Pope Leo Says God “Does Not Listen to the Prayers of Those Who Wage War”

Pope Leo XIV used his Palm Sunday sermon to take what appears to be a shot at U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. In his sermon, excerpts of which he published on social media, the pope emphasized Christian teachings against violence while criticizing anyone who would invoke Jesus Christ to justify a war. “This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to…
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Applications for Conscientious Objector Status Have Spiked Since Iran War Began

With thousands more U.S. Marines headed to the Middle East and President Trump reportedly considering a ground invasion of Iran, we speak with Mike Prysner, executive director of the Center on Conscience and War, who says his organization has received a massive increase in inquiries from soldiers seeking to submit conscientious objector applications. Prysner cites a “shift in consciousness” among…
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Trump Threatens to Strike Iran Energy Sites Unless Strait of Hormuz Reopens

Democrats in Congress sounded the alarm over President Donald Trump pledging to commit more war crimes in Iran after he traded threats to energy infrastructure with the Iranian government, with the Republican declaring Saturday that he would take out the country’s power plants unless it reopened the Strait of Hormuz to all traffic. Just a day after Trump claimed that “we are getting very…
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Iran’s Retaliation Reignites Discontent With US Military Bases in Middle East

On Thursday, March 19, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal warned Iran that tolerance for its regional attacks was running short — and that the Saudi regime has “the right to take military actions if deemed necessary.” He elaborated that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have “very significant capacities and capabilities that they could bring to bear” if the attacks continue.
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Afghanistan War vet blasts Trump’s ‘pathetic and horrific’ war with Iran

Afghanistan War vet blasts Trump’s ‘pathetic and horrific’ war with Iran

President Trump’s catastrophic decision to plunge the US into a war with Iran is following a depressingly familiar playbook to those who lived through—and those who served in—the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with military veteran, author, and peace activist Rory Fanning—who served two tours in combat as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan—about the reality of what the US military has done in the Middle East, and about the veterans who are speaking out against the US-Israeli war with Iran.

Guests:

Rory Fanning is a war resister, military counter recruiter, and writer living in Chicago, IL. Fanning served two deployments with the Second Army Ranger Battalion in Afghanistan, and he is the author of Worth Fighting For: An Army Ranger’s Journey Out of the Military and Across America.

Credits:

Producer: Rosette Sewali

Studio Production: David Hebden

Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank

Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.

Marc Steiner:

Welcome to the Marc Steiner Show here on The Real News. I’m Marc Steiner. It’s great to have you all with us. As the insanity of this Trump-Hegseth War with Iran intensifies, we’re going to bring you a conversation today and hear an analysis of what we face from a man who knows our military, who fought in it, and that stands the danger of wars that have no meaning of than pulling us deeper into a quagmire that endangers our future. Roy Fanning did two tours in combat as an army ranger in Afghanistan. He wrote an amazing book entitled Worth Fighting For: An

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