The Iranian people achieved decisive victory against America’s criminal war on them

The Iranian people achieved decisive victory against America’s criminal war on them

The Chicago Tribune’s editorial ‘There has been no victory yet for the Iranian people’ represents an astonishing betrayal of the urgent need to condemn President’s criminal war on Iran. The Trib’s focus is not on the 42,000 Iranian buildings damaged or destroyed, of which 36,000 were residential homes. The No mention of the school bombed killing over 150 little girls, among over 3,000 dead Iranians Trump murdered in his senseless war. Absent was any mention the US began the war with a heinous war crime, greenlighting Israel’s assassinating Iranian ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Stating the Trib was “relieved” Trump didn’t kill off Iranian civilization as threatened, a genocidal war crime, without the most urgent of condemnations is deplorable.

The Trib states both the US and Iran declaring victory is “hardly surprising.” That certainly applies to Trump’s America which can never admit defeat, but not Iran. They punched back with astonishing effectiveness. Their tens of thousands of well-hidden missiles shot down US planes, sent aircraft carriers scurrying beyond their range, badly damaged US Gulf States bases requiring thousands of US personnel to be relocated to hotels.

Result? Trump cried uncle and entered into a tenuous ceasefire without achieving a single of the shifting war objectives.

Worse yet? The US war failure shut down the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off a fifth of the worldwide oil supply. This has sent the world economy teetering toward recession, if not depression.

Trump’s acceptance of Iran’ s 10 point ceasefire plan as a basis for upcoming negotiations verifies Trump’s catastrophic loss. It requires end to US criminal war with no further attacks on Iran, Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities and defensive missile arsenal. US to leave the Middle East. US to end all sanctions on Iran. US to pay reparations for war damage.

Most disappointing in the Trib’s Iran war editorial is regurgitating Trump’s “three justifiable reasons....for this war” All three are nonsense. Did it occur to the Trib Editorial Board that if those reasons were truly justifiable, the Trib should be encouraging Trump to press on to total victory?

The editorial concludes “that inevitably leads us to an accounting that little has been achieved. A hollow victory at a heavy price.” Indeed, nothing was achieved but senseless death and destruction, the US possibly on the way out of the region, and the world economy in jeopardy from the US handing over the Strait of Hormuz to an emboldened and soon to be prosperous Iran.

Sure sounds like a resounding Iranian victory and US loss to this observer.

Walt Zlotow West Suburban Peace Coalition Glen Ellyn IL

Trump’s vaunted 14 day ceasefire barely lasted 14 hours

 Trump’s vaunted 14 day ceasefire barely lasted 14 hours

Israel, not happy that Trump abandoned their lust to destroy Iran as a hegemonic rival, blew up the two week ceasefire Pakistan negotiated Tuesday.

How? By launching a massive bombing campaign on Beirut Lebanon killing over 200 and injuring over 500. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “The two-week ceasefire does not include Lebanon,” Trump called it “a separate skirmish. Yeah, they were not included in the deal, because of Hezbollah. Veep Vance called Iran’s claim the ceasefire included Israeli attacks on Lebanon "a misunderstanding."

Netanyahu, Trump and Vance all lied as Pakistan’s Prime Minister , Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, who mediated the ceasefire deal, said it includes Lebanon. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, didn’t mince words in blasting US, Israeli perfidy upending the ceasefire “The deep historical distrust we hold toward the United States stems from its repeated violations of all forms of commitments — a pattern that has regrettably been repeated once again,” He noted that President Trump announced the ceasefire by stating Iran’s 10 point proposal “was a good basis for negotiations.” Next day Trump had his press spokesperson Caroline Leveatt proclaim that Trump had the proposal “throne in the garbage.”

As a result Israel’s grisly bombardment on Beirut with Trump’s support and death weapons made a mockery of the ceasefire on Day One. Iran has announced the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed till the ceasefire is truly implemented. The world economy will continue to head downward. Thousands will suffer and die. Vance and the two amateur diplomates Jarad Kushner and Steve Witkoff he’s supervising, may fine empty Iranian chairs at the planed ceasefire negotiations in Pakistan tomorrow.

And the Big Fool in the White House, like the crazed captain demanding his troops continue crossing the impassable Big Muddy, will bellow ‘Push on.’

Trump pivots from "destroying Iranian civilization" to complete surrender in one day

 Trump pivots from "destroying Iranian civilization" to complete surrender in one day

 

Even a mentally degraded Donald Trump had to face reality. The US lost the war intended to destroy Iran as a hegemonic rival to Israel in the region.

 

He cancelled his announced war crimes to “destroy Iranian civilization” and agreed to a two week ceasefire as a prelude for negotiating permanent peace based on Iran’s 10 point peace plan. Note that is not Trump’s 15 point peace plan which would have given Trump complete victory.

 

Here’s some of what Trump’s ceasefire acknowledges.

 

A guarantee that Iran will not be attacked again.

 

A permanent end to the war, not just a ceasefire.

 

An end to Israeli strikes in Lebanon and against Iranian allies.

 

The lifting of all US sanctions on Iran.

 

Iran agreeing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz

 

US to leave the Middle East

 

End to US sanctions on Iran and release of frozen Iranian assets

 

In his delusional state, Trump announced the cease fire due to his astonishing claim his “war has already met and all Military objectives, and we are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning long term PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East.”

 

Iran announced the ceasefire “does not signify the termination of the war. Our hands remain upon the trigger, and should the slightest error be committed by the enemy, it shall be met with full force,”

 

Major hurtles must be overcome before the ceasefire holds and genuine peace can be negotiated. Israel is horrified by this development upending their 4 decade lust to destroy its Iranian hegemonic rival. It’s reported they are still bombing Iran and Iran is retaliating. No keen observer is optimistic the ceasefire will hold.

 

But it is not likely the US, clearly defeated in every make up war aim they floated to justify criminal war that killed thousands, damaged every US base in the region, brought the worst damage to Israel in its 78 years, and is crushing the world economy, can ever restart this deranged madness.

 

But with Trump in charge…you can never say never.

Walt Zlotow  West Suburban Peace Coalition  Glen Ellyn IL 

Former presidents must call for end to Trump’ criminal Iran war destabilizing the world…but won’t

Former presidents must call for end to Trump’ criminal Iran war destabilizing the world…but won’t

Former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, like all ex-presidents, tend to refrain from criticizing the current White House occupant. They view themselves as members of the most exclusive American club so are loathe to excoriate their next member joining them upon leaving office. Criticizing the current president is generally political in nature, best left to those still battling in the political arena.

 

But these are no ordinary times. Current President Trump has embarked on a catastrophic war on Iran that besides needlessly killing thousands, is destabilizing the world economy. Iran wins by not losing. The US loses by not winning.

 

All US bases in the region have suffered damage, forcing thousands of US military personnel to evacuate. Israel is being bombed relentlessly by Iran and its allies Hezbollah and the Houthis from Lebanon and Yemen respectively. Not only has Iran choked off a fifth of the world’s oil supply by closing the Strait of Hormuz, they are destroying Gulf States oil production facilities.

 

Iran, Israel, the Gulf States, even the US and the rest of the world may be facing an existential crisis brought on by morally and mentally degraded Trump.

 

Instead of acknowledging his monstrous crimes against Iran and cease hostilities, Trump is double, triple, quadrupling down, threatening Stone Age destruction of Iran with war crimes against civilian infrastructure. He’s clearly become unhinged facing likely the worst self-imposed military disaster in US history, one with calamitous worldwide aftereffects.

 

We need Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden to jump into the national debate. They must call out Trump’s criminal war destabilizing the world economy in strongest words possible. They should request the International Criminal Court indict Trump for war crimes and issue a warrant for his arrest.

 

But instead of lending their status as former presidents to aid the desperate effort to end hostilities, the Former 4 are silent. And it’s not just their collegiality as former presidents preventing their speaking out. All four adhere to American Exceptualism which demands that US wars of choice are never wrong and never to be lost. All four promulgated US world dominance costing hundreds of thousands of lives having nothing whatsoever to do with US national security interests.

 

Clinton bombed Iraq after his cruel economic sanctions killed hundreds of thousands. When asked by CBS News if the half million Iraqi killed by Clinton’s sanctions were worth it, his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said "I think that is a very hard choice, but the price we think is worth it." Clinton bombed Serbia for 78 days, killing 2,000 to create a fractured Balkans still unsettled three decades later.

 

George W. Bush launched two criminal wars that killed over half a million Iraqis and Afghans along with 7,000 Americans. Both countries remain largely failed states a quarter century on. While the Afghan Taliban booted US troops out in 2021, we’re still defiling Iraq with US troops subject to attack by Iraqis trying to replicate the Taliban’s success.

 

Barack Obama may have succeeded Bush s president, but he couldn’t succeed in removing all US troops from those two sorrowful countries or stopping US servicepersons from being killed there. Inexplicably and senselessly, Obama jumped into the Libyan civil war to oust hated strongman Muammar Ghaddafi. Result? Over 30,000 Libyans dead and another failed state thanks to US meddling. His Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gloated regarding Ghaddafi “We came, was saw, he died.” Grotesque.

 

Joe Biden was the first US president to preside over genocide. He enabled Israel’s near complete destruction of Gaza with tens of billions in genocide weapons that killed over 70,000 while destroying nearly every school, hospital and home for the remaining 2,200,000 Palestinians now living in tents and still be slaughtered by Israeli invaders.

 

Biden also provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine by supporting Ukraine’s war killing thousands of Russian leaning Ukrainians in Ukraine Donbas. He totally dismissed Russia’s security concerns regarding NATO membership for Ukraine that could place NATO nukes on Russia’s borders. Biden knew Russia would invade but lusted to see Russia destroy itself in the process. By following Biden’s astonishing stupidity it was Ukraine that is destroying itself with over a million casualties, a shattered economy and loss forever of a fifth of its most productive territory.

 

No wonder the Former 4 remain silent as Trump rains down death and destruction thruout the Middle East and possibly blows up the world economy. To Clinton, Bush, Obama and Biden, Trump is just following their blood soaked US presidential tradition.

Walt Zlotow  West Suburban Peace Coalition  Glen Ellyn IL