OMNI
ISRAEL AND US v. IRAN ANTHOLOGY #5
March 2, 2026
From the Last Preparations for the Attack Feb. 27, to the Attack and
First Responses Feb. 28-March 2, 2026
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, Ecology,
and Democracy
What’s at Stake: Anthologies on Iran 2025-2026, offered plausible,
scholarly reports and arguments on the US/Israeli preparations for illegally
attacking Iran and in opposition to the threatening war. Today’s anthology reports the attack and
immediately following events. We hope our
peace perspective inspires reflection and helps to prevent and stop wars and to
support the victims.
CONTENTS
Joe
Cirincione. “This Is How Dictatorships
Go to War.” 2-27.
February 28, THE ATTACK
Jake
Johnson. “Peace Was in Reach.”
Chris Hedges. “Going to War Again, for
Israel.”
Julian Borger. “Trump’s Unprovoked
Attack….”
Sharon Zhang. Illegal War for Illegal
Regime Change.
You Tube. The Bombings Filmed.
Jacobin. And Tehran’s Response.
Scott Ritter. Urgent Response Urged.
March 1
ACLU. Clear Constitutional Crime.
VFP. Resist Illegal Wars.
Scott Ritter. Regime Change, But Whose?
Roots Action. Unserious Lying and
Polling.
Jake Johnson. Trump’s Laughable Case for
War.
Extremely Flimsy Democratic Party Response.
3 More Articles from Common Dreams.
Tlaib and Khanna, Global Revulsion, Iran Demands
Emergency UN Action.
Truthout. Pushback v. US War Machine.
FCNL Friends Committee for National Legislation.
March 2
Transcend
Media Service (selection)
“Trump
Declares War” and Bombs Iran.
Iran Closes Strait of Hormuz and Strikes US Bases.
Khamenei Killed.
“Iran after Khamenei.”
“Iran: 100 Years of Foreign Interference.”
“War Is a Racket.”
“Gene Sharp. Hope for Peace in
Canada.”
TEXTS
(My
anthologies have always been arranged as the articles and reviews reached me,
that is, in reverse chronological order, with occasional alterations for clarity
and emphasis. That method was both quicker
and provided a reflective perspective. With
this war, beginning now, contents will appear in chronological order better to
experience the urgency of horrendous events.)
ONE ITEM DAY
BEFORE ATTACK (see Anthology #4)
Joe
Cirincione . “This
Is How Dictatorships Go to War.” The New
Republic (February 27, 2026).
It’s
not just that Donald Trump cannot explain why he is about to start a war with
Iran; the worst part is that he is not even trying.
Trump
has hardly said a word about Iran over the past week, even in his State of the
Union address. Congress is a bystander. There are no hearings, no debate, no
public support. Yet, whether America plunges into a dangerous, unpredictable
major war appears to rest on the whims of one man.
Even
King George needed the approval of the British Parliament before he could wage
war against the rebellious American colonies. Trump has remained mum as he
orders the largest military buildup in
the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The
2003 buildup was accompanied by months of public campaigning by President
George W. Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and, famously, Secretary of
State Colin Powell, who tried to convince the American public and the United
Nations that Saddam Hussein was behind the September 11 attacks and possessed
massive stockpiles of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that posed an
imminent threat to the United States and the region. Not a word of it was true, but
the lies cowed Congress and convinced the majority of Americans that we had to
invade.
There
is none of that now. Neither the U.N. Security Council nor our global or
regional allies support this war. European and Arab nations have refused to
allow Trump to use their bases for his war.
There
is one exception. As in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu is cheerleading for war,
hoping to realize his decades-long dream of overthrowing the Iranian
government, while bracing Israel for the expected missile attacks in response.
Trump
officials, though, are largely quiet, proffering scattered arguments about the
repressive nature of the regime, the weakness of the regime, the danger of
Iran’s medium-range missiles somehow
reaching America and, surprisingly, the nuclear threat.
Surprisingly,
because after the 12 days of bomber attacks and assassinations by Israel and
the U.S. last June, Trump declared that the Iranian nuclear program was
“obliterated.” Now Trump’s envoy for everything, Steve Witkoff, told Fox News last
weekend that Iran is “a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making
material.”
Is all this just a bluff? Maybe it was originally, but the massive amount of weaponry now assembled indicates that if this is a bluff, it is a very good one. By one account, the deployments represent 40 to 50 percent of all the deployable U.S. combat aircraft in the world. Countries don’t amass that kind of force unless they intend to use it.
If you like this
article, please sign up for “Snapshot,” Portside's daily summary.
Despite progress in talks with
Iran—that Iran has smartly sweetened with offers to
let Trump, Witkoff, and their friends get rich from investments in Iran’s oil
and gas sector—the momentum toward war may be a force in itself. But the
deciding factor may have more to do with domestic threats than foreign ones.
With
none of Trump’s public rationales making any sense, the most compelling reason
to start a war seems to be to distract from the growing Epstein files scandal.
. . .
ITEMS DATED FEBRUARY 28, THE DAY
OF ATTACK (scroll down for the 2nd day,
March 1, etc.)
Jake Johnson. “Oman’s
Foreign Minister Said US-Iran Deal Was ‘Within Our Reach.’ Then Trump Started
Bombing.”
Common Dreams (Feb. 28, 2026).
Portside “Snapshot” (March 1, 2026).
“The
Omani FM decided to go public,” suggested one observer, “so that the American
people knew that peace was within reach when Trump instead opted for war.”
Chris Hedges. “Going to War, Again,
for Israel.” The Chris Hedges Report (Feb. 28, 2026).
Once again, America
is going to war for Israel. Once again, many will die for the Zionist state,
including American service members. Once again, we will stumble blindly into a
military fiasco. Once again, we will do the bidding of a foreign power whose
interests are not our interests, but whose lobbyists have bought up our
political class, including Donald Trump. Once again, we will violate the U.N.
charter by attacking a country that does not pose an imminent threat.
This
is not our war. This is part of Israel’s demented vision of Greater Israel, of
dominating the Middle East. But Israel needs our military, our taxpayer
dollars, our weapons to do it. And we have handed them the keys to our
formidable arsenal.
The
architects of the war with Iran, which the administration feels no need to
justify to the American public or the international community, admit it will
not be quick.
Sen.
Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CBS
News on Saturday that the goal is not only to curb Iran’s nuclear program, but
“dismantle their terror support network.”
“To do
all that is going to take longer than the strikes on their nuclear program last
summer,” Cotton said. “We’re probably looking at weeks, not days, of joint
efforts by the United States, Israel and our Arab partners, who have also been
attacked this morning.”
[ISRAEL’S
MALIGN INFLUENCE] Israel’s lackeys in
the political class, along with their courtiers in the media, including former
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) employee Wolf Blitzer, as well
as academia, are shining examples of Israel’s transparent and often illegal
meddling in the American political system. Forget Russia. Forget China. No
foreign government comes close to exerting Israel’s influence.
Democratic
Party leaders are not opposed to attacking Iran — they are opposed to
attacking Iran without being consulted. Two dozen Democrats leapt to their feet
and applauded every time Trump threatened Iran, or lauded Israel, in his State
of the Union address. The Biden administration and Democratic Party
leadership made no effort to reinstate Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear agreement.
It focused instead on sustaining the genocide in Gaza. It cheered Israel’s
decapitation of Iranian proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Kamala Harris in
her feckless and tone deaf presidential campaign promised to continue funding the genocide,
which alienated many voters, and labeled Iran our most dangerous enemy.
Endless
war is a bipartisan project.
The
flagrant interference by Israel in the American political system is documented
in the Al-Jazeera four-part series “The Lobby,” which Israel and its
supporters blocked from being broadcast. Pirated copies can be watched on the website Electronic Intifada. [Nov.
2, 2018]. In the documentary, the
leaders of the Israel lobby are captured on a reporter’s hidden camera
explaining how, backed by the intelligence services in Israel, they discredit
and silence American critics and use huge cash donations to control the
American electoral process and political system.
Israel’s
death grip on our political system is also documented in “The Israel Lobby and
U.S. Foreign Policy” by John Mearsheimer
and Stephen Walt.
“If
you wander off the reservation and become critical of Israel, you not only will
not get money, AIPAC will go to great lengths to find someone who will run
against you,” Mearsheimer, professor of political science at the University of
Chicago, says in the documentary. “And they support that person very
generously. The end result is you’re likely to lose your seat in Congress.”
Israel
flies hundreds of members of Congress, often with their families, to Israel for
lavish junkets at seaside resorts. These Congress members run up individual
bills that frequently exceed $20,000. The Honest Leadership and Open Government
Act of 2007 attempted to restrict lobbyists from offering paid trips lasting
more than one day to members of Congress. But AIPAC, which has never been
forced to register as a foreign agent, used its clout to insert a clause in the
act to exclude so-called educational trips organized by charities that do not
hire lobbyists. The AIPAC-affiliated charity utilized to navigate this loophole
is called the American Israel Education Foundation.
[Cost of
ISRAEL and of this War] The
investment by Israel is worth it. The United States Congress in 2016 authorized
a $38 billion per year
defense aid package from 2019-2028 for Israel. We
squandered $ 4 to $ 6
trillion on the futile wars Israel and its lobby pushed for in the
Middle East. Congress has, as well, authorized $ 21.7 in military aid to Israel
to sustain the genocide. God knows the
cost of this war, but it will likely be in the billions of dollars.
We are
back to where we were in 2003 with a war whose utopian goal is regime-change.
It didn’t work then. It won’t work now.
The same fatuous lies have been dredged up to justify this war, with
U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff telling Fox News that Iran is “probably a
week away” from having the materials necessary to make a nuclear bomb.
This
has been Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel lobby’s mantra for three decades.
I’m
not sure how we are supposed to swallow this after Trump announced last
July, following U.S. air strikes, that “All three nuclear sites in Iran were
completely destroyed and/or OBLITERATED. It would take years to bring them back
into service...”
One
lie supersedes the next. Once again, we
promise to bomb a country to liberate it, with Trump saying all he wants is
“freedom for the people” of Iran. Iran’s
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s compound was bombed and, according to Israeli
officials, he has been killed. Iran
insists he remains alive.
The
Israeli prime minister, like Trump, is calling on the Iranians to seize the
“once-in-a-generation opportunity” to “take to the streets en masse, to
complete the task of overthrowing the regime that is making your lives
miserable.” “This is your time to join
forces to overthrow the regime, to secure your future,” Netanyahu said. That every other attempt at regime-change in
the Middle East resulted in disaster eludes them. This time, they promise, it
will work.
We may
not have assembled a ground force, as Bush did in 2003 for the Iraq war, but
once you open the Pandora’s box of war, war controls you. You don’t
control it. American troops will
likely be killed as Iran targets U.S. bases in the region. The Iranian navy
has announced it
is shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil
chokepoint that facilitates the passage of 20 percent of
the world’s oil supply. This will potentially double or triple the price of oil
and devastate the global economy. Oil installations along with U.S. ships and
military bases in the region will be hit.
Iran has already fired missiles at
Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, Al-Salem airbase in Kuwait, Al-Dhafra airbase in the
United Arab Emirates, the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain and U.S.
bases in Jordan. Explosions have been reported in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Thousands
of innocents will die. Israel hit an elementary girls’
school on Saturday in Minab, a city in the Hormozgan
province of southern Iran. Iran’s Tasnim News Agency cited the Judiciary of
Minab as saying that the death toll had risen to 85.
The
steady losses, and a huge spike in oil prices, will compound the frustrations
of Trump and his Israel allies. These frustrations, like those during the two
decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, will ignite a protracted regional war.
Iran,
under sustained attack, could eventually fragment and splinter, sending
millions of refugees over its border and igniting the chaos we engineered in Libya.
But Israel, whose goal is to degrade the military capabilities of its
neighbors, will get what it wants.
We
will be left with the mess. Share
Julian Borger. “Trump’s
Unprovoked Attack on Iran Has No Mandate – or Legal Basis.
The US president violates UN charter just days into his
Board of Peace era, and chooses to take the biggest gamble of his
administration. The Guardian (((February 28, 2026 ).Julian
Borger
An image taken from
Iranian state television broadcast on 28 February showing what it says is the
site of US and Israeli strikes that hit a girls’ elementary school in Minab,
southern Iran. | Alex Mita/IRIB TV/AFP/Getty Images
The
first war of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace era
has begun – an unprovoked attempt at regime change in collaboration with
Israel, with no legal foundation, launched in the midst of diplomatic efforts
to avert conflict, and with minimal consultation with Congress or the American
public.
Trump’s
recorded eight-minute address after the first bombs had fallen made clear that
this would be no limited strike aimed at cajoling Tehran into concessions at
the negotiating table.
He
warned that if Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) did not
surrender, they would be killed, and the country’s armed forces, its missiles
and navy would be smashed.
The
way would then be open for the Iranian opposition and the country’s ethnic
minorities to rise up and bring the regime down. . . .
“Sharon Zhang. “US and Israel Launch
Illegal War on Iran, Call for Regime Change.”” Truthout (2-28-26).
Portside (2-28-26).
The first casualties
reported by Iran were those from strikes on an elementary girls’ school.
For readers who like
news hot off the press via audio-visual communication, here is the commencement
of the bombings via U-Tube.
“Update on Iran war.” Forwarded
by Sonny San Juan.
Attachments
area
“There is no pretext or
plan for the US-Israel war on Iran. “ Jacobin (2-28-26). Forwarded by Sonny San
Juan. philcsc@gmail.com. Unprecedented concession of eliminating its nuclear
stockpile, Donald Trump announced the launch of a “massive and ongoing” US and
Israeli air war to topple the Islamic Republic. Trump claimed that he had
launched Operation Epic Fury because Iran had refused to negotiate and
“just wanted to practice evil.” The Israeli Defense Forces announced their
commencement of hostilities in a tweet that “Israel has a right to defend
itself.”
At 9:45 a.m. local time in
Tehran, Israel and the United States used high-altitude bombers, jets, and
cruise missiles to strike military and civilian targets across the vast
country. Both Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian were
targeted in the attacks. [Attempted
assassination of leaders.] Israeli
media is filled with reports that Khamenei, who has ruled Iran for nearly
thirty years, is dead, a claim rejected by Iranian media. (Sources inside Iran
have reported that Khamenei’s son and daughter-in-law have been killed.)
Strikes also targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general Mohammad
Pakpour as well as Iran’s minister of defense and its chief of intelligence. A
girls’ school in Minab in southern Iran was also struck. The death toll now
stands at fifty, with a similar number wounded. According to domestic media,
the victims are as young as seven. The houses of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president
from 2005 to 2013, and former prime minister Mir Hossein Moussavi, who has been
under house arrest for seventeen years, were also targeted, indicating the
United States and Israel wish, at best, to remove any pretenders to power
outside of their control or, at worst, to create a power vacuum at the top that
could precipitate a civil war.
Tehran has responded by
launching a first wave of ballistic missiles against Israel and targeting US
military assets in the region. Iran is surrounded by US air and naval
bases housing some forty thousand troops. Strikes have been reported in the
vicinity of the US Ali Al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait; the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet
in Bahrain; the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar; and the US Al Dhafra Air Base in
the United Arab Emirates. Explosions have also been reported in and around
Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, home to significant US military assets.
Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, the choke point for a fifth of global oil
supplies. . . . Keep
reading
“WATCH: The World This Week — Aggression on Iran w/Scott
Ritter.” Consortium News (2-28-26).
URGENT ACTION: Stop the unconstitutional war with Iran
MARCH
1, 2026
|
|
|
|
James,
over the weekend, President Trump announced that the U.S. was going to war
with Iran. Let us be clear: President
Trump's decision to launch a bombing campaign against a country of nearly 100
million people without bothering to ask Congress is a clear constitutional
violation. He is putting servicemembers and civilians in unacceptable danger. The
Constitution gives war authority power to Congress, and Congress alone. It is
what makes us a democracy, and ensures that our leaders fully consider the
many costs of war – including the harm to human lives and rights, and any
effects on global peace and stability – before sending troops into danger. If
President Trump wants to send U.S. servicemembers into conflict, he must make
his case to the American people and their representatives in Congress. The
commander in chief must follow the chain of command, and that begins with We
the People. Thank
you, The ACLU Team |
|
“
Veterans For Peace Condemns U.S. Attack on Iran.
Military
Members and Civilians: Resist Illegal Wars!”
Veterans
For Peace condemns the U.S./Israeli attack on Iran in the strongest possible
terms. We call on our members, friends, and allies to resist this dangerous and
illegal war. We offer our support to members of the military who decide to
refuse illegal orders and resist an illegal war.
A War
Based on Lies
The
Trump administration’s ever-changing rationales for going to war against Iran
are lies. Iran posed no threat to the United States. This military
operation is not a defensive war, but rather a war of choice by Israel and the
U.S., a war of aggression, a war for regime change – very much like the
disastrous U.S. wars that killed millions of people in Vietnam, Iraq, and
Afghanistan – wars that many veterans remember with horror and regret.
Contrary
to President Trump’s oft-repeated lie, Iran has repeatedly stated that it has
no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons. Rather, the United States, the only
country to attack another nation with nuclear weapons, has unilaterally
abrogated multiple arms control treaties, and is investing Two Trillion Dollars
in a new generation of nuclear weapons. It was the U.S., not Iran, that
violated and withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. Israel also has nuclear
weapons – undeclared and uninspected. Two nuclear powers attacking Iran,
claiming to stop it from pursuing a nuclear program, is the height of
hypocrisy.
The
aggression against Iran follows by less than two months the U.S. attack on
Venezuela and the unlawful abduction of its president and wife. It comes amid
the ongoing war threats and oil blockade of Cuba. This complete disregard
and abuse of the process of negotiations only encourages nuclear proliferation
around the world.
Illegal
and Unconstitutional
The
U.S. war on Iran is illegal in multiple ways. It is a violation of the UN
Charter, a treaty which is the “supreme law of the land” under Article VI of
the U.S. Constitution. Article 2(4) of the UN Charter states, “All Members
shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force
against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in
any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”
The
unilateral war of aggression against Iran is a blatant violation of the U.S.
Constitution, which explicitly grants Congress the sole authority to
declare war. This power was intentionally given to the legislative branch to
prevent unilateral military action by a single executive.
These legal and constitutional issues may seem quaint to those of us who have
seen them routinely violated by president after president with the complicity
of a supine Congress. Nonetheless, they constitute both international and
domestic law. They are the legal codification of a moral framework for
international peace and cooperation. Peace-loving people must struggle to
ensure that these laws are followed. We must hold our government officials
accountable when they are not.
Refuse
Illegal Orders – Resist Illegal Wars
Veterans
For Peace reminds our sisters and brothers, children, and grandchildren in the
U.S. military that an order to participate in an illegal war is, by extension,
an illegal order. You have the right and even the duty to refuse illegal
orders. Veterans For Peace and many others will stand with you when you do, and
provide helpful information and
resources. Whatever legal consequences you may endure pale compared
to risking your life in an illegal war or living with Post Traumatic Stress and
Moral Injury.
Veterans and civilians also have the right and the
responsibility to resist the illegal actions of our government at home and
abroad. This attack is a very critical moment in the history of the United
States and the world. We must be in the streets protesting. We must be on our
phones telling our representatives to Vote Yes on the Iran War
Powers resolution. We must be on our keyboards, writing
letters to the editors. Tell them to:
IMMEDIATELY
HALT U.S. MILITARY ATTACKS ON IRAN!
End U.S. Support for Israel and Genocide in Palestine!
End Economic Warfare against Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba!
End ICE and Authoritarian Repression in U.S. Cities!
Abolish Nuclear Weapons and War!
PEACE
AT HOME, PEACE ABROAD!
Scott Ritter. “Regime Change, the
Double-Edged Sword.”
March 1, 2026.
"Epic Fury"
was initiated with the end of the Iranian regime in mind. Regime change may
indeed be the result of this attack. But the question of who will be gone when
the dust settles is not clear.
. . .President
Trump has gambled his entire legacy on a quick and relatively bloodless victory
over Iran.
His
goal (and the goal of his Israeli masters/partners) is regime change.
The
plan his “Secretary of War” (a name which is fundamentally at odds with the
concept of a “Peace President”) has convinced him to implement involves
decapitating the Iranian leadership, suppressing the Iranian security
apparatus, and waiting for the Iranian people to take matters into their own
hands. In his concluding remarks made in an 8-minute video posted on his Truth
Social account shortly after the joint Israeli-US attacks began, Trump laid out
the basic gist of his plan:
To the
members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces and all of the
police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete
immunity. Or in the alternative, face certain death. So, lay down your arms.
You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death.
Finally, to the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your
freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous
outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over
your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only
chance for generations.
For
many years, you have asked for America’s help. But you never got it. No
president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a
president who is giving you what you want. So let’s see how you respond.
America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is
the time to seize control of your destiny, and to unleash the prosperous and
glorious future that is close within your reach. This is the moment for action.
Do not let it pass.
Using
intelligence provided by the United States (and openly bragged about by Donald
Trump in the lead up to this war), Israel attacked and killed some 46 members
of Iran’s senior military and civilian leadership—including the Supreme Leader
of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
This
single action, more than anything else the United States has done (including
yet again carrying out the war crime of perfidy by lulling the Iranians into a
false sense of security through so-called “peace negotiations” that neither the
US nor Israel ever intended to follow through on) shows both the moral and
intellectual vacuum that exists within the Trump administration when it comes
to Iran.
. . .Iranian Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei
Ali
Khamenei was a major religious figure in the Shi’a faith, second only to Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani, who resides in Najaf, Iraq. The Islamic
Republic of Iran is predicated on a religious doctrine known as Velâyat-e
Faqih, or the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist, which is a defining
principle of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is grounded in the faith of the
Twelver branch of the Shi’a faith. The Twelver branch dominates in Iran and
Iraq, and has a very powerful presence amongst the Shi’a faithful throughout
the Middle East.
Killing
Ali Khamenei is the equivalent of killing the Pope, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, or the Head of the Russian Orthodox Church in terms of the impact
it will have on the faithful.
Shi’ism
is born on the backs of the martyrdom of Hussein, the youngest son of Ali, the
cousin of Mohammed who was designated as the rightful heir to Mohammed’s work,
and who was appointed the Fourth of the Rashidun, or “rightly
guided”, caliphs, at the Battle of Karbala on October 10, 680. Hussein embraced
martyrdom to save the lives of his followers and to awaken the collective
conscience of the Muslim community to the reality of the anti-Islamic nature of
the Umayyad regime, which had usurped leadership from Hussein’s older brother,
Hassan.
The
final post on Ali Khamenei’s X account, on February 28, 2026, declared “In the
exalted name of Haidar (peace be upon him)”, invoking Haidar—a reference to
Imam Ali, the first Shi’a Imam who was himself martyred at the hands of an
assassin. The X post, released after the announcement by Israel and the United
States of their assassination of Ali Khamenei, stands as a posthumous message
of defiance.
In
attacking Iran, Donald Trump believed he was laying the foundation for the
Iranian people to rise up and seize the moment, to take matters into their own
hands and help define their future.
The
assassination of Ali Khamenei was meant to be a triggering moment for
motivating the Iranian people to rise up and take to the streets.
Donald
Trump and his close circle of pro-Israeli advisors have succeeded beyond their
wildest imagination.
Today
the streets of Iran are full of enraged citizens.
But
instead of shouting “Death to Khamenei”, they shout “Long live the Martyr
Khamenei!”
People demonstrate
in support of Ali Khamenei
The
people of Iran are voting, and the choice they are making is stark: no to
Trump, no to America, no to Israel.
No to
Pahlavi. And yes to Iran. Yes to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Ali Khamenei had predicted his death. He did
not want to die a feeble old man. He wanted to die like Hussein, a martyr’s
death in the service of his faith, in the service of his people.Trump brags
about how US intelligence tracked down Ali Khamenei and provided his location
to the Israelis so they could murder him.
Ali Khamenei died in his home. He
wasn’t hiding. He was working. Surrounded by fellow Shahids who knew that
by meeting with Ali Khamenei as they were they were inviting their own deaths.
Ali
Khamenei and his fellow patriots sacrificed themselves for Iran. They knew that
their deaths would not hurt the defense of Iran, because Iran was a
Constitutional Republic with well-defined lines of succession.
Because
of the January 2026 violence that struck Iran, Ali Khamenei knew the goals and
objectives of the US and Israel was to promote a popular uprising amongst the
people of Iran to overthrow the Islamic Republic.
Ali
Khamenei knew that if he opted to spend the war hiding in bunkers, his
reputation would be at risk, and confidence in the Islamic Republic reduced.
By
sacrificing his life, Khamenei became a martyr to his cause.
The
people of Iran and the Shi’a faithful of the Middle East are rallying to the
defense of Iran in a way none of the warmongers in Washington, DC or Tel Aviv
could have imagined. . . .
Scott Ritter joins The
World This Week to discuss the U.S. and Israel’s war of aggression to overthrow
the Iranian government with no credible rationale or legal authority,
unleashing a conflagration that could alter history. 8 pm EST tonight. Read here...
March 1, 2026
Careless
Lying, Careless Polling
Hi
Dick,
Late-night
comedians made jokes this week by simply playing footage of Trump and his gang
claiming both that Iran's supposed nuclear weapons program had been
"obliterated" and that it was an imminent threat. They don't even
respect the U.S. public enough to put real effort into the lies -- much less to
consider the opinion polls showing broad opposition to an attack on Iran.
Now,
Trump has launched another horrific war.
"What they posed as the threat they were trying to
preempt—an attack by Iran against US forces—is so extremely implausible, it is
also laughable," said one analyst.
By
Jake Johnson
“Democratic Leaders Face Backlash Over
'Cowardly' Responses to Trump War on Iran.” Common Dreams
(3-1-26).
"As we plunge headlong into another catastrophic war,
Sen. Schumer and Rep. Jeffries’ throat-clearing and process critique only
serves Trump and the war machine."
By
Jake Johnson
Votes are planned next
week in both houses. Contact them now!
Tell
Congress to Prevent Yet Another War
FROM
PROGRESSIVE HUB
·
A War With Iran Would
Not Be a One-Off Event But a Disastrous Ongoing Rupture
·
Israel and American
Hawks are Pushing U.S. to Iran War With Catastrophic Consequences
MORE from Common
Dreams
'More Horrific Death and Destruction Will Come,' Warns Tlaib
Demanding Action From Congress, Khanna Says 'The American People Are Tired of
Regime Change Wars'
'The Behavior of Rogue States': Global
Revulsion as US and Israel Launch War on Iran
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“War
with Iran: Congress must say NO.”
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Dear Dick, March
1, 2026
Last night, the United States and
Israel attacked Iran. President Trump announced that he is seeking regime
change. Many people have already died, including at least 40 children in a
girls’ elementary school. Attacks from both sides are continuing.
We have and will continue to also
condemn the violent actions of the Iranian government towards its own people,
which have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Iranian civilians. But war is
not the answer. Everyone involved in this conflict must stop and deescalation
must begin so we can return to diplomacy. Congress
needs to hear from you about this.
With this immoral and horrifying war
of choice, President Trump violated the Constitution and is endangering
millions of people across the Middle East, including tens of thousands of U.S.
service members.
Children
have already died. The U.S. needs to return to the negotiating table and commit
to real diplomacy. Now is the time for the U.S. and Iran to pursue peace
courageously and persistently.
My faith teaches me that peace is
always possible, even when the situation looks grim. Join
me in demanding your members of Congress do everything they can to bring about
peace.
In
solidarity,
Bridget
Moix
General
Secretary
Update your contact
information.
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245
2nd Street NE Washington, DC 20002 |
“Why
US attacked Iran killingly hundreds.” 3
Articles forwarded by Sonny San Juan. March
1, 2026.
Date:
Sun, Mar 1, 2026 at 9:11 PM
Subject: Why US attacked Iran killingly hundreds
The
United States has bombed Iran. In a series of strikes early today, the United
States, along with Israel, has launched major military action targeting
Iran’s leadership and its military infrastructure. However, these missiles have
also hit civilian targets, including a primary school for young girls in which
at least fifty-seven of the 170 students present for classes were killed.
President Donald Trump, in his early morning video announcing the
attacks said, “The
United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to
prevent this very wicked radical dictatorship from threatening America and our
core national security interests.” Columbia University economics professor and
United Nations adviser Jeffrey Sachs had a different view. In an open
letter to the United Nations Security Council delivered earlier this month,
Sachs wrote, “The
current threat of an attack by the U.S. did not begin with any failure by Iran
to negotiate. On the contrary, it began with the United States’ repudiation of
negotiations that had already succeeded.” Sachs points out that the continued
threats against Iran by the United States have been “in violation of Article
2(4) of the U.N. Charter.” And, Sachs explains the disingenuous nature of
Trump’s actions: “The current threats by the U.S. are therefore part of a
long-standing pattern of feigning interest in negotiations while in fact
pursuing economic warfare and military force.”
In several recent speeches, Trump has referenced the 1979 hostage
crisis, when Iranian students, in protest of CIA operations in their country
going back to the 1953 coup that
overthrew the democratically elected government of Mohammad
Mosaddegh, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Embassy staff were taken
hostage and many were held until January 1981, when they were
released on the same day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated (sparking many years of
analysis of what was called the “October Surprise” during
the 1980 elections). When I spoke with retired
Army colonel and historian Andrew Bacevich for The Progressive in
2019, he noted, “Iranians preferred to start the story of U.S.-Iran
relations [with the 1953 coup that overthrew] a democratically
elected government, reinstalling the Shah in power, and, thereby, opening the
door for decades of authoritarian rule . . . . For us, we want to begin
the story with the Iranian revolution and the hostage crisis, a great
humiliation done to the United States, and one which we really have not gotten
over. If you tried to put today’s crisis in historical perspective, I
think it’s important to acknowledge that the narrative has a different starting
point for the Iranians than it does for the Americans.” [Historical, etiological scholarship—discovering the roots of
international conflicts and determining whose narrative is the most truthful—is
one of the greatest preventions of war and tools for peace. For example, the present Ukraine War founded
on the West’s false history of a Russian “invasion,”, would have been avoided and the lives of hundreds of
thousands of people saved had it been understood that the war began in the coup
of 2014, not 2022. This is the case made
in OMNI’s 34 anthologies of articles and reviews on that war. Dick]
In his video announcement, Trump called on the
Iranian people to rise up and overthrow their government, saying, “When we are
finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be,
probably, your only chance for generations . . . . This is the moment for
action. Do not let it pass.” However, the Iranians might be cautious about this
offer, remembering what took place when
another U.S. President (George H.W. Bush) called, in
March 1991, for the Kurds to rise up and overthrow the government of Saddam
Hussein in Iraq, then walked away and left them to be brutally repressed.
As Yale University professor of history Timothy Snyder points out in
his Substack post today, “We must get away from the propaganda and ask why
this might be happening, in light of the facts that we do know. These facts
suggest two interpretive frameworks: a foreign war as a mechanism to
destroy democracy at home; and a foreign war as an element of personal
corruption by the President of the United States.” Snyder goes on to explain,
“A war is a time when we will be told not to ask questions. But a war is
actually when questions must be asked.” As Robert M. La Follette, founder
of The Progressive, stated on
the floor of the U.S. Senate at the beginning of World War I, “More than in
times of peace it is necessary that the channels for free public discussion of
governmental policies shall be open and unclogged.” The U.S. Congress had
scheduled a vote on a war powers resolution in the coming week, but as Senator
Tim Kaine told NPR this
morning, “I assume [the Administration] wanted to rush the initiation of an
illegal war before Congress had a chance to vote on it.” It is now up to the
people of the United States to respond before this illegal war goes further.
......................................................
Trump
and Netanyahu’s attack on Iran is an illegal act of aggression
Their
actions are no different from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine or Rwandan president
Paul Kagame’s invasion of the Democratic Republic of Congo
Sun 1
Mar 2026
We
shouldn’t beat around the bush: Donald Trump’s and Benjamin Netanyahu’s
military attack on Iran is
an illegal act of aggression. There is no lawful justification for it. It is no
different from Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine or
Rwandan president Paul Kagame’s invasion of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The
United Nations charter allows
the use of military force in only two circumstances – with authorization of the
UN security council, or as self-defense from an actual or imminent armed
attack. Neither was present.
In his
video justification for the war, Trump spoke of Iran’s “imminent threat”, but
there is no evidence to support it.
He recited a litany of
past attacks that he attributed to Iran, but none of them is ongoing or
imminent. At best Trump sought to prevent future harm – Netanyahu used the term
“pre-emptive” – but
prevention is no justification for
war because it would open Pandora’s box to countless armed conflicts.
To
prevent future threats, governments must resort to diplomacy combined with
non-military forms of pressure. Iran is already subject to comprehensive sanctions, but
Trump and Netanyahu cut diplomacy short because they didn’t seem to want to
accept yes for
an answer. With each leader facing political challenges at
home as elections approach, they appeared all too eager to Bomb Iran!
Remarkably,
it isn’t even clear what the focus was during the now-suspended negotiations.
Trump, never one for precision, said that Iran must agree never to have a nuclear weapon, but it
has repeatedly said exactly
that. To underscore the point, it seemed open to
allow inspections of its nuclear facilities and to dilute what remains (after
the June 2025 US bombing) of its
highly enriched uranium.
Rather,
the sticking point seemed to be whether Iran could enrich uranium. At various
stages the US government had demanded that
Iran forsake any enrichment. The Iranian negotiators resisted, noting every
government’s right to
enrich under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. There
were some indications that
Washington had backed away from an absolute version of that demand (although
Trump repeated it
on Friday), and that Tehran was offering face-saving
compromises such as a limit on
enrichment to the modest levels needed for medical or scientific isotopes but
far from what is needed for weapons.
On some
occasions, the US government had also sought limits on
Iran’s ballistic missiles and its support for regional armed groups such as
Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. But recent accounts of
the negotiations suggested that these demands may no longer have been at the
heart of the discussions.
We will
never know how these negotiations might have played out. Trump seems to have
decided that Iran wasn’t serious about
reaching a deal so he launched the attack. Netanyahu never wanted a deal; as is
his wont, he
preferred a military solution. An avoidable war – a war of choice, not
necessity – thus was initiated in blatant violation of international law.
With the
bombing having killed Iran’s
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Trump has urged the Iranian people to
rise up and overthrow the government that has long suppressed them. “The hour
of freedom” is at hand, he announced.
There is
no doubt that the Iranian government is despicable. It met January protests by
mowing down protesters – at least 7,000 dead,
if not many more. But
the goal of regime change is no defense to the crime of aggression.
Nor is
there a case for humanitarian intervention. Given
that killing is inherent in war – not to mention the risk to civilians, such as
the school that was hit on the first day of the bombing, killing dozens, mostly
children – humanitarian intervention can be justified only
to stop ongoing or imminent mass slaughter. There was nothing of the sort.
Humanitarian intervention cannot be invoked merely to retaliate for past
repression, which is the most that can be said for the Trump-Netanyahu attack.
For
these reasons, the international response to the US-Israeli attack has been
cool at best. Britain refused to
allow US bombers to attack Iran from its military base at Diego Garcia.
Britain, France and Germany issued a joint statement that
was critical of Iran but notably did not endorse the invasion.
One can
understand their disquiet. The greatest threat to Europe today comes from
Russia, but the attack on Iran hands Putin the argument of hypocrisy to counter
challenges to his invasion of Ukraine. It is harder to defend international law
when the world’s most powerful government openly flouts it.
As with
any military attack, the consequences can be difficult to predict. The Iranian
leader was 86 years old, so the regime undoubtedly was preparing in
any event to name a
successor. And regime change is difficult to
accomplish from the air, as Trump discovered in Venezuela where he removed
Nicolás Maduro from the scene but otherwise kept the Maduro regime largely
intact.
Khamenei
was a hard-liner who brooked no dissent and clung to Iran’s declared right to
enrich uranium despite the enormous hardship imposed on the Iranian people by
the resulting sanctions. Even if the Islamic Republic does not topple, it is
possible that his successor will be more accommodating – willing to allow
somewhat more freedom, as the Venezuela regime minus Maduro has been. But
Venezuela remains far from
a democracy, and there is little reason to believe that a modified Iranian
regime would be much better.
Will the
Iranian people choose this moment to rise up again as part of their
longstanding quest for a rights-respecting government? Will the regime respond
with its customary and increasingly lethal brutality? And if so, will the
ending be any different from past disappointments? It is too early to make
predictions.
It would
be wonderful if the Iranian people could taste democracy, if Iranian women
could enjoy the spirit of their 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” protests, free
of the oppressive, misogynistic morality police. But
there is also the cautionary lesson learned by the people of Iraq and Libya, where
western military intervention yielded chaos that was arguably more deadly than
dictatorial rule.
The
global ramifications are also troubling. This latest example of Trump’s
might-makes-right world view can
only encourage other acts of aggression, whether China’s seizure of Taiwan,
Ethiopia’s and Eritrea’s threats against Tigray, or the
latest fighting between
Pakistan and Afghanistan. As Trump attacks Iran despite a lack of nuclear
weapons while sparing North Korea, which has 60 or
more nuclear warheads, it won’t be difficult for governments to figure out what
they need to defend themselves from the bully in the White House.
It is an
old military maxim that no war plan survives first contact with the enemy. But
that is true off the battlefield as well. The world of diplomacy can be
frustratingly slow and inadequate. Yet there are good reasons to respect
sovereignty and to seek peaceful resolution of disputes. A world where matters
of life and death – the fate of entire countries – rest on the self-serving
whims of the likes of Trump and Netanyahu is one filled with peril. I would
love to see an end to the ruthless Islamic Republic, but not at the expense of
a world where our destiny is dictated by the men with the biggest guns.
- Kenneth Roth is a Guardian
US columnist, visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and
International Affairs, and former executive director of Human Rights
Watch.
____________________________
Donald Trump’s Republican
foe believes the president’s military operation in Iran has ulterior motives.
Rep. Thomas Massie issued
a pointed reminder on Sunday that war won’t distract him from his push to force
the Department of Justice to release all documents linked to Jeffrey
Epstein.
“PSA:
Bombing a country on the other side of the globe won’t make the Epstein files
go away, any more than the Dow going above 50,000 will,” the Kentucky
libertarian wrote on X.
Massie
is one of several Trump critics who have accused the president of staging
foreign policy crises and other White House controversies to deflect scrutiny
from his historic relationship with Epstein, particularly as new Justice
Department documents related to the late sex trafficker’s crimes are released.
In
January, critics also alleged that
the administration’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
served as a temporary reprieve from bipartisan pressure surrounding Trump’s
ties to Epstein, who once described himself as Trump’s “closest friend.”
The DOJ
has released more than 3 million files related to Epstein, though another 3
million remain withheld for various reasons.
Massie
has also been a thorn in Trump’s side ahead of the president’s military action
in Iran.
“Congress
must vote on war according to our Constitution,” the congressman wrote on X on
Feb. 19. He said he and Khanna “will be forcing that vote to happen in the
House as soon as possible. I will vote to put America first which means voting
against more war in the Middle East.”
Massie
and Khanna are expected to
bring forward a vote next week aimed at curbing Trump’s military action without
congressional approval.
That
effort did not deter the president’s major attack Saturday morning, which
reportedly included a direct hit on
the Shajareye Tayabeh girls’ school in Minab, Hormozgan Province, killing at
least 43 students and wounding 63 others, according to the Iranian state news
agency Islamic Republic News
Agency.
Early
Saturday morning, Massie again took to X to voice his disapproval.
“Acts of
war unauthorized by Congress,” Massie wrote in an X post, linking an Associated Press article titled
“U.S. and Israel launch a major attack on Iran, and Trump urges Iranians to
take over.”
In a
separate post, he slammed Trump’s military action as the opposite of “America
First.”
“I am
opposed to this War,” he wrote in a post viewed 4.2 million times at the time
of publication. “This is not ‘America First.’”
Massie
continued: “When Congress reconvenes, I will work with [Rho Khanna] to force a
Congressional vote on war with Iran. The Constitution requires a vote, and your
Representative needs to be on record as opposing or supporting this war.”
The
president has repeatedly referred to Massie as a “loser” and a “moron” and is
backing his primary opponent, Ed Gallrein, in the race for Kentucky’s 4th
Congressional District.
MARCH
2 (articles and reviews published in March 1 & 2 and afterward to continue
in Anthology #6)
TMS
Weekly Digest 02 Mar - 08 Mar 2026
TRANSCEND Media Service via uark.onmicrosoft.com
Solutions-Oriented Peace Journalism
Week 10 // 02 Mar - 08 Mar 2026
TRANSCEND
Media Service brings to you its own Peace Journalism
Perspective plus a digest of the week’s relevant News, Analyses,
Papers and Videos — in various languages.
Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely
reprinted, disseminated and translated, provided a citation and link to the
source, TRANSCEND Media Service, is included. Please forward our
Weekly Digest to your colleagues and friends. Thank you, enjoy your reading.
Make your pledge for the
2026 TMS budget Click on the link for the List
of Supporters: https://www.transcend.org/tms/list-of-tms-supporters/
[The following gives the opening contents of this number that relate to the
attack on Iran; I deleted other subjects.
–D] . . . .
TRANSCEND VIDEOS
TRUMP
DECLARES WAR: Major US Military Combat Operations Begin in Iran. Times Now World - TRANSCEND
Media Service
28 Feb 2026 – Trump’s announcements: major U.S. military
combat against Iran as “imminent threat” to US national security and global
allies. The U.S. military is currently engaged in a massive operation to
dismantle Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, neutralize its naval capabilities, and
destroy its long-range missile industry. Ultimatum to the Islamic Revolutionary
Guard: surrender or face “certain death.”
Read more...
Iran
Closes Strait of Hormuz & Strikes U.S. Bases
Jackson
Hinkle interviews Ray McGovern | Legitimate Targets – TRANSCEND Media Service
28 Feb
2026 – Jn a moment of cascading escalation — with the Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps announcing the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and retaliatory
strikes reported against U.S. military installations across the region — former
CIA analyst Ray McGovern provides a sobering assessment of what he
described as “uncharted territory.” Read more...
“Iran
Confirms Khamenei Killed In US-Israel Strikes, Announces 40-Day Mourning
News18
- TRANSCEND Media Service
1 Mar
2026 – A photograph of Khamenei’s body was shown to US President
Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Read more...
“Iran
after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Mohammad
Reza Farzanegan | Al Jazeera - TRANSCEND Media Service
1 Mar
2026 – Proponents of foreign intervention in Iran are unlikely to get the
sudden rupture and regime change they hope for. Read more...
Iran:
100 Years of Foreign Interference
Swiss
Policy Research - TRANSCEND Media Service
From
the British invasion of neutral Persia during both WWI and WWII; to the
CIA-directed overthrow of the first democratically elected Iranian Prime
Minister in 1953 due to oil interests…
Read more
[end selections from
Transcend]
Major
General Smedley Butler – TRANSCEND Media Service It is possibly the
oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious; the only one
international in scope. A racket is not what it seems. Only a small “inside”
group knows it, for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very
many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. Read more...
GENE
SHARP: HOPE FOR PEACE IN CANADA
“Today
at 5PM: Making the Abolition of War a Realistic Goal.” science for Peace coordinator@scienceforpeace.org
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END ISRAEL AND US V. IRAN ANTHOLOGY #5
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