COLONIALISM

GER—The US-Israeli war on Iran is expanding into a global conflict. The European Union supports it. The UK is letting Trump use British bases. Germany and France are involved. Canada backs it. Tehran has retaliated, in self-defense, hitting US military bases in Gulf countries. Ben Norton explains.

GG—The video transcript features an in-depth interview with Professor Muhammad Marandi, who provides a detailed Iranian perspective on the current conflict involving Iran, Israel, and the United States. The discussion begins with the professor condemning the Western support for Israeli aggression and highlights the massacre of innocent civilians, including 165 elementary school girls, which Western media largely ignore. He criticizes Western hypocrisy on human rights and accuses regional regimes of collaborating with the U.S. and Israel against Iran.

JM—Let’s put it this way— even a marginally effective Israeli strike is not possible without involving US assets —for example, US tanker and ISR support. That automatically would make the US a co-belligerent unless it denied Israel help.

Israel has its own tankers – albeit 60 years old and usable. It also has various workarounds for other deficiencies. And it has its own ISR and EW systems – a mix of resources that it claims enabled it to achieve air supremacy in the 12 Day War— except that that is fiction — most objective analysts believe they never attempted to enter Iranian airspace.

That means the Israelis could mount attacks, rely on the US media to portray those attacks as successful, and hope the US would join in.

But the US cannot enter the conflict without exposing its bases and naval assets and suffering unacceptable, if not catastrophic, casualties.

MARGARET KIMBERLEY—In all likelihood, Netanyahu has little reason to be worried about U.S. resolve. The plans for aggression are completely bipartisan. Trump and the Republican Party are not alone in pushing this scheme. Democrats make noises about wanting congressional authority before any attack takes place but few of them have said clearly that they are opposed to war. The only straightforward Democratic Party message is from those who oppose even the tepid War Powers Act resolution and who openly state their support for the regime change effort. Democratic leaders Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries are trying to delay a vote on the resolution. They don’t want their members to go on record as supporting what their voters oppose. They hope that Trump starts a fight that voters don’t want but, in the proc

JULIAN MACFARLANE—A senior Russian official has said Moscow could deploy its navy to protect Russian-linked vessels from potential European seizures, raising the prospect of retaliatory action against European shipping as pressure on the Kremlin’s so-called shadow fleet intensifies.
Nikolai Patrushev, a former FSB director who heads Russia’s maritime board, said on Tuesday that the country’s navy should be ready to counter what he described as “western piracy”.
“If this situation cannot be resolved peacefully, the navy will break any blockade and move to eliminate it. And let’s not forget that many vessels sail the seas under European flags – we, too, may take an interest in what they are carrying and where they are headed”