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CNN.COM 2026-02-19

Trump’s rationale is still opaque as he slides closer to war with Iran

There’s no full-court press from top national security officials. President Donald Trump is making hardly any effort to share the rationale for the potential or why military personnel might be asked to risk their lives. And the White House is giving no public sign that it knows what may unfold in Iran if its clerical regime is toppled, an eventuality that could cause enormous reverberations in the Middle East.

He hasn't shared a "rationale" for war because he doesn't have one.  He is IRRATIONAL.  He also has NO PLAN beyond dropping the Death from Above down on them and bombing them back to the stone age for a few weeks.  He's got no idea how to run a puppet goobermint, he can't even run his own goobermint.  They're certainly not going to get a "Democratic" goobermint, the best he could hope for is some kind of military dictatorship.    The son of the last "Shah" who was a CIA Puppet has been lobbying to be re-installed, but it's doubtful he has any relationship with the command structure of today's Revolutionary Guard.  The old Shah was at least an officer in the pre-revolutionary army.

Chances are you end up with a power vacuum with numerous factions vying for power, anarchy and increasing internal and international terrorism.  Even if sanctions were lifted, it wouldn't be a very safe place for the oil majors to invest money, so they probably won't be anymore enthusiastic about Iran then they are about Venezuela.  You'll have a humanitarian crisis which he would welcome since it's just Towel Head kids dying, but there's no good coastline to redevelop with casinos and condos. lol.

Despite the lack of rationale, the fact is he's sent a whole lotta military hardware over there, and unless he gets some kind of "deal" he can brag about, he'll look pretty ineffectual unless he hits them with the big stick.  So that's what he's most likely to do.

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DW.COM 2026-03-18

Iran war overlaps with Afghanistan-Pakistan conflict

With airstrikes on Afghan territory, including the strategically important Bagram Airfield, Pakistan has declared open war on the Taliban. This escalation coincides with the war in Iran.

I think we can officially declare WWIII in progress with major battles in Ukraine, Lebanon, Gaza & Iran currently underway, as well as several African brushfires.  As the fertilizer and oil shortages start to bite, I wouldn't be surprised to see a few more break out.  With this one, let's remember Pakistan is a Nuke power.

Now the only question is how long before hostilities begin within the borders of the FSoA?

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ALJAZEERA.COM 2026-03-21

Iran does not need to close the Strait of Hormuz to disrupt it

The real threat lies not in blocking the waterway, but in quietly turning its approaches into a zone of uncertainty that global shipping cannot ignore

This is why no matter what Trumpolini does, shipping through the straight has little likelihood of returning to pre-war levels in the forseeable future.  Anything leaving the Gulf will remain a target, and the risk premium that will drive up prices remains enormous.

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[K-Dog]

This is why no matter what Trumpolini does, shipping through the straight has little likelihood of returning to pre-war levels in the forseeable future.  Anything leaving the Gulf will remain a target, and the risk premium that will drive up prices remains enormous.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Iran cannot defeat the United States militarily. It cannot win a conventional war against the US-Israeli alliance. What it can do is make the cost of the war unbearable for the economies that are funding and sustaining the attacks against it.  And it should do so.  Iran should force Regime change.  I'm Ok with that.

Anyone with a functional brain has known for thirty years that messing with Iran is grabbing Karma by the tail.

[K-Dog]

This is why no matter what Trumpolini does, shipping through the straight has little likelihood of returning to pre-war levels in the forseeable future.  Anything leaving the Gulf will remain a target, and the risk premium that will drive up prices remains enormous.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Iran cannot defeat the United States militarily. It cannot win a conventional war against the US-Israeli alliance. What it can do is make the cost of the war unbearable for the economies that are funding and sustaining the attacks against it.  And it should do so.  Iran should force Regime change.  I'm Ok with that.

Anyone with a functional brain has known for thirty years that messing with Iran is grabbing Karma by the tail.






Look at his desperation.  While Trump claims victory.

INDIANEXPRESS.COM 2026-03-21

Desperate measures: Why Trump suspended sanctions on Iranian oil at sea

For years, the US has prevented the sale of Iranian oil and fuels to most of the world. Yet, Washington is now facilitating oil sales from a country against whom it is waging a war. After announcing a month-long sanctions waiver for purchase of Russian crude already in tankers on water, the US has now suspended for a month the sanctions on Iranian crude already loaded on tankers.

The Donald Trump administration is evidently desperate, as the raging West Asia conflict has sent global oil prices soaring to multi-year highs, which in turn have led to a jump in fuel prices in the US.

It is an attempt to keep the price of oil -- lower.

Has anybody told Trump about this? From everything we're reading, the answer is probably not. Uh basically uh we're in a situation where the the court hearers don't tell the the emperor that he has no clothes and don't tell him that uh actually war in the Persian Gulf really hurts the United States a lot too.

So you know God knows and by the way I have no idea how this ends. Uh it's I I don't I don't even know what I would do at this point. I mean it take a time machine and go back and not do this, but now it's it's going to be really really ugly.  And have a nice weekend.

[K-Dog]

What Trump started.  But for Trump this would not be happening, and that building would still be standing.

WSWS.ORG 2026-03-16

Israel begins its long-planned ground invasion of Lebanon

Israel’s US-backed war against Lebanon has entered a new and bloody stage with the start of a long-prepared ground invasion conducted under the umbrella of the widening imperialist war against Iran.

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THEGUARDIAN.COM 2026-04-21

Trump wants $1.5tn for the Pentagon – and cuts to healthcare and housing

The president’s proposed $445bn increase in military spending would batter popular domestic programs as millions struggle.

With Americans focused on Donald Trump's deeply unpopular war against Iran, far too few Americans are focusing on another disastrous Trump idea: increasing the Pentagon's budget to a colossal $1.5tn. Just as Trump's Iran war has hurt millions of Americans by sending gas prices skyward, Trump's supersized Pentagon budget will hurt millions of Americans because Trump, to help finance that budget, is pushing for painful cuts in health, education, and housing programs.

Regardless of how many social programs are cut, the only way this could ever be financed is by debt monetization.  The Chinese won't dribble out their mountain of USTs, they'll spray them on the market wholesale with a firehose.  Given His Trumpness low popularity and political capital, there's little chance of this budget going thru as proposed, but what it will do is lock up the CONgress Critters in fruitless jawboning, nothing will get done and we'll have yet another budget crises, this time maybe ending in a default to really trash the value of the dollar.

Hard to imagine how one man could possibly have done more to destroy what was left of Amerika in such a short period of time than The Donald.  Osama Bin Ladin as POTUS would be less destructive.

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