From Afghanistan to Iraq and Libya, repeated military interventions have weakened rather than strengthened US power. With new strikes on Iran launched without congressional authorisation, the pattern of executive overreach and strategic miscalculation deepens.

Mark S Pirie,  Christopher Tang

Afghanistan did not merely defeat two superpowers. It contributed materially to the collapse of one of them.

While the Russians have engaged in colossal and monumental efforts to try to bring about a viable peace proposal, Trump has proclaimed his desire for détente, a reset of relations with Russia, and has rolled out the 2025 National Security Strategy, which apparently seems to almost validate Russian core interests and spheres of influence in Eurasia and the former Soviet Union, something I have insisted needs to be done.

Bad-Faith Behavior by Those Proclaiming Détente is now the Norm

When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, many of us knew, and argued loudly, that the American public was being lied to. We knew that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and could back up our claims. The war went ahead anyway, but eventually, the lies were exposed. 

Debunking the Lies of the Iran War

Mitchell Plitnick for Mondoweiss

Rather than build up support for his illegal and immoral war on Iran, as George W. Bush did nearly a quarter century ago, Donald Trump elected to simply ignore public opinion and start the war on his own. But, while Trump has his war and is not likely to be stopped by domestic forces until the war runs its course, he has found a need to justify his criminal actions.

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 U.K. government, focusing almost entirely on condemning Iran for exercising its legitimate right of self-defence, takes the Keir 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.

This analysis examines the strategic importance of a narrow maritime chokepoint and how its closure could trigger global economic collapse. Discover the vulnerabilities of major economies and infrastructure in a potential conflict between regional powers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOmmHOqMGvo

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

Former foreign minister Bob Carr has lamented the Albanese government’s strong backing for the United States and Israel’s strikes on Iran, pointing to simmering discontent within parts of Labor about the party’s seeming lack of interest in upholding international law.

Echoing language by Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, who arrived in Australia for a three-day visit on Tuesday, opposition industry spokesman Andrew Hastie declared the global rules-based order is dead and that force is now the dominant authority in geopolitics.

‘Frightening’: Labor luminary hits out at Australian support for Iran strikes
Matthew Knott and Nick Newling

Thousands of mourners have filled the streets of the southern Iranian city of Minab for the funeral of 168 schoolgirls and staff killed in an attack on an elementary school on the opening day of the US-Israeli strikes.

Images from the funeral show row upon row of small, shallow graves – the final resting places of children aged mostly between seven and 12.

Participants dressed in mourning black and carried photographs of the deceased as the funeral procession moved through the city’s main square. Mourners carried coffins one after another, beating their chests in grief.

According to the Iranian government, 168 students at the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school have been confirmed dead, along with at least 14 teachers and staff members and four parents who were at the school when the strike occurred.

Mocking a prime minister for wishing Chinese Australians a happy new year says less about foreign policy than about how national identity is being weaponised in domestic politics.

When Sky News again mocked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for posting a Chinese New Year greeting, the segment carried the gravity usually reserved for interest rates or submarine contracts.

Fred Zhang

The US–Israel war on Iran is a direct breach of the UN Charter and a blow to international law. But the attempt to impose global hegemony and hollow out the UN will ultimately fail in a multipolar world determined to resist domination.

Jeffrey D. Sachs,  Sybil Fares

Multiple commanders across all branches of the US military have offered a fundamentalist Christian explanation for the attack on Iran, describing President Donald Trump as the harbinger of the Second Coming and the conflict itself as a “signal fire”for Armageddon, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has reported.

The MRFF, a US non-profit promoting the separation of church and state, as well as freedom of conscience within the military, said on Tuesday that it had received more than 200 complaints from active members of the US military over extremist Christian speeches delivered by commanding officers since the start of the US-Israeli attack on Iran.

Donald Trump and his national security team continue to push the narrative that the US is dominating Iran and that it is only a matter of time before Iran crumbles in the face of the might of the US military. Iran, apparently, has not received that memo and is pursuing its own course of action. We are now entering the fourth day of this unprovoked attack by Israel and the US and Iran shows no sign of weakening.

by Larry C. Johnson

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that there was an imminent threat from Iran.

"There absolutely was an imminent threat, and the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked [BY WHOM?], and we believed they would be attacked [BY WHOM?], that they would immediately come after us, and we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded," Rubio told reporters. [SO AMERICA ATTACKED FIRST...]

US embassies are under attack as a result of Iran's retaliatory actions against US and Israeli strikes, the secretary added.

He said that the US focuses on destroying Iran's ballistic missile capabilities and responding to the alleged threat by Iran's navy to global shipping.

Within hours of the US launching ‘Operation Epic Fury’ against Iran, Tehran’s forces unleashed retaliatory strikes against American military bases in the Middle East, killing four US troops and destroying billions of dollars’ worth of equipment.

”We will make the Zionist criminals and the vile Americans regret [attacking Iran],” Iranian Supreme National Security Council chief Ali Larijani said as the retaliatory strikes began on Saturday. “The brave soldiers and the great nation of Iran will deliver an unforgettable lesson to the hell-bound oppressors of the international order.”

Welcome to our panel on media ethics – a topic with which probably all of us have dealt with at one time or another, be it as working journalists or as ombuds. As to codes of practice regarding standards and ethics, you may be familiar with the code of the US-Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). It states: ”Public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy.

ONO-Session: Media ethics in the trenches: journalists should do no harm...