Iran War?

[Norgy]

Lula is on his first new term, actually. 

[Duque de Bragança]

Lula is on his first new term, actually. 

Third, including those of 2003-2011, but you understood perfectly what I said.
Enjoy your Global South Lava-Jato (Car wash) corrupt pro-Putin selective anti-imperialist while you can, he is paving the way for more Bolsonaro and the like.

P-S: added a translation.

[Sophie Scholl]

Something to consider: If NATO doesn't back Trump, then that gives him justification for taking Greenland and ending the freeloading organization once and for all. Sane? Absolutely not. Reasonable? Nope. Trumpian? 100%

[Jacob]

Something to consider: If NATO doesn't back Trump, then that gives him justification for taking Greenland and ending the freeloading organization once and for all. Sane? Absolutely not. Reasonable? Nope. Trumpian? 100%

I don't think "don't upset our NATO friends because they won't support us in the future" was why he backed down on Greenland.

And NATO is dying already, it's just a matter of when it actually passes now.

[Jacob]

It looks like the Iran war is going to significantly impact South Koreas semi-conductor industry.

The Iran War Is Also Now a Semiconductor Problem
The conflict is exposing the deep energy vulnerabilities of Korea's chip industry.

The Iran conflict has triggered dramatic economic effects across the globe, but despite its location far away from the warzone, South Korea has felt outsized shocks. The country's stock market plunged 18 percent in just four trading days—the worst drop since the 2008 financial crisis—and wiped out more than $500 billion in market value as the energy security disruption has cascaded through Korea's semiconductor-heavy stock market.

But the market panic was only the surface symptom, exposing a deeper structural weakness in Korea's economy. South Korea suffers from a persistent energy vulnerability, and geopolitical shocks can quickly translate into acute economic pain. When these shocks threaten the conditions that allow major industries—particularly Korea's booming semiconductor trade—to operate smoothly, the entire economy feels it immediately.

In other words, the Iran war and closure of Hormuz did not create this problem. Instead, it revealed how a decades‑old dependence has become far more dangerous for an energy-poor economy.

Full article here: https://carnegieendowment.org/emissary/2026/03/iran-korea-semiconductor-chips-energy-oil-hormuz

[Syt]

https://apnews.com/article/trump-iran-war-former-president-confession-37d8ffa692903d41c47a85245244d971

Trump says a former president had an Iran confession. Aides to his predecessors deny recent contact

WASHINGTON (AP) — Twice on Monday, President Donald Trump said he'd wrangled a confession of sorts from an Oval Office predecessor who he said had expressed regret in a private conversation about not attacking Iran the way Trump has been doing for more than two weeks.

But there's just a little problem: Representatives for the four living former presidents — three Democrats and one Republican — said none have been in touch with Trump recently.

Trump declined to name the former president when reporters asked who it was, saying he didn't want to "embarrass him."

The Republican president first told the story during extended remarks about the Iran war as he opened a meeting of the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center. Trump is chairman of the board and held the meeting at the White House.

He repeated that Iran had been a threat to the United States for decades but said he is the only president who had the courage to do something about it.

"Look, for 47 years, no president was willing to do what I'm doing, and they should have done it a long time ago," he said. "It would have been a lot easier. There's no president that wanted to do it.

"And yet every president knew. I've spoken to a certain president, who I like, actually, a past president, a former president. He said, 'I wish I did it, I wish I did,' but they didn't do it. I'm doing it," Trump continued.

Asked which former president he'd spoken to, Trump said: "I can't tell you that. I don't want to embarrass him. It would be very bad for his career, even though he's got no career."


Representatives for each of former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden said they had not spoken with Trump recently. The individuals spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the former presidents' private conversations.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment after being informed that none of the former presidents said he had spoken with Trump recently.

Trump and all four past presidents were last together in the same space for his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025 — well before the war.

He has been extremely critical of Biden and Obama, often saying Biden is the "worst president in the history of our country" and accusing Obama of negotiating a "horrible deal" with Iran over its nuclear weapons. Trump withdrew the U.S. from that agreement the first time he was president.

But the Republican recently offered sympathetic comments about Clinton, saying it "bothers" him that the former president had been called to give a deposition to Congress about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"I liked Bill Clinton. I still like Bill Clinton," Trump said in a Feb. 4 interview with NBC News. "I liked his behavior toward me. I thought he got me, he understood me."

Trump repeated his story about discussing Iran with a former president later Monday in the Oval Office, where he announced that Vice President JD Vance will lead a task force that was created to eliminate fraud in federal benefit programs.

"Was it George W. Bush?" a reporter asked.

"No," Trump said.

"Was it Bill Clinton?" the reporter asked.

Trump said: "I don't want to say. I don't want to say," then added that "it's somebody that happens to like me. And I like that person, who's a smart person. But that person said, 'I wish I did it,' OK, but I don't want to get into who, OK. I don't want to get them into trouble."

[Norgy]

Must've been Carter, then. Uhm. No. He was an actual president of peace.

[jimmy olsen]

I could imagine Cheney possibly regretting this. But even that's a stretch

[Solmyr]

Nah, it was the 45th President.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Nah, it was the 45th President.

yeah, can only be that one

[Richard Hakluyt]

He was a great guy, the second best president 

[crazy canuck]

Got to hand it to the Trumpists. It was nearly impossible to make the Mullahs the good guys, but somehow they pulled it off

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DV1f1SPDMsF/?igsh=cGozd3Z4dW1ib3Vv

[Syt]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg4g66r3z40o

Top US counterterrorism official resigns over Iran war, urging Trump to 'reverse course'

The Trump administration's top official on counterterrorism has resigned from his position, citing opposition to the war in Iran, and urged the president to "reverse course".

In a letter posted on Tuesday to his X account, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent said that Iran posed "no imminent threat" to the US and claimed that the Trump administration "started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby".

Kent, 45, is a US special forces and CIA veteran whose wife, navy cryptologic technician Shannon Kent, was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria in 2019.

The BBC has contacted the White House for comment on Kent's resignation.

With his departure, Kent becomes the most high-profile figure from within the Trump administration to publicly criticise the US-Israeli operation in Iran.

In the letter, Kent said that had previously supported Trump's foreign policy platform and until last year believed that he had "had understood that the wars in the Middle East that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation."

Additionally, Kent alleged that "high-ranking Israeli officials" and influential US journalists had sowed "misinformation" that caused Trump to undermine his "America First" platform.

"This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States," the letter continued. "This was a lie."

Kent, a long-time supporter of Trump's who unsuccessfully ran for Congress twice, was nominated by the president early in his administration and narrowly confirmed to his post in, with many Democrats criticising his links to extremist groups including members of the Proud Boys.

In the confirmation hearing, Kent also refused to back away from claims that federal agents had fomented the January 6 riots at the US Capitol or that Trump had won the 2020 election.

At the National Counterterrorism Center, he reported to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and oversaw the analysis and detection of potential terrorist threats from around the globe.

Previously, Kent had deployed 11 times overseas with the US military, including with the US Army's special forces in Iraq.

He later became a paramilitary officer at the CIA, before leaving government service after his wife's death.

Kent cited his military service and her death in his letter, saying that he "cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives."

There have been a number of resignations among senior officials in the Trump administration, including Security and Exchange Commission enforcement director Margaret Ryan and Kennedy Center President Ric Grenell.

The president's second term, however, has seen far less turnover than his previous tenure at the White House between 2017 and 2021.

[crazy canuck]

I am not so sure that a known conspiracy theorist is a reliable source for an explanation of why the US started this war.

Especially when the explanation does not include the words "Epstein Files".

[Duque de Bragança]

Trump no longer needs NATO support, or so he says:

Trump says Nato allies making 'foolish mistake'
published at 17:07
17:07
US President Donald Trump speaks during his meeting with Taoiseach of Ireland Micheal Martin in the Oval Office
IMAGE SOURCE, EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
Trump responds to a question about getting America's allies to help with escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
"Well we don't need any help," Trump begins, saying Nato allies had been in favour of what the US did - saying it was very important that they take out the nuclear threat from Iran.
The US has done that "very strongly", he says, adding that they have wiped out Iran's military, navy and air force.
On Nato - Trump says they are making "a foolish mistake".
"We don't need them but they should've been there."
Asked a follow up question on Macron's comments that France won't join a taskforce in Hormuz until the hostilities finish, Trump says he will be out of office soon.

Foolish mistake? Takes one to know, I guess.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cx2lr40g17kt

Technically true about Macron if soon = medium term as in next year, but siding with Trump vs Iran is political suicide, across all the French political spectrum.