this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2026
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(credit to RomCom1989 for the title)

A reminder that as the US continues to threaten countries around the world, fedposting is to be very much avoided (even with qualifiers like "in Minecraft") and comments containing it will be removed.

Image is of an Iranian soldier exulting in the launch of a ballistic missile aimed towards the imperialists.


short summary this week: US doing pretty bad and Iran doing pretty good all things considered, Strait of Hormuz is closed and will almost certainly remain so until the end of the war, Trump has no idea what to do, global economic crisis from strait closure is basically guaranteed at this point but who will ultimately benefit most and who will ultimately lose most is still up in the air.

longish summary is below in the spoiler tags

longish summary

While there are still major debates raging about how badly things are actually going right now and what the post-conflict map may look like, as we blaze past the two week mark on this conflict, it's becoming ever more obvious to almost everybody involved that this war is not going according to plan, if there ever was one. US airstrikes are, from what I can best determine, still mostly done with relatively less powerful (but still very dangerous!) and much less plentiful standoff munitions launched from bombers, though certain border and coastal areas are being struck with more powerful and more plentiful short-range guided bombs. This indicates that Iranian air defense is still sufficiently functional throughout most of Iran that the kinds of true carpet bombing done against Korea and Vietnam in the past (and Gaza very recently) is still too risky, though their airspace is still very much under assault, as we appear to have images of small groups of Western fighters breaching relatively deep into the country. Under some kind of Iranian pressure (drones? missiles? speedboats?) one aircraft carrier has retreated to a thousand kilometers from Iran, hiding behind the mountains of Oman; the other is sitting in the Red Sea, rather pointedly out of range of Yemen. As such, the ranges that Western aircraft must travel to bombard Iran is increasing, which reduces their frequency and increases strain on maintenance and logistics in the medium and long term.

While there is tons to say about the current social, economic, and military state of Iran, I don't think I have a reliable enough picture to give a good summary beyond "they aren't close to defeat or regime change". What has instead captured much of the world's attention is the continuing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has inspired some of the most delusional statements I have seen so far in my life, which is sincerely a profound achievement. For those out of the loop: the strait is currently closed to all shipping except those going to very particular countries (I've seen China and Bangladesh mentioned, and apparently India is in the process of working something out and may succeed or fail). This is because most ships are not risking the trip due to the ~20 tankers and container ships that Iran has already struck and disabled in the strait and in the Persian Gulf. Additionally, the threat from Iran's military to Navy ships is such that attempting to create a convoy to guide tankers through it is suicidal to both the Navy and merchant ships. Right now it cannot be done, and it very well might be the case that it could never be done, simply due to the combination of Iran's naval forces (hundreds, perhaps thousands, of armed, specialized speedboats designed for exactly this purpose), their drones (in the tens of thousands), their torpedoes, and if all else fails, their naval mines.

The Western reaction to this has been so moronic that it has almost integer underflowed into being philosophical: what does it truly mean for a passage to be "closed"? Has Iran truly "closed" the strait, or is the risk of traversing it simply too high for these cowardly sailors (who, for some strange reason, seem to care about their "lives" and "families")? How is it possible for Iran to have closed the strait if, according to the West, Iran's military has been totally obliterated? All these questions and more plague the minds of those who cannot accept the now-proven fact that there are indeed military forces on this planet that the US Navy with all its aircraft carriers and destroyers and submarines cannot defeat; and one of those minds is, rather hilariously, Trump himself. His thrice-daily positive affirmations that Iran has been defeated are taking on an increasingly deranged and almost pitiable tone; the lamentations of a man who has finally found a situation where him merely stating that something is true is insufficient to change the situation one iota. Despite stating that some kind of naval compact or alliance is being established to protect shipping, every Western country so far - from the UK, to France, to Japan, to Australia - has publicly stated that they will not risk their ships to do so. All this as the continued blockade yet further guarantees a worldwide energy, production, transportation, and food crisis that will have major global ramifications for at least the rest of the decade and almost certainly beyond.

If the anti-imperialists play their cards right, the US could lose much from this crisis, and others, like China and Russia, could gain a great deal. To quote Nia Frome (co-founder of Red Sails): "An effective Marxist has to be enough of an accelerationist/pervert to treat the obviously bad things that are going to happen as the political opportunities they are."


Last week's thread is here.
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The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine

If you have evidence of Zionist crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA reports on the Zionists' destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


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[–] Azarova@hexbear.net 31 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

Not explicitly news related but I hope this is okay since I think a lot of fellow newsheads would like to know that Geopolitical Economy Hour apparently moved to Radhika Desai's own channel: https://youtube.com/@raddesai. I wondered why they seemingly stopped making episodes on ~~Multipolarista~~ Geopolitical Economy Report. The latest episode talks a bit about whether we're experiencing World War 3 or if this is "merely" the deaththroes of imperialism. Even though the super powers aren't in direct conflict with each other (even though they kind of are when NATO troops are basically doing everything but pulling the trigger on Western missiles firing into Russia), the current conflicts are clearly about attempting to encircle China before a direct confrontation, especially cutting off their oil imports and disrupting peaceful development of the BRI. It's hard to imagine what else to call a conflict clearly intended to seize control of Eurasia, and in my opinion Ukraine and West Asia are just fronts in the same conflict. There was an article from the late 90's or early 2000's by Subcommandant Marcos that someone posted here somewhere that argued a similar case about the First Cold War. Curious what others think or if it's a distinction without a difference. There's also the question Desai raises about every world war changing the world financial system, and whether the bear trap the US walked face first into with Iran making the energy markets scream has laid the conditions for that shift to begin.

[–] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 26 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I align very closely to Hudson's and Desai's interpretations of geopolitical economy and have read their books, but on this I disagree. every conflict could be said to be "about China" because China is, for all intents and purposes, the most powerful economy on the planet right now, so they have a shitload of links all over the world and are influenced by all global events

so I understand the point trying to be made, and I'm sure there's some people in the administration who are trying to shift events and analysis to be more about the US's archenemy out of a distaste for getting even more bogged down in the Middle East, but framing the Iran War as secretly a war against China in particular (as opposed to anti-imperialist forces in general) seems like the incorrect framing to me. just like how the Ukraine War could be framed as ultimately a war against China because if Russia is pacified by NATO then that's obviously quite bad for China in numerous ways, but the West would actually just want Russia to be defeated regardless of whether it would then benefit them vis a vis China

and besides, burning all this military equipment in Russia and Iran, and giving those countries + China (and some others like the DPRK) an opportunity to test their weapons and strategies against NATO equipment, seems like it would be disadvantageous given the staggering difference in military production between anti-imperialist forces and the West in almost every field, not least drones. China has undoubtably been intensely studying the Russians and now Iranians, and where the US has succeeded and failed in each theater, and making their own theories and strategies and military developments accordingly; meanwhile, the US military power only seems to be on the decline since at least the Iraq War in the early 2000s, which by itself wasn't exactly a stunning victory

[–] Sphere@hexbear.net 23 points 3 days ago (1 children)

the current conflicts are clearly about attempting to encircle China before a direct confrontation

I'm gonna be honest, I grow tired of seeing people, especially on this site, assuming anyone in the West is playing 5D chess. As far as I can tell, no one in charge anywhere in the West is competent enough to be doing so. This conflict is absolute idiocy, and trying to read into it as if it isn't is going to lead to all kinds of bizarre and deeply incorrect conclusions.

[–] Azarova@hexbear.net 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm not arguing that they're doing a good job, but I do think that's the intention. The Ukraine adventure was supposed to miraculously either cause regime change in Russia or collapse it entirely to further loot the Soviet Union's corpse and split Russia away from China, and instead it's basically demilitarized NATO and started deindustrializing Europe. This latest attack on Iran was clearly supposed to be a "kick in the door and the whole rotting structure comes down" thing and in classic fascist hubris it's blowing up in their face. So while I think the imperialists have vague ideas of a plan to ultimately confront China, they're doing it in possibly the most farcical way possible because we're like three generations of failsons deep at this point.

[–] Sphere@hexbear.net 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

I still think you're giving this administration too much credit. The way I see it, this Iran attack was Trump thinking he could do what no president had done before (regime change and, by extension, a thawing of relations between the US and Iran), because he did essentially that in Venezuela, and I don't think he recognized any of the differences between the two countries regarding strategic leverage. Everything the man does is about his own ego at the end of the day--I don't think he has a coherent idea of how everything comes together other than simple might-makes-right. The old state department ghouls (whose views were the basis of what became US policy on Ukraine under Biden) are no longer in charge, so the idea there's an overarching plan anymore is, in my opinion, inaccurate.

[–] aqwxcvbnji@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I still think you're giving this administration too much credit. The way I see it, this Iran attack was Trump thinking he could do what no president had done before

Withing the permanent bureaucracy of the US government, the pentagon, the intelligence services etc. there has been the plan to invade Iran for decades. Trump is just the figurehead on the news today. It's not that he's not important at all, but there are other actors steering this ship as well.

Have you ever seen the clip of US general Wesley Clark about their long term planning with regards to regime change? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KkNAQIuGZY

[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] gwysibo@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I think Syria was more important as the first "big success" for Trump which led to Venezuela and now this. Syria seemed very hard to take in the past and now closely mirrors what they expected from this conflict, kidnapping Maduro was more an ego boost

[–] Shaleesh@hexbear.net 16 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)
[–] Azarova@hexbear.net 8 points 3 days ago

Yes, that's it. Thank you!

[–] newmou@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago

There’s an excellent recent Rev Left episode where Breht interviews Torkil Lauesen about Unequal Exchange (same guy who wrote The Principal Contradiction, great book) I encourage everyone check out. Lauesen explains that the engine behind US/Western hegemony is the geopolitical concept of unequal exchange, enforced by imperialism, which has structured the global economy as a sort of substrate of power since WWII, forcing the extraction of wealth from the periphery to the imperial core. But the US is in a crisis now where China is forcing a change in that longstanding dynamic of unequal exchange. They’re gaining and exporting energy independence via a new means of production (through green energy), and they’re looking pretty much unstoppable in moving toward that direction because of their superior political system (a communist-managed market economy, basically a “transitionary” system that is more evolved than a strictly capitalist system).

But as this mode of unequal exchange is the basis for US global power and economic hegemony, China’s effort to break that is now an existential threat for the US. So realistically the only way to preserve US power long-term is to go after China, which, strategically, requires eliminating all the dominoes in the way of that first. I think Venezuela and Iran make sense in that context, and I agree that this problem of a dying system of unequal exchange driven by China is at the deepest core of those initiatives. I’d challenge other people here to realize though that that doesn’t mean the US doesn’t have shorter-term geopolitical goals that can also be satisfied with these initiatives. That can also be true, and those goals can have more immediate payoffs in other ways if successful (in the minds of the imperialists). The best strategic initiatives satisfy multiple goals with the same action, both short and long-term. Israel for example is (unfortunately) very good at structuring their strategic goals like this.

I’d also challenge other people here that the imperialists do have the institutional power to more or less dialectically understand their predicament and make plans to confront it, but they can also make mistakes along the path of pursuing that end due to the political realities of the moment (Trump being easily fooled by playing to his own narcissism, for example).