Upcoming Trump attack on Iran likely to kill thousands of Americans and Israelis

 Upcoming Trump attack on Iran likely to kill thousands of Americans and Israelis

 

In word and deed President Trump appears on the cusp of attacking Iran to decapitate its regime and destabilize the entire country of 93 million.

 

Trump threatens war and moves massive military might into the region near Iran. Trump did the same thing to Venezuela last September. On January 3, he pulled the trigger, attacking Venezuela, killing a hundred Venezuelans and kidnapping its president to stand trial in the US.  

 

The criminal Venezuelan campaign would be small potatoes should Trump pull the trigger to utterly destroy the Iranian regime, consigning Iran to failed state status.

 

The US and Israel tried and failed to do that during the June Twelve Day War. Trump suckered Iran into complacency by scheduling negotiations, allowing Israel to launch a sneak attack June 13. Tho suffering massive destruction, Iran struck back, firing over 1,500 missiles and drones into Israel. It caused enough damage and chaos that Israel begged Trump to negotiate a ceasefire.

 

Israel and the US tried again last December by using provocateurs to support domestic Iranian government protests. Trump threatened military intervention based on protecting the protesters from death. But when Iran crushed the protests Trump backed down once again.

 

This time it appears Trump may go for broke with all out war. Big mistake. Iran understands, ‘Fool me once shame on Iran.’ This time they’re ready with tens of thousands of missiles and drones widely dispersed and impossible to neutralize.

 

Iran realizes America and Israel’s existential threat to Iran cannot be negotiated away. Any attack will likely inflict thousands of casualties in Israel and to US forces in the region. The US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln may end up in Davy Jones Locker. Iran could shut down the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices into the stratosphere and US economy into the dumpster.

 

War with Iran has nothing to do with America’s national security interests. It has to do with Israel’s determination to destroy its last hegemonic rival in the Middle East. For America, it has to do with acquiescing in whatever madness Israel demands of both parties under near total control by the Israeli government and its American lobby.

 

Even in his degraded mental state, Trump may comprehend the catastrophe he’s contemplating unleashing and stand down. But it’s tough to pull back when you rattle sabers and put an armada on your imagined enemy’s doorstep.

 

While spending a trillion dollars on war this year, Trump might set aside a few bucks for body bags. He may need thousands of them.

 

No wonder the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock to 87 seconds to Midnight, the closest to world annihilation in its 79 years. In Trump’s America the Clock only moves forward, never backward.  

Walt Zlotow  West Suburban Peace Coalition  Glen Ellyn IL 

Doomsday Clock setting feels more like 8 or 7 seconds to midnight than 87 seconds

  

Doomsday Clock setting feels more like 8 or 7 seconds to midnight than 87 seconds

 

Lived all but the first 4 months of my 81 years under the threat of nuclear annihilation. So every January, I take seriously the annual Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock announcement of our countdown to global catastrophe.

 

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and University of Chicago atomic bomb scientists. They created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 to dramatize peoplekind’s threats to existence. Originally focused on nuclear annihilation, the Clock’s setting now includes climate crisis, biological threats, and disruptive AI technologies.

 

Tuesday’s announcement was disturbing. The Bulletin moved the Clock at 87 seconds to midnight, the closest it’s been in its 79 year countdown. Tho just two seconds closer than its previous worst of 89 seconds last year, the Bulletin sees nary of sign of progress in halting the proliferation of nuclear weapons, unstoppable wars, hostel military entanglements and refusal to address the escalating climate crisis.

 

The return of President Trump casts gloom over reducing nuclear tensions. In his first term he exited both the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) and the Open Skies Treaty with Russia. He also failed to renew the New Start Treaty which thankfully was extended for 5 years by successor Biden within 2 weeks of taking office. Set to expire again in 7 days, Trump’s refusal to renew it marks the end of all US Russian nuclear agreements. It will quickly accelerate US and Russian development of their nuclear arsenals limited under New Start.

 

Trump has bombed 7 countries this past year, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen. His bombing of Iran’s imagined nuclear program could have triggered a massive Middle East war with the potential of going nuclear. It also likely increases Iran's perceived need to go nuclear. 

 

 Daniel Holz, chair of the group’s science and security board give this stark assessment. “Hard-won global understandings are collapsing, accelerating a winner take all great power competition undermining international cooperation needed to reduce existential risks. If the world splinters into an us v. them, zero-sum approach, it increases the likelihood we all lose,”

 

The furthest from midnight the Doomsday Clock ticked was 17 minutes (1,020 seconds) in 1991 when the US and Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). Followed by the demise of the Soviet Union, further progress on nuclear disarmament should have a snap. Instead, the US foreign policy elite snapped, ramping up a new Cold War against a weakened Russia. This culminated in the 2022 US proxy war on Russia destroying Ukraine, putting the world at risk of it going nuclear every day it continues.

 

No wonder the current 87 seconds, for those of us seeking an end to the specter of nuclear annihilation, feels more like 8 or 7 seconds to midnight.

 

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL

Floyd George murder investigation should be template for Minnesota ICE killings investigation

 George Floyd murder investigation should be template for Minnesota ICE killings investigation

On May 25, 2020, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd in the process of arresting him. Three other officers under Chauvin’s direction either assisted in the murder or did nothing to prevent it.

Were the officers exonerated on the spot by their superiors who then told vicious lies about the now dead Floyd to support their exoneration? No. They were immediately suspended. After a thorough, impartial investigation, the 4 were charged with a variety of crimes related to the murder. Leader Chauvin pled guilty and received a 20 year sentence. Officers Tou Thao, Ale Kueng and Tom Lane received sentences of 42 months, 36 months and 30 months respectively. The George family received a civil settlement of $27 million.

Contrast that to the abomination of justice following the apparent senseless deaths of Renee Good on January 7 and Alex Pretti 17 days later in the same city of Minneapolis. They were killed by ICE agents sent into Minneapolis to essentially inflame the immigration issue politically exploited by President Trump and his immigration underlings.

Seeking justice for the victims, like Minneapolis did for George Floyd, was anathema to Trump. So he personally, and thru his immigration officials, slandered the victims as domestic terrorists bent on killing ICE officers. In their view Wood and Pretty were solely responsible for their deaths. The ICE officers in both killings were exonerated on the spot. They are still employed with ICE and likely still on duty, tho the Pretty officers have been moved out of Minneapolis ‘for their own safety.’

When a Chicago police officer fires their gun, the officer is immediately suspended pending a thorough investigation to determine if the firing and any ensuing force used was necessary to prevent imminent death or serious injury. That is representative of law enforcement procedure nationwide at the state and local level.

Only at the federal level does law enforcement disintegrate into a travesty of justice for citizens killed by federal law officers. Knowing Trump has quashed any federal investigation, Minnesota justice officials seek a local investigation of the killings as fair and thorough as that when Floyd George was murdered.

Renee Good and Alex Pretti deserve nothing less.

Walt Zlotow West Suburban Peace Coalition Glen Ellyn IL

Trump’s October 10 ceasefire, Board of Peace, simply continues Israeli Palestinian genocide in slow motion

 Trump’s October 10 ceasefire, Board of Peace, simply continues Israeli Palestinian genocide in slow motion

That was some ceasefire Trump negotiated with Israel October 10. Since then Israel has killed nearly 500 Palestinians with bullets and bombs. Many more are likely dead from starvation and disease as Israel lets in less than 170 trucks of food daily instead of the required and promised 600. ‘Ha ha…little nourishment for you starving Palestinians.’

Water, medicine, everything needed to sustain life is restricted to drive out the beleaguered living in makeshift tents. Why tents? Israel, with over 50,000 tons of Biden, Trump bombs, pulverized over 80% of all Gaza buildings, including over 90 % of all housing. Likely over 10,000 Gaza corpses are rotting under the 60 million tons of rubble including over 9 million tons of hazardous material. Ceasefire notwithstanding, Israel has knocked down or damaged over 2,500 post ceasefire buildings.

In order to force Palestinians from Gaza, Israel has reopened the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt. But it’s Israel’s version of a reverse Roach Motel. Palestinians can check out…but they can never check back into their rightful homeland. Every Palestinian that leaves, along with every Palestinian shot, bombed or starved to death, is one less pesky Palestinian to get rid of in absorbing Gaza into Greater Israel.

Israel has exploited the ceasefire to occupy over 50% of Gaza territory, shooting any Palestinian who strays over or close to Israel’s yellow boundary lines.

Astonishingly, the UN Security Council’s November 17 Resolution 2803 (2025) certified Trump’s Board of Peace which effectively makes Trump Gaza’s ruler, totally excluding Palestinian involvement. In doing so it upends over 70 years of UN resolutions and requirements that Palestinians in Gaza have the right to live and govern their homeland free from subjugation; indeed annihilation.

Why did this Security Council resolution pass? Simple, Trump essentially blackmailed Council members that it was either Trump’s ceasefire and Board of Peace, excluding Palestinians, or he would greenlight continuing the horrific 2 year bombing obliteration of Gaza and its citizens till they were all dead and gone. .

Israel, with US support, will never allow a Palestinian state in Gaza the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The horrific daily slaughter may be reduced to a trickle, but it will continue indefinitely till every Palestinian in Gaza is gone.

Trump’s ceasefire and Board of peace has the additional benefit to both Israel and Trump administration of removing the daily ethnic cleansing of Gaza from mainstream media coverage. They have moved on to more dramatic foreign hotspots in Venezuela, Iran and Greenland as well as Trump’s ICE thugs murdering fellow citizens in Minneapolis

Israel and the Trump administration’s slow motion genocide of Palestinians in Gaza should be opposed by all decent, moral nations and persons as fervently as their opposition to the preceding two yearlong all out genocide. Trump’s ceasefire and Board of Peace has simply put lipstick on the pig of Israeli genocide destroying Palestinians in Gaza.