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the golfing dictator's ball ended up in a desert sand trap....

Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s slain leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was chosen to succeed him in a decision announced on Monday by the Assembly of Experts. Iran’s clerical body named Mojtaba as the country’s new supreme leader amid ongoing war and US-Israeli airstrikes.

US President Donald Trump has once again threatened Iran, saying the country’s next leader “is not going to last long” without US approval and claiming Tehran must bow to his demands to avoid further conflict.

 

  • Several members of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the body responsible for selecting the country’s next supreme leader, have said they have reached a decision but did not disclose the chosen candidate.
  • As of Sunday, the US-Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians, the Islamic Republic’s official data shows.
  • The Iranian Red Crescent has warned of possible acid rain after the US struck oil storage facilities in the city. It added that the explosions could release toxic hydrocarbons, sulfur, and nitrogen oxides that could make rainfall highly acidic and dangerous.

  • US President Donald Trump said he does not want armed Kurdish groups to join the war against Iran, following reports suggesting that the CIA was working with Kurdish forces in Iraq. Sergey Poletaev, an information analyst and co-founder of the Vatfor project, said Washington could face a dilemma if air power fails in Iran, potentially forcing it to rely on allied ground forces.

  • Trump denied responsibility for the strike on a girls’ elementary school in southern Iran on February 28 that killed at least 175 people, most of them children, suggesting instead that the Iranians were to blame and that their munitions are “very inaccurate.”

  • At least two people were killed in a strike on the Ramada Hotel in central Beirut, Reuters reported Sunday, citing a security source. Lebanese media outlets blamed Israel for the attack.

Follow our live coverage for continuous updates. You can also read our previous updates here.

https://www.rt.com/news/633831-us-israeli-war-on-iran-live-updates/

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI6cJ7Csdug

fear godot....

 

Graham’s Quest for War

The Wall Street Journal discusses Lindsey Graham’s Quest to Sell Trump on Striking Iran

As Lindsey Graham tried to sell Donald Trump on bombing Iran, he liked to play a little word-association game with the president.

“I say Franklin Roosevelt, what do you say?” the Republican senator from South Carolina asked. The correct answer: “You have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

As he ticked through memorable presidential phrases, Graham asked Trump what his phrase would be. Trump said he didn’t know, Graham recalled. “Keep protesting, help is on the way,” Graham suggested, referring to Trump’s social-media post in January urging Iranians to confront their government.

Some Democrats and even Republicans point the finger at Graham, who they think goaded Trump into a Middle East conflict with little plan for how the situation will play out long term.

“Lindsey hasn’t seen a fist fight he hasn’t wanted to turn into a bombing raid,” said Rep. Tim Burchett (R., Tenn.). Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) said there should be a law passed on how often Graham goes to the White House or golfs with Trump. Graham’s effort to pull MAGA toward regime change was “the quintessential political maneuvering beyond all political maneuvering,” Paul said.

Sitting in his Senate office this week with canisters of Planters peanuts and hundreds of scattered papers on his desk and signed MAGA hats on his shelves, Graham was almost giddy about persuading Trump to bomb Iran. One of the newer hats reads “Make Iran Great Again.” “What are they going to do to me?” he said of critics who opposed his efforts.

The senator said he was already talking with Trump about further military interventions in Lebanon and potentially Cuba, which he said would happen soon. He wasn’t particularly concerned about what was next in Iran, he said.

“They say if you break it, you own it. I don’t buy that. You break it when it’s a threat,” Graham said in the Journal interview.

In the White House, some military advisers warned Trump against the conflict, a group that Graham referred to as the “non-entanglement crowd.” Graham said betting on Trump’s second term was worth it for the president’s military interventions alone.

To help make the case on Iran, Graham traveled several times to Israel in recent weeks, meeting with members of the country’s intelligence agency. “They’ll tell me things our own government won’t tell me,” he said. He spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, coaching him on how to lobby the president for action. Netanyahu showed the president intelligence that persuaded Trump to go ahead, Graham said.

Graham also talked to the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, to make sure he was aware. “I went to MBS to say, ‘OK, I think this is going down.’ ”

Graham’s long game

Graham has long wanted regime change in Iran but has never had a president willing to go as far as Trump. In 2015, Trump famously read Graham’s cellphone number on stage, after Graham called him a jackass. Graham sharply criticized Trump over the riot by Trump’s supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol. Trump has remarked to aides about how much Graham gets booed at the president’s rallies in South Carolina, and Graham has occasionally annoyed Trump with his persistence, White House officials say.

Graham came back to Trump, in part because he wanted to shape his foreign-policy thinking against isolationist figures in MAGA. Going back to Trump before others did after Jan. 6, he said, gave him more leverage on foreign policy.

He reminded Trump about ripping up Obama’s Iran nuclear deal. This was Trump’s moment to make history, Graham argued to the president. Graham said he first brought up Iran to Trump during the presidential transition, over a round of golf, telling him Iran would always be an impediment to normalizing relationships in the region. 

After the U.S. strikes on Iran in June, Graham said the president was “sky high.” Iran would continue to build more missiles and nuclear material, Graham told him.

Lebanon next

Many inside the president’s orbit have worried about what’s next for the U.S. in Iran, and Trump has articulated different visions for the country. They worry about how to find an off-ramp. Graham said he wasn’t concerned about that.

Graham is also dismissive of those who fear that a war will depress Trump’s followers ahead of the midterm elections, and he said MAGA ultimately would be supportive of the efforts.

Many inside the president’s orbit have worried about what’s next for the U.S. in Iran, and Trump has articulated different visions for the country. They worry about how to find an off-ramp. Graham said he wasn’t concerned about that.

Graham is also dismissive of those who fear that a war will depress Trump’s followers ahead of the midterm elections, and he said MAGA ultimately would be supportive of the efforts.

Instead, when Trump called Graham this week to praise his television appearances supportive of the war, Graham saw an opportunity. The senator said he pitched Trump on bombing Iranian and Hezbollah elements in Lebanon. “Operation Semper Fi,” he called it, in honor of the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American personnel, arguing that Trump could go even further than former President Ronald Reagan.

Trump said he would think about it, Graham recalled. “I just think he has seen the capability of our military,” Graham said. 

“What I don’t understand is why more people don’t do it,” Graham said. “Try to shape these events. This is a moment of world history here. Just jump in the deep end of the pool.” 

The Graham War Scorecard

Graham wanted war in Iran (he got it), more US involvement in Ukraine (fortunately never happened), and Venezuela (he got it).

Graham now promotes war with Lebanon and Cuba.

I propose we put this neocon warmonger on a horse to lead the charge.

 

https://mishtalk.com/economics/how-senator-lindsey-graham-helped-convince-trump-to-start-war-with-iran/

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID PEACEFUL ATHEIST....

 

ARTIFINTEL....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPyE2xt8F8U

U.S. Military Is HEAVILY Reliant On AI To Conduct Iran War

 

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.