Tag: iran

‘I Almost Cried’: Unreleased Documentary Footage Shows Lindsey Graham Celebrating Start of Iran War

Footage from an unreleased documentary about the late Lindsey Graham shows the notoriously hawkish senator celebrating the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran just days after the bombing campaign started.

“Look what we’ve done here. I almost cried. How long have we been pushing this?” a laughing Graham is heard saying in the footage, released by Alex Holder, a filmmaker granted extensive access to the South Carolina senator in the years leading up to his death.

Graham goes on to say that he spoke with President Trump, who he said was also very happy about the war. “I talked to Trump this morning, he’s jacked, he said, ‘best thing I have ever done.’ He loves blowing stuff up,” he said.

Graham then appeared to take credit for helping convince Trump to launch the war. “There are a lot of people inside who didn’t want to do it, so I had my challenges,” he said, adding that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were like “Roosevelt and Churchill.”

Holder also released footage of a phone call between Graham and Netanyahu from early March, during which Graham said he was going to travel to Florida to meet with President Trump to convince him to join Israel’s bombing campaign in Lebanon, but Netanyahu talked him out of it.

“We’re concentrating right now on Iran,” Netanyahu told Graham. “If we tell Hezbollah that we’re going all the way, we threaten them, but if we actually do it, then they have no reason not to go all the way against us. And right now that’s not our interest.”

Graham had a close relationship with Netanyahu and spoke with him frequently and visited Israel often. Holder told The Wall Street Journal that he joined Graham in a trip to Israel and likened his treatment there to how a prime minister or a king would be treated.

Graham was also known as someone who could work with Democrats, and Holder released a call between him and Jake Sullivan, who served as President Biden’s national security advisor.

According to the Journal, Sullivan asked Graham how long the war would last. “In three to four weeks, we’re going to have them in a spot where they start losing control of some cities,” Graham replied. “Get the Arabs more openly involved tomorrow, and then have almost irreversible momentum.”

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The Mullahs Fear Women Most

Why Iran’s Female Resistance Will Defeat Tyranny

For forty-seven years, Iran’s ruling mullahs have pursued a relentless campaign to subjugate half their own population. Ever since Ayatollah Khomeini hijacked the 1979 revolution, misogyny has served as one of the cornerstones of the Islamic Republic. Every law, every decree and every instrument of repression has sought to reduce women to obedient subjects, stripped of equality, dignity and freedom.

Yet the clerical regime has committed one fatal miscalculation. Its greatest victims have become its greatest adversaries. Today, Iranian women lead the struggle for democratic change. Their courage has shaken one of the world’s most brutal dictatorships, exposing the moral bankruptcy of a regime whose survival depends upon fear, violence and systematic discrimination. From the very beginning, the mullahs understood that controlling women meant controlling society. The compulsory hijab became far more than a dress code. It evolved into a political weapon, a daily reminder that every woman’s body, voice and future belonged to the state rather than herself.

The regime’s legal system reinforces this institutional misogyny at every turn. Women remain second-class citizens before the law. Family legislation favors men. Inheritance laws discriminate against daughters and wives. Judicial procedures frequently assign greater weight to male testimony. Countless opportunities remain restricted simply because of gender. Every aspect of life reflects an ideology built upon female submission and male authority.

This discrimination extends well beyond the courtroom. Young women have endured arrest, imprisonment and flogging for singing, dancing or celebrating the completion of examinations. Joy itself has become a crime whenever young women refuse to conform to the regime’s suffocating vision of society. Social media videos showing students singing together after exams have triggered harsh punishment, revealing the extraordinary insecurity of rulers who fear even the laughter of young women.

Perhaps even more horrifying has been the acid attacks carried out against women whose clothing failed to satisfy religious extremists. Young women suffered catastrophic injuries after corrosive chemicals were thrown into their faces because they allegedly wore their headscarves “incorrectly.” Many lost their eyesight. Many endured lifelong disfigurements. The perpetrators have enjoyed virtual impunity.

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Iran unleashes wave of attacks on US bases

The Iranian military has attacked US bases in multiple Gulf states, and warned locals to keep their distance from “US terrorist army forces” in anticipation of more strikes. The attacks came immediately after US forces bombed the Iranian cities of Ahvaz, Khorramabad, and Jask.

Sirens sounded twice in Bahrain on Friday morning, as two waves of attacks targeted Sheikh Isa Air Base and Naval Support Activity Bahrain, the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. 

“This morning, the fuel tanks, large equipment warehouses and silos, and the barracks of the US terrorist army forces at the Isa Air Base in Bahrain were targeted by Arash kamikaze drones,” the Iranian Army said in a statement broadcast on Iranian state media. In a separate statement, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that it had damaged an observation tower at Naval Support Activity Bahrain.

Both facilities have come under Iranian attack on multiple occasions since the US-Israeli war on Iran began in February. Footage shared on social media showed plumes of smoke rising from the area of the naval base after the second round of sirens sounded.

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Trump “Close” To Ordering “Massive Attack Greater Than Anything Before” On Iran

New Iraq PM Tries Hand at Mediation

After being at the White House just last week, Iraq’s new “Washington approved” prime minister is apparently now the new shuttle diplomacy guy, after Qatari and Pakistani peace efforts on Iran have come to naught. 

The NY Times is reporting Thursday afternoon that “Iraq’s prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, is in Tehran carrying a proposal for a cease-fire between Iran and the United States, according to Iranian and Iraqi officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about matters of national security.”

But the messaging apparently went the other way to, from Tehran to Washington, per more from the Times:

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told local news media that the Iraqi leader had shared with Iranian officials his “insights and impressions” from his recent meeting with Trump. Araghchi added that Tehran and Washington don’t have a problem when it comes to finding mediators, “the problem is America’s attitude.”

At the moment, Trump is threatening new, massive attacks on Iran, which could come tonight or at any time, with the whole region on edge and the State Department telling Americans to urgently find flights out of the Middle East.

Trump “Close” To Bigger Strikes Than Ever Before: Interview

President Trump has newly been cited in Axios as saying he’s seriously considering restarting major combat operations in Iran. He’s previewing strikes that would be bigger than anything before, including in the opening days of Operation Epic Fury, when dozens of Iranian government and military leaders were killed, including the Ayatollah. There’s also chatter that Israel could rejoin the attacks this time, after Israeli jets have been absent in the past twelve days of renewed bombing raids.

However, Axios stipulated that Trump has yet to make a final decision. Mideast regional Al Hadath and Israel’s Channel 12 are separately reporting that US officials have told regional allies to “be prepared” for such a new major assault on Iran.

Axios writes, “In a brief interview, Trump acknowledged that such a decision would have consequences and stressed he hasn’t made a determination yet.” This as Brent Crude has climbed past $100 per barrel on Thursday, and as the prospect of all-out war remains unpopular among American voters, especially with months to go ahead of the midterms.

“I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it,” the president said. And more via the Axios interview:

  • Trump said Israel “would join in two minutes if I ask them to,” but added that “we don’t need anybody” to launch a new operation against Iran.
  • He also said there would be “consequences” for Israel joining the strikes, hinting at Iranian retaliation against Israel.
  • Trump said the Iranians “want to negotiate” but are not ready to make a deal at the moment.
  • “They haven’t received enough pain yet,” he said.
  • Two regional sources with knowledge of mediation efforts said Iranian leadership hasn’t accepted the latest proposal put forward.
  • “We are trying, but the Iranians are not being helpful,” one of them said.

The Houthis have meanwhile been ratcheting their involvement, apparently having been called upon by Tehran to help it keep leverage over key oil transit chokepoints. All the while, there have been widespread reports of the Pentagon surging large aircraft, especially refueling tankers, from Europe to the CENTCOM area.

Houthis Threaten Saudi Aramco

After the Iranian-aligned Houthis confirmed they struck two Saudi oil tankers as part of a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, as a second chokepoint on global oil supplies opens alongside the Strait of Hormuz, on Thursday the Shia militant group is now openly threatening Aramco facilities inside the kingdom… or at least some unnamed officials are telling regional media.

The Houthis have characterized their campaign as “a blockade for a blockade,” saying it is intended to pressure Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have already been blockading Houthis controlled-ports in Yemen for years, which hearkens back to a Gulf vs. Houthi chiefly aerial war that opened in 2015.

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Wait, I Thought We Won the War Already?

The Iran war was originally intended to be short. Due to the fast-paced news cycle, this fact has been forgotten by many. On February 28, 2026, when the U.S. and Israel officially launched their military campaign, the administration was expecting this war to last only weeks, and for the Iranian regime to fall rather quickly. President Trump told The New York Times that he intended for strikes on Iran to continue for “four to five weeks.”

That was on March 1, 2026. It is now July.

The sporadic timeline shifts have not deterred the administration’s attempts to portray the campaign as a massive success. We have heard dozens of times now from Donald Trump that we have won the war, and that it will be wrapping up shortly.

However, the words of Donald Trump don’t comport with the military realities.

All pain, no gain

If we look back at the stated objectives set by the administration for what they sought to achieve from this war, none of them have come to fruition.

The Iranian’s stockpile of missiles and drones have not been meaningfully diminished.

The Iranian’s enriched uranium stockpile has not been destroyed or removed from the country.

The IRGC has not been cut off from their network of proxies across the Middle East. We have seen this in Lebanon, where Hezbollah has managed to deal some significant blows to the IDF in the south of the country. The Iranians are also considering activating the Houthis in Yemen to cut off the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, should U.S. strikes on Iranian infrastructure continue.

Regime change has also not occurred. The rhetoric coming from the White House at the beginning of this conflict described their intent to overthrow the IRGC and make room for “the people” to rise up and implement liberal democracy in its place.

Not only did this not happen, but by all accounts, this war has had the opposite effect. At the funeral of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the streets of Tehran were flooded with Iranian citizens pledging to defend their nation and avenge the death of their leader. We saw a “rally around the flag” effect, the predictable result of bombing major cities and killing government and religious leaders in foreign lands.

If the goal was to inspire an embrace of Americanism within Iran, this war has done the opposite.

Perhaps launching a war of aggression against a population and killing their religious leader isn’t the most effective way to make them embrace your influence over their society. Just a thought.

The biggest U.S. blunder has been seen in the Strait of Hormuz, where a waterway previously open to international transit has been shut down by the IRGC, putting a massive strain on the global energy market. By using missiles and drones to close the Strait, Iran has gained a major piece of leverage. They have the ability to hold 20% of the world’s energy supply hostage, inflicting tangible financial pain on U.S. consumers at the gas pump. This will also likely cause domestic political pain for Donald Trump and the Republican Party in this year’s midterm elections.

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CIA Distances Itself From Trump’s Iran War With Media Leak

It seems that CIA and other US intelligence officials hope to distance themselves from Trump’s Iran war, now with the US-initiated conflict having dragged on for nearly five months (with no end in sight), after White House officials had in the opening days touted a swift, limited military excursion. 

They are leaking intelligence to the press which shows they have assessed that current American strikes on Iran are unlikely to change Iran’s negotiating position. With tankers in Hormuz on fire and others too afraid to move, Iran is vowing that it will keep its leverage over the strait at all costs.

The Washington Post report says that “Iran’s government is unlikely to feel significant impact or soften its negotiating position as a result of new rounds of U.S. military strikes like those now underway, according to a new intelligence assessment described by current and former U.S. officials.”

To a large degree this intel assessment is stating the obvious, which should have been well understood far in advance. It seems intel officials want to get it on record that they predict a quagmire as the White House seeks to extricate itself and the global economy from the crisis (of its own making) in the Gulf. Escalation in air strikes will only further stalemate the situation, the intel analysis forecasts. 

Stating the obvious is further on full display in lines from the WaPo report like the following: “Analysts at American spy agencies also have concluded that Tehran and Washington are, for now, stuck in an indefinite limbo between peace and war, the officials said — an uneasy dynamic given the increasingly deadly nature of the tit-for-tat hostilities between the two nations. The current and former officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the assessments because of their sensitivity.”

President Trump has reportedly been briefed on the assessment. According to more:

The latest intelligence report was written primarily by the CIA, where analysts have underscored the Tehran regime’s staying power despite the loss of many of its top leaders and much of its military hardware to U.S. and Israeli attacks. In May, a CIA analysis concluded that Iran could survive a U.S. naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing more severe economic hardship.

As of Monday, Trump previewed harder hits on Iran to come after the killing of multiple US troops in Jordan and neighboring Iraq. At least two died during a ballistic missile attack in Jordan, while one service member was killed in northern Iraq.

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Night Eleven Over Iran: 4th Us Soldier Dead, Ceasefire Collapses As Tehran Hits Jordan, Bahrain And Kuwait Bases

For the eleventh consecutive night, U.S. Central Command launched strikes on Iran. The Pentagon confirmed a fourth American service member killed in Iranian attacks in recent days, according to CBS News, with President Trump scheduled to receive the remains at Dover Air Force Base Wednesday morning in a dignified transfer.

CENTCOM said Tuesday night’s strikes, completed at approximately 8:15 p.m. ET, targeted aircraft hangars, drone storage facilities, and operations centers across Iran — all aimed at degrading Tehran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Per CENTCOM’s own statement, Iran has now attacked more than 30 commercial vessels since the conflict escalated, threatening hundreds of mariners and disrupting one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply that once transited the strait.

Iran escalated in parallel. The Iranian military claimed in statements carried by state media early Wednesday that it had targeted U.S. military facilities in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan — the same Al-Azraq base in Jordan where three American soldiers were killed earlier this week. Jordan’s military said five Iranian drones and three missiles were all intercepted. Bahrain sounded missile alert sirens as Iranian projectiles targeted the island nation, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet. The New York Times confirmed the claims were reflected in U.S. military tracking.

Against this backdrop, diplomacy quietly died in Islamabad. Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni visited Pakistan — a key mediator — in an attempt to resuscitate the collapsed 10-day ceasefire proposal, per Republic World. But Trump, speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, shut the door on talks: the U.S. had “no interest in meeting,” he said, and signaled that future strikes could target areas near Iran’s uranium enrichment sites.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking at the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Manila, warned that Iran’s demand to collect tolls in the Strait of Hormuz would set a precedent threatening freedom of navigation across the globe — explicitly mentioning the South China Sea. “If we create a precedent where a nation state can control an international waterway, charge a toll, and blow up ships if you don’t pay — that will repeat itself in other parts of the world,” Rubio said. Energy markets took note: Brent crude climbed above $91 a barrel Tuesday, with U.S. pump prices averaging $4 a gallon.

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Pentagon concealed dozens of casualties from Iranian strikes in Jordan: Report

The Pentagon did not disclose dozens of injuries to US service personnel resulting from a barrage of Iranian ballistic missile strikes on US bases in Jordan last week, the New York Times (NYT) reported on 20 July.

CBS News reported on Friday that two US soldiers and one service member were missing following Iranian strikes on the Muwaffaq Salti Base in Jordan. 

Iran carried out three additional strikes against US forces in Jordan the same week.

“Those attacks injured dozens of US service members and damaged several helicopters,” NYT wrote, citing US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“But the Pentagon did not disclose the earlier strikes, nor the casualties and damage they inflicted,” the paper added.

Throughout the war launched by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the Islamic Republic in February, the Pentagon has stated that “operational security” takes precedence over notifying the US public about developments in the war, including casualties to soldiers.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) is not required to release information about injured service members, a US military official said in response to the Iranian attacks last week.

Another US official said that doing so would help Iran more accurately target US soldiers in the region with its ballistic missiles and drones.

CENTCOM has also stopped announcing how many sites in Iran it hits each day for the same reason. The Pentagon has not given a major briefing on the war since May, providing little information about the US strategy.

US officials have also refused to comment on reports that the military is running low on missile interceptors, or how Iran continues to launch ballistic missiles after Trump declared Iran’s missile capabilities had been destroyed earlier in the war.

On 1 April, The Intercept reported that Washington was engaged in a “casualty cover-up,” saying that nearly 750 US soldiers had been injured or killed since October 2023 – a number far higher than US officials had admitted.

A total of 17 US service members have been killed and 400 injured in the war on Iran, according to the Pentagon’s official numbers. However, the number of injured has not been updated in recent weeks.

The two killed in Jordan were identified as 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, from Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, from Texas.

In response to the soldiers’ deaths, President Trump said the troops died “in service of our country,” while claiming that the goal of the war is “never allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

Elsewhere, Trump has stated that the US is fighting the war for its Gulf allies. Other reports indicate Trump launched the war under pressure from Israel.

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US-Israeli Bombing Has Harmed Iran’s Wildlife, Farms, and Water Supply

ust a few days before Tehran and Washington signed a now-defunct ceasefire agreement, local media in Iran reported that 25 goitered gazelles were killed in U.S. airstrikes on Kharg Island in the northern Persian Gulf. The small coral island is a key terminal for Iran’s oil exports and its unique wildlife includes white-headed seagulls, hawksbill sea turtles, and ospreys. It also hosts the ruins of a Dutch fort built in 1753. On multiple occasions, U.S. President Donald Trump has brandished the possibility of invading the island of 8,000 people.

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran opened with the most intensive bombing campaign in modern history. Some 23,800 airstrikes were carried out in a span of 39 days, and one of its most consequential impacts was the environmental damage inflicted on Iran’s ecosystems. A June 17 memorandum of understanding halted the hostilities, but Trump notified Congress last week that he was resuming military action. Bombings are becoming a new norm, damaging Iran’s land, air, and water.

From toxic acid rain blanketing the Tehran metro area after Israel bombed the Iranian capital’s oil depots on March 7, to the emission of a substantial volume of greenhouse gases in the early phases of the campaign, the war has caused serious environmental degradation in a country reeling from a range of climate-related crises, water stress, and air quality issues. While international media have failed to consistently cover the negative environmental impacts of the war, environmental nonprofits, academic institutions, and climate advocates have documented extensive damage, only a portion of which has been understood to date.

According to a study by the Climate and Community Institute, 5 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gases were emitted due to the attacks on Iran in first 14 days of the war, which the nonprofit estimated exceeded Iceland’s carbon pollution over an entire year.

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Trump resorts to whataboutism after Iranian strike kills US troops

US President Donald Trump has brushed aside Democratic lawmakers’ calls to end the war with Iran after four US service members were killed in a missile strike on a military base in the Middle East. The Republican appeared to downplay the extent of the casualties in the conflict, suggesting that the death tolls suffered by the US military during the Vietnam and Afghanistan wars were far higher.

On Saturday, the US Central Command reported that four American service members had lost their lives after Iranian forces had pounded a military installation in Jordan and Iraq with ballistic missiles and kamikaze drones the previous day.

In a phone interview with the New York Post later on Saturday, Trump said that the recent losses were a “shame,” claiming that the American troops “died because they don’t want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon and they don’t want to see the Middle East blown up.”

Responding to criticisms voiced by Democratic members of Congress, the US president charged: “Have you ever asked how many people died in Vietnam? Have you ever asked how many people died in Afghanistan in one day? In one day, run by [former US President] Sleepy Joe Biden.”

Trump went on to argue that the US military has incurred far fewer casualties during the ongoing conflict with Iran and the January raid of US commandos in Venezuela, during which they abducted President Nicolas Maduro.

His remarks came after Democratic Representative Nikki Budzinski described the death of the two US service members in Jordan as the “cost of President Trump’s needless war.” Another Democratic lawmaker, Herb Conaway, similarly demanded in a post on X that “Trump end this war that he started.”

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