Let me get this out of the way up front: The Anglo-Zionist war on Iran is simply one front in the larger war against Eurasian—mostly Russian and Chinese—integration. The aim is to establish and maintain the faltering Anglo-Zionist hegemony on a global scale. Trump’s economic war is, of course, part of this war.
Let’s start out by reproducing part of a post at MoA, which we can then flesh out:
Mark Sleboda is summarizing his view of the current episode in the war on Iran (slightly edited for clarity):
What the Hell Just Happened in the Middle East You May Ask?
My take -
The US/Israel realized:
that their regime change plans were not coming to fruition,
that the Iranian govt had more support and stronger foundations than they had believed,
that Israeli air defense was collapsing/exhausted and
that an attrition war of long range strike was going to go badly for Israel.
And Trump began to get freaked out over the rising price of oil with the Iranian threat of closing the strait of Hormuz.
So they wrapped it up, declared victory, and demanded a ceasefire.
Iran agreed because they too have been badly shaken through Israeli covert warfare and their own air defense all but collapsed.
The can will only be kicked down the road, and both sides will start rebuilding, and making preparations and plans for the next round, the next war. This was only a skirmish at the end of the day ...
Iran, for surviving, maintaining a civilian nuclear enrichment program, and for the fact that it was the US/Israel that pushed for the "ceasefire", comes out slightly ahead on points.
The biggest loser - the collapse of the NNPT and international law.
That’s right. This was round one. It didn’t go well for the Anglo-Zionists, so they’re plotting a rematch.
Start with the point about international law. Trump has presided over the collapse of international law by participating in and supported a naked war of aggression, for the extension of Anglo-Zionist hegemony on a global scale. I maintain that this was part of the “deal” that Trump made for his return to the White House. This war was long in the planning, given that other means for regime change failed, and deliberately avoided any public debate. Trump had to have been part of it from the get go.
Thomas Keith @iwasnevrhere_
3h
The Washington Post now confirms that Israel’s strike on Iran was set months in advance and that Washington signed on not because of new intelligence but because Tel Aviv insisted the window for a low-cost hit was closing. A senior Israeli official admitted, “We decided by March to strike Iran by June, with or without U.S. support.”
In that same month the U.S. intelligence community reaffirmed, through DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s briefing to Trump, that Iran had not ordered a bomb, yet the plan moved forward regardless. By 13 June, while television anchors still spoke of ongoing “negotiations,” B-2 bombers were already in the air: Iran’s radar net lay crippled, Mossad kill nodes were seeded inside the country, and CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, long regarded in Jerusalem as the indispensable American gatekeeper, was only weeks from retirement, a departure that might have brought a cooler successor and new scrutiny.
Kurilla had spent the past year weaving what Israeli analysts called “Kurilla’s umbrella,” a joint strike lattice that linked Israeli, Gulf, and U.S. assets under one rhythm; sources inside the Pentagon describe him not just as amenable to Israeli plans but actively championing them. Israel therefore pressed the launch button before that umbrella could fold, executing blueprints “carefully laid years in advance” against scientists and bunkers not because a nuclear breakout was imminent but because conditions were suddenly ideal.
Into this climate stepped Jacob Nagel, Netanyahu’s former national-security adviser, now a senior figure at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, declaring that there was “no smoking gun, just academic research, but Khamenei probably knew.” The FDD, bankrolled by pro-Israel donors and defense contractors, has for more than two decades manufactured pretexts for every war that increased Israel’s strategic depth; Nagel’s line offered Washington the ambiguity it needed to unleash force without proof.
The choreography is unmistakable: Israel conceived the strike, Beltway narrative factories laundered the rationale, and a pliant U.S. command structure executed before congressional debate or public awareness could intervene.
American strategy is an export function of Israeli doctrine. By the time policy reaches Capitol Hill, it’s already been drafted in Jerusalem.
Regarding the Mossad efforts to destabilize Iran internally through terror strikes and assassinations, we find confirmation of what I heard Larry Wilkerson say right at the beginning—that the Mossad agents were mostly Afghan nationals. Oh, Israel is also openly stating that the CIA was involved. No surprise, but confirmation that we’ve lost our republic.
Megatron @Megatron_ron
NEW:  Mossad collaborators in Iran, most of whom are Afghan nationals, say they were promised only about 20 million Toman ($225-250 USD) to blow up a powerplant
Regarding the collapse of Israeli air defense, there’s very bad news in this for the US (citing official sources):
Carolina Lion @CarolinaLion2
It looks like we used up about 15% of our THAAD inventory in little less then two weeks defending Israel from Iranian ballistic missiles. Which means we would likely run out of air defense munitions in about 6 weeks in a war against Russia or China.
At a guess, I’d say the US would run out of air defense munitions faster than 6 weeks in a war against Russia and China, which would not be constrained to hoard their more advanced missiles the way Iran did. Trump and the Anglo-Zionists are getting us in over our heads.
Regarding Israel’s lack of preparedness for a war of attrition and desperation for a ceasefire of some sort, any sort—yes, Trump is now saying that he “saved” Israel—it’s developing that Trump had to do one of those famous “deals” to get the ceasefire. That appears to also confirm that the US strikes were more for PR than militarily serious:
SIMPLICIUS Ѱ @simpatico771
Looks like Iran's secret quid-pro-quo is out of the bag. Lifting of sanctions for allowing US to carry out a fake strike to give Trump a much-needed "victory" for domestic audiences.
I think that that’s confirmation that the dueling public narratives—US: We “obliterated” Fordow; Iran: Only minor damage—are also for show. Patarames gets into the larger implications. Since Trump has declared “obliteration”, future military strikes should not be imminent:
Patarames @Pataramesh
I think all sides can live with:
- Fordow enrichment plant being declared dead
- 400-500kg worth 60% HEU being declared destroyed
 The ghost of both will give/give not Iran, an arsenal of ~30 counter-value nuclear warheads mounted on ICBMs
Total ambiguity!
With this ghost-nuclear-capability, Iran can easily agree to a deal with Trump for a fragile above ground enrichment consortium on a Persian Gulf island or so (<4%)
9:34 AM · Jun 26, 2025
A major lesson learned by Iran—it’s time to get serious about having a modern air force. Thomas Keith spells it out.
Thomas Keith @iwasnevrhere_
Jun 24
The next threshold, air power, the last pillar Iran’s adversaries believe is too degraded to project dominance. But that gap is now becoming too strategically exposed for China to ignore. After absorbing a full-spectrum Israeli strike, Iran has proven missile resilience, drone depth, and command continuity, but its air superiority layer is still underweight, and everyone sees it.
If Iran wants to close the triangle, missiles, drones, and manned air power, China is the only partner willing to bridge that gap without strings. Iran’s interest in the J-10C is longstanding, and now justified: it’s light, multirole, and can be domestically painted as "air defense modernization."
Integration with Chinese radars (KLJ-7A AESA) and PL-15 long-range air-to-air missiles gives Iran parity over regional skies. The PL-15 already out-ranges anything Israeli or American jets carry in the region, making the acquisition not just symbolic, but operationally disruptive.
if Iran doesn’t solve its airpower deficit, everything else, missiles, drones, EW, even China’s tech, just becomes a reactive defense stack, not a forward-pushing posture. And that’s how you get dog walked by an enemy with superior tempo, ISR, and sky control.
The Supreme Leader may be a bit of a slow learner, but he’s catching on. Even as we write, the Iranian defense minister has been spotted in Beijing, sitting in the cockpit of a Chengdu J-10.
DD Geopolitics @DD_Geopolitics
 Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh visited China, likely to discuss purchasing Chinese jets and other systems, he was seen setting in a Chengdu J-10 Chinese jet.
Other systems? You can bet that China can put together a package deal in short order.
Why did I use the word “fallout” in the title? Two reasons. First:
Thomas Keith @iwasnevrhere_
According to an informed source quoted by Fars News Agency, preliminary forensics at multiple impact craters show traces consistent with depleted-uranium contamination, an unmistakable signature of munitions designed for penetration first, genetic fallout later.
If the readings hold, Tel Aviv’s strike doctrine against Iran wasn’t “surgical”; it was radioactive vandalism in slow-motion, the same outlaw playbook that once dusted Gaza’s alleys with white phosphorus and Lebanon’s hills with uranium-laced shells. Depleted uranium doesn’t disable centrifuges; it stalks bone marrow, mutates chromosomes, and seeds leukemia clusters that bloom for generations, war by half-life.
Silence from Washington and Brussels is already louder than any condemnation they hurled at Iran’s missile retaliation. The rules-based order keeps finding exceptions for its favorite rogue ally, even when the payload glows.
Depleted uranium is the weapon of cowards: it doesn’t blind radars, it blinds toddlers.
If confirmed, this turns a 12-day air campaign into a multi-decade epidemiological siege, and brands Israel, yet again, as the only state in the region willing to spread radiation in the name of “self-defense,” backed by Western signatures on the export paperwork.
8:17 AM · Jun 26, 2025
Second, I listened last night to Larry Johnson and Scott Horton discussing, well, fallout. It’s a very interesting 50 minute discussion, but I want to highlight several things that LJ said. We all know about Dmitry Medvedev’s tweet that, who knows, someone might now gift nukes to Iran—that got Trump seriously upset. LJ speculated that Medvedev may have been hinting that the donor could be North Korea—which possesses not only nukes but Russia’s extremely capable ICBMs that can target virtually any place within the United States.
In a related matter, as we previously noted, the very day after the “ceasefire” the Iranian foreign minister flew off to Moscow to meet with Putin. LJ explains why he met with Putin rather than, say, his equivalent: Lavrov. The reason was because Aragchi was carrying a letter from Khameini to Putin. LJ speculated that the letter contained an Iranian proposal to redo the strategic partnership agreement. At the time, January, when that agreement was signed, Iranian “moderates”—who held out hopes of a reconciliation with the West—wanted to avoid the appearance of confrontation with the West by a defense pact with Russia, even though Russia had offered that. As we know, there was never any hope of any reconciliation—that was a fantasy project, because the Anglo-Zionists were already intending an attack on Iran. Now, suggests LJ, Iran may have asked Putin whether that defense pact offer was still on the table.
Going forward, the US and Israel find themselves in an arms race, probably pitted against not just Iran but also China and Russia.
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What a gold mine of information in this post! Thank you.
I find the Washington Post revealing the timeline for planning of the Israeli attack on Iran quite shocking. In the wake of its failure is the CIA now trying to offload blame on Israel and Mossad? How can they when they themselves were integral to the operation? In any case, Keith's post provides a neat and elegant (if not satisfying) explanation for the whole sordid and destructive affair and puts a ribbon on it. When is Kurilla retiring? I will celebrate that day but regret that it didn't come much sooner.
The idea that the Israelis would purposely engage in radiological warfare is indescribably evil; yet when viewed from the idea that "we are all Amalek" I guess it shouldn't be so surprising. What should be just as horrifying is that we (the U.S.) have been their mentors and enablers for all of their horrible actions.
I am not surprised that Trump would freak out over closure of the Strait of Hormuz or over ICBM deliverable nukes from North Korea, assuming he has a degree of sanity left. On the other hand he has partnered with the Israelis in their demonic deeds. That does not comport with either reason or morality or self-interest. So just who is Trump these days?
Brilliant column. Thank you Mark.
What a gold mine of information in this post! Thank you.
I find the Washington Post revealing the timeline for planning of the Israeli attack on Iran quite shocking. In the wake of its failure is the CIA now trying to offload blame on Israel and Mossad? How can they when they themselves were integral to the operation? In any case, Keith's post provides a neat and elegant (if not satisfying) explanation for the whole sordid and destructive affair and puts a ribbon on it. When is Kurilla retiring? I will celebrate that day but regret that it didn't come much sooner.
The idea that the Israelis would purposely engage in radiological warfare is indescribably evil; yet when viewed from the idea that "we are all Amalek" I guess it shouldn't be so surprising. What should be just as horrifying is that we (the U.S.) have been their mentors and enablers for all of their horrible actions.
I am not surprised that Trump would freak out over closure of the Strait of Hormuz or over ICBM deliverable nukes from North Korea, assuming he has a degree of sanity left. On the other hand he has partnered with the Israelis in their demonic deeds. That does not comport with either reason or morality or self-interest. So just who is Trump these days?