World War is on the Horizon

Have you noticed how the Trump-hating media is praising Trump to the high heavens for his gratuitous, reckless, military aggression against Iran, an act of war without a declaration?  This tells us something.  Trump has deserted MAGA-America and joined the ruling establishment.  In return the establishment is presenting their man as a great success.  

The establishment now has Trump at war.  The power and profit of the military/security complex is secured.  Trump’s attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities was no more successful than Israel’s.  If Iran continues to hold together, Iran, if its government is competent, will use its missile advantage to continue to punish Israel. Within two weeks Israel could be out of missiles and forced to sue for peace.  But that time is unlikely to come. Israel’s plight and Israel’s control over the US government will bring Trump in to save Israel from humiliating defeat.

Remember, Iran is on the list of Muslim countries to be destroyed by the US for Israel.  Here is 4-star general Wesley Clark, former commander of NATO on TV explaining that on 20th September 2001 he was informed by a general in the Pentagon that the US had decided to take out 7 Muslim countries in 5 years. It has taken longer, but 5 of those countries have been destroyed.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo6u9DpASp8

Norman Podhoretz, editor of Commentary had called for this action, and it became the essential component of the neoconservatives’ policy. We watched it, if we paid attention, unfold in the “Dubya,” Obama, Biden, and Trump regimes.

Iran’s parliament has voted to close the Strait of Hormuz except for oil delivery to China.  The final approval has to come from the Supreme Leader.  Iran should simply wait and let Washington close the Strait, allegedly to punish Iran by blocking oil sales, but really to punish China by denying China its oil supply. Iran should let Trump, who has sold out MEGA-America, and the American Establishment execute themselves.

If the Strait is closed, what would be the price of gasoline in the United States?  Could it be $8 a gallon?  Or would the Kremlin rush oil to the US to save Americans from the consequences of their own policy? The Kremlin often seems more concerned to rescue its enemies than to stand by its allies and to protect Russia.

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Bombing Iran Is Part of the USA’s Compulsion for War War War

Twenty years ago, one day in June 2005, I talked with an Iranian man who was selling underwear at the Tehran Grand Bazaar. People all over the world want peace, he said, but governments won’t let them have it.

I thought of that conversation on Saturday night after the U.S. government attacked nuclear sites in Iran. For many days before that, polling clearly showed that most Americans did not want the United States to attack Iran. “Only 16 percent of Americans think the U.S. military should get involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran,” YouGov pollsters reported, while “60 percent say it should not and 24 percent are not sure.”

But as a practical matter, democracy has nothing to do with the chokehold that the warfare state has on the body politic. That reality has everything to do with why the United States can’t kick the war habit. And that’s why the profound quests for peace and genuine democracy are so tightly intertwined.

On Saturday evening, President Trump delivered a speech exuding might-makes-right thuggery on a global scale: “There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days.”

More than ever, the United States and Israel are overt partners in what the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1946 called “the supreme international crime” – “planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression.”

Naturally, the perpetrators of the supreme international crime are eager to festoon themselves in mutual praise. As Trump put it in his speech, “I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before.” And Trump added: “I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they’ve done.”

A grisly and nefarious truth is that, in effect, the Israeli military functions as part of the overall U.S. military machine. The armed forces of each country have different command structures and sometimes have tactical disagreements. But in the Middle East, from Gaza and Iran to Lebanon and Syria, “cooperation” does not begin to describe how closely and with common purpose they work together.

More than 20 months into Israel’s U.S.-armed siege of Gaza, the genocide there continues as a joint American-Israeli project. It is a project that would have been literally impossible to sustain without the weapons and bombs that the U.S. government has continued to provide to the Orwellian-named Israel Defense Forces.

The same U.S.-Israel alliance that has been committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has also enabled the escalation of KKK-like terrorizing and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people in the West Bank. The ethnocentric arrogance and racism involved in U.S. support for these crimes have been longstanding, and worsening along with the terrible events.

The same alliance is now also terrorizing Iranian society from the air.

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White House doubles down on ‘regime change’ with call for Iranian people to rise up against the Ayatollah

The White House doubled down on ‘regime change’ with Iran amid concerns the Islamic republic could retaliate after America’s military strike, saying the Iranian people have the power to decide if they want to keep Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as their leader.

‘Why shouldn’t the Iranian people take away the power of this incredibly violent regime that has been suppressing them for decades,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox & Friends on Monday morning.

Leavitt was echoing President Donald Trump‘s Truth Social post from Sunday, where he floated the possibility of ‘regime change.’

‘It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!’ the president wrote. 

Leavitt said the president was ‘raising a good question that many people around the world are asking.’

‘The president believes the Iranian people can control their own destiny and what he said last night makes complete sense,’ she said. Leavitt also noted the president ‘is still interested’ in a ‘peaceful diplomatic solution.’

The double down comes after some administration officials tried to walk back any talk of regime change.

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Iran fires 10 missiles at two US bases in the Middle East in retaliation for Trump bombing

Iran has launched at least 10 missiles at the United States’ biggest base in the Middle East and another in Iraq in response to President Trump bombing nuclear labs over the weekend. 

Aerial defenses were activated shortly after a ‘credible threat’ alert was issued to the Al Udeid base in Qatar, which hosts over 10,000 US troops as well as over 100 aircraft, strategic bombers and tankers. 

US bases in Kuwait, Iraq and Bahrain also sounded their air raid sirens shortly after the Al Udeid base was targeted by Iranian missiles. 

President Trump has convened his national security team in the White House as US targets across the world are put on high alert.  

It comes as Iran warned the United States will ‘directly pay’ for strikes on its nuclear facilities ‘rather than standing behind Israel,’ with the Islamic Republic prepared for a war lasting up to two years, a senior Iranian official told reporters.

Tehran’s mission to the UN said the US and Israel, as well as the United Kingdom, France and the International Atomic Energy Agency director personally, will all ‘bear full responsibility for the death of innocent civilians in Iran.’

Trump used 30,000 pound bunker buster bombs to hit its nuclear facilities on Saturday night, then sparked Iranian fury when he raised the prospect of regime change the next day. 

Iranian state media warning that up to 50,000 American soldiers would be returned to Washington in ‘coffins’.

Israel also launched an attack on ‘regime targets’ in Tehran on Monday, with ‘hundreds’ of members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said to have been killed in a huge wave of strikes.

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Meet the Israeli fanatic running Ted Cruz’s office

After Ted Cruz’s humiliation by Tucker Carlson, attention has focused on a top staffer of the self-proclaimed “leading defender of Israel in the United States Senate.”

On June 18, former Fox host Tucker Carlson published a video which, though marketed as an interview, was more of a snuff film. Over the course of two hours, Carlson can be seen rhetorically disemboweling his debate opponent, US Senator Ted Cruz, on the politician’s determination to see the US attack Iran on Israel’s behalf.

While Cruz presents himself as a Christian Zionist moved by his own zealotry to support Israel, the politician’s Tel Aviv-driven policy line can also be traced back to his Senior Advisor for Policy and Communications, an Israeli-born Zionist lobbyist named Omri Ceren.

Before overseeing Cruz’s public relations, Ceren managed his foreign policy docket as his national security advisor. Prior to joining the Senator’s staff, Ceren served as the press director for The Israel Project, a Zionist pressure group which was forced to close down after being exposed as a de facto Israeli government front by Al Jazeera’s groundbreaking undercover investigation, The Lobby. Before that, Ceren cut his teeth lobbying for Ivory Coast dictator Laurent Gbagbo, who relied on Ceren as a registered foreign agent lending his marketing expertise to the embattled regime.

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I’ll Slug You, and If You Resist, I’ll Slug You Harder

U.S. messaging to Iran, courtesy of President Trump, is quite simple: We slugged you (with our bombing attacks on three nuclear sites in your country), and if you don’t like it, we’ll slug you again, even harder, much, much harder.

Iran’s only real choice: “unconditional surrender,” according to the president.

Well, it’s a strategy, I suppose, the one of the abuser, the bully. Do what I want, else you’ll get slugged. Try to fight back, I’ll slug you much much harder. Oh, by the way, I believe in peace. And you can have peace by totally capitulating to me.

Another way of looking at or labeling this stategy: Bombing for Bibi. Yes, I know it’s not just Bibi Netanyahu behind it all. But he’s the chief flatterer, the skilled string-puller, the master manipulator of Trump. Not that it’s entirely hard to manipulate a narcissist who’s driven by money and consumed by his own ego.

So, we have to look to Iran to show a measure of restraint, since the U.S. and Israel won’t. If Iran chooses to fight, especially to hit back at U.S. targets in the region, all bets are off as our country stumbles into what could become World War III.

As Jimmy Dore put it today, No matter who you vote for, you get John McCain. A warmonger. Someone proud to joke about bombing Iran – and crazy enough to do it. Does it really matter if the warmonger is named Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden – or Donald Trump?

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Trump Accomplishes Nothing by Bombing Iran While he Endangers U.S. Troops and Citizens

As everyone knows by now, President Trump ordered the U.S. Military in the Middle East to bomb three nuclear sites in Iran last night.

As events rapidly unfolded last night, it was very obvious that this was pre-planned and well choreographed by the U.S. media which basically all reported the same thing at about the same time.

Very shortly after the bombings, President Trump, along with Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Rubio, and Defense Secretary Hegseth gave a brief update to the nation.

Trump proudly announced that Iran’s nuclear sites were “completely obliterated”, something that would have been impossible to verify in such a short time, and that only the U.S. military could accomplish this destruction of Iran’s nuclear program.

Then, he gave thanks to “God” for being able to bomb Iran.

Iranian officials later stated that there was only minor damage at one of the facilities, and that the other two had already been evacuated due to previous Israeli bombings.

From Al Jazeera (live updates):

Iran official says Fordow ‘evacuated, has not suffered irreversible damage’

Mahdi Mohammadi, an adviser to Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, says Iran had been anticipating the US attack on Fordow.

“The site has long been evacuated and has not suffered any irreversible damage in the attack,” Mohammadi wrote in a social media post.

“Two things are certain: First, knowledge cannot be bombed, and second, the gambler will lose this time.”

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Closing The Strait Of Hormuz Will Be A Nightmare Scenario For The Global Economy

Our way of life depends on cheap energy.  If you remove cheap energy from the equation, our society will be thrown into a state of chaos.  The Iranians know that closing the Strait of Hormuz is one of the most powerful forms of leverage that they possess, because the world is deeply dependent on the oil that travels through that waterway.  We don’t know exactly how this crisis will play out, because the Strait of Hormuz has never been closed in modern times.  But as I pointed out earlier this month, we were warned that Israel would attack Iran, the global price of oil would rise, and the increase in the price of oil would be blamed on Israel.  And that is precisely what has happened.  Israel has attacked Iran, the global price of oil has been increasing, and many are blaming Israel for what has transpired.  Unfortunately, the truth is that this crisis is just getting started.

On Sunday, it was being reported that the Iranian Parliament “has approved a measure to close the Strait of Hormuz”

The Iranian Parliament has approved a measure to close the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global oil choke point, after the United States bombed three nuclear sites in Iran, according to Iranian state media on Sunday.

While the Parliament has voted in favor of closing the strait, the final decision rests with the country’s Supreme National Security Council, according to state media.

Of course the Iranian Parliament never would have held this vote if the Supreme National Security Council had not already decided what it was going to do.

At a time when the regime is under threat, there is no way that we are going to be shown any signs of disunity among Iranian leaders.

So what does this mean?

It means that the price of oil is going to go higher.

A lot higher.

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US and Israeli Officials Say US Bombing Didn’t Destroy Iran’s Fordow Nuclear Site

Israeli officials and a senior American official have told The New York Times that the US bombing of Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear site didn’t destroy the facility despite President Trump’s pronouncement that the attack “completely and totally obliterated” the nuclear facilities that were targeted.

Two Israeli officials told the paper that the Israeli military’s initial assessment, which is based mainly on satellite images, was that the strikes seriously damaged Fordow but didn’t completely destroy it. They said it appeared that Iran had evacuated the facility and removed enriched uranium, which aligns with a statement from Tehran.

The senior US official also said the bombing didn’t destroy Fordow but insisted the strike had severely damaged it, taking it “off the table.” The official added that not even 12 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs could have destroyed Fordow.

Before the attack, reports said that the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) said in a briefing to officials that in order to destroy Fordow, the US would likely have to drop a tactical nuclear weapon after softening the ground with conventional bombs.

The US military said that in the attack on Fordow and two other nuclear sites in Natanz and Isfahan, US B-2 bombers dropped 14 30,000-pound bunker-busters, known as GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, or MOPs. Each B-2 can carry two MOPs, suggesting seven bombers were involved in the attack.

The US military, which dubbed the attack “Operation Midnight Hammer,” said a total of 125 aircraft were involved in the bombing and that the aircraft fired a total of 75 guided munitions at two of the sites. US Navy submarines also fired Tomahawk missiles at a third site.

The official line from the Trump administration is that the three nuclear sites that it targeted suffered “severe damage and destruction” but a final assessment is still being made. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi said that Tehran was still “calculating the damages.”

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Trump Admits Iran Strikes A “Regime Change” Operation After US Bombed Three Nuclear Sites Saturday

President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social on Sunday, saying it’s “not politically correct to use the term ‘Regime Change,’” before admitting that’s exactly what the U.S. and Israel have in mind when it comes to the ongoing military operations targeting the Middle Eastern nation.

“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!” he wrote.

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