this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2025
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Bulletins and News Discussion from June 16th to June 22nd, 2025 - Iran, Harden Your Heart
(hexbear.net)
Image is of destruction and damage inside Israel, sourced from this article.
Iran and Israel have struck each other many times over the last few days. There has been a general focus on military facilities and headquarters by both sides, though Israel has also struck oil facilities, civilian structures and hospitals, and in return for this, Iran has struck major scientific centers and the Haifa oil facilities.
Israel appears to have three main aims. First, to collapse the Iranian state, either through shock and breakdown by killing enough senior officials, or via some sort of internal military coup. Second, to try and destroy Iranian nuclear sites and underground missile cities, or at least to paralyze them long enough to achieve the first and third goals. And third, to bring the US into a direct conflict with Iran. This is because the US better equipped to fight them than Israel is (though victory would still not be guaranteed depending on what Iran chooses to do).
Iranian nuclear facilities are hidden deep underground (800 meters), far beyond the depth range of even the most powerful bunker busters (~70 meters or so), and built such that the visible ground entrances are horizontally far away in an unknown direction from the actual underground chambers. Only an extremely competent full-scale American bombing force all simultaneously using multiple of the most powerful conventional (perhaps even nuclear) bunker busters could even hypothetically hope to breach them (and we have seen how, in practice, American bunker busters have largely failed to impair or deter Ansarallah). There are several analysts on both sides who have concluded that it is entirely impossible to physically prevent Iran from building nukes.
I fully expect the US to join the war. I believe the current ambiguity is a deliberate invention of the US while they work to move their military assets into position, and as soon as they are ready, the US will start bombing Iran. After that, Iran's leadership must - if they haven't already - harden their hearts, and strike back with no fear, or risk following the path of Libya, Syria, and Iraq, either into either surrender, occupation, or annihilation. Every day where they do not possess a nuke is a day where lives are being lost and cities are being bombed.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
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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.
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Pedophile Scott Ritter is tweeting that if American bases and soldiers are attacked by Iran then he stands with America.
Never trust these opportunist grifting tinpots
Are you sure? he is @RealScottRitter I don`t see anything like that, he seems very hardline on the Trump is an idiot and this is pointless.
This doesn't read like someone who is about to put on the uniform again to die for Trump`s idiocy but who knows.
🇺🇸 Scott Ritter on twitter space moments ago: "Iran shouldn't escalate this, if it attacks US troops on region, I will definitely stand by our American troops and marines"
https://t.me/RezistanceTrench/43465
It was on Twitter space (video) allegedly
Yeah I looked over his tweets to be sure, nothing but anti-Trump from him, he even writes Free Palestine lol. Not trying to rehabilitate him but I think its just him doing the usual military personal "thoughts and prayers" stuff rather than actualy saying he would support the war imo. Iran shouldn't hit the US is a reasonable take from pragmatists, it would only get US public opinion on Trump's side etc...
Iran refusing to hit USA is not reasonable. It will lead to the destruction of Iran to fail to reestablish any form of deference. If they do nothing they look even weaker and will be attacked even fiercer. That’s the pragmatic view and anyone arguing otherwise is trying to destroy Iran slice by slice.
Iran is at war. If it refuses to retaliate it will be slaughtered
Iran cannot do that without Russia and China on its side, and so far there is nothing that indicates that except the presence of a few Chinese assets nearby that some have observed. There has been no extensive military or air force build up on Iran’s borders by both the Russians and the Chinese. Maybe things will change now after the latest US action.
Iran does not require China or Russia to punish the entity and its sponsor. There are many options still on the table to escalate and inflict damage. They merely require the political will.
Your alternative is what? Sit there and do nothing and absorb the escalating blow after blow forever until they collapse? They must fight back even if it is fraught, anything else is suicide.
China will have to get off its ass one way or the other. Iran will block the strait of Hormuz (or threaten to do so) absolutely destroying China’s economy. Likewise, Iran falling and being replaced by an American proxy also destroys their economy. China’s days of sitting around getting fat are over
It does if it wants to guarantee a win. Nobody’s going to gamble away the entire nation by starting a war if they don’t have the confidence to do so. This is not a video game where you can reload a saved game you know? If you lose, tens of millions of people die, the entire country collapses.
Also lmao at Iran being the one to “start a war”
The war has already begun. It has been declared on Iran, and it will continue until Iranian regime change. If you believe Trump when he says it’s a one and done strike you are actually beyond help at this point. Actually unable to form coherent thoughts and process shapes and colors if you believe him after he lied 5 times in a row. Like I’m starting to think you don’t have object permanence if you actually believe Neocon Don.
There is no option for the survival of Iran except to fight back. I can’t believe I still hear this piddling defeatist pacifist horseshit even now, even after Iran is betrayed by perfidy ten times in a row and all the reformism led them to destruction. You STILL insist they be pacifist and reformist. You STILL believe Trump’s lies and “strategic ambiguity” when he takes the most warhawk Zionist approach every time regardless of what he says.
Sitting around doing nothing guarantees a win? Russia and China will only get involved if they see that Iran is standing up for itself. The weaker and more desperate Iran gets as it begs, the less likely they will get involved. The most surefire way to get Russia and China involved is for Iran to demonstrate it can fight back.
This is why Zelenskyy stages PR moments to remind the world that Ukraine is fighting back and can do damage. Because each time he gets a “win” and looks strong, the drying up money floods back in. People reinforce winners, not losers.
Look at Syria and Armenia. When the leaders of both nations gave up and stopped fighting for themselves Russia dipped out. Losers don’t attract friends, and Russia is not capable or willing to fight Iran’s war for them.
The time of patience is long over. It was over years ago and our slow puttering allies refused to accept it. They have paid a heavy price for their slowness and inability to accept reality. You want them to continue this behavior? Have even more martyrs for nothing?
Maybe, just once, they should try hitting America where it hurts instead of “negotiating” and “stalling” because this shit has not worked for them. The path of the reformists led them to doom and you are saying they should stay the course? I say open the floodgates from hell, fight dirty, engage in asymmetrical war and assassinations, take the gloves off so it’s a fair fight