Breaking News: Major Combat Operations in Iran 🇺🇸 🇮🇱 🇮🇷

[Lila9]

On the other hand, I am also annoyed by both Trump’s and Bibi’s governments for exploiting wars cynically as a way to distract people from the flaws of their governments. So annoying.

 

[zazen]

17 minutes ago, zazen said:

Class in session (new drop by professor) :

Also:

LOL blame shifting begins because things aren’t going to plan

The imminent threat is a belligerent allie who has shared goals (regional dominance) but a different risk tolerance and timeline to the superpower they rely on.

The imminent threat is the collapse of US global primacy that rests upon dollar dominance that Iran trades outside of - as did Venezuela - as would Europe be able to in bypassing trade routes via opening artic routes.

British and subsequently US empire rests upon finance and naval domination. The Atlanticists vs the continentalists who can by pass them via land routes - hence the importance of the largest landmass on earth (Eurasia) connecting major economies and resources.

Related knaaawledge

On 05/02/2026 at 0:43 PM, zazen said:

I think the Eastern countries were right to join NATO - anyone would have considering the history. Unfortunately no matter how democratic or lawful a countries decision may be - great powers have a red line - which is to not allow other great powers who are seen as rivals that openly want to contain them - park up right next to them either by land (Russia) or sea (China). Just as the Cuban missile crisis was understandably acted upon by the US.

If Venezuela had started stationing Russian/Chinese missiles pointed at the US or started creating deep military interoperability (de-fact NATO style as with Ukraine) - US would be totally understandable for acting upon that - even if it would be morally and lawfully illegitimate and bloody.

The issue wasn't Eastern Europe's fear but was in joining a alliance where the leaders incentives differ. The US seeks primacy of the globe, containing the rise of any challengers to it (Wolfowitz doctrine) - their logic is imperial unipolarity. Mainland Europe's logic (if not imperial) would rationally be seeking to accommodate and co-exist with a nuclear neighbor within a shared security architecture - which geography will never allow you to escape, so it only makes sense to co-exist.

Europe is and has been trapped between Russian security logic and Atlantic hegemonic logic. The Atlanticist empire's of Britain, then passing the baton onto the US - were built off dominating the sea's (trade routes, chokepoints) and finance (reserve currency). Any continental integration happening outside of that control threatens their primacy - including Eurasian integration.

That logic has been so institutionally embedded due to the dominance of the prior British Empire, then the subsequent US empire, that the continent has atrophied it's own strategic thinking relating to whats in its own interest ie don't hitch your ride to one power totally but rather play powers off each other and remain neutral to gain leverage. See who does this well - Turkey, India, Pakistan (between China/US). See the result of not doing it well - Ukraine, Europe. That logic now has its own inertia and is now reflexive - even Epstein is blamed as a Russian honeypot operation lol despite all evidence to the contrary.

Europe's sovereignty has been constrained militarily (NATO-US), economically (US finance and corporations), and energetically (Nord Stream - US LNG dependence rendering them industrially un-competitive). Continental drift towards Eurasian integration has been geopolitically cock blocked and Europe is further tied to the Atlanticist imperial orbit. Only now with the most blatant actions from the US now has Europe rubbing their eyes awake to the need of hedging against that domination, subjugation and humiliation.

The US post WW2 literally backed and installed dictators via coups (school of the Americas). It didn't support democracy by principle - it worked with authoritarians when it suited its interest and toppled democratically elected leaders when it didn't (UK-US coup of Mossadeg in Iran 1953). That lead to the revolution and Ayotallah which Western imperialism is still targeting today. The West supports Gulf Monarchs till today too.

The ongoing struggle since WW2 has really been about preventing any independent power center / pole outside Atlantic control - including of Europe itself being one.

Geopolitics start to make sense from this lens. It's been talked about since centuries - Mackinder's world island theory, Spykman's Rimland theory, Brezinksi's great chessboard. ''Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island; who rules the World-Island commands the world.''

Hence why Iran-Russia-China are boogeymen - they share the worlds largest landmass and don't want to bend the knee to that primacy. Hence why Israel was strategically seen as a beneficial outpost and frontier state (from Britain till the US) - occupying space on that same land. Biden said Israel is the best investment - and investments require a return on that investment. That return is not for the national interest but for imperial interest.

Hence Greenland's importance - with Artic sea routes opening up trade outside Atlanticist control that would benefit integrating Europe to Asia. That results in Europe gaining future leverage and increased autonomy away from the US orbit - which pre-empts early geostrategic positioning to maintain primacy. Hence Venezuela, a country in the US hemisphere trading outside of the US dollar (reserve currency) needing to be disciplined whilst signalling to other countries not to defect from the financial system that upholds their dominance.

BRICS neutralises Atlantic imperial primacy via finance (non dollar settlement) and trade (land based belt and road). This is the ongoing battle and the great game at play. Not so much authoritarian vs democracy.

 

On Authoritarianism vs Democracy
Invoking communism no longer holds so ''authoritarian vs democracy'' becomes the new story. But it’s less about regime type and more about alignment - which certain regime types (democratic) are easier to penetrate and coerce into alignment.

Communism was for sure a systemic ideological threat because it threatened private capital interests. It's good that communism failed because its genuinely flawed. The issue is that neo-liberalism is too and one ideology failed whilst the other remained to hollow out its own countries leading to financialized feudalism and reactionary populism / authoritarianism. Yeltsin who oversaw the wind down of communist USSR did neo-liberal shock therapy that had terrible results and brought us Putin to hard fistedly stabilise things. Any system that totalizes a particular logic sucks - whether it’s communal logic or capital logic. China is striking a balance today somewhat by using capitalist mechanisms for socialist ends, run by a centralized meritocratic state.

The thing with the West using the ''authoritarian vs democracy'' argument is that liberal democracy is treated as a beginning state that needs to be imposed (ironic) or promoted for development to happen, rather than as a end state that comes after survival and stability are secured - something the West had plenty of time to do via colonization that externalized authoritarian violence and coercion so that they could domestically indulge in universalism pluralism. They had the geopolitical luxury of doing so.

Liberalising requires surplus, which require stability, which requires at least some coercive capacity to begin with. The West went through internal repression, elite consolidation and coercive state building - externalized much violence through empire, then domestically liberalized. They had slack to do so - which no longer exists for late developers in a post-colonial world. 

Countries start to deal with human rights and liberal values once they have the conditions for it after securing the human right of survival and stability. The West's very own actions get in the way, sabotaging that sequence. Intervention by empire used to be justified by the “white mans burden” and is now laundered through “democracy promotion”. The same countries being “helped” get judged by countries that themselves went through and are at the end of that developmental sequence.

 

Edited 7 hours ago by zazen

[Lyubov]

1 hour ago, Apparition of Jack said:

This was literally how it was always going to turn out. There was never a situation where it could be any different.

I fucking told all of yall, lol. Is this the world we want to live in?

I've always been against any sort of strikes on Iran. Trump said he set their nuclear program back by a decade the last time he bombed Iran with Israel. So I'm completely unsold on this and was even when the USA started getting involved. It's a ploy that authoritarians tend to try in order to try and drum up domestic support and test the powers of overstepping congress, but this is NOT Venezuela. We've already seen what Russian can do to a neighboring country by just launching missiles everyday at it. Imagine now this lasting for months with Iran launching shit at the Gulf and Israel everyday. Only way to stop that is boots on the ground which Trump hasn't ruled out. Iranian citizens have no power to overthrow their government and the regime is nothing but hardliners. I'm hearing some of the gulf countries only have days left of air defense. 

Edited 6 hours ago by Lyubov

[Lyubov]

1 hour ago, zazen said:

 

 

pathetic, they are completely unable to reign in Israel 

[LambdaDelta]

This is literally how the news is broadcast in some countries, which ain't even North Korea. Is it then any surprise that the world is in the state that it is?

Quote

Zee Media Corporation Ltd (ZMCL), India's largest news network, touches the lives of over 150 million Indians through a clutch of national and regional news channels.

 

Spot the difference

 

Edited 5 hours ago by LambdaDelta

[zazen]

A comment I made on professor Jiang last year - related to current events:

On 26/06/2025 at 11:28 PM, zazen said:

Def doesn’t seem to be going after views, guy doesn’t even have a profile pic lol but many doomer videos are with click bait titles and thumbnails.

Peoples intuition of WW3 isn’t misplaced but I think there are structural constraints that will hold back any type of hot war between major powers. He understands the state of things well, but is overconfident in things getting kinetic towards annihilation. 

He’s opened my eyes to the fact that empire has its own logic compared to capital - which I put more weight on driving things. I overlooked empire and would view things from the POV that the financial elite are the main drivers.

A helpful way to break it down is:

There are twin brothers in the game, each represent a different faction of elites that can be lumped under:

- empire  (national security elite, military industrial complex, CIA/NSA, deep state)

- capital (financial tech elite, consumer industrial complex, hedge funds and Blackrock)

Empire elites seek a position of primacy on the world stage - to maintain unipolarity. The capital elites play within this system that is rigged in their favour. Capital funds and profits from empire while empire protects and expands itself. Empire is financialized, capital is militarized : they are distinct but mostly aligned and interdependent.

Empire is the muscle that enforces a game board in its favour, capital plays to dominate others on that game board. Capital can only influence players but can’t enforce players into positions the way the military muscle of empire can. During peace time for empire, where there is no clear challenger, capital expands and looks to be the only player dictating things - but empire and statecraft makes itself more overt when the system that capital depends on is threatened.

If there is a new game in town (BRICS+) that’s attracting other players to it and threatening the old game, tension arises between the brothers. The split is between how they respond to this threat: primacy vs profit.

Empire says we need to flip the new game board over (contain or destroy it), whilst capital says why not play on that game board too - “It won’t be rigged in their favour, but it’s better to have partial access to some new riches than have no new riches at all” because you destroyed it through war, or got denied access for being a belligerent.

So primacy is now being threatened (dollar system + trade): empire wants to maintain it whilst capital wants to make a deal with the new game. Capital is more exposed to global markets and so is more risk averse, seeking compromise whilst empire seeks confrontation.

Capital brother is less loyal than the empire brother who seeks legacy and heritage. Capital bro can marry out the family and threaten it because capital is free flowing, liquid - can move to new games boards to play on and profit from. Capital wandering off to play new games (BRICS) weakens the board game that empire built for it. Empire seeks monopoly, capital seeks margin. 

During unipolarity, the Empire doesn’t need to act like an empire overtly. With the emergence of rivals, grand strategy and statecraft of empire re-emerges to enforce the board game.

——-

There are three levels to look at it from. The:

- nation state (national interest, people)

- empire state (geostrategic interest, primacy/power)

- capital-cloud estate (profit interest, finance/tech)

The nation is heavily neglected for empire and capital. But once the nation has been hollowed out to such a degree it can threaten empire itself via populism. Financialization and empire marginalise and then radicalise the nation towards populism. Empire needs legitimacy of the people to fight for it.

Think of empire as muscle (enforces), capital as blood (flows), nation as heart (soul of the people). 
 

With the above in mind, the main factors why a hot kinetic war won’t take place are due to:

- mutually assured destruction between nuclear powers

- no public buy in for empire wars, narrative collapse of legacy media now challenged by social media

- muscles are looking rusty and showing up weak against asymmetric warfare (Houthis as a example) = less confident to go up against main rivals

This is where I agree with the professor that Iran was a target. It’s the last player in a geo-strategically critical region, that was defiant of Western empire/capital and within the new games orbit - BRICS. It’s co-building the new game board (de-dollarization, bypassing swift) that threatens the old game. Empire thinks it can threaten Iran into submission, to play on their board,  and on their terms. The muscle of empire is like a wrench cracking open resistant nations (Iran) for capital to extract from. But Iran is no walkover compared to their neighbours.

The gulf are culturally and spiritually more aligned to the Global South but were already plugged into the old game by pegging their resources (oil) to empires currency (dollar). The gulf simply don’t have the muscle to deter any consequences of defecting to the new game being built, which is actually more geographically proximate to themselves and just makes sense to be a part of. This makes the gulf transitional players hedging their bets - playing both sides.

People conflate being rich in capital with being a powerful empire. The gulf states are a clear example of being a capital estate (not empire) that are under the US empire who they’ve outsourced their security to (muscle). Without security there is no true sovereignty or empire. They can only influence with capital which they have plenty of, but can never enforce anything imperially nor protect themselves (their resources) from imperialism itself. This is why they will never be among the great powers which require both money and muscle.

China seems to have struck a good (but not perfect) balance between the three layers: nation state, empire state (not necessarily imperial, but influential) and capital-cloud estate. They are attempting to serve the interest of all three harmoniously. This is why they will eclipse the US - because they have strong muscle (military), blood (capital) and heart (people). The body is holistically healthier and robust. Russia is lopsided in this regard - not serving the nation state (people) but the empire state and capital estate of oligarchs.

A hot WW3 between Russia, China and US will be avoided at all costs unless some major miscalculations happen. Hence we only see indirect support to maintain plausible deniability such like we’ve see in Ukraine - and never direct confrontation.

As if the US are going to do anything adventurous around Taiwan after this episode. China knows it’s got time on its side and game theory wise  - US being bogged down and depleted in the ME only favours them. Don’t interrupt the enemy when making a mistake.

@Lyubov Agree - seems the US is heading for a precarious position with limited options. Interesting comment from a ME expert

“the administration has entered a campaign where the only clear path to decisive victory is regime change — and it is far from clear that Washington is willing to invest the resources and long-term commitment such an outcome would demand.”

Worth a follow: https://x.com/citrinowicz/status/2028728626431111425?s=46&t=DuLUbFRQFGpB8oo7PwRglQ

[Ash55]

@Lila9  Are you safe ? how is your life now

 

[Husseinisdoingfine]

On 3/2/2026 at 6:50 AM, Husseinisdoingfine said:

From a Spiral Dynamics POV, this is an attempt by America to forcefully remove the BLUE government and force it into ORANGE.

 

 

Iran is not so blue as you’d think.

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/qZD19m6mKl

 

@Leo Gura Your thoughts? If you’re reading this. 

[Hatfort]

It's like they believed their own propaganda lies about Iranian people wanting regime change, so after removing the Ayatollah, that would be it. They didn't get him last June, but Iran retaliated quite harshly, surpassing the Iron Dome, then agreed to end it on day 12 so as not to have the US totally involved. Remember also that in that instance, Israel attacked in the middle of negotiations, taking Iran by surprise. This time, it was also in the middle of negotiations, but Iran was as ready as they could be, knowing that you grant the first hit to the enemy.

The Ayatollah wasn't hiding, it could be that at his old age, he was at peace with whatever happened to him. In any case, Iranians and other countries' Shia Muslims are not happy with what has happened, adding to that the attack on the elementary school killing all the little girls and their teachers who were inside. People in Iran are not celebrating his death, they are mourning it. On the other hand, many images recorded by people of Bahrain and others can be heard celebrating the attacks on US bases that protect the tyrants who obscenely rule in those petrostates that they hate.

I don't know what's going to happen, but Iranians are responding even more harshly than last time, their missiles are going throught the interceptors. We don't know for how long they are going to be able to do it, but it could be longer than what their agressors can endure. Maybe Trump thought, let's kill the Ayatollah, other leaders, and cause as much harm as possible in a few hours, then agree a ceasefire, and I'll celebrate my victory in the White House. Iranian's said, not this time, this time we'll attack you back to make sure you don't do it again, and we will end on this our terms, not yours.

The consideration of putting boots on the ground may be on the table, but they'll probably try to use the Kurds as a proxy once again. The problem is they just betrayed the Kurds of Syria just a few months ago, so the Iraqi years ago, I doubt they will fall for it again, besides they can't win. If they bring US troops there to die for Israel, the people in the US, including his base, will hardly oppose, because they know Iran has never intended to harm them in US territory in the past, they don't intend to do it now, nor in the future. They also understand that their military bases in the region were attacked because they attacked Iran first. The understanding of first blood is as old as humanity itself.

[Breakingthewall]

21 minutes ago, Hatfort said:

It's like they believed their own propaganda lies about Iranian people wanting regime change

It seems logical that the Iranian people would want regime change after 47 years of theocracy. It's a rather dystopian situation in which the ruling elites have no secondary education, only Koranic schooling. 

Instead of focusing on economic and social development, they focus on the destruction of the Israeli Satan, that has no direct relationship with them. It's safe to assume that many people might consider this a misguided approach.

[Hatfort]

35 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

It seems logical that the Iranian people would want regime change after 47 years of theocracy. It's a rather dystopian situation in which the ruling elites have no secondary education, only Koranic schooling. 

Instead of focusing on economic and social development, they focus on the destruction of the Israeli Satan, that has no direct relationship with them. It's safe to assume that many people might consider this a misguided approach.

Israel and the US are always the ones attacking them or their leaders first, it's not the other way around like you paint it. I'm talking just about last years, like Soleimani, attacks on embassies, and the last two wars. On the reverse, there is nothing.

If we go back to the last century, Iran had a democratically elected leader that the US deposed to put their puppet Sha, but Iranians fought back, and got their own thing. Not saying that they are perfect, but for example, the current elected president, compared to the last one that died in the helicopter accident, has made some social progress that we in the West value, like a less restictions to women in clothing. But those things are just false pretexts from the West, the CIA and Israel have no problem collaborating with the Muyaidins or the most regressive ISIS or al-Qaeda guys, whom they train. The only country that ISIS has never attacked in the region is Israel, that's not a coincidence. The petro emirate states are also way more regressive with women than Iran.

There were legit protests in Iran last December, because of the economic strangulation of Western sancions make effect in the population, even the ayatollah acknowledged it. Then they turned into violent riots that no country would allow either. However, Iran was overcoming the sanctions more or less, and the West can't allow that. This is what we have, an illegitimate attempt at regime change war of aggression, to put a puppet in an oil-rich area. But they will have to fight it harder this time.

Edited 2 hours ago by Hatfort

[Breakingthewall]

33 minutes ago, Hatfort said:

This is what we have, an illegitimate attempt at regime change war of aggression, to put a puppet in an oil-rich area. But they will have to fight it harder this time.

If a global power controls the economy in great stent, and you're a weak country with resources, and your core values are hatred of that power and the disappearance of its ally as a nation, you risk this kind of thing. The US doesn't steal oil from Saudi Arabia or the UAE; in fact, they sell a large portion of their oil to China.

But what a global power won't tolerate is a direct challenge sustained for decades. What would be Iran's problem if it recognized Israel, engaged in dialogue with the US, and acknowledged them as partners? Simply an identity crisis. 

You could say: the US is a state that steals resources from other states, leaving them in poverty. But this isn't true. If Iran were to cooperate, its economy would improve. The problem is that many Muslim countries base their identity on direct confrontation. Without it, their identity collapses.

Obviously, the US is abusive in many ways, but so is China when it benefits from it, as is France in Africa, Russia when it has the opportunity, and all the others. The point is not categorize us as Satan but trying to get the best deals possible for your people 

 

[Karmadhi]

Very interesting article I checked on the school bombing in Iran some days ago that killed up to 170 childreen

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/3/questions-over-minab-girls-school-strike-as-israel-us-deny-involvement

It is quite long but there was a cruicial piece of information to take into account which I will copy paste from the article:

"The Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab is part of a broad network of schools structurally and administratively affiliated with the IRGC Navy.

These schools are classified as nonprofit institutions and are primarily intended to provide educational services to the sons and daughters of members of the IRGC Navy.

Registration messages posted on the channel on the Iranian messaging app, “Baleh”- a channel dedicated to communicating with parents of pre-school children at one school in the Shajareh Tayyebeh network – show that admission procedures give priority to the children of military personnel.

In more than one announcement, the children of IRGC Navy members are explicitly invited to attend on specific days to complete first-grade enrolment, with another notice stating that registration for children of non-members opens on different days.

However, this administrative link (to the IRGC) or the identity of the parents does not change the schools’ legal status as civilian facilities under international humanitarian law, unless they were being used in military operations."

Basically, since they were used by the childreen of the IRGC navy, to Israeli low moral development they become fair game and hence a worthy target to be bombed

I already had doubts that Israel would do this. Basically do a relatively "clean" war when it comes to the general Iranian public but when it comes to clear targets that are connected to the IRGC in any way, they will employ Gaza like tactics

Because to the low development of the Israeli military psyche, anything related to an entity that hates them, is fair game

So, if the IRGC hates them, any family member of the IRGC is fair game

Pure devilry...

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Karmadhi

[Lila9]

4 hours ago, Ash55 said:

@Lila9  Are you safe ? how is your life now

 

I’m safe, thank you. This is much appreciated.

Luckily, I have a protective space to go to. I also do yoga and breathwork to calm my nervous system down.

 

[Karmadhi]

7 hours ago, Lila9 said:

On the other hand, I am also annoyed by both Trump’s and Bibi’s governments for exploiting wars cynically as a way to distract people from the flaws of their governments. So annoying.

You can thank Eipstein and his buddies for that

[Lila9]

22 minutes ago, Karmadhi said:

You can thank Eipstein and his buddies for that

Ok. Do you have their contact details?

I do want to learn how to communicate with the dead.

But in order to communicate with Epstein, I would need to go through an extended course of communication with dead PDF files. Any resources?