On the morning after the night before, nothing has changed. JD Vance emerged from a heavy night out empty-handed as the warring parties left Islamabad to return to their respective corners. Vance stood at the podium in his press conference, flanked by Lauel and Hardy (Kushner and Witkoff) :
“We’ve made very clear what our red lines are, what things we’re willing to accommodate them on, and what things we’re not willing to accommodate them on,”
He concluded:
“They have chosen not to accept our terms.”
Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Minister declared:
“The heavy loss of our great elders, dear ones, and fellow countrymen has made our response to pursue the Iranian nation’s interests and rights firmer than ever before.”
Nobody lived happily ever after in this tale of a failed foreign policy. To be honest, this whole meeting was just a performative exercise. Another episode in the geopolitical reality TV show aimed at painting Trump as a no-compromise ‘hard man’. The problem he has now is that, while he may have captured the narrative, it’s doing him more harm than good, as his domestic approval ratings show him still digging while resident in the basement.
This morning, Trump chose to roll the dice again and impose a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz. He’s gambling that Iran will blink and not attack vessels in the Strait. That’s a HUGE gamble. The Iranian leadership has nothing to lose except civilian lives, which to them is no problem.
He finds himself cast as the Black Knight in his own adaptation of Monty Python’s Holy Grail. He’s deluding himself into thinking his diminishing options are ‘Just a flesh wound’.
It’s important not to lose sight of the limitations of air power. The claim is always that war is fought with precision weapons; we should not believe our lying eyes when it comes to the disproportionate loss of civilian life. Precision-targeted attacks are a misnomer in urban environments. In Iran and Lebanon, towns and particularly cities are dominated by multistory apartment buildings that house a large percentage of the civilian population. In many cases, these are not constructed to the same rigorous standard as those in the West. If you want a short insight into the consequences of targeting of civilian infrastructure, read the words of Jeannie Sowers, professor of political science and international affairs at the University of New Hampshire.
The argument is often that terrorists hide military facilities in urban civilian locations (the human shield defence). The hypocrisy is breathtaking when you consider where Israel places its own military facilities. Their central military headquarters and Ministry of Defence are surrounded by residential multistory apartments, office buildings, shopping centres, and the Ichilov Hospital. The Mossad Headquarters is located in a densely populated area in northern Tel Aviv, and these are just two of many examples. Is Israel being accused of using civilians as human shields? I think not.
We, the people, are presented with claims of a ‘just and righteous’ war by a Secretary of War who consistently seeks to paint this as a divine-sponsored crusade against the evils of Islam. The public face of this crusade is promoted by what I call ‘The Evil Trinity’, Trump, Hegseth and Leavitt. In turn, they have a supporting cast of sycophants and apologists of their Holy War, a war that is unravelling in spectacular fashion in real time.
We are told, ‘It’s complicated. It really isn’t; we have just become comfortable living in a world of contradiction. I’m drawn to an editorial piece in The Guardian on March 13th 2026, which noted:
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the international condemnation from Europe and elsewhere was loud and clear. Leaders did not expect legal threats to shift Vladimir Putin or end war crimes by his troops. But they understood the importance of naming what had happened as an illegal act of aggression, and of seeking to hold those responsible accountable.
The report goes on:
The contrast between the West’s rhetoric about universal standards and its selective outrage is glaringly and increasingly evident to people around the world.
As someone who goes to extraordinary lengths to understand the big picture when it comes to such important inflexion points in history, it becomes ever more difficult to express what I feel, for fear of appearing radical, because what was once normal is now painted as socialism. We’re now living in a moment when the public narrative is no longer dictated by the facts, but rather a deliberately bastardised reflection, twisted to fit a political fairytale. I wonder if, on January 22, 2017, when Kellyanne Conway coined the phrase ‘alternative facts, she could ever have imagined the Pandora’s box she opened.
From the very outset of this war, I had no hesitation in describing it as illegal. In an outstanding piece by Tamer Morris, Senior Lecturer of International Law, at the University of Sydney. He wrote in The Conversation (one of the many independent news outlets I support each month), a critical conclusion:
The Iran war reveals a dangerous shift in the way states justify their actions: a growing preference for moral storytelling over legal reasoning.
Once the narrative of a “just war” replaces the rule of law, there is little left to restrain the powerful states from dominating the weaker ones.
The purpose of international law is not to determine who is morally good; it is to maintain order in a world where every state believes it is waging the “good” fight.
I really can’t recommend this article highly enough for those in search of the truth. Tamer’s words give me comfort in my belief that ‘interpretation’ has become the archenemy of truth. When I write, I can hand on heart say there is no agenda other than to tell the truth based on the available facts.
The burning question is, when does commentary diverge from fact-based investigative reporting? You will note I did not use the word ‘journalism’, because I have long held the belief, unlike some others, that I have not earned the right to wear that badge. The reason I love to write here is that I can do so without fear or favour. I have long declared, I’m not here to tell you what you want to hear, but rather what I believe you need to hear, in order to encourage critical thinking at a time when such an act has become the enemy of a state-sponsored narrative
Tamer makes some key points that are so important as we go in search of truth amongst the deliberate chaos aimed to distract and misdirect. He is absolutely correct when he states:
Legal experts have said the attacks violated Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which prohibits the use of force against states. The US and Israel have not produced any evidence that Iran posed an imminent threat to either of them. And neither has brought the matter to the UN Security Council. As such, this was a clear breach of international law.
But even though most scholars agree the strikes were unlawful, the public and political debate has shifted somewhere else entirely.
The tragedy is that if gas prices were not above $4 and diesel above $5. If jet fuel prices had not doubled, and inflation not shot up to 3.3%, America and Israel could kill whom they like, with just a fraction of the public pushback. I believe it is a sad reflection of where we are.
How do I know? In July 2025, I wrote a three-part series on Gaza at a time when those who spoke out were losing their jobs and facing intense backlash for daring to speak out against Israel. In a little over 24 hours, I lost 2,400 subscribers. If I wrote the same pieces today, I would likely gain subscribers. NOTHING about the facts I wrote of has changed; all that’s changed is the public narrative.
This was the day I knew I was doing important work. I want people to be able to seek refuge in a safe place where truth is the priority; anything else is superfluous. I wear my heart on my sleeve and my values as a badge of honour. People can either be open to thought-provoking analysis or swim in the ocean of those more concerned with keeping you happy than with challenging your thinking.
We’re living in a world of political fantasy that is eating away at the very fabric of our society. The US regime is drowning in debt, with an economy on the brink, and the petro-dollar under ever-increasing pressure. We hear the term inflexion point thrown around like candy at a kid’s party, but in this moment, it’s very real. This new expansionist imperial ambition has become a necessary step to counter the inevitable decline. The bad news is, the bottom 90% are considered acceptable collateral damage in a desperate quest for relevance, profit and self-enrichment, but above all, survival
I hate to say it, but US politics has long been in the grip of moral bankruptcy on BOTH sides of the aisle. It grieves me to say that Republican Lite in the form of the Democratic Party is the only game in town at this point in the proceedings. It’s a sad day when the opposition party that should be driving an agenda of hope and transformative change have simply become the lesser of two evils. The Democratic establishment has no intention of breaking the latch from the nipple of AIPAC and the engorged bosom that is dark money.
Why terms? . You attacked them without provocation and have murdered many innocent people and put our military at risk! Get the ffff out!
Shame on Trump and his treasonous minions!
I wholly agree with your observation that if people were not feeling the effects of this war on their pockets they would be a lot less critical of it and yes this is a telling indictment of how we all worship money to some degree. Even the phrase ‘the American dream’ is simply saying to people go and hoard as much loot as you can. Time for a reset people, stop the hoarding and start doing a lot more sharing.