Dan Nexon

CNN: More than 1,000 civilians killed in Iran since war began, rights group reports By Helen Regan More than 1,000 people, including children, have been killed in Iran since the war began on Saturday, according to US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). The rights group said as of Tuesday afternoon ET, at least 1,097 civilians had been killed, including 181 children. More than 5,400 civilians, including 100 children, have been injured, HRANA reported. The group said its report is preliminary and is veritying hundreds more reported deaths.

At least 1,097 civilians had been killed in Iran so far, including 181 children.

The ADHD presidency would be a lot more amusing if it weren't fascistic and kleptocratic.

A Substack piece, detailing a lot of absolutely correct criticisms of the attack on Iran, entitled "Last Ride of the Neoconservatives?"

Maybe we need to stop using neoconservatives as a synonyms for militarists?*

The fact is that neocons were only one of many factions that promoted the invasion of Iraq. And a lot of people who got called neocons... weren't.

*And while I am confident this is NOT what Emma means, ((militarists))

Different Kurdish groups.

But yes no one should trust Trump.

Witkoff and Kushner Get an F in Diplomacy Inexperienced and overextended, Trump’s envoys have failed on three fronts.

Witkoff and Kushner Get an F in Diplomacy foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/03/w...

There is remarkably little appreciation of this inside he Washington Beltway.

We appear to even be saying -- so far as I can tell -- that US government employees and their dependents in those countries are on their own

Macron opens door to deploying French nuclear forces to European allies The plan is a “major evolution” of France’s deterrence posture, the president said in a long-awaited speech at the Île Longue naval base in Brittany.

In any normal week this would be a huge story. France moves toward extending a nuclear umbrella over European allies-- a major sign of declining credibility of US extended deterrence.
www.defensenews.com/global/europ...

The best time for this speech would have been during her confirmation hearings. The second best time is now.

The wheels are coming off the bus; better late than never.

Since I opposed both O's pre-2014 deportation policies & was, to put it mildly, disappointed by Biden's own record, I am not going to defend them. But if you think those policies are *worse* than the ones usually adopted by center-left governments in other "western" democracies... wow.

Things you might not be aware of:
– Biden functionally ended the war-on-terror drone program;
– Obama's second-term & Biden's trans policies;
– Civil-rights enforcement under both administrations;
– The political context of Obama's pre-2014 deportation policies and how they changed afterwards

Israel’s main goal is to cripple Iran’s military capabilities for years to come. a friendlier regime is a bonus but not necessary for the war to be considered successful.

okay, this *specific* part feels like a parody of the actual iraq war

As a reminder the "Venezuela template" is to keep the regime intact and control the flow of oil.

More here: www.businessinsider.com/trump-energy...

Post claiming Israel is “violating the IAEA treaty”.

Israel is not a signatory to the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and therefore is not violating it. India and Pakistan are also not signatories. They are also not violating it.

Also: if your theory of the war is that Israel is controlling US policy, you may be doing an antisemitism.

As I have been predicting for the last year….

bsky.app/profile/show...

Hanania's degree is actually in International Relations — when he was an anonymous racist posting on message boards and far-right sites, he was also doing bog-standard academic work. So he knows of course that there is no such thing as a theory called "blowback."

a thing that's just behind the text of this piece is that the administration hasn't done *any* of the groundwork to prepare the american public if anything goes badly sideways

Even if Platner doesn't win the nomination, he's basically sucked all of the oxygen away from anyone who could run as genuine progressive or left-of-center "fighter."

The banality of evil.

Absolutely incredible. Weeks of war without any vote in Congress. And the current regime may largely be left in place. This isn't just a war of choice. It's a vanity war. If this is allowed to stand, our country is in real trouble.

Sure, but we know what a left-center coalition looks like in the U.S. — because we've had one for 12 of the last 18 years — and it sure ain't Starmer's Labour.

Iran Does Not Have Nuclear Weapons - Lawyers, Guns & Money It’s time to say it again: It’s highly doubtful that the Iranians were pursuing a nuclear weapon. And they certainly don’t have any. Donald Trump says that (one of the purposes/ the purpose) of his at...

I would remiss if I did not adequately amplify @cherylrofer.bsky.social's concise, clear, and unassailable summary of why one of the Trump administration's main rationales for its illegal war is bullshit.

Sen. Ossoff Statement on Iran Atlanta, Ga. - U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff today released the following statement. "Eight months ago, Donald Trump lied to the country when he claimed U.S. air strikes had 'obliterated' Iran's nuclear program. "Now Trump says he's taken America to war for regime change in Iran. "Trump has launched this regime change war and put American forces at risk without presenting evidence of an imminent threat, without clear objectives, without having exhausted diplomacy, without a plan for the aftermath, and without the consent of Congress. "I oppose yet another regime change war-of-choice in the Middle East. Congress must convene immediately and pass a War Powers Resolution to assert our Constitutional authority over war and peace. "The President has presented no evidence that Iran or its nuclear program — which he falsely claimed to have 'obliterated' — pose an imminent threat to the United States, or that diplomacy was exhausted. Iran's support for terrorism and uranium enrichment have long destabilized the region. But sending American forces into harm's way should only ever be a last resort. "I pray for the safety of U.S. forces who have been ordered into battle and commend their extraordinary professionalism."

Ossoff’s statement is 1000x stronger than Schumer-Jeffries. This is a moderate Jewish Senator from a Trump state. The split isn’t moderate vs progressive, but leading vs poll-reacting

Under Trump, the United States does whatever it wants, stops only when it wants to, and walks away from the carnage without looking back. trib.al/zUpDTnp

war as Content, first and foremost, with no plan necessary for the aftermath because plans are boring and don’t play well on television

The point is not to defend his drone policy, but that institutional legacies matter. But I don't think you're arguing otherwise /end

Perhaps a less cautious, equally center-left president might have rolled the whole thing back. But Obama wasn't that guy, nor would he risk the political backlash — as we saw with Gitmo. From his perspective, drone warfare was a less deadly substitute for alternative instruments. 2/

So Obama's drone policy is, I think, a good example of why one should always choose the lesser of two evils. There's no reason to believe counterfactual President Gore would've gone full "Global War on Terror." When Obama came in, the US natsec apparatus was all GWOT all the time. 1/

Yeah. This is my fault. I don't entirely agree with you but I didn't read your position as implying accelerationism, and I shouldn't have replied to you directly.