Thomas Sorlie

In recent days, I have had so many people reaching out to me directly about what is happening in Iran that I have determined it is time to start writing again.

**Goes to dust off his Substack account**

Iranian student: ‘Isn’t it ironic that we want war on our own country?’ For many opponents of Iran’s regime, news of the supreme leader’s death at the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran brought elation. But, says a Tehran student who risked his life in protests, there ...

“Without regime change, this will be an unfinished job, a horrifying nightmare,” says the student. And he predicts despair “if there’s a ceasefire and the regime stays, one way or another. ... I know many young people who believe this is the only and last chance.”

@csmonitor.bsky.social

Turkey’s Kurds reject US-Israeli 'designs' in Iran as Netanyahu bets on uprising Israeli PM reportedly wants a Kurdish insurgency in Iran, but the Dem party has called out the war's 'imperialism'

“It is clear that global and regional powers are, as in other historical examples, seeking to establish a new order in Iran that would no longer pose a threat to themselves, rather than prioritizing democracy and freedoms,”

@middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social

US troops were told Iran war 'anointed by Jesus' to bring on Armageddon, watchdog says Military Religious Freedom Foundation said it received widespread complaints about Christian-nationalist US commanders

US commanders from every arm of the military have told their units that the war on Iran is “anointed by Jesus” and would bring about his return to Earth as part of the Armageddon, resulting in scores of complaints from serving members of the military.

@middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social

What could possibly go wrong? 🤔

United States seeking an armed uprising inside Iran, with ground operation expected within days

www.itv.com/news/2026-03...

Somewhere in the Pentagon currently...

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

"Bored of Peace"
There, I fixed it.

Too Big to Fail (film) - Wikipedia

Double-Feature night. 🎥🎬

Dir: Curtis Hanson
DP: Kramer Morgenthau
2011

@moremovies.co.uk
@letterboxd.social

War, no war, war, no war, war, no war!

La Pointe Courte Directed by Agnès Varda • 1955 • France Starring Silvia Monfort, Philippe Noiret The great Agnès Varda’s film career began with this graceful, penetrating study of a marriage on the rocks, set agains...

Tonight's viewing. 🎥🎬

Dir: Agnès Varda
DP: Louis Stein
Paul Soulignac
Louis Soulanes
Bernard Grasberg
Edit: Alain Resnais

@moremovies.co.uk
@letterboxd.social

@criterionchannl.bsky.social
@criterion.bsky.social

"The Battle of the Ayatollahs in Iran: The United States, Foreign Policy, and Political Rivalry since 1979"
by Alex Vatanka

Another excellent insight into the inner machinations of the Iranian regime.

a.co/d/0774P9de

What qualifications does Reza Pahlavi have to lead Iran?

YouTube video by libertylover522 History of Iran, Operation Ajax

History of Iran, Operation Ajax

A brief overview of the history of Iran since the '54 Coup by the CIA that overthrew Iran's only democratically elected leader, and the subsequent outcome of that dangerously strategic blunder.

"All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror" by Stephen Kinzer

An excellent read that provides context for how Iran became a bastion of Islamist revolutionaries. (Hint: regime change by the US in 1954)

a.co/d/0gwWZQBa

"The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran" by Hooman Majd

Insight from the inside of modern-day Iran.

a.co/d/03fpvKXa

“Even within families and within neighborhoods there may be very disparate views” about Khamenei’s killing, especially because it was at the hands of foreign powers, he said.

The U.S.-Israel air war on Iran has not been a regime change operation a la Iraq. Rather, President Donald Trump is calling on the Iranian people to rise up and finish the job. It is not at all clear they have the tools to do so.

How Iran erupted with screams and cheers as news of Khamenei’s killing hit the streets Impromptu celebrations broke out in cities across the country as the supreme leader's death was announced, followed by huge demonstrations of mourning and loyalty

"Some Iranians celebrated their long-time ruler’s demise at the hands of US and Israeli bombing.

Others were overcome with sorrow at the loss of a spiritual leader and national figurehead who had been omnipresent in Iranian lives for 37 years."

@middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social

The myth of the Hamitic race in religious and pseudo-scientific literature: an African perspective In 1845, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass observed that American slaveholders appealed to the biblical claim that ‘God cursed Ham’ as a theological justification for slavery, an argument he rejecte...

African scholars from societies that had adopted Christianity and Islam during the Middle Ages, such as Ethiopia and West Africa, also adopted the historical framework of the peopling of the world by the dispersal of the descendants of Noah after the Flood
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-myth-o...

Thomas Sorlie’s profile Thomas uses Letterboxd to share film reviews and lists. 88 films watched. Favorites: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Trainspotting (1996), Brazil (1985), Red Beard (1965). Bio: Former IATSE 600 focus pu...

For all the fellow film geeks, my @pt.letterboxd.social profile.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: Death of Iran’s leader marks turning point for Islamic Republic U.S. and Israeli airstrikes killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, this weekend. His death closes a nearly four-decade chapter in Iran marked by iron-fist rule and resistance to the U.S...

Mr. Khamenei’s own anti-American animus was shaped by his experience in the 1970s in prisons of the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Shah of Iran. Today his portrait still hangs among hundreds in the downtown prison where he was held, which is today a museum called Ebrat, or “Lesson.”
@csmonitor.bsky.social

the bombings will continue until peace improves

Mapping US and Israeli attacks on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes The US and Israel launched an attack on Iran. Tehran has responded by launching missiles at Israel and Gulf states.

Www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2026/2/28/mapping-us-and-israeli-attacks-on-iran-and-tehrans-retaliatory-strikes

NEW | The United States and Israel have launched a strike campaign into Iran in order to topple the Islamic Republic, among other objectives.

Iran Update Special Report: US and Israeli Strikes, February 28, 2026: isw.pub/IranStrikesBS

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