Now in our second week of the conflict, we have seen continuing damage to both Israel and Iran, as well as direct US intervention which nonetheless seems to have caused limited damage to Fordow and little damage to Iran’s nuclear program. Regime change seems more elusive than ever, as even Iranians previously critical of the government now rally around it as they are attacked by two rabid imperialists at once. And Iran’s government is tentatively considering a withdrawal, or at minimum a reconsideration, of their membership to the IAEA and the NPT. And, of course, the Strait of Hormuz is still a tool in their arsenal.
A day or so on from the strike on Fordow, we have so far seen basically no change in strategy from the Iranian military as they continue to strike Israel with small barrages of missiles. Military analysts argue furiously - is this a deliberate strategy of steady attrition on Israel, or indicative of immense material constraints on Iran? Are the hits by Israel on real targets, or are they decoys? Does Iran wish to develop a nuke, or are they still hesitating? Will Iran and Yemen strike at US warships and bases in response to the attack, or will they merely continue striking only Israel?
And perhaps most importantly - will this conflict end diplomatically due to a lack of appetite for an extended war (to wit: not a peace but a 20 year armistice) or with Israel forced into major concessions including an end to their genocide? Or even with a total military/societal collapse of either side?
Last week’s thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
I was waiting for a nothingburger conclusion, glad to hear this is meaningful
There’s a lot of unknowns right now. Maybe Iran is extracting the enriched uranium for a handover to the USA, though that would shock even me, one of the more pessimistic people on Iran. Maybe they’re doing it for their own purposes, to further nuclear development. Maybe nothing was extracted, who knows. But if you were Iran, you would transfer most of the enriched uranium to Isfahan before the strikes as it’s your deepest underground facility. And you would do this to extract it, that’s not a open top dump truck on the satellite imagery. This is the one card they can play right now.
Do the OSINT channels still think that Israel had air dominance over Iran or have you calmed down somewhat by this point
What kind of answer are you expecting when the other side of the “OSINT” community were literaly making dumbass conspiracy theories that Iran “let it happen” or that the B-2 bombing was a hoax basicaly(Simplicious) as we watched multiple instances of bombing in Tehran etc.
If you want a moderate position you need to bark at the other tree.
It is in the pro-Russian interests in the region to deny and deflect, Iran is using Russian systems after all, it is in their interest to portray Iran as both strong and independent regardless of the reality until the worst happens(Syria). If the consensus becomes that Iran needs better(Chinese) systems how does that reflect on the years of specialist analysts assuring us Iran had the upper hand.
Again Simplicious and his cohort are dumbasses at worse or dishonest propagandists at best wrt ME, maybe they can talk about Russia-Ukraine, but they’ve been lacking on Israel-Iran, I encourage you to go back and read his TP 1 and 2 “analysis” where he assured us how good it looked for Iran.
Well, the question concerns if Israel had “air superiority” over Iran, and whether lobbing cruise missiles at Tehran from outside their airspace constitutes air superiority. I’m not really sure where the rest of that is coming from, but maybe you feel it’s worth documenting for your own sake.
As for Russian interests, why the Russian reactor was not struck, why the strait was not blockaded, and to what extent the nuclear site bunker buster bombings were kayfabe, I consider it all a separate issue from the overall air defense recovery from ground sabotage I sought - not expected - some answer about. The are too many 𝙺𝚗𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚄𝚗𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠𝚗𝚜 to start writing anything as confident as what Hexbears and Russian Substackers have been pooping out.
Maybe some other time we can both list off who we think is the stupidest motherfucker in the OSINT and “alternative media” commentariat. Not now. I feel too groggy. This does answer whether anyone has calmed down. 🤔
We have evidence this was not the case, including and quite literaly the last few attacks on the last day or so. The point is whether you care to accept it or not changes whether you think Israel had air superiority or not.
Despite your disingenuous attempt at playing the reasonable card you’re echoing the same argument as the Russian chuds who want to ignore the evidence. You’re trying to shame us into accepting some other narrative as if that user was “wrong”. I’m letting you know the hole goes a lot deeper than you think if you want to start pointing fingers.
I said right at the start, if you have qualms with the OSINT community which we relied upon, you go bark to them not point fingers at users here. They’re the ones who need to “calm down”.
Sounds like this is an opportunity to build your case to get certain sources banned from your pet thread. Look, I don’t want smoke, if you want to start beating the ass of everyone who doesn’t think that Hezbollah and the IRGC have a similar political situation, go right ahead. I respectfully asked for more information that contradicts what I already heard about Israeli “air superiority” which is not a vibes-based term. This is because I do not have the time or energy to survey all of the OSINT and “alternative media” dorks, but it has become something of a sports betting fascination for you people. I am interested in stuff that falls short of air superiority! Considering that you’ve left it to me to beg you for a source and have started drawing chuddy lines in the sand, I can’t imagine this will be productive. No, asking people if they have calmed down is not a demand for compliance with my views, it’s taking the temperature.
By very last attacks I am guessing you mean the orchestrated strikes between Iran and the US. Which is again telling me things I already know which have an unresolved political intrigue angle to them.
I do think the claims of “air dominance” or supremacy were out of context, in Marmite (and many others) defence.
Israeli jets were “dominant” when they wanted to be, but it wasnt worth the costs when it was clear they 1. couldn’t kill more Iranian leadership beyond the first day and 2. couldn’t disrupt nuclear sites without US support.
In Lebanon, they can just send a single F-16 and lob a bomb (guided or otherwise) at wherever they like. Hell, Hezbollah never succeeded in suppressing drones unlike in Yemen.
In Iran, they had an enemy with some air defenses, so they sent EW aircraft and multiple planes at once, or relied on standoff weapons more. Iran couldnt prevent this (and thus gave up air control), but they made the logistics of the campaign costlier.
Instead, Iranian AD picked its battles and HVTs stayed hunkered down. Even the suggestion of moving Uranium/centrifuges suggests the IRGC understood their AA situation.
Even Syria’s much more outdated air defences forced a change in tactics, even if in the end Israel could precisely hit any target they wanted. It was just that the minimum bar for said targets was pushed higher thanks to the risks and costs to mitigate said risk.
They babysat cruise missiles and tried to stay out of Iranian airspace entirely. We can talk about how Iran needs a nuke and not to just let people walk ATGM parts across the border without obfuscating it
I can’t imagine Iran is dumb enough to give anything to the US right now in exchange for anything else. I can’t imagine why any country on earth would trust the US at all anymore.