War front updates: America opposes war on Iran

 

A war protest in New York last month. (Headline in Washington Post)

Americans have little appetite for sending troops to Iran, polls show

• Only 14% of Americans favor sending ground troops into Iran, while 62% oppose this. Almost all Democrats and 66% of Independents oppose sending in ground troops, while Republicans are divided, with 30% in favor and 37% opposed. 
• In the DC mental asylum, they dreamt up the concept of "Greater North America". In addition to the USA, it includes Canada, Greenland, Mexico, and the Caribbean countries. US Defence Secretary and professional drunkard, Pete Hegseth, displayed a map on which these regions are unified. Hegseth did not explain how these countries are supposed to be united, but emphasized: "Trump has drawn a new strategic map". 

• Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto: Israel has lost its mind and its humanity. 

• According to NPR, a 2nd E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft was damaged in the Iranian attack on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Previously images showed how one E-3 AWACS was destroyed beyond repair. 

• German airline Lufthansa may temporarily ground between 20 and 40 aircraft due to the jet fuel crisis stemming from the war in the Middle East. The increase in jet fuel prices in March will add €1.4 billion to its annual scheduled fuel cost budget. Since the start of the war, jet fuel prices in Europe have more than doubled, reaching record highs of over US$1,700 per metric ton. 
• Indonesia has introduced fuel rationing and required civil servants to work from home as it tries to conserve energy supplies amid rising global prices linked to the Iran war. 
• The UK will send Sky Sabre air defense systems to Saudi Arabia, extend the deployment of Typhoon jets in Qatar, and integrate a Lightweight Multirole Launcher into Bahrain’s defenses. Nearly 1,000 British troops are expected to be deployed to help install, operate, and support these systems. 
• About 348 US Army personnel have been injured so far, from Iranian attacks — CBS
• Israel bombed & destroyed one of Iran’s largest manufacturers for anti-cancer medicine, in Tehran’s Chitgar area. 
• Video reportedly showing an Iranian missile striking very close to U.S. troops in the Middle East. Notice the American accents. 

• Reporter: When will the U.S. be done with the war in Iran? Trump: I think in two or three weeks. We will leave.
• Professor John Mearsheimer on the Iran War: He (Trump) can't get out. He's stuck. He's escalating. He's looking for a way to win this. The problem is, he can't fix it. Once you climb the ladder of escalation, it's very difficult to climb back down. I don't see how he's going to get out of this without doing something about those ground troops.
• It was recently published showing Palestinian detainees in harsh detention conditions, with Hebrew text visible on the screen saying: "The time for (human) conditions is over, enter the cages". 

• Argentine bootlicker Javier Milei designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation. 
• Haaretz, citing sources: The Israeli army is barely catching its breath in southern Lebanon, and its resources are lower than in the previous round of fighting.
• Prime Minister of Japan: “We have agreed with France to work closely to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.”
• Trump adviser to Axios: “This is not a three-dimensional chess game—it’s a 12-dimensional one. He constantly contradicts himself, so no one knows what he’s thinking. He does that on purpose.”
• Lebanese Interior Minister: “Lebanon is facing devastating Israeli attacks as part of a war imposed upon it.”
• The Israeli army has acknowledged that 48 officers and soldiers were injured in the past 24 hours on the ground front with Hezbollah. It also acknowledged that 309 officers and soldiers have been injured, including 23 in critical condition, since the start of ground invasion attempts in southern Lebanon. (They don't announce how many IDF have died.) 

• According to the Wall Street Journal, citing officials: The UAE is preparing to assist U.S. and allied efforts to forcibly reopen the Strait of Hormuz, potentially making it the first Gulf state to directly enter combat following Iranian attacks. Officials say the UAE is pushing for a UN Security Council resolution authorizing such action and advocating for a multinational coalition to secure the waterway, even hinting at U.S. control over key islands in the strait.
• Arrival of U.S. ground-attack aircraft at a British base: 12 A-10C Thunderbolt II planes were spotted at RAF Lakenheath, used to support ground forces. 

• Prime Minister of Spain: “23 years ago, you dragged us into the war against Iraq, and no weapons of mass destruction were found. You cannot deceive us twice!.. You monsters!”
• United States: The U.S. announces its support for the law permitting the execution of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The U.S. State Department spokesperson stated: “The United States respects Israel’s sovereign right to determine its own laws and penalties for individuals convicted of terrorism,” adding, “We are confident that any such action will be carried out under a fair trial.”
• The Yemeni Armed Forces will not allow the Red Sea to become a base for military operations against Iran and Hezbollah. In this round of the war, Yemen will use new weapons. If Israel does not surrender and the international community fails in its duty to stop crimes against the people of Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran, we have many other options.”
• Professor Jeffrey Sachs – Trump & Netanyahu steering globe to tectonic economic breakdown. The US government is “in complete breakdown,” led by “gangsters who are completely out of their depth.” He warns that the professionals in the US government “are either crushed, forced to leave, thrown out, threatened or resigned.” The consequences, according to Sachs, may be “a complete collapse of the world energy supply.”

Film coming to Brunswick (Maine): Earth's Greatest Enemy

 U.S. cannot afford wars for empire

Pentagon climate crimes documented

By Lisa Savage 

Along the way in my development as an antiwar organizer, I began to think about a strategy shift from “wars for empire are morally wrong” (which propaganda prevents most in the U.S. from understanding) to “the U.S. cannot afford wars for empire.” After the crash of 2008 my target audience — U.S.ians who could be persuaded to oppose wars and militarism — was struggling economically. Still, as we waged the Bring Our War $$ Home campaign, I continued to notice that younger people mostly were not interested in resisting U.S. wars.

Here’s what they were concerned about and active around: climate crisis. 

It was about this time I learned that the Kyoto protocols exempted military emissions from being counted in a nation’s total. Because the atmosphere is patriotic? (Incidentally, this presaged the triumph of politics over scientific reasoning that the U.S. is experiencing on many fronts today.)

I compiled reports and research in English about the harms to climate of the U.S. military at a website I called Maine Natural Guard. Many signed a pledge to help connect the dots between “security” via warplanes and climate crisis. When I heard that Abby Martin of Empire Files was preparing a documentary on this subject, I gave a little seed money to the film “Earth’s Greatest Enemy.”

Now I’m excited to have helped organize a showing of the film next month in Brunswick, Maine.

Tickets are available on the Eveningstar Cinema website.

Tickets are free (must register in advance) but donations at the event will be welcome. We expect a full house so reserve your tix early if you plan to attend. 

We’re excited for the opportunity to zoom with producer/director Abby Martin following the screening.

Hope to see you there!

Your $$$ down the rat hole

 

Arrested at the Pentagon on Friday

Mary Beth and I took the train from Maine to Washington DC to attend a non-violent civil resistance action at the Pentagon on March 27. We were joined by Maine friends Lisa Savage and Mark Roman for the trip. We stayed at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in DC and were up early to get to the Pentagon as the military and civilian employees began to arrive for work.

This protest was organized by my long-time friend Patrick O'Neill who I met in Orlando, Florida in 1984 when he and seven others entered the Martin Marietta (since merged into Lockheed Martin) weapons production plant and hammered on the intermediate-range Pershing II nuclear missile which was deployed in Mutlangen, Germany by then President Ronald Reagan. (The missiles were aimed at Russia.) The Pershing Plowshares went to jail for three years. After getting out of jail Patrick came back to Orlando and lived at my house for some time to continue to help organize.

As it turned out March 27 was Patrick's birthday so he invited people from around the country to join him at the Pentagon for the action. The night before 100 people attended a birthday party for Patrick at a local church and the next morning a good sized crowd of around 60 people made our way thru a Pentagon parking lot to an entrance where the Pentagon subway stop has people pouring out of it as well a long line of people waiting to go thru security before entering the 'war department'. So we had a captive audience.

Catholic Worker Art Laffin led our group of 27 who risked arrest in singing while we held signs and banners. It took awhile but eventually about 50 Pentagon police and riot squad personnel showed up and began to give us warnings to leave or be arrested. Those who didn't intend to get arrested backed away but the rest of us continued singing.

One by one we were taken and handcuffed along a fence line and put on a bus and driven to the far side of a vast Pentagon parking lot to a building which appeared to be a training center for security dogs. 27 chairs were set up and we sat with our tight handcuffs on for several hours before the very disorganized authorities began to process us. Each of us were finger printed on a 'high-tech' machine that kept failing to get our prints and just one computer was available to record our vital statistics. Photos were taken of each of us as well.

We arrived at this place just before 10am and I got released at around 2pm. Others in our group didn't get released til after 4pm. 

Of course there was no media coverage other than what supporters created.

We were all given court dates in April and June.

MB and I are still at the Catholic Worker house where I will speak this coming Friday night on the subject of An organizer's view of endless war$ & rule by chaos theory.

Bruce

Upcoming statewide peace protest in Farmington, Maine

On Saturday April 11 at 1:30pm, join us in Farmington at the intersection of Main St. & Broadway to say no to war.

With imperial wars shifting into high gear now that the U.S. has foolishly attacked the well-armed and well-prepared Iran, the cost is calculated to be at least $2 billion per day. 

What is the lost opportunity cost of such insane levels of spending on the military? Many in the U.S. are already struggling to survive after decades without universal health care, affordable housing, or affordable higher education. Already galloping inflation in the price of fuel and food will continue to outpace incomes following the entirely predictable denial of enemy shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. And aside from fuel, interrupted fertilizer shipments during planting season are expected to make food more scarce and much more expensive in the coming year.

Join us to raise your voice against the madness! Stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza and Cuba (still being blockaded and starved), Lebanon and Iran (still being bombed daily). Say no to endless wars! Bring your own sign or use one of ours.

Our demands:

• End U.S. aid to racist apartheid Israel!
• U.S. hands off Venezuela!
• Peace in Ukraine - No weapons, no money for the Ukraine War
• Abolish NATO – End U.S. militarism & sanctions!
• Fund people’s needs, not the war machine!
• No war with China!
• Protect Earth’s environment from the deadly insult of war!
• Fight racism & bigotry not war!
• U.S. hands off Haiti!
• End AFRICOM

Co-sponsors: Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Maine Natural Guard, PeaceWorks of Greater Brunswick, Communist Party of Maine, Maine Green Independent Party, Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats (COAST), Party for Socialism & Liberation Maine, Libertarian Party of Maine, Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine, Veterans for Peace - National, United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights (MVPR), and Diaspora Pa’lante Collective.

Save the date!

The following monthly protest Saturday May 2 at 1:30pm in Lewiston (Maine & Lincoln Streets)  

Latest news update from zionist war zone

• Over a million Iranian citizens have been mobilized in anticipation of a US ground operation.
• Iran considers Ukraine a participant in the US and Israeli aggression against Tehran due to the sending of Ukrainian experts to counter drones in Arab countries.
• The $400 million ballroom being built in the new East Wing of the White House, includes a secure shelter, which is being built by the military. 
• After a month of war, Iran's control over the Strait of Hormuz has only strengthened reports Bloomberg. Tehran's ability to control the strait is increasing. Virtually all ships crossing it now do so along routes approved by Iran. Iran is preparing to pass a law introducing a fee that will require any ship wishing to pass through this area to provide detailed information and pay the fee.

• Ben-Gvir celebrates the passage of the law to allow execution of Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails. Netanyahu voted in favor of the law.

• A big march in Istanbul in support of the Palestinian cause and to demand the removal of American bases from Türkiye.
• South Korea stated that the government might expand restrictions on car use if the price of crude oil rises to between $120 and $130 per barrel, compared to the current range of $100 to $110. If implemented nationwide, this would be the first time South Korea has imposed nationwide restrictions on car use since World War II. South Korea imports approximately 70% of its crude oil from the Middle East.

• UK Ministry of Defence: Our forces shot down several Iranian drones last night as part of their operations in the Middle East.
• The American newspaper The Hill stated that any ground military operation against Iran would be considered a grave mistake.

• Previously in an interview on 60 Minutes, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared that the US agenda was to kill about as many Iranians as possible, in what was a declaration that genocide of the Iranian people was official policy in Washington. 

• The criminal Netanyahu says Iran wants to develop a nuclear weapon in order to target American cities.

• Trump posts a 1987 interview clip where he argues that the United States should take control of Iran’s oil infrastructure. 

• Marco Rubio on Iran: They need to stop building weapons that can threaten their neighbors.

• American soldiers hug their families before departing for the Middle East.
• The White House spokeswoman says Trump may ask Gulf Arab states to pay for a war with Iran.
• Iranian Foreign Ministry: We will not forget the betrayal our diplomacy suffered twice in less than a year. 
• The death of Bahraini citizen Sayed Mohammed Mohsen Mousavi, a pro-Iranian detainee, under torture has sparked violent protests in Bahrain. Bahrainis say that Mousavi's torture and killing is an official warning to silence dissenting voices.
• US Defense Secretary Hegseth's stock broker looked to buy defense fund before Iran attack...Reuters.
• The Greater North America according to the Dept. of War frat boy. Together with the wet dream of Greater Israel these guys still want to own the world with a pretense of ‘sharing’ the world. (Note the language very carefully .. we’re back into ‘increased burden sharing’, i.e., the other guy must pay for us to continue to live our lifestyle.) These people are buying themselves trouble and pain for others, that one cannot imagine. They are wanting to make a class of soldiers and serfs. Like Prof Hudson says .. “Workers — euphemized as “consumers”. This planet does not belong to Trump to redraw the maps. A pox on his maps. Again, take a look at Prof Hudson: “Trump clearly intends to deliberately create a world economic crisis lasting at least four years — as World War I and World War II did. He thinks this will put America in the driver’s seat: America is self-sufficient in gas and oil. Other countries will have to buy from us. And if they do, we’ll require them to impose sanctions against Russia, Iran, and anyone else we’ve designated as an enemy.”
• Say ‘fare thee well’ to the UAE (It was good while it lasted but only desert sand will remain!)  It seized $530 billion in Iranian assets, revoked all residency permits including Golden visas despite promises of ’99-year residency’ — Tehran Times.

Investigator reveals: Ukraine smuggles mercenaries in and weapons out

A Colombian mercenary provided this Ukrainian investigator with some interesting information that supports his investigations into the involvement of diplomatic services in the recruitment of mercenaries and arms smuggling. 

Musk wants control of Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

Musk has asked the US government (FCC) to give him permission to put one million satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

This would benefit the US warmongers as control of LEO would give them the ability to surveil and target every spot on the planet.

It's like a land grab - except in space.

China and Russia won't be happy with this arrogant plan.

Learning about Iran

St. Pete for Peace (Florida) 

Iran Has a Government, Not a “Regime”

In discussions of Iran, the word “regime” is almost always used by U.S. officials, media outlets, and in everyday conversation—a word that implies illegitimacy or dictatorship. Calling Iran a regime makes it easier to present U.S. military involvement as justified—and easier for people to go along with it. That framing is inaccurate and intentionally misleading, and obscures an important reality: Iran functions as a government with institutions, systems, and a society of about 90 million people.

Iran Holds Elections and Has a Constitution

    Iran holds national elections on a regular cycle: presidential elections every 4 years and parliamentary elections every 4 years.

•     The Parliament (Majles) has 290 elected members, representing districts across the country.
•     Iran has dozens of political groupings and parties, generally organized into coalitions.
•     Presidential elections typically feature about 4–6 candidates on the final ballot.
•     Voter participation ranges from ~50% to over 80%, compared to ~60–66% in recent U.S. elections.
•     Iran has a written constitution adopted in 1979 and amended in 1989.
•     National referendums are provided for and have been used, including in 1979.
•     Iran has a judiciary headed by a chief justice and a Supreme Court with multiple judges.

    Unlike the U.S., Iran does not have a large, institutionalized system of corporate lobbying or PAC-driven campaign financing.

Healthcare System

•     Iran has a government-supported healthcare system with over 90% of the population insured.
•     Healthcare costs are a fraction of those in the U.S. (hundreds per person vs. $13,000+), though patients pay a portion out-of-pocket.

Education System

•     Iran has a nationwide public education system with literacy rates above 85–90%, including near-universal literacy among younger generations.
•     Education is free and compulsory through primary and lower secondary school, with broad access across the country.
•     Iran also has an extensive university system with millions of students enrolled, and a rapidly expanding educated population—while a smaller share of adults hold college degrees than in the United States, access to higher education has grown significantly in recent decades.
•     University education in Iran is heavily subsidized, with many students paying little or no tuition and minimal debt, while in the U.S. graduates typically carry around $30,000 in student loan debt.
•     Women make up about 60% of university students.

Public Services and Infrastructure 

•     Iran maintains nationwide infrastructure including roads, transportation, electricity, water, and telecommunications.
•     The government provides subsidies for fuel, electricity, and basic goods.
•     Social programs support retirees, lower-income families, and vulnerable populations.

A Society of 90 Million Human Beings 

•     The country is ethnically diverse: ~60% Persian, with large Azeri, Kurdish, Arab, and Baloch populations.
•     About 99% of the population is Muslim, primarily Shia (90–95%).
•     Iran has more than twice the population of California and about four times its land area.
•     It is a country with the scale, complexity, and institutions of a modern state—not simply a label.

It would be more accurate to apply the term “regime” to many U.S. allies in the region, including countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, and Jordan—many of which are monarchies without national elections. 

Sunday song