AMERICAN STUDIES

INDRAJIT—Now let me offer my own opinion, which is that I support Iran. I do not try to map Western views onto them, and I try to understand them on their own terms. I approach them with respect and try to learn from them, especially if I don’t immediately understand what they’re doing. The first point is that Iran obviously takes their faith seriously and I agree with Khamenei that nuclear weapons are bad, I think everybody does. This is both a Quranic imperative and a Kantian categorical imperative. I don’t know when everybody got so cynical, but Iran is showing in many ways that taking a moral stand is possible and I support this wholeheartedly.

JM—Iran also damaged an oil refinery in Haifa. Israel has only two and Haifa is its largest. You might think that this benefits the US LNG industry. Maybe yes. Also less than you think.

For example, Japan is hugely dependent on LNG. If it can’t get it from the ME, it must get it elsewhere . It already gets some from Russia. And has contracts with the US, but it has shifted its focus to Canada.

The LNG Canada Project in British Columbia in Kitimat, is partially funded by Mitsubishi Corporation (15% stake) shipping 2.1 million metric tons of LNG annually to Japan since 2025. The project aims to add 14 million tons of capacity annually, expanding over time. And there are other projects under construction. Japan and other Asian countries prefer Canadian LNG because it offers a shorter transit time (approx. 10 days) compared to Middle Eastern or US Gulf routes. This makes its economically competitive, despite higher production costs than, say, Qatar or even the US.

OB-B—The approach of a Russian tanker to Cuba could lead to an escalation of what has been up until now mainly a proxy war between the US and Russia, but even then the oil would take a month to process and refine. I don’t know if the tanker has a military escort.

Cuba cannot wait that long. It is almost without power. In Russia itself, Moscow, Belgorod, and Russian oil refineries are targeted every day by hundreds of Ukrainian drones; Moscow is shutting down the internet almost every day for long periods. Russia’s total territorial advances in Ukraine after four years of fighting remain glacial; last month it lost more territory than it gained. The argument that this is attritional warfare has merit but exactly who is being attrited grows less certain by the day.

PAUL EDWARDS—When a state acts in a way that is evil and dangerous to others, natural, spontaneous approval is not likely from a subject people.  Their view and interpretation of it has to be altered, and approval elicited by any means necessary, commonly by deceit and denial.

America is, and has been since its founding, a fierce, aggressive Capitalist state that evolved into the most powerful economic empire in history.  Because the sole purpose of Capitalism is to generate profit, it functions free of ethical concerns and is entirely indifferent to its dire effects on the natural world and people.

GARLAND NIXON—In this detailed and candid commentary, Garland Nixon provides an in-depth analysis of the deteriorating situation facing the Trump administration and its allies, particularly Israel, in the Middle East. Nixon argues that the U.S. and Israeli narratives of dominance and invincibility are collapsing under the weight of ongoing military setbacks, technological countermeasures by Iran, and growing international opposition. The core of the discussion revolves around the strategic and symbolic blows dealt to U.S. and Israeli forces, including the destruction of vital military equipment such as KC135 Stratotankers refueling planes, multiple F-18, F15, etc aircraft, and the apparent failure of Israel’s air defense systems amid sustained missile attacks on Tel Aviv.