Puppet MastersS


Vader

How the neoconservative influence over U.S. war-making paved the way for Trump's war crimes in Iran

AbdalJawad Omar
Mondoweiss
Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00 UTC
Trump
© White House/Daniel Torok/FLICKRUS President Donald Trump oversees the War on Iran from Mar-A-Lago • Palm Beach, Florida • March 1, 2026
Donald Trump's naked threats to target Iran's civilian infrastructure are the culmination of a strand of neoconservative thought that has defined U.S. war-making over three decades, from the Iraq war to Obama's drone campaigns to the Gaza genocide.

On Sunday morning, as Christians across Iran and the world marked Easter, Donald Trump posted a profanity-laced ultimatum on Truth Social:
"Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran," he wrote. "Open the Fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH!"
The post was the latest in a week of escalating threats — to bomb Iran "back to the Stone Ages," to destroy its power plants, bridges, and "possibly all desalinization plants" after a ten-day deadline issued on March 26 expires at 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Over a hundred international law experts have already warned that targeting civilian infrastructure constitutes a war crime under the Geneva Convention. Trump, characteristically, appears neither to have read their letter nor to care.

The language is Trump's own: crude, performative, calibrated for the scroll. But the logic it serves is not his. It belongs to a longer and more deliberate tradition of strategic thought — one that was articulated, with far greater sophistication, more than three decades ago. It has been advancing, precedent by precedent, toward exactly this moment, and to understand how threats of destroying Iranian civilian infrastructure not only became thinkable but inevitable, one must return to the man who first laid the intellectual groundwork for it in the contemporary age: Eliot Cohen.

Comment: How war morphed from 'there to here' 'from then to now' over decades by specific design:
Gulf War Air Power Survey Summary Report by Thomas A. Keaney and Eliot A. Cohen

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X

US satellite firm blacks out Iran war images per US government request

Alan Mosley
News.Antiwar.com
Sun, 05 Apr 2026 06:12 UTC
Aerial View Tehran
© Planet Labs PBC/Handout/REUTERSSatellite image shows Iran’s Law Enforcement Command (FARAJA) in Tehran, Iran • March 3, 2026
Planet Labs says it will "indefinitely withhold" satellite visuals of Iran and the wider Middle East war zone after a request from the US government and the Trump administration. In an email to customers, the firm said it is shifting to a "managed distribution" model, releasing imagery only case-by-case for "urgent, mission-critical requirements," or when release is deemed "in the public interest." Planet also said it will withhold imagery dating back to March 9, and it expects the policy to remain in effect until the conflict ends.

On March 6, Planet Labs announced a mandatory 96-hour delay on new imagery collected over the Gulf states, arguing that near-real-time pictures could be exploited to "endanger allied, NATO, and civilian personnel." That measure later expanded into a 14-day delay, described by Planet as an extension of the earlier hold. By March 30, Al Jazeera's Digital Investigations unit was reporting that independent verification had become harder as commercial providers restricted satellite imagery.
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Attention

US suffered major strategic defeat in failed Isfahan operation


PressTV Iran
Tue, 07 Apr 2026 17:58 UTC
US Debacle
© PressTV Iran
Information obtained by Press TV regarding the recent operation by the US-Israeli coalition in the central Isfahan province reveals a major strategic defeat for the enemy.

US President Donald Trump's frantic threats in the past few days to target Iran's civilian infrastructure, including power plants and bridges, are a direct consequence of the heavy defeat suffered by the US forces in the Isfahan operation.

The failed raid was carried out after the enemy conducted extensive aerial reconnaissance operations in the days leading up to the attack, according to the exclusive information.

During those initial infiltration and reconnaissance missions, the US and possibly the Zionist regime lost a significant number of aircraft, including at least one A-10 Thunderbolt II and two Black Hawk helicopters.

The information obtained by Press TV reveals that "zero hour" for the failed Isfahan operation was set during a secret meeting at the White House under the direct supervision of the US president himself.

It has now become clear that this operation had no connection to the claimed rescue of a downed F-15 fighter pilot, a narrative initially pushed by American officials. Instead, evidence examined and confirmed by Press TV indicates that the real objective was to infiltrate and attack one of Iran's nuclear facilities in Isfahan.

The landing site for C-130 transport aircraft, chosen based on previous reconnaissance, was an abandoned airstrip located dangerously close to one of these nuclear sites.
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Black Magic

Trump dragging Americans 'into hell' - Iranian parliament speaker


RT
Tue, 07 Apr 2026 10:26 UTC
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf at a media conference in Tehran, Iran, December 2, 2025.
Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has dismissed the US president's threat to bomb civilian infrastructure unless the Strait of Hormuz is fully reopened.

US President Donald Trump's war with Iran is making life worse for ordinary Americans, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has said in response to ultimatums over the Strait of Hormuz.

In an expletive-laden post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump warned that Iran would be "living in hell" unless the vital waterway is reopened to shipping by Tuesday, 8 PM Eastern Time (midnight GMT). He also repeated his threat to bomb Iranian power plants and bridges.

Responding on X, Qalibaf urged Trump to end what he described as a "dangerous game."

"Your reckless moves are dragging the United States into a living HELL for every single family, and our whole region is going to burn because you insist on following Netanyahu's commands," Qalibaf wrote, referring to the Israeli prime minister.

"Make no mistake: You won't gain anything through war crimes," the Iranian official added.
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Cult

The Iran war is a political project from the Torah

Matthieu Buge
RT
Mon, 30 Mar 2026 07:08 UTC
The Torah
Many aspects of the US-Israeli aggression look like attempts to fulfil biblical prophecies.

The current conflict between Iran and Israel isn't a classic war driven by strict geopolitical interests. Certainly, the rivalry between the two countries is very well known and everybody focuses on the Strait of Hormuz and the dramatic economic consequences of its disruption. Of course, a lot of people rightly observed the timing: this sudden turn of events has been perfect to bury the Epstein scandal under Palestinian, Lebanese, and Iranian (and even Israeli) rubble. But aren't these considerations purely temporary?

The conflict initiated by Israel (and into which it drew the US, as Joe Kent explained when he gave his resignation as director of US counterterrorism) can be seen as a completely irrational religious and eschatological adventure driven by Hebraic mythology. Let's try to take a look at three of its main pillars.
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Chess

Revisiting the four Iran War endgames: The peak pressure points

Peter Tchir
ZeroHedge
Sun, 05 Apr 2026 22:01 UTC
US / Iran War
© Public Domain
A Yogi Berra Kind of Weekend

There is something special about "home openers." The baseball season can drag on, but the home opener is such a great reminder that summer is on the way and that the possibility of winning it all remains in your reach. Maybe that is why I have Yogi Berra on my mind.

Or maybe, and far more likely, it is because a lot of recent discussions seem to lend themselves well to Yogi-isms. It is easy to start a conversation with a mindset of "we are pulling out soon, with a weak deal," and wind up ending at "we are all-in" for a final victory. And vice versa.
  • It ain't over 'til it's over.
  • When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
  • I didn't really say everything I said.
  • The future ain't what it used to be
To name a few.

On Wednesday we published our take on the likely and possible paths we would be on after the Presidential Address. After the address, all we could say was - all the paths are still in play. If that isn't in the realm of Yogi Berra, nothing is.
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Bullseye

EU Parliament shocks Brussels cabal: Rejects chat surveillance, approves deportation centers

Thomas Kolbe
ZeroHedge
Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:35 UTC
European Parliament
© Yves Herman/ReutersMembers of the European Parliament attend a plenary session, in Brussels, Belgium, on March 26, 2026.
Brussels' assault on industry and small-to-medium businesses is a child of German ideology. This applies not only to the absurd climate battle; German statism also reveals itself in the proposed spying system of EU-wide chat surveillance. The open-border policies, executed in the style of a hippie state, can be attributed equally and without hesitation to Germany's political record of this century.

Three dramatic political miscalculations, three intellectual detonations, leading to devastating societal consequences. All made in Germany, but certainly not made for Germany.

Berlin's climate crusade and hippie ideology have inflicted severe economic and societal damage on the European Union, sparking a social movement that points to deep internal cultural and social conflicts.

The next generation will struggle to preserve its identity in Europe and assert itself politically. That this identity is not even articulated on a national German level guarantees the exclusion of the AfD under the Brandmauer-Ägide.

Comment: Germany seems to be suffering from 'suicidal empathy', enacting seemingly compassionate policies that in actuality are destroying it as a nation, whether it is climate, immigration or other policies.The phenomenon in a nutshell:



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Vader

Best of the Web: Why Iran is becoming Trump's 'forever war'

Murad Sadygzade
RT
Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:07 UTC
us iran flags conflict quagmire war
© Shutterstock
As long as attacks and demands continue unabated, reasonable voices for peace will never be heard

More than a month into the war with Iran, Washington is confronting the strategic nightmare it tried to avoid. What began as a campaign that many in the US and Israel appear to have imagined as short, punishing, and politically manageable has instead become prolonged, expensive, globally destabilizing, and increasingly difficult to define as success.

The battlefield logic is now inseparable from the political logic, and on both fronts the pressure is mounting on Donald Trump's administration. Reuters reports that the conflict, launched on February 28, has disrupted global energy flows, driven oil sharply higher, pushed US gasoline prices above four dollars a gallon, and dragged US President Donald Trump's approval rating down to 36%, the lowest level since his return to office.

How to sell a war

A domestic audience can be persuaded to see a short war as an act of decisive leadership, but a long war becomes a test of competence, a source of inflation, a burden on allied relations, and eventually a question about whether the White House ever had a serious political endgame. Trump, who built much of his political appeal on the promise that he would be stronger than his predecessors and yet less trapped by endless wars, now faces the opposite image. The longer this campaign drags on, the more it looks like a war of choice with no clean exit, one that hurts households at the gas pump, deepens strategic uncertainty, and gives Tehran new ways to impose costs without needing conventional military parity.
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Calendar

Trump says Tuesday deadline for Iran to accept ceasefire 'final, won't change'; Israel takes out experienced IRGC intel chief

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Mon, 06 Apr 2026 12:30 UTC
USPresDonald Trump
© UnknownTrump says Tuesday deadline to make a deal.
Summary:
  • A Sunday night Axios report on a US-proposed 45-day ceasefire has by Monday morning been rejected by Iran, which later on Monday issued a 10-point letter via Pakistan.
  • Israel strikes large petrochemical plant at South Pars, which is responsible for half of the country's petrochemical production.
  • Trump reaffirms Tuesday deadline before vital infrastructure gets attacked as 'final', calls Americans opposed to Iran war 'foolish' - saying it's all about Tehran not getting a nuke.
  • Israel kills experienced longtime head of IRGC intelligence; Iranian missile strike on Haifa residential complex kills 4.
With all that in mind, the odds of a ceasefire by April 30, 2026 are rising (but still low)...28%

IRGC Intel Chief Taken Out; Israel Suffers Heavy Casualties

The head of the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed in a Monday airstrike, according to confirmation in Iranian media. IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency reported that the IRGC Public Relations Department confirmed Monday that Major General Majid Khademi was killed earlier in the day during an attack by US and Israeli forces. However, Tasnim did not disclose the location of the strike.
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Star of David

"Agents of Influence": How Netanyahu, through Trump's family circle, dragged America into war to save his own skin

Viktor Mikhin
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00 UTC
Joe Kent/Tucker Carlson
© UnknownFormer Director of of US National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent • Tucker Carlson
The Resignation That Exposed the Mechanism of Betrayal of U.S. National Interests.

On March 19, 2026, an event occurred that, in a normal political system, should have caused an earthquake. Joe Kent, Director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, resigned. But not for family reasons or due to "differences over strategic issues" — the euphemisms Washington typically uses to cover up the departure of those who have fallen out of favor. Kent stepped down with a public statement that reads like an indictment: "I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran."

This is not just a resignation. It's the removal of a seal behind which lay the ugly truth about how foreign policy decisions are actually made in the United States. Kent, a veteran of special forces and the CIA, a man whose wife died in Syria while on duty, stated what Washington usually prefers to keep quiet: the Trump administration launched a war with Iran under pressure from Israel and its powerful lobby.

Iran did not pose an "imminent threat" to the United States. This was acknowledged by a man who, by virtue of his position, had access to the most classified information on terrorist threats. Yet America found itself drawn into a full-scale military conflict that has already cost the lives of American service members — at least 13 killed and about 200 wounded (at the time of this writing).

How did this become possible? The answer to this question leads straight to Jerusalem, to the office of Benjamin Netanyahu, who found a way to use the U.S. president as a tool to achieve his own political and personal goals.

Comment: When a lie costs a man his whole country...the truth has the most value.
See also:

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