Iran war

This Awful Iran War Belongs to Trump—and It’s Going Horribly

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

US President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with the Taoiseach of Ireland Micheál Martin in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on March 17, 2026. (Photo by Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images)

The absence of any US strategy becomes clearer by the day. Trump has thrown everything at the wall in the hope that something will stick. So far, nothing has.

President Donald Trump is a victim of his own success. After a quick strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities last June and the capture of Venezuela’s president and First Lady in January, the US military, the illegality of those operations notwithstanding, made war look easy and Trump feel omnipotent.

Three weeks into a more daunting excursion into Iran, Trump is now a desperate leader.

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Trump’s Latest Grudge Match

With Trump, everything is personal. A growing body of evidence suggests that a principal objective in attacking Iran was the assassination of the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. For example:

  • When the CIA learned that the Ayatollah and top Iranian officials would be meeting in a militarily accessible location, a previously planned nighttime strike was moved up to the middle of the day.
  • On Sunday night, March 1, shortly after reports that the US-Israeli attack had killed the Ayatollah, Trump said, “I got him before he got me.” He was referring to an alleged plot to kill Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign as retribution for the January 2020 US strike that killed Iran’s military leader Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps,
  • The desire to downplay Trump’s desire for vengeance explains why he and his minions have offered more noble—and contradictory—justifications for the war, including:
  • To help the Iranian people secure their freedom (Trump);
  • To attack Iran because Israel was going to do it and that would result in Iran’s attack on US assets in the Middle East (Secretary of State Marco Rubio);
  • To attack Iran first, not because Israel was going to do it anyway, but because Trump had a gut feeling that Iran was going to attack the US (Trump). But Pentagon officials informed Congress that no intelligence supported Trump’s opinion;
  • To eliminate Iran’s nuclear capability (although Trump claimed to have done that with the June attack).

Mission Accomplished?

Whatever his motivations, deploying the might of the military force was the beginning and the end of Trump’s thinking. He and his advisors are now flailing in the aftermath.

Iran has divided its global adversaries by holding the world’s economy hostage. Closing the Strait of Hormuz to the US and its allies sent world markets reeling as the price of oil increased by 40 percent and the price of gasoline in the US rose by almost $1.00 per gallon. Trump is trying to sell the line that such costs in the short run will pay off in the long run, but few are buying it.

Trump’s Desperate Ploys

The absence of any US strategy becomes clearer by the day. Trump has thrown everything at the wall in the hope that something will stick. So far, nothing has.

  • He floated a $200 million insurance guarantee for ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz – but not everyone lives in Trump’s world in which everything has a price.
  • He suggested using US military escorts for the tankers but offered no timeline; the risks to US military personnel and equipment would be enormous.
  • He tried shaming oil tanker crews to “show some guts” and continue sailing through the Strait – even as tankers burst into flames when trying to do so. Maybe Trump should go first.
  • He pleaded with world leaders to join his “team” to reopen the Strait for shipping, saying, “Some are very enthusiastic about it, and some aren’t. Some are countries that we’ve helped for many, many years. We’ve protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren’t that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm matters to me.”
  • He ridiculed allies refusing his requests to join a war that he started without consulting them: “We have some countries where we have 45,000 soldiers, great soldiers, protecting them from harm’s way, and we have done a great job. And when we want to know, ‘Do you have any mine sweepers?’ ‘Well, would rather not get involved, sir.’”
  • He made threats that are not-so-veiled: “If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO.”

Attacking the Messenger

In a futile effort at damage control, Trump accused media outlets of dispensing “fake news” about the growing Iran debacle. They “should be brought up on charges of TREASON,” he posted. In the same tirade, he said that he was “thrilled to see Brendan Carr, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), looking at the licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations.”

Hearing and heeding his master’s voice, Carr shared another Trump post criticizing news coverage of the Iran war and issued this hollow threat: “Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions – also known as the fake news – have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up… Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s lengthy criticism of Iran war coverage included a special message for CNN: “The sooner David Ellison [the son of billionaire Trump supporter Larry Ellison] takes over that network, the better.”

This much is certain: Trump will never take responsibility for any failure of his policies, including the Iran war. When his deportation operation became a scandal and one of his worst political liabilities, Kristi Noem became a casualty. If Trump’s Iran war continues to go badly, he’ll need another scapegoat. Hegseth has been living on borrowed time since the Signalgate scandal. He should have been fired long ago.

But make no mistake. Hegseth is just Trump’s useful idiot. This is and always has been Trump’s war. It began as his personal war of retribution, ignored predictable consequences for the world, and never had an endgame strategy.

And now it has gone terribly wrong.

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

Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
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Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone …
Orcas discuss rotting brain. Front Orca says "Wish someone would lock him up".
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Continue ReadingThis Awful Iran War Belongs to Trump—and It’s Going Horribly

Trump’s Iran War to Spike US Grocery Costs, Threaten Global Food Crisis

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

Detroit, Michigan, residents picket DTE Energy, opposing the electric utility’s plan to provide power for a proposed $7 billion data center in rural Michigan, on December 3, 3025. (Photo by Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Sixty percent of respondents blamed the energy demand of large users like AI data centers for higher household electricity costs.

It’s been two weeks since Big Tech companies gathered at the White House to sign a nonbinding pledge saying they will not pass on higher utility costs to consumers as the rapid build-out of energy-intensive artificial intelligence data centers sends electricity bills skyrocketing—but polling out Wednesday showed a majority of Americans reject President Donald Trump’s plan to leave corporations responsible for tackling the affordability crisis.

Those same companies, said most respondents to a survey by Data for Progress and Groundwork Collaborative, are responsible for higher costs that have hit households across the country, and can’t be trusted to ensure life is more affordable for families.

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Instead, said 61% of respondents, “cracking down on price gouging” from both utility and energy companies would be the most effective way to lower the cost of electricity. In comparison, just 35% said building more energy infrastructure to meet demands was the answer to high costs.

While Trump has been forced in recent weeks to acknowledge that “energy demands from AI data centers could unfairly drive up” people’s energy costs, as he admitted in his State of the Union address while announcing AI companies would sign his “ratepayer protection pledge,” the president has largely deflected blame regarding the affordability crisis—or denied its existence altogether.

Trump claimed at a rally in Kentucky last week that “the economy is roaring back,” even as his $1 billion-per-day, unprovoked war on Iran inflamed tensions across the Middle East and drove up oil prices.

Groundwork said in its analysis of the poll that following Trump’s announcement of the ratepayer protection pledge, “Americans reject this reliance on corporations to do the right thing.”

Elizabeth Pancotti, managing director of policy and advocacy for Groundwork Collaborative, said that “utility prices are up and consumers know the truth: These price increases are being driven by corporate greed and unchecked AI data center growth.”

Trump has pushed to accelerate the construction of new data centers by fast-tracking the permitting process.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said their monthly electricity payments have gone up in the past year, with nearly a quarter of respondents saying they had increased by “a lot.” More than 40% of people said they are now paying between $101-$200 per month for electricity.

As Common Dreams reported last November, Trump’s demand for AI companies to build massive, energy-sucking data centers in communities across the US has been linked to rising costs of consumers, with the average overdue balance on utility bills surging by 32% in the last three years and states with high concentrations of AI data centers seeing electricity prices skyrocket by as much as 16% from 2024-25.

Sixty percent of respondents told Data for Progress and Groundwork Collaborative that the energy demand of large commercial users like AI data centers is to blame for higher consumer prices, and the same percentage of people also blamed high compensation for utility company executives. Sixty-three percent of those polled said high profits for utility companies and their investors were to blame.

Joint Economic Committee Democrats revealed Tuesday that the average annual US electric bill increased by $110 last year.

A 2022 analysis by Accountable.US found that the nine largest US energy utility companies raked in nearly $14 billion in combined profits in the first three quarters of that year and handed out $11 billion to shareholders while tens of millions of households struggled with rising utility bills.

Nearly 60% of the 1,149 people polled by the two progressive think tanks also said the public sector must take a leadership role on providing energy, “because the public sector doesn’t collect profits and can pass on savings to customers,” and 60% said the public sector should be responsible for upgrading and modernizing the electric grid because it is a “public resource that should serve all Americans equally, not generate profits for shareholders.”

Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy for Groundwork and a former Biden administration official, said the poll revealed that “the people believe in public power.”

The groups also polled respondents on their opinions of “energy superusers,” including cryptocurrency companies, AI data centers, and AI firms.

Crypto companies were the least popular, with 54% disapproving compared to 26% who approved. Voters disapproved of AI data centers by a 16-point margin and AI companies in general by an 8-point margin.

Nearly two-thirds said they believe new AI data centers would raise their energy costs, and voters across the political spectrum opposed new data centers in their communities.

Grassroots efforts have taken off in states including Michigan, Wisconsin, and New Jersey as community members have rejected the construction of data centers on the grounds that they would consume massive amounts of water as well as electricity, threaten jobs, and take up space that could otherwise be used for affordable housing and small businesses.

“Voters feel ripped off by the corporations who hold their utilities hostage and are calling on lawmakers to put an end to the profiteering racket,” said Pancotti. “It’s time for regulators and policymakers to answer the call to protect working families from predatory utility corporations and Big Tech.”

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

Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
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Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying only 9 days ago that they don't need people to join wars after they've already won.
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying only 9 days ago that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9dn3j04lydo
Continue ReadingTrump’s Iran War to Spike US Grocery Costs, Threaten Global Food Crisis

Israeli violence in West Bank surges as Iran war shifts global focus

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

A child who survived the attack is seen as funeral prayers are held in the town of Tamun, north of Tubas, West Bank, for Ali Khalid Sayil Beni Awda (37), his wife Vaad Osman Akil Beni Awda (35), and their children Mohammed (5) and Osman (7), who lost their lives after Israeli soldiers opened fire on their car while they were returning from the city of Nablus where they had gone to buy Eid al-Fitr clothes for their children ahead of the holiday, on March 15, 2026. [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]

As the US-Israel war on Iran escalates, violence in the occupied West Bank is intensifying, largely out of the global spotlight, Anadolu reports.

Rights groups and analysts say Palestinians are facing a sharp rise in attacks by Israeli forces and settlers, alongside tighter movement restrictions and growing displacement, as international attention shifts toward the wider regional conflict.

Recent incidents have underscored the worsening situation. Israeli settlers were reported to have sexually assaulted a Palestinian man in the northern Jordan Valley, while Israeli forces killed a family of four, including two children, in the town of Tammun.

Analysts say the escalation has accelerated since US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran began on Feb. 28, triggering a broader regional war.

“The Israeli government took advantage of the situation in the region by unleashing the settlers to attack Palestinian properties, homes and lives,” said Mohamad Alqeeq, a Ramallah-based Palestinian political analyst and writer.

Max Rodenbeck, Israel-Palestine director at the International Crisis Group, pointed out that settler violence had “already been growing” before the Iran war, “ever since the current Israeli government took office in December 2022.”

Just like Israel’s war on Gaza, the Iran conflict has diverted media attention, creating conditions that allow settlement expansion to accelerate, he said.

Along with the shift in focus, security measures imposed by Israel “due to wartime conditions also help, by confining Palestinians to their towns, villages or homes while allowing settlers to roam freely,” Rodenbeck added.

– Damning data

Between Feb. 28 and March 14, Israeli forces and settlers killed at least 13 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

Eight were shot by Israeli forces, including two minors, while five were killed by settler militias.

In a briefing to foreign diplomats on Tuesday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin warned that illegal Israeli settlers have been attacking Palestinians and their properties every day, including killings, assaults, arson attacks and destruction of agricultural land, “under the direct protection of the Israeli army.”

At the same time, Israeli forces have intensified raids and arrests across the Palestinian territory.

Rights groups have documented pre-dawn operations in areas including Qalqilya, Ramallah, Hebron and East Jerusalem, where dozens of Palestinians were detained in a single night. In another raid in Askar refugee camp, several people were injured and others arrested.

READ: Israeli army arrests 16 Palestinian women in West Bank raids

UN officials also say that Israeli security forces have carried out daily raids since Feb. 28, detaining at least 200 Palestinians, including on charges such as “incitement” or “glorification of the enemy” through social media posts.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 1,062 Palestinians, including at least 231 children, were killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between Oct. 7, 2023 and March 7 this year.

– Restrictions and displacement

Beyond direct violence, Palestinians are facing a widening set of Israeli restrictions affecting daily life, including curbs on movement and closures of religious sites.

UN agencies said movement restrictions have intensified across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since Feb. 28, limiting access to work, health care and essential services.

“In particular, increased access restrictions across the West Bank hindered the ability of ambulances and fire brigades to move between villages, hospitals, and service centers,” UN OCHA said.

Between Feb. 28 and March 3, the agency documented nine incidents in which ambulances were obstructed and held at gunpoint.

Delays and closures have also caused shortages of fuel, including cooking gas, it added.

Access to religious sites has also been restricted. Israeli authorities have limited Muslim worshippers’ access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan, a move denounced by rights groups as “a clear violation of freedom of worship.”

At the same time, demolitions of Palestinian homes have increased. The Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights reported that Israel demolished 312 residential and agricultural structures in the first six weeks of 2026 alone.

Ajith Sunghay, head of UN Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said at least nine Palestinian communities have been fully or partially displaced since Feb. 28, mostly in the northern Jordan Valley.

A separate UN report published on Tuesday found that more than 36,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced between November 2024 and October 2025 due to increasing violence by Israeli security forces and settlers.

– Expansion under cover of war

Analysts say the current wave of violence comes alongside broader efforts by Israel to expand administrative and legal control over Palestinian land.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Shahin said Israeli authorities are using regional crises to accelerate settlement expansion and annexation.

She said the international community’s focus on wider conflicts has allowed Israel to push forward policies aimed at consolidating permanent control over the occupied West Bank.

Analyst Alqeeq agreed with her assessment, saying Israel “took advantage of the US military buildup in the region” to accelerate its plans to annex more land, including by increasing military operations and greenlighting settler attacks.

Crisis Group expert Rodenbeck said the situation is being driven not only by policy decisions but also by a broader climate of impunity for settler violence.

“Enabling Israeli measures include distributing weapons to settlers, loosening rules for weapons licensing, gifting vehicles (including quad bikes) to settlers, legalizing previously ‘illegal’ settlement outposts, allowing settlers to wear military uniforms, lifting the Israeli army’s right to detain settlers … failing to prosecute settlers, and extremely lenient sentences for settler crimes. That is just a quick, partial list.”

He emphasized that Palestinians “are being treated as an enemy population, and collectively punished.”

“Palestinians are already being ethnically cleansed from large parts of the West Bank, and squeezed into ever-smaller, more isolated pockets,” Rodenbeck said.

“Current Israeli policy offers no future to the West Bank’s 3.3 million Palestinians except deepening repression. It is a recipe for disaster, but just what kind of disaster we do not know.”​​​​​​​

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it's fun to kill everyone ...
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone … https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cNKBW5LLMls
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying only 9 days ago that they don't need people to join wars after they've already won.
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying only 9 days ago that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9dn3j04lydo
Continue ReadingIsraeli violence in West Bank surges as Iran war shifts global focus

Germany says Iran war has ‘nothing to do with NATO’

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Government Spokesperson Stefan Kornelius holds a press conference in the capital, Berlin, Germany, on March 9, 2026. [Halil Sağırkaya – Anadolu Agency]

Germany said on Monday that the US war on Iran “has nothing to do with NATO,” Anadolu reports.

“It is not NATO’s war. NATO is a defensive alliance. The German government must also clearly assess the alliance’s territory and its own position on participation in this war,” government spokesman Stefan Kornelius told journalists in Berlin.

“The expansion of combat operations would bear great risks for other partners in the Middle East and Gulf region,” he added.

The German government has repeatedly stated that it would not participate in the US war on Iran.

READ: Iran says it sees no reason to negotiate with US amid escalating conflict

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it's fun to kill everyone ...
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone …
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace
Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace

Continue ReadingGermany says Iran war has ‘nothing to do with NATO’

For Trump and Netanyahu, the Iran war is a problem of their own making

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Original article by Paul Rogers republished from OpenDemocracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. 

Trump and Netanyahu have a problem of their own making in Iran | Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The US president’s claim that the war is ‘very complete’ was little more than wishful thinking

“I think the war is very complete, pretty much,” was Donald Trump’s assessment of the Israeli-American war in Iran earlier this week, after nearly a fortnight of death and destruction.

“[Iran has] no navy, no communications, they’ve got no air force,” the US president continued. “Their missiles are down to a scatter. Their drones are being blown up all over the place, including their manufacturing of drones.”

Iran thinks otherwise: it struck three merchant ships near the Strait of Hormuz days later.

The US military’s recent actions are also in contradiction with Trump’s boasts of success. Having depleted its stocks of missiles and anti-drone weapons, the Pentagon is making plans to move reserves from South Korea, to the evident concern of the government in Seoul. In a further unexpected twist, the US is even turning to Ukraine to supply it with cheap anti-drone defences made locally and costing a tiny fraction of the commercial systems.

For Israel and the US, which began the war with surprise airstrikes on Iran on 28 February, Tehran’s ability to survive is proving far greater than expected. More than 1,000 Iranians have been killed, including the former supreme leader, but the regime is still able to respond to attacks.

As the war intensifies with no end in sight, two key elements are emerging.

The first is that Binyamin Netanyahu, in particular, has fallen into a trap of his own making.

Israel’s prime minister likely imagined Israel and the US would be able to quickly declare victory after assassinating Iran’s supreme leader, bolstering his approval ratings ahead of this year’s Israeli general election.

But with the supreme leader’s son now appointed as his successor, a victory for Israel can only involve completely destroying Iran’s ability to resurrect a nuclear weapon programme. Anything short of this, and its resurrection will be the first aim of any surviving regime – leaving Israel in an even less secure position than before it attacked Tehran.

This total destruction is proving harder than expected, not least because of Iran’s extensive network of tunnels, which I noted in openDemocracy last week. Footage released by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps last year, which purportedly shows a tunnel full of naval drones, anti-ship missiles, and sea mines, resurfaced this week after the attacks on the merchant ships.

The second issue is more surprising and has emerged only in the past few days.

Having failed to terminate the Iranian regime in the first leadership assassination, Israel and the US are falling back on the Dahiya Doctrine, an Israeli military tactic rooted in wrecking a neighbourhood, a city or even a country to undermine public support for a recalcitrant leadership. In theory, it forces the enemy leadership to give up and thereby lose the war.

The two nations have embarked on an expanded bombing campaign that increasingly targets Iran’s civilian population. As well as the spiralling death toll, thousands of residential properties have been destroyed, displacing more than a million people from their homes.

Civil infrastructure has also been targeted, including banks needed to pay wages. There are numerous reports of hospitals and health centres being hit.

Israel and the US’s use of the Dahiya Doctrine is unsurprising; Israel first used the tactic to attack Hezbollah’s stronghold district of Dahiya in southern Beirut in 2006, and it has since become a valuable tool in its arsenal. Despite Hezbollah’s survival – indeed, 20 years on, Israel is again pummelling Dahiya – Israel used the same approach in four assaults on Hamas in Gaza between 2007 and 2021, and it has been its main policy in the devastating war in Gaza since 2023.

In Iran, expect many more attacks from Israel and the US, killing or maiming many thousands more. Yet a remarkable sting in the tail is emerging that is already changing everything.

Put bluntly, Iran is using Israel’s Dahiya Doctrine against Israel itself.

Iran cannot defeat the combined military power of the US and Israel, but what it can do, and is already doing, is engage in economic warfare on a global scale by targeting the 20% of the world’s oil and gas that originates in the Persian Gulf and passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

Its aim is simple: cause such problems in world energy markets that, in a matter of weeks, there will be huge pressure on Trump and his people to force a pause in the fighting, whatever Netanyahu says.

And the International Energy Agency has already described the situation as one of “dire straits’, warning that “the war in the Middle East is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market”.

It continued: “With crude and oil product flows through the Strait of Hormuz plunging from around 20 mb/d before the war to a trickle currently, limited capacity available to bypass the crucial waterway, and storage filling up, Gulf countries have cut total oil production by at least 10 mb/d. In the absence of a rapid resumption of shipping flows, supply losses are set to increase.”

The implication is that a very difficult time of global energy shortages lies ahead.

So while Trump may say the war is “very complete”, it’s far from it.

Original article by Paul Rogers republished from OpenDemocracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

 

Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace
Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace

Continue ReadingFor Trump and Netanyahu, the Iran war is a problem of their own making