A Watershed Moment? | John Mearsheimer and Sir Max Hastings

Apr 24 2026 | Historians reserve the term “watershed” for those rare moments when events do not merely shock the established order but upend it. Think of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which hastened the end of the Cold War and ushered in an era of American unipolarity. Or the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US, which ignited the global war on terror and culminated in the long, costly entanglements of the so-called forever wars.

In each case, those living through the moment could sense they were witnessing events whose consequences would extend far beyond the immediate crisis. The question now is whether the Iran war belongs in that category. On the world stage, many allies and partners increasingly worry that the United States as a friend is shrinking with extraordinary rapidity. If this is true, what does this mean for international affairs after the Iran war?

Guests are Sir Max Hastings, the British military historian, columnist and former newspaper editor, and John Mearsheimer, professor of political science from the University of Chicago.


To put it succinctly, Trump is a chump who is also off his chump! — © Mark Alexander

Hungary's Magyar Says He Would Carry Out ICC Warrant against Netanyahu

Péter Magyar enlarges on Hungary’s position.

The War Just Took a Dark Turn — Hormuz Is Not Stable | Prof Jeffrey Sachs

April 18, 2026

Bernie Sanders - Senate Showdown: Should the US Keep Funding Israel’s War?

Apr 17, 2026 | Bernie Sanders address two Senate votes that could determine whether the United States continues funding Israel’s military campaign under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. After the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, which killed over 1,200 Israelis and took hostages, Israel had the right to respond. But that response, critics argue, has violated international law. In Gaza, more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed and much of the territory destroyed, including homes, schools, hospitals, and infrastructure. Severe blockades have caused widespread hunger. Violence has also escalated in the West Bank, where over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since then.

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Michael Lambert: Trump's Puppet Master Exposed: The Netanyahu Iran War Plan

April 11, 2026

Netanyahu's wet dream: the destruction of Iran! — © Mark Alexander

War by Idiots — and We Pay the Price | Prof Jeffrey Sachs

April 1, 2026

‘Iran Won’t Lose War’: Jeffrey Sachs Predicts ‘Doom’ for Israel, US | Exposes Trump-Bibi Plot

Mar 31, 2026 | In this explosive interview, economist Jeffrey Sachs delivers a stark warning on the escalating Iran war, claiming we could be “days or weeks away” from a collapse of the global energy supply.

Calling Donald Trump a 'fool', Sachs argues that Iran is not going to surrender as Trump imagines, calling the conflict a major strategic miscalculation by the United States and Benjamin Netanyahu. He also frames the war as part of a larger geopolitical power struggle, with the US seeking dominance over the Gulf and Iran resisting falling in line, unlike other regional players.

Perhaps most crucially, Sachs says only major global powers like India, Russia, and China can step in to de-escalate the situation before the crisis spirals further.

The International Criminal Court Is about to Arrest Netanyahu for War Crimes | Jeffrey Sachs

March 27, 2026

Why Trump's War Has Made Iran More Dangerous - Interview with Danny Citrinowicz

Mar 26, 2026 | What did Trump and Israel get wrong in their war with Iran, and can the remaining elements of the regime hold out?

We speak to Danny Citrinowicz, the former head of the Iran branch in the Research and Analysis Division in Israel Defense Intelligence and now Senior Researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies.

Citrinowicz says one of Trump's "biggest mistakes" was assuming the regime would fall as soon as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed - when in fact it has left an even more emboldened and radicalised regime in his place.

He says what's left is a series of "bad options" for the US president and Israel.

Why Israel Wants a War with Iran (w/ Gideon Levy) | Chris Hedges Report

Mar 28, 2026 | Gideon Levy believes Israel’s rampant militarism has infected the minds of its entire population. Without an impossible reversal, the Jewish state's destructive warpath will rage on.

Netanyahu Panicked and Fled, Abandoning the People | Douglas Macgregor

March 24, 2026

Iran Warns…

…Trump and Netanyahu in no uncertain terms!

How Trump's Plan to End the Iran War Differs from Netanyahu | Richard Spencer

Mar 20, 2026 | “Even if Trump did voluntarily and wholeheartedly go into this war, they might have different visions of how to end it, and that’s becoming an important point.”

Amid growing signs the US and Israel are not aligned on their aims for the Iran war, The Times’s Richard Spencer lays out the “two very different ways” Trump and Netanyahu are campaigning to proceed with in the conflict.

Netanyahu Hopes Strikes on Iran Will Lead to Uprising and Regime Change

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Israeli attacks have targeted the command centers of Iran’s repressive, internal security forces in hopes that Iranians will overthrow their rulers. Some see that as wishful thinking.

Israeli attacks on Iran have been targeting the country’s internal security services as part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy to destabilize the authoritarian government and create the conditions for a popular uprising.

Israel has already killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and announced on Tuesday that it killed the country’s top security official, Ali Larijani. Beyond that, the Israeli military has been heavily bombing the security forces that have quashed wave after wave of anti-government protests in Iran.

Some former Israeli military officials dismissed Mr. Netanyahu’s strategy as unrealistic, arguing that Iran’s internal security services are too deeply entrenched and powerful. Other experts, however, argue that Israel should try to bring about a change in leadership, while acknowledging that airstrikes alone will not be enough without a popular uprising.

Mr. Netanyahu has said that Israel’s air campaign has delivered “crushing blows” to Iran’s security apparatus and will create “optimal” conditions for Iranians to oust their government.

“I’m telling the Iranian people,” Mr. Netanyahu said at a news conference last week. “The moment you can come out for freedom is getting closer. We are standing beside you and helping you. But at the end of the day, it’s up to you.” » | Adam Rasgon, Ronen Bergman and David M. Halbfinger | Adam Rasgon and David M. Halbfinger reported from Jerusalem and Ronen Bergman reported from Tel Aviv. | Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Yanis Varoufakis: Iran War Collapses US Neoliberal Economy

Mar 14, 2026 | Yanis Varoufakis is an economist, the former Finance Minister of Greece, and the author of numerous bestselling books. Yanis Varoufakis discusses the historical mistake of attacking Iran (again).

A War for One Man

Screenshot of Benjamin Netanyahu taken from this guest essay. | Jim Watson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
THE NEW YORK TIMES — OPINION: Benjamin Netanyahu has spent much of his political life trying to make war with Iran seem not only inevitable but overdue. Thus, for the Israeli prime minister, the latest conflict was a victory the moment it began. Not because every consequence is good for Israel, but because he can sell almost every conceivable result as proof that he was right all along: that Iran had to be confronted, that force was unavoidable and that delay would only have made the threat more treacherous.

Mr. Netanyahu does not need a clean victory — he just needs a durable narrative. This is not just about distracting Israeli voters when they head to the polls this year. This is also about cementing an Israeli national security doctrine that always trumps diplomacy. He needs Israelis talking about Tehran rather than Oct. 7, about existential enemies rather than political accountability or the unresolved disaster in Gaza — where, after nearly two and a half years of indiscriminate destruction, Hamas still remains — or the crisis in Lebanon, where the renewed conflict with Hezbollah shows no signs of waning.

A war with Iran does not erase those failures, but it does slide them into the background. It also moves the political conversation back onto emotional and political terrain where Mr. Netanyahu has always felt strongest: using fear with the claim that only he truly grasps the scale of the threat to Israel from Iran, and the (empty) promise that he can remove it through force.

For all these reasons, any day-after scenario is a win for Mr. Netanyahu. If Iran capitulates under military pressure, he can say that force succeeded where diplomacy failed. If Iran refuses but emerges militarily weaker, he can say that Israel bought time by degrading the country’s nuclear and missile capabilities. If the Iranian government survives but is bloodied, isolated and more consumed by internal tensions, he can claim that he has neutered an implacable foe. A prolonged period of chaos and bloodshed in Iran could be cast in Jerusalem not as a tragedy that might have been prevented but as a problem to be managed from afar. Even a hardened Iranian regime can work into the narrative that the country must continue to be confronted. » | A New York Times GUEST ESSAY by Mairav Zonszein | Ms. Zonszein is a contributing writer at Opinion. | Friday, March 13, 2026

Economist Jeffrey Sachs: US-Israeli "War of Choice," Assault on UN Charter Could Lead to WWIII

Mar 14, 2026 | The global economy has been rocked by the war in the Middle East, with Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz threatening energy flows and sending the price of oil soaring to its highest level in years. The United Nations Security Council responded to the unprovoked US-Israeli war by passing a resolution this week condemning Iran — specifically for its attacks on US allies in the region — while ignoring the role of the Trump administration and the Netanyahu government in instigating the bloodshed. Economist Jeffrey Sachs joins Democracy Now! to discuss the fallout of the "war of choice" and why it also constitutes an assault on the United Nations.

"This is so out of control, without any logic, any rationality, not any humane, moral, legal justification whatsoever," says Sachs. "It will lead to world war the way we're going, because we have two malignant narcissists, Netanyahu and Trump, that are leading us to disaster."


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“Trump Is the Useful Idiot.”

Chris Hedges explains.

Chris Hedges on the U.S.–Israel War on Iran: “Iranians Will Decide the Outcome”

Mar 12, 2026 | Interview with Chris Hedges on the U.S.–Israeli attack on Iran and the widening Middle East war.

This War Could Destroy the US | Col Douglas Macgregor

March 11, 2026