There has scarcely been an attempt to pretend any justification in international law for the attack on Iran and murder of its leader. The response of the UK government, focusing almost entirely on condemning Iran for exercising its legitimate right of self-defence, takes the Starmer dishonesty meter further off the scale.
The RAF has been actively involved in genocide in Gaza for two years with its surveillance and logistic support for the IDF. It is now fighting for Israel again; intercepting Iranian missiles is not defensive; it is joining in the attack on an already vastly overmatched opponent.
I am afraid that the truth is the Iranian attempt to defend itself militarily will be less impactful than many anti-imperialists hope. The astonishing amounts of money spent by the US government on military and surveillance technology simply do have real-world effect.
Here in Venezuela, having seen the major sites struck by the US on 3 January, I have concluded that no act of betrayal was needed. Just overwhelming force and precision technology applied against a technologically unequal opponent whose key capabilities were all on open hilltops or in unhardened barracks.
Iran is much more militarily sophisticated, but facing exponentially more force. Khamenei was killed in his own home, not hiding away. He is going to prove a lot more powerful as a martyr than as a ruler with his internal critics.
We are facing not only a period of unapologetic imperialism to which virtually all Western countries are prepared to defer, but a return of medievalism, both in the sheer barbarity and scale of physical abuse, as witnessed in Gaza and in general Israeli brutality, and in use of kidnap and murder as methods of high policy. Legitimising the killing and kidnap of leaders of opposing states is of course a double-edged sword.
Having sanctioned genocide, mass killings and deliberate destruction of medical facilities and staff, the mass murder of children, as well as the kidnapping and murder of Heads of State, it is hard now to imagine almost any atrocity which the Western powers are in any moral position to condemn.
While Iran’s military ability to strike back is limited, the ramifications of this attack will not be. The rulers of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states have reverted to the norm of being not only reliable US and Israeli satraps, but promoters of atavistic hatred of Shia Muslims.
The West is deliberately exploiting the Shia/Sunni divide, as it has for centuries; but this will now destabilise the region for decades. Iraq in particular is going to be convulsed, and so will Pakistan. In Bahrain, the Shia population has been held in check by its Sunni rulers using systematic Western-sponsored murder and torture. Using it as a base to murder the Ayatollah is going to blow back.
It would appear that we are going to witness an aerial campaign to destroy Iran’s civilian infrastructure, as in Iraq where 65% of clean drinking water, 50% of hospitals and clinics and 80% of electrical generation was destroyed by “liberation” by the NATO powers. The object is the destruction of Iran as a viable state.
It is worth recalling that Iran used to be a Western-style state with a reasonable democracy. It was the election of the Socialist Mosaddegh in 1951, and his nationalisation of British Petroleum, which was met by the MI6- and CIA- sponsored coup of 1953. The vicious and vainglorious rule of their puppet Shah was the cause of the theocratic revolution.
Escalating Western sanctions were imposed by the US or EU on Iran in 1979, 1984, 1995, 1996, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2025. There were UN-approved sanctions imposed from 2006 to 2010. These very substantially hampered Iran’s economic development.
The curious thing is that the founding myth of the Western powers is that economic development leads to an expanding, educated middle class which promotes both economic and social liberalism and produces the conditions for democracy. By this reading, if you wished to cement in power an authoritarian government, then limiting economic development is the way to do it. There is something in this reading; I do not doubt that the West’s relentless efforts to strangle Iran – which have had some real success – have hampered its political development.
That is not to accept all the Western myths about Iran. Female education is very strong, and there is extensive female participation throughout economic and governmental institutions. Iran has an extremely good record of tolerating and even supporting minority religious communities, including the Jewish community. There are plenty of women in Tehran without head coverings – Iran is far more tolerant in this regard than Saudi Arabia. While it retains a retrograde intolerance of gay people, it acknowledges gender dysphoria and assists trans people.
I am not prepared to give a moment of countenance to arguments that bombing Iran back to the nineteenth century is going in any way to improve the lives of its people. It did not do so in Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya. It was a disaster which unleashed waves of refugees upon Europe, leading directly to the rise of the far right.
I think it is unlikely to change the form of government in Iran in any significant way. Regime change by bombing is a highly problematic concept.
What it has done is to remove Ayatollah Khamenei, whose fatwa on the creation of a nuclear weapon was the only reason Iran does not have one. It is delusional to believe that Iran, with its excellent scientific base, could not have developed nuclear bombs in secret away from those monitored enrichment programmes, had it chosen to do so. What is likely to result in the medium term from this conflict, if it long continues, is a more primitive, more atavistic and nuclear-armed Iran.
The Iran nuclear deal torpedoed by Trump in 2018 had provided a rare moment of hope. With sanctions easing, there were chances of both smoother economic development and reform in Iran. That is why Israel wanted the agreement scuppered.
The attempted obliteration of Iran is part of a systematic attempt to eliminate by physical force all pockets of resistance to American hegemony. We have seen Rubio’s astonishing assertion of Imperialism as a positive force. Matthew Lynn in the Washington Post exemplified the new Western doctrine. He mocked China for its pacific policy. He argued that for China to build infrastructure for the Global South was futile because the United States might simply seize, blockade or destroy any infrastructure by military force. This he viewed as not shameful, but a great triumph.
What long-term lessons China, Russia and the Global South are learning from the abandonment by the entire West of the principles of international law, we shall see in the decades to come. None of this is going to be good for anyone. It is not just a Trump phenomenon. Biden fully supported the Gaza genocide. Almost all major political parties throughout the West are under firm Zionist control, as is all of the significant major media and the ownership of every significant alternative media platform.
Iran has provided, directly and through proxies, the only military opposition to the creation of Greater Israel. This war is for Greater Israel. But it is also a wider effort to re-establish the failing economic dominance of the United States by military control of key resources. There is no part of the world which will be safe from the fallout.
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I think parts of that are too pessimistic the GAE & Israel’s air defences seem to be relatively ineffective and the capacity to manufacture arms is limited. Whatever strengths they have in treachery & spying.
Iran OTOH seems to have invested a lot in relatively cheap drones & missiles produced in bulk and they’ve got a lot of fat targets to choose from, if they want to hit them.
They could render the Gulf States and to a lesser extent Israel literally uninhabitable by hitting their desalination plants for example.
No mention of all the civilians killed by the IR dictatorship this year? In the tens of thousands at minimum.
Their lives are simply immaterial to your blinded partisan view.
Well, have a good cry now because your Ayatollah is dead. Good riddance to criminal murderers.
Your numbers are rubbish, western propaganda. In addition, the unrest was controlled by the West for as long as possible. But thanks to Chinese and Russian assistance, the regime changers failed. Now they are trying again with greatly increased effort – and they will fail again. And as for criminal murderers, Netanyahu and Tronald are hot contenders for that title.
@Kaveh – How many primary schoolchildren will you celebrate the death of when a genocidal Nazi-style settler regime and its puppet state in North America bomb a school when they’re also murdering the head of a government that has recently, yes, faced opposition from shopkeepers? Is it “good riddance” to those children too, are they “collateral damage” as all jut-jawed Clint Eastwood fan online comment typists know so well, or what?
It is always hard to know what part of the claims of brutal repressions by a government is true when they are constantly trumpeted by the propaganda machine of the most powerful and richest countries in the world, which are clearly using it to justify their own aggressive actions. What we can know beyond any doubt is who broke international law by committing aggression, and it was the US and its allies, not Iran. Even if all the accusations of repressions are true, that still wouldn’t make aggression and assassinations by foreign countries legal or acceptable.
Accusing others of a ‘blinded partisan view’ is rather ridiculous, when it is clear that your own rabid partisan anti-IR view makes you ignore all other aspects of the situation. Your side (diaspora Iranian oppositionists) is ignoring international law, betraying the sovereignty of your own country, lobbying for the hurting of your own people with sanctions and bombs, allying with Israel’s genocidal policies in Palestine and the West’s imperialism across the globe, and supporting the brutal and corrupt dictatorship of the Shah and clamouring for its restoration (while whining about human rights violations by the IR). You are utterly fanatical and deprived of values.
Well said Kaveh, unfortunately on here, many people seem to support the barbaric regime in Iran, refusing to believe that tens of thousands of protesters have been brutally murdered.
That’d be because the Shah’s cousin living in Norway isn’t a legitimate source, Andy…
andyoldlabor serves the mullahs by deliberately underestimating the millions of protesters killed.
So, why won’t the Iranians start another revolution against the regime? They got rid of the Shah, why don’t they riot now?
What do you expect from Westminster, when they make secret deals with Zionists.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Project_HEZUK
While all of that may be true, I have more confidence in the analysis from former military personnel.
I can see easily, that logistics is a much more significant problem in a war scenario, than many appreciate. Venezuela was short ways and no regional backing for the attacked. Iran is extremly long ways for the US and a potential problem with regional allies as well as probable support in one way or the other.
My guess is, that russian and/or chinese intelligence is provided in realtime , making the naval assets highly vulnerable and the targetting much more reliable (while also improving the data of said intelligence). The amount of obvious hits already achieved and the apparent failure of western missile defence tell me, that the 12-day-war already improved the approach of the iranian forces.
The next weeks will see drastically rising fuel prices and the regime changes may come in quite a different way, than anticipated.
I saw footage of people in Qatar cheering when Iran took out that US radar system. Perhaps it’s time Iran shifted it’s focus from well defended US based in the region to undefended puppet leaders in the region. I feel that most of the people, like us, just want shot of their US proxy puppets. Giving them that can only benefit them in the long run.
Me too. Venezuela was all takk – a kidnapping, shooting down a few cigarrette boats and stealing a few Oil tankers. Even by S America gangster standards that is pretty small beer. And there was no way Vz could have attacked US mainland.
Israel and US bases in Gulf are extremely vulnerable. The logistics of supplying more than a weeks missiles is extremely difficult. And US jets have never been meant for multiple missions.
Clearly Trump has been told this would be a slam dunk – clearly he has been deliberately lied to by advisers.
US military seems to have told him to get out of Ukraine for fear of Russia and get out of China seas for fear of China.
Telling him to get out of Gulf for fear of Iran (shortly after quitting Red sea because of Yemen) seems to be a message he refuses to hear.
That we are even discussing this is a clear sign of how far US is on the way out and is no longer a major power.
>Clearly Trump has been told this would be a slam dunk – clearly he has been deliberately lied to by advisers.
Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Staff, a Vice Admiral who was chief support for the Chairman of the JCS, two days before the operation launched. I’m guessing he was getting some good advice and didn’t want to hear it.
This is an absolutely fascinating account of the negotiations last week between America and Iran, from an aide who was there (and beautifully written, i may add).:
https://x.com/gothburz/status/2027852172923154714?s=20
The deal was more or less done. Why would the US then tear it up to go on the attack? Other sources claim that Netanyahu, true to form, launched an attack which was calculated to force Trump to join in. As we know, Trump is a vainglorious idiot who Netanyahu and his powerful lobby play like a fiddle. Two absolute dictators, with blood in their hands who will drag us all to hell, in their psychotic drive to escape accountability, burying all the mounting evidence of their crimes and mendacity. We are ruled by toddler brained psychos with extraordinarily sycophantic administrations, who have driven a stake into any lingering ideas of international, or even national laws, however shaky they were, and we will live with the consequences for years. Turns out so-called democracies have no mechanisms or processes to stop ruthless demagogues seizing power and trashing any institutions which might rein them in. While the press swallows every pathetic lie and excuse they make, as if it is all normal, unremarkable even.
These attacks don’t and can’t just happen. They require planning and logistics support.
USrael had planned this attack many months ago (last year), the talks were just for distraction.
Read the piece
The Zionists have used their military to wreck agreements at talks many, many times.
@Ian – Can you please clarify. Do you believe those who gave the order for this attack are stupid?
To be accurate, the piece was written by someone who definitely wasn’t part of the negotiating team, but his facts were from a number of open source reports. Well written nonetheless – I recall CM using a similar strategy a few years ago regarding some unknown and best forgotten women.
CM was writing in satirical mode- as is Ian’s source.
A more straightforward account at:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2026/02/u-s-iran-a-war-of-aggressions-which-aims-that-can-not-be-achieved.html
I read the piece and the comments. Seems it was a fabrication based on information in the public sphere.
Militarily this is an inadequate assessment.
Craig, are you aware of the reports about Russian AD-systems in Venezuela turned off before the US attack.
That was only possible due to betrayal.
Otherwise those US helicopters would have been shot down. They are really easy targets.
Also no Venezuelan Air Force was defending.
Apparently Maduro was totally looped out of commmunication.
The government was left in the dark literally.
Add to that e.g. the stories about the Russian unit to protect Maduro. It was stood off by none other than soldiers by the Venezuelan side.
Again this is not an issue of technology but CIA´s “human resources” and their betrayal of Maduro.
Mark Sleboda predicted that this would happen.
I didn´t want to believe. As I wrote here back then I doubted Venezuelan elites would commit any betrayal.
If the pressure used by the US agencies possibly left them no choice is a different, moral matter.
And eventually Iran and Venezuela militarily are incomparably different players.
This also is no sudden development of Iran. Damage from Iranian missiles in June caused in Israel was extensive. And eventually Israel asked the US to end it in a face-saving way. There were allegedly huge insurance payments and arguments between ordinary Isaelis and the insurance companis due to the scale of damaged caused.
Also the question of whether Iran destroys an aircraft carrier may be less so one of capability, but of choice.
A sunken “USS Gerald Ford” is a real scenario but not a desireable one for this planet.
I am aware that the core technological features of the latest hypersonic missiles are too closely protected from public to answer all questions with 100% certainty.
But the Russian Navy, were their engineers and technicians not sure that the technology works as intended, would not build up its forces with missile-equipped submarines and frigates.
If Iran has such missiles either Russian-made or domestically produced or both I don´t know for sure. But the IRGC Commander yesterday not without cause warned of totally new weapons which could be used if this war would go on.
Since the late 1970s the US Navy has pondered about the vulnerability of US Carrier Strike Groups.
Now the technology has caught up with those worries.
There are reasons why the US Joint Chiefs of Staff did not want this attack against Iran.
The fact that we see a related playbook as in Venezuela is evidence for the limitations of the US militarily.
It´s the only thing they really know how to do. But that is not adequate in this case.
Former British Navy Commander Steve Jermy recently mentioned the huge challenge he and the crew faced when during Falklands French-made Exocet were threatening British vessels. And those missiles were subsonic and had small range.
Russia has been humiliated in Venezuela, Syria, and Nagorno-Karabakh. About the only place it has not been humiliated is in the war with Ukraine. I would like Russia to give the terrorist settler entity and the US a clear and public ultimatum – “ground all your war planes in the Middle East within 24 hours or we will begin taking out your bases and ships” – but this is extremely unlikely.
“I would like Russia to give the terrorist settler entity and the US a clear and public ultimatum – “ground all your war planes in the Middle East within 24 hours or we will begin taking out your bases and ships” – but this is extremely unlikely.”
WTF should they? Just because Britain did and then the US does like to play World Police, what business is it of Russia’s if the US has bases in other countries? We should be grateful that neither Russia nor China want to take the US’s place as wannabe world hegemon, not whingeing about them not doing it.
You are wrong about all 3. In Syria, Russia kept the military bases, that’s all that matters. In Venezuela, Russia had some investments but far less than China, plus the outcome of the events for Russia is not obvious yet. And Russia lost its interest in Nagorno-Karabakh long time ago. Putin was brutally honest when he stated that he is not going to be more Armenian than Armenians themselves are. If they do not want to defend Nagorno-Karabakh, he won’t be jumping out of his pants.
U.S. anti-radar systems are very sophisticated.
Even if Venezuela’s had been fully operational it wouldn’t have made much difference to the outcome. Like comparing a cutting-edge PC from 2026, with one from 1999,… there is no comparison. As seen in Ukraine, with drone tech, the real battle is against obsolescence these days.
Iran’s AA systems are better, but they aren’t on a par with the latest Chinese gear, which contrary to reports, they haven’t acquired. And there is no evidence they possess Russia’s more capable S-400 system despite the reports.
Sophistication, no question.
But as to my actual point: in Venezuela we simply didn´t get the chance to witness both sides being tested against each other in a way that one could assess how effective their respective military equipment really is. Which is why we also cannot really transfer experience from Venezuela to Iran.
As to S-400: In the June attack as far as I remember Iranian AD was deactivated in part, in part not ready due to surprise.
Obviously this was a mistake avoided by Iran now.
So another explanation is protecting S-400s now simply by keeping them silent until they become necessary when e.g. B2 might approach. But if Turkey has S-400 why shouldn´t Iran too who are way more important as Russian ally.
So we might haven´t seen evidence because they haven´t been used, yet. We´ll see.
If such statements as the one I posted below by Trita Parsi are correct US/ISR appear to be surprised so far.
Although it´s difficult to believe that. But who knows.
Considering the calculations regarding Russia NATO made indeed groupthink and the lack of independent criticism within are so strong they are blinded.
And after all IDF has mostly been “trained” on HAMAS and HEZBOLLAH. They simply are not as good as legend claims.
The US hasn´t had any serious military experience either. Except data collected in Ukraine.
So maybe this is a repetition of arrogance due to military incompetence and lack of experience.
The examples of Venezuela, Russia, Iran of course would mean that resilience of militarily strong nations or communities has become the best protection against the increasing disregard of international law by the West we are experiencing.
I find that appalling considering the real problems our species faces.
Idealist common sense views one cannot seriously defend as a normative policy any more if that would be accompanied by anti-militarism and abandoning an arms industry.
Sparta is now seen as a necessary ideal.
That is the saddest thing in the long run.
Only because a capitalist class is unwilling to give up its hegemonic position of ruling the world for 500 years.
Their sick egotism really pisses me off most.
The more wealth people in the West have (I can´t judge other parts of the world) the dumber they are.
fwiw Seyed Abbas Araghchi TWEET:
“We’ve had two decades to study defeats of the U.S. military to our immediate east and west. We’ve incorporated lessons accordingly.
Bombings in our capital have no impact on our ability to conduct war. Decentralized Mosaic Defense enables us to decide when—and how—war will end.”
If you are unsure of yourself and might not know what is coming this is not what you put into public.
This is “the real deal”, it seems to me.
A maybe exaggerated question/or not: How do things look if Israel´s uses a nuke.
I dare speculate, nothing would change with Iranian resolve. And – more shockingly – nothing would change in the West.
Given that Israel would be granted this without triggering a nuclear war. Kind of an insane one-time carte blanche. Neither China nor Russia will risk world destruction over Iran.
I suspect that the Ayatollah chose not to hide in a bunker but allowed himself to be martyred. That is what faith and courage look like.
He died like a dog, with innocent human shields around him. He won’t be missed, and only mourned by lunatics.
Please save your misanthropic comments for other sites.
Kaveh Ahangar
March 1, 2026 at 17:19
Unfair to dogs..
Will the 70+ schoolgirls murdered by USrael be missed ?, did they die like dogs (how do dogs die ?).
‘People’ like you and the Irish Johnny are the reason we are in this mess.
Stevie Boy.
Now the French are in on the act.
“The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is heading to the eastern Mediterranean Sea in defense of Israel”
The USA has probably ordered the French into position to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln which was attacked and had to run away faster than Bibi exiting Israel, or maybe their sewage system couldn’t cope with all the Yankee dogs shitting themselves !
https://sputnikglobe.com/20260301/irans-irgc-says-it-launched-4-ballistic-missiles-at-us-aircraft-carrier-1123727814.html
The IRGC admitted it was their own missile that fell on that school. Blame them for their own incompetence
“The IRGC admitted it was their own missile that fell on that school.”
Links, or it didn’t happen.
BTW, what was your handle last time round?
Oh do behave!
Kaveh Ahangar.
And I suppose it was an Iranian missile that hit a hospital in Iran, and another hit a children’s playground, your propaganda won’t slip past in here.
Fake news from fake tweets apparently
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2026/mar/02/tweets/Iran-responsibility-Minab-school-strike-US-Israel/
Factcheck: False
Pants on fire! I was not able to find any such admissions. Moreover, even the most powerful SAMs could not cause such destruction as shown in the videos. Such systems as Russian S-300/400 may be an equivalent of a 6 inch artillery shell if used against surface targets; they can seriously damage a concrete building, killing maybe 20-30 students in one classroom, but they can’t take the building out comletely and kill 160+. To make this happen, you need a JDAM.
No that is a complete lie, Mzrbl-KvZionist Troll,
The Americans admitted that THEY bombed the primary school killing most of the girls and teachers last figure quoted was 170 dead as the injured have perished too. The American excuse was outdated map/intelligence. Though Israel and America are no strangers to indescriminate bombing. ..Plenty of examples this week and in previous 80+ years.
Stevie Boy
March 1, 2026 at 18:13
We need a word analogous to “tankie” for Western atheists who admire theocratic autocrats..
“We need a word analogous to “tankie” for Western atheists who admire theocratic autocrats..”
No we don’t, you do, unless you have decided to write like royalty. Most of us have grown up beyond the point of using juvenile insults.
“… [Khamenei] died like a dog, with innocent human shields around him …”
I suppose your hero is Benyamin Netanyahu who fled aboard his prime ministerial aircraft to Berlin while at the same time all international airports in Israel were closed so no-one else could leave Israel.
Now that’s what I call a dog.
Exactly right Kaveh, I know what my relatives in Iran think of the regime.
“Exactly right Kaveh, I know what my relatives in Iran think of the regime.”
Unless you have a very large family indeed out there, they are likely to be a vanishingly small proportion of the population, whose opinion thus hardly counts for much, if anything.
Paul Citro
I’m not a fan of theocratic regimes, but the killing of the Ayatollah and his aides etc, is out and out murder – I was going to say the ICJ should issue a warrant for his arrest, but that won’t happen – because if it did – Trump would just put severe sanctions on the ICJ staff like and Biden did before, and the staff caved in to them, and if by some miracle the murderer Trump – somehow fell into the hands of the ICJ – the rouge terrorist regime known as America – would invade the Hague to jail break him out.
What’s the difference between an openly theocratic regime and the western regimes where it’s judged a crime to criticise zionist Jews. Our police literally act as religious police for the ZOG regime, the media and the government are openly zionist, censoring and punishing dissent. Really, What’s the difference ?
Jews aren’t zionist, you can’t follow both.
Let’s get this straight. The very first Zionists were Jews. Who else could they have been? Very gradually their support spread through the billionaire class, an unknown number of whom identify as Jewish.
And today, of course, the greatest number of hard-core Zionists is of course in Israel. Those are the Jews who, rather than just talking the talk, walked the walk. They are living at ground zero. It’s true that they haven’t burned their bridges; they are free to go back home whenever they choose.
In this sentence, “zionist” is an adjective qualifying “Jews”. In other words, a subset.
Squeeth
On the contrary – is not Netanyahu a Jew? and seen as Jewish, yet he is at heart a Zionist.
Stevie Boy.
Good points what I mean is I’m no fan of religions any of them – let alone a religious led society, that not meant as a slight on the Iranian people.
No doubt, other US presidents could’ve targeted and killed leaders in the past too, but they refrained for two very good reasons; the first relates to ownership of process : the people you are trying to encourage to ‘rise up’ have to do it themselves, if you want any regime change to stick i.e. the population need to feel it’s somehow organic, whether that’s actually the case, or not, in reality. The U.S. understood this with Saddam Hussein, in Iraq. A despised war criminal like Netanyahu urging the people of Iran to obey him, by rising up, as we’ve seen, will likely have the precise opposite effect.
The second, is the risk of tit-for-tat assassinations. Targeting not just Iranian leaders, past and present, but family members creates unknown risks for Trump’s own family: Barron Trump, Ivanka; Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, who’ll be looking over their shoulders, long after their father and in Jared’s case, father-in-law, leaves office.
I’m coming more and more to think Cuba was indeed involved in the JFK assassination. The US had made repeated attempts to assassinate Castro. Those seem to have stopped afterwards. Lessons get learned but don’t always stay learned. BTW it may well be that the involvement only extended to Oswald and his popgun and the fatal shot came accidentally from the Secret Service.
Had Cuba been involved in any way in murdering a beloved American President it would have been erased from the map.
No, all the scholarly research and evidence compiled through the years points at the states currently perpetrating this criminal assault on Iran.
https://www.michael-parenti.org/article-jfk-assassination-defending-the-gangster-state-1996
Cuba wasn’t involved in JFKs murder, IMO, but the Cuban mafia based in Florida in cahoots with the CIA certainly was. And when you scratch the surface a bit harder you find the Mossad links which strongly suggest that Israel was involved, if not the primary culprit. Kennedy at the time was trying to place restraints and controls on Israel particularly with regard to Dimona and Israels nuclear programme. As soon as JFK was dead Johnson reversed all the controls on Israel.
It’s worth noting that Narco Rubio comes from the same Cuban mafia/zionist club and also that Florida has a large Jewish population.
>Those seem to have stopped afterwards.
Haven’t you folks seen 638 Ways to Kill Castro? Not only did they not stop, they didn’t even slow down. They did shift M.O.s after 1965; instead of direct action by the CIA they started using Cuban expats.
A war to liberate women that starts by targeting and blowing up 200 primary school girls.
“A war to liberate the women of Iran” courtesy of unhinged rapist paedophile class who’s vanity, and escape from criminal prosecution, is more important than people or this planet. The latest show of his fawning cult saying he is annointed by Jesus and bombing Iran is a sign for the start of Armageddon.
There are millions of pseudo religious fantatics in American who in the “selling shit” culture of America have been sold made up Bibles and in the vacuum of genuine literacy or general knowledge about the wider world steps in the babbling Tangerine Messiah, whoever pulls the strings the structure of power has no safeguards and leaves the fate of all of us in the hands of the criminally insane.
What have become of this world? Unprovoked war of aggression and murder of another nation’s leader and the reaction… is support by the rest of the Western world?! The same Western world that for 4 years straight bemoaned Russia’s invasion, that claim that Russia breach “international law”. Same West that just recently came out in the masses and cried that “international law” must be respected when it comes to Greenland. And now this. The victim, Iran, is framed as the culprit!? How could this hypocritical westerners live with themselves?!
As I said in the other thread, it is almost like one wish for the Bush-era to come back. That era seems quite innocent compared to the brazen violation of international law today.
And as israel admitted themselves, they planned this attack for months. “Incidentally” the pick of date was just made days before the jewish celebration of the genocide of the Amalakites was to start. That is tommorow.
Timing of US-Israel attack on Iran bears symbolic meaning in Judaism as Netanyahu references holiday of Purim
https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-iran-attack-02-28-26-hnk-intl?post-id=cmm60wotj001m3b6pawhvknhc
But no, the west refuse to talk about…jewish terrorism.
As much as I hate Israel, be clear this has nothing to do with religion.
Is it possible to dispute that
* the Jewish deity featured in the Torah and what Christians call the “Old Testament” backs genocide and
* he is invoked by Amalek-mentioning Jews today as a lodestar for genocide?
I have nothing against anyone just for being of Jewish descent (and I love wholemeal bagels and also zhoug) but the above two points have gotta be recognised.
A curious case is Gilad Atzmon. As far as I know he’s a great guy who is basically a Palestinian and who totally opposes ethnic supremacism. He should be very welcome in Palestine when it’s free. But although he’s a serious thinker he is nonetheless confused about the role of the Jewish religion. On one hand, he says leave the true religious believers be, let them think their stuff, no problem. On the other hand, he says he has stopped being a Jew. Fine, I respect that, but why?
Israel Shahak was perhaps better sussed about the role of the religion.
Let’s be clear – that ‘Jewish deity backing genocide’ is also the Christian deity according to all Christian scripture and doctrine. If Judaism must be renounced because of that, so must Christianity. And the same is true of Islam. I do, in fact, believe that all three should be renounced, but if you restrict this to Judaism (as I suspect you do), that is an extreme double standard and antisemitism.
Atzmon is, for a change, a genuine Jewish antisemite, and so was Shahak – at least that was my impression from their statements and writings when I last read them, admittedly a long time ago.
Re Jake’s claim that ‘the jewish celebration of the genocide of the Amalakites was to start …tomorrow’: Purim is above all about the Jews being saved from a genocide which was planned by Haman. The bit about Haman supposedly being of Amalekite origin is a detail. It is certainly not a celebration of the genocide of the Amalekites themselves, which is supposed to have taken place much earlier. This, again, seems like a deliberate antisemitic distortion.
F. Foundling
Invoking the myth of a genocide…when you commit a genocide, surely have something to do with each other.
If Amalek is a small “detail” in Purim, why did Netanyahu think it was apt to mention this small “detail” on the eve of attacking Iran?
“Purim is above all about the Jews being saved from a genocide which was planned by Haman. ”
According to a history written after the event by the Jews, who, let’s face it, might have been a teeny bit biased. They had a massacre to justify. Now why does that sound familiar?
Utter bollocks the lot of it, Invoking an outdated cultural myth to justify the simultaneous genocideS going on, is like using a Hollywood Horror film as a defence for attacking people with a chain saw in Texas or going on killing sprees in your neighbourhood on Friday the 13th or Halloween. blood sacrifice?
Americans have subverted history, religious texts and dismiss tens of thousands of years of creative cultural or spiritual expression with their bombs. No values and so value nothing. Not even useful stories of how to respect each other and all living things.
However a warning to Trump..
if he wants to role play the Messiah, or the Messiah”s pal….
it doesn’t end well!….
Americans aren’t happy either. I saw a poll showing 21% support for launching this war :https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/us/politics/poll-americans-support-iran-attack.html
This, despite a media that is supportive, due in large part to the Zionists who own most of the U.S.news media. The Murdochs control Fox News, and Larry Ellison increasingly owns, and/or is in the process of buying up most of the rest.
Trump’s vulgar boasting about killing people, and his use of all capital letters for emphasis, pronouncing people DEAD! is truly atrocious; really childish and a further debasing of the U.S. presidency. It speaks volumes as to his character, or more aptly, lack thereof…to have such an undignified oaf, in charge of such a sophisticated military, is appalling.
What Trump probably doesn’t realise, is that Netanyahu has been pitching these proposals to attack Iran, to U.S. presidents, for nearly 30-years, maybe more? And he’s the first sucker to bite.
Absolutely withering critique on this unprovoked war from Simon Tisdall in the guardian : https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/28/donald-trump-bombs-iran-war-middle-east
I don’t always agree with Tisdall’s geopolitical analysis, but this piece is good. Reminiscent of Seumas Milne’s stuff, back when the guardian was essential reading.
Unlikely Seumas Milne would have concluded with this:
“The regime, though wounded and reduced, will continue to pose serious, and possibly greater, domestic and international challenges. Iran cannot be bombed into functioning democracy. The defiance of the west that it represents cannot be talked away in social media posts. As long as Khamenei or designated clerical successors are in charge, vicious repression and regional troublemaking will persist.”
Zoot, we standoff and prattle about “democracy” . Democracy is like unicorn sh1t in today’s world, IE Starmer 11% support, Macron less, Mertz less, even trump who was apparently elected by 20 million people out of a population of 335 million (5,9%). You should read or listen to comment by ex weapons inspector in Iraq who explains why Iran is the only functioning constitutional democracy in the Middle East. But beware, he may shatter some of your cherished delusions about the press in Britain and the rest of the “free” world
Those aren’t my words. I was quoting Tisdall’s Guardian article.
Adelson gave Trump one hundred million reasons to bend over for Bibi. The art of the deal.
@Jack – Excellent point about Purim. Did you see what Itamar Ben-Gvir said?
Invocations of the destruction of Amalek in the settler state are calls for genocide. I’m not sure how anybody can seriously deny this.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-minister-invokes-genocidal-amalek-call-amid-war-iran
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/benjamin-netanyahu-amalek-israel-palestine-gaza-saul-samuel-old-testament/
Chabad are celebrating Purim like this:
“On Purim Eve, Iran’s Architect of Terror is Dead”
https://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/7269476/jewish/On-Purim-Eve-Irans-Architect-of-Terror-is-Dead.htm
Chabad produce most of the world’s “super-pure” matzos at Passover. We’ll have to see whether they have so much to celebrate at that religious holiday too, which comes in early April this year.
Among the Epstein documents was an FBI report saying that according to an informant,
* Chabad is doing everything it can to “co-opt the Trump presidency,”
* Jared Kushner is a supporter of the organisation, and
* Chabad is “used by Putin to keep tabs on all the Russo-Jewish oligarchs”.
The third of those statements may well have its subject and object the wrong way round, as well as introducing the highly confused term “Russo-Jewish”.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/epstein-files-fbi-memo-says-israel-compromised-trump-epstein-had-mossad-ties
The NED’s director has been boasting at a House Committee Group, that he managed to get some activists into Iran to smuggle in about 200 Star-Links., which were ultimately used to acquire targets in Iran.
https://thegrayzone.com/2026/02/24/ned-congress-starlinks-iran-violence/
The uncritical reporting on this by the BBC yesterday was as bad as ever. One would swear most of Iran’s population had taken to the street, shouting, “Bomb us! Please! Bomb us right now!”
Just a few days ago, a BBC reporter – in hushed tones – informed us that Russian forces had bombed Ukrainian infrastructure, despite this being against International Law! Perhaps this particular reporter hadn’t received the memo, telling her that this is actually fine these days.
The way Iranian civilians have been cynically used, even by our standards, is surprising. Telling them over the last few months to take back their country, we’ve got your back. Help is on the way. A statement by Trump said, “We’re locked and loaded… if they kill protesters, we’re going to hit them”.
Then – after many deaths – Trump started echoing the Iranian government line, repeating that they said they didn’t kill anyone. Then he talked about talks with Iran. So those people were killed to increase pressure on their government, to get leverage for a better deal.
The idea we (western governments) care about the people in any way is simply more lies.
glenn_nl
March 1, 2026 at 18:26
Glenn, who do you believe caused those “many deaths”?
JK redux
Iran has long been a CIA/Mossad, and likely MI6 obsession. Look how they knew precisely where the leadership were; where everyone lived; who their designated drivers were, and the drivers’ mobile phone numbers (used to geolocate for attacks in the 12-day war) . With that degree of effort and resources being ploughed in, I’d turn it round and ask, why are you certain the people running around in plain clothes shooting weren’t simply hired guns, of the type seen in Syria? Mass funerals were held for up to 400 Iranian security forces, after the protests, do you think they shot themselves?
My opinion… I think the protests were meant to become an fully fledged armed insurrection, plotted by western security services and Mossad. But the Iranian authorities managed to put it down -in no small part thanks to cutting Starlink – and restore order, as opposed to a runaway revolution. In other words, I think is was western ‘regime change’ Plan A, and when it didn’t materialise, Plan B : use of direct military force, that we are witnessing today, took shape and was eventually implemented.
Absolutely true but is there actually much difference between how the British media project their own agendas on to foreign populations, and their claims of ‘public opinion’ in the UK? Is debate of British involvement in Ukraine or the covid lockdowns or opposition to Brexit even allowed? Four years after the start of the Ukraine war, without any democratic mandate for British involvement, and with monstrous sums spent on what is basically a losing war, all I heard on the news about the subject the other day was anti-Putin platitudes and propaganda about the plucky Ukrainians (no mention of the ghastly fates of their young men).
Taking any notice of CommercialPrivateEquitybbc has been pointless since the mid-80s. The best thing you can do is cancel the licence tax.
The BBC imperialists/ zionists must have been dancing when Clive Myrie walked through the door.
The illegal attack on Iran was always going to happen – no matter how many concessions Iran made, and they made quite a few, as you can see below.
https://nitter.poast.org/gothburz/status/2027852172923154714#m
Any date fixed for the Trial of the Ukrainian guys who attacked Starmer’s property?
27 April 2026. Two are Ukrainian, one is Romanian.
What’s that coming over the hill?
Is it a D-notice? Is it a D-notice?
D-nonce?
I think the Abe Linc is in trouble.
Here another great article on “Why Iran?” translated from Italian into English: https://geopolitiq.substack.com/p/why-iran?r=25fc37
British spy Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says “This is the beginning of folding a regime”.
Is this a new word in imperialist c***-speak? Will it replace “topple”?
The organiser of the event that Zaghari-Ratcliffe spoke these words at offered the view that “for some Iranians, the possibility of overthrowing the regime meant the danger posed by the US and Israeli bombings to their homes was worth it.”
Is it just the “danger” of being blown to bits that “some Iranians” think is “worth it” when they watch with approval the Zionazi and USA bombs dropping? Or is it actually having their children blown to bits by them? I doubt this question was asked at the said event.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-iran-5HjdTgG_2/
It is because I do not believe that Nazanin Zaghari-Radcliffe was a spy, any more than the Foremans, that I regard their treatment at the hands of the Iranians as cruel and unjust, even though the paranoid atttude of Iran to the West in the view of the events of the 1950s onwards is sadly understandable.
Iran’s inhospitable treatment of Westerners is also a reason for being less than sympathetic to the fate of Ayatollah Khamenei, though the real reason is the massive loss of life (of demonstrators) that he was responsible for, as head of state. I note that many Iranians celebrated his demise even in Iran, and many (in the American diaspora) even want the monarchy back.
corr ‘atttude’ -> ‘attitude’
2,500 to 2,900 dead in the US coup attempt, a considerable proportion being agent of the state, like police and nurses is khamenei’s fault?
I’m talking about the thousands of demonstrators killed by the regime before the American attack. I hope Trump gets impeached for his illegal acts of aggression, in Venezuela as well as Iran.
If, however, life for most Iranians Iran becomes better in the longer term as a result of this aggression (which is by no means certain), that will enable the situation to be seen in a different light.
M.J. many people on here do not believe that the regime brutally murdered tens of thousands of innocent Iranians in the January demonstrations, because they have been afflicted by a US/Israel evil – Iranian regime good syndrome. They simply cannot accept that Trump, Netanyahu and Khamanai are/were all evil. I have spent enough time in Iran to know the thoughts of ordinary people towards the evil regime.
andyoldlabour, your last sentence was very interesting, but please go further. What were the thoughts of ordinary Iranians towards the regime they lived under? I once talked to an Iranian in the UK who said to me that in 1979, they saw Islam as a way to deal with the shortcomings of the Shah’s rule, but now they called the revolution ‘the big mistake’ (too late, as in North Korea, as the North Korean Bandi indicates in his book The Accusation).
M.J. the shah was a brutal dictator, installed by the US/UK in 1953 after the coup, which saw democratically elected PM Mossadeq overthrown and imprisoned, all because he wanted to nationalise the Iranian oil industry. As the seventies progressed the shah became more extreme, using his Mossad trained secret police, the Savaak to put down any dissent.
Everything came to a head on Friday 8th September, in Jaleh Square, Tehran, when demonstrators were fired on by the army. Reliable sources report that around 4,000 were killed. Martial law had been declared in Tehran the previous day. My wife was living with her family about a mile away from the square and said that the shooting went on for most of the day. After that, it was a downward spiral, culminating in a general strike in October which closed down the petroleum industry. The shah went into exile in January 1979. It is said that the US/UK had knowledge of this and may have persuaded him to leave Iran, hoping that a group of “friendly mullahs” would take temporary charge, until the shah’s son could take over, the same Pahlavi who along with Trump, is encouraging the citizens of Iran to go out, demonstrate and then get slaughtered by the regime.
My wife has told me, that the people were originally pleased to see the back of the shah, but that all changed, when the Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile in France, held elections, based on Islamic Republic – yes or no. The fact that the mullahs had started murdering any agitators, previous politicians and political activists, didn’t bode well. My wife said that her family didn’t vote and that none of her relatives did either. One of her young cousins, belonged to a Marxist political group, was arrested, put in Evin prison and was then executed. The family had to pay for the cost of the bullets which killed him, before his body was released.
So, what the Iranian said to you is correct, out of the shah’s frying pan, into the flames of the brutal fundamentalist regime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(1978)
https://www.declassifieduk.org/when-britain-backed-irans-dictator/
many people on here do not believe that the regime brutally murdered tens of thousands of innocent Iranians in the January demonstrations, because they have been afflicted by a US/Israel evil – Iranian regime good syndrome.”
Ah, the return of one-sided gullible people, last seen in the run up to Brexit; people who are gullible enough to believe ones side’s propaganda, but not gullible enough to believe the other side’s propaganda. FYI, the reason I don’t “believe that the regime brutally murdered tens of thousands of innocent Iranians in the January demonstrations” is that it is, by any reasonable assessment of the probabilities, complete bullshit.
@andyoldlabour (March 2, 2026 at 15:14) What you say reminded me of what the Iranian told me about the time sequence of events: one day a mullah was preaching, and people were fascinated because someone was daring to speak against the Shah. The next day there was a much bigger crowd, and after that people went out on the streets. From what you say all this may have been the build up to September 8 and the Jaleh Square massacre.
“Is this a new word in imperialist c***-speak? Will it replace “topple”?”
No, it’s “ziogami”, the ancient art of regime change. All it takes is a few deft hill and valley folds and an “autocratic dictatorship” can be remade into a “democracy”.
Trump appears to link Iran attack to his 2020 election loss – Guardian
You can just imagine Netanyahu – a far wilier political operator than Trump – filling his head with this stuff, presumably backed by Kushner? Trump’s often repeated claim, that 30,000 protestors died, isn’t supported by any serious organisation – that figure’s origins appear to be some agenda-driven diaspora group based in the U.S.. Scary, to think life and death decisions, and a war against a state with 90 million citizens, with potential lasting global ramifications, is being decided by a man who has had his head filled with a pack of lies.
And, Bush linked 911 to Iraq, some things never change.
Trita Parsi TWEET:
Some observations and comments on Trump and Israel’s war on Iran:
1. Tehran is not looking for a ceasefire and has rejected outreach from Trump. The reason is that they believe they committed a mistake by agreeing to the ceasefire in June – it only enabled the US and Israel to restock and remobilize to launch war again. If they agree to a ceasefire now, they will only be attacked again in a few months.
2. For a ceasefire to be acceptable, it appears difficult for Tehran to agree to it until the cost to the US has become much higher than it currently is. Otherwise, the US will restart the war at a later point, the calculation reads.
3. Accordingly, Iran has shifted its strategy. It is striking Israel, but very differently from the June war. There is a constant level of attack throughout the day rather than a salvo of 50 missiles at once. Damage will be less, but that isn’t a problem because Tehran has concluded that Israel’s pain tolerance is very high – as long as the US stays in the war. So the focus shifts to the US.
4. From the outset, and perhaps surprisingly, Iran has been targeting US bases in the region, including against friendly states. Tehran calculates that the war can only end durably if the cost for the US rises dramatically, including American casualties. After the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran says it has no red lines left and will go all out in seeking the destruction of these bases and high American casualties.
5. Iran understands that many in the American security establishment had been convinced that Iran’s past restraint reflected weakness and an inability or unwillingness to face the US in a direct war. Tehran is now doing everything it can to demonstrate the opposite – despite the massive cost it itself will pay. Ironically, the assassination of Khamenei facilitated this shift.
6. One aspect of this is that Iran has now also struck bases in Cyprus, which have been used for attacks against Iran. Iran is well aware that this is an attack on a EU state. But that seems to be the point. Tehran appears intent on not only expanding the war into Persian Gulf states but also into Europe. Note the attack on the French base in the UAE. For the war to be able to end, Europe too has to pay a cost, the reasoning appears to be.
7. There appears to be only limited concern about the internal situation. The announcement of Khamenei’s death opened a window for people to pour onto the streets and seek to overthrow the regime. Though expressions of joy were widespread, no real mobilization was seen. That window is now closing, as the theocratic system closes ranks and establishes new formal leadership.
Again: The question “How will this end?” should have been asked before this war was triggered. It wasn’t.
On point 4: note that Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest hub for international passengers, wasn’t shut during the Zionist-Iran war of 2025. But it’s shut now. And so is Hamad International Airport in Qatar. If this continues for more than a few days, that’s a big development.
Dubai is finished. Windsor Davies applies.
On point 6: the British bases on Cyprus are sovereign British territory, not Cypriot. The USA bases are not sovereign USA territory. Not that this matters much in wartime.
@AG – “Again: The question “How will this end?” should have been asked before this war was triggered. It wasn’t.”
You’re missing something there. “Never let a crisis go to waste,” as Emmanuel Rahm put it. Or see Jean Monnet’s superb understanding of how to put strategy together with contingency that has been admired with awe even by pro-Brexit types. These bastards know what they’re doing.
This isn’t the doing of maniacs in the sense of those who have no thought for the consequences of their actions. It is the doing of maniacs in the sense of those who have little or no humanity and who see the causing of goodness knows how many deaths, and goodness knows how much human suffering, as essentially no kind of downside whatsoever,.
Oh I agree.
Note: This is not me, I merely put in the entire original tweet text by Parsi. I mainly posted it here to document a respected member within establishment who is trying to address Iran´s resolve and forceful posture. Something so obvious it apparently cannot even be totally ignored within empire. And Parsi is not the worst of observers (if I recall correctly…) He however lacks our cynical understanding of our own governments. But that´s precisely why he is establishment. Or he does but is not allowed to say it simply because it doesn´t concur with decorum of institutional “wisdom”.
“Though expressions of joy were widespread, no real mobilization was seen. ”
Is there actually any evidence for these “expressions of joy” apart from the unsupported word of the Western MSM?
Nothing? I thought not.
A greater Israel is a false construct that shields the intent of those regimes that have a proven lawless history. Blaming Zionism makes little sense as it’s a failed political experiment masquerading as Judaism, just as blaming a Jersey shore mobster masquerading as a statesman makes little sense. There is no truth apart from the resultant horror visited upon those whose only crime is wanting to lead their lives as they deem best.
Huh? Zionism means the creation of a Jewish state. In what way was it ever an “experiment”, and in what way has it “failed”? It doesn’t masquerade as Judaism. The position is that Jews aren’t a religious group, but “a people with a religion”. That isn’t trite sloganeering. It encapsulates the Jewish nationalist understanding of the religion.
an alternative view
To quote:
“It’s all theatre.
Yes it is.
Both sides agreed to contain this escalation to selective, pre-agreed targets. If that’s not obvious to you by now, no amount of analysis will bridge the gap. You’re watching the fireworks and thinking it’s the war. It’s not.
> They haven’t harmed the leadership.
They haven’t.
The provisional leadership council is already seated; Pezeshkian the reformist president, Mohseni the judiciary hardliner, and Arafi the ideological placeholder.
Three chairs, all filled, no vacuum.
The state didn’t skip a beat. You just didn’t notice because you’re still refreshing headlines looking for chaos that was never coming.
The leadership is intact. Your understanding of it isn’t.
I’ve said this since day one on this platform. The Axis of Resistance is a faction. It is not the state. It never was. It was a liability portfolio dressed up as an ideology.
You Axis romanticists looked at all of this and called it defeat.
It was divestment.
Iran didn’t lose its proxies. It shed them. There’s a difference, and if you can’t see it, that’s your ceiling, not mine.
> It’s a fake war.
It is a fake war.
Compare this to Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands dead. Markets in freefall. Commodities unhinged for two years. Cities flattened block by block.
Now look at this “war”.
Oil at $73 on the day of a declared war and Hormuz closure. OPEC+ meeting the next morning with pre-positioned supply increases. Saudi Arabia deliberately untouched. Oman, the mediator, completely spared.
Venezuela’s oil secured two months in advance.
Araghchi on American television within hours offering to de-escalate and calling the loss of commanders “not such a big problem.”
This was a controlled demolition dressed as a war. A weekend operation to restructure the Middle East’s power architecture while everyone was watching missile footage on their phones.
> Iran killed its own leadership.
I’ve been saying this since before most of you even understood what the Axis was.
Iran facilitated the removal of Soleimani. Allowed the decapitation of Hezbollah. Let Raisi go. Permitted the systematic elimination of IRGC hardliners. And now, whether Khamenei is dead or simply retired behind a strike narrative,
the last structural obstacle to the pivot has been removed.
The people running Iran tomorrow morning are the same people who were in Geneva on Wednesday offering permanent nuclear concessions. That’s not a coincidence.
That’s the plan.
For the record.
I’m not 100% certain Khamenei was killed.
I am 100% certain it doesn’t matter.
> What’s next
The Axis is finished.
And here’s the part none of you want to hear: so is the version of Israel that depended on the Axis to justify its existence.
Netanyahu needed Iran as the existential threat to hold his coalition together, to justify the permanent war footing, to keep the blank cheque coming from Washington.
That threat just got removed; not by Israel’s strength, but by Iran’s *choice* to dismantle its own militant infrastructure in exchange for economic integration.
Israel got its victory photo.
Iran got its exit.
The GCC got the stable neighbourhood it needs for Vision 2030.
And the rest of you got played, by every side, simultaneously.
What comes next is normalisation.
Sanctions relief.
Iranian oil back on global markets.
Saudi-Iran economic integration.
A GCC-brokered regional security framework that constrains both Tehran and Tel Aviv.
The defence industry pivots from selling missiles to selling reconstruction contracts.
The money doesn’t stop. It just changes direction.
This was never about who wins the war.”
“Compare this to Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands dead. Markets in freefall. Commodities unhinged for two years.”
Hang on, this war has been going on for two days. The Ukraine war has been going on for four years, that’s 730 times as long. Hardly surprising the effects aren’t the same.
If Saudi-Iran economic integration is the prediction based on this analysis, I’d say this is highly unlikely and question whether you know anyone from the region, but at least you have made a testable prediction which is to be welcomed.
which LLM did you use to write that?
For Trump the attack on Iran is his outrage of the month to distract the attention of Americans, especially his base, from THE EPSTEIN FILES. Trump deserves impeachment for illegally starting a war and kidnapping and murdering foreign heads of state, though it is unlikely to be attempted before November, and (because of the large majority required in the Senate) unlikely to succeed in the end.
For Netanyahu, it is a means of avoiding jail by pleading a military emergency again, this time war with Iran.
Not that I have much sympathy for the late Ayatollah Khamenei, under whose rule thousands of demonstrators have been killed.
It’s only western media that has reported numbers for demonstrator deaths, we don’t know the truth and never will. Remember also that the peaceful demonstrations were hijacked by mossad agents, so you could argue that Israel was responsible for demonstrator deaths. Just as the CIA/MI6 was responsible for demonstrator deaths in Ukraine. See the pattern ?
I don’t recall where I came across it now, but I read an article a couple of days ago in which Iran said 5,000 and something demonstrators had been killed (I don’t remember the exact figure).
Starmer has said the British regime has granted “permission” for the USA to use “British bases” to bomb Iran from.
That will make Britain a belligerent under international law.
Note that these bases are not necessarily all in Britain itself and could include Diego Garcia, bases on Cyprus, or both.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqj9g11p1ezo
Excellent video by George Galloway, posted an hour or so ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyrdTzwZxxc (12mins 25secs)
When I first heard about the school that was bombed, they were saying that 40 girls had been killed, then later on it was 60, but George starts by saying it was 167, and many others injured of course, many of them in critical condition.
The 167 may include some who weren’t children. But this doesn’t matter to the basic question which is whether this is OK or is it an atrocity. To which the answer is obvious.
I just did a search re >iran girls killed in school< and, contrary to what Grorge said, most of the MSM covered the bombing of the school. The Sun didn't come up in the results, so I did a search on their website re the above, and right at the end of a very long article, that went into great detail about all the locations hit by Iran, it says the following:
The US-Israeli blitz on Iran killed students, Iranian state Fars News Agency said.
An Iranian official said earlier: “In today’s attacks by the Zionist regime on Minab city, a girls’ elementary school was targeted and so far 5 students have been martyred.”
Up to 40 people are now feared to have been killed in the attack on a girls school.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/38364585/iran-launches-missiles-at-israel-tel-aviv-sirens/
I doubt many Sun readers got as far as half-way through the article, let alone got to the end. And needless to say, it’s deliberate. As for what George said, what he no doubt means is that had it been Russia that bombed a school and killed 150plus girls, or Iran re Israel, it would have been front-page headline news right across the MSM. And I very much doubt that’s the case (although I will – having just this moment thought of it – see if I can find yesterday’s front pages, and check, as such).
“The object is the destruction of Iran as a viable state.”
And a suitable tit-for-tat — one that (notwithstanding Craig’s doubts) I strongly suspect Iran is fully capable of delivering, based on its retaliatory warm-up in the Twelve-Day War — would be the destruction of *Israel* as a viable state. If the US and Israel don’t back off ASAP, the US may well lose all *three* of its aircraft carriers in the Middle East, including the stationary one.
What are the conditions for the Occupation’s long-term viability? The answer to that question is not pleasant at all. Which is why the destruction of that regime is an urgent need for humanity.
Maybe let’s not get our hopes up too far. Even the loss of one USA aircraft carrier will be cause for huge celebration among humanitarians around the whole world. And if the USA is a paper tiger, where does that leave the compradore regimes in the bumsniffer countries?
One of your best articles Craig. But “are under firm Zionist control, as is all of the significant major media and the ownership of every significant alternative media platform.” I don’t disagree with first bit but surely not every significant alternative media platform? Or am I missing something? Could someone identify some of the significant alternative media platforms concerned so that I can treat their info appropriately?
Yes would be good to know which ones Craig is referring to.
First one that came to my mind was http://www.workersliberty.org but its latest article, about the US/Israeli attack, seems reasonably OK and carefully written, with only the odd slip (“Workers’ Liberty opposes the Iranian regime, its attempts to get nuclear weapons and its malevolent meddling across the Middle East.” and “Israel has long aimed for the end of the Iranian regime which openly advocated the destruction of Israel. It is not unreasonable for Israel to want to defend itself from such a threat”)
I doubt Craig would classify that as a significant media platform. I am sure he is referring to alternative media everybody has heard of and am curious to know which.
Two alternative media sites I regularly peruse that definitely are zionist mouthpieces are:
The Daily Sceptic and The Conservative Woman (TCW).
What’s it meant to mean, the phrase ‘under Zionist control?’
Just checked out the front pages, and the first subheadline to the Daily Telegraph’s front-page headline article is:
Trump says regime ready for talks to end attacks
https://www.tomorrowspapers.co.uk/
He’s not just turning reality on its head, he’s turning it inside-out! They were HAVING talks, and just a few hours before the US and Israel started their bombardment, Trump said the talks were going well, or something to that effect.
I’m pretty sure it’s mentioned in the following video (which I came across Saturday night), but I’d already heard as much anyway:
The US-Israeli war on Iran is based on LIES. Here is the truth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_xGgeV_9rw (Geopolitical Economy Report – 21mins 49secs)
Just came across this on LBCs youtube channel, which is well worth checking out:
Trump seeks ‘off-ramp’ after bombings kill Ayatollah of Iran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ6PBavF1lE (10mins)
For anyone who is interested, here is a live stream of Iranian missile attacks on Tel Aviva at the Times of India Youtube channel.
The damage to several buildings in the city looks very severe. Casualties have already been reported.
Craig said: “I am afraid that the truth is the Iranian attempt to defend itself militarily will be less impactful than many anti-imperialists hope. The astonishing amounts of money spent by the US government on military and surveillance technology simply do have real-world effect.”
Yes this is a critical point, Iran has not been able to cause any bigger damage in their response, they were caught unprepared, once again, the technique is simply obsolete. I fear Iran will face a humiliating defeat, they could announce a new ayatollah, they could announce a new defence minister etc but Israel will nontheless take them out systematically.
But since Iran is lacking on the tech front I think it is very odd and blunderous that Iran has not made use of HUMINT/SIGINT more. The whole region is filled with american bases/interests/troops = sitting ducks, Iran have tons of allied groups in the region, Iran could have surveilled and planned operations/sabotage/infiltrate/assassination/strikes for decades against these targets and troops/individuals – but obviously there seems to have been no such intelligence work at all.
It’s a real shame that the Iranians missed such a golden opportunity to recruit you into the ranks of their top commanders. How much better they would be doing if they had! Still, you could always try volunteering. How’s your Farsi?
Bayard
Just because we dislike Iran being attacked does not mean we should shut up from poiting out the obvious weak response by Iran and what caused it. Just like israel time and time manage to infiltrate this or that nation/group successully, so should Iran. Iran can after all not compete with US and Israel regarding missiles tech so they should utilize other means i.e scouting the region on the ground conducting their war through subversion tactics, no?
“Just because we dislike Iran being attacked does not mean we should shut up from poiting out the obvious weak response by Iran and what caused it.”
How is it that you, who are thousands of miles away, know better how to conduct this war than the people actually there on the ground? There could be a hundred reasons why the Iranian response to the invasion wasn’t as strong as you would like of which you are not aware, the most obviously being that missiles take time to build, so you do not use them recklessly, or you may run out in critical areas.
As I said Iran cannot compete with US/Israel on the tech front. They simply have better missiles and missile-defense than Iran. Thus Iran must use other means to inflict pain, just look at the war in Ukraine, it is as I have tried to point out: infiltration, sabotage, HUMINT, assassinations, drones, simple but effective measures that cause the most damage on the russian side.
“As I said Iran cannot compete with US/Israel on the tech front. They simply have better missiles and missile-defense than Iran.”
Funny how you have been able to get through all the secrecy that normally surrounds the development of military technology so as to be able to make statements like that. What’s your MO?
Bayard
That the US and Israel have better missile technology than Iran is not a secret by any means. Did you really believe that? Seriously?
“That the US and Israel have better missile technology than Iran is not a secret by any means.”
How do you know it’s not a secret? Because you’ve read it in a lot of places? Just because information is widely available doesn’t make it true. “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”, is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. What you actually mean is that you have seen that “fact” repeated often enough that you think it is true. Now, it suits both sides to have people believe that particular “fact”, the US and Israel, because it flatters the pride of the warmongers in their respective populations and Iran, because it could lead to the US and Israel underestimating their strength, always a capital mistake and one that, for instance, lost Athens its fleet in the Peloponnesian War. Thus, on the balance of probabilities, I am inclined to disbelieve it.
““As I said Iran cannot compete with US/Israel on the tech front.”
If that is the case, please explain why Russia is defeating the US-backed Ukranians with the help of Iranian designed drones and that the US has now copied the Iranian technology in order to produce their own Shaheds?
We only know what we are told, it may all be BS.
Recall it is deemed an offence to publicise any damage within Israel.
Also recall Iran made a major intelligence hack into the Israeli military system.
Opinions are like arseholes we all have one.
“(O)bviously there seems to have been no such intelligence work at all.” Perhaps they didn’t tell you about it first? (Top tip: try to avoid using the word “obviously” unless it’s really called for.)
Most readers of these comments are aware that when talks about the Middle East are reaching an agreement, the Zionists often do something murderous and spectacular to wreck them. You should assume this fact was well known to the Iranian leadership.
On the overall point: taking out enemy commanders has been what the Zionists have been doing to the Palestinians for a long time. There are two sides in this war. Weaknesses are only weaknesses relative to strengths of the enemy.
Resistance will continue, just as it will in Palestine. Resistance is tough. Life expectancy can be short. Resistance will continue nonetheless. The question is what are the Zionist aims, and the answer is not limited to Iran.
Meanwhile in Britain, I think it’s about to be obscured that FIRST Starmer announced that Britain would allow the USA to use British territory to bomb Iran from (making Britain a belligerent power in this war), and shortly AFTERWARDS an “Iranian drone” is supposed to have landed on British military-controlled “sovereign terrritory” on Cyprus.
I am not even convinced the Iranians launched that drone. It may well have been launched by the Zionists or the Brits. Even if it was an “Iranian drone”, that doesn’t mean that Iran launched it. On the other hand, they may have launched it. I’m just saying be sceptical and assess probabilities. In any case, Britain is a belligerent power, waging war against Iran, and Iran has the right to strike British military installations in defence.
Nonetheless, note the order of events carefully.
Older people might like to recall British state lies about the Battle of Orgreave during the 1984-85 miners’ strike, where the BBC said the miners attacked the police and then the police had to crack a few heads to defend themselves, whereas in fact the police attacked the miners first.
Brian Red
“Most readers of these comments are aware that when talks about the Middle East are reaching an agreement, the Zionists often do something murderous and spectacular to wreck them. You should assume this fact was well known to the Iranian leadership”.
Well that is my point? There was no real intelligence work being done by Iran. Everyone knew what was about to happen but the iranians still took no precaution, obviously. Just take the fact that in the first minutes of the attack, Israel managed to take out multiple top commanders since Iran had foolishy amassed their top brass in 1 room.
“There was no real intelligence work being done by Iran. ”
How do you know.? You don’t. All you know is that it appears that there was no intelligence work done by Iran, from which you jump to the conclusion that there was no intelligence work. Please stop pretending to be omniscient, it makes you look ridiculous.
Bayard
How do I know? Like anyone else with their eyes open. Iran is obviously unable to defend itself and level successful strikes in return, their top leader killed, what other proof do you need? You seems to live in denial.
Iran considered US/Israel the enemy since 1980, that is 46 years ago, but when the war eventually came they have almost zero agency.
“How do I know? Like anyone else with their eyes open. Iran is obviously unable to defend itself and level successful strikes in return, their top leader killed, what other proof do you need? ”
You, like me or “anyone else with their eyes open” have only one resource: the internet wherein lie many sources, all of dubious veracity. All we are left with is making a judgement on the probability of something being true. Unfortunately, what people want to be true all too often plays a large part in judging those probabilities. That “Iran is obviously unable to defend itself and level successful strikes in return,” is not at all obvious from where I am sat and presumably I am looking at the same news reports as you. What is obvious is that you have started with the theory and are adducing evidence to “prove” it, not looking at the evidence and forming a theory from it. What is also obvious is that you think that all the West Asian states are a bunch of useless wankers who are cowards for preferring to live in peace rather than doing what you think they should which is to gang together and give those nasty Jews in Israel the hiding that in your opinion they deserve and that most of your comments are simply a repetition of this mantra.
Bayard
Yes and open intelligence have proved that israel and US have tremendous power over Iran in this conflict, are one supposed to look away because the facts are bad? Seems quite immature. Let us not become Bagdad-Bob.
I do not know what kind of news you are watching but pretty much every media outlet show that Iran is simply unable to protect itself. Have Iran even got 1 single successful hit on Israel (excluding the shelter it accidentally hit)? Meanwhile Israel have created close to air superiority over Iran and could obviously do whatever it wants, no?
“Yes and open intelligence have proved that israel and US have tremendous power over Iran in this conflict, ”
“Open intelligence” has proved nothing of the sort. The very fact that the intelligence is open means that someone wants you to know about it and that is very unlikely to be out of an interest of disseminating the pure unvarnished truth.
I do not know what kind of news you are watching but pretty much every media outlet show that Israel and the US are simply unable to protect itself, with multiple hits on cities like Tel Aviv and US bases in Gulf countries. Mind you, if you are watching the Western MSM then I can see where you might have got the wrong idea.
Jack, you’re in a hole, stop digging. Iran HAS hit major military sites in Israel and multiple US bases, the evidence is out there.
‘Obviously ‘ the USrael has lot’s of very expensive assets, but as napoleon noted logistics is key and the USrael will deplete their stocks within two weeks max. Then what ?
“Older people might like to recall British state lies about the Battle of Orgreave during the 1984-85 miners’ strike, where the BBC said the miners attacked the police and then the police had to crack a few heads to defend themselves, whereas in fact the police attacked the miners first.”
and younger people might like to recall British state lies about the Palestine Action attack on the Elbit factory, where they said that the protestors attacked the security guards and the police, whereas the security guards attacked the protestors first.
Without being too tin-foil hat, I can’t help thinking we’re starting to understand why there was suddenly such desperation to depose Starmer, a week or two ago, and presumably install some right-wing hawk. The headlines in the right-wing media of him ‘not doing enough’ re: Iran suggest that too. I didn’t vote for the man and despised his treatment of Corbyn, by the way. I suspect the United States have bitten off more than they can chew with Iran but we’ll see, and I bow to Craig and others here about pure foreign policy and military matters, which I know less about.
I think it was to weaken Starmer and let him know that like everyone he is dispensable.
This was seen with B Clinton too – the Monica Lewinsky affair. I am expecting it also to happen with Trump at some point. Never mind constitutional niceties about impeachment, the Senate, Article 25, or the Supreme Court. The strong can always find a lever. That’s what makes them strong.
The talk about UK, France, Germany entering the war is such a flagrant Rally-around-the-flag tactic since Starmer/Merz/Macron approval points is in the bottom. What better way to raise their popularity by a war.
Starmer certainly has an extremely low approval rating, and you gotta wonder how much lower it can go.
But I don’t think many intending voters will switch their intentions from Reform to Labour over the killing foreign Muslims while uniting behind the Butcher’s Apron issue. Especially given that Nigel Farage called for Britain to enter the war before Starmer declared that Britain had entered it.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/reforms-farage-urges-entry-war-after-uk-bases-not-used-strikes-iran
I have heard on the radio (LBC) that one of the contributory reasons for UK not allowing its bases to be used is that Iran’s missiles have enough range to strike targets in the UK. Also, the UK has zero air defense, as in, no missile interceptors such as patriot or THAAD, none at all. I am assuming that means ground based anti-missile defense, not ship based or aircraft air to air.
When Thatcher used the Falklands to save her political bacon, the Asian Muslim vote didn’t count for much in the UK, today the UK is a very different political beast and Starmer is not going to win many political browny points with a war on brownish people.
That certainly USED to be the case Jack, and Thatcher went from being the most unpopular PM ever (at the time) to the most popular PM ever as a consequence of the Falklands war, for example. But after Gaza (and during) a lot of people have woken up to the inhuman war-mongering hate-mongering fear-mongering demented malevolent psychopathic evil scum.
I think we can safely assume that 90% plus of the worlds population would infinitely prefer to live in a world free from war and conflict, living together in harmony with each-other and the planet that sustains us. But the twisted deranged motherfuckers are intent on taking us backwards.
” inhuman war-mongering hate-mongering fear-mongering demented malevolent psychopathic evil scum.”
I have taken to referring to these things as epsteinites. And I can’t get Desmond Dekker’s tune out of my head.
Get up in the morning, craving for dead, sir
So that every lechery can be fed
for me, epsteinites
Time for a new adjective: “epstine” (formed in the manner of “bovine” or “supine”), meaning “inhuman war-mongering hate-mongering fear-mongering demented malevolent psychopathic and evil”. Can we get it into the Oxford English Dictionary?
it’s a bit more depressing when you realise that 2019/20 saw the creation of Homo Epsteinus…
From what I can gather, Bayard, Epstein was a lover not a fighter – and, absent the money changing hands, all the wrongdoing of which he was credibly accused would have been legal in a dozen European states:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent_in_Europe#/media/File:Age_of_consent_-_Europe.svg
(Age of consent was 13 in Spain until 2015)
That’s why “epstine” has a small “e”, it refers to the people Epstein consorted with rather than him.