What was once covert, controversial, and constrained is now overt, normalized, and defended.

#imperialism #gangsterCapitalism

https://www.groundxero.in/2026/03/26/how-the-us-became-an-international-serial-killer/

#Pocahontas’s story of captivity, salvation and conversion became a tool to justify English #imperialism in North America.

⌛️ Last chance to read this archive article for free

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/feature/englands-taming-pocahontas

Iran Pounds US, Zionist Assets, US Military Structure Collapsing

The IRGC announced the execution of wave 83 of Operation True Promise 4 in the early hours of Friday, targeting key American and zionist military installations across the region with missiles and drones.

According to a statement from the IRGC’s Public Relations, the operation was dedicated to the “warm-hearted people of the southern strip of the country in the north of the ever-Persian Gulf” and was conducted under the blessed code “Ya Aba Abdullah Al-Hussein (AS).”

The strikes targeted a range of strategic assets belonging to American and zionist forces.

Among the targets were storage tanks and the oil depot in Ashdod, a military personnel site in the Modi’in settlement, and a US military information exchange center in the region.

The IRGC also struck American military bases at Al-Dhafra and Al-Udeiri, along with maintenance and storage hangars for transport aircraft and drones at Ali Al-Salem Air Base.

Additional targets include fuel tanks for jets and fighter aircraft of American forces, as well as the maintenance and repair hangar for the Patriot missile system at Sheikh Isa Base.

The IRGC statement noted that the operation employed a combination of advanced weaponry, including long-range and medium-range systems, solid and liquid fuel missiles, precision-strike and multi-warhead capabilities, as well as suicide and loitering drones.

It further emphasized that the retaliatory attacks were carried out with “full success by the grace of God.”

In its statement, the IRGC highlighted the impact of ongoing operations on daily life for zionist settlers, noting that “siren-to-siren living and prolonged confinement in shelters have become a daily routine for the zionists.”

The IRGC concluded with a stark warning: “As we said, we will find you, and with God’s will, we will make you pay for your despicable deeds.”

Iranian armed forces have so far carried out 83 waves of missile and drone strikes with advanced weaponry targeting zionist military facilities in the occupied territories, as well as US occupation bases and assets scattered across the West Asia region.

The retaliatory operations were launched immediately after the US-zionist coalition carried out an unprovoked act of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran on February 28, leading to the martyrdom of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, some top-ranking military commanders, and over 170 schoolchildren in Minab.

The Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have also joined the front against the external aggressors, inflicting heavy blows on the enemy.

The retaliatory operations by the Iranian armed forces, as well as the resistance groups, have inflicted heavy blows on the enemy, decimating its military and strategic infrastructure.

Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, the spokesperson for the armed forces, in remarks on Thursday, said that US personnel are now forced to abandon military bases and take refuge in civilian hotels, a move that he condemned as an attempt by the US to use civilian structures for military cover.

“The Americans, who once relied on their military bases to establish a presence, are now hiding in hotels and relying on the civilian areas of our region as a protective shield,” Shekarchi said.

“This marks a humiliating retreat and an admission of their inability to defend themselves.”

The Iranian Army also continues to inflict severe blows on the enemy. It targeted sensitive locations in the strategic Haifa port on Thursday with a barrage of drones.

“The center for manufacturing and maintenance of various military vessels of the Zionist regime in the eastern Mediterranean Sea that played a key and sensitive role in logistics for the regime’s Navy as well as the huge fuel storage facilities for warplanes in Haifa port were, among others, targeted in the recent drone attack by the Islamic Republic’s Armed forces,” it said in a statement.

Iran’s military has also been closely monitoring US forces across the region, a senior spokesman for Iran’s Armed Forces said on Thursday, asserting that the American military structure in West Asia has “collapsed in the shortest possible time.”

In a wide-ranging interview broadcast on national television, Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi expressed strong criticism of US military adventurism in the region, while highlighting the Iranian response to ongoing aggression against the country.

He said that US personnel are now forced to abandon certain military bases and take refuge in civilian hotels, a move that he condemned as an attempt by the US to use civilian structures for military cover.

“The Americans, who once relied on their military bases to establish a presence, are now hiding in hotels and relying on the civilian areas of our region as a protective shield,” Shekarchi said.

“This marks a humiliating retreat and an admission of their inability to defend themselves.”

He said that the American forces are no longer able to sustain a military presence in several regions of West Asia, citing the destruction of key US bases.

“We have dismantled 17 US bases in the region, and they have failed to protect their forces or their installations,” Shekarchi stated, adding that the failure of US military plans is a significant blow to American credibility.

The spokesman further discussed Iran’s evolving defense strategy, stating that the 12-day war in June had catalyzed a major shift in the country’s military doctrine.

“Following the 12-day war, we changed our defensive doctrine to an offensive one,” Shekarchi said.

“This does not mean we are waging aggression against others, as the US does, but rather that any state that initiates aggression against us will be struck until it is destroyed. We will not relent until we have achieved victory and punished the aggressors.”

He clarified that Iran’s new offensive posture is defensive in nature, aimed at safeguarding the country’s sovereignty and deterring foreign intervention.

“Our goal is to continue the fight until the enemy is punished, and we can remove the shadow of war from the Islamic Republic forever,” Shekarchi explained.

The general also emphasized that Iran’s military doctrine is strictly focused on responding to aggression and that Tehran does not seek to engage in unnecessary conflict.

However, he stressed that Iran’s resolve would not falter in the face of continued foreign interference. “If they attack us, we will retaliate with everything we have,” he stated.

Despite the ongoing US-zionist terrorist war, Shekarchi made it clear that even if the hostilities were to cease, Iran’s conditions for peace would have to be met.

He referenced the conditions laid out by the new Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, asserting that these conditions are non-negotiable.

“The Strait of Hormuz will never return to the way it was before,” Shekarchi declared. “We have set four conditions, and until they are met, we will not leave the Americans alone.”

He added that Iran’s security in the region would not be compromised, and that any foreign forces operating near Iranian borders would be targeted.

“The Americans have lost their grip on the region, and their F-35 fighter jets will no longer be safe,” he warned.

“Any base that hosts US forces in the region will be a target for us. We are fully prepared to respond wherever the threat originates.”

Shekarchi also shared grim figures regarding the toll the war has taken on US and Israeli forces.

He confirmed reports of heavy casualties among American personnel, estimating that between 600 and 800 US soldiers have been killed, with nearly 5,000 others wounded.

In addition, the general cited sources within the zionist entity who said that 1,321 zionist soldiers have been killed in retaliatory strikes from Iran.

He noted that these numbers were likely understated by the zionist regime, which has downplayed its losses in the war.

“In the first few days of the war, we targeted a hotel where American soldiers were hiding, and 160 American personnel were either killed or wounded,” Shekarchi stated.

“This was just one of many strikes that have taken place, and the casualties on both sides continue to mount.”

The general also pointed to the significant damage inflicted on zionist infrastructure, noting that key military and industrial targets have been struck, resulting in extensive damage to the entities military capabilities.

“Zionist defense systems, including their air defense and military centers, have been completely destroyed,” Shekarchi said. “Even their most advanced facilities have been targeted, and the impact has been devastating.”

Iran’s strategy in the war

The military spokesman emphasized that Tehran is determined to maintain control of the situation in the region. “We have always maintained the initiative in this war,” Shekarchi said.

“We have not been on the defensive; we have been on the offensive from the beginning, and we will continue to lead the conflict until we achieve our objectives.”

He highlighted that the Iranian military had deployed a range of advanced technologies and capabilities in its retaliation, including cutting-edge air defense systems that have successfully targeted US F-35 fighter jets.

“Our capabilities are growing stronger by the day, and we are constantly improving our military systems to ensure that we can meet any challenge,” Shekarchi said.

Addressing the regional countries that have been affected by the war, Shekarchi urged them to take a stand against the US and zionist forces.

“We call on the Muslim nations of the region to stop providing shelter to US forces,” he said.

“We respect the sovereignty of all countries, and we do not seek to impose our will on anyone. However, if you allow foreign forces to use your land and airspace for military operations against Iran, you will bear the consequences.”

The general also reiterated that Iran’s military actions are aimed at defending its sovereignty and ensuring the security of the region, not at attacking innocent civilians.

“The land and airspace of the Muslim world are sacred to us, and we do not seek to harm anyone. However, if foreign forces use these lands to attack us, we will retaliate accordingly,” Shekarchi said.

US strategy and NATO’s reluctance

In his analysis of the US strategy, Shekarchi pointed out that the US is seeking a way to exit the war with its reputation intact.

“The U is trying to exit the war with honor, but it is clear that they have already failed in their objectives,” he said.

“The longer they remain, the weaker they become, and the more they risk further damage to their military and political standing.”

He also noted that even NATO allies have refused to join the US in the war. “NATO members have declined to support the US in this war,” Shekarchi said.

“They understand that engaging in this conflict would only bring more instability and harm to their own nations.”

Despite the heavy toll the war has taken on US and Israeli forces, Shekarchi emphasized that the Iranian economy remains resilient.

“Even in the face of the most intense military pressure, our economy has held up,” he said. “We have faced challenges, but our resolve has only strengthened. The Iranian people are united, and they will not be broken.”

He pointed out that the US is facing significant economic costs as a result of the war, and that these costs would continue to mount as the conflict drags on.

“The world is beginning to see that the US is no longer the dominant power it once was,” Shekarchi said.

“We are confident that in the long run, the global community will shift its stance on the U.S. and its aggressive policies.”

As the war continues, Shekarchi emphasized Iran’s determination to press on until its goals are achieved.

“The US and the zionist regime are mistaken if they think we will back down,” he warned. “Our resolve is stronger than ever, and we will continue to fight until we achieve our objectives.”

He reiterated Iran’s commitment to defending its sovereignty and ensuring the security of the region.

“We will not stop until the American and Israeli forces are removed from the region, and until our conditions are met,” Shekarchi said.

This is our Moncada, our Bay of Pigs — Cuba

Driving from the José Martí International Airport to the Cuban capital, Havana, you are immediately struck by the emptiness of the major road. A few cars here and there, some refashioned motorcycles, resembling the Tuk-Tuks of Asia, but overall, there is a notable calm, an absence of movement.

This is not surprising given that over three months have passed since the last shipment of fuel reached the island. According to Cuban authorities, even before Trump announced the executive order declaring Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security on January 31, fuel shipments were already being blocked.

But what does it mean for no fuel to enter an island nation with very limited oil resources of its own and whose electrical grid runs on fuel? This means the limiting of essential services like transportation, education, and healthcare to millions of people. It means that Cuba has had to launch emergency plans in all sectors of life to ration the little fuel and energy they have.

In a public address last week, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel denounced that there are over 100,000 patients awaiting surgeries due to the fuel shortage, including children.

Let Cuba Live Youth Brigade arrives in Havana

“What do you call a policy that specifically targets civilians and their ability to survive? What is that if not genocide?” Manolo De Los Santos, executive director of The People’s Forum, asked participants of the Let Cuba Live Youth Brigade. “30,000 pregnant women are being denied their right to comprehensive pre-natal care because of this blockade,” he added.

40 young organizers from across North America traveled to the island as part of the Let Cuba Live Youth Brigade. Hailing from organizations such as the Palestinian Youth Movement, Nodutdol: Korean Community Development, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Feminist Collective in Construction, Artists Against Apartheid, and others, young activists have declared they are rejecting the “Trump administration’s genocidal siege against the Cuban people” and demonstrating their “solidarity and friendship against the growing threats of war.” Their brigade is part of the international solidarity mission called the Nuestra América Convoy. Hundreds of activists from across the globe traveled to Cuba from Italy, Colombia, Britain, Brazil, and several other countries, bringing with them several tons of urgently needed humanitarian aid.

In addition to the delivery of humanitarian aid, the international effort seeks to send a message of political solidarity, to affirm that the peoples of the world stand with Cuba, when many have turned their backs on it. In the last couple of months, Honduras, Guatemala, and Jamaica suspended their medical cooperation agreements with Cuba. While publicly the justifications for the move varied, it is hard to imagine that it was a coincidence amid the high-pressure campaign waged by the Trump administration.

The Cuban people prepare to defend the revolution

Amid Washington’s maximum pressure campaign against Cuba, mainstream media outlets in the United States and across Europe and Latin America, have been falsely proclaiming the “fall of the revolution”. Anti-Cuba hawks like Marco Rubio have made flippant comments suggesting that he, and the United States are “ready” to “take over” Cuba.

While the moment is critical, the Cuban people profess a deep sense of pride, patriotism, and commitment to fight for their sovereignty and dignity, reiterating that they are open to dialogue but not to negotiate their sovereignty.

“We are ready to defend our land at any cost. This is the commitment of the young Cuban people,” said Mirthia Brossard of the Young Communist League of Cuba.

“This is not the end of the revolution; this is another stage. This is our Moncada, our Bay of Pigs. The young people of Cuba trust in the revolution and have confidence that we will overcome this moment … we are building the future with our own hands.”

On March 21, hundreds of international volunteers, including British MP Jeremy Corbyn, Belgian MEP Marc Botenga, Colombian legislator María Fernanda Carrascal, Irish rappers Kneecap, US rapper Vic Mensa, among others, will gather in Havana, Cuba, for a solidarity event.

source: People’s Dispatch

A Continental Call From Africa: Standing With Cuba Against Imperialist aggression

Across the African continent, progressive movements, grassroots organizations, and Pan-African networks are rallying in renewed solidarity with Cuba at a moment of deepening crisis. While global media narratives often reduce Cuba’s situation to internal failure (a narrative activists and many Cubans claim is imperialist propaganda), African movements are advancing solidarity rooted in history and shared struggle. International solidarity with the people of Cuba is rising, with caravans of medicines and food supplies being mobilized to support the island in the face of the ongoing siege.

Cuba today faces severe shortages of fuel, energy, and essential goods. These hardships are real and deeply felt. They are the direct outcome of a prolonged economic war, by the United States’ decades-long embargo, now intensified into new levels of inhumanity.

Since the victory of the Cuban Revolution, Cuba has stood as a defiant example of resistance to imperial domination. Its continued commitment to a socialist path, despite immense external pressure, has made it both a symbol of sovereignty and a target of sustained aggression.

Cuba and Africa: a history of shared struggle

Cuba, a nation of roughly 11 million people, has played an outsized role in supporting liberation struggles across the Global South. Its contributions have never been symbolic alone; they have been material, strategic, decisive, and often made at great sacrifice.

From the early years of African independence, Cuba provided weapons, training, and political support to liberation movements. Its role in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau was particularly significant. In Angola, over 300,000 Cubans fought alongside African liberation movements against apartheid South African aggression, contributing to decisive victories, such as the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. This turning point weakened apartheid South Africa militarily and politically, accelerating the independence of Namibia and contributing to the eventual collapse of apartheid.

A continental call

In a statement endorsed by multiple organizations, Pan-Africanism Today has articulated a clear and uncompromising position of solidarity from Africa.

The statement situates Cuba’s crisis within the global context of intensifying imperialism:

“We write to you at this crucial moment in history, characterized by the increasing barbarism of United States imperialism and the equally growing anti-imperialist resistance of the peoples of the world. We write not only to offer words of comfort, but to reaffirm active solidarity and internationalism forged through decades of shared struggle against a common enemy.”

Linking Cuba’s situation to global struggles from Palestine to Iran, the statement puts it clearly the blockade is not an isolated policy but part of a wider system that has “abandoned all pretence of legality, morality, and human decency.”

And, “a persistent act of war against an entire people … one of the gravest ongoing crimes against humanity in the modern era.”

Recent escalations, including new measures under US policy, have intensified this reality, particularly through restrictions affecting fuel supplies, with devastating implications for hospitals, food systems, and daily life.

Internationalism vs. imperialism

African movements contrast Cuba’s global role with that of imperial powers. Where dominant states deploy sanctions and military force, Cuba has historically deployed doctors, teachers, and technical support.

From sending medical brigades across Africa to training thousands of African students in medicine, Cuba has embodied a form of internationalism rooted in solidarity rather than extraction.

As the statement affirms: “You have not lectured us; you have shown us.”

This distinction is central. Cuba’s internationalism is not charity; it has been a political commitment grounded in a shared struggle against domination.

Solidarity is our responsibility

For African progressives, supporting Cuba is not about gratitude, it is about political responsibility in the face of a common enemy.

The statement unequivocally declares:

• We condemn the criminal blockade of Cuba with contempt and pledge to intensify every effort to end it – politically, diplomatically, and in the court of international public opinion.
• We commit to strengthening our solidarity with the Cuban people and to ensuring that the truth about Cuba’s revolutionary achievements, and the crimes against it, reaches the widest possible audiences across our continent and the world.
• We salute the leadership of the Cuban Revolution for its steadfastness in the face of an ongoing US-led imperialist siege.
• We honor the memory of the revolution’s giants – such as Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Haydée Santamaría and others – by dedicating ourselves to upholding their example in our own struggles.
• We stand with the Cuban people as you withstand the latest tightening of the imperialist stranglehold.

“You do not face this alone. An injury to Cuba is an injury to all of us.”

Cuba’s experience stands as living proof that another world is not only imaginable, but possible. As the statement concludes, “The task now, as African progressives insist, is to fight to make that world a reality. We commit ourselves to doing precisely that: building the organized power of workers, peasants, women, and youth; deepening the anti-imperialist consciousness of our peoples; and forging the continental and international unity in action. This can break the chains of capitalism and imperialism – our ability to work together and construct the socialist world that the people of Cuba have dared to demonstrate is necessary. A world for the many, built by the many!”

source: Peoples Dispatch

US, Israeli Attacks Have Damaged Nearly 500 Schools, 300 Health Centers in Iran

Over 82,000 civilian structures have been damaged by US and Israeli bombardments, the Red Crescent says.

https://truthout.org/articles/us-israeli-attacks-have-damaged-nearly-500-schools-300-health-centers-in-iran/

#usa #uspolitics #war #israel #iran #imperialism #capitalism #palestine #netanyahu #news #press

Finnish troops with a Maxim machine gun during the Winter War against Soviet invasion, 1939-1940

https://piefed.social/c/historyphotos/p/1921006/finnish-troops-with-a-maxim-machine-gun-during-the-winter-war-against-soviet-invasion-1

Land for security in #Ukraine negotiations must be rejected

Talks to end #Ukraine-Russia war resumed in #US, albeit without #Russia

With or without Russian participation #Trump & his highly #inexperienced #negotiators press Ukraine to concede territory for some kind of security arrangement

That is what #Putin keeps insisting is “non-negotiable.”

- Territorial concessions to a brutal aggressor is unconscionable

https://kyivindependent.com/land-for-security-in-ukraine-negotiations-must-be-rejected/

#RussianInvasion #imperialism #TrumpIsARussianAsset