Tag: iran

Iran-Backed Houthis Kill American in Saudi Airport Strike

The Iranian regime’s proxies continue to murder civilians across the Middle East.

At least 12 people died and over 300 suffered injuries after Houthi terrorists struck the airport in Saudi Arabia’s capita, Riyadh. One of the victims was an American. It was the worst mass casualty event in any Gulf Arab state since the start of the ongoing conflict with the Iranian regime this year, with only Israel suffering worse bombardments. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the American casualty.

President Donald Trump also told reporters on Saturday that his administration was now finally considering taking action against the Houthis in light of this new attack. The Houthis have stated their intention of making airports a “theater of operations.”

The strike illustrates the fact that while the Islamic world tends to band together when fighting Westerners, there’s plenty of internecine warfare due to political and geographical disagreements. Whenever Muslims are not killing Christians and Jews, they are killing each other.

Saudi Arabia is a sharia state that persecutes Christians, but it has not been on the side of the Iranian regime in the current conflict, which means it has become a target both for Iran and for Iran’s proxies. Exiled Persian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi certainly blames Tehran for the multiple Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, even on the Muslim “holy” city of Mecca, in recent weeks.

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U.S. Military Lost or Damaged 81 Aircraft Worth Up to $3.3 Billion in Iran War, Report Says

At least 81 U.S. military aircraft have been lost or damaged since the war with Iran began, with losses totaling as much as $3.3 billion, according to a Congressional Research Service report released Oct. 5. The tally was compiled from statements by the Pentagon, U.S. Central Command, the Pentagon Inspector General and news reports, and the report’s authors noted the number of aircraft “may remain subject to revision due to multiple factors” [1].

The losses include some of America’s most advanced warplanes, including one damaged F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter and 12 F-15E Strike Eagle fighters that have been destroyed or damaged, according to the report [2].

The White House and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The report, updated Oct. 5, drew on military statements, news reports and findings from the Defense Department’s inspector general [3].

Fixed-Wing Losses Include F-15Es, F-35A, A-10s and E-3 Sentry

Twelve F-15E Strike Eagles were destroyed or damaged. Three were shot down in friendly fire over Kuwait on March 2, and another was shot down over Iran the following month [4].

One F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter was damaged when it came under fire from Iran on March 19.

The disclosures come as the financial cost of the war, which began Feb. 28 with coordinated U.S.-Israeli strikes, rises.

Drone Losses Led by 45 MQ-9 Reapers, Fleet Below Requirement

At least 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones were lost, with each estimated to be worth between $30 million and $50 million, according to the report.

The Reaper, used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, close air support and combat search and rescue, accounted for more than half of the losses [5]. The scale of the Reaper losses tracks with earlier independent reporting: Iran destroyed approximately $1 billion worth of U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drones during the conflict, according to a Bloomberg report published May 21, representing roughly 20 percent of the Pentagon’s pre-war inventory of unmanned aerial vehicles [6].

The drone losses have forced the Air Force to look at alternatives. The service more than doubled the value of its contract with DZYNE Technologies, now part of Ondas, for long-endurance surveillance drones that could complement the MQ-9 Reaper and help fill intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission gaps following the reported heavy losses in the U.S.-Iran conflict [7]. The seizure of a U.S. Navy Dive-LD uncrewed underwater vehicle by Iran near the Strait of Hormuz in September also handed Tehran a rare opportunity to study and potentially reverse-engineer a sophisticated undersea surveillance asset, a setback for the Pentagon and drone maker Anduril [8][9].

CENTCOM Estimates War Cost at $43.6 Billion

U.S. Central Command estimated last month that the total cost of the war in Iran had grown to $43.6 billion — a $5 billion increase from August. Weapons costs also jumped by more than $6 billion in just over a month, from $21.7 billion listed in the latest Congressional Budget Office report to $28.1 billion in the latest figures, according to the report.

The Congressional Research Service report attributed the aircraft loss figures to its analysis of available data.

The White House and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment, officials said. The Congressional Research Service published a similar report in May that put the number of lost or damaged aircraft lower, reflecting the accumulating toll of a conflict that has now run more than seven months since U.S. and Israeli forces commenced military strikes on Feb. 28.

Report Details Aircraft Losses as War Costs Rise

The Congressional Research Service report lists 81 U.S. military aircraft lost or damaged in the Iran war, valued at up to $3.3 billion.

CENTCOM’s $43.6 billion war cost estimate and the weapons cost increase were provided in the report. No immediate comment was issued by the White House or the Pentagon, according to the report. The report’s authors said the tally was compiled from statements by the Pentagon, U.S. Central Command, the Pentagon Inspector General and news reports, and that the “number of aircraft may remain subject to revision due to multiple factors” [1].

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Pentagon Prepares ‘Options’ For Trump To Strike Iran Before Midterms; Tanker Attacked Off Qatar

The Atlantic is reporting Wednesday afternoon that the Pentagon is preparing strike options for the Commander-in-Chief to consider, and that Trump may actually pull the trigger before the midterm elections – though the report emphasizes that the decision is still being debated:

After months of on-again, off-again fighting, the United States hasn’t struck Iran in several weeks. The stretch of relative tranquility is coinciding with the final phase of the midterm-election campaign, and the assumption has been that President Trump will want to keep it going through November 3 so as not to remind voters of an unpopular war that is dragging Republican candidates down nationwide.

But that may not be what happens. The White House has asked the Pentagon to develop strike options against Iranian targets that could be exercised ahead of the midterms, according to two administration officials. The planning underscores just how much the president wants to reduce gas prices and demonstrate progress in the conflict before the vote, administration officials told us.

And yet a renewed outbreak of direct bombing would likely actually serve to do the opposite, given oil prices have tended to shoot up on headlines of major direct escalation.

Reports out of Iran confirmed earlier Wednesday that negotiations are ‘stalemated’ – also as the Iranians have ramped up targeting tankers with drones in the Strait of Hormuz over the last week.

One peculiar and notable line from The Atlantic report is that Trump and the Republicans are looking for “some sort of victory” in a war that they promised would be swift and decisive, but instead has drifted into a seven-month quagmire:

The plans are being developed by U.S. Central Command, which is coordinating the war effort, a U.S. official told us. Even the plans’ advocates acknowledge that limited strikes would not, by themselves, bring Iran to the negotiating table, restore safe travel through the Strait of Hormuz, or lower gas prices before Election Day. But those in favor believe that further action after months of uneasy peace could allow Trump to demonstrate strength and potentially declare some sort of victory, giving Republicans much-needed momentum heading into the election. 

Tehran has constantly signaled its military is at the ‘ready’ and that it is continuing to build up its ballistic missile arsenal, even as its exports have dropped dramatically due to the US naval blockade. Meanwhile…

Wednesay (10/7): A tanker was hit by “multiple projectiles” about 51 nautical miles north of Qatar.

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The Alert Level For The Iranian Military Has Been Raised To The Highest Possible Level As A Massive Escalation Appears To Be Imminent

The Great Middle East War is poised to escalate to an entirely new level, and that could have huge implications for the entire planet. Diesel prices are already spiraling out of control, and strict energy rationing measures are already being implemented in impoverished nations such as Pakistan. Unfortunately, it appears that another round of fighting could be about to erupt in the Middle East. Within the past 24 hours, there have been a lot of rumors that the alert level for the Iranian military has been raised to the highest level possible. According to a major Iranian news agency, these rumors are accurate…

Why is this happening now?

Well, things have gotten quite crazy in the region over the past several days.

On Saturday, the Houthis crossed a very clear red line by firing missiles at the capital city of Saudi Arabia…

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Senator Says Hegseth Barred Him From Gulf Base to ‘Cover Up the True Cost’ of Iran War

A US senator visiting the Persian Gulf said Tuesday that the Pentagon blocked him from inspecting a heavily damaged American military installation and refused to arrange a briefing on the Iran War, accusing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of mounting an “unprecedented” effort to conceal the conflict’s costs and consequences from lawmakers and the public.

“This trip confirmed for me that there is an active, unprecedented, unconstitutional effort underway to hide the costs of this war and the implications of this war from Congress and the American people,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Murphy said he sought to inspect Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest US military installation in the Middle East and a crucial hub for American operations in the region. The base was struck by Iranian missiles during the opening days of the war and sustained heavy damage, including a direct hit to its Combined Air Operations Center.

“I’ve never encountered anything like this in my time in the Senate,” the senator said, describing the Pentagon’s actions as “part of a deliberate campaign of obfuscation that my Republican colleagues in Congress should demand an end to.”

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Trump’s Fact-free Diatribe on the Price of Oil. “Strait of Hormuz Misrepresentations”

Another day and another fact-free diatribe by the president of the United States.

Trump went on his Truth Social (where truth is a rare commodity) and said Democrats have closed down the nation’s refinery capacity, and this is the reason diesel and gas prices are skyrocketing.

Here’s what Trump didn’t tell you:

He has triggered closures of major refinery companies.

The recent closures were corporate decisions by refinery owners, not a mandate by Democrats.

LyondellBasell Industries in Houston made a strategic decision to exit refining in March, 2025, eliminating approximately 264,000 barrels a day. (Categorized as among the 10 best in the U.S)

Phillips 66 in Los Angeles closed in October, 2025, citing uncertain long-term sustainability amid changing market conditions, while also reporting high operating costs and low earnings.

The closure removed 139,000 barrels from the market. Valero, in Benicia, California ended refining in 2026, citing high maintenance costs and other business considerations. The corporation produced 145,000 barrels a day.

Valero also mentioned regulatory hurdles in California, where the are unusually stringent fuel, environmental, emissions, and operating requirements. However, it is not accurate to claim that Democrats or California’s governor ordered these refineries closed, or that regulations in the state are responsible for the fuel crisis in the rest of the country.

The 2025 shutdowns at the LyondellBasell Houston and Phillips 66 Los Angeles refineries cut total US refining capacity by about 400,000 barrels per day. Because the two California closures eliminated roughly 17% of California’s capacity, their impact is concentrated on West Coast fuel supply and prices rather than the broader US market.

It’s correct to say Ukraine’s strikes on Russian refineries affect global energy markets. During his first term, Trump approved the first US provision of lethal weapons to Ukraine, notably Javelin anti-tank missiles. In 2018 and 2019, the United States notified Congress of sales totaling 360 Javelins, plus launchers, training, and related equipment. In other words, US foreign policy, under both Biden and Trump, is responsible for the current crisis.

Diesel and heating oil account for nearly 30% of global petroleum use, with about one-quarter of this supply moving across borders. When Russian refinery exports drop, the impact extends beyond Europe, resulting in rising costs in transport, farming, construction, freight, and heating, all of which contribute to wider inflation.

The Trump administration is responsible for raising oil prices by continuing the war against Iran.

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The Donald’s Quixote Is Tilting at Iranian Windmills

Treasury Secy Scott Bessent clearly endeavors to be the second Pete Hegseth of Trump World, albeit via packing heat in the form of economic missiles rather than the kinetic kind.

In fact, however, his ballyhooed Operation Economic Outcast actually amounts to the greatest windmill tilting operations since Don Quixote himself.

So let’s cut to the chase right up front. To wit, Bessent’s premise that he can switch-off Iran’s military payroll and bring the regime to its knees by driving its oil exports to zero is wholly delusionary. The former (regime collapse) does not remotely follow from the latter (oil exports at zero), which for all practical purposes has already happened.

So herein we endeavor to explain why cutting off Iran’s oil exports isn’t any kind of war-winning silver bullet at all.

Nevertheless, on October 3rd the Treasury Secretary claimed that—

“They are isolating them economically like this never happened before. You know, right now, the score: barrels out of the Strait: U.S. about 1.1 billion, Iran zero,” Bessent told Allen.

Bessent continued, “For the first time in history, they, since they started pumping oil, they will have no oil on the water this week. They will have no revenue.”

This bombast, of course, was just a continuation of the claim he made a six weeks earlier upon the launch of Operation Economic Outcast:

Beginning today, the actions of Treasury and other agencies will tighten the noose and block every potential source of revenue that funds the IRGC and the Iranian regime… to the ordinary soldiers supporting this regime: as more and more of your paychecks stop or are supposedly “just delayed,” ask whether your commanders are leading your country to triumph or to ruin.

In short, the Bessent plan purports to “defund” the IRGC by closing the black market space where enablers buy the purportedly “illegal” Iranian oil. Thereafter per the Bessent formula, the Iranian regime’s military will be left financially high and dry as:

  • oil loadings go to zero,
  • export FX earnings go to zero,
  • the Iranian war machine stops getting paid,
  • the regime is forced to surrender or flee.

But that purported mechanism is but an illusory windmill. That’s because a regime that can still collect domestic taxes, pursue essential trade via overland routes, and, most importantly, print Iranian rials at will can keep a military payroll running long after the oil account has been bled dry.

That is to say, the military payroll does not remotely depend upon the oil export account. It is a small, prioritized claim on overall domestic product (GDP), and the arithmetic below is why zero oil export loadings do not zero it out.

We therefore start with a tally of Iran’s standing military force and the resulting payroll cost at current rates. It consists of about 880,000 active full-time soldiers, in four blocks.

These include the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) proper at about 170,000, including the ultra vicious Quds Force that sits inside that total at 5,000 to 15,000. The internal paramilitary force known as the Basij adds another 90,000.

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Caretakers or Conquerers?

When President Trump’s Republican acolytes primaried long-time US Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) and defeated him in the most expensive Congressional primary race in history (about $30 million) in May, pundits offered their assumptions and agendas.

The Trumpites said he wasn’t nice playing their ball game (I’m being diplomatic) and therefore deserved to be sidelined. They couldn’t abide a rogue Republican, even if he did vote with the president 92 percent of the time. Opposing the war in Iran was over the top.

Massie matched the Trumpites dollar for dollar in the campaign because as heir to the Ron Paul movement, he has many friends beyond his rural Congressional district. They supported him in this toe-to-toe duel, grateful for a champion who dared to question mainstream narratives.

These narratives, as it turns out, are many and his district has supported him on maverick positions in the past. He opposed virtually everything Dr. Anthony Fauci said. He opposed lockdowns. He opposed mandatory mRNA jabs. He opposed the inflationary Covid relief bill. All of this was tolerated and applauded by the majority of his constituents.

But daring to question obliterating the Persians (Iran) without constitutionally-mandated Congressional approval was too much and his country boys and girls turned him out. Why was the anti-war position intolerable?

For the answer, I’ll go back 30 years when organic farming was in its infancy. As a nonchemical farmer, I was in the vanguard of this movement and privy to the early arguments pitting compost against chemicals. As a country boy farmer myself, I have many friends and relatives in the chemicals-will-save-us camp.

As the arguments between the compost-vs-chemical camps became more defined, I noticed a profound philosophical difference. As with most altercations, it takes awhile for the two sides to get to the nub of their disagreement. Over time, ancillary things give way to the core issue.

In the compost-vs-chemical debate, the core issue was nurturing versus conquering. The chemical folks argued that they needed to conquer the weeds, weather, and worms. My compost-loving group diametrically opposed the Conquistador approach and argued that the goal was nurturing, promoting plant diversity, appreciating weather limitations, and loving earthworms.

The difference in approach moved me to develop a five-minute theatrical gig titled “Organic Farmers are Sissies.” I riffed on this masculine, macho mentality to conquer with chemicals rather than coming alongside natural patterns as a masseuse. It generated a lot of laughs in the organic farming community while pinpointing the nub of the philosophical difference.

“Men want to feel pig iron under their thighs. They want to come into the house smelling like diesel and grease so their wives can swoon ‘what a man.’ It’s just not manly to come in and explain to your beloved ‘I’ve made the cows happy. That’s just not manly.” This was all part of my act.

What made it funny was the truth underlying it. What does that have to do with Massie’s rejection? I believe the American country-boy mystique is wrapped up in conquering things. Trump enjoys overwhelming support in rural America. Country folks like to fight. Hatfields and McCoys. 

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Trump’s Big Bluff on Iran

The Trump administration and its supporters – including the Wall Street Journal editorial page – are working overtime these days to spin the news around the Iran war to make it appear that the US is winning and Tehran had better submit to Washington’s demands before it is wrecked, maybe even “annihilated.” Indeed, Trump is preparing the option of bringing the military hammer down on Iran after the midterm elections if Tehran has not surrendered by then.

In effect, Trump and his supporters are waging a “maximum pressure campaign” against Iran in the mainstream media.

This campaign is sure to fail. If anything, it reflects the Trump administration’s desperation. The president started a war the United States was bound to lose, and there is little he can do now to change that basic fact.

Trump’s propaganda campaign has two dimensions – one economic and the other military.

First, the administration argues that Iran is being economically strangled by the US naval blockade coupled with Operation Economic Outcast, the strategy announced by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on 24 August 2026. At the same time, it maintains that oil is once again flowing out of the Gulf at rates not far below those that prevailed on 27 February 2026. The implications are obvious: the economic punishment being inflicted on Iran will force it to capitulate soon, while the US economy – and the international community more generally – is well on its way to recovery.

Second, the US is now building up its military forces for a massive military strike after the mid-term elections, when Trump will be free of electoral constraints. This growing threat of a devastating US attack, coupled with the economic pain being inflicted on Iran, is designed to get Tehran to quit now, before its situation becomes even worse.

There are huge problems with this strategy. It sounds persuasive when the mainstream media dutifully purveys it, but it falls apart when one looks closely at what is actually happening.

Consider the military dimension. The headlines say the US is sending 10,000 additional troops and a third aircraft carrier – the USS Theodore Roosevelt – to the Persian Gulf region, creating the impression that Iran will soon be confronting three American carriers. Moreover, the additional troops – on top of the roughly 50,000 US troops already in the region – are portrayed as evidence that Trump is seriously considering putting boots on the ground.

The aircraft carrier story, however, is quite different from what the headlines suggest. The Roosevelt is reportedly being sent to replace the USS George Washington, while the supposed third carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, has already left the Middle East and is now in Thailand. Thus, there is presently only one carrier in the region. Indeed, this is the first time during the war that the US has only one carrier in the Middle East, and it is difficult to imagine that there will be more than two – if even that many – after the midterm elections.

The larger problem is that the Iran war is severely straining the US Navy. Its senior leaders warn that the current operational tempo is not sustainable indefinitely. Carriers and other warships are being rotated through extremely long deployments, which cause significant maintenance and readiness problems that will have to be addressed at some point. This problem is compounded by the fact that US ships have lost access to nearby logistics facilities and increasingly depend on a supply chain that reaches back to Diego Garcia, which is about 2,500 miles from the Persian Gulf.

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“In The Name Of God”: Yemen Leader Orders All-Out Offensive Against Iran-Backed Houthis

Saudi Arabia and Yemeni government forces have been preparing for a major offensive against Iran-backed Houthis, whose latest advances along Yemen’s western coast have tightened their control over coastal areas and disrupted a critical maritime chokepoint known as the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Bloomberg now reports that the operation is underway.

The outlet reports that Rashad Al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, ordered all branches of the armed forces into active combat operations on Sunday.

“All state military, security and civil institutions as of this moment are mobilized and on high alert until the mission is completed and victory is achieved,” Al-Alimi said on Sunday.

He said the operation would continue “until the liberation of the country from the grip of the terrorist Houthi militia.”

Our reporting on Saturday indicated that more than 100,000 Yemeni pro-government troops were set to mobilize for the offensive. Last month, the ease and speed of Houthi gains proved humiliating for the Saudi coalition in Yemen.

The Houthis largely stayed out of the US-Israeli war against Iran. But by midsummer, the terror group had announced a blockade of Saudi ships in the critical maritime chokepoint in response to what it described as a “siege” of Yemen. It has since repeatedly attacked the kingdom, including its oil facilities.

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