|
War On Iran: “And then? What?”
Trump’s latest outburst, intended to cool the market, issued about an hour ago:
The United States of America is in serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran. Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately “Open for Business,” we will conclude our lovely “stay” in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet “touched.” This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year “Reign of Terror.” Thank you for your attention to this matter.
President DONALD J. TRUMP
Fitting:
bigger
Cartoon via Rob CampbellA relevant and revealing response to any of Trump’s proposed actions is: “And then? What?”
From the latest War Update by Hamidreza Azizi:
Iranian planning is no longer centered on absorbing strikes but on shaping the battlefield in advance. A concept described as “preemptive destruction” is emerging, involving continuous targeting of U.S. bases, logistics hubs, and staging areas in countries such as Kuwait and Bahrain to disrupt any potential ground or heliborne operation before it can be executed.
As there is a lot of strategy and contemplation going on, and appreciating posts by many, via Youssef Fares, here is a distinct view :
“Opinions| Syrian writer Mustafa Abdeen
Up to this point, Iran has succeeded in shifting the goals of the war from destroying its ballistic missile capabilities and stripping it of its enriched uranium stock to merely reopening the Strait of Hormuz and returning to the status of the Strait before the start of the war.
If Trump carries out his threats of ground intervention on Iranian territory, I believe that the goals of the war will change again, shifting from reopening the Strait of Hormuz to liberating prisoners.
American military capabilities in the region have received blows unprecedented in their history, and it can be considered that rebuilding these capabilities will take several years and hundreds of billions.
I believe that the Gulf countries actually made great diplomatic efforts and spent a lot of money to urge the United States not to enter into this armed conflict, but they failed. Today there is tremendous pressure on it from Israel and America to enter into the confrontation directly, but it still refuses to do so.
Yesterday, Trump spoke inappropriately about the Saudi Crown Prince when he said that the Crown Prince is “kissing his ass” now. He focused on the point that Bin Salman is still the Crown Prince and not the King, which seemed to me like a veiled threat.
The phrase “Kiss my ass” may indicate that the Saudi Crown Prince is trying to convince Trump to change course and go toward diplomatic solutions to spare his country and the rest of the Gulf states from devastating consequences that may not allow these countries to advance for decades.
Trump told the Crown Prince that the time has come for Saudi Arabia to enter the Abrahamic Peace Treaty, even though this timing is very bad. This invitation is a request to participate in the war.
It is clear that the Gulf states do not have sovereignty over their territories and are unable to neutralize themselves and prevent the launch of American attacks from their territories. Today, Israel bombed a water desalination center in Kuwait with the aim of directly pitting these countries against Iran and escalating the war.
Regarding the Lebanese state and its position that aims to exert political pressure to disarm Hezbollah during the ongoing war, I believe that the Lebanese government has no choice but to take this public position hostile to Hezbollah in order to protect the remaining Lebanese infrastructure from Israeli bombing.
Regarding Syria, I believe that Syria and Türkiye have a direct interest in Hezbollah’s steadfastness and preventing Israel from achieving its declared goal of occupying southern Lebanon. Any defeat by Israel will help Syria in its future negotiations and leave it with subsequent pressure cards.
The fall of southern Lebanon into the hands of Israel means the fall of southern Syria from Quneitra to Suwayda as well.
Israel, for the first time, hinted that Syria was involved in smuggling weapons to Hezbollah, but it has not yet officially adopted this position. This argument may be a future justification for a broad military intervention in Syria if its campaign against Hezbollah succeeds.
We may see a change in Iran’s political position regarding the NPT without announcing the development of a nuclear weapon. It may be in the form of a parliamentary decision to suspend Iran’s membership in this treaty and submit this decision to the new Supreme Leader for approval. This change leaves Iran as a threshold state but with the possibility of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.
The Houthi entry into the war is expected, and he is like a football player warming up on the side of the field. We will see the effect of this intervention when the USS George Bush aircraft carrier arrives in the region. George Bush takes about 10 days to reach the theater of operations. I believe that Bab al-Mandab will close soon and we will witness coordinated missile strikes by Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran.
We may witness the issuance of a fatwa from religious authorities in Iraq to intervene against American and Israeli interests, which will put the Iraqi government in an unenviable position.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz continues.
– Iran sells about 2 million barrels of oil per day.
– Iran will set fees for crossing the Strait of Hormuz
– There is no military solution to reopen the Strait.
– Any ground military intervention would be disastrous for the United States.
Trump cannot carry out his threats to destroy Iranian energy infrastructure.
– The nuclear program was not aborted.
– The Iranian missile program was not damaged, and Iran is still capable of point targets.
Trump has 30 days before he is legally forced to return to Congress to obtain approval to continue the war.
There is no scenario that will achieve victory for Israel and the United States other than the comprehensive destruction of Iran, and this will result in similar destruction throughout the region.”
Posted by: Ornot | Mar 31 2026 0:40 utc | 404
America now has a choice between taking the Blue Pill or Red pill. In this case it may better to take the Red Pill and make the realization that the president is insane even if it is painful to accept. That would be the best option with a softer landing. Trump is only going to get worse and is now an utter danger to the entire world. Instead, denial will likely creep in and they will keep taking Blue Pills while it keeps watching Plato’s shadows moving at the back of the cave wall.
Posted by: GeorgeWendell | Mar 30 2026 23:35 utc | 376
If you want to use concepts from The Matrix as an allegory, then you should at least learn to use it properly. Singling out an individual like Trump misses the whole point of the movie. The blue pill and the red pill were meant for an entire system.
Let me quote the movie’s transcript with minor modifications, which I have bolded:
(Construct)
Morpheus: America is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around. What do you see? Business people, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it. Were you listening to me, Neo, or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?
Neo: I was…
Morpheus: Look again. Freeze it.
Neo: This…this isn’t America?
Morpheus: No. It’s another training program designed to teach you one thing. If you are not one of us, you are one of them.
Neo: What are they?
Morpheus: Sentient programs. They can move in and out of any software still hard-wired to their system. That means that anyone we haven’t unplugged is potentially an agent. Inside America, they are everyone and they are no one. We are survived by hiding from them by running from them. But they are the gatekeepers. They are guarding all the doors. They are holding all the keys, which means that sooner or later, someone is going to have to fight them.
I’ve replaced the 3 instances of “the Matrix” with “America”—that’s it.
The Matrix is a system. America is a system.
Specifically, America is the embodiment of a particular economic system. Vladimir Lenin would call America as the representative of imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism.
The sentient programs being referred to in the transcript are the Agents, who possess superhuman abilities and hunt down threats to the system, like humans who try to free other humans from the system.
Trump is an Agent of Capital because the system is an allegory for America. Trump is just one individual. A very vile and powerful one, like Agent Smith, but very much just a manifestation of the system. Being a sentient program, Trump is conscious of his own existence and acts with a high degree of autonomy. At the same time, Trump is compelled to carry out the instructions of his programming, that programming being Manifest Destiny—the American belief that Americans are the Chosen Ones who have been promised all the lands and wealth in this world by God and are therefore justified in their attempts to acquire the lands and wealth by whatever means necessary.
Morpheus made an extremely salient point. People who are “still a part of that system”, America, are the enemies of those who are fighting the system, even though they may be regular Joe Americans—business people, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. Until the Americans have been unplugged from the system, those who are opposed to the system must treat Americans cautiously, lest they be mesmerized and caught unaware.
The “woman in the red dress” that captivated Neo and caused him to tune out Morpheus’s explanation of how the system operates? She turned into an Agent in the blink of an eye and was ready to blow a hole through Neo’s skull before Morpheus froze the training program. That is the lesson Morpheus tried to impart: never trust an American that’s still plugged into the system.
Even if Americans aren’t suddenly possessed by Agents of Capital, the Americans remain a threat. Morpheus shared a grim observation with Neo: Most Americans “are not ready to be unplugged.” Even worse, Americans are “so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it.”
Is there any hope, then, for a communist revolution in the very heart of the imperial core, in America itself? Another salient point from Morpheus is applicable here: “If you are not one of us, you are one of them.” If you are not fighting against America, then you are an American.
Fittingly, the character who pierces the veil of lies for Neo is named Morpheus, after the Greek god of dreams. The Matrix is a collective dream for all the humans plugged into it, and the Matrix can only exist by using up humans plugged into it as if they were Duracell batteries and disposing those humans once they are spent.
Morpheus: There are fields, endless fields, where human beings are no longer born. We are grown. For the longest time I wouldn’t believe it, and then I saw the fields with my own eyes. Watch them liquefy the dead so they could be fed intravenously to the living. And standing there, facing the pure horrifying precision, I came to realize the obviousness of the truth. What is the Matrix? Control. The Matrix is a computer generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this. (AUH note: Morpheus holds up a Duracell cell.)
The American Dream has always been a lie and a tool of oppression. The dream can only be kept alive by turning human beings—workers in the Global South—into consumable and disposable inputs for Capital. Keeping the dream alive prevents human beings from realizing that the dream is a dream, preventing them from freeing themselves from the fate of being turned into mere inputs for Capital. The Global South workers labor to create the conditions for their own oppression. Ironic.
This echoes Marx’s remarks in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 on Estranged Labour:
So much does the labor’s realization appear as loss of realization that the worker loses realization to the point of starving to death. So much does objectification appear as loss of the object that the worker is robbed of the objects most necessary not only for his life but for his work. Indeed, labor itself becomes an object which he can obtain only with the greatest effort and with the most irregular interruptions. So much does the appropriation of the object appear as estrangement that the more objects the worker produces the less he can possess and the more he falls under the sway of his product, capital.
All these consequences are implied in the statement that the worker is related to the product of labor as to an alien object. For on this premise it is clear that the more the worker spends himself, the more powerful becomes the alien world of objects which he creates over and against himself, the poorer he himself – his inner world – becomes, the less belongs to him as his own. It is the same in religion. The more man puts into God, the less he retains in himself. The worker puts his life into the object; but now his life no longer belongs to him but to the object. Hence, the greater this activity, the more the worker lacks objects. Whatever the product of his labor is, he is not. Therefore, the greater this product, the less is he himself. The alienation of the worker in his product means not only that his labor becomes an object, an external existence, but that it exists outside him, independently, as something alien to him, and that it becomes a power on its own confronting him. It means that the life which he has conferred on the object confronts him as something hostile and alien.
The “alien world of objects which he creates over and against himself”—sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Sounds like the Matrix.
Before others accuse me of forcing an ill-fitting interpretation onto the movie, I want you to read another part of the movie’s transcript.
(Restaurant)
Agent Smith: Do we have a deal, Mr. Reagan?
Cypher: You know, I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.
Agent Smith: Then we have a deal?
Cypher: I don’t want to remember nothing. Nothing. You understand? And I want to be rich. You know, someone important. Like an actor.
Agent Smith: Whatever you want, Mr. Reagan.
Cypher: Okay. I get my body back into a power plant, re-insert me into the Matrix, I’ll get you what you want.
Agent Smith: Access codes to the Zion mainframe.
Cypher: No, I told you, I don’t know them. I can get you the man who does.
Agent Smith: Morpheus.
Cypher is a character in the movie who betrays Morpheus, Neo and the rest of the crew of the hovercraft Nebuchadnezzar to Agent Smith and the Machines. Cypher’s last name being Reagan (of Reaganomics fame) and his desire to be turned into a rich and important actor when he’s plugged back into the Matrix is no coincidence.
Coincidentally, Trump admires Reagan to the point where Trump halted all trade negotiations with Canada in October 2025 because Trump believed that Reagan was misrepresented by an ad sponsored by Canada’s province of Ontario in which former President Ronald Reagan says tariffs “hurt every American”.
Consider too the other details about the movie.
The script writers were the Wachowski brothers, but they have since transitioned into women, so it’s more appropriate to say that the writers are the Wachowski sisters. I have noticed that the most vocal defenders of America on MoA are also the ones who hate transgender people the most.
The Matrix simulation was designed to represent the peak of human civilization, which, from the perspective of the movie’s writers and of Americans in general, happened to be an American city stuck perpetually in 1999. The Cold War had been won, and there was exuberance in America from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the cementing of America as the unchallenged unipolar power on the planet. Shock therapy on the economies of the countries from the former Soviet Union, initiated under the advisement of American economists, had allowed their wealth to be funneled to America, making American prosperity reach heights never seen before at the cost of deadly (quite literally) immiseration of former Soviet citizens.
I will end this long rant of mine with the final lines from the movie.
Neo, The One: I know you’re out there. I can feel you now. I know that you’re afraid. You’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin. I’m going to hang up this phone and then I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world without you, a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries, a world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.
America is afraid of communists. America is afraid of change. Communists will show people a world without America, a world without petrodollar, a world without 800+ American military bases, a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries, a world where anything is possible.
Death to America
Marg bar Âmrikâ
Marg bar Âmrikâ
Marg bar Âmrikâ
Posted by: All Under Heaven | Mar 31 2026 3:21 utc | 475
|
