Tag: perpetual war

Any country except for US and Israel can pass through Strait of Hormuz, Iranian Foreign Minister says

Iran said Saturday that all  countries besides the US and Israel may pass through the Strait of Hormuz, in a desperate attempt at coalition busting less than a day after the US bombed military targets on its oil-critical Kharg Island.

“As a matter of fact, the Strait of Hormuz is open,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.

“It is only closed to the tankers and ships belong[ing] to our enemies, to those who are attacking us and their allies. Others are free to pass,” Araghchi told MS NOW. 

President Trump has threatened to destroy Iran’s oil infrastructure on  Kharg Island energy hub — through which  90% of its oil exports pass — if it refuses to allow safe passage.

Araghchi noted that many ships “prefer” not to undertake the journey due to “security concerns,” but insisted, “this has nothing to do with us.”

“And I can say that the Strait is not closed, but it is only closed to American, Israeli, you know, ships and tankers, and not to others.”

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Major UAE Fujairah Port In Flames As Iran Vows Escalation For Kharg Island Attack

Upon the overnight major US attack on Iran’s key oil hub of Kharg island, here’s what Iran’s military is threatening to do by way of response and escalation – which was also entirely predictable:

“If Iran’s oil, economic, or energy infrastructure is attacked, we will immediately destroy energy and economic infrastructure across the region belonging to companies with American shareholders or ties to the U.S.” –IRGC spox

Iran continues launching widespread missile and drone attacks on Israel and neighboring Gulf Arab states and has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has vowed that any US site or any country hosting it will feel pain. “This war proved one thing quite clearly: American bases in our region do not protect anyone – they are a threat,” he wrote on X. “America sacrifices everyone for Israel and does not care about anyone but Israel.”

He added, “Anyone clothed by the US is literally NAKED!” And in fact this retaliation is already in progress on Saturday. 

A missile struck a helipad inside the US Embassy compound in Baghdad, and debris from an intercepted Iranian drone hit an oil facility in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has informed the United Arab Emirates that US “hideouts” are “legitimate targets” after the US struck Iran’s Kharg island. —Al Jazeera

Associated Press images meanwhile showed a column of smoke rising over the embassy compound in the Iraqi capital and a fire at the Fujairah port, offering confirmation.

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Iran War Exposes America’s Unfixed Supply Chains

One of the more fascinating sidelights of our war of choice in Iran is how it has reinforced the devastating consequences of our hollowed-out industrial base, consolidated commercial sector, and overreliance on long intermediated supply chains.

For example, the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz carries implications for not only oil but also fertilizer, right at the height of the spring planting season. About one-third of the world’s fertilizer ships through the strait, and without access, prices have jumped and farmers are anxious. Yet there are enough natural resources in the United States—nitrogen, phosphate, potash—to serve all our fertilizer needs; in fact, in the 1930s and ’40s one of the largest fertilizer producers in the world was the Tennessee Valley Authority. This production was wound down in the 1970s; today the industry is dominated by two to four firms, and that may end up having existential implications for hungry people the world over.

A more comically shortsighted example concerns our depleted stock of munitions, one of the few industrial capacities America has retained but which still is imperiled by concentration and outsourcing. These are of course the basic materials necessary to prosecute a war, and you’d think it would be the one item countries would retain the ability to produce themselves. But our trillion-dollar military operates more like a welfare program to help underprivileged Northern Virginia contractors buy second homes and luxury yachts, not as a force that has what it needs when it needs it. Pacifists should rejoice; stupidity in military supply chains puts a binding limit on how many brown-skinned people we can kill.

In the 1990s, dozens of military contractors were reduced to five prime integrators, something demanded by Clinton Defense Secretary Les Aspin and his deputy (and future defense secretary) William Perry at a meeting known as the “Last Supper.” Nearly all weapons and delivery systems now flow through Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics. Executives at these companies were called into the White House last Friday—less than a week after the war began—to discuss how to accelerate offensive and especially defensive weapons production amid a shortage that already was weighing on the military. This was after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the war was saved by shifting to smaller bombs rather than “exquisite” munitions for the campaign. If that was the case, why have the meeting?

Specifically, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile systems are so complex that only 96 get built per year; about one-quarter of the U.S. stockpile was used last year in Israel’s brief war with Iran, with many more flying every day as this war continues. Patriot interceptor systems are cheaper and easier to build, but inventories were a quarter full before the war started. Offensive Tomahawk missiles can be produced with greater frequency as well, but as of October last year the stockpile of that weapon was far short of its target. Something like $5.6 billion in weaponry was burned off in just the first two days of the Iran campaign. Trump’s lying aside, analysts who know something are clear on this point: The nation has a few weeks of bombing left before running out of the precision munitions typically used in modern warfare.

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PressSec Demands Retraction of ABC Report on Alleged Iranian Drone Threat

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called on ABC News to retract prior reporting that the FBI warned of an Iranian drone attack on California in retaliation for US actions.

ABC reported that the FBI had assessed that Iran had considered or aspired to conduct drone attacks in California, according to law-enforcement sources cited by the outlet, and that investigators were examining intelligence indicating Iran had explored the possibility of launching drones from ships or other platforms near the US West Coast.

Leavitt said the report was inaccurate and demanded that ABC issue a correction or retraction, arguing the reporting misrepresented intelligence about potential Iranian retaliation.

No Iranian attack on California has occurred, and officials said authorities continue to monitor potential threats.

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Israel plans major ground operation in Lebanon: ‘We will do what we did in Gaza,’ officials say

Israel is planning a significant expansion of its ground operation in Lebanon, with the aim of taking control of all territory south of the Litani River and dismantling Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, Israeli and U.S. officials told Axios.

“We’re going to do what we did in Gaza,” a senior Israeli official said, referring to flattening buildings used by Hezbollah to store weapons and launch missile attacks.

The Trump administration supports a broad Israeli operation to disarm Hezbollah, but is also pressing Israel to limit damage to the Lebanese state and is calling for direct talks between Israel and Lebanon that would lead to an agreement at the end of the war.

Israeli officials said that until a few days ago Israel was still trying to avoid escalation in Lebanon in order to focus on the Iranian arena. That changed after Hezbollah fired more than 200 rockets in less than 24 hours in what officials described as a coordinated attack with Iran.

“Before this attack we were ready for a ceasefire in Lebanon, but after it there is no way back from a large-scale military operation,” a senior Israeli official said.

Overnight Saturday, Hezbollah again fired rockets toward northern Israel, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officially announced that the attack had been coordinated, including missiles launched from Iran. Heavy damage was reported in the Hatzor HaGlilit area in that combined barrage.

According to Axios, three infantry and armored brigades have been stationed along Israel’s northern border since the start of the war with Iran, with some of the forces carrying out “limited incursions” over the past two weeks.

The IDF said Friday it was reinforcing troops and transferring reservists to the north as part of preparations for the possible expansion of the ground operation.

“The goal is to seize territory, push Hezbollah forces north and away from the border, and dismantle the military positions and weapons depots in the villages,” the senior Israeli official said.

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A History of Iran Propaganda

This week on CounterSpin: House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Brian Mast declared of Iran: “This murderous regime has posed an imminent threat against every American both at home and abroad for the last 47 years”—leading many at home and abroad to reach for their dictionaries.

The Trump White House’s war on Iran is unpopular in the US: “Even the highest level of public support for this conflict falls far lower than that at the start of most other conflicts, including World War II, the Korean War and the Iraq War,” reports the New York Times.

That may have something to do with the parade of rationales offered; Popular Information has a roundup of the 17 different reasons the Trump regime has given to date for why we went to war. All of it normalized by corporate media that allow recorded history to be put up for debate, that pretend we haven’t seen what we’ve seen, leaving today’s warmongers free to draw up a historical narrative, or several, that serve their present purpose.

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Leading US Papers Defend the Indefensible in Iran Aggression

The United States and Israel are, for the second time in less than a year, committing “the supreme international crime” against Iran (FAIR.org, 7/3/25). Editorials in three of the United States’ most prominent newspapers, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, offered varying degrees of support for the aggression.

The Times waffled about bombing Iran, the Journal enthusiastically supported it, and the Post had fewer concerns about the war than the Times but more than the Journal. Crucially, however, all three papers rationalized the US/Israeli assault.

The Journal provided full-fledged endorsements of the unprovoked attack, writing in its first editorial (3/1/26), headlined “It’s Too Soon for Iran ‘Off-Ramps,’” that “the first two days . . . have been a striking success.”

“The biggest mistake President Trump could make now would be to end the war too soon,” it said.

The Journal (3/2/26) took the same approach in its next editorial, “Trump Enforces His Red Line on Iran,” calling the aggression a “necessary act of deterrence.” “It carries risks as all wars do,” the piece read, “but it also has the potential to reshape the Middle East for the better and lead to a safer world.” The editors reiterated that their “main concern is that Mr. Trump may stop too soon.”

Killing upward of 175 Iranians at a girls’ elementary school (FAIR.org, 3/2/26) didn’t temper the degree to which the US/Israeli aggression was a “striking success,” nor was the possibility of similar massacres a “risk” or a “concern” of the editors.

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In a World Distracted by Other Conflicts, the Burma Army Continues Its Campaign of Killing and Displacement

Across Burma (Myanmar), 3.7 million people are displaced and in need of medical and food aid, as well as international protection from government airstrikes.

Civilians are being bombed every single day by the Burma Army, and neither the UN nor the international community is doing anything to stop China and Russia’s support of the junta’s army or its access to funding, jet fuel, and weapons.

The Burma war has been ongoing for nearly 80 years, with the world largely ignoring the growing displacement and humanitarian crisis caused by a government at war with its own people.

When the generals launched a coup in February 2021, overturning the results of a free election, the news went largely unnoticed as America was wrestling with its own contested presidential election.

A year later, when Russia invaded Ukraine, coverage was so pervasive that news readers around the world believed it was the world’s only ongoing conflict.

The October 7 Hamas attack on Israel in 2023 diverted some attention away from the Ukraine war and pushed the Burma conflict even further down the list of international priorities.

At least three times during President Trump’s first and second administrations, the United States passed legislation and appeared poised to send some type of relief to Burma.

But with the current Iran conflict underway, Burma has once again fallen out of the international consciousness.

Meanwhile, the Burma Army continues its unrelenting campaign of death and displacement against the country’s civilian population.

Resistance groups are holding the line as best they can, but at this point they are running out of ammunition and have no air-defense systems to counter Burma Army drones and airstrikes.

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2,500 Deployed Marines Heading to the Middle East

The U.S. Marine Corps is sending more than 2,000 men currently stationed in Japan to the Middle East as the joint U.S.-Israeli Operation Epic Fury continues to intensify.

The Wall Street Journal and ABC News reported the deployment shift first and Fox News subsequently confirmed it after speaking with a federal official. Fox’s Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin posted on X, “US defense official confirms to Fox News that the Pentagon is sending the USS Tripoli, a Marine Amphibious Ready Group, and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) to Mideast. The Tripoli is stationed out of Japan and would take about 2 weeks to get to the Mideast. Accompanying the ARG and the MEU are approx. 2500 US Marines.”

Before everyone loses their minds about boots on the ground, it appears that the deployment is primarily connected to air and naval capabilities, as Operation Epic Fury has been using ever since the beginning, as ABC News reported:

The 31st MEU is permanently deployed to Japan and operates in the INDO-PACOM region, but it is now being ordered to head to the Middle East.

Its deployment does not mean that the unit is going to be used as a ground force for use in Iran, but it offers land, amphibious and aviation assets that can be available to military commanders if needed.

This particular MEU also includes a squadron of F-35 fighter jets and a squadron of MV-22 tilt rotor Osprey aircraft.

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War Sec Pete Hegseth Confirms Iranian Supreme Leader is “Wounded and Likely Disfigured” Amid Reports That He’s Lost Limbs and May Be in a Coma

During a press briefing on Friday, War Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed reports that Iran’s new Supreme Leader, 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei, has been injured, possibly critically.  

As Hegseth was touting the US Military’s success in incapacitating Iran’s military infrastructure on Friday, he revealed that Khamenei, “the new so-called not-so-Supreme Leader,” is “wounded and likely disfigured.”

“His father dead, he’s scared, he’s injured, he’s on the run, and he lacks legitimacy. It’s a mess for them. Who’s in charge? Iran may not even know,” Hegseth continued.

Hegseth: Their production lines, their military plants, their defense innovation centers, defeated. Iran’s leadership is in no better shape. Desperate and hiding, they’ve gone underground, cowering. That’s what rats do.

We know the new so-called not-so-Supreme Leader is wounded and likely disfigured. He put out a statement yesterday, a weak one, actually, but there was no voice, and there was no video. It was a written statement. He called for unity. Apparently killing tens of thousands of protesters is his kind of unity. Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why.

His father dead, he’s scared, he’s injured, he’s on the run, and he lacks legitimacy. It’s a mess for them. Who’s in charge? Iran may not even know. With every passing hour, we know and we know they know that the military capabilities of their evil regime are crumbling. They can barely communicate, let alone coordinate. They’re confused, and we know it. Our response, we will keep pressing. We will keep pushing, keep advancing, no quarter, no mercy for our enemies.

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