America’s Fatal Attraction to War

August 12, 2026
Emma Ashford

The Perverse Incentives for Presidents to Use Military Force

تاریخ

کسانی‌ که به تاریخ علاقه‌مندند و وقایع تاریخی‌ را مطالعه می‌کنند، هر یک از دید خاصی‌ به آن رویدادها می‌نگرند. ولی‌ آنچه که بیش از همه جلب توجه می‌کند جنگ‌ها و لشگر‌کشی‌هاست که در هر دورهٔ تاریخی‌ بی‌وقفه ادامه دارند. نه تنها داستان جنگ‌ها و لشگرکشی‌ها، بلکه مرور ابداعات و اختراعات جنگی و سلاح‌هائی که ضایعاتِ انسانیِ و نظامیِ نیروی خودی را کمتر، و در عوض خسارات جنگی دشمن را چند برابر می‌کنند. گرچه جوامع بشری همواره و در طول تاریخ با اختراعات و اکتشافات و نوآوری‌های خود رو به پیشرفت بوده‌ا‌ند، بلکه همواره در نقطه‌ای از این کرهٔ خاکی درگیری نظامی بین دولت‌ها و ملت‌ها رقم خورده است. ولی‌ روند جوامع همیشه به سمت بهتر و راحت‌تر زیستن بوده است، و بسیاری از جنگ‌ها نیز به منظور تحت اختیار گرفتن و یا غلبه کردن بر آن نوآوری‌های نظامی بوده‌ا‌ند. دانشمندان همیشه با کاوش و تجسّسِ خود کشف کرده‌ا‌ند که چگونه می‌توان از آنچه که در دسترس بشر قرار دارد، چون عوامل جوّی و رودها و اقیانوس‌ها، و سایر ثروت‌های طبیعت مانند کشتزارها و معادن،  و انرژی خورشیدی، و هر آنچه که در این کرهٔ خاکی یافت می‌شود، به منظور راحت زیستن استفاده بهتر و شایانی کرد.ا

US War on Iran Is Devastating for Women Who Want Life and Freedom

August 11, 2026
Iranian feminists asked for international help — but the U.S.-Israeli war has killed women, left many jobless and given the government a pretext to violate their rights.

An Iranian woman walks past anti-U.S. graffiti painted on a wall of Tehran University in downtown Tehran on April 25, 2026

Iran Has Changed the Question

August 11, 2026

Vijay Prashad
For more than three decades, the United States has treated Middle Eastern diplomacy as an exercise in writing the terms for others. Iran’s emerging regional strategy is challenging that privilege. The immediate evidence is emerging in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran and Oman are negotiating an arrangement under which Tehran could oversee vessels entering the Gulf while Muscat manages outbound traffic. The proposal remains unsettled, but it represents something larger than a maritime agreement: Iran is attempting to move the diplomatic agenda away from the narrow question of its nuclear compliance and towards the wider architecture of Gulf security.

Image Source: Wikideas1 – Own work made with Numbers for Mac and data from https://portwatch.imf.org/ – CC0

What the Iran-Oman Hormuz deal means (it’s not good)

August 10, 2026

Optimism about reaching a diplomatic solution to the Iran crisis is premature. No deal between Iran and Oman has been formally announced, but what we know is not promising. Indeed, allowing the Strait of Hormuz littoral states alone to conduct the negotiations is a fundamental challenge to freedom of the seas, a foundation of U.S. foreign policy. The specifics may be even worse.  Under one leaked version of the deal, neither US nor Israeli ships would be allowed to transit the strait, an automatic non-starter for Washington.

Marco ‘McCarthy’ Rubio: Wrong on Cuba & ‘Terrorism’

August 10, 2026
Ann Wright

Those who challenge and protest U.S. policies are not foreign-paid terrorists; Rubio and other Trump appointees are using “McCarthy” tactics to stop dissent, says Ann Wright.

Downtown Minneapolis ICE-out demonstration on Jan. 23 following ICE agent Jonathan Ross’ fatal shooting of civilian Renée Good. (Lorie Shaull /Flickr/ Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY 4.0)

Live: Israel rejects Trump's 15-point plan for Gaza

August 9, 2026 (Edited)

Meanwhile, Iran lays down six conditions for Hormuz reopening

Iran war live: IRGC says Hormuz to open after US ‘fully’ accepts conditions

August 8, 2026
Stephen Quillen & Rached El-Moctar
Sardar Mohebi, spokesperson for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), says the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is not subject to the deal with Oman, adding that it is conditional on the US “fully accepting Iran’s conditions”.

Trump’s Iran Oil Giveaway

August 7, 2026
Freddy Brewster

As war with Iran drove oil prices higher, Trump gave politically connected oil companies — not taxpayers — the chance to cash in on publicly owned oil.

Kuwait shuts down nation's only Iranian school

AUG 6, 2026

No reason was given for the closure, as families were told to transfer their children before the next academic year begins

Iran war live: Tehran says it agreed coordinates of Hormuz route with Oman

August 5, 2026
Mariem Bah and Stephen Quillen

• Iran’s foreign ministry says a deal with Oman on a route through the Strait of Hormuz is being “finalised”, but the US and Israel still pose a danger to ships in the vital waterway.
• Israel’s military says it has started carrying out attacks on southern Lebanon in response to what it calls a “blatant violation of the ceasefire” by Hezbollah. One person has so far been reported killed and 11 injured in the offensive. Earlier, Israeli media reported that two Israeli soldiers were killed and several others wounded after an IED exploded inside a booby-trapped building in the Lebanese village of Majdal Selm.
• Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB has quoted an informed source as saying the talks between Iran and Oman “have nothing to do with the United States”.
• Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank carry out large-scale raids in several areas. Soldiers have entered the Qalandiya refugee camp, storming homes and detaining Palestinians. Israeli gunfire and shelling have been reported in neighbourhoods across the Gaza Strip.

باز هم جنگ

 هفتهٔ پیش در مورد جنگ جهانی‌ سوم سخن رفت. با حملات دولت آمریکا به ایران  و حملهٔ یک هفته پیش به کیش و کشتار غیر نظامیان، حملهٔ چند روز پیش دولت فاشیستی اکراین به یک کشتی ایرانی‌ در بحر خزر، و حملات دولت ایران به کشورهای عربی‌ به منظور متلاشی کردن پایگاه‌های نظامی آمریکا، جنگ‌ها همچنان گسترش می‌یابند. این کشت و کشتار‌ها علاوه بر جنگ طولانی‌ بین روسیه با اکراین، سودان و میانمار و جنگ‌های متفرقه بین سومالی، مالی‌، بورکینا فاسو، و از طرف دیگر حملات رژیم اسرائیل به فلسطینیان و سایر کشورهای همجوارش مانند سوریه و لبنان، هر لحظه دنیا را پر آشوب‌تر می‌کنند. به این ترتیب و با کمال تاسف، به نظر می‌رسد که پیش‌بینی‌ مقالهٔ پیشین هر لحظه به حقیقت نزدیک‌تر می‌شود.ا

Report: US Has Used ‘Virtually All’ of Its ATACMS and Precision Strike Missiles in Iran War

August 5, 2026
Dave DeCamp

The US used Precision Strike Missiles for the first time on the opening day of the war, including a strike on a sports hall that killed 21 civilians

 

The Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) being fired at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in 2025 (US Army photo)

Sanders Warns Democrats: Don’t Support Bill to Fast-Track Social Security Cuts

 August 4, 2026
Jake Johnson 

“If the Democratic Party is ever to regain the faith of ordinary Americans it must stand firm on the issue of Social Security,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on May 20, 2026.

Oil shortages escalate from wars in Iran and Ukraine, with few signs of relief

August 4, 2026
Amy Myers Jaffe 

Smoke plumes rise from Saudi Aramco’s oil refinery in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, on July 26, 2026, after Houthi missile and drone strikes were launched from Yemen. Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data 2026

Trump teases Iran talks as Truth Social starts selling fast access to his posts

August 3, 2026

The sudden cancelation of strikes followed a week of threats that helped keep crude near $90 a barrel

The collapse of national sovereignty in the Middle East

August 3, 2026
Paul R. Pillar

The region has come to look like — to borrow a phrase from 17th Century philosopher Thomas Hobbes — a war of all, against all

Outrage Over Apparent US Use of 2,000-Pound Bomb on Iranian Family Home Builds

August 2, 2026
Jessica Corbett

“Everyone in the chain of command who authorized this should be charged with murder.”

Protesters march in the streets of downtown Austin, Texas to show opposition to the war in Iran during a protest organized by the Austin for Palestine Coalition on April 8, 2026. (Photo by Mikala Compton/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images)

ASEAN winners and losers in the era of the Hormuz crisis

August 1, 2026
Chris Taylor

Don’t cry for me Indonesia – and landlocked Laos surprises

A Thai‑flagged cargo ship burns after being hit by Iranian missiles in the Strait of Hormuz on March 11. Photo: Royal Thai Navy

Turkey urges Iran to halt attacks on Kurdish groups

July 31, 2026
Ragip Soylu

Ankara fears further Iranian strikes could push Kurdish opposition groups closer to Israel and undermine Turkey’s peace process with the PKK

Members of Komala, an Iranian Kurdish opposition party, attend the funeral of Peshmerga fighter Ghazal Moulai at Sheikh Ahmed Hindi cemetery in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, on 16 April 2026 (Shwan Mohammed/AFP)