Not the point, surely you can find a more expert source in support vs US faux anti-imperialist tankies grifting for allies of Netanyahu and Trump ie. Putin and posting to Facebook?
VatnikSoup (Finland) 'Max Blumenthal. He’s best-known for his great admiration towards authoritarian regimes, and for launching the fake news blog The Grayzone.'....
Missing a key influence, the US Evangelicals, The Rapture, End Times and their input into Koch Heritage 'Project Esther' with the US Ambassador to Israel Huckabee, for Israel vs Palestine etc.
I can understand why do you read him, but for your reputation it will be better to use( link) another sources in your post.( with same info).
I ( and not only me) have problem to believe/trust people which are on Putin side and critise West. I don't know when he is laying and when not and don't have time to verify him in each post. I try to read people where is very high probabilty that they don't lie and don't support wrong side. Yes everybody can make mistake and on some topics are more views and no side is perfect, but there are better or less worse side and worses sides.
Meanwhile where is some campaing on facebook against you, because of your sources, that you believe to "Normal Island News" which is parody and comedy source. And with using such source by mistake or not you are loosing your credits and give a lof of munition against you to your opponents.
I don’t like it when you poo-poo good news and then won’t shut up about bad news. Example: you go on and on about what an incompetent dick Yermak is for like two years. I know. I read your blog every Monday… He gets sacked. I sort of expect you to be over the moon. You devote one paragraph to the topic, saying “well good but it won’t change anything… moving on.”
Welcome back Tom and glad you are safe around this catastrophy.
Also nice that you can confirm the bogus Russian intel story. The Russo-Iranian Alliance is one of the more successful PR stunts of both countries, in part because everybody in the US/EU wants it to be true and gobble up everything about the Russians.
Russian field teams with the IRGC would be spies and route all information to Israel, considering the Israeli-Russian "special" relationship.
Thats true , I was puzzled why no one accused Russia of leaking Israeli positions to the Iranians just to see how fast and loud this would be denied by bothsides
Always mind: Russians occupied, anexated, assimilated more than 190 nations; dozens genocides (one of them via famine); killed more own people than nazzi. Don't belittle their merits.
Max Blumenthal as an expert source? Not according to his reputation based on past inexpert statements, but just another US faux anti-imperialist tankie?
Read or watch him and then decide. Yes, his anti-imperialism can color his commentary but his expertise, IMO, about how the Zionist machine works is un-equaled.
No, he is still a non expert grifter offering opinions, and 'Zionist' has lost any meaning since being adopted by US Evangelical RWNJ Christians......while he was promoting Kremlin talking points vs Ukraine for Putin, an ally/frenemy of both Netanyahu and Trump?
I wasn't aware the government gave us facts? So opinions it is! Even if Zionism has been adopted by US Evangelical RWNJ Christians Israel remains a separate territory outside the U.S.
Thank you so much for your palate cleansing report. The schlock circulating on other sites as “analysis” is overwhelmingly hopium and copioum. Looking forward to your updates.
Welcome back. It was fun watching you on the Indian news channel.
Newspapers are full of comments like "Iran missile launches are down by 83%". Is that true? What about drones? Since the US didn't bother to learn about drone warfare over the last few years, and now finds itself unable to deal with them, their only chance is to destroy the drones on the ground. Is that feasible?
Thanks. So many questions about this utter debacle. Principal of which perhaps is: what's up with the never-materialized Kurdish offensive? Is no-one speaking truth to power in Tel Aviv (the only decision-making center that really matters, obviously.) And: no contingency plans in place to force the Strait? Seems like they just started dusting plans off piecemeal after Plan A failed, not taking into account the market disruption. You would think that might be the single dimension Trump understands, or at least, vaguely considers.
Glad to have you back. Not so happy with all these videos, do I really have to watch to learn? Modern times my @#&! Goes against the grain. But ok, I will bite and watch.
Are you saying the PKK Kurds are talking with the PKK Kurds ? ,)
Or only that PKK and the Talabani clique, whom became explicit and public allied under the auspice of CENTCOM to the point of the Talabani (aka 2nd Kurd bloc in Iraq) were openly sending their troops to assist the PKK-US occupation of Syria ? ,)
To be clear I am not talking about the past months event in Syria but about a policy applied since years ago which caused Turkey to bomb Sulaymaniyah air port and shot down some the helicopters moving from Syria to KRG and vice versa to signal to the idiots in CENTCOM that it was fully aware of their attempt break appart Iraq, Syria and potentially Turkey
Me think the missiles fired by Iran on KRG were far more convincing than any intra Kurds talks.
That said Bafel Talabani, who became the dominant figure among his family had a reputation of being close to Iran. Imo an inflated one : all ethno nationalists Kurdish movements found a common ground with Iran in their shared goal to occupy Syria and expel or erase the Sunni majority.
This report sounds more like repeating like a broken record their disappointment the US did not go all in sectarian war against the new gov.
btw, the Syrian Kurds governance : An Kurd refugee who came back 4 months ago was abucted, tortured and murder by "Syrian Kurds" PKK governance for who knows what reason.
The Kurds don't want to be the substitute and be used, instead of US ground forces and die for the sake of Israel. They said, that they will join the war and march on Tehran, if the US sends troops as well.
Thanks for the analysis Tom, the sad part is the effect of the oil/petroleum price increase and other actions by the Gulf states that will ripple around the world as per your last paragraph, now being felt in countries with overseas workers like my country.
IR trackers can lock on them , the Houthis almost shot down an F-35 , also an Israeli F-35 filmed a missile that was a near miss , this stuff is too expensive to be too cavalier about , stealth does not mean invisible, very useful but all it takes to shoot down is just to be in the wrong place at the wrong time , shit swarms of HALE/MALE drones and ECM aircarfts and missiles pave the way in front of them and still they get shot at and ambushed
Killing or making the civilan population of disobedient governments/regimes suffer, is also part of their "only democratic and morale politics in the Middle East".
They blew up over 30 oil storage tanks in Tehran, to intoxicate the environment.
On Qeshm Island they have destroyed the desalination plant, so the people are without water. The latter they now blame on the UAE, after Iran attacked the desalination plant in Bahrain, as retaliation.
On a side note: In Syria Israel is spraying crops and farmlands with toxins to ruin it for the Syrians.
Netanyahu is escalating towards a tactical nuke strike on Fordow. I can't see much other (strategic) logic. They aren't going to be able to turn Tehran into Gaza. But they need to gradually go up the escalation ladder not to look utterly insane using nukes.
The case of Qeshm is interesting. It could be a logical place for a US ground operation. At least, this was the scenario in the GMT wargame "Next War Iran" (which, in case Tom reads this and has a conniption, is not a video game !) :)
What was particularly bizarre though was striking the desal' plant from Bahrain using HIMARS -- thus inviting retaliation in kind on Bahrain. I thought the point of HIMARS was to do "counterbattery" fire against Iranian BM launchers? And the Qeshm plant is not that far from Bandar Abbas, which the USN have struck using stand off munitions. Maybe they are really really short on those munitions.... Satellite imagery today also show not all ships in Bandar Abbas sunk. IRINS Makran or Kurdistan is at its berth. So are Ghadir class subs..
Some interesting analysis and some bias, as always. Questions:
1. You really cant find a better “analyst” that Max Blumenthal, nepo baby that hasnt yet found a despicable anti-west regime he wont shill for and defend their atrocities? The guy defended Assad for a decade, paints Putin and Xi as second coming of Mother Teresa and thought Chavez was a true socialist. Paid grifter.
2. On IRGC missile attacks. Funny how you find excuse for every one of their hits on civilian targets. Wonder if you will do the same for US/Israel. Or are we now moving from analysis to ideology based assessments?
3. Israeli planes are flying over Tehran easier than over Israel right now. If majority of Iranian AA defenses are still going strong, wouldnt they focus on defending their capital?
4. NYT has already posted viable evidence of why the “radar hit” story is AI slop. Have you checked that out? Also, for THAAD, only info confirmed is that the system’s radar has been hit. You might have more info but then clarify its based on your contacts.
Overall, this is a stupid war with million unintended consequences. Having good military analysts is really valuable to see at least to an extent through the fog of war and propaganda. Would be a shame if your value would be diminished by the lack of objectivity in analysis itself (think whatever u want of Israelis, we disagree but its irrelevant as long as your analysis is actually grounded in facts).
Welcome back!
Max Blumenthal? Seriously? He's a tankie who supports Putin.
Half of you here are complaining I can't analyse Ukraine, or can't analyse the Arab-Israeli conflict or whatever.
He can analyse Zionism and its tentacles in the White House. That's what matters for the topic on hand, whoever likes that or not.
Not the point, surely you can find a more expert source in support vs US faux anti-imperialist tankies grifting for allies of Netanyahu and Trump ie. Putin and posting to Facebook?
VatnikSoup (Finland) 'Max Blumenthal. He’s best-known for his great admiration towards authoritarian regimes, and for launching the fake news blog The Grayzone.'....
Missing a key influence, the US Evangelicals, The Rapture, End Times and their input into Koch Heritage 'Project Esther' with the US Ambassador to Israel Huckabee, for Israel vs Palestine etc.
I can understand why do you read him, but for your reputation it will be better to use( link) another sources in your post.( with same info).
I ( and not only me) have problem to believe/trust people which are on Putin side and critise West. I don't know when he is laying and when not and don't have time to verify him in each post. I try to read people where is very high probabilty that they don't lie and don't support wrong side. Yes everybody can make mistake and on some topics are more views and no side is perfect, but there are better or less worse side and worses sides.
Meanwhile where is some campaing on facebook against you, because of your sources, that you believe to "Normal Island News" which is parody and comedy source. And with using such source by mistake or not you are loosing your credits and give a lof of munition against you to your opponents.
How... I have a reputation to lose?
That's the news of the week...
I don’t like it when you poo-poo good news and then won’t shut up about bad news. Example: you go on and on about what an incompetent dick Yermak is for like two years. I know. I read your blog every Monday… He gets sacked. I sort of expect you to be over the moon. You devote one paragraph to the topic, saying “well good but it won’t change anything… moving on.”
Welcome back boss , those interview links are much appreciated , we miss your valuable insight🙏
Welcome back Tom and glad you are safe around this catastrophy.
Also nice that you can confirm the bogus Russian intel story. The Russo-Iranian Alliance is one of the more successful PR stunts of both countries, in part because everybody in the US/EU wants it to be true and gobble up everything about the Russians.
Russian field teams with the IRGC would be spies and route all information to Israel, considering the Israeli-Russian "special" relationship.
Thats true , I was puzzled why no one accused Russia of leaking Israeli positions to the Iranians just to see how fast and loud this would be denied by bothsides
I am against IRGC regime, USA helped us, Russians are happy now (and helps Iran to destroy refinaries in gulf).
But Trump is so stupid and no one is telling this to him, that I've cought myself on the thought that at least Iran can punish this idiot.
Russia is a terorist number 1. Their doctrinte is to spread annexations and chaos in the world to hide own. Which Trump perfectly executes.
Always mind: the Russians are merely learning from Zionism.
Always mind: Russians occupied, anexated, assimilated more than 190 nations; dozens genocides (one of them via famine); killed more own people than nazzi. Don't belittle their merits.
Russians were liquidating countries when Zionism wasnt even a twinkle in Jewish eyes.
Max Blumenthal as an expert source? Not according to his reputation based on past inexpert statements, but just another US faux anti-imperialist tankie?
Read or watch him and then decide. Yes, his anti-imperialism can color his commentary but his expertise, IMO, about how the Zionist machine works is un-equaled.
No, he is still a non expert grifter offering opinions, and 'Zionist' has lost any meaning since being adopted by US Evangelical RWNJ Christians......while he was promoting Kremlin talking points vs Ukraine for Putin, an ally/frenemy of both Netanyahu and Trump?
I wasn't aware the government gave us facts? So opinions it is! Even if Zionism has been adopted by US Evangelical RWNJ Christians Israel remains a separate territory outside the U.S.
Watch the f...g video first.
Thank you so much for your palate cleansing report. The schlock circulating on other sites as “analysis” is overwhelmingly hopium and copioum. Looking forward to your updates.
Welcome back. It was fun watching you on the Indian news channel.
Newspapers are full of comments like "Iran missile launches are down by 83%". Is that true? What about drones? Since the US didn't bother to learn about drone warfare over the last few years, and now finds itself unable to deal with them, their only chance is to destroy the drones on the ground. Is that feasible?
Thanks. So many questions about this utter debacle. Principal of which perhaps is: what's up with the never-materialized Kurdish offensive? Is no-one speaking truth to power in Tel Aviv (the only decision-making center that really matters, obviously.) And: no contingency plans in place to force the Strait? Seems like they just started dusting plans off piecemeal after Plan A failed, not taking into account the market disruption. You would think that might be the single dimension Trump understands, or at least, vaguely considers.
Regarding the Kurds, it's reported that the Syrian Kurds told the Iranian Kurds not to trust the US.
Yes. Or maybe the Iranian Kurds double-crossed Mossad, just as the Syrian Kurds have been double crossed countless times before.
Glad to have you back. Not so happy with all these videos, do I really have to watch to learn? Modern times my @#&! Goes against the grain. But ok, I will bite and watch.
Think you meant to reply to Tom's original post?
You are quite right!
Are you saying the PKK Kurds are talking with the PKK Kurds ? ,)
Or only that PKK and the Talabani clique, whom became explicit and public allied under the auspice of CENTCOM to the point of the Talabani (aka 2nd Kurd bloc in Iraq) were openly sending their troops to assist the PKK-US occupation of Syria ? ,)
To be clear I am not talking about the past months event in Syria but about a policy applied since years ago which caused Turkey to bomb Sulaymaniyah air port and shot down some the helicopters moving from Syria to KRG and vice versa to signal to the idiots in CENTCOM that it was fully aware of their attempt break appart Iraq, Syria and potentially Turkey
https://x.com/D_abdulkader/status/1645080273711775745
https://x.com/obretix/status/1678076206959263744
https://x.com/metesohtaoglu/status/1637118867204976640
Me think the missiles fired by Iran on KRG were far more convincing than any intra Kurds talks.
That said Bafel Talabani, who became the dominant figure among his family had a reputation of being close to Iran. Imo an inflated one : all ethno nationalists Kurdish movements found a common ground with Iran in their shared goal to occupy Syria and expel or erase the Sunni majority.
No idea. Reporting in Reuters didn't specify.
Syria's Kurds caution Iran's Kurds against aligning with US against Tehran - https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/syrias-kurds-caution-irans-kurds-against-aligning-with-us-against-tehran-2026-03-08/
Reuter is infested by Assadists.
This report sounds more like repeating like a broken record their disappointment the US did not go all in sectarian war against the new gov.
btw, the Syrian Kurds governance : An Kurd refugee who came back 4 months ago was abucted, tortured and murder by "Syrian Kurds" PKK governance for who knows what reason.
https://x.com/Charles_Lister/status/2031001487451591125
Syrian Kurds... which of their 13-14 factions... told...which of 15-20 Iranian Kurd factions...? (Only five o the latter are 'something like allied').
The Kurds don't want to be the substitute and be used, instead of US ground forces and die for the sake of Israel. They said, that they will join the war and march on Tehran, if the US sends troops as well.
Kurds simply remembered all the cases they were left betrayed - last one in Syria less than 2 months ago! - and opted to hunker down.
Thanks for the analysis Tom, the sad part is the effect of the oil/petroleum price increase and other actions by the Gulf states that will ripple around the world as per your last paragraph, now being felt in countries with overseas workers like my country.
Good to know you're safe, Tom. What's your opinion on the video with Israeli fighter jets supposedly overflying Teheran and chatting on radio?
"most of airspace over central Iran remains off-limits even for F-22s and F-35"
But why , even if radar detect them they can't be locked on by SAM. So why American fear to fly there?
IR trackers can lock on them , the Houthis almost shot down an F-35 , also an Israeli F-35 filmed a missile that was a near miss , this stuff is too expensive to be too cavalier about , stealth does not mean invisible, very useful but all it takes to shoot down is just to be in the wrong place at the wrong time , shit swarms of HALE/MALE drones and ECM aircarfts and missiles pave the way in front of them and still they get shot at and ambushed
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/the-houthis-almost-shot-down-an-f-35-and-washington-is-panicked
That would be a tactical reason to blow up the oil storage tanks in Tehran. Cover the whole place in smog for days/weeks.
Killing or making the civilan population of disobedient governments/regimes suffer, is also part of their "only democratic and morale politics in the Middle East".
They blew up over 30 oil storage tanks in Tehran, to intoxicate the environment.
On Qeshm Island they have destroyed the desalination plant, so the people are without water. The latter they now blame on the UAE, after Iran attacked the desalination plant in Bahrain, as retaliation.
On a side note: In Syria Israel is spraying crops and farmlands with toxins to ruin it for the Syrians.
Netanyahu is escalating towards a tactical nuke strike on Fordow. I can't see much other (strategic) logic. They aren't going to be able to turn Tehran into Gaza. But they need to gradually go up the escalation ladder not to look utterly insane using nukes.
The case of Qeshm is interesting. It could be a logical place for a US ground operation. At least, this was the scenario in the GMT wargame "Next War Iran" (which, in case Tom reads this and has a conniption, is not a video game !) :)
What was particularly bizarre though was striking the desal' plant from Bahrain using HIMARS -- thus inviting retaliation in kind on Bahrain. I thought the point of HIMARS was to do "counterbattery" fire against Iranian BM launchers? And the Qeshm plant is not that far from Bandar Abbas, which the USN have struck using stand off munitions. Maybe they are really really short on those munitions.... Satellite imagery today also show not all ships in Bandar Abbas sunk. IRINS Makran or Kurdistan is at its berth. So are Ghadir class subs..
I like the arms folded take no prisoners Tom ;)
We thought he was the ghost of Kuwait :))
They're probably installing a Peter Pan system in the studio right now so Tom can levitate around the chess board!
wow- middle east eye video- strong messages
https://www.youtube.com/live/Q2yQ3kBAQIk?si=wU3sjamFO_2AsoIy
MIT Prof Ted Postol is doing a deep dive on the missiles and drones, and says something similar to what Tom is talking about.
Some interesting analysis and some bias, as always. Questions:
1. You really cant find a better “analyst” that Max Blumenthal, nepo baby that hasnt yet found a despicable anti-west regime he wont shill for and defend their atrocities? The guy defended Assad for a decade, paints Putin and Xi as second coming of Mother Teresa and thought Chavez was a true socialist. Paid grifter.
2. On IRGC missile attacks. Funny how you find excuse for every one of their hits on civilian targets. Wonder if you will do the same for US/Israel. Or are we now moving from analysis to ideology based assessments?
3. Israeli planes are flying over Tehran easier than over Israel right now. If majority of Iranian AA defenses are still going strong, wouldnt they focus on defending their capital?
4. NYT has already posted viable evidence of why the “radar hit” story is AI slop. Have you checked that out? Also, for THAAD, only info confirmed is that the system’s radar has been hit. You might have more info but then clarify its based on your contacts.
Overall, this is a stupid war with million unintended consequences. Having good military analysts is really valuable to see at least to an extent through the fog of war and propaganda. Would be a shame if your value would be diminished by the lack of objectivity in analysis itself (think whatever u want of Israelis, we disagree but its irrelevant as long as your analysis is actually grounded in facts).
Oh and on Max, there are multiple assessments online proving his grift. Takes 5 min googling.
Finally, can we all stop using the stupid nickname thing? Do we all have to copy Trump? Its everywhere now and its so reductive.