CW: Pakistani cop shoots towards protesters.
It's important to note that this conflict and especially the news of Khamenei's assassination have sparked significant protests are MANY American embassies in the region.
And in turn, local police have turned up to put down the protests and this has resulted in dozens of dead civilians who have died at the hands of local cops.
In one such incident from Pakistan local cops and US marines killed & injured protesters.
In Bahrain, protesters were seen throwing molotovs at local cops while Iran continued to bomb US bases over head.
Partner's of Bahrain have been trying to move more troops in to put down protests and guard smoldering US bases but Iran also crashed drones into key bridges needed to cross into the territory.
Will be interesting to see if those new forces are welcomed as warmly...
In response to the escalating civilian deaths, Iran appears to have massively escalated their missile response, firing an estimated 100 ballistic missiles at Israel.
The number of success full impacts is unreal.
#Israel #TelAviv#Iran #TruePromise4
One thing is becoming very clear. The US can strike Iran and VERY hard. The west can kill pretty much any specific Iranian they want.
BUT Iran can absolutely flip the table.
The US bases are not safe.
The typical R&R spots are not safe.
The US Embassies are not safe.
Even standing too close to those things and especially playing host to the US now makes your economy a fair target to Iran.
With shipping closed, countries like Suadi Arabia can face a food crisis in weeks.
I'm also starting to hear geopol experts pointing now to the vulnerability of water desalination plants in the region.
If Iran targets these MANY Gulf States will have water shortages as some rely on these plants for up to 60% of their clean drinking water.
Iran is really holding all the cards.
Imo the region needs the US to beg for a ceasefire in only a handful of days.
The breaking news I'm following now is that Israel+US bombed the Iranian Assembly of Experts during Supreme Leader vote.
This was an attempted political assassination on a grand scale!
Now Iran does have a complex succession strategy which includes not allowing all leaders in to this vote so, per usual these were VERY brave people who simply went to vote on their next leader.
There's a ton of former US military officiers giving very grim assessments of the US's current position in this unnecessary war.
U.S. Army officer Stanislav Krapivnik makes the same observation I noticed, that US soldiers were filming and posting videos of their bases being bombed AFTER they were evacuated from the bases.
Iran is NOW collecting+acting on that intel (or had it already) to target the hotels troops are sheltering in.
Opsec fail.
Meanwhile Retired U.S. Army Colonel and former Secretary of Defense advisor Douglas Macgregor says the US Navy will be using ports in India.
He underscores the real risk now is that Iran has already destroyed most US bases and shown they can and will respond to Israel's aggression with a relentless missile war.
The experts are starting to worry that Israel will try to use a nuke on Iran when they run out of missile defenses.
I don't think I've ever seen this much unified anti-war rhetoric directly from people who you'd typically hear working on helping improve the US military's effectiveness.
https://escalationtrap.substack.com/p/the-escalation-ledger-iran-day-3
Not only does the US air strategy not work... I have my doubts about the US experts saying things like they will rely on Indian ports now.
As if the actual Indians want this crap coming to them. Many Indian Muslims are grieving just as much as Pakistan.
Increasing US military presence is just going to add additional internal conflict for India. I worry US military personnel won't be safe at any viable port.
The US also seriously miscalculated on the economic impacts Iran can create.
TikTokers Hasan Piker talks the web of economic damage caused by Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz.
Japan says they had NO warning about the US going to war. The country gets 70% of its oil through the Strait and has less than a year of reserves.
Japan warns the unplanned economic fallouts of war will be an issue for them.
https://partyon.xyz/@nullagent/116166158831417257
#Japan #straitofhormuz #Iran #Israel #OilWar #economics #HasanPiker
Former Veteran + NASA astronaut and current Senator Mark Kelly took Elbridge Colby (The Undersecretary of Defense for Policy) to task in the senate today.
Kelly and many other politicians have been poking holes in the Trump administrations reasons for attack Iran.
Mark Kelly points to the fact that none of Iran's missiles can reach the US as why he thinks starting a war with Iran doesn't make sense.
They aren't a threat to America.
Senator Mark Warner, who has access to some of the most sensitive US intelligence says he saw NO signs of a threat to the United States which would justify Trump's actions.
News on US military casualities is slowly climbing we're now at six confirmed dead US service members
This article from yesterday points to the fact that scores of service members were missing, the US military didn't declare them dead until locating their bodies in a US facility.
“recently recovered the remains of two previously unaccounted for service members from a facility that was struck during Iran’s initial attacks in the region”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/02/iran-attack-fourth-us-service-member-killed
Again, I gotta repeat, I've never seen the US propaganda machine trying to walk back a military intervention so hard in my LIFE.
We got former CIA analysts like Larry Johnson saying if the US is gonna kill an Iranian, why would they kill someone like Khamenei?
Khamenei has politically blocked Iran from completing a nuclear weapon for 36 years.
Johnson argues, that's the type of person he'd expect the US to leave in power.
I'm not going to post any more CIA talking heads, but there's a raft of them and quite a number of former spooks I don't trust are saying this whole Iran idea was a bad idea.
Democratic politicians like Jeff Merkley are saying Trump's actions are wholely unconstitutional.
They are chaffing at the idea that Congress was not consulted.
While I do believe Democrats wouldn't have done something so wreckless as Trump, I fully expected a Democrat to try Iran.
Some uncomfortable clips for Democrats are making the rounds today push by folks in support of US intervention in Iran.
In this one from 2011 Nancy Pelosi defends Barak Obama's region change operations in Libya without congressional approval and without any material threat of harm to the US from Libya.
Back in 2011, Democrats were ALL for wreckless wars. Imo the only thing that change is they weren't the caughtup in the beltway group think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_domestic_reactions_to_the_2011_military_intervention_in_Libya
Meanwhile March Rubio makes much the same case for the Trump administration's attacks on Iran as Nancy Pelosi agreed with back in 2011.
"NO presidential administration has ever accepted the War Powers Act as Constitutional" -Marco Rubio
And I regretfully agree with Marco, no US president has really given a damn about congress when starting / continuing wars.
While the American's were pointing fingers the Iranians have put on massive demonstrations throughout the last few nights.
Videos from just a few hours ago in Tehron show crowds holding a memorial for Khamemei while air defense systems actively confront American & Israel drones and fighter jets in the sky above.
The Iranian people are not cowering in fear.
There, as of yet, does not be a popular movment against the regiem.
Quite the opposite.
There's a handy website to view live estimates of the cost to US taxes payers for the war in Iran.
It's updated as facilities are damaged, planes shot down and ammunition spent.
It's almost morning time in Tel Aviv and by all accounts the night went horribly for Israelis as has become routine.
Iranian missiles were seen sailing right past air defense to strike targets on the ground.
In Bahrain drones were seen continuing to strike hotels suspected of hosting American troops.
In Dubai drones were seen targetting the US consulate. Throughout the night the building was seen with large flames leaping from the roof.
The next escalation many expect to come from the US and Israel proxy groups.
According to reports from DC tonight it appears the US is planning to heavily arm Kurdish separatist fighters and is pushing high quality propaganda to build support for the move.
Had the recent Iranian migrants waited a few more weeks it seems to me that they could easily have a completely different opinion had they watched the US bomb the very same people they wish to save.
I'm not the only person who questions the type of "freedom fighter" who aligns with the US at a time like this.
The US literally this week has blind sided pretty much all of it's world partners, you saw what we did in Afghanistan etc, why on earth would anyone think partnering with the US is a wise move?
Hasan Piker has similar thoughts...
There a diverse perspectives among Iranians in the diaspora, a common refrain is that regime change in this way is completely untenable.
Many Iranians feel that the US has put their families in far greater risk than existed before.
This clip brought to you by Mastodon's own @ChuckModi1
A Black American interviewed by @ChuckModi1 does an amazing job arguing Iran is NOT a distraction from the Epstein files.
In her view the Epstein files is nothing new. She asks, "what do you think they were doing during slavery?" connecting that sex trafficking and horrible crimes against children is an American legacy dating back to slavery & genocide of the Indians.
The leaders don't give a fuck that we know they're monsters, it's all business as usual.
So anyways, a lot of people are seeing through this Kurdish angle and are urging the diaspora to weigh their options more carefully.
CNN points out that many Iraqi Kurdish forces actually have normalized economic relations with Turkey and Iran which likely places large numbers of Kurds whom the US hope will support the war effort in an impossible situation.
CNN predicts that the Kurds will launch a ground attack before the end of the week.
US Senators leaving a closed door military briefing appeared upset and shaken at the apparent news that the US may be planning to a land invasion of Iran involving US troops (not just Kurdish separatist).
Multiple congress people voiced their concerns much like Blumenthal
#Blumenthal #DC #USPol #Iran #US #EpicFury #KhameneiAssassination
Rhode Island congressman Seth Magaziner had this to say about tonight's breifing
#RI #RhodeIsland #SethMagaziner #DC #EpicFury #EpicFailure #Iran #KhameneiAssassination
The strategy of having the Iraqi Kurds lead the charge, figuratively and seemingly physically, has some enourmous hurdles.
I think this CNN segment hits the nail on the head.
The Kurds are at best 10% of Iran's population. When the US last exploited them in Syria we had to provide them constant air patrols and special forces support for two years and the US ultimately betrayed the Syrian Kurds.
It's hard to imagine Iraqi Kurds having a different go of it
The US military's CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper gave an update on "Epic Fury" (more like epic failure).
There's so much wrong with his assessment I don't know where to start. Earlier in the thread I linked a blog post and video from Prof Robert Pape literally taught targeting strategy classes at US AirForce schools explains most of what the establishment is getting wrong right now 👇🏿
https://partyon.xyz/@nullagent/116166498265422657
#CENTCOM #BradCooper #EpicFury #EpicFailure #US #Iran #KhameneiAssassination
CW: Military SA occurs the most during deployments
So anyways, fuck that CENTCOM imperialst crusader shithead.
A lot of people are about to be seriously harmed by the US military and that doesn't stop at the enemy or civilizians. This sadly includes the US solders themselves.
The address which Ali Khamemei made on June 4th 2020, shortly after the death of George Floyd, is making the rounds again today.
In his remarks Khamemei says the knee on George Floyd's neck is the same one which has been on Iran's neck and many other countries around the world.
Folks may not know but this but Ali Khamemei's predecessor, Ruhollah Khomeini, showed solidarity with Black Americans and especially Black South Africans.
During the Iranian Revolution Ali Khamemei personally saw to it that all but one of the Black American hostages taken during the crisis were released first.
He specifically cited the history of oppression of Black Americans as his reason for commuting their sentences.
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/732139
https://english.khamenei.ir/news/7744/When-did-Imam-Khomeini-let-out-the-cry-of-Black-Lives-Matter
There's so much to be said about the course of battle, but I think most of us hardly know the guy whose death is really sparking this all off.
Despite the internal accusations and reality of the Iranian regime, their spokespeople moved through the leadership class in a way that Americans have clearly forgotten how to do.
In 2017 Ali Khamemei say that Malcolm X was a martyr and took the time in the UN to pay his respects.
One of Ali Khamemei's final remarks to his followers shows how steadfast his belief in the Iranian Revolution remained to the end.
The crowd cries as he states:
"My life has little value. I have a disabled body. I have a little bit of dignity, which you yourself have given me.
I put all of this on the line.
I am ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of this revolution and for Islam
May all this be sacrificed for you."
nullagent
Wen