The New Dark Age

Sunday, 22 June 2024 — Geopolitical Economy

Donald Trump launched direct US airstrikes on Iran, after helping Israel start a war of aggression. Tehran vowed to retaliate. It could hit some of the 40,000 US troops & dozens of bases in the region

Donald Trump has carried out direct US air strikes on Iran, bombing what he said were three major “nuclear sites”.

“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan”, Trump boasted, in a post on his website Truth Social on 21 June.

“A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow”, he wrote.

Trump posted a screenshot of a tweet from the account “Open Source Intel”, bragging, “Fordow is gone” — a reference to an Iranian uranium enrichment plant.

An hour after announcing that he had directly bombed Iran, Trump posted a jpeg of a US flag, with no other comment.

Iran vowed to retaliate — and has lots of potential US targets

Iran has vowed to retaliate by hitting US military targets in the region.

The US had at least 40,000 troops in West Asia (the so-called Middle East), and access to dozens of military bases, as of 13 June.

There are known US bases and other military facilities located in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as nearby Djibouti, Greece, and Turkey, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

The forward headquarters of US Central Command is in Qatar. The US Navy’s Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain.

These direct attacks on Iran come after Trump helped Israel launch a war of aggression against Iran on 13 June.

Israeli officials said Trump gave Israel’s leader Benjamin Netanyahu a “green light” to carry out the initial surprise attack.

Three days before the start of the war, the US delivered to Israel 300 Hellfire missiles, which were used to kill Iranian officials.

Seymour Hersh was right: Trump waited for Wall Street to close to bomb Iran

Trump’s direct attack on Iran came exactly when was predicted by renowned journalist Seymour Hersh.

In a report citing US and Israeli sources, Hersh said the operation “will entail heavy American bombing”.

In the article, which was published on Friday, 20 June, Hersh wrote that the Iranian targets will “not be struck until the weekend”.

“The delay has come at Trump’s insistence because the president wants the shock of the bombing to be diminished as much as possible by the opening of Wall Street trading on Monday” (23 June), Hersh reported.

This is exactly what happened: Trump bombed Iran on the night of Saturday, 21 June, when the stock market was closed.

What this demonstrates is that serving the interests of Wall Street is one of Trump’s top priorities.