"Power Plant and Bridge Day" became the most humiliating military climb down in US history

Yesterday brought a new meaning to the term “doom scrolling” as we anxiously waited for Trump to fulfil his threat to end a 6,000 year old civilisation (and possibly the world). Thankfully, the ceasefire we thought would never come was announced just before the deadline and the world breathed a collective sigh of relief.

We had witnessed a terrifying escalation in rhetoric when Trump gave Iran a deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He said that Tuesday is “Power Plant and Bridge Day” when he will destroy Iran’s critical infrastructure to force the country to its knees. He forgot his role as “liberator” when he justified his threats to reporters by saying “they’re animals”. Yesterday, he went even further on Truth Social, warning “a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again”. It left many wondering if he would use nukes.

While genocidal rhetoric could be expected from Trump, what I didn’t expect was that the BBC would overtly manufacture consent, but that is exactly what our national broadcaster appeared to do.

The BBC is normally subtle in its propaganda, hiding some truths, and gently steering your thoughts in certain directions, but there was nothing subtle about an article on the BBC website. It contained a quote from a young Iranian, claiming they were happy with the US “using an atomic bomb or levelling Iran”. Either the BBC interviewed a lunatic, or they made that quote up.

After a social media backlash, the BBC quietly reworded the quote without issuing a correction, which is weird because how does something in quotation marks get reworded? It is supposed to be a person’s exact words.

This amendment seemed to be an admission of a fabricated quote and yet the BBC is shrugging it off. Just imagine if the BBC had fabricated a quote saying it was fine to nuke Israel…

While Trump supporters are now denying his rhetoric was ever genocidal, it is clear that if he had fulfilled his threats, they would have cheered him on. We saw Laura Loomer posting “I can’t wait to see what gets blown up tomorrow” and Israeli TV had a countdown to the destruction of Iran. Zionists wanted another genocide, but we’re supposed to pretend the Iranians are the unhinged extremists?

Iranian monarchists, who had been cheering for this war, were left floundering as ordinary Iranians rallied. Huge crowds came out to defend their country for Power Plant and Bridge Day. They swarmed around those power plants and bridges, sending a message that they were prepared to sacrifice their lives to defend Iran. It was claimed that 14 million Iranians came out, but regardless of the true figure, an awful lot of Iranians were prepared to die before accepting Trump’s liberation. No one wants to be bombed “back to the stone age”.

Rumours are flying around that US Centcom was refusing illegal orders from Trump. This might be what ultimately forced him to accept a ceasefire proposal that he had previously said was unacceptable. Perhaps these claims are true, or perhaps Trump realised that if he blew up those huge crowds, even he could not get away with that.

All I know for certain is that late last night, the US president finally declared a two-week “double-sided ceasefire” with Iran. We can only hope the US is not using this as an opportunity to reload and fire again, but given that missile and interceptor stockpiles are running dangerously low, I doubt it. Trump needed an offramp.

Predictably, Trump is claiming victory, insisting he has met or exceeded all military objectives, but he has not achieved regime change, or destroyed Iran’s nuclear program or missile capabilities. While Iran has agreed to not pursue nuclear weapons, this was always the case—it even had a Fatwa saying it would not pursue weapons of mass destruction.

This illegal war of aggression has been a disaster from the start and it badly needed to end. What it has shown is that aircraft carriers are no longer the deciding factor in major wars—drones and missiles are. I can’t imagine the US military was keen to continue fighting while their fighter jets kept falling out of the sky, can you?

The final nail in the coffin was likely to be the “rescue mission” for two missing pilots that involved 155 aircraft. It took place much closer to Iranian nuclear sites in Isfahan than the crash site in a neighbouring province. Although it can’t be proven, it looks like this was a failed attempt to seize Iran’s uranium that went disastrously wrong and resulted in the US losing a large number of aircraft (possibly 12).

Trump realised he could not win this war through airpower, he could not pull off a ground invasion, and an infrastructure war would only collapse the global economy. There was no credible path to victory, leaving him with two options: nukes or peace. The fact the world genuinely thought he might use nukes speaks volumes. I’m grateful for whoever intervened and told him peace was the only acceptable option.

The two-week ceasefire is meant to give negotiators in Pakistan time to hammer out a permanent deal based on Tehran’s ten-point plan that has been sitting on the table from the beginning, meaning all this fighting was for nothing. NOTHING.

It seems Trump genuinely wanted a way out of the war that he never wanted to be dragged into in the first place. It’s just he has the threat of impeachment hanging over him—and self-preservation is always his number one priority. Finally, he came to the realisation that any further action would dig him into a deeper hole and he took the least bad option.

Given the scale of damage across the Gulf, we can only speculate that US casualties are far higher than have been admitted, and it will be interesting to see what details emerge in the coming weeks.

The ceasefire will no doubt come as a huge relief to the US military which was seeing record numbers of conscientious objectors—not that I’m letting the military off the hook. Many personnel obeyed illegal orders and they should be held accountable for their actions (not that they ever will be).

The only people who seem unhappy about peace are the Israelis, who are already declaring the ceasefire does not include Lebanon, when it did include Lebanon. It actually included the complete cessation of war in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen. Iran’s National Security Council stated: “Within a few hours, if the firing does not stop in southern Lebanon, the air and missile unit will bomb Tel Aviv”.

It appears we might have this weird situation where there is a ceasefire between the US and Iran, but Israel keeps fighting. If that is the case, expect Israel to do whatever it can to bring others in, because it cannot defeat Iran and Hezbollah alone. It would be almost amusing to see them try.

The situation in the Strait of Hormuz is unclear with the US saying it is now open, but Iran saying it maintains control and vessels will only be allowed through where logistically possible. It looks like both Iran and Oman will now be charging tolls.

Whatever has been agreed, the original status has not been restored and possibly never will be. Iran will need to recover the costs of war and a toll is the perfect way to do this. It’s worth noting that reopening the Strait became one of Trump’s main objectives, even though it was only closed because of the war.

The ten-point plan that Iran had offered weeks ago is now being presented as fresh proposals to help Trump save face. Embarrassingly, Trump sent instructions to the Pakistani prime minister to tweet out that he had played a role in reaching this point. The edit history of his Twitter post gave the game away. It showed that words “Draft - Pakistan's PM Message on X” were initially copied across before being deleted.

Clearly, Pakistan’s social media team had no idea we could see the edit history. Either that or they wanted us to know the truth…

The ten-point plan involves the permanent withdrawal of US military bases in the Gulf, something the US would probably be keen on, given they’ve all been destroyed. A return of those bases would be a massive liability to the US and its Gulf allies. Only problem is admitting to this would be a national humiliation.

Other conditions include the acceptance of Iran’s uranium-enrichment program and the termination of all UN Security Council and IAEA resolutions targeting Iran. They also include the lifting of all sanctions on Iran, the release of all frozen assets, compensation for war damages, and an acceptance of Iran’s continued control of the Strait of Hormuz. Even if a middle ground can be reached, that would clearly be worse in every respect for the US and Israel than the situation before the war, making this one of the most idiotic military campaigns of all-time. Slow fucking clap.

One of the most damning aspects of this entire fiasco is how badly the US miscalculated Iran’s missile capabilities and air defences. As a result, Iran has emerged stronger while the United States has emerged substantially weaker. Hezbollah has rebounded and Iran is making more money from oil revenue, thanks to the surge in global prices. Everything the critics warned about has proven correct. This has been a strategic defeat of epic proportions and may well spell the end of US imperialism.

The US lost dozens of aircraft, including multiple F-15E Strike Eagles, at least one F-35A, over a dozen MQ-9 Reaper drones, and several KC-135 tankers. Billions of dollars were burned through in direct spending, not to mention the extraordinary cost of destroyed air defence systems, radars, satellite terminals, and the massive expenditure on interceptor missiles. The Pentagon has admitted to 13 deaths and hundreds wounded, though the true figure is likely much higher.

Politically, Trump has lost authority at home, haemorrhaging support even among parts of his base. Globally, America’s reputation lies in tatters and international law has taken a hammering because the war lacked both congressional and UN authorisation.

Going forward, any country accused of war crimes can simply point to the US and say, “We’re not doing anything they didn’t do.” In that respect, this “excursion” might have made the world a more dangerous place. Yet there is a silver lining: the US is accustomed to fighting opponents who can’t effectively fight back. This time it faced a capable, prepared adversary, and the result was a sobering reality check.

If one good thing came out of this idiocy, it might be that it has quietly saved us from a direct confrontation with Russia or China because those are fights the US knows it cannot win. The demented paedophile president might have accidentally prevented World War III.

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