Book Review: Vali Nasr, “Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History”, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2025). Munich (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The Islamic Republic of Iran faces its greatest moment of crisis since the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War. After Israel struck nuclear, military, and civilian sites in Iran on June 13, the two countries have […]
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Middle East
64 Palestinians in Gaza Killed trying to Reach Aid Centers in 24 Hours
( IMEMC ) – Updated: On Wednesday, Day 93 since the resumption of the genocide, Israeli missiles and shells killed and injured dozens of Palestinians in many areas across the destroyed, starved, and besieged Gaza Strip. Media sources said that 11 civilians were killed, and more than 70 injured, on the Salahuddin Street, near Wadi […]
Air Campaigns don’t Win Wars on their Own: Why Israel will largely Fail in Iran
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel’s militarily useless, entirely unprovoked and wholly illegal air war on Iran differs significantly from its previous wars in the region, which involved ground invasions with armor and infantry. Israel defeated Egypt in 1956 and again in 1967 with a combination of air force and armor and infantry. It suffered […]
America’s Vacillating Mideast Policy: Is anyone in Charge?
( Middle East Monitor ) – US foreign policy in the Middle East appears to be adrift, no longer guided by fixed strategies or clear goals. Instead, a chaotic process, akin to political decentralization, is underway. While the Trump administration contributed significantly to this disarray, the ensuing bedlam was arguably inevitable. This situation arises when […]
Israel-Iran War: History shows you cannot assassinate your way to Peace
By Matt Fitzpatrick, Flinders University (The Conversation) – In the late 1960s, the prevailing opinion among Israeli Shin Bet intelligence officers was that the key to defeating the Palestinian Liberation Organisation was to assassinate its then-leader Yasser Arafat. The elimination of Arafat, the Shin Bet commander Yehuda Arbel wrote in his diary, was “a precondition […]
An Iranian-American View: Tehran will Never Surrender
Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. –Rumi Like the rest of the world, I got up on Friday morning June 13 to hear the shocking news. It was truly Friday the 13th. When asked sometimes before where I am originally from, I used to […]
Congress Considers War Powers Resolution Rejecting an Iran War
( Code Pink) – On Monday, June 16, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced legislation, a War Powers Resolution, to prevent President Trump from using military force against Iran without Congressional authorization. This will force all Senators to go on record supporting or opposing the following: “Congress hereby directs the President to terminate the use of […]
Iraqi Shiites Demand Expulsion of US Troops after Israel Attacks Iran
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli-Iranian War of 2025 has put Iraq in an extremely difficult situation. The country’s Shiite majority sympathizes with Iran and with the Palestinians, and resents Israel’s use of Iraqi airspace to attack their Shiite neighbor. On Sunday the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Soudani met with Thomas Seiler, the […]
Iran’s Hypersonic Missiles Hit Israeli Refinery, Military Sites, as Israel does the same to Tehran
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel and Iran continued to trade airstrikes on each other on Saturday. Israel struck the Iranian Ministry of Defense, petroleum and gas sites, and, it said, further nuclear-related sites. So writes the Israeli newspaper Arab 48. Iran for its part hit military and intelligence sites nestled among civilians in Tel […]