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Iran Targets Qatar Base Used by US Military in Retaliation for Unprovoked Trump Attack

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

This United States Air Force photo shows an aerial view of al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar. (Photo: Scott Reed/USAF)

Sources also said Iran launched at least one missile at a U.S. base in Iraq.

Loud explosions were heard over Qatar’s capital Doha Monday as Iran launched missiles targeting a military base in the Gulf nation used by U.S. forces and another American installation in Iraq in retaliation for last week’s illegal and unprovoked bombing of Iranian civilian nuclear strikes ordered by President Donald Trump.

An unnamed Israeli source told Axios that at least 10 missiles were launched toward Qatar and one at Iraq. The attack on Qatar targeted al-Udeid Air Base, located approximately 20 miles outside Doha. More than 8,000 U.S. troops are stationed at al-Udeid, which also hosts Qatari, British, and other forces.

Iranian officials said they launched the same quantity of missiles as the number of bombs used in the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites on Saturday.

Iran fires ballistic missiles at US military bases in Qatar.Explosions seen over Doha.The US deployed THAAD systems in Qatar in anticipation of Iranian attacks.

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— Adam Schwarz (@adamjschwarz.bsky.social) June 23, 2025 at 9:48 AM

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that “following the blatant military aggression of the criminal regime of the United States of America against the peaceful nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the clear violation of international law” IRCG “has targeted the Al-Udeid base in Qatar with a devastating and powerful missile attack.”

An announcement on Iranian state media called the attack “a mighty and successful response by the armed forces of Iran to America’s aggression.”

However, there have not yet been any reports of casualties or damage at al-Udeid or any other U.S. base. There have also not been any reports of U.S. military response.

The New York Times reported that Iran warned the U.S. of the imminent attack. Iran’s apparently symbolic retaliation was similar to Tehran’s response to the 2020 Trump-ordered assassination of IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani and likely meant to give both sides a deescalatory offramp, experts said.

The Qatari Ministry of Defense said the country’s air defenses “successfully intercepted a missile attack targeting al-Udeid Air Base.”

Qatar, which enjoys good relations with Tehran, condemned the Iranian attack and stressed that it “reserves the right” to respond “directly” and “in line with international law.”

Monday’s developments came amid Israel’s ongoing U.S.-backed wars on Iran and Palestine and Iran’s retaliatory missile strikes on Israel.

Responding to the Iranian retaliation, Trita Parsi, executive vice president at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said on X that “there is a scenario, similar to the 2020 strikes against Iraqi bases, in which both sides call it quits after one round of fire.”

“But I find that scenario unstable because of the Israeli element,” he continued. “Israel will continue to strike Iran and vice versa, and as long as that is the case, the Israelis will continue to put relentless pressure on Trump to join the war in various ways.”

“None of this would have happened had Trump rejected the first step that Israel pushed him to take—shifting his red line to ‘zero enrichment,'” Parsi asserted. “That misstep deliberately set up a cascade of events that predictably led to this current war.”

“Trump’s only exit out of this is to discard the Israeli red line of zero-enrichment and return to the American red line of no weaponization,” he added.

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingIran Targets Qatar Base Used by US Military in Retaliation for Unprovoked Trump Attack

Green Party respond to US strikes on Iran

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Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.

Responding to news of US attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay MP said:

“We utterly condemn the reckless attacks on Iran by the United States that can only lead to further dangerous conflict in an already volatile region. There is no international legal basis for this unilateral action that poses a serious threat to international peace and security.

“Our prime minister has shamefully decided to echo the rhetoric of Trump and Netanyahu rather than condemn the indefensible aggression of both Israel and the US. Keir Starmer has further implied that it is justifiable for the Iranian regime to be bombed back to the negotiating table. I fully recognise the brutal nature of the Iranian regime but this unilateral action is no way to build peace and risks making the UK once again complicit in escalating a Middle East crisis.”

Continue ReadingGreen Party respond to US strikes on Iran

Three years left to limit warming to 1.5C, leading scientists warn

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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn4l927dj5zo

The Earth could be doomed to breach the symbolic 1.5C warming limit in as little as three years at current levels of carbon dioxide emissions.

That’s the stark warning from more than 60 of the world’s leading climate scientists in the most up-to-date assessment of the state of global warming.

Nearly 200 countries agreed to try to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C above levels of the late 1800s in a landmark agreement in 2015, with the aim of avoiding some of the worst impacts of climate change.

But countries have continued to burn record amounts of coal, oil and gas and chop down carbon-rich forests – leaving that international goal in peril.

Climate change has already worsened many weather extremes – such as the UK’s 40C heat in July 2022 – and has rapidly raised global sea levels, threatening coastal communities.

“Things are all moving in the wrong direction,” said lead author Prof Piers Forster, director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds.

“We’re seeing some unprecedented changes and we’re also seeing the heating of the Earth and sea-level rise accelerating as well.”

These changes “have been predicted for some time and we can directly place them back to the very high level of emissions”, he added.

…

Article continues at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn4l927dj5zo

Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Continue ReadingThree years left to limit warming to 1.5C, leading scientists warn

After Trump’s Bombing, Sanders Condemns ‘Lies’ Over Iran Nuclear Threat

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Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

“We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged into another Middle East war based on lies.”

While a number of statements by members of Congress in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities focused largely on the fact that the White House acted without congressional authorization—a constitutional violation—U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders expressed anger over another aspect of the unilateral military action: the “lies” that the Trump administration is telling the public to justify the bombing.

The White House’s act of war against Iran, said the Vermont independent senator, was just the latest in a long line of military boondoggles that followed lies powerful politicians told about the threats posed by foreign countries—before taking action that ultimately killed millions of people while doing nothing to protect U.S. security.

“In the 1960s the United States government lied to the American people and took us into a terrible war in Vietnam,” said Sanders. “The result of that war was that over 58,000 young Americans died and many more came back wounded both in mind and in spirit. Millions of Vietnamese were also killed.”

Decades later, Americans were told by then-President George W. Bush that the U.S. must act quickly to stop Iraq from building “weapons of mass destruction”—with U.S. officials following the guidance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The United States invaded Iraq and became embroiled in a long civil war there. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found. That war was based on a lie—a lie which cost us 4,492 young Americans, 32,000 wounded, over half a million Iraqis and trillions of dollars,” said Sanders.

“The American people are being lied to again today,” he added. “We cannot allow history to repeat itself.”

U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Iran is not attempting to build a nuclear weapon with its enriched uranium stockpile, backing up repeated statements from Iranian officials who have said the country’s nuclear program is used only for peaceful civilian purposes.

Sanders’ statement came several hours after he learned while speaking at a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma that Trump had bombed Iran, authorizing strikes on three nuclear facilities, which Iranian officials condemned as a violation of international law.

At the rally, supporters erupted in a chant of “No more war!” after Sanders read Trump’s statement on the attack.

The spontaneous display of outrage over the latest U.S. attack on the Middle East underscored the reality of the moment, said The Nation writer Jeet Heer, as one poll released Thursday showed that just 8% of Americans favored the U.S. becoming directly involved in Israel’s attacks on Iran that began earlier this month.

“There is only one off-ramp from Trump’s mad rush to war: the quick mobilization of an anti-war opposition,” said Heer. “The people are ready.”

As the Trump administration boasted about the “severe damage” the strikes had done to Iran’s nuclear program, progressive strategist Waleed Shahid called on Democratic lawmakers to tap into voters’ palpable outrage—not about Trump’s failure to seek congressional authorization for the strikes, but about the fact that the U.S. is pursuing a war in Iran at all while repeating Netanyahu’s unsubstantiated claims about the Iranians’ ability to produce a nuclear bomb.

“No one ever won a fight yelling, ‘Congressional authorization.’ Voters need clarity amid the chaos,” said Shahid. “Lead with this: No more blank checks for corrupt and endless foreign wars, we’re here to focus on fighting for working Americans.”

Shahid’s comments echoed Sanders’ statement decrying Trump’s lies.

“The U.S. faces enormous problems here at home, which we must address,” said Sanders. “We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged into another Middle East war based on lies.”

Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.

Continue ReadingAfter Trump’s Bombing, Sanders Condemns ‘Lies’ Over Iran Nuclear Threat

Exactly Why Is It that All American Presidents Dance to Bibi’s Tune?

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https://newrepublic.com/article/197001/netanyahu-american-presidents-israel-war-iran

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Trump is the most pliable. But Netanyahu plays them all like cheap violins, despite being wrong about every important matter of the last 25 years.

Despite the extremely stiff competition, it’s fair to say that Donald Trump may be about to win the historical contest to become the all-time “Bibi’s Lapdog” among American presidents. 

After repeatedly rejecting the idea of joining with Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and distancing himself when it finally happened, then reversing himself again to take partial credit for it, Trump appears to be ready to go one massive step further and turn the Israeli attack into a full-fledged American war.

To be more than fair to two profoundly corrupt leaders who don’t remotely deserve it, this is alas nothing new: Israeli prime ministers who bend American presidents to their will have a long and distinguished pedigree. The last U.S. president to stand up to Israel and demand that it reverse itself in a matter of war was Dwight Eisenhower, who, after the 1956 Israeli-British-French attack on Egypt over the closing of the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping, insisted on an immediate withdrawal. (It did not endear Israel to Eisenhower that he was trying to focus the world on Moscow’s invasion of Hungary at the same time.) Even then, France and England immediately complied. Israel took its time and eventually extracted most of the concessions it wanted from the U.S.

…

Now by far Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, despite a record of naked corruption, incompetence, and a willingness to cave in to extremist demands in order to cling to power, Netanyahu has always demonstrated a unique sort of audacity when it comes to the United States. Before Trump, the post-1956 de facto rule between the two nations was that the U.S. could not prevent Israel from attacking whomever it wished whenever it wished. But neither could the Israelis issue orders to the U.S. about its own foreign policy. Under Reagan, for instance, Menachem Begin could not stop the U.S. sale of sophisticated AWAC planes to the Saudis, but neither did Israel care what the president thought of its brazen attack on Iraq’s nuclear facilities, its siege of Beirut, its aid to the guilty parties in the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, and, of course, its relentless expansion of settlements on the West Bank.

In a secretly recorded 2001 discussion with West Bank settlers, Netanyahu explained this commonly held view. “I know what America is,” he told them. “America is a thing that can be easily moved, moved in the right direction.… They will not bother us.”

…

Finally, what ought to be most unnerving about this episode is the notion that Bibi Netanyahu is someone whose strategic thinking ought to be followed. He is widely recognized as responsible for Israel’s catastrophic unreadiness for the Hamas attack of October 7 and was even in the business of helping to build up that organization at the expense of the Palestinian Authority in order to forestall what he saw as the “threat” of a credible partner for a peaceful solution to the conflict. His opposition to, and subsequent campaign to undermine, the JPCOA is largely responsible for the conundrum we face today. Needless to say, he was also gung ho for America’s disastrous invasion of Iraq before it took place. 

If Trump decides to join Israel’s bombing campaign, historians will one day wonder how it was that someone so famously lacking in good judgment could have been the man to lead the world’s most powerful nation into a war with a proud nation 90-million strong that did not, in any meaningful way, threaten the lives of its people.

https://newrepublic.com/article/197001/netanyahu-american-presidents-israel-war-iran

Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel's Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don't do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Continue ReadingExactly Why Is It that All American Presidents Dance to Bibi’s Tune?