US - Iran Conflict (Again)

[clakclak]

It seems as if the US Iran conflict just entered another dangerous state. While there are widely conflicting reports currently everything seems to point towards an imminent escalation.

Normally this is the point where I would link to articles, but the may be outdated in an hour or ten anyway.

So right now we have Ali Khamenei say that the US will never overthrow Iran, America saying that time to make a deal is running out for Iran and urging them to make a deal on their nuclear program, like they used to have before America tore up the last one, the UN nuclear chief saying roughly the same and a whole host of credible, semi credible and incredibly shady sources speaking of a lot military activity by Israel and America.

One Israeli source (a newspaper) is also saying that the Israeli military is just waiting for the go ahead from the Pentagon and basically is allready in a state of standby.

[felter]

I don't know about them going to war or not, but I have been hearing rumours that Iran are hinting that they have the unredacted version of the Epstein files, which they may or may not release to the rest of the world. So the question is will Trump chance it or not.

[fiksal]

I would put Iran on having any black mail into unlikely category. It's like the Trump tape that we've been over already.

Attacking Iran, now that's something that MAGA should be onboard with. Why not add a second war to one other and mass killings, for the glory of the fake peace prize winner and a honorable fascist president.

[felter]

The problem is we know that they have been hacking Trump and anyone or thing associated with him for some time now, we even know the names of the Iranian hacking groups who have been doing the hacking, so it is feasible that they do have the files, also they are not saying that they do have them, it's just hints that their leader has been making. Myself, I don't know if they have or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that they actually do have them. The main thing is, does Trump think they have them and is he worried about it.

[mr.WHO]

I don't like that in last few years, we have awfully lof of active war topics on this forum
I wish we could go back to boring times.

[Usenko]

Yeah, in retrospect even the post Sept 11 period up till about 2014 was pretty cruisy.

[fiksal]

I don't like that in last few years, we have awfully lof of active war topics on this forum
I wish we could go back to boring times.

a lot of people got way comfortable with fascism instead of practicing building guillotines.

perhaps this critical number of people always was comfortable

[mr.WHO]

a lot of people got way comfortable with fascism instead of practicing building guillotines.

perhaps this critical number of people always was comfortable

I'd prefere something more modern and civilised - like Nuremberg.

Guillotines are so XIX century

Edit:

Not that related to OP, but related to fiksal comment

South Korea leads the way:
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/19/asia ... n-intl-hnk

Uk seem to slowly figure this out as well (rare W for UK ):
https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news ... e-02-19-26

[clakclak]

I don't like that in last few years, we have awfully lof of active war topics on this forum
I wish we could go back to boring times.

a lot of people got way comfortable with fascism instead of practicing building guillotines.

perhaps this critical number of people always was comfortable

I think one of my favourite online schizophrenics summed up how strange people feel currently by what they are being told on how to change things in this less than a minute long video.

[Alan Phipps]

Back onto the thread topic please as we have quite enough threads already on the sort of links currently being made here.

[mr.WHO]

You know, another thing that I like less and less with every passing year, is that all of those topics are converging.

[clakclak]

The United Kingdorm blocks America from using its bases to strike at Iran.

Source: https://www.thenational.scot/news/natio ... tack-iran/

[Chips]

There was a Sky news bulletin where they highlighted the move of about 12 air-to-air refuelling tankers to bases in Bulgaria and Greece from the UK, as well as more incoming (including AWAC) from the US. This is all about Nuclear ambitions, but there's a raft of tasty side effects that mean action may be just too tempting to ignore...?

Trumpo moved on Venezuela, and it's undoubtedly about the oil there. There seemed little other motivation (I mean, absolutely the drugs). China got about half a million barrels of oil a day from Venezuela, so about 180mn barrels a year. That tap has been turned off, or certainly significantly curtailed - under US control.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 026-01-14/

Then onto Iran, which has numerous strands here. Major is the nuclear issue, and undoubtedly I believe a nuclear Iran is a significant risk to world peace. Anyway, that's their claim so not the point of the post. Iran exports 1.5mn barrels of oil a day to China.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 026-01-13/

There's also the infrastructure improvements in Iran ($200bn worth apparently), which are done by China/Russia given sanctions prevent any US companies from being involved.

Coupled with the uptick in the last 6-9 months of Ukraine hitting Russian's refinining capabilities (which heavily relies upon... US intelligence provision), it does appear the 3 major sources of Oil for China are being squeezed, or at least, China's source would be squeezed if US action against Iran goes ahead. So a really long post of saying "this feels inevitable given there's a parallel desire to stymie China which so far Trump's actions have had a convenient side effect of doing..."

[Falcrack]

Yeah, in retrospect even the post Sept 11 period up till about 2014 was pretty cruisy.

We're entering a period of time when great power conflict is not only increasingly likely, but almost inevitable.

You know, another thing that I like less and less with every passing year, is that all of those topics are converging.

Almost like the world is hurtling towards one large scale conflict.

[Chips]

'Major combat operations'

Trump has said the US has launched "major combat operations" in Iran in a video posted on Truth Social.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn5ge95q6y7t

Five cities hit by Israel-US attack on Iran

The Iranian Fars news agency reported a little earlier that explosions were heard in the cities of Isfahan, Qom, Karaj, and Kermanshah, as well as in the capital Tehran.

Someone leaks Trump's in the Epstein files in the worst way, and 2 days later war...

[clakclak]

So far the stated objectives are:

1. Destroy Iran's ability to produce missles

2. Distrect from the Epstein files

I will say that destroying Iran's ability to produce missles is a far more realistic goal than regime change.

I know to little about Iran to give an estimate how stable the regime is, but I would assume this is at the very least not going to help them in the short term. I doubt that there will be a significant ralley around the flag effect if the targets choosen by America and Israel are mostly military in nature.

[Vertigo 7]

All dear leader has accomplished is to create the next group of extremists in the region. Iran will have a new supreme leader and nothing will change for the nation. The people of Iran will only remember the US killed their families and that hatred will continue for generations.

Are we great again, yet?

Oh, we also still haven't forgotten about the Epstein files.

[chew-ie]

Meanwhile former allied countries move away from the great again country in disgust as their far-right minorities are pushed by US money and their current facist regime.

I'm really curious when this all ends and who is left then to look at that pile of shards the world is going to be and saying "Yep, that's exactly what I wanted".

[matthewfarmery]

An all girl Elementary school school in Iran was hit by a missile, at least 85 dead, a war crime. I think this will descend into utter madness. Trump will accomplish nothing by doing this. But to anger and enrage an already fragile region. We seen nothing yet.

[matthewfarmery]

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead, confirmed by Iran. This won't change the regime. Iran will hit back harder.