One of the U.S.’s demands during negotiations with Iran in recent weeks was for the “elimination of [Iran’s] navy,” according to top negotiator Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who has complained that Iran wouldn’t agree to a “deal” to prevent the U.S. from striking. In a Fox News interview posted by the White House’s rapid response X account, Witkoff suggested that he and senior adviser Jared…
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President Donald Trump ominously said on Monday that the U.S. has the weaponry to fight “forever,” as the administration’s refusal to state a definitive timeline or end goals for its war on Iran sparks worries of yet another prolonged, disastrous U.S. conflict in the Middle East. In a post on Truth Social just before midnight on Tuesday, Trump said that the U.S. has a “virtually unlimited…
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that the U.S. had to wage war against Iran now because Iran would act to defend itself if it came under attack — a circular explanation that appeared to pass the buck for the aggression to Israel, despite reports that Israeli leaders have been coordinating a joint attack with the U.S. for months. “It was abundantly clear that if Iran…
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Rami Khouri, Palestinian American journalist and distinguished public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut, speaks with Democracy Now! about the historical context of Western colonialism in the Middle East amid the war against Iran. Khouri says the U.S.-Israeli attack is the latest act “causing people across the world to look at the idea of … Western liberal democratic tradition as a…
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This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Mar. 03, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
In less than a week, the US and Israel’s war has rendered unfathomable suffering upon the people of Iran. Over 180 schoolgirls and staffers were killed in a massacre this weekend, and several hospitals have reportedly been struck, amid numerous other attacks on civilians.
But some US troops are being told the bloodletting is all a part of God’s plan.
At a briefing on Monday, as President Donald Trump unleashed what has been called a “carpet bombing” of Tehran, a combat-unit commander reportedly told noncommissioned officers (NCOs) that the commander-in-chief was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”
The complaint, sent by one of those noncommissioned officers, was just one of at least 110 similar reports received by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) since Trump first launched strikes on Saturday.
In compliance with the First Amendment, the Department of Defense has long adopted rules against proselytizing within the armed forces. But under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, an evangelical Christian who has said the West must wage a “crusade” against Islam, Christian nationalist invocations in the military have become commonplace.
The death toll from this air strike on an elementary school on Saturday is now nearly 180, and 95 injured. Most of those killed were girls aged between 7-12 years old. @UNESCO calling it “a grave violation of international law.” https://t.co/MEsJugD4eA— Leila Molana-Allen (@Leila_MA) March 2, 2026
Mikey Weinstein, the president and founder of MRFF and an Air Force veteran who served in the White House of former President Ronald Reagan, told independent journalist Jonathan Larsen that the group has been “inundated” with
The U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran has already sparked regional war, and threatens to reshape West Asia for years to come. The military strikes began on February 28, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several of his top officials. Now, several days into the war, the rationale has not been clearly articulated; U.S. lawmakers and officials have offered up different…
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