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Analysis: Establishment Dems are seizing the Graham Platner scandal to slander progressives across primary elections
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This week we have a powerhouse panel on Useful Idiots: Professor Sami al-Arian and investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill of DropSite News, who join us to analyze Trump’s wars in West Asia.
The breaking news is that Trump is renewing the bombing of Iran, insulting its leaders, and threatening to take out more civilian infrastructure, all while Israel is allowed to continue its genocide in Gaza as well as steal and destroy land in Lebanon.
Useful Idiots: Trump has said the deal is likely over. So where are we with the state of war against Iran?
Sami al-Arian: The deal was basically an admission by the United States that it’s been defeated. It is surrender in all points. And I think the Zionists have upped the pressure against this administration, which has been beholden to it for whatever reason. They were trying to find justification to renege on this deal.
But regardless, there is nothing that the US could do to defeat Iran. There is nothing that it could do to achieve its objectives, which is basically regime change, regime collapse, breakup of the country, and to reverse its advanced scientific achievements in nuclear power or in missiles or even to stop its support of its allies in the region.
None of these objectives were reached in the first thirty-nine days of the war and they are very unlikely to be reached again.
Jeremy Scahill: What we’ve seen since Trump took this deal is that he has not been able to effectively spin his victory-narrative on this thing. This is the latest iteration of the Trump pattern, which is that he’s flailing around like a child throwing a tantrum and threatening.
And the more he escalates it, the more it becomes clear that he is in the quagmire of all quagmires in this situation. One thing that we have to be always concerned about is that Trump is a very erratic character. I wouldn’t put it past him to authorize a much more significant escalation of the bombing against Iran.
My understanding from Iranian officials is that if that happens, if a Rubicon is crossed and it becomes a full-blown war again, that Iran’s response to this in the Persian Gulf and aimed at Israel is going to exceed what it did in the initial weeks when it fought the United States and Israel to a point where Trump was the one essentially begging for some kind of a deal.
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