Brilliant analysis and investigative journalism. So how exactly does one gauge success in this war?
For the Iranian’s; all they need to do is survive and stay in control of the Straight of Hormuz. So far: Mission Accomplished!
For Trump; all he needs to do is declare victory, send our troops home and flood the zone with more crap until another Epstein scandal rears its ugly head!
For Israel; they’ve jumped ahead of their ski’s and it’s going to bite them in the ass—HARD! However, that won’t stop Netanyahu from claiming victory by destroying much of Iran’s ability to strike at the heart of Israel: For Now! Not to mention the fact that they’ve increased their kingdom by invading Lebanon. Extending into Syria. And confiscating land in Gaza and The West Bank!
As for the rest of us: we’ve already lost! And regardless of the outcome, any victory for America will be phyrric—Trump just insured the inevitability of America’s future demise!
Lastly, in my opinion for what’s it worth—before all this ends, Iran will announce it has several operational nuclear weapons and they will be willing to use them!
Additionally, we will watch as the entire developed world goes nuclear—if they haven’t already; since it may be the only way to avoid an invasion from either Trump, Putin, Netanyahu or Xi—into the future!
Let’s just hope that every country has learned from the Ukrainian’s biggest mistake ever; agreeing to the Budapest Memorandum! IMHO…:)
The whole world order is falling apart, Israel is collapsing under the weight of too many fronts, the US regime is also collapsing yet Iran is the country that is close to regime change? Despite all of the supposed success of the military might of the US and Israel Iran continues to inflict damage.
It might be true that there are black ops efforts to stop the repression of Iranian dissent but there is no significant reason to think that it is any more successful than the white ops.
Neoliberalism. Named after the late 20th century economic theory that the rich should exercise total control over all aspects of society, and lie about it.
When the Neoliberals conquered the Earth, it wasn’t in face-to-face military battles like the ancient Romans or British used. Instead, the Neoliberals won by destabilizing and corrupting all competing power structures. Conquest is expensive. Tearing down is easy. To invade and occupy a nation-state would require planning, resources, and intelligence. To disrupt it? That only requires the technological high ground and a total lack of scruples. Destroy the power stations and water pumps. Sabotage their data networks, use your vast financial wealth to bribe political parties to betray their nation, block them from the international financial system, ensure that the mainstream media 24/7 slander and belittle and ignore the patriots.
The primary strength of the Neoliberals was their total lack of shame. You could catch them in lies, or contradictions, they could screw up totally, or rob you blind, and they wouldn’t care. They would just go on saying whatever they wanted to say and doing whatever they wanted to do. Neoliberalism is the application of power without moral restraint. You cannot debate them, you cannot reason with them. You can suck up to them and hope to be rewarded. You can do nothing and they will crush you into abject slavery. Oppose them in the slightest way, and they will destroy you by any means possible. Appeals to conscience are as useful as fighting cancer by asking for sympathy. Ultimately, the only winning strategy for dealing with Neoliberalism is to kill it
Ken, thanks for critical, straight, unflinching reporting and analysis that does not seem to be available elsewhere. Too much reporting in both the mainstream and alternative/independent media seems to be clouded by sentiment, partisanship or propaganda. Bravely telling one's audience what they likely don't want to hear is not the way to prosper in any segment of today's media environment, but it is one of the necessary ingredients in the best and most valuable journalism.
Yep, all true, and thanks for reporting, but this leaves more questions open than it answers. It remains unclear (1) how much of Israel's and the US's asset base within Iran was burned up in the 12 day war and the January protests, (2) how much they've been able to build/rebuild since then, (3) whether they are able to move any special forces or other US elements within Iran, and (4) whether they can generate any cracks in the regime.
Israel and the US are famously good at signals intelligence, and identifying and targeting individuals they can scare, bribe or blackmail (and then assassinate everyone above those people until they reach some level of power). But in the current environment, it's not clear they can generate a critical mass, or even enough sense of a critical mass to convince someone to go first and challenge the regime. Further, it's hard to imagine any popular protests breaking out against the regime while bombs are falling.
Regime change has been the true agenda in all the US Mid-East wars "of choice," acknowledged or not. But, as there is little local support for US puppets, and rather enduring distrust and hatred for American interference, the result has been chaos upon chaos. The Israelis are fine with that of course, as are some US businesses.
I am strongly in the minority here, but I think this war can still be a win for Trump - if he gets the regime change change. Venezuela was a win for him.
If he backs down, we'll have a very angry regime hellbent on getting nukes.
Thank you, @Ken Klippenstein, for your continual, trustworthy, reliable, in-depth, investigative reporting. You have my confidence, respect, and support. Your work is crucial today.
I’ve read posts debunking or skeptical of the HRW story about 12 year old recruitments. With Drop Site News reporting that a regional director resigning from HRW due to an informative report not being released and related issues, I am starting to doubt whether HRW is honest with all its claims. Wonder if Ken or someone can look into HRW, its funding structure and donors, internal workings and leaderships.
I say it's more accurately a costume/disguise, one that anyone who wants to can now see they aren't hardly even trying to keep on anymore. Alas, US of Amnesia has to wake up to this over and over.
Happy April Fools day, don’t be an April’s fool !
Hope not
Brilliant analysis and investigative journalism. So how exactly does one gauge success in this war?
For the Iranian’s; all they need to do is survive and stay in control of the Straight of Hormuz. So far: Mission Accomplished!
For Trump; all he needs to do is declare victory, send our troops home and flood the zone with more crap until another Epstein scandal rears its ugly head!
For Israel; they’ve jumped ahead of their ski’s and it’s going to bite them in the ass—HARD! However, that won’t stop Netanyahu from claiming victory by destroying much of Iran’s ability to strike at the heart of Israel: For Now! Not to mention the fact that they’ve increased their kingdom by invading Lebanon. Extending into Syria. And confiscating land in Gaza and The West Bank!
As for the rest of us: we’ve already lost! And regardless of the outcome, any victory for America will be phyrric—Trump just insured the inevitability of America’s future demise!
Lastly, in my opinion for what’s it worth—before all this ends, Iran will announce it has several operational nuclear weapons and they will be willing to use them!
Additionally, we will watch as the entire developed world goes nuclear—if they haven’t already; since it may be the only way to avoid an invasion from either Trump, Putin, Netanyahu or Xi—into the future!
Let’s just hope that every country has learned from the Ukrainian’s biggest mistake ever; agreeing to the Budapest Memorandum! IMHO…:)
The whole world order is falling apart, Israel is collapsing under the weight of too many fronts, the US regime is also collapsing yet Iran is the country that is close to regime change? Despite all of the supposed success of the military might of the US and Israel Iran continues to inflict damage.
It might be true that there are black ops efforts to stop the repression of Iranian dissent but there is no significant reason to think that it is any more successful than the white ops.
Neoliberalism. Named after the late 20th century economic theory that the rich should exercise total control over all aspects of society, and lie about it.
When the Neoliberals conquered the Earth, it wasn’t in face-to-face military battles like the ancient Romans or British used. Instead, the Neoliberals won by destabilizing and corrupting all competing power structures. Conquest is expensive. Tearing down is easy. To invade and occupy a nation-state would require planning, resources, and intelligence. To disrupt it? That only requires the technological high ground and a total lack of scruples. Destroy the power stations and water pumps. Sabotage their data networks, use your vast financial wealth to bribe political parties to betray their nation, block them from the international financial system, ensure that the mainstream media 24/7 slander and belittle and ignore the patriots.
The primary strength of the Neoliberals was their total lack of shame. You could catch them in lies, or contradictions, they could screw up totally, or rob you blind, and they wouldn’t care. They would just go on saying whatever they wanted to say and doing whatever they wanted to do. Neoliberalism is the application of power without moral restraint. You cannot debate them, you cannot reason with them. You can suck up to them and hope to be rewarded. You can do nothing and they will crush you into abject slavery. Oppose them in the slightest way, and they will destroy you by any means possible. Appeals to conscience are as useful as fighting cancer by asking for sympathy. Ultimately, the only winning strategy for dealing with Neoliberalism is to kill it
Ken, thanks for critical, straight, unflinching reporting and analysis that does not seem to be available elsewhere. Too much reporting in both the mainstream and alternative/independent media seems to be clouded by sentiment, partisanship or propaganda. Bravely telling one's audience what they likely don't want to hear is not the way to prosper in any segment of today's media environment, but it is one of the necessary ingredients in the best and most valuable journalism.
This comment made my day - really. Thank you
Yep, all true, and thanks for reporting, but this leaves more questions open than it answers. It remains unclear (1) how much of Israel's and the US's asset base within Iran was burned up in the 12 day war and the January protests, (2) how much they've been able to build/rebuild since then, (3) whether they are able to move any special forces or other US elements within Iran, and (4) whether they can generate any cracks in the regime.
Israel and the US are famously good at signals intelligence, and identifying and targeting individuals they can scare, bribe or blackmail (and then assassinate everyone above those people until they reach some level of power). But in the current environment, it's not clear they can generate a critical mass, or even enough sense of a critical mass to convince someone to go first and challenge the regime. Further, it's hard to imagine any popular protests breaking out against the regime while bombs are falling.
I'm struck by how much #1 - 4 are just not knowable to us from the outside
HB Hawg
🫡
Regime change has been the true agenda in all the US Mid-East wars "of choice," acknowledged or not. But, as there is little local support for US puppets, and rather enduring distrust and hatred for American interference, the result has been chaos upon chaos. The Israelis are fine with that of course, as are some US businesses.
Excellent post.
I am strongly in the minority here, but I think this war can still be a win for Trump - if he gets the regime change change. Venezuela was a win for him.
If he backs down, we'll have a very angry regime hellbent on getting nukes.
Thank you, @Ken Klippenstein, for your continual, trustworthy, reliable, in-depth, investigative reporting. You have my confidence, respect, and support. Your work is crucial today.
Thank you Dede!
Would love to hear more from the Israeli people.
Informative and insightful as usual. Thanks!
I’ve read posts debunking or skeptical of the HRW story about 12 year old recruitments. With Drop Site News reporting that a regional director resigning from HRW due to an informative report not being released and related issues, I am starting to doubt whether HRW is honest with all its claims. Wonder if Ken or someone can look into HRW, its funding structure and donors, internal workings and leaderships.
Could you link? I double checked the recruitment post (in the original Farsi) myself and it saw it was authentic - did not rely on HRW for this alone
within the bounds of the law lmao
the law is a game to them, and they've gotten good at it
I say it's more accurately a costume/disguise, one that anyone who wants to can now see they aren't hardly even trying to keep on anymore. Alas, US of Amnesia has to wake up to this over and over.