In keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed, Iran relies on the threat from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps navy, a separate force that was damaged but -- despite Pentagon claims that Iran has no navy -- not destroyed in the American and Israeli attacks on Iran. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/w...
If Hormuz was Chinatown (#AIArt)
Geopolitical Noir: If Hormuz was Chinatown (#AIArt)
Whole lot of wishful thinking in Trump's social media posts about resolving the Iran conflict, not to mention his serial telephone interviews with reporters who never seem to question what he is spouting . www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/u...
As Trump zizagged over war aims, Iran stuck to demanding no future attacks, war reparations and nuclear enrichment. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/w...
...Nicaragua."
Arming the mujahideen in Afghanistan gave rise to Obama bin Laden and eventually the current brutal Islamist rule of the Taliban, while Nicaragua today suffers under the harsh authoritarian control of the Sandinistas.
History, anyone?
Over on Fox tonight, the rosy "czar can do no wrong" ethos prevails.
"Iran will surrender its enriched uranium."
Says who?
"Iran will open the Strait of Hormuz."
Under supervision of its military, unlike before.
"They should arm the people like Reagan succeeded in doing in Afghanistan and...
One pillar of the post World War II order has been that the might of the U.S. Navy guarantees the right of free passage for shipping globally. If Trump cedes control of the Strait of Hormuz to Iran, he will be abandoning that principle.
Not to mention that Trump has lifted the embargo on Iranian oil to try to dilute price increases caused by the war, generating billions of dollars in revenue for the Islamic Republic.
In his speech,Trump repeated that former President Obama handed Iran $1.7 billion in cash. It was unfrozen Iranian assets. Trump also trashed the nuclear deal that Obama negotiated and that he ripped up. But Obama got 97% of Iran’s nuclear stockpile out of the country, something Trump has yet to do.
Life of an Iranian insider: Worry about the assassination of so many leaders and coloring with his kids www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/w...
Attempts to build “a new Middle East” often take a deadly detour into unanticipated consequences. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/u...
Lots of Americans are seeing a completely different version of the war via the White House video accounts: www.wsj.com/video/series...
New Supreme Leader Inherits Sprawling, Secretive Office That Dominates Iran www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/w...
The Supreme Leader is the ultimate symbol of that revolution. If they eliminated the office, it would undermine their core reason for being.
There is a common misperception that at some point the Revolutionary Guards might shove aside the Supreme Leader to rule Iran directly. This ignores the fact that the Guards were created to protect the Islamic revolution, as this article details.
Plus the FDR line is not to be missed
A voice of reason and intelligent analysis amid the unhinged clamor surrounding the Iran war, CNN source of interview
Speaker Johnson: "We are not at war right now."
Sounds rather like President Putin calling his invasion of Ukraine "a special military operation" and sending Russians who call it -- rightfully -- a war to prison for up to 15 years.
Arabic spokesman for the Israeli military, Avichay Adraee, issues a statement warning the residents of more than 40 villages across southern Lebanon and in the Bekaa valley to evacuate for their own safety. (First strikes in Beirut suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, came without warning.)
The Israeli enemy cannot continue its aggression, which has persisted for fifteen months, without receiving a deterrent response aimed at stopping this aggression and forcing a withdrawal from the occupied Lebanese territories.
The leadership of the Resistance has consistently affirmed that the continuation of Israeli aggression and the assassination of our leaders, our youth, and our people grants us the right to defend ourselves and to respond at the appropriate time and place.
and in defense of Lebanon and its people, and within the framework of responding to the repeated Israeli aggressions, the Islamic Resistance targeted…the Mishmar HaCarmel missile defense site south of the occupied city of Haifa, with a barrage of precision rockets and a swarm of drones.
In retaliation for the pure blood of the Guardian of the Muslims, His Eminence Grand Ayatollah Imam Sayyed Ali al-Husseini al-Khamenei (may his noble secret be sanctified), which was unjustly and treacherously shed at the hands of the criminal Zionist enemy….
Hezbollah claims responsibility for missile attack on military target near Haifa as response to Khamenei assassination. Israel now striking across Lebanon. (Hezbollah refers to itself as “the Resistance.”)
