IRAQ

EDITOR—Israel’s latest airstrike on Iran does not impress Ray McGovern. In this chat he explains his reasons, and why he thinks the power equation in the Middle East has changed or is about to change—for the better. Ray came to Washington from his native Bronx in the early Sixties as an Army infantry/intelligence officer and then served as a CIA analyst for 27 years, from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. Ray’s duties included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President’s Daily Brief, which he briefed one-on-one to President Ronald Reagan’s five most senior national security advisers from 1981 to 1985. Ray is an expert in Russian history and culture, and a man who chooses to live by honouring moral integrity, which he does not see his compatriots in high places doing now or even when he was young and thought they did.

RAINER SHEA—This damage won’t be enough to defeat China, nor the empire’s other next big opponent Iran; the coming war maneuvers will certainly backfire on the imperialists, like how it backfired when they picked a fight with Russia. The danger is in how many lives the hegemon may take during its collapse. There’s no doubt that the anti-imperialist united front will be able to subdue the hegemon, but in their desperate attempts to survive, the aggressors hope to bring a catastrophe larger than World War II. They’re already in place to take hundreds of thousands of more lives in Palestine, though Hamas has ensured that the plan for settling Gaza won’t be fulfilled. 

EDITORS—For the past 10 months, Gaza’s Palestinians have faced what can be described as a war of extermination, with the Israeli occupation targeting all facets of Palestinian life and systematically eliminating resistance leaders both domestically and abroad. 

Thus, the announcement of Yahya Sinwar’s election as Haniyeh’s successor in Gaza was both a surprise to the Israeli occupation and a cause for celebration among Palestinians and their factions.

BRIAN BERLETIC—Israeli missile strikes on Iran appear to have been limited, in part to the limitations of Israel’s long-range conventional military power;
This and a previous strike conducted in April may be providing Israel with information toward a larger more devastating attack on specific facilities;
The geo-strategic shift of power in the region has limited US-Israeli military power;
Iran’s ballistic missile forces and asymmetrical military power including through organizations like Hezbollah and Ansar Allah continue to expand as US military power, including through its Israeli proxies, diminishes.

MAIN EDITORS—Both Col. Wilkerson and (former) weapons inspector Scott Ritter analyse Israel’s airstrikes on Iran, judging them a failure. This evaluation contrasts markedly with the cacophony of celebratory voices on the US and western press in general, proclaiming the mission an absolute triumph for Israeli arms over Iran, its longstanding regional foe. The NYTimes seemed to reflect the more sober evaluation of the event, noting with evident relief, that both sides seemed to be satisfied with the outcome.