American Empire, Analysis, Israel

DAY 6: ATTACK ON IRAN

The developments on the sixth day of Washington and Tel Aviv’s aggression against Iran.

The funeral on Tuesday for the victims of the U.S.-Israeli attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran. (Tasnim News Agency/ Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY 4.0)

THURSDAY

By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News

5:30 pm EST: Admiral Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, claims that “U.S. combat power is building as Iranian combat power declines,” including a 90 percent decrease in ballistic missile retaliation and and 86 percent fall in drone attacks, figures impossible to verify. Reports and video from the region show a relentless barrage of Iranian missiles and drones still raining down on Israel and the Gulf Arab states. This includes a direct hit on the major oil refinery in Bahrain earlier today.

5:15 pm EST: The drone and missile war, the first phase of this war, will come down to whether Iran runs out of ballistic missiles and drones before Israel and the U.S. run out of interceptor and offensive missiles. 

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insists the U.S. is not running out of munitions. “We’ve got no shortage of munitions,” he told a press conference at Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida. “Our stockpiles of defensive and offensive weapons allow us to sustain this campaign as long as we need to.”

Whether he is telling the truth or not will go a long way in determining who wins this war.  Put simply, as regime change is the stated goal of the U.S. and Israel, if the Iranian government stays, Iran wins, if it goes, the U.S. and Israel does.

5 pm EST: The U.S. House of Representative, like the Senate on Wednesday, has shirked its Constitutional duty by voting 219 to 212 against considering a War Powers resolution, which was designed  for Congress to essentially wrest control of the war from Donald Trump. This vote seals the unconstitutional nature of the war as it lacks Congressional authorization as mandated by the Constitution.

3:45 pm EST: An analysis by The New York Times has concluded that it was the United States and not Israel that hit the primary school in Minab, Iran on Saturday, killing at least 175 people, mostly schoolgirls between the ages of 7 and 12.  The White House and the Pentagon continue to deny responsibility.

2 pm EST:  UAE billionaire Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor published an open letter to Donald Trump. It is the first sign that the Gulf Arab states, staunch U.S. allies, are turning against Trump and Netanyahu’s war. This appears to be Iran’s strategy:  attack not only the U.S. bases in these countries, from which the U.S. is attacking Iran, but the countries’ infrastructure as well.

This is to turn the Gulf states against the U.S. for bringing this disaster upon them and for not protecting them. The aim: to get these Arab nations to eventually eject the U.S. from the region.  Here are the highlights of Al Habtoor’s open letter to Trump: 

His questions to Trump are:

  • Was this your decision or Netanyahu’s pressure?
  • Did you calculate collateral damage before firing?
  • You placed GCC countries at the heart of danger they didn’t choose
  • *Your “Board of Peace” initiatives were funded by Gulf states. Now we’re getting attacked. Where did that money go?
  • You promised no wars. You’ve conducted operations in 7 countries: Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, Nigeria, Syria, Iran, Venezuela
  • 658 airstrikes in your first year back = Biden’s entire term (which you criticized)
  • War costs $40-65 billion for operations, possibly $210 billion total
  • Your approval rating’s down 9% in 400 days
  • Americans were promised peace. They’re getting war funded by their taxes
“True leadership is not measured by war decisions, but by wisdom, respect for others, and pushing toward achieving peace,” he wrote.


11 am EST:  Israel has notified residents of four neighborhoods in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon to evacuate immediately ahead of what is fear will be a massive attack.  The area is home to the Shia population of Beirut, supporters of Iran and Hezbollah. Chaos has ensued as residents try to flee the area causing massive traffic jams. This is Israel.