Just sent out a free piece to expand on my article in @theatlantic.com yesterday. The signs of rot in US military and diplomatic capabilities are real and even more extensive than I could say in that article. Here are more-and a gift link to the original article. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...
In terms of its impact on energy, travel and the global economy, the US-Israeli attack on Iran is like a mini-covid pandemic, but human-made and by choice.
I tell @bostonglobe.com that "it looks like the Trump administration deliberately uses diplomacy as a distraction and as a tool to keep people dangling while preparing for war."
www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/06/o...
They know that many people in the US will accept the killing of civilians overseas but will draw the line at high gas prices.
Why would the Kurds "trust" the Americans?
For much the same reason that Palestinians are forced to "trust" the Iranians, or the Turks, or whomever...
People who understand the latter should understand the former. And vice versa, of course.
One neutral EU country wondering how it can (and whether it should) help another neutral EU country.
I have said for years that neutrality in Europe will come increasingly under pressure.
www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41...
Tate was trying to get to Dubai on a bus.
When they got to the Saudi border everyone was told to get off for passport and baggage checks and Tate decided to stay on - presumably because the bus was air conditioned and he didn't want to stand in a queue.
He then got detained by Saudi guards.
Once again we talk about how crucially important Ramstein airbase - a huge US military installation in Germany - is for US operations in the middle east and beyond.
As someone who has been working on US drone ops for ages, I have posted quite a bit about Ramstein. Like this thread 👇
there are like 50 people in the country who want the UK to get involved in the Iran War, one of them is Kemi Badenoch, one of them is Nigel Farage, and the other 48 are newspaper columnists
Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://help.ft.com/faq/gifting-and-sharing-an-article/what-is-a-gift-article/. https://www.ft.com/content/09fa5c20-2c8f-4f41-9d91-c78476eaac20 Drone strikes on Amazon Web Services facilities this week in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain highlight the vulnerability of cloud facilities — prominent symbols of US tech power in the region and hard to defend against air attack. Fars News Agency, an outlet affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said on Thursday that Iran targeted Amazon and Microsoft facilities in recent drone strikes. Experts say Amazon’s facilities were likely targeted by Iran. Microsoft said it had not experienced any outages in the region. The strikes mark what is believed to be the world’s first military attack against the US “hyperscalers” that dominate the global cloud computing market. That could create a chilling effect on the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s plans to spend billions of dollars on local AI infrastructure in the coming years, a crucial plank of the oil-rich states’ efforts to diversify their economies. “The Iranians view data centres as part of the conflict,” said Matt Pearl, a director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank.
Iran acknowledges they are targeting AWS and Azure data centres. "The Iranians view data centres as part of the conflict,” said Matt Pearl, a director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
It is becoming very clear that if the mullah regime doesn't fall by the end of this war, they will do an even worse massacre than before. They really believe they can slaughter their own population into peace.
Russia is providing Iran with targeting information to attack American forces in the Middle East, the first indication that another major U.S. adversary is participating in the war if if indirectly.
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Made this observation before: the US is like a giant cruiseliner with a mad Captain steering towards the iceberg as half the passengers cheer him on and the crew steal and sell the lifeboats. It's sheer size and momentum will keep it afloat. For a time. But not forever.
“Gulf states can no longer believe the United States can or will protect them from existential threats. And even as they are forced to openly cooperate with Israel in its war, they increasingly view it as a threat.” My new piece on the Gulf and the Iran war.
foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/05/i...
Cartoon from Der Spiegel shows the world as seen by Trump.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul: “Spain can rely on solidarity from the EU and Germany. We will not let ourselves be divided.”
Yeah. Vassal states - shut up and do as you're told, underlings.
I can't stop thinking about this because imagine having enough money to address every single problem in your life and still thinking it's better to risk having a suicide drone crash into your hotel room then pay a bit more in taxes.
Hungary is a rogue state
After receiving the giant gold World Expert Prize from the Assembly of Experts in a Tehran ceremony, Trump used his feelings based on facts superpowers to appoint the best man for the job. 🤡
Iran's strategy is clear. They're going to inflict so much pain on the oil industry in hopes that they can make Trump back down.
We must convey our displeasure to the US for bringing maritime warfare to our doorstep without informing us or taking us into confidence. It’s an issue of concern. Strategic autonomy must have moral moorings and anchors. This conflict is needless, open-ended, pointless and will only bring grief to the whole world. India must take a stand, convey our concern and ask for hostilities to terminate at the earliest and keep the conflict away from our waters. Admiral Arun Prakash
How Congress politicians in India are discussing the boat strike (the guy she's citing is of India's most decorated GOFOs):
He'd probably want them to give him a gold World Expert Prize and proclaim him the best Expert that ever lived.
What an absolute clown show. 🤡
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAGAHAHAHAHAHA
Support to for a sustained long-range campaign to destroy Russia's drone factories. The fact that they're selling them to the Iranians could be used as an excuse.
If I were Ukraine I'd link any help to tangible and sustained US support to destroy Russia's drone factories.
What the Trumpists haven't realised is that the US alliance system operated to *restrain* allies.
Without it, then other countries will do what they think is in their own best security interests and ignore your concerns
And the US ability to influence policies & outcomes diminishes rapidly.
Pet take that the reputation and long term viability of Dubai and Abu Dhabi as global centres of power would be strengthened if a lot of these mercenary rentiers were moved on to the next legal black hole
