Free Republic

It's hard to imagine greater courage than taking to the streets to protest against a heavily armed repressive regime that is willing to kill you in cold blood. For the more than 35,000 - and up to 80,000 Iranians who paid with their lives for showing this courage in January, the hope now is that they did not die in vain. Yet as the war the war enters its third week, the dreams of so many Iranians that their odious regime will collapse are hanging in the balance. The joint US-Israeli attacks have done much to weaken the regime militarily,...

President Donald Trump’s war with Iran is not going well. He began the conflict with a promise to use an air campaign to initiate regime change in as little as “two or three days.” But about three weeks in, Iran’s government, military and security forces remain highly functional. No popular uprising has emerged. And Iran’s government has seized control of the Strait of Hormuz, sending global oil prices surging and Trump into a panic. Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, is one of the analysts who saw this situation coming a long way off. An expert...

Iran says it is targeting Dimona, which houses Israel’s main nuclear research center, as a “response” to an earlier strike on the Natanz nuclear enrichment site. The Israel Defense Forces said it was not responsible for striking Natanz.

History offers a recurring pattern that conventional history tends not to recognize: governments overreach abroad, miscalculate badly, and the resulting strain — financial, political, and psychological — comes home to roost in the form of unrest, rebellion, or outright civil war. The public is usually fed lofty justifications at the outset, but in the aftermath, real consequences expose hidden, deeper structural weaknesses. France in the late 18th century. The monarchy’s heavy involvement in foreign wars—most notably the Seven Years’ War and then the expensive intervention in the American Revolution—left the country financially crippled. While the American venture is celebrated as...

Trump supporters who backed his promise to avoid new Middle East wars worry Iran’s attacks on shipping are pushing the U.S. toward escalation — and maybe even boots on the ground.When the U.S. started firing Tomahawk missiles at Iran late last month, many of President Donald Trump’s allies hoped it would be a quick, surgical operation, similar to last year’s strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities or the ouster of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in January. Though uneasy, they were reassured by the belief that Trump’s open-ended objectives gave him the flexibility to declare victory whenever he saw fit. Now, more...

Russia has delivered more than 13 tons of emergency medical supplies to Iran via Azerbaijan, as the ongoing conflict between Iran and the United States and Israel intensifies. The aid package, consisting primarily of medicines and essential hospital equipment, was dispatched on the direct orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin to address urgent healthcare shortages following weeks of heavy bombardment. The humanitarian shipment was transported by a specialised Il-76 aircraft from Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry to Azerbaijan, from where it was transferred to the Iranian Red Crescent Society for final delivery. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the aid was...

Iran's leadership and its triad of threats: nuclear ambiguity, surging missiles, and drone swarms – the very real hegemonic danger that extended far beyond the Middle East.For years, the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—the Iran nuclear deal—was sold as a historic diplomatic achievement that blocked Iran's path to a nuclear weapon for a generation. Supporters praised it as pragmatic restraint. Critics, including myself, saw it for what it really was: a temporary pause that let Iran preserve its nuclear infrastructure, accelerate its military capabilities, and wait out the sunset clauses.The deal was never designed to be permanent. Many...

Until last year, for some 46 years, Iran enjoyed a North Korea-like reputation in the heart of the Middle East: always unpredictable, reckless, dangerous, inevitably to be nuclear, self-destructive, and nihilistic. All that said, was it really ever all that formidable? The mullahs came into power after the removal of the Shah and, subsequently, the interim secular socialists. They did so by taking American hostages, murdering opponents, executing former supporters, and transforming the most secular and modern of the Middle East Muslim nations into the most medieval that routinely hung homosexuals, adulterers, and almost anyone who questioned the authority of...

Expats claim they will leave Dubai and never return as they fear for their lives and see their businesses destroyed while missiles continue to rain down over the United Arab Emirates. Once a tax-free haven attracting influencers from across the globe and thousands of Brits seeking warm weather and crime free streets, Dubai's carefully crafted image has been shattered and residents believe it is 'finished'. The emirate, home to around 240,000 British expats including Rio and Kate Ferdinand, Luisa Zissman and Petra Ecclestone, has been targeted by constant Iranian missile and drone attacks as the regime strikes US allies in...

For decades, Iran cultivated a myth of invincibility through terror and proxies—until war exposed the regime as weaker, poorer, and far more fragile than the world had feared. Until last year, for some 46 years, Iran enjoyed a North Korea-like reputation in the heart of the Middle East: always unpredictable, reckless, dangerous, inevitably to be nuclear, self-destructive, and nihilistic. All that said, was it really ever all that formidable? The mullahs came into power after the removal of the Shah and, subsequently, the interim secular socialists. They did so by taking American hostages, murdering opponents, executing former supporters, and transforming...

Once war begins and American soldiers are under fire, a rational discussion of the pros and cons of war becomes nearly impossible. That is exactly why our Founders wrote a Constitution that demands a debate before the initiation of war. But there was no debate in Congress, let alone a vote. On Feb. 28, Americans awoke to discover that their country was once again embroiled in a war in the Middle East. Americans were not asked if they would bear the burdens of war. Instead, the American people were told, through a presidential eight-minute video posted around 2:30 in the...

I’m going to start out this morning by quoting a piece I wrote back in 2007:Yesterday, I made a comment with regards to the culpability of Jimmy Carter as regards our current troubles with Iran. As you may imagine I managed to get some email commentary on that charge. For the most part, the mails chided me for rendering such a verdict against so great a president. Apparently, the people writing, have learned nothing from reading this site, over the years. In any event, Michael Evans, in an OP/Ed piece in the Jerusalem Post, nails it down quite nicely ...The...

Some of the supposed character “flaws” of @realDonaldTrump are precisely those that are needed to be a courageous and bold global leader." Gad Saad You’ve got to think: if the US military can pinpoint one room in Teheran with a Grand Ayatollah and 39 other high officials in it, then the US military can figure out where Iran’s missiles are being launched from and put a stop to that, too. With no high command left, Iran’s missile batteries have been on their own since Saturday, desperately trying a kind of last-ditch “Samson option” to light up the whole region and...

Stena Bulk has confirmed that a commercial vessel hit in an Iranian missile attack in Bahrain early on Monday was one of its own ships, known to be in the employ of the US Navy. TradeWinds reported that the vessel hit in the strike that left one Asian maritime worker dead and two seriously injured, could be the US-flagged, 49,800-dwt Stena Imperative (built 2016).

U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle crashed near Al Jahra, Kuwait, with both the pilot and weapons systems officer ejecting safely and surviving, according to footage circulating online and Arab media reports. Official authorities have not confirmed the cause of the crash. Widely shared videos on social media showed what was identified as an F-15E Strike Eagle crashing west of Al Jahra, Kuwait. White smoke was visible in the sky, leading to speculation that the aircraft may have been struck by friendly fire. Both the pilot and weapons systems officer onboard appeared to have survived, with footage showing one of...

Peace Through Strength: President Trump Launches Operation Epic Fury to Crush Iranian Regime, End Nuclear Threat The White House March 1, 2026 In a bold and necessary exercise of American strength, President Donald J. Trump authorized Operation Epic Fury — a precise, overwhelming military campaign to eliminate the imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime, destroy its ballistic missile arsenal, degrade its proxy terror networks, and cripple its naval forces. This operation, executed in partnership with regional allies, follows exhaustive diplomatic efforts and comes after 47 years of Iranian aggression — including attacks on U.S. citizens, sponsorship of global...

There are reports on social media and in the Israeli press that a US Airstrike whacked the new Supreme Leader of Iran within hours of him being named as Khamanei's successor. https://sundayguardianlive.com/world/israel-iran-latest-news-update-is-iran-new-supreme-leader-ayatollah-alireza-arafi-killed-after-succeeding-ayatollah-ali-khamenei-173446/

One of the most important oil facilities on the planet — Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura refinery — has reportedly been hit. Fires. Shutdowns. Export disruption. This isn’t just another strike. This is an attack on the world’s energy lifeline. Ras Tanura is the artery through which vast amounts of global oil flows to Europe and Asia. If that artery is threatened, the economic consequences ripple across the entire planet — fuel prices, markets, supply chains, everything. The conflict has now crossed a dangerous threshold. This is no longer regional escalation. This is global economic warfare.

Forty-seven years after the mullahs seized power, the countdown ended in fire, and Trump wagered that decisive force—not talk—would finally clear the path to Iran’s liberation.On January 25, just over a month ago, I wrote here that “The Countdown to Iran’s Liberation Has Begun.” Yes, there were peace talks. Donald Trump’s negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, jetted off to talk to Iran’s agents. Had Iran acceded to Trump’s key demands—above all, the abandonment of its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons—war might have been averted. As Churchill almost put it, it is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war. But the...

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Only one in four Americans approves of the U.S. strikes that killed Iran’s leader, while about half — including one in four Republicans — believe President Donald Trump is too willing to use military force, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Sunday. Some 27% of respondents said they approved of the strikes, while 43% disapproved and 29% were not sure. About nine in 10 respondents said they had heard at least a little about the strikes, which began early on Saturday. The poll was conducted during the strikes on Iran by the U.S....