Dimona long-distance surveillance radar site, Negev Desert. Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0

+ If, in fact, the war is over (don’t count on it), then Iran wins by surviving two massive bombing campaigns by the US and Israel (both nuclear-armed states) in the last year. Iran wins even bigger by keeping the Islamic Republic in power under the control of a younger, more militant leadership with the Republican Guard largely intact. Iran’s victory grows larger when you consider that it keeps its nuclear research program and uranium stockpile. The victory becomes almost total when you factor in its ongoing control over the Strait of Hormuz and the fact that Trump was ready to call it quits in less than two months–not the 20 years it took to realize it had been defeated in Afghanistan.

+ It’s important for Americans who haven’t been paying attention to Gaza to understand that when Israel signs a “ceasefire” agreement, only one side is held to its pledge to cease firing. Since the ceasefire in Gaza, now supervised by Trump’s Board of Peace, Israel has continued killing 10 to 15 Palestinians–mostly civilians–a day, an ongoing slaughter mostly unremarked upon by the NYT, Washington Post, BBC or CNN. This week, an Israeli soldier shot a 3-year-old Palestinian boy in the head. Expect a similar dynamic to unfold in Iran, where the US is waging, if not a war for Israel, at least a war waged in the style of Israel…

+ Geographically, Iran is the size of Western Europe. It has at least 10 cities with populations of more than one million people–four of them are larger than Chicago. How many of these cities could most American politicians or media figures name? Two? That’s probably generous. With a populace of nearly 14 million people, Tehran’s population exceeds NYC’s by 5 million people. We have no idea who we are going to war against, why, or what civilization the leader of our country has vowed to destroy for all time…It’s a safe bet that in this instance ignorance won’t turn out to be bliss.

+ During the first week of the war, US and Israeli airstrikes targeted Iran’s pistachio industry, once the largest in the world, destroying the warehouses of the Iranian Pistachio Company adjacent to the Rafsanjan Airport.

+ The Economist: “Iran is now earning nearly twice as much from oil sales each day as it did before American and Israeli bombs started falling on February 28th. It may be pummelled on the battlefield, but the regime is winning the energy war.”

+ This week, the People’s Tribunal on Offenses Against the Common Language received an indictment from Citoyen Jim Goodman against the term “Israeli settlers.” Goodman remarked, “Wouldn’t claim jumper be a more appropriate term?” Our judgment was unanimous and immediate. Off to the tumbrils it goes. Maître executioner, sharpen the blade!

+ Nearly a month into Trump and Netanyahu’s war on Iran, the US has conducted air strikes against more than 10,000 different targets across Iran.

+ The Israeli Air Force has dropped more than 15,000 bombs on Iran since the start of the war. By comparison, it hit Iran with around 4,000 bombs in last summer’s 12 Day War. 

+ Iran’s health ministry reports that at least 1,937 people have been killed by US and Israeli missile strikes and more than 24,800 injured. At least 66 children under the age of five have been killed to date. Meanwhile, the Pentagon reported on Tuesday that the US casualty count stands at 303, including 13 killed and 290 injured.

+ It’s unlikely that Trump was briefed on the significance of Iran’s strike on Israel’s largest chemical weapons plants in the Negev desert, near the Dimona nuclear complex. Iranian missiles hit the Rotem chemical facility, which manufactures white phosphorous, the outlawed chemical bombs that Israel has repeatedly deployed against international law in southern Lebanon and Gaza, a weapon that burns the flesh off of humans and animals.

+ Netanyahu: “We are working to bring Iran to places it has never been before. They will understand that they are below, and Jews are above.” As Uri Avnery repeatedly warned, Israel’s committing atrocities in the name of all “Jews,” endangers Jews worldwide and spreads anti-semitism.

+ Earlier this week, Iran’s Ministry of Education said that 241 students and teachers have been killed and 183 wounded since the start of the war, with students accounting for 190 of the deaths and 164 of the injuries and teachers totaling 51 deaths and 19 wounded. It reported that at least 644 schools had been damaged or destroyed by US and Israeli airstrikes.

+ The Iranian electrical grid is not a military target. Typically, Trump is following the Neo-con playbook of claiming to “liberate” people by increasing their suffering. It’s never worked and it won’t work now. Of course, the Israelis–from whom Trump seems to be getting most of his tactical and strategic advice–prioritized the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza (and now Lebanon) not because they wanted Palestinians to rise up and overthrow Hamas or Hezbollah but because they wanted to eliminate Palestinians from Gaza and southern Lebanon. Good luck with that strategy (if you can call it that) in a country with 93 million people.