Image is of destruction and damage inside Israel, sourced from this article.
Iran and Israel have struck each other many times over the last few days. There has been a general focus on military facilities and headquarters by both sides, though Israel has also struck oil facilities, civilian structures and hospitals, and in return for this, Iran has struck major scientific centers and the Haifa oil facilities.
Israel appears to have three main aims. First, to collapse the Iranian state, either through shock and breakdown by killing enough senior officials, or via some sort of internal military coup. Second, to try and destroy Iranian nuclear sites and underground missile cities, or at least to paralyze them long enough to achieve the first and third goals. And third, to bring the US into a direct conflict with Iran. This is because the US better equipped to fight them than Israel is (though victory would still not be guaranteed depending on what Iran chooses to do).
Iranian nuclear facilities are hidden deep underground (800 meters), far beyond the depth range of even the most powerful bunker busters (~70 meters or so), and built such that the visible ground entrances are horizontally far away in an unknown direction from the actual underground chambers. Only an extremely competent full-scale American bombing force all simultaneously using multiple of the most powerful conventional (perhaps even nuclear) bunker busters could even hypothetically hope to breach them (and we have seen how, in practice, American bunker busters have largely failed to impair or deter Ansarallah). There are several analysts on both sides who have concluded that it is entirely impossible to physically prevent Iran from building nukes.
I fully expect the US to join the war. I believe the current ambiguity is a deliberate invention of the US while they work to move their military assets into position, and as soon as they are ready, the US will start bombing Iran. After that, Iran’s leadership must - if they haven’t already - harden their hearts, and strike back with no fear, or risk following the path of Libya, Syria, and Iraq, either into either surrender, occupation, or annihilation. Every day where they do not possess a nuke is a day where lives are being lost and cities are being bombed.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Trump does have a shock value to him, but a well oiled and competent imperialist machine with democrats at the wheel is just as deadly, if not more. And democrats deport just as many if not more as Trump has. (Deep apologies for the Vox link). But the decorum of the democrats subdues any revolutionary spirit, any rising worker consciousness, and your constant suggestion of the left (whoever exactly that is in the United States) biting the bullet and working with democrats hampers any independent left movement from developing in the United States.
That is advice that confuses many, and it isn’t idealism or purity to suggest that the left has more to lose by working with the dems.
The Communist Party and every non-profit constantly redirects leftist consciousness back to bourgeois electoralism with the Democrats. That isn’t the left marching with the Democrats, that is the Dems smothering any nascent movement in the crib and scattering the ashes as the Dems continue to create the conditions for more fascism. Working with them in the way you suggest isn’t a death sentence - it atrophies our movement. We’ve seen time and time again how the dems almost exist simply to co-opt and redirect movements. If not careful, the democrats absorb all the energy and act as a brake on any independent worker movement developing.
The more the masses see this play out, they even begin to see the dems as unreliable and disconnected from meaningful struggle. When the masses reach that level of consciousness about the two parties, then we don’t want tell them that they are strategically wrong and they need to be led back to Kamala or whomever. You may not understand how important of a development it can be to get Americans to envision anything beyond the two parties.
That does mean the United States is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The dems are a fetter for a left developing in the US, but Trump is a hammer for us (though one that at least radicalizes more Americans). It is true that the left isn’t strong in the United States, but I think you a.) underestimate how damaging the Democrats can be for the left, and b.) overestimate the difference the dems are going to make to stopping fascism.
Though you may say, and I beleve have, that the dems wouldnt stop the fascists, just give the left a few years to build up. But again, working with the dems itself makes it hard for a left to grow and develop independently of a network of bourgeois think tanks and non profits. It’s kicking the can down the road, sure, but without the ability to “train” for what’s to come. So one gains little from that.
I don’t think an analogy you make to China’s history is useful here at all and such an anology isn’t proof enough that the Left should work with the Dems in this moment as the Communists made peace with the KMT. I don’t believe the analology is enough is argue for that position. That stategic playbook of working with the Dems has already been used, we’ve seen the lack of anything it tends to build, and it delays the building of proletariat consciousness and institutions.