(credit to RomCom1989 for the title)
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.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
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.
BREAKING: Trump gives Iran 48-hour ultimatum to open Strait of Hormuz or face U.S. military strikes on power plants
assuming Iran does do their promised retaliation to this (I have no reason to believe they won't), this will mean that oil infrastructure and desalination plants will steadily be brought offline across the region, which will be a total humanitarian catastrophe and force oil prices so high that $150 will seem like an absolute steal
either Trump is bluffing to try and force a deal, the US thinks that Iran isn't going to do the retaliation they have repeatedly said they will do, or they seem content to let this conflict escalate to millions of people slowly perishing and very possibly nukes used
I don't think Iran can stop their promised retaliation to this. They are too decentralised, the plans are written, if these events happen then the plans will probably be carried out without any central authority being able to prevent it.
IMO Iran should target one Israeli power plant now, as a response to Trump's post.
As soon as Israel gets fucked they're telling the US to deescalate via all their channels of influence.
Nah, I bet they'll just try to get more of the world to attack Iran as if that would help.
Rally all their allies, like... uh... hmm. Germany? Argentina, I guess?
the
readings for this dream team are off the charts
I agree completely.
They do seem to be taking the unhinged path so far though..
The biggest issue with deescalation here is that Trump can never be a loser. He must always be able to claim he is the winner.
He could shoot himself in the head
He could make a better video than Budd Dwyer. Many people would say it’s the best video if it’s kind, ever.
Then he could claim that he succeeded at what so many ithers have failed to do
It sounds a bit like great man theory but it does make sense under the current state of the crumbling US empire which is lashing out everywhere to stay alive a little more.
Palestine with Biden, and now Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, and its own people being openly terrorized by thugs. I think the US regime as a whole is going to be more barbaric than it was for a long time by fighting what is to them an existential fight to maintain their global superiority over China, they will either succeed or cause maximum damage and suffering along with their defeat.
I think the Iran that was willing to go to extreme lengths for a negotiated settlement is not the same as Iran at war. They seem to have realized that their only salvation is to hit back and hit hard. I just wish they had a nuke so the Zionazi alliance would have kept the fuck away (although I believe the situation for Palestine would be as dire as it is either way).
Trump doesn't understand cause and effect so he'll definitely do it.
The American terrorist regime really is trying to burn the whole international order down because Trump believed whatever the last person told him and started bombing Iran. I have trouble seeing an offramp for this anytime soon since birth sidesare locked in.
I suspect the only point of this war was to force a huge disaster. Plunging the world into the worst economic depression is a win for some
Considering many of the tech elites in the US have an apocalyptic fascist ideology, and many evangelicals have an apocalyptic fascist theology, I would say it’s a win for more than some
It's not a win for them though is it. They just think it's a win. These clowns wouldn't last a week in a collapsing society
They all have huge bunkers and staff to go with the bunkers in case of collapse. It’s difficult to say they will actually survive but they are more prepared than anyone else.
yes, I'm sure their ex-mma fighter bodyguards will keep taking orders from wimpy tech guys for years down in the fallout bunker
If it’s the only way to survive then yes. But I assume the protection is mostly from AI driven weapons and staff is mostly workers who are taken hostage to care for the techlord. Similar to how workers get stuck on sea for months on a pleasure yacht, but now it’s forever and the workers have no home to return to because it’s been destroyed.
Which makes the incentive to rebel wildly different. I know we are talking about scifi here, but AI driven weapons? come on! If Musk acts up in the bunker the servants will just lynch him. Hell they might lynch him anyway after the apocalypse. It would be like a Roman aristocrat stranded on a deserted island with a 100 slaves. They won't take curt orders for too long
Now I'm not in the situation room or know what I'm talking about, anything, but if I were Iran that just sounds like dating I have 48 hours to hit first in the most unexpected way possible.
I hope the settlers like salty water