We Need a Guns and Butter Debate Over the Costs of the Iran War

May 1, 2026
Michael Hudson
Sixty years ago, opposition to America’s war in Vietnam, a major attack concerned the costs of diverting U.S. resources away from social spending to the military, what was called Guns and Butter.

Scholar Gilbert Achcar on the U.S. War Against Iran & Trump’s “Old-New Imperial Doctrine”

April 30, 2026

We speak with Lebanese-born academic Gilbert Achcar about the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, U.S. foreign policy under President Trump and more. Achcar says Trump’s military actions in Venezuela and Iran are not as dramatic a departure from U.S. policy as some commentators have suggested, calling it “an old-new imperial doctrine.” While the George W. Bush administration believed in “regime change,” says Achcar, Trump is “just going back to 19th-century gunboat diplomacy: You bomb a country until they submit.”

‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’: Trump Threatens Iran With AI Image of Himself Holding a Gun

April 29, 2026
Dave DeCamp

The post comes amid reports that the US is considering restarting the bombing campaign

A view of the UN General Assembly hall in New York during the NPT conference on April 28, 2026 (UN Photo/Manual Elias)

افسانه‌ی بنیان‌گذاری - چرا ناسیونالیسم مسیحی غیرآمریکایی است - نوشته‌ی اندرو- ال- سایدل

این کتاب در سال دو هزار و هجده، و در طول نخستین دورهٔ ریاست جمهوری ترامپ نوشته شده است. در این کتاب انتقاداتی نسبت به ریاست جمهوری ترامپ وجود دارد، اما نکتهٔ اصلی‌ کتاب، همانطور که از عنوان آن می‌توان حدس زد، بررسی این ایده است که ایالات متحده بر اساس و ارکان ناسیونالیسم مسیحی‌ بنا شده است، و این کتاب چنین نظریه‌ای را رد می‌کند. در حقیقت، این یک سند تحقیقی است، چرا که برای هر ادعا نقل قول‌هائی ارائه می‌شود.ا

The Founding Myth- Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American‌- By Andrew L. Seidel

The above titled book was written in 2018, during the first presidency of Donald Trump. It has some criticism of Trump’s presidency here and there, but the main point of the book, as it can be guessed from the title, is investigating the idea that the United States was built on the basis and pillars of Christian Nationalism. Andrew Seidel attempts to disprove such theory. It is a well-researched document, providing quotations for each claim.

Masoud Pezeshkian ; Donald Trump; Vladimir Putin Iran and Russia are gaming the United States, and winning

April 28, 2026
Ian Proud

Is Trump running out of time to end the war before the American economy catches up?

Iran Group’s ICC Evidence of US & Israeli War Crimes

April 27, 2026

Jake Johnson

Since the ICC does not have jurisdiction over war crimes committed on Iranian territory, human rights organizations and advocates have implored Tehran to grant the court jurisdiction, Jake Johnson reports.

International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands. (Vysotsky, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Iran war live: Tehran’s FM returns to Pakistan; Israel attacks Lebanon

April 26, 2026

• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has returned to Islamabad, Pakistan, after a brief stint in Oman, where he met with its sultan to discuss efforts to bring an end to the US-Israeli war on his country.
• Israel has carried out more deadly attacks in southern Lebanon after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “forceful” strikes, accusing Hezbollah of sabotaging peace efforts.
• US President Donald Trump has cancelled his envoys’ visit to Pakistan for negotiations, saying Iran did not make a satisfactory offer for a peace deal.
• Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that Tehran will not enter into negotiations with the US under pressure, threats or siege.

Iran seeks Omani, Russian mediation in addition to Pakistan

April 25, 2026
Juan Cole
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – According to the pro-government Tasnim newspaper, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has begun a trip to Islamabad, Musqat and Moscow. Iran appears to be attempting to widen negotiations beyond Pakistan, feeling that Field Marshall Asim Munir is well-meaning but is captive to Washington and may lack the independence necessary to be a third-party mediator.

Middle East conflict looks increasingly like a war nobody can win

April 24, 2026
Bamo Nouri and Inderjeet Parmar

Describe things as they are: This now is not a war moving toward a decisive conclusion but a conflict settling into a pattern

A billboard in a square in Tehran reads in Persian: “Forever in Iran’s hand.” Photo: Abedin Taherkenareh / EPA

Indestructible Iran: What does D.C. want from Tehran? Regime change, total collapse, or a deal?

April 23, 2026
Joaquin Flores

Trump sounds crazy, but he is not. He is, however, the product of an American empire that had gone completely mad.

Israelis are being recruited as spies for Iran in what security experts call an espionage ‘epidemic’

Apri l22, 2026
Abdaljawad Omar 

Israel has long used the same playbook to recruit informants from enemy societies. Iran is now using it to recruit spies in Israel by exploiting new cracks in Israeli society.

حکومت‌های حاکم بر ایران

بسیاری پرسش می‌کنند که چگونه است که ما نه تنها مطالبی را در موافقت با پاره‌ای از فعالیت‌های جمهوری اسلامی در اینجا عنوان نمی‌کنیم، بلکه بطور یک‌جانبه و صرفا به آنچه که در موافقت با سایر دیدگاه‌ها و یا نظرات می‌باشد می‌پردازیم.  از طرف دیگر و در عین حال در توافق و همسوئی و همصدایی با رژیم‌های پیشین، چون رژیم پهلوی و سایر حکومت‌های حاکم بر ایران، اثری در این مجموعه نمی‌توان یافت.ا

$2 Billion Per Day Spent by US on Iran War Could Have Saved 87 Million Lives, Says UN Humanitarian Chief

April 21, 2026
Stephen Prager

A UN official said a proposal to provide food, water, medicine, and shelter to tens of millions of those facing war and poverty could have been funded “in less than a fortnight of this reckless war.”

Protesters hold signs at the US Capitol to for the Anti-Iran War Rally on January 09, 2020 in Washington DC, United States. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Live: Trump says Iran deal will be signed 'today' in Pakistan

April 20, 2026

Vance and US negotiators are due to arrive in Islamabad within hours, US president says

Trump renews threats to ‘knock out’ Iran’s power plants, bridges if final deal fails

April 19, 2026

Iran has reclosed the Strait of Hormuz due to Washington’s ongoing blockade on the country’s ports

Iran: Strait of Hormuz is Open; but with Conditions

April 18, 2026
Juan Cole
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, announced on “X” Friday morning that the Strait of Hormuz is “completely open.”

Victory Disease in Iran

April 17, 2026
Matthew Stevenson 

Old fortification in Oman. Photo by Matthew Stevenson.

War on Iran leaves $58 billion repair bill across region – report

April 16, 2026

US-Israel strikes and Tehran’s retaliation are pushing oil and gas facility damage costs toward $50 billion, Rystad Energy projects

Research reveals that EU AI rules stop at its borders with little accountability for human rights impacts abroad

April 16, 2026

Nadim Nashif

EU exports AI systems that are escalating human rights violations in Palestine and the WANA region

An aerial view of the Flour massacre, when at least 118 Palestinians were killed, and 760 were injured after Israeli forces opened fire while they were seeking food from aid trucks, February 29, 2024. Photo on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).