this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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Image is of a destroyed American AWACS plane in Saudi Arabia, of which there is a very limited supply and each of which is enormously expensive both monetarily and in terms of components. Iran hit this with a precision drone strike that likely cost ~$20,000.
I don't have much to add from the last megathread description. This isn't to say that nothing has happened or has changed since then - decades are still happening in weeks - but the general flow of the war is remaining the same. Trump sometimes threatens to open the Strait with troops and flatten Iran to rubble, and other times threatens that he's gonna back off and let other countries handle it if they really want little trifles like "fuel" and "energy" so much. Iran continues to strike across the Middle East. The West continues to bomb civilian infrastructure due to their relative inability to affect the missile cities. In all: things are generally getting worse for America and the Zionists.
April is the month where the last ships that left Hormuz before it was closed will arrive around the world, so the last month of economic turmoil has been a mere prelude to what's going to occur in the near-future. The silver lining is that Iran appears to be formalizing the new state of affairs in Hormuz, creating a rial-based toll to allow passage between a pair of Iranian-controlled islands where they can be monitored, meaning that, as long as the US doesn't do something exceptionally stupid, the global energy crisis may "only" last a couple years instead of simply being the new reality from now on. Some countries have already agreed to this arrangement, and others will inevitably follow despite their consternation as their economies increasingly suffer.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
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.
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So they have about ~700-800 left for Iran, ~425 in storage.
Sure, a thousand of these missiles didn't degrade Iran's ability to control Hormuz nor collapse the state, but just maybe another 800 will!
"but it might work for us"
https://youtu.be/Po4adxJxqZk
Top comment on that is "regime change wars in the middle East" and I think maybe that is a hexbear user
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
The us is woefully under prepared to fight a war against China if they are still having using long range stealth cruise missiles against an enemy that is primarily operating IR based AA systems. How do they expect to fight a war against an enemy with a robust integrated air defense system when they barley have any long range stealthy cruise missiles left?
That's why they want a 1.5 trillion defense budget.
The limiting factor now isn't money, it's a comically pathetic manufacturing capability. Every additional dollar at this point will just go to graft. They aren't actually going to get equipment any faster
They may not be able to get most of this stuff back at all
With nukes
Against Iran I could believe but against China it's MAD and I think that still holds weight with these people due to basic individual self-preservation.
It's not something I've thought about before but China hasn't shown that they've got that MAD dog in them. Russia has, Iran has, DPRK has, but there's a case to be made that China won't actually do it.
I think that is a completely incorrect reading but I wonder if it is something that China is currently considering. The perception that you are too dangerous to fuck with goes a long way and it probably makes sense for China to put that question to rest within the next 5-10 years, particularly with how committed the US is to becoming increasingly unhinged.
Nah, China definitely has that MAD dog in them. China is all peace and harmony until you violate their borders, then they go pure psycho mode. People try to extrapolate the PRC's passivity towards allies and think that this passivity would still be at play when the actual country's at threat.
And even that relies on a slowly-dwindling manufacturing and technological capacity. How do they expect to win a nuclear conflict against China if their most capable ICBM interceptor has 44 units and a 40% interception rate? What about hypersonic glide vehicles that it still hasn't produced beyond a few test in units?
Russia and China aren't exactly proven in their interceptors tbf but they have much more first hand experience with ballistic missiles and glide vehicles, which translates to a higher capacity for improvement over an enemy that uses neither. Russia already punches well above its class in modern air defenses considering their relative R&D capacity (which had dried up considerably well before the USSR collapsed).
Russia, China, DPRK etc. chose to prioritize their missile programs (and thus nuclear deterrents and air defenses by coincidence) in the unipolar age, and the US empire conversely leaned into cruise missiles and guided precision weapons for "low intensity" asymmetric conflicts. Dialectically, the US was doomed once it rebuilt its military for the end of history.
Full source
This is a contingency move for months long operations, as the rate of JASSM use has likely declined.
The US is going to run out of JASSMs long before Iran runs out of missiles or drones. Shouldn't have wasted such precious ammunition on schools and hospitals I guess. Would have gotten more mileage out of military target