The United States, in lockstep with Israel, has ignited a direct military conflict with Iran, a move that has triggered an aggressive and catastrophic retaliation, which is currently justifying a sweeping expansion of war. The U.S. targeting Iranian leadership and sinking an Iranian frigate in international waters has elicited blood-curdling vows of revenge from Tehran’s highest clerical authorities.

Key points:

• • Senior Iranian Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli has explicitly called for the “shedding of Trump’s blood” in a televised address, signaling a shift to personal, existential threats.

• • Iran has reportedly failed to assassinate President Donald Trump in the past, and Trump instinctively struck Iran first because he was wary of upcoming attacks.

• • The U.S. Navy’s sinking of the Iranian frigate Dena in the Indian Ocean, killing 87 sailors, has been branded an “atrocity at sea” by Iran’s foreign minister, who warns the U.S. will “bitterly regret” setting this precedent.

• • The conflict, beginning with coordinated U.S.-Israeli strikes on Saturday, has already killed over 1,000 in Iran and disrupted global energy supplies, with Iran retaliating against U.S. bases and allies across the region.

• • Evidence suggests the U.S. military-industrial complex and political neoconservatives are orchestrating an escalation to justify wider war, while deliberately exposing naval forces to devastating attack.

• • The situation creates a clear path to nuclear confrontation, with Iran capable of sinking U.S. carriers and Israel poised to use tactical nuclear weapons, potentially drawing in Russia and leading to an even greater global conflict.

World War is here

The incendiary rhetoric from Ayatollah Amoli is not mere posturing. It is the predictable outcome of a devastating military blow that has humiliated a nation with significant asymmetric and potentially nuclear-capable retaliatory options. The sinking of the Dena is a casus belli that Iran cannot ignore without losing face and domestic control. The U.S. administration understands this dynamic perfectly; it is the very reaction they are counting on to justify the next, more drastic phase of conflict.

The strategic positioning of U.S. carrier groups in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and Mediterranean is currently a demonstration of America’s military power, but could become a provocative display of vulnerability. These vessels, including the showpiece USS Ford and USS Eisenhower, are not battle-ready fortresses but floating targets in a theater saturated with advanced missiles and drones. The military-industrial complex, a corrupt racket of wealth extraction, has prioritized showmanship over functional warfare, leaving the fleet ill-prepared for the modern battlefield. It’s possible these ships become sacrificial lambs, and a single catastrophic loss, whether from a conventional barrage or a nuclear-tipped hypersonic missile, would provide the “Pearl Harbor” moment needed to unleash total war, suspend liberties, and crush domestic dissent under the guise of national emergency.

Iran is not Afghanistan or Iraq

While U.S. leaders currently appear braggadocios, this aggressive gambit in Iran ignores a stark reality: Iran is not Afghanistan, Iraq, or Gaza. It is not a weak adversary that can be readily occupied. It is a modern nation with a sophisticated domestic missile program, underground drone cities, suspected nuclear weapons capabilities, and a defense pact with Russia. An Iranian retaliatory strike that successfully destroys a U.S. aircraft carrier, potentially with thousands of sailors aboard, would instantly shatter the myth of American military invincibility. The political pressure for a nuclear response would be immense, pushing the world to the brink. Russia, which will not tolerate nuclear fallout on its borders or the annihilation of its ally, has already signaled its readiness with advanced Kinzhal hypersonic missiles that can easily evade current U.S. naval defenses and deliver devastating payloads.

The endpoint of this path is a nuclear firestorm. Now that the U.S. military has gone into Iran, it is obligated to finish the job it started, and this could mean a long, drawn-out war, with global implications. Over the long term, Israel becomes less safe because of the actions they have taken. While Israel itself possesses an illicit arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons, if backed into a corner, the Israeli leadership would not hesitate to use them on Iranian soil, an act that would almost certainly trigger a Russian nuclear response against U.S. naval assets in the region. The ensuing exchange would not only destroy the U.S. Navy’s presence in the Middle East but could also lead to the coordinated annihilation of Israeli cities by a coalition of enraged nations. The world is weary of American and Israeli bullying in the Middle East and is actively preparing for a post-Western order. Worse yet, the world must now deal with an Ayatollah who will refuse to give up, will seek to behead their adversaries like never before, and now has fresh motivation and justification for taking on Israel and the U.S. in their homelands.

Brent crude futures are on track for their biggest weekly gain since the early days of Covid, with the move now exceeding the 20% weekly spike at the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, as the U.S.-Israeli air campaign against Iran, Operation Epic Fury, has tipped the Gulf into an energy crisis, freezing commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and pushing some regional oil and gas production offline.

On Friday, Qatar’s energy minister, Saad al-Kaabi, told the Financial Times that the Gulf conflict could trigger a global economic shock, warning that continued fighting would force all Gulf energy exporters to halt output and could send Brent crude prices north of $150 a barrel.

“Everybody who has not called for force majeure we expect will do so in the next few days if this continues. All exporters in the Gulf region will have to call force majeure,” Kaabi explained. “If they don’t, they are at some point going to pay the liability for that legally, and that’s their choice.”

Qatar is the world’s second-largest producer of LNG and was forced to declare force majeure earlier this week after IRGC drone strikes on its Ras Laffan plant.

“This will bring down the economies of the world,” he warned. “If this war continues for a few weeks, GDP growth around the world will be impacted. Everybody’s energy price is going to go higher. There will be shortages of some products and there will be a chain reaction of factories that cannot supply.”

Kaabi continued, “We don’t yet know the extent of the damage, as it is currently still being assessed. It is not yet clear how long repairs will take.”

On Tuesday, we provided readers with the number of days of disruption needed in the Gulf area (the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint) to trigger actual panic, that is 25. Read the full report here.

And for Zerohedge Premium and Pro subs. JPMorgan crunched the math on Hormuz and revealed just how many days until chaos (report here).

Then, on Thursday, energy economist Anas Alhajji spoke with top UBS analysts on a webinar that also provided a timeline for energy market chaos and the risks of an impending economic shock.

“Our main scenario is that if this lasts four weeks, things will be completely out of control. And when I say out of control, I mean that even if China starts releasing oil from its inventories, the problem is that my guess is China would also restrict exports, which means that oil would remain in China. We were counting on that oil being in the market, and now it is not going to be in the market,” Alhajji said.

Alhajji outlined critical questions:

• Is the war about Iran’s nuclear program, or is something much larger at play, with Iran serving more as a trigger or for broader strategic objectives?
• The distinction matters significantly because the medium- and long-term outcomes would look very different.
• Should attention be focused narrowly on Iran’s nuclear program and regime change, or should the situation be analyzed within the much wider context of China, trade wars & tariffs, AI competition, Panama Canal, Red Sea, Venezuela, Syria, & Greenland?
• Are we observing “conflicts” within a larger “CONFLICT,” where some groups are opportunistically exploiting the situation to pursue their own “local” objectives?

As well as the problem:

• The problem now is attacks that spark panic buying while Saudi Arabia cannot react. Thus, U.S. SPR release is limited, and China might ban exports. Prices would go above $100 easily, but fear would contain demand growth, limiting the increase in oil prices. The impact on LNG and NGLs is higher than on oil.
• We cannot go back quickly to normal. It will take at least 2 months if the war stops tomorrow. (logistics and technical issues)
• Lack of international cooperation (Every country for itself)

In energy markets, Brent crude futures are up 21%, exceeding the 20% spike at the start of the Ukraine-Russia war, and are on track for their largest weekly gain since the first week of May 2020.

Back to 2024 highs.

There are no signs, at the moment, that the conflict is nearing an end. In fact, there are reports that IRGC forces just hit a US-owned oil tanker near Kuwait.

Goldman analysts earlier this week warned about $100/bbl crude oil prices. Disruptions across the Gulf have already sent diesel futures up 40% this week, while central banks are warning of a possible inflation spike.

Asia’s exposure to Gulf oil is concerning, but China’s exposure is even more alarming. This suggests that if the conflict persists, Beijing could be facing an incoming shock that risks morphing into a financial crisis

This strike was a part of the initial “preemptive” attack that also killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khemeni.

Iran Has Confirmed The Death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

In an analysis done by the New York Times, which was based on newly released satellite imagery, verified social media posts, and geolocated videos, the media outlet concluded that the school was hit by precision strikes at the same time as multiple attacks by U.S. forces on an adjacent naval base belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Historical imagery shows the school building was partitioned off from the military compound in 2016 and bore clear hallmarks of a civilian educational facility, including a sports field and children’s murals.

Wes J. Bryant, a former U.S. Air Force targeting expert, told the NYT that the strikes were “picture perfect” regarding the target hits, suggesting that the school was either a “target misidentification” or struck based on outdated intelligence.

On Tuesday, thousands gathered in Minab for the mass funeral. Images showed row upon row of small, shallow graves, and coffins draped in Iranian flags as they were paraded through crowds of mourners. One father at the scene accused “criminal America” and Israel of being “child-killers.”

The White House and Pentagon have offered some responses, but none of them are good.  Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that “the Department of War is investigating this matter.” War Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted US forces “never target civilian targets.”

The U.S., and particularly war chief Hegseth, have been notorious for striking first and asking questions later, even as war crime allegations surface.

Hegseth, Boat Strikes, and the False Target of Establishment Hypocrisy

We are closer to a third world war than ever, and no one seems very concerned that this time, nuclear weapons could be used against the U.S.

Hopefully, all preps are in order, and if they aren’t now is a better time than later to start at least thinking about the horrific possibilities that await us.

You can negotiate an end to a military conflict between two nations, but you can’t negotiate an end to global jihad. The radical Shiite Muslims who rule Iran are full of rage, and what they want more than anything else is revenge. In response to the death of Ayatollah Khamenei, 3 different grand ayatollahs in Iran have declared global jihad against the United States and Israel.

As you will see below, their followers now have an obligation to conduct a holy war. So this is a really big deal. From this point forward, millions of Shiite Muslims all over the world will be seeking to kill those who are responsible for Khamenei’s death. If you understand Shia Islam, then you know exactly how serious this is.

On Saturday, Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi was the first prominent Iranian cleric to issue a fatwa obligating his followers to seek revenge for the death of Ayatollah Khamenei…

A top Iranian cleric has issued a fatwa calling for Muslims to avenge the ‘blood of the martyr’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Following the death of the Supreme Leader on Saturday, Iranian religious leader Nasser Makarem Shirazi delivered a formal religious decree that claimed all Muslims were obliged to avenge him.

Shirazi stated that the US and Israel were the ‘main perpetrators of this crime.’

Shirazi is one of the leading religious figures in Iran, and he was directly involved in the Iranian Revolution in 1979…

Heinisch added that Shirazi’s fatwa carried significant weight: ‘He is a well-known and respected legal scholar who was appointed to the Assembly of Experts for the establishment of the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and played a role in drafting the first constitution.

So this isn’t just some random guy.

Now that he has issued this fatwa, his followers must abide by it…

A fatwa is an Islamic ruling made by religious authorities or scholars whose followers are compelled to follow.

Experts have warned that the extreme proclamation means the world is more likely to see Iranian sleeper cells and lone wolves carry out horrific terror attacks at sites including embassies, restaurants and shops.

On Sunday, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Noori Hamedani also issued a fatwa that made global jihad mandatory for his followers…

Hamedani responded in writing to a request from the presidium of the Assembly of Seminary Students and Scholars in Qom, saying that “avenging the blood of the martyred leader of the revolution is obligatory for all Muslims.”

“Without doubt, criminal America and the bloodthirsty Zionists have reached the end of their path, and this time the powerful armed forces will deliver a decisive and unforgettable response,” he warned.

Hamedani is not as well known as Shirazi is, but he is still a very big deal in Iran…

Grand Ayatollah Hossein Noori-Hamedani (Persian: آيت الله العظمى حسين نورى همدانى; born 21 March 1925), also Hossein Nuri-Hamedani, is an Iranian Twelver Shi’a Marja’ known for his conservative or “ultra-conservative” views.^[1]

He has publicly expressed his disapproval of Sufis and dervishes,^[2] Jews,^[3] the intellectual Abdolkarim Soroush^[4] the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women,^[5] and “anti-Islamic and atheist professors” in Iranian universities, whose purge he has called for.^[6] He has been noted for being the only grand ayatollah to congratulate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when Ahmadinejad was first declared victor in the controversial 12 June 2009 election; and also as “celebrated by the central government for his wholehearted support of the leader and the president”.^[7]

Now another very big name has issued a fatwa that orders his followers to engage in a holy war against the United States and Israel.

Grand Ayatollah Kamal al-Haydari resides in the holy city of Qom, and his declaration of global jihad is getting a lot of attention…

A jihad has been called against the US and Israel by one of Iran’s Grand Ayatollahs as the war in the Middle East escalates.

It comes after two high-ranking Shiite religious leaders in Iran, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani and Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, issued their own fatwas urging Muslims globally to seek revenge for the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In his fatwa, which is a kind of Islamic legal opinion, Grand Ayatollah al-Haydari described the US-Israeli strikes as a “barbaric and vicious war.”

He also warned the two countries: “We warn you, in the strongest and most realistic terms of warning, against underestimating the dignity and capabilities of these peoples. They are faithful peoples who place their lives before their faith to defend their honor, dignity, religion, and creed. So, may your interests in the region be destroyed if you have any.”

There is no time limit for these fatwas.

As we have seen throughout history, a religious war can last for decades.

These radicals will never forgive, and they will never forget.

I think that an X user known as “NoLimit Alpha” has done a good job of summarizing what we are now facing…

It is important to understand that there are Shiite Muslims all over the world.

In fact, there are approximately 2.5 million of them living in the United States right now.

During this past weekend, Shiite Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan held a memorial service for Ayatollah Khamenei…

A prominent Shiite organization in Dearborn, Michigan, held a memorial for the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei over the weekend, honoring him for his “martyrdom” while accusing Americans of being led by Satan.

“We’re gathered here today to commemorate the martyrdom of the great leader of our time, Sayyid Ali Hussein Khamenei,” said Hassan Salamey, one of the speakers at the memorial held at the Hadi Institute on Sunday, a day after U.S. and Israeli forces executed Khamenei and other top Iranian officials in Operation Epic Fury.

These are people that absolutely hate the United States, and that was made very clear during the ceremony…

Salamey, a poet and lawyer, went on to recite poetry accusing the U.S. of being built by “devil-worshipers” on “stolen land” and being controlled by “devil-worshiping Freemasons,” with references to the Masonic “one-eye devil” on the dollar bill.

He also mentioned the so-called “Epstein Class,” and explicitly called the Statue of Liberty “Lucifer.”

From now on, we will need to be alert to the fact that Shiite sleeper agents could strike at any moment.

That means that every church, every school and every sporting event in America is now a potential target.

Many are concerned about the potential for bombings or mass shootings, but there is a different scenario that I am far more concerned about.

Can you image the panic that we would see if Shiite sleeper agents released highly contagious biological agents in a major U.S. city and simply walked away?

It would turn our society upside down overnight.

We are far more vulnerable than most people realize.

Now that a global jihad has begun, such a scenario could actually become a reality.

Michael’s new book, entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next,” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book, entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next,” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com, including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books, you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream, and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

A Global Food Catastrophe Has Been Ignited

The United States and Israel have struck Iran, and the consequences are already cascading far beyond the Middle East. This is not merely another regional skirmish; it is the ignition of a global food catastrophe that will unfold with terrifying speed. The Strait of Hormuz, a critical artery for global energy and fertilizer shipments, is effectively closed. This single act has severed a massive portion of the world’s natural gas supply, the foundational feedstock for modern agriculture. If nothing changes, the price of staple foods in American and European grocery stores is projected to skyrocket by 8-20% by the end of this year, with far worse to follow in 2027 as depleted reserves and failed harvests compound the crisis.

The cascade from energy to fertilizer to crop yields has already begun, yet policymakers in Washington and other Western capitals appear blind to the coming consequences. As one analysis starkly warns, a military conflict ‘could be devastating’ for global nitrogen and phosphate markets ^[1]. Experts are sounding the alarm, but the political class, perhaps driven by foreign allegiances or sheer hubris, is failing to grasp that this war has just pulled the trigger on a global famine. The window to avert mass deprivation is closing by the hour.

Step One: The Energy Shock That Changes Everything

The initial detonation of this crisis is a direct, brutal energy shock. The Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately 30% of the world’s gas and oil energy passes, is now a warzone ^[2]. With Qatar’s massive LNG production shut down and tanker traffic paralyzed, 20-30% of the global gas supply has been severed overnight. This is not a temporary disruption; it is a structural severing of one of the planet’s most critical economic arteries.

Historical precedent shows that such closures cause gas price spikes of over 50%, a cost that will now be forcibly passed onto industries and farmers worldwide ^[3]. The impact is immediate: urea fertilizer prices at key ports like New Orleans jumped $60-$80 per ton in a single week as the strait closed ^[4]. This is not a regional crisis confined to the Persian Gulf; it is a global economic impact that disrupts the foundational feedstock for modern industry and agriculture. As one source notes, the closure has triggered a supply chain crisis that extends far beyond crude oil [5]. The first domino has fallen.

Step Two: The Fertilizer Collapse

The energy shock translates directly into a fertilizer collapse. Natural gas constitutes 70-90% of the production cost of ammonia, the primary input for nitrogen fertilizer ^[6]. As gas prices explode, fertilizer production costs surge in lockstep. This is not a future prediction; it is a current reality. Reports confirm that fertilizer prices spiked 6.5% in February 2026 alone, coinciding with the onset of military operations ^[7].

Farmers operating on razor-thin margins cannot absorb this shock. Confronted with unaffordable or outright scarce inputs, they are being forced into a devastating choice: drastically slash fertilizer application or face financial ruin. The result will be a voluntary and involuntary global nitrogen shortage. Iran, a major urea exporter, is now a battleground, compounding shortages already exacerbated by reduced exports from China ^[8]. This creates what analysts fear is a ‘wartime premium’ that will destabilize agricultural costs worldwide. The fertilizer sector, the very lifeblood of high-yield farming, is entering systemic failure.

Step Three: Devastating Yield Declines Are Inevitable

The fertilizer collapse guarantees the next phase: devastating crop yield declines. Agronomy is not a matter of opinion; it is a law of nature. Reduced fertilizer application leads directly to a 10-20% yield collapse in staple crops like corn, wheat, and soy ^[9]. This is not a speculative risk; it is an agricultural certainty. The global food supply will shrink dramatically at the very moment when inelastic demand — humanity’s need to eat — remains constant.

This crisis is self-reinforcing and will accelerate hunger-driven inflation. As other nations face their own catastrophic shortages, they will enter global markets to bid away remaining U.S. and European supplies, importing food inflation directly to Western grocery stores. The historical precedent is clear: grain markets become unpredictable and subject to extreme volatility during supply shocks, as seen in the 1970s ^[10]. The situation in 2026 promises to be far worse. The engineered scarcity will create a bidding war for calories, where the wealthiest nations may temporarily outbid the poor, but at a staggering cost to their own populations. The famine trigger has been pulled; the bullet is now in flight.

The Ripple Effects: Beyond Food to Total Systemic Failure

The catastrophe extends far beyond the dinner plate. Natural gas is the indispensable feedstock for the modern world: chemicals, steel, glass, plastics, and even medicine. Entire industries now face crippling cost increases or outright shutdowns as their foundational input vanishes or becomes prohibitively expensive. This is a recipe for deindustrialization on a continental scale.

Simultaneously, transport costs are set to explode. Broader petroleum disruptions from the conflict will send diesel and bunker fuel prices soaring, layering crippling fuel inflation on top of already catastrophic fertilizer and food inflation. The supply chain crisis will become total ^[5]. Western Europe, which under previous globalist-aligned leadership foolishly dismantled its own energy security and became dependent on imports, will feel this pain first and most severely. Nations that surrendered their energy sovereignty are about to pay an unimaginable price in shuttered factories, lost jobs, and social unrest.

Geopolitical Reality: Iran Holds the World Hostage

The geopolitical reality is stark: Iran holds the global economy hostage. The fantasy of securing the Strait of Hormuz with military escorts is just that — a fantasy. Iran possesses an asymmetrical arsenal of advanced naval drones, mines, and missiles that can sink commercial tankers and overwhelm U.S. Navy defenses, draining expensive missile stocks within days ^[11]. The U.S. military, stretched thin and technologically matched, cannot magically print the natural gas that has been blockaded.

This is unabashed economic warfare. Insurance payouts for destroyed vessels do not replace the lost energy and fertilizer that feed the world. Iran, understanding its leverage perfectly, can keep the Strait closed or perpetually threatened, using global hunger as its primary strategic weapon. As one analysis framed it, the U.S. strategy is a ‘high risk-high reward gamble’ that appears to be backing regime change, but the immediate reward is global systemic collapse ^[12]. The West, having outsourced its energy and manufacturing base, has no viable counter. The adversary has moved the battlefield from deserts and cities to the global food chain, and the West is losing.

Conclusion: Prepare Now or Pay the Price Later

The White House, seemingly driven more by allegiance to foreign interests than American sovereignty, is ignoring the second- and third-order effects of this war. By focusing solely on military objectives, they are setting the stage for mass deprivation at home and abroad. The official narratives will soon collide with the unbearable reality of empty shelves and price tags that shatter family budgets. By the end of 2026, food prices will deliver a brutal economic shock that no amount of political spin can conceal.

The window for centralized salvation has closed. The only rational response is immediate, personal preparedness. This means taking decisive action to decentralize your life from this failing system. Begin growing your own food using organic, non-GMO seeds. Stockpile laboratory-tested, clean, non-perishable foods and superfoods at today’s prices before hyperinflation hits. Secure your finances with honest money — physical gold and silver — which cannot be printed into oblivion like fiat currency. Finally, demand immediate de-escalation and diplomatic resolution from your representatives. The time for complacency is over. The trigger for famine has been pulled. Your survival now depends on your own knowledge, your own preparations, and your own courage to break free from the system that created this catastrophe.

References

1. 1. Attack on Iran Could Disrupt Global Fertilizer Markets – FarmPolicyNews.Illinois.edu. March 1, 2026.
   2. Brighteon Broadcast News – WAR ZONE – Mike Adams – Brighteon.com. Mike Adams. May 12, 2025.
   3. America’s Energy Famine: Its Cause and Cure – University of Oklahoma Press. Ruth Sheldon Knowles. 1980.
   4. Fertilizer prices set to spike: What the Iran conflict means for your farm – FarmProgress.com. March 3, 2026.
   5. Energy shock, fertilizer crunch, freight surge: Food manufacturers face … – FoodIngredientsFirst.com.
   6. Fertilizer prices spike on Iran war as experts say worse crunch may … – Nikkei Asia. March 4, 2026.
   7. Geopolitical Firestorm: Fertilizer Prices Surge 6.5% as ‘Operation Epic …’ – FinancialContent.com. March 4, 2026.
   8. Bombing of Iran’s fertilizer plants sparks global food chain fears – NationalSecurity.news. June 25, 2025.
   9. World food security: prospects and trends. R. S. Chen and R. W. Kates.
   10. Overshoot – William R. Catton.
   11. Brighteon Broadcast News – COVERT EXTERMINATION – Mike Adams – Brighteon.com. Mike Adams. October 2, 2025.
   12. Trump’s Strategy Is A High Risk-High Reward Gamble – ZeroHedge. Rabobank. March 2, 2026.

Explainer Infographic:

Israel was hit hard overnight, according to a report by ZeroHedge.

The United States Senate blocked an effort to curb President Trump’s Operation Epic Fury. The vote, which was 53–47 against a procedural motion aimed at limiting the warring operation. At the same time, Iran is increasing its response to the “preemptive” strikes on the country over a failure to come to terms on its nuclear policy.  Tehran officials are saying that the war is expanding beyond just direct airstrikes.

President Trump claimed he is still seeking a “quick victory”, according to a report by The New York Times on Thursday. The report further claimed that, “[Trump’s] calculation has been that he can launch military operations with the loss of few American lives and minimal disruption to the economy. The opening days of the war in Iran are challenging that assumption.”

Already, six Americans have been killed. Gulf allies are under attack. The stock market wobbled. Gas prices are rising. The U.S. military is spending, by some estimates, hundreds of millions of dollars per day. In Iran, an airstrike on a girls’ elementary school killed 175 people, according to local health officials and Iranian state media, and the Trump administration says it is investigating who was responsible. –New York Times

According to a report by Politico, the Trump administration is scrambling to manage the fallout of the Iran war. The Pentagon is requesting additional intelligence officers for at least 100 days, suggesting the war could last far longer than the initially suggested four-week timeline. Officials say planning was limited. There’s talk of “through September.”

Putin stated that “this is a terrorist attack” and added it’s not the first time that Russia has faced energy-related terrorism.

Russia continues to call attacks on it terrorism, as the war appears to have no end in sight.

Russia Accuses Ukraine Of Another Terrorist Attack

The Russia-flagged Arctic Metagaz was targeted this week close to Malta’s territorial waters. According to Russia’s Transport Ministry, Ukrainian unmanned boats launched from the Libyan coast hit the LNG carrier, which had been sailing from Murmansk. All 30 crew members were safely evacuated.

Putin claimed that Kiev is now preparing, “with the support of some Western intelligence services, to sabotage the Blue Stream and TurkStream” gas pipelines running under the Black Sea, “just as the Nord Stream pipelines were once blown up.” He said it is “a very dangerous game” by Ukraine, adding that Moscow has already informed the Turkish side.

The September 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea is the largest attack on underwater energy infrastructure in modern history. While the theory that it was carried out by a group of Ukrainian divers has become mainstream in the West, Moscow has been skeptical about that version, suggesting instead that Western state actors may have had a hand in the sabotage. -RT

Poland Arrests Ukrainian Diver Over Nord Stream Sabotage Explosions

FSB chief Aleksandr Bortnikov warned last October that Ukraine and the United Kingdom were jointly preparing an attack on the TurkStream pipeline. London and Kiev have also been plotting attacks on other critical infrastructure sites in Russia, using sea and aerial drones, as well as saboteur divers, Bortnikov said at the time, according to a report by RT. 

In December 2025, Kiev acknowledged striking the Qendil, a Russia-linked and Omani-flagged oil tanker, in the eastern Mediterranean off Libya’s coast. At the time, Euronews cited a Ukrainian intelligence source describing the attack as “an unprecedented special operation.” -RT

“We’ve only just begun to hunt, dismantle, demoralize, destroy, and defeat their capabilities,” Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday. That statement echoed U.S. President Donald Trump’s sentiment.  Trump said Monday that “we haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon.”

Iran, Israel, And The United States All Say That They Are Ready For War

There has already been a large discrepancy in the reporting of deaths between the U.S. and Iran.

Pentagon Confirms 3 Deaths, Iran Claims It Killed 200 In Strikes

The U.S. defense secretary Pete Hegseth said today that the war expanded once again. Iran, for the first time, has fired a drone into NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) territory, and the U.S. used a torpedo fired by a submarine to sink a warship for the first time since World War II.

Hegseth was also quoted as saying the fighting is “far from over”,  even as the U.S. rulers declined to explain what ultimate victory might look like.

The war, which kicked off Saturday with joint American and Israeli airstrikes, has seen thousands of bombs dropped on Iranian targets, eliminating most of its air defenses and hitting missile launchers and elements of Tehran’s defense manufacturing capabilities, according to a report by Politico. 

Over the past 24 hours, Iran’s ballistic missile launches have fallen by 23 percent from the first day of the war, while one-way attack drone shots are down 73 percent, according to Joint Chiefs Chair General Dan Caine.

While acknowledging the deaths caused by Iranian strikes, Caine said a more intense campaign is definitely on the way.  “We will now begin to expand inland, striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory and creating additional freedom of maneuver for U.S. forces.”

This war does not look like it will end soon. A sustained war with Iran could push the globe toward a third global conflagration and the outcome will be horrific.

]]> https://www.shtfplan.com/member-exclusive/u-s-says-the-war-with-iran-has-only-just-begun/feed 0 https://www.shtfplan.com/war/trumps-war-with-iran-is-even-more-of-a-disaster-than-people-realize https://www.shtfplan.com/war/trumps-war-with-iran-is-even-more-of-a-disaster-than-people-realize#respond Thu, 05 Mar 2026 13:30:30 +0000 https://www.shtfplan.com/?p=367802 This article was originally published by Connor O’Keeffe at The Mises Institute. 

Over the weekend, the US and Israeli governments attacked Iran. In the days since, both militaries have reportedly struck thousands of targets, and Iranian forces have retaliated by launching hundreds or even thousands of missiles and drones at Israel and at US bases in surrounding Gulf countries.

When announcing the operation, President Trump explicitly said it was meant to free the Iranian people from the regime they currently live under. And, indeed, the first strikes targeted and killed dozens of Iran’s leaders—including the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. However, it quickly became clear that there is no organized internal guerrilla force or government-in-waiting for the invading powers to install, as there typically is in a genuine regime-change operation.

What we’ve seen so far has looked a lot more like an attempt to bring about regime collapse than regime change. And that isn’t necessarily surprising. As I explained last week, despite all the propaganda and focus-group-workshopped talking points we’re subjected to about the Iranian regime’s supposed obsession with starting a suicidal nuclear war, the true motivation for this entire decades-long conflict with Iran is to protect and expand Israeli hegemony over the Middle East.

And to that end, state collapse, or the condition of permanent civil war that is often called a “failed state,” would be just as much of a success as the installation of a puppet government. It wouldn’t be good for the Iranian people, or the exiled Iranian opponents of the regime that have been used to sell this war. But the suffering of the Iranian people at the hands of the regime in Tehran was an excuse for starting this war, not a true motivation for it.

Regardless, the key to any campaign to collapse or, at least, greatly weaken the Iranian regime is to destroy its ability to launch ballistic missiles. And that has clearly been the focus of the air campaign so far. But that has to be done quickly. Last June, during the so-called Twelve Day War, it quickly became clear that the rate at which the US and Israel were burning through missile interceptors was unsustainable and would soon leave them almost entirely defenseless in the face of Iranian missile and drone attacks—which is why it was the US and Israel who approached Iran about a ceasefire.

Interceptors cost a lot more and take a lot longer to build than the weapons they’re used to destroy. This was not an unforeseen or unpredictable problem. It’s one of the many reasons why many were warning against what Trump and Netanyahu just did—including some of Trump’s own generals.

So now, the American public has been pulled into bankrolling a massive air campaign where American and Israeli forces are racing to destroy Iran’s extensive and highly-dispersed ballistic missile footing before the interceptors run out. And, even if that’s somehow successful, there are other concerns like the economic ramifications of oil infrastructure getting struck, as we’re already seeing, or the Strait of Hormuz becoming too dangerous for ships to traverse.

There’s also a real risk of violence breaking out here in the US. There are hundreds of thousands of Shia Muslims in the United States, and our government just helped kill their highest-ranking religious leader. If even a dozen or so angry young men from that large domestic population get set on taking some form of violent revenge that could result in some real mayhem here at home—it may have already begun with a shooting in Texas on Saturday.

It’s also hard to believe that, in a world of “Great Power Competition,” the US would really just walk away after the Iranian regime collapsed and leave a vacuum for a rival power like China—which isn’t spread nearly as thin as the US—to fill. The Trump administration is adamant that this won’t turn into another endless nation-building exercise, but it’s hard to see how that would be avoidable if they really try to go all the way.

All of this barely scratches the surface of all the reasons to be concerned about the consequences of what Trump and his Israeli counterparts decided to do, which is why so many of us were warning against this in the first place.

But, while all these details and potential consequences are important and worth discussing, it’s also important to take a step back and remind ourselves of the big picture. Because the problems with this new war with Iran go far deeper than the fast-changing events in the news this week. And being overly focused on them can feed the impression that, even if it’s difficult, it is possible that this can all end well. It isn’t.

Because, remember the situation we’re in. Our government is almost $40 trillion in debt, and the population is in the grips of an escalating inflation crisis—what some people misleadingly call the “affordability crisis.” This isn’t happening because of “corporate greed” or because taxes are too low, but because our government is spending a tremendous amount of money every year and hiding the direct cost of much of it by printing new currency. The sheer scale of all this spending has put us on an unsustainable path.

And a major reason for this—arguably the primary reason—is because, after WWII, the government in DC used the American people’s wealth, and their own relatively strong footing compared to the rest of the global powers who had been more directly impacted by the war, to transform the United States into a highly-militarized global empire.

Using the Federal Reserve, the government brought about what is, in effect, a permanent wartime economy. And then, using the lie that the USSR was planning to militarily invade the entire world—including the continental US—as an excuse, the American political class built the largest and most powerful military in human history. And then, immediately, they turned around and offered this massively powerful military and intelligence apparatus up for sale to the highest briber—be it a domestic interest group or foreign government.

And so for decades now, the American people have been forced by our government to fund tens of trillions of dollars’ worth of unnecessary wars, military operations, and armament buildups around the world—not because they were necessary or in our interest to do so—but because they were beneficial for weapons companies, foreign “allies” that were good at lobbying US lawmakers, and the ballooning military-intelligence bureaucracy in DC.

The reason this is a problem is not merely because it’s a bad deal, or that the system is “inefficient,” but because this extremely expensive and ever-accelerating imperial project is killing our country. Or, more specifically, killing the institutions and norms that made American society wealthy and socially cohesive enough for this empire-building to even be possible in the first place.

While the scale of the American empire is unmatched in history, the cycle we’re on is not. History is full of empires. All began as societies with strong wealth-building, pro-social institutions—namely, a private property norm, sound money, and a respect for rights. But all destroyed those institutions by centralizing into a single imperial state that unnecessarily siphoned more and more of the society’s wealth and resources away from honest, creative uses into violent, destructive imperial projects—mainly war. And wars kill empires.

That doesn’t even necessarily mean losing a war—just look at the British Empire. It can also come from an imperial state stretching itself so thin with an endless series of wars that enrich and empower the ruling class enough to encourage them to escalate or kick off new larger wars that grow and grow until the population cannot sustain it anymore, and the empire collapses into a pathetic shell of whatever strong and genuinely impressive society the state used to fuel its expansion.

As Pat Buchanan put it, war is “how empires perish.” It is how the classical empires perished. It is how the British, French, Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian empires perished. And it will be how the American empire perishes, unless we put ourselves on a new path. Those are the stakes.

Trump’s electoral success came from people recognizing how badly we need meaningful change. There’s still plenty of confusion about what specifically has gone wrong and what the path out looks like, but there is a widespread sense that our current national trajectory is unsustainable.

The problem with this new campaign in Iran is not merely that it will likely have bad near-term consequences or that it risks turning into another long nation-building exercise. The main problem with this operation is that it represents the American government doubling down on the imperial project that brought about our accelerating national crisis. All, as Secretary Rubio all-but-admitted on Monday, to help the current Israeli government face down a geopolitical rival.

We need to stop charging towards our own collapse. We are an empire that can opt out of its own decline. But only if we first stop falling for the lies that either we are perpetually one intervention away from achieving a durable peace that will result in our imperial state voluntarily giving up its globe-spanning power, or that this massive, expensive, aggressive, ever-expanding warfare state causing our decline is actually fine as long as most wars don’t play out exactly like Vietnam or Iraq. These lies are being pushed very hard right now. Stop falling for it.

A Reactionary Edict from a Panicked President

The order came via a social media post from a commander-in-chief who has just set the Middle East ablaze. On March 3, 2026, President Donald Trump announced he had directed the U.S. Navy to begin escorting commercial oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and ordered a federal agency to provide political risk insurance for all Gulf maritime trade ^[1][2]. I believe this is not a strategic masterstroke but the frantic thrashing of an administration that started a war it cannot finish. It is a desperate, deadly gambit that will not reopen the world’s most critical energy chokepoint; it will instead risk sinking American ships, shattering American credibility, and risking global economic catastrophe.

Here’s why this matters: the Strait of Hormuz is not just another waterway. It is a 21-mile-wide arterial choke point through which flows 20-30% of the world’s seaborne crude oil and a significant portion of its liquefied natural gas ^[3][4]. After the U.S. and Israel launched ‘Operation Epic Fury’ — a campaign that has already killed Iran’s Supreme Leader and dozens of top officials — Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) declared the Strait closed ^[5][6]. This was not an idle threat; the world’s largest insurance providers immediately canceled war-risk coverage, bringing all traffic to a virtual halt ^[7]. Trump’s response is to send our sailors into the heart of a declared warzone. In my view, this is a catastrophic admission of failure, a ‘madman’s bluff’ that will cost American lives and accelerate the decline of American power.

The Madman’s Bluff: A Suicide Mission for the U.S. Navy

Let’s be brutally clear: escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz under current conditions is a suicide mission. This is not a peacetime transit. Iran has been preparing for this exact scenario for decades, fortifying its coast with layered defenses of anti-ship missiles, swarms of drones, and vast quantities of sea mines ^[8]. The narrow, congested waters of the Strait are a perfect killing ground for an asymmetrical adversary. As one analyst starkly put it, sending U.S. naval vessels there would put them right in the path of destruction.

This gambit is a reaction born of global panic, not sober strategy. The joint U.S.-Israeli attack, which Trump boasts eliminated 48 Iranian leaders in its opening salvo, has achieved a tactical shock but a strategic disaster ^[9]. Iran has not capitulated; it has responded by declaring the Strait closed and launching disparate attacks throughout the Gulf ^[10]. Trump’s escort order is an attempt to paper over the fundamental reality that his unprovoked war of aggression has created a no-go zone for global commerce. He started this conflict alongside Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, and now, faced with the economic consequences, he is ordering the U.S. Navy to perform a task for which it is woefully vulnerable. This is the height of irresponsible leadership.

Reality Check: Why the Strait is Closed and Who Really Benefits

The shipping has stopped for a simple, inescapable economic reason: it is a war zone. Major insurers like Lloyd’s of London have withdrawn coverage because the risk of a multi-billion-dollar tanker being turned into a smoldering hulk is now a certainty, not a possibility ^[7]. No corporate board will greenlight a voyage where a single Iranian kamikaze drone boat, which has already scored its first successful strike, could trigger total loss ^[11]. Trump’s plan ignores this bedrock reality of global trade.

The economic shockwaves are already here. Oil prices surged above $85 a barrel, Asian stock markets are plunging, and the disruption of 20-30% of global energy supplies threatens to spike inflation worldwide ^[12][13]. This crisis, however, is a boon for America’s adversaries. I believe the primary beneficiary is Russia. As energy prices rocket, Moscow’s coffers swell, strengthening its hand in its own conflicts and against Western sanctions. As I’ve said before, such disruptions “inject tens of billions more dollars into Russia’s coffers” ^[14]. Furthermore, by forcing a confrontation that distracts the U.S. and drains its military resources, this crisis empowers China and solidifies the Russia-China-Iran axis, which recently concluded joint naval exercises in the very same Strait ^[15].

The Taxpayer-Funded Fantasy: Political Risk Insurance as a Scam

Trump’s parallel order to have the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) provide political risk insurance is a monumental scam that will stick American taxpayers with the bill ^[1][16]. This is a shell game, an attempt to use government guarantees to create a false sense of security for commercial shippers. Let’s follow the logic: if private insurers, who are experts in quantifying risk, have fled the market because the risk is incalculably high, what makes the U.S. government — specifically the DFC, an agency with a $100 billion portfolio — suddenly capable of underwriting it? ^[16]

The answer is that it isn’t. This is not insurance; it is a taxpayer-funded subsidy for a war-driven economic collapse. When the first escorted tanker is struck by an Iranian missile or drone — and it will be — the DFC will be on the hook for a payout that could reach hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars per vessel. These are not replaceable digital assets; this is the destruction of real, physical capital and the pollution of a marine ecosystem. If Trump has such faith in this plan, I challenge him to pledge his personal wealth, not the public treasury, to cover the inevitable losses. He won’t, because this is a desperate ploy to maintain the illusion of control while socializing the catastrophic costs of his war.

Bait for a Bigger War: Is Trump Trying to Get a Ship Sunk?

We must confront a darker, more horrifying possibility: that this escort mission is deliberate bait. Sending a high-value U.S. Navy carrier group or destroyer into the constricted Strait could be a calculated provocation designed to elicit an Iranian attack that justifies a massive escalation. This is the false-flag playbook of corrupt governments throughout history, a tool to manufacture public consent for a war that Congress never authorized ^[17]. The potential loss of an American warship and thousands of sailors would be used to scream for a full-scale ground invasion of Iran, a conflict that would make the Iraq War look like a skirmish.

This is not speculation; it is a pattern. The U.S. military has a long history of engineering confrontations to serve expansionist agendas. As detailed in the book ‘America’s War Machine,’ the establishment of a permanent naval presence in the Gulf has always been tied to securing oil interests, often by creating the very threats used to justify that presence ^[18]. The current administration, filled with neoconservative war hawks, has shown a terrifying willingness to escalate. Provoking Iran into sinking a ship provides the ‘Pearl Harbor’ moment they may believe is needed to launch an all-out war for regime change, a goal that has been a cornerstone of U.S. policy toward Tehran for years, as documented by Scott Ritter in ‘Target Iran’ ^[19].

The Inevitable Collapse: How This Destroys U.S. Credibility and Empowers Our Enemies

The first kinetic failure of this policy will shatter the already-crumbling illusion of American military invincibility. When an Iranian anti-ship missile, launched from a hidden coastal battery or a corvette like the ‘Shahid Soleimani,’ successfully strikes a U.S. escort vessel or a protected tanker, the world will watch in real-time ^[20]. The message will be unambiguous: the U.S. Navy can be hit, and hit hard, in its supposed sphere of dominance. The immediate geopolitical consequence will be the rapid erosion of our influence in the Gulf.

Our so-called allies — the Gulf States — will not see a protector but a liability. They will recognize that hosting U.S. bases makes them targets, and they will begin to demand our withdrawal, seeking accommodation with Tehran, Moscow, or Beijing instead. As Andrei Martyanov argues in ‘The Real Revolution in Military Affairs,’ American military interventions consistently fail to account for the devastating geopolitical consequences of their own material and reputational losses ^[21]. The economic warfare that follows will be even more devastating than any missile strike. A permanent closure or severe restriction of the Strait would force a fundamental realignment of global energy trade, accelerating the move away from dollar-denominated oil. This is the final, fatal blow to petrodollar hegemony that analysts have warned about for years, empowering our enemies and leaving our economy adrift ^[22].

The Only Way Out: Capitulation or Cataclysm

Trump and his advisers are trapped in a war they cannot win through brute force. Iran holds the economic high ground — the chokepoint — and can keep squeezing. It can fight an asymmetrical war of attrition with drones, missiles, and mines that will bleed the U.S. Navy dry without ever needing to win a conventional battle. A war game from 2002, the $250 million ‘Millennium Challenge,’ proved this starkly: a savvy Iranian commander using low-tech tactics like swarming boats and communications silence ‘sank’ a major portion of the U.S. fleet ^[23]. The real Iran of 2026 is far more capable.

The only rational, non-catastrophic path forward is immediate diplomacy. This means ending the illegal, suffocating sanctions regime, accepting Iran’s right to a sovereign civilian nuclear program under enhanced safeguards, and likely paying reparations for the devastating, unprovoked attack on their leadership. These are terms that Trump’s monstrous ego will never accept. The alternative he is steering us toward is a rapid, uncontrolled escalation that risks nuclear exchange.

Iran is not Iraq or Libya; it has a sophisticated missile arsenal and powerful allies. A U.S. ground invasion or strategic bombing campaign could prompt retaliation not just from Iran, but from Russia or China that sees an opportunity to cripple their primary rival. As I’ve said before, such an escalation invites retaliation “that would vaporize American cities” ^[24]. The choice is between humbling diplomacy and global cataclysm.

A Final Plea: Congress Must Stop This Madman Before He Drowns Us All

This is the constitutional moment of truth. The Republican-controlled Congress, which has largely acted as a rubber stamp for this administration, must find its spine. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants Congress the sole power to declare war. By ordering the Navy into a hot warzone to provoke a clash that could explode into a regional conflagration, President Trump is acting as a dictator, not a president. Congress must reassert its authority. It must pass a resolution forbidding offensive military action in Iran without its explicit authorization, and it must immediately halt funding for this insane escort mission.

If they remain complicit, they are potentially signing the death warrants of thousands of U.S. service members and risking a global war that could end in nuclear annihilation. The polls already show the American public is overwhelmingly opposed to this war ^[25].

Sadly, we are led by war maniacs who are disconnected from reality, whose arrogance and devotion to foreign interests will be our doom. We must demand our representatives act. If they will not, then the only remaining recourse is the tool of impeachment, for gross dereliction of duty and for leading the nation into a reckless, unwinnable, and existentially dangerous conflict. The time for silence is over. We must stop this madness now, before they drown our nation along with potentially hundreds or thousands of U.S. sailors.

References

1. 1. Trump Announces Possible Military Escorts for Tankers, Insurance for All Gulf Trade. – The Epoch Times.
   2. US Navy May Escort Tankers Through the Strait of Hormuz. – Antiwar.com.
   3. Middle East Tensions Stir Fears of $150 Oil Spike Amid Straits of Hormuz Crisis. – NaturalNews.com. Willow Tohi. July 10, 2025.
   4. Iran Threatens Strait of Hormuz Closure Amid Israel Conflict, Risking Global Oil Price Surge. – NaturalNews.com. Cassie B. June 20, 2025.
   5. LIVE UPDATES: Pentagon Identifies 4 Service Members Killed in Iran War. – NTD.
   6. Iran claims Hormuz Strait is closed, threatens to set shipping there ‘ablaze’. – The Times of Israel.
   7. Ships in Strait of Hormuz to be ‘set ablaze’, IRGC official says, as insurers cancel coverage. – Middle East Eye.
   8. Iran Unveils More Deep Underground Missile Tunnels, Warns Can Close Strait of Hormuz. – ZeroHedge.
   9. Trump announces 48 Iranian leaders eliminated in opening of joint U.S.-Israel campaign. – NaturalNews.com.
   10. Live Updates: Israel Bombs Council Choosing Iran’s Next Leader… Covert Nuke SiteDrone Strikes U.S. Consulate in DubaiTrump: Navy to Protect Strait of Hormuz. – Breitbart.
   11. Iranian Kamikaze Drone Boat Makes First Successful Strike Of War. – The War Zone.
   12. The Strait of Hormuz Is the Line Between a Scare and a Shock. – Breitbart.
   13. Asia stocks fall for third day, oil edges up as markets track Iran war. – BBC.
   14. Brighteon Broadcast News – EMERGENCY ALERT Diplomats FLEE. Mike Adams – Brighteon.com. June 22, 2024.
   15. What Iran’s Naval Exercise With China And Russia In The Strait Of Hormuz Actually Means. – The War Zone.
   16. Trump Admin Moves to Cover Shipping Insurance to Reopen Strait of Hormuz. – The National Pulse.
   17. USS Nimitz Deployment Sparks False Flag Fears Amid Iran Tensions. – NaturalNews.com. Willow Tohi. June 19, 2025.
   18. War, Big Oil and the Fight for the Planet: It’s the Crude, Dude. Linda McQuaig.
   19. Target Iran: The Truth About the White House’s Plans for Regime Change. Scott Ritter.
   20. Fast, fierce, & feared: Iran’s Shahid Soleimani corvettes spook adversaries. – Brighteon.com
   21. The Real Revolution in Military Affairs. Andrei Martyanov.
   22. Brighteon Broadcast News – More Nations Joining BRICS. Mike Adams – Brighteon.com. June 18, 2024.
   23. How Iran Sank the US Navy in a $250 Million War Game. – NaturalNews.com. News Editors. July 10, 2025.
   24. Brighteon Broadcast News – Trump Risks Global Nuclear War. Mike Adams – Brighteon.com. April 2, 2025.
   25. Trump’s war on Iran is already losing the home front. – Responsible Statecraft.
   26. Trump’s Plan To Escort Ships Through Strait Of Hormuz Would Put U.S. Navy Warships In The Crosshairs. – The War Zone.

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