The desert trap: America facing Iran

BY Mohamed Lamine KABA

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” wrote George Santayana in 1905, subsequently generally misquoted as “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it”. Whichever version, Michael Pascoe writes, Trump’s air war on Iran fits the bill.

Among other things, John Kenneth Galbraith, the great American economist, public servant and author, was a key director of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey in 1945. He became very unpopular with the US Air Force for finding that the Allied bombing of Germany wasn’t nearly as effective in weakening Germany’s war machine as the generals and politicians wanted to believe.

US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the United States Navy will begin escorting commercial tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a dramatic escalation that would place American warships directly off the coast of Iran as the illegal and murderous US-Israeli bombing campaign enters its fourth day.

Trump’s announcement on Truth Social came just one day after he refused to rule out sending ground troops to Iran. “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground—like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” he told the New York Post.

At a White House press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz Tuesday, Trump spoke about the war in the language of a mob boss—boasting of “hits” on Iranian leaders, referring to assassinations as people being “taken out,” tallying the dead like a gangster counting bodies.

WE LOVE OUR ABC... BUT WHY DO "THEY" HAVE TO EMPLOY SARCASTIC JOURNALISTS?... LONG GONE ARE THE DAYS OF RESPECTFUL AND TRUTHFUL REPORTS, THAT WERE NOT WRITTEN BY KIDS.... 

ANYWAY... SHOULD THE NAME OF THE JOURNO TELL US WHERE THE SLANT COMES FROM?  

AH, BUGGER, I COULD BE ACCUSED OF ANTISEMITISM... AND THE HEADLINE MAY NOT HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY THIS LUCIA PERSON, BUT BY A JUNIOR ACCOUNTANT, MASCARADING AS AN "EDITOR" OF ONLINE ABC....

'Mini supreme leader' Mojtaba Khamenei could soon rise, but he's already the 'power behind the robes'

By Lucia Stein

As senior clerics responsible for selecting Iran's next supreme leader met earlier this week to discuss their pick, a familiar name emerged as the frontrunner: Mojtaba Khamenei.

Albert Camus wrote in the shadow of fascism, war and ideological violence. His defence of truth, democratic dialogue and human limits remains strikingly relevant in today’s era of authoritarian politics and “post-truth” public debate.

Matthew Sharpe

Author and philosopher Albert Camus died in a car crash in 1960, aged just 46. But the existential, moral and political issues Camus’ writings address still trouble us today.

A US submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sri Lanka, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday.

"Yesterday, in the Indian Ocean...an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo," Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing. 

It is "the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II," he added. 

"Like in that war, back when we were still the War Department, we are fighting to win."

Sri Lanka's navy was informed that the Iranian warship IRIS Dena, with 180 people on board, was in distress and sinking, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told lawmakers. A rescue mission was launched, mobilising ships and planes.

We are war criminals

Of the worst kind ever

As we clog up the urinals

In a pissoir fever

Nuremberg is not for us

We own the corrupt courts

Blaming the dumb nuts

With larcenies of ours

We are war criminals

Proud to be ruthless

Grand turd materials

Screwing you hopeless

And we do care

That you die in pain

Or die in vain

Blown up in the air

By our beautiful bombs

Missiles and rockets

Burying you in tombs

With no regrets

We are war criminals

Of the worst kind

We have no morals

Not even in our behind

From which flows shit

Scheiße, crap, mierda

French merde is it

Complete war Diarrhoea

You believe we’re nuts

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Wednesday boasted of the “death and destruction” the U.S. military can rain down on Iran, as reports say that U.S. and Israeli airstrikes have killed over 1,000 Iranian civilians in just four days.

Hegseth said at a press briefing that the U.S. and Israel should soon have “complete control of Iranian skies” and that it would mean “Iranian leaders looking up and seeing only U.S. and Israeli airpower.”

“Every minute of every day until we decide it’s over, and Iran will be able to do nothing about it. B-2s, B-52s, B1s, Predator drones, fighters controlling the skies, picking targets, death and destruction from the sky all day long,” he added.

5:30 pm EST: Admiral Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, claims that “U.S. combat power is building as Iranian combat power declines,” including a 90 percent decrease in ballistic missile retaliation and and 86 percent fall in drone attacks, figures impossible to verify. Reports and video from the region show a relentless barrage of Iranian missiles and drones still raining down on Israel and the Gulf Arab states. This includes a direct hit on the major oil refinery in Bahrain earlier today.

5:15 pm EST: The drone and missile war, the first phase of this war, will come down to whether Iran runs out of ballistic missiles and drones before Israel and the U.S. run out of interceptor and offensive missiles. 

Last year, I wrote an article about Cornerstone Church’s Zionist Pastor John Hagee, focusing on his prosperity gospel teachings, his support for modern Israel, and his emphasis on ‘end times’ prophecy. Another well-known Zionist pastor is Paula White, who serves as President Trump’s close spiritual advisor. Her background has often attracted tabloid attention.

Paula White: Trump’s Zionist Pastor and Israel’s Evangelical Power Broker

by Bob Bishop

Donald Trump made a bold and provably wrong claim yesterday about the US air-defense missile inventory:

The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better — was stated to me today we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons. Wars can be ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies (which are better than other countries’ finest arms!). At highest end we have good supply but not where we want to be. Much additional high-grade weaponry is stored for us in outlying countries.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Belgium has given Ukraine none of the 30 F-16 fighter jets it promised back in 2024 due to delays in F-35 deliveries, Belgian Air Force Commander Geert De Decker said, citing the need to maintain air force capabilities.

In 2024, then-Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo promised Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Brussels would transfer 30 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, with the first four aircraft planned for delivery by the end of 2024.

"From the very beginning, the Ministry of Defense stated that the operational needs of the Belgian Air Force must be prioritized… It was always clear that our own operational readiness had to be ensured," the general was quoted as saying by the VRT broadcaster.

While America continues strikes on Iran, something far bigger is happening behind closed doors. Gulf allies are privately demanding Washington to stop. Europe is pushing for an immediate ceasefire. Qatar's LNG supply is disrupted. Oil markets are surging.

While mainstream western media is trying to spin this as "tensions in the Middle East," on the ground in places like Tel Aviv, Holon, and Ramat Gan, the reality is fire and steel. Footage that somehow slipped past the military censors—despite their frantic efforts—shows hypersonic impacts leveling targets with a precision that is frankly terrifying for the occupation regime.

TRUMP FREAKS OUT AFTER NETANYAHU BEGS FOR CEASEFIRE AS IRAN’S MISSILES OVERPOWER IRON DOME – OPTM