Brian Ulrich Informed Comment During the past seven months, the world has seen the significance of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial chokepoint not only for oil, but natural gas, fertilizer, food for the Gulf states, and other industrial materials. That strait actually takes its name from a city and kingdom which once dominated the… Read More The Strait of Hormuz in World History & the Present Crisis
Kaveh Rostamkhani – Erfan Kouchari At nearly 104 degrees Fahrenheit and 80% humidity, Bandar Abbas was already an open-air sauna at 5 a.m., as fishers unloaded their fresh catch of shrimp and fish at the city’s wholesale fish market, right at the wharf. The intense tang of rotten fish residue was unbearable. Elias Rahimi, like… Read More Life in Iran’s War-Torn South on the Strait of Hormuz
The Real Costs of the War on Iran and the Continuities of American History Kabir Rao – Navigating the Nuclear Age The involvement of the United States across the Global South or, in older parlance, the Third World, has a long and tragic history. Its encounters with Third World Countries have generally involved the practice… Read More What Has America Lost?
Ali Abootalebi Informed Comment The Arab states have long suffered from weak political legitimacy and ineffective governance. Authoritarian rule remains pervasive. According to Freedom House, no Arab country is currently classified as “Free,” while Jordan, Lebanon, and Comoros are rated “Partly Free.” Kuwait, following the suspension of its elected parliament in 2024, is now classified as “Not… Read More The Arab States and the US-Israeli War on Iran
War in the Middle East has morphed from the sterile narrative of fighting for freedom and democracy, to the more spectacular notion that US military force has been mobilized to serve Christian prophecy Phil Wilson Common Dreams Forget about Ancient Sparta, Attila the Hun, Hernán Cortés, Julius Ceasar, Alexander the Great, Adolf Hitler, and all of the conquerors that… Read More Thank Trump for This: He Has Exposed the Leaking Guts of the War Machine
Pravin Sawhney on the collapse of Indian diplomacy NB: Many of us still don’t understand that this is an RSS government (the Sangh has many faces); and that it has no politics except (1) the rectification of history (i.e. defeating the Mughal Empire three centuries after its demise); and (2) grabbing control of public funds… Read More Pravin Sawhney: India Is No Longer Useful For America Geopolitically, Strategically & Militarily (June 18, 2026)
Edward Luce “Tweets don’t overturn signed agreements,” said a Saudi official last week. Amid America’s broiling ocean of surrealism, being instructed by a dynastic autocracy on the sanctity of the contract stands out. Donald Trump had claimed to amend a US-Saudi nuclear deal on his Truth Social site the day after it was signed. That… Read More Trump’s waning sway over the world
As the bombing starts again, it’s clear the president has dragged the US into a limitless fiasco – and the world into an economic quagmire Simon Tisdall Feckless and clueless, Donald Trump is lost in Iran, unable to find a way out of the disastrous war he started. Once again, the US military is pummelling the… Read More Trump, not Iran, is the world’s greatest danger. He’s a one-man weapon of mass destruction
Iran is the only team that can’t rest and recuperate after a match because Trump’s minions insist that they fly out of the US within hours of the full-time whistle Mukul Kesavan The correct way of following this World Cup is to first recognise that its principal host, the United States of America, is a… Read More Rogue host
The president went to war triumphant and will likely leave greatly weakened. By Jonathan Lemire President Trump lost. The war he waged against Iran promises to conclude in a humbling whimper with the signing of a cease-fire agreement later this week. The United States is left weaker—diminished militarily, strategically, economically, and perhaps morally. The war, which… Read More Trump in Defeat
