My weekly preamble is in spoiler tags below.
preamble
After an uncertain beginning to this second major period of hostilities, we can now see the overall plan for either side.
For the Americans, their fire has been primarily focussed on southern Iran, where they have been attempting to break Iran’s control of Hormuz by a steady campaign of striking both military and civilian sites. Additionally, it looks like the US is attempting to shape the battlefield around Bandas Abbas and Qeshm Island for some kind of incursion, as we have seen bridges and tunnels in the vicinity struck by missiles. The key word there is “attempting”, because there are several things wrong with this plan both tactically and strategically.
Tactically, Iran has demonstrated the ability to very quickly get their transportation infrastructure repaired, and the US simply isn’t firing volleys in the required amounts - and towards the right targets (they’re using several missiles on purely civilian targets, like fishing boats) - to meaningfully degrade Iranian control of even this sector of the coastline. Additionally, an amphibious assault on Qeshm Island in the style of the WW2 Pacific theater is essentially impossible unless Iran, for whatever reason, allowed it. The gauntlet that any ship holding Marines would have to run to get to the island precludes this, let alone also transporting heavy weaponry and materiel for resupply. Using helicopter-borne troops or paratroopers would be much more feasible, but runs into even greater logistical problems if the US wanted to do anything there other than a brief skirmish before withdrawing. Strategically, even if the US waved a magic wand and took Qeshm Island, it’s unclear what this would do to fulfill war aims. The most obvious intention would be to trade it back to Iran in return for a major Iranian concession, but what if you take the island, you call up Iran saying “Alright, let’s get this deal running! First, I want no Hormuz tolls–” and Iran just… hung up, and kept firing drones and missiles and artillery at your forces on the island until they either all died or were forced to retreat? It’s not a tenable position to hold, and Iran’s capabilities to affect shipping in Hormuz are obviously not all concentrated on one single island.
So, what is Iran’s strategy? It’s what one analyst (Amerikanets) has termed “debasification”. If the first phase of the war from late February to mid-April was focussed primarily on generally destroying and disrupting the US’s military infrastructure in the region, what this second phase has planned is something more like a region-wide missile advance. Starting from the Gulf states and their US bases, the plan is to push back American planes and soldiers to further and further afield bases and thereby make sorties against Iran take much more time, fuel, and use more resupply planes. Iranian strikes are, as of me writing this, concentrated on Jordan, where a recent Iranian strike caused the first admission of soldier deaths in quite some time. The Iranian goal is clearly to push back all US planes to at least the Zionist entity, by which point, unless they are withdrawn further back all the way to Europe, the planes will all be so concentrated on so few bases that it will become a physical impossibility to get them all scrambled before Iranian strikes hit. Compared to the US’s strategy, Iran’s is immediately bearing fruit, with US strikes already very limited in intensity compared to the first phase of the war months ago. The irony of the US breaking off negotiations - again! - to pursue a new strategy that already looks to be profoundly failing is truly some inspired stuff; the genocidal architects of American imperium in the mid-20th century are rolling in their graves.
Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on the Zionists’ destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
The trickle truth begins.
Pentagon reports more than 600 Iran war casualties in quiet database update
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/26/pentagon-iran-war-troop-deaths-casualty-report
Iran issued a warning to the Kiev regime, following yesterday’s aggression:
The top Iranian diplomat noted that he raised the issue in separate phone calls with European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
He said he made clear during the conversations that the attack “cannot go unanswered.”
“I made clear that what the freeloader in Kyiv did CANNOT GO UNANSWERED,” he wrote.
https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/07/26/773112/Iran-Ukraine-Araghchi-Europe
Iranian General Hossein Mohebbi commented on recent US military casualties:
“The American statistics regarding the number of casualties are a sheer lie,” Mohebbi said.
He said in attacks on American targets, Iran hit 8 troop deployment centers, and in one case alone, there were 20 shelters that were destroyed.
The number of American deaths in Operation Nasr II (Iran’s defense against US attacks in last two weeks) is more than 200; the number of wounded is much higher, he noted.
Step 1. become PM after paedo supporting child murderer steps down in disgrace.
Step 2. Spend a week or so o a consent manufacturing tour, paying lip service to the fact predecessor sucked ass, cancel one (1) policy that would’ve been postponed indefinitely anyway
Step 3. Do literally nothing else and commit to the exact same ideology of endless cuts to welfare to fund the US-Israeli MIC.
Very long Bernie tweet
GAZA: THE SUFFERING CONTINUES [blah blah blah] Enough is enough! Congress must listen to the American people. NO MORE U.S. MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL.
Full text
Today in Gaza, most of the TV cameras are gone and media interest has declined. But, more than nine months after the announcement of a supposed “ceasefire”, the suffering of the Palestinian people continues.
Today, 92% of housing units in Gaza are damaged or destroyed, 70% of the entire population lacks adequate housing and is forced to live in makeshift shelters, 86% of agricultural water wells have been damaged, the vast majority of households report significant challenges in accessing safe and clean sanitation facilities and 90% of all energy infrastructure has been destroyed.
And what about the children? Today in Gaza, 91% of school-aged children do not have sustained access to in-person education, 93% of school buildings will require full reconstruction or major rehabilitation to be functional again and 70% of infants and young children under two years of age are experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity.
All of this is taking place after the horrific destruction that Netanyahu’s extremist government brought to Gaza over the last three years: more than 73,000 Palestinians killed and 173,000 wounded — mostly women, children and the elderly. In addition, virtually the entire infrastructure of Gaza was destroyed.
Israel now controls an estimated 70% of Gaza, well beyond what they agreed to, and has built dozens of military outposts inside Gaza since the “ceasefire” began. In the nine months since the “ceasefire” was announced, Israel has killed at least 1,150 Palestinians, including a family of six last week.
Now, as if to remove any doubt about their intentions, senior leaders of the Netanyahu government are moving to make the occupation permanent. Recently, a number of government ministers led thousands of settlers to the Gaza border demanding new illegal Jewish settlements be built there. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stood up and said “Gaza is ours.”
The shameful fact is that the United States is complicit in everything that is happening in Gaza. We have funneled tens of billions of dollars in military aid to an Israeli government that has consistently violated international law and whose leader is a war criminal.
The good news is that the American people are catching on. More and more Americans — Democrats, Republicans and independents — are demanding that we stop all military aid to Israel and use our considerable leverage to end the suffering of the Palestinian people.
Enough is enough! Congress must listen to the American people. NO MORE U.S. MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL.
Why is Trump so obsessed with Kharg, it looks like such a tiny island here on this here very real picture that Trump published.

Iran is finished. Time to surrender.

Unreleased documentary footage shows Lindsey Graham extremely happy that Trump finally bombed Iran.
“Look what we’ve done here. I almost cried… How long have we been pushing this?” Graham says after U.S. strikes begin.
Graham also says Trump told him the strikes were the “best thing I have ever done” and that he “loves blowing stuff up.”
Trump has started a posting spree on Truth Social Among the posts are AI images of strikes on Kharg Island, an imaginary movie poster starring Trump called ‘Cosmic Commander’, and other things.
- Middle East Spectator
Updated NASA FIRM imagery shows an expanding fire at the Saudi Jazan refinery complex hit by Ansarallah. The fire more than doubled since the complex was hit around 40 hours ago. By @bonzerbarry
The refinery has a capacity of around 400k barrels per day and was completed five years ago.

Not combat-related? What then? Were they suffering from ennui?
CBS News - More than 400 U.S. service members have been flown out of the Middle East for various types of treatment since Operation Epic Fury began, a U.S. official told CBS News. However, most cases were not combat-related, the official said. Operation Epic Fury, the military campaign carried out jointly by the U.S. and Israel against Iran, started Feb. 28.
so what is the current “consensus” on strategic oil reserves? what happens if the market runs dry on oil?:
An oil tanker has exploded after hitting a mine in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s state-affiliated Tasnim news agency said on Sunday.
Tasnim said the tanker struck the mine after leaving the route designated by Iran in the strategic waterway. There was no immediate official statement from Iranian authorities regarding the incident.
Rest of article is UK-US copium and bravado.
NBC Interview:
WELKER: Is America backing away from a larger military attack because our stockpile has been depleted?
MIKE WALTZ: We have to take a step back here. A lot of our stockpiles were depleted because of Biden. Not only Ukraine… but also Biden’s fight with the Houthis
WELKER: But you acknowledge they’re depleted?
WALTZ: No. The US military has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign… And the people leaking this nonsense deserve to be in jail.
I agree with the US department of war


(TABZ) 🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️ — The U.S. is estimated to have expended between 3,710 and 4,510 key precision-guided munitions during the Iran War, equivalent to roughly 31–38% of its estimated pre-war stockpile, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
➡️ Replenishing some of the most heavily used weapons could take years.
➡️ Air defense interceptors saw the steepest depletion, with an estimated 190–290 of 360 THAAD interceptors expended (up to 80%), 130–250 of 410 SM-3 interceptors (more than half), and 1,060–1,430 of 2,330 Patriot interceptors (up to 61%).
➡️ Long-range strike weapons were also heavily consumed. The analysis estimates the U.S. fired more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, over 1,100 JASSM air-launched cruise missiles, and 40–70 of its estimated 90 Precision Strike Missiles (PrSMs), leaving the relatively new missile with a significantly reduced inventory (https://t.me/tabzlive/95761)







