"On March 20, 2003, President George W. Bush began the bombing campaign in Iraq, justifying the attack with manipulated and bogus intelligence. Twenty-two years later, history is repeating itself."

~ Judd Legum

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation
/2

popular.info/p/a-new-war-based…

A new war based on manipulated intelligence

More than two decades after the Iraq War commenced, history is repeating itself.

^{Judd Legum (Popular Information)}

"Exactly a week after his military parade fizzled and more than five million Americans turned out to protest his administration, President Donald J. Trump announced that the U.S. had bombed three Iranian nuclear sites: Fordo, Natanz, and Esfahan."

~ Heather Cox Richardson

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation
/3

heathercoxrichardson.substack.…

June 22, 2025

Last night, exactly a week after his military parade fizzled and more than five million Americans turned out to protest his administration, President Donald J.

^{Heather Cox Richardson (Letters from an American)}

"This would not be the first time that an autocrat has used a war to deflect attention, crack down domestically, and silence dissent. With his domestic agenda hugely unpopular and his legal losses piling up, bombing Iran would be the most dramatic (and dangerous) way to shift gears."

~ Jennifer Rubin

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation
/4

contrarian.substack.com/p/trum…

Trump ‘wags the dog’

Risky military action disrupts the political dynamic

^{Jennifer Rubin (The Contrarian)}

"War is the deadliest distraction in the authoritarian’s playbook…"

~ Thom Hartmann

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation
/5

hartmannreport.com/p/trumps-ir…

Trump’s Iran War Fever: A Deadly Cure for His Political Collapse?

^{Thom Hartmann (The Hartmann Report)}

"As Robert Kagan warns at The Atlantic, wars are often used to advance authoritarian policies at home — a terrifying prospect given Trump’s ongoing attack on constitutional rights."

~ Noah Berlatsky

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation
/6

publicnotice.co/p/trump-iran-s…

Trump’s reckless Iran strikes could backfire spectacularly

America has entered few wars with less forethought, less deliberation, and more contempt for the public.

^{Noah Berlatsky (Public Notice)}

"The United States is well down the road to dictatorship. Imagine what Trump would do with a state of war. ...

Indeed, I can think of nothing more perilous to American democracy right now than going to war. Think of how Trump can use a state of war to strengthen his dictatorial control at home."

~ Robert Kagan

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation
/7

theatlantic.com/international/…

American Democracy Might Not Survive a War With Iran

^{Robert Kagan (The Atlantic)}

"Trump has already tried to use three pretexts to usurp power — terrorism, national emergency, and war itself — to justify his mass deportations, universal tariffs, and consolidations of power."

~ Robert Reich

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation
/8

robertreich.substack.com/p/wha…

What I fear Trump will do with his war

Centralize even more power and curtail even more civil liberties

^{Robert Reich}

"I fear that Trump’s war with Iran will enable him to use these three pretexts — terrorism, national emergency, and war — to further suppress dissent at home, narrow freedom of speech and expression, make warrantless searches and arrests of Americans, imprison opponents, and put more military onto our streets."

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation
/9

"He was going to drop that gigantic Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb from the moment he learned it existed. He needed that bombing campaign the way he needs golf courses and Diet Cokes and well-done steaks. He needed the White House appearance last night backed up by his war puppies, Vance, Hegseth, and Rubio."

~ Lucian K. Truscott

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation
/10

luciantruscott.substack.com/p/…

Another lie, another war

If there is one thing we have learned about Donald Trump over the last 10 years – for New Yorkers, over the last 50 – it is that you cannot believe anything he says.

^{Lucian K. Truscott IV (Lucian Truscott Newsletter)}

"Trump has forfeited the benefit of the doubt. We should be deeply skeptical of yesterday's mission and any information or further action to come. Trump is a liar and an idiot. Incompetent and inexperienced people surround him."

~ Jeff Timmer quoted by Greg Dworkin

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation
/11

dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/23…

Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Okay, after Wag the Dog, now what?

Juliette Kayyem/ X via Threadreader (format lightly edited): I don't know if this was successful or just attacks on surface level access. But there are consequences and so here are issues to ...

^{Daily Kos}

"The Trump who threw a birthday parade and used the military like a prop invited ridicule. The Trump who deploys troops to the streets of Los Angeles and drops bombs on Iran is altogether more dangerous.

Exit the showman. Enter the strongman."

~ David Smith

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation
/12

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/j…

Trump’s war with Iran signals perilous shift from showman to strongman

The emergence of Hawk Trump dismayed some of his Maga base but students of US adventurism were unsurprised

^{David Smith (The Guardian)}

"On Sunday I cited Snyder for an important first principle of war: 'Many things reported with confidence in the first hours and days will turn out not to be true.'”

~ Jay Kuo

But this will not stop the willing parrots in corporate media from breathlessly reporting whatever falls out of Trumpian mouths as if it's gospel truth, or the many armchair soldiers pecking away at keys on social media.

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation
/13

statuskuo.substack.com/p/their…

Their Iran Narrative Is Unraveling

We can’t trust anything the administration is saying or doing on Iran.

^{Jay Kuo (The Status Kuo)}

"As of this morning we have credible reports that the president and secretary of defense lied to the American people over the weekend. The Iranian nuclear program was neither 'completely and totally obliterated' or dealt a 'final blow' by the American strike."

~ Jonathan V. Last

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation
/14

thebulwark.com/p/fallout

Fallout

Trump lied. Iran’s nuclear program wasn’t “completely and totally obliterated” So now what?

^{Jonathan V. Last (The Bulwark)}

"We're at war."

So Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.). tells Katie Phang unambiguously, despite the disclaimers of the White House folks that we're at war.

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation
/14

katiephang.substack.com/p/we-a…

"We are at war."

This was a hugely important conversation with someone who actually knows what they're talking about.

^{Katie Phang}

"Iran has said that it attacked American forces stationed at Qatar’s Al Udeid air base.

The announcement was made on state television as martial music played, with a caption on the screen calling it 'a mighty and successful response by the armed forces of Iran to America’s aggression'."

~ The Guardian

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation
/15

theguardian.com/world/live/202…

"A ridiculously passive NYT headline over the weekend read: 'U.S. Military Is Pulled Back Into Middle East Wars.' As if the country with the 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs had no agency. As if its leaders were helpless actors in someone else’s script."

~ Mark Jacob

Let me fix that, NYT:

"Donald Trump Pulls the US — the Entire Nation — Back Into Middle East Wars"

#Trump #Iran #war #authoritarianism #autocrat #lies #disinformation #media #NewYorkTimes
/16

stopthepresses.news/p/please-m…

Please, media, don’t turn the war into entertainment

8 things for journalists to keep in mind as they cover Trump’s military moves

^{Mark Jacob (Stop the Presses)}