, this is a rather different expression of Christianity than Russians would likely have encountered.
Yes on Hegseth’s tattoos. But doubts have been cast on the story that’s flooding the internet on commanders preaching Armageddon to the troops; that may have been badly overblown if not an outright fabrication. There’s ultimately only one source and it could not be confined to that if it were anywhere near as widespread as claimed.
*In Germany, maybe elsewhere in Europe, “evangelical” simply means Protestant rather than Catholic. In the US it describes a minority position within Protestantism. And within that minority is a much smaller minority that sees what’s happening now as the unfolding of events in the Book of Revelation and think the return of Jesus is imminent. I don’t think Hegseth’s quite in that group; I suspect some of the people at the White House prayer meetings are.
Not sure if this helps; it isn’t easy to explain.
‘In Germany, maybe elsewhere in Europe, “evangelical” simply means Protestant rather than Catholic.’
I don’t know about Germany, but I’m pretty sure that the meaning in the UK is much the same as in the US (and that there is a strong influence of the US on the UK in this regard).
For what it’s worth, the Wikipedia article on the subject says “Evangelicalism, also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity” (my emphasis).
Finally, just to scare Tatyana some more (it scares me!):
https://www.reddit.com/r/therewasanattempt/comments/1rkpkx0/to_summon_angelic_reinforcements_for_trump_by/
To summon “angelic reinforcements” for Trump (by Paula White–Trump’s senior spiritual advisor) :
r/therewasanattempt [56s] [Tue 4 Mar 2026]
Sorry, it’s past my bedtime! The date of that clip is wrong in two ways. Not only was the Reddit clip dated Wed 4 Mar 2026, not “Tue 4 Mar 2026” (duh!), but more seriously, the longer YouTube version of the same clip, posted below by Stevie Boy, is dated Thu 5 Nov 2020.
Why strange? Putin got the Orthodox bishops to bless his “special operation” in Ukraine, while Trump got evangelical pastors to do it. The Americans also called the war they started by a euphemism ending in “operation”. (Their excuse was, they don’t have boots on the ground, yet). But calling the aggression on Ukraine “war” will get people into jail in Russia. So I wouldn’t practice the “highest virtue” in that way in Moscow right now.
I see differences in motive. With Putin it’s to bring back the Soviet Empire (with himself as Tsar, naturally). Trump wants to distract attention from THE EPSTEIN FILES. In Iran he’s not doing as Putin would wish. The Russians could remind him of compromat they hold on him, but nowadays he could dismiss it as “AI forgery”. Never mind, there are other ways. Let Putin bring or send him a beautiful gift, made of gold. Call it the “Peace Prize for Stable Geniuses”. That should work wonders!
M.J.
March 8, 2026 at 20:55
Good points.
None of us know how we would cope if we lived in an authoritarian state like present-day Russia or (unfortunately) near future America.
Only the best of us would have the courage to speak/post truth to power.
“None of us know how we would cope if we lived in an authoritarian state like present-day Russia or (unfortunately) near future America.”
Or, indeed, in the UK, where calling a police officer a “muppet” can get you arrested.
“But calling the aggression on Ukraine “war” will get people into jail in Russia”
How do we know this?
Here’s a Guardian report which links to a Russian list of examples.
I think JC meant “how do we know this in the real world?”, rather than “how do we know this in the MSM propagandasphere?”.
I wouldn’t trust anyone who gets their information from the Guardian. Worse, you seem convinced you’re getting the truth, and worst of all, you’re spreading their lies.
In 2022, the Guardian published a story about a maternity hospital in Mariupol and used a photo (not an interview) of Marianna Vyshemirskaya, a pregnant woman with blood on her face.
Marianna gave an interview later, but your Guardians didn’t report it to you, because her testimony directly contradicts what the Guardian lied about. Just like the fact that Marianna moved to Moscow and is now a volunteer helping people in Donbas.
Tatyana. It’s true.
Evangelical pastors lay hands on Trump in Oval Office prayer ceremony
https://en.yenisafak.com/world/evangelical-pastors-lay-hands-on-trump-in-oval-office-prayer-ceremony-3715496
Pete Hegseth’s Tattoos and the Crusading Obsession of the Far Right
https://newlinesmag.com/essays/pete-hegseths-tattoos-and-the-crusading-obsession-of-the-far-right/
These people are very seriously deranged and therefore very, very dangerous.
“These people are very seriously deranged and therefore very, very dangerous.”
And they couldn’t have come to public office without the help of even more dangerous people behind the scenes.
The MSM line in Britain at the moment is that some people want Britain to get right in there alongside the USA and bomb the bejeesus out of Iran (“these colours don’t run”), whereas others want Britain only to be “defensive” by sending an aircraft carrier to defend its main airbase on Cyprus (“steady on, old chap, but one must defend the king’s territory”.) The option “Britain should help the unfortunate country that’s being so heavily attacked by unprovoked barbarian aggressors” doesn’t seem to be on offer. Nor does “I question why former colonial powers should have airbases in the Middle East in the first place”.
Most polls are for propaganda, with all their pseudo-choices based on a shared assumption. I guess extra-parliamentary opposition (which is so sorely needed) could do well with some extra-pollist attitude, plus maybe some subversion of polls as doubtless Saul Alinsky would have supported.
The Surrealists once asked a cracking poll question – “Is suicide a solution?”
It pisses me off that every idiot says “surreal” today to mean “something I didn’t realise could happen because I’m an idiot” or “strange”.
https://www.marxists.org/history/france/surrealists/1925/suicide.htm
^ Surrealist poll question from 1925. Definitely more than a box-ticking exercise.
Saying “surreal” to mean “strange” is right up there with saying “going forward” to mean nothing (but after you’ve used the future tense), and “for you” (to mean “I hate you because you represent freedom – who the bloody hell do you think you are?”)
“Most polls are for propaganda, with all their pseudo-choices based on a shared assumption.”
It’s worse than that: “Leading Questions – Yes Prime Minister” (2m 16s) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA
Is there a way to watch Youtube videos like this one without having a Google or Youtube account, the way you can look at X posts by using nitter.poast.org or xcancel.com?
Brian Red, I hadn’t seen your above post before I posted later in the thread. The alternative front end for you tube platform I used in the link is Invidious.
https://invidious.io/
Click on the “use” button and it will bring you to a list of public instances (which seem to be fewer than the last time I loooked):
https://docs.invidious.io/instances/
Paste the YT link into the search field.
And also, opinion polls are mostly both funded and published by corporations or government agencies. You can be sure that a lot of unwelcome results are buried (assuming the results are representative in the first place). It’s instructive that the mainstream media all present opinion polls as honest and representative, and it seems virtually a taboo to fundamentally question the polls. It’s easy to understand why – the polls are such a powerful tool of ‘deep state’ propaganda that if anyone seriously said the ’emperor has no clothes’ where would all the here-today-gone-tomorrow political ‘rows’ go, and what would replace them?.
It would be interesting to see some of the summaries of private research carried out for banks, lobbies, government departments, the armed forces, etc., on how parts of the population feel and think about stuff – among other reasons to get some info on the extent to which their top people are truly deranged even when it harms themselves and the extent to which they’re quite sane when it comes to advancing their interests and filling their pockets.
I’m not sure that the heads of the armed forces need or even want to know what the populace are thinking. They are the ones with the guns, after all. The UK is not the US.
Polling shows massive public opposition to the politicians’ and media’s narrative about this war. Given the uniform pro-war/ anti-Iran messaging of the media, that should have given the British elite some pause. Instead they are doubling and tripling down, approvingly headlining war criminal Blair’s outrage that British bombs have not yet been dropped on Iran. This is what they hail as representative democracy.
It’s depressing, given how much of a sham “representative democracy” has been shown to be recently, how many people think it is a good system or one that can effect meaningful change.
CM has posted on X this report from Jon Elmer of The Electronic Intifada.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcz2Z09odKg (youtube link)
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=Kcz2Z09odKg (invidious link for Tatyana and others who can’t or don’t wish to use youtube)
Jon Elmer posted this comment on his X account describing his video:
“My report on the US/Israeli war against Iran and the IRGC response across the region; I break down footage from the first five days of the battle.”
Within it he shows footage from Iranian strikes.
Posting so as people are aware of it.
Good video, especially the point about Trump talking BS about accompanying ships through the Strait of Hormuz, that the US lacks the warships to do it – and that in the context of his telling Starmer patronisingly that he doesn’t need British help when the US has already won the war.
All this raises a question: will American hubris meet its Teutoberg moment and its deserved punishment in Iran, as this article indicates?
“and that in the context of his telling Starmer patronisingly that he doesn’t need British help when the US has already won the war.”
I’m not sure that the Royal Navy’s one operational destroyer and one operational frigate would make that much difference.
Here’s a prediction: responding to pressure from people who want oil shipping lanes opened up, the United States will send ships into the strait of Hormuz, believing that they have destroyed all of Iran’s ballistic missiles. In fact the Iranians will have kept their best ones back for just this contingency. They will throw the best they’ve got at these ships, and incapacitate or even destroy them. That will be America’s Teuteborg moment, and the limit on their foreign military adventures will be set henceforth.
If I’m right, I would expect such a fact on the Iranian side to be secret. But I would also expect the brightest and best in the Western powers to have seen it already, and given due warning to the American leadership. In that case only hubris would cause Trump and Hegseth to go ahead regardless, and so the consequences would be deserved.
Now let’s see what happens in the Strait of Hormuz in the near future. Perhaps the Americans would be well warned, like Caesar to beware the Ides of March!
@ET – Thanks for this. I didn’t know about inv.nadeko. This answers the question I posted at 03:10.
“Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been named as his successor as Iran’s supreme leader.”
https://www.rt.com/news/634203-khamenei-son-new-ayatollah/
USrael murders the elderly leader who opposed nuclear weapons for Iran and was willing to negotiate and compromise with the enemy. And, now the replacement is a hard liner with actual battle experience.
That’s worked out really well, you muppets.
Yalt said (at 20.43):
Yes on Hegseth’s tattoos. But doubts have been cast on the story that’s flooding the internet on commanders preaching Armageddon to the troops; that may have been badly overblown if not an outright fabrication. There’s ultimately only one source and it could not be confined to that if it were anywhere near as widespread as claimed.
And Search Assist said:
There have been over 200 complaints from military personnel alleging that U.S. commanders are framing the conflict in Iran as part of a biblical mandate, claiming that President Trump was “anointed by Jesus” to fulfill prophecies related to Armageddon. These complaints highlight concerns about the merging of religious beliefs with military operations, which some fear could lead to dangerous consequences. The Independent
Overview of Complaints
There have been numerous complaints regarding U.S. military commanders using biblical language and themes during briefings with troops, particularly in relation to the ongoing conflict in Iran.
Key Details
Nature of Complaints
Over 200 complaints have been filed with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) since the recent military actions in Iran began.
Complaints come from more than 50 military installations and involve members from all branches of the military.
Specific Incidents
A military commander reportedly told non-commissioned officers that President Trump was “anointed by Jesus” to initiate actions in Iran as part of a divine plan.
The commander referenced the Book of Revelation, suggesting that the military actions were linked to biblical prophecies about Armageddon and the return of Jesus Christ.
Troop Reactions
The complaints were made by a non-commissioned officer on behalf of a group of 15 troops, which included Christians, a Muslim, a Jew, and atheists.
The atmosphere during the briefing was described as unsettling, with the commander smiling while delivering these messages, which some found alarming.
Broader Context
The MRFF has been tracking these types of complaints for years, highlighting concerns about the intersection of religious beliefs and military operations.
The organization emphasizes that merging religious fanaticism with military actions can lead to severe consequences, historically resulting in significant violence and conflict.
I’d already heard and read as much in the past few days.
If you’ve not seen the nutters tatoos….
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/11/13/15/92028965-0-image-a-41_1731510160876.jpg
Yes, they got me with that story too and I linked it here a few days ago. Here’s a follow up.
https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/before-you-share-that-story-about
“Here’s a follow up.”
That all sounds pretty convincing, but why does he not quote any official rebutting of the story?
Let me add some names and links, I got them from Russian media.
Mike Weinstein, president of the US-based Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF)
https://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/about/
in his statement on March 3 against the Trump administration’s attempts to turn the attack on Iran into a “crusade” and “holy war” and the American military into “Christ’s army”.
Independent journalist Jonathan Larsen published on the Foundation’s website a letter
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/MRFF-Inundated-with-Complaints-of-Gleeful-Commanders-Telling-Troops-Iran-War-is–Part-of-God-s-Divine-Plan–to-Usher-in-Return-o.html
from a sergeant from one of the units involved in the military operations, describing how commanders and chaplains, when addressing soldiers, were using “biblical arguments,” presenting the current war as Armageddon and Iran’s leadership as the Antichrist.
According to the sergeant, similar sermons of this kind were delivered at at least 30 military installations across various branches of the military between February 28 and March 2.
One of the commanders stated: “President Trump is anointed by Jesus to light the signal fires in Iran that will bring about Armageddon and mark the return of Jesus to Earth.”
At a briefing in Washington on March 2, Secretary of State Marco Rubio (*I remember this guy once appeared on TV with a cross on his hace) described Iran as a “regime run by radical clerics” who “make decisions based on theology—their view of theology, which is apocalyptic.”
https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/03/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-remarks-to-press-6
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has been holding prayer meetings and “Gospel Hours” at the Pentagon for over a year, espousing “Christian Zionism” which clearly violates the rights of Muslim or atheist service members.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23780231221124492
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee in an interview with Tucker Carlson said that Israel has a “Torah right” to the territory from the Nile to the Euphrates, declared that “it would be good if they took it all” and justified Israel’s genocidal killings of children in Gaza and defended the concept of a “Greater Israel based on the Torah.”
(1) and (2) are a single story and almost certainly a fabrication. Larsen’s only source is Weinstein. Weinstein’s not responsive to attempts to corroborate, the e-mail he gives as evidence doesn’t seem likely to be genuine, and none of the many other groups that would be concerned about this if it were true have said a word. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is an insignificant outfit and it’s far from the first group a soldier would think to call if they wanted to complain. It can’t have been as widespread as he says; my guess is it didn’t happen at all. (Which doesn’t mean the sentiments aren’t out there, just that they weren’t presented in an organized way to the troops.)
(3) is true as far as I know. So is (4) although the prayer meetings go far beyond Hegseth.
(5) is true but distorted in an interesting way, which I’ve also seen in some Arab commentary on the interview. A Jew, or a scholar studying Judaism, would use the term Torah for the five Books of Moses. Huckabee would never–it would be the Bible or the Old Testament or the particular book. I think putting the Jewish word in Huckabee’s mouth was a deliberate attempt to promote the idea that he’s actually working for Israel. And I’m not saying he isn’t; propaganda often contains truth.
And while I’m on that subject I think there’s an important distinction that gets lost in translation if you aren’t used to he peculiarities of US Evangelicalism. There are two very distinct attitudes towards Israel: one, I think the more common, considers support for Israel to be a divine commandment. “Whoever blesses Israel will be blessed, And whoever curses Israel will be cursed.” The other is looking for, I’d even saying hoping for, the destruction of Israel as a necessary precondition for the return of Christ.
I’m pretty sure both Huckabee and Hegseth are in the first group and not the second. And I think it matters a great deal, because if there are US military planners actively hoping for the destruction of Israel this might play out very differently than most expect.
Anyway, back to the interview. Carlson asked Huckabee (I think he may even have held up a Bible) if the Old Testament was a “land deed.” Huckabee didn’t directly respond to the phrase, but said “they can have it all.”
I never doubted that that’s what he thinks, but it’s a shockingly undiplomatic thing for an Ambassador to say in public, given that the territory he’s apparently willing to give away belongs to important US allies. And there was no distancing from it by the State Dept. or the White House. I think that’s going to have repercussions in the not too distant future.
Why make an official statement and draw attention to it? It may seem prevalent in our corner of the blogoverse but it hasn’t reached 99% of the general population. It’s certainly not on CNN or Fox. But a public rebuttal makes it a story.
“Why make an official statement and draw attention to it?”
Ok, “neither confirm nor deny” but there’s not even any unofficial pushback quoted, e.g. outraged US soldiers asking how dare this faggot question the motives of their brave commanders, etc. etc. ad hominem ad nauseam, the usual US debating technique.
There’s nothing to debate. It may be common knowledge to some of us in remote corners of the net but I could ask 100 people out in the world here in the US about it and absolutely none of them would have any idea what I’m talking about. Your typical American isn’t hanging out on Craig’s site or Naked Capitalism etc or following the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which I’d never heard of even though I’ve got multiple friends working the peace beat as a profession (ACLU organizers for example). American soldiers even less so. That there are some religious nutters in command positions wouldn’t be a shock, some of them might even believe the story if I told them and seemed convinced. But as it is, they’ve never heard it.
Now I’m looking back at your original question, which I didn’t read carefully enough at the time. I’m talking about why the military didn’t respond to the story he put out; you’re asking why there wasn’t any military comment quoted in the story itself. I think the reason he doesn’t quote any official rebuttal that he’s invented the story out of whole cloth. He never bothered to go to the military for confirmation or rebuttal.
“you’re asking why there wasn’t any military comment quoted in the story itself. I think the reason he doesn’t quote any official rebuttal that he’s invented the story out of whole cloth. ”
You’ve got the wrong end of the stick here. I was asking why the person debunking Weinstein didn’t quote any official or unofficial rebuttal, if such existed. It would make his debunking a lot more convincing if he could justifiably claim an avalanche of email/xposts/comments on websites expressing outrage at Weinstein’s claim. I’m afraid the idea that “nobody reads Weinstein” doesn’t really wash. Bollocks posted on here is usually quickly revealed to be the small round things it actually is, our “remote corner” is not unusual in this respect.
Bayard
Did you read any of the comments, cos I DID, and quite a few of them weren’t convinced.
I’m quite sure they weren’t, but I can only speak for myself.
Another complete and utter drooling idiot.
“Paula White, the spiritual advisor to Trump and head of the White House Faith Office”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gHsBIk1ZLr4&t=1s&pp=2AEBkAIB
Or perhaps a confidence trickster.
MIT Professor and Pentagon advisor Ted Postol explains why the missile defence systems are failing in the war against Iran, and why the US and Israel will not win this war.
“All three of these missile defences whether strategic or tactical are all worthless, and all of the money and all of the false claims that we can protect the public, the populations from these ballistic missiles, all these false claims are all shown to be false over 35 years.
Postol claims there are no countermeasures today, this has nothing to do with interceptors, this has to do with sensor systems, a sensor cannot see what is a warhead and what isn’t, they cannot make interceptions because you do not know where to send the interceptors and that is the situation we are in and things are going to go to hell in a hand basket in Israel and the Persian Gulf military bases when radars are defeated and the interceptors disappear because there are non, you are going to be left with nothing but guns”.
Professor Postol recons the Patriot missile system at best intercepts 5 to 6 percent tops, of missiles and regards it as a total fraud. Taken together the Iron dome and Patriot systems have a success rate of a few percent.
A good proportion of this video is taken up with technical issues with many of the important points taken up from approx 48/49 minutes in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbQI_IYz6uM
Absurd to watch the arab regimes whine about Iran’s attack. The arab cretins approved the US moving in, building military installations and bases on their soil, that was their choice. These constructions are aimed solely at Iran. No one else. The arab regimes could also have made the choice,when the war started, that US/Israel would not be allowed to use their soil/airspace for the war against Iran. They did not and now they cry, pathetic.
Another absurdity is the way UN reacted to this assault. Instead of condemning Israel for starting this blatant naked aggression, UN claim that somehow all parties are fault. That is quite a different approach compared to when Russia invaded Ukraine and UN chief called out Russia on the same day. Same with the horrid IAEA and the western puppet that rule that organisation – Raphael Grossi – that refuse to even condemn US and Israel when they bomb nuclear related sites.
On another point I really hope that Iran, Lebanon now tirelessly record and report the death and destruction being brought upon them for ICJ and ICC to look at.
And so we are well into the second week of chaos in the middle east which shows no sign of abating. And now the economic reality of the disruption of oil and gas and much more is becoming clear.
If the Americans thought the price of eggs were expensive the oil price shocks will very soon rattle them to their very core.
And over here in good old blighty similar if not much worse is due to come. Oil prices at the pups are already up around 9% in many fuel stations. And that is only the start. Prices are set for lift off and everything will cost much much more. We’ll not be concerned about eggs, that’s for sure.
And gas, something that Scotland had along with oil, where is that now. Well if reports are accurate, the UK is running low on gas.
Typically the UK can have up to 12 days reserves of gas which is principally stored in big caverns in the north of England and by line packing the network. But its winter, LNG is cut off from the middle east and the suggestion is that between the jigs and the reels and because it is winter reserves are down to around 2 days. The HM government issued a statement yesterday to say that everything was fine but with over 20% of the worlds oil and gas cut off and the conflagration spreading one might have grounds to suspect that HM Government statement not being quite accurate.
This looming world economic crisis may well be why there are rumours circulating that Trump and the USA military may be planning a tactical nuke attack on Iran.
Over recent days here in Scotland we have seen heavy bomber after bomber landing in Prestwick for fuelling before flying on wards to the English, but very much US air bases of Lakenheath and Fairford
And so with heavy bombers of all types what brings this armada of air attack power to our shores. Lakenheath for example is well known as a nuclear attack facility.
In the mind of Donald Trump tactical nuclear might make much sense. The USA dropped two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki back in 1945 to send a message. Within 24 hours of Nagasaki the emperor of Japan surrendered, the message well understood not just but Japan but potentially to Stalin and the USSR.
Would the USA try such a stunt again. Well I for one do believe that the Trump regime would try the same strategy. And that I am afraid puts the potential for economic collapse into the small beer category.
Its truly great being great but from my perspective our best years, and our promised golden era, most certainly do not appear to lie before us.