War Update: Israel’s True Motives, Potential False Flags, and Oncoming Global Crisis

 

Several prominent conservative figures and "America First" influencers have publicly criticized President Donald Trump's decision to launch military strikes on Iran in early 2026, viewing it as a betrayal of his "no more endless wars" campaign promise.

 

Tucker Carlson Steve Bannon Megyn Kelly Marjorie Taylor Greene against Trump Iran War

Several prominent conservative figures and "America First" influencers have publicly criticized President Donald Trump's decision to launch military strikes on Iran in early 2026, viewing it as a betrayal of his "no more endless wars" campaign promise.

 

Key Critics and Their Positions

 

Tucker Carlson:

Condemned the U.S.-Israel strikes as "absolutely disgusting and evil".

Reportedly met with Trump in the Oval Office three times in the month leading up to the attack to attempt to talk him out of it.

Argued the war serves Israeli interests rather than American ones and warned it could "shuffle the deck" of Trump’s political movement.

 

Steve Bannon:

Warning on his War Room podcast that the conflict lacks clarity and could become a "hard slog" that causes Trump to "bleed support".

Expressed concern that the administration's stated goals are a "psy-op" leading toward a regime change war with direct U.S. military participation.

Hosted guests like Erik Prince who called the strikes an "open betrayal" of the MAGA base.

 

Megyn Kelly:

Slammed the bombing, stating the U.S. government's job is to look out for Americans, not Iran or Israel, and categorized the conflict as "Israel's war".

Questioned the lack of a clear objective and expressed skepticism over the sacrifice of U.S. service members for foreign interests.

 

Marjorie Taylor Greene:

Issued blistering, profanity-laced messages calling the war "America Last" and a violation of the "America First" pledge.

Criticized the administration for allegedly polling voters on acceptable casualty counts, calling officials "liars" for reneging on promises of zero new wars.

Resigned from Congress prior to the conflict after a falling out with Trump over other issues, further distancing herself from the administration's current path.

 

Trump's Response

President Trump has pushed back against these criticisms, asserting that "MAGA is Trump" and that these individual commentators do not define the movement. He described the Iran operation as a necessary "detour" to prevent the regime from obtaining nuclear weapons and to ensure national safety.

Trump's Biggest Allies Just Went Public — And He's Panicking

 

On the sixth day of the conflict with Iran (March 5, 2026), reports indicate the U.S. is prepared to provide air support to Kurdish fighters if they launch a ground offensive into western Iran.

 

Iran war briefing: US reportedly ready to provide support to Kurdish fighters if they enter conflict

On the sixth day of the conflict with Iran (March 5, 2026), reports indicate the U.S. is prepared to provide air support to Kurdish fighters if they launch a ground offensive into western Iran.

The U.S. and Israel have reportedly been in talks with Iranian Kurdish militias based in northern Iraq to mobilize a new front against Tehran.

 

Key Developments

Military Readiness: A U.S. official stated the U.S. is ready to provide air support specifically if Kurdish Peshmerga fighters cross the border from Iraq.

Ground Activity: Some Kurdish dissident groups, such as the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), have already moved forces to the Iranian border and are on standby for a potential cross-border operation.

Strategic Goal: The objective of arming these groups is to stretch Iranian security forces and foment a popular uprising against the regime following the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

CIA Involvement: Reports from CNN suggest the CIA is working to funnel arms to these militias, a program that reportedly began covertly even before the current escalation.

 

Official Stance

White House Denial: Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that while President Trump has spoken with Kurdish leaders regarding U.S. bases in northern Iraq, reports that he has approved a specific plan for an insurgency are "completely false".

 

Regional Risks: Experts warn that backing ethnic armed groups could "open a hornet's nest," potentially leading to a chaotic civil war and aggravating regional tensions with neighbors like Turkey.

Iran has already responded to these movements by launching missile and drone strikes against Kurdish positions in northern Iraq as of early Thursday.

Iran war briefing: US reportedly ready to provide support to Kurdish fighters if they enter conflict

 

Explainer

Iran war briefing: US reportedly ready to provide support to Kurdish fighters if they enter conflict

 

Experts say US backing armed groups could ‘open up a hornet’s nest’; son of Ayatollah Khamenei tipped to succeed his father as leader. What we know on day six

 

Guardian staff

Thu 5 Mar 2026 03.37 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/05/iran-war-briefing-israel-us-support-kurds-conflict-what-we-know-so-far-day-six

 

The US-Israel war on Iran has entered a sixth day, with US forces reportedly ready to provide air support to Kurdish fighters if they enter the conflict. Kurdish officials told the Associated Press that Kurdish Iranian dissident groups based in northern Iraq were preparing for a potential cross-border military operation in Iran, and the US has asked Iraqi Kurds to support them. Intense waves of airstrikes have hit dozens of military positions, frontier posts and police stations along northern parts of Iran’s border with Iraq in what appears to be preparation by US and Israel for a new front in their war.

 

Experts predicted that backing armed groups from Iran’s ethnic communities would “open up a hornet’s nest”, aggravating divisions within the diverse country and increasing the risk of a chaotic civil war if the current regime collapses.

 

Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the assassinated Ali Khamenei, is being heavily tipped to succeed his father as supreme leader of Iran, which would pitch a hardliner into the task of steering the Islamic republic through the most turbulent period in its 48-year history and offer a powerful signal that, for now, it has no intention of changing course.

 

A torpedo fired by a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off the south coast of Sri Lanka. At least 87 Iranian sailors were killed in the attack on the Iris Dena on Wednesday. The frigate was sailing in international waters as it returned from a naval exercise organised by India in the Bay of Bengal. The torpedo strike prompted questions from former US officials about whether Washington’s aim of eliminating all of Iran’s military breached international law.

 

Iran launched missiles at Israel early Thursday. Air sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem shortly after the Israeli military said it had begun new strikes in Lebanon targeting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

 

Air traffic appeared to be picking up slightly, even as travel across the region remained heavily disrupted by the widening Iran war. Governments around the world are rushing to organise the return of their citizens from the Middle East. Officials have chartered jets or deployed military aircraft, routing stranded travellers through Oman, Egypt and Saudi Arabia – key exit points where planes could land and take off.

 

Top US military officials told lawmakers in a closed door briefing on Tuesday that they may not be able to shoot down every Iranian drone being launched against military installations and assets, according to two people familiar with the matter. The officials, led by the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Dan Caine, said Iran has been deploying thousands of one-way attack drones and that they have capacity to take down the vast majority but not all of the barrage.

 

Senate Republicans voted down a war powers resolution that would have forced Donald Trump to receive Congress’s permission before continuing the war with Iran. Republicans batted aside concerns from Democrats that the campaign is illegal and risks plunging the United States into a prolonged conflict. The measure would have forced an end to the US air and naval campaign against Iran and require the president to go to Congress before re-entering the war.

 

The White House pushed back against questions on US involvement in the bombing of an Iranian girls’ school which killed 175 people. The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, did not accept US responsibility for the attack, and noted that the Pentagon is investigating the strike. Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said the US was investigating it.

 

Hegseth also signaled a possible longer time frame for the conflict than has previously been floated by the administration, saying it could last eight weeks but that the US has the munitions and the equipment to beat Iran in a war of attrition. He declined to set a specific time range, saying the specific duration of the war would depend on how it unfolds. More forces are arriving in the region, including jet fighters and bombers, Hegseth said, and the US “will take all the time we need to make sure that we succeed.”

 

The impact of the Iran conflict on energy markets will be temporary and a “small price” to pay for US military goals, US energy secretary, Chris Wright, told Fox News. US and Israeli strikes on Iran and the subsequent response by Tehran have widened regional tensions and paralysed shipping through the strait of Hormuz, disrupting vital Middle East oil and gas flows and sending energy prices higher. Donald Trump has pledged to provide insurance and naval escorts for ships exporting energy from the region to contain soaring costs.

Here is the latest.

 

Pinned

Yan Zhuang

Leily Nikounazar

Updated

March 5, 2026, 3:04 a.m. ET23 minutes ago

Yan Zhuang and Leily Nikounazar

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/05/world/iran-war-israel-trump

 

Here is the latest.

Iran on Thursday denied Turkey’s claim that it had fired a missile toward Turkish airspace, as countries in the region and beyond grappled with a widening conflict that began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran six days earlier.

 

On Wednesday, Turkey said that NATO shot down a missile that was heading toward Turkish airspace.

 

An attack on Turkey, a NATO member that shares a 300-mile border with Iran, could mark a major escalation and could activate the alliance’s mutual defense clause, potentially drawing its 32 member states into the war. So far the United Kingdom, France and Greece have said they are deploying military assets to the region only to defend their citizens and interests.

 

Separately, a torpedo launched from a U.S. Navy submarine sank an Iranian frigate in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka on Wednesday, marking the first time a U.S. submarine had fired a torpedo at an enemy ship in combat since World War II, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. Sri Lankan officials said on Thursday that their navy had rescued more than 30 people, recovered more than 80 bodies and was still searching for dozens of people.

 

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, on Thursday accused the United States of an “atrocity at sea,” saying on social media that the Iranian frigate had been struck in international waters without warning. “Mark my words: The U.S. will come to bitterly regret precedent it has set,” he said.

 

In Washington, the House was expected on Thursday to vote down a motion to rein in President Trump’s war powers, a day after the Senate rejected a similar measure in a vote split almost entirely along party lines.

 

Mr. Hegseth told reporters on Wednesday that American and Israeli warplanes would soon gain total control of Iranian airspace, allowing them to pick off targets and deliver “death and destruction all day long.”

 

Overnight, the Israeli military announced a another wave of strikes on Tehran and on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Officials in Qatar said residents who lived near the U.S. Embassy in Doha were being evacuated as a precautionary measure, and Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said its forces intercepted and destroyed several drones over the country.

 

Here’s what else we’re covering:

 

Supreme leader: Iran’s top clerics are considering their choice to replace the country’s slain supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike on Saturday. Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appears to be a front-runner to succeed his father. Read more ›

 

Market rally: Stocks across most of Asia rallied on Thursday, a day after tumbling over fears around the region’s heavy reliance on imported oil and gas. The turnaround illustrates the hair-trigger reactions of investors around the world who are trying to assess the immediate and possible long-term effects of the strikes on Iran and the repercussions around the Persian Gulf, where much of the world’s oil and gas is produced. Read more ›

 

China’s oil exports: Officials from China’s top economic policy agency told Chinese companies on Thursday to suspend exports of refined oil, according to Guo Shiying, a senior executive at a state-owned investment firm. China, the largest buyer of Iranian oil, will send a special envoy to the Middle East to help conduct conflict mediation efforts, its foreign ministry earlier said.

 

Americans killed: Six U.S. service members have been killed in the conflict. The Defense Department on Wednesday night released the name of a fifth American killed in an Iranian attack on Sunday, and released the name of another soldier believed to have died in the same incident. The department on Tuesday had released the names of the other four killed. Read more ›

 

Evacuations: The White House press secretary said that 17,500 Americans had returned safely since the start of the war, and the U.S. State Department ordered more employees to leave their posts at embassies and consulates in four countries, after facing criticism for not doing enough to facilitate evacuations.

 

Death toll: The Red Crescent Society, Iran’s main humanitarian relief organization, said the death toll had risen to 787 since the start of the U.S.-Israeli attacks. The bombing of a girls’ elementary school in Iran killed at least 175 people. Dozens of people in Lebanon also have been killed, according to the Lebanese health ministry, in Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah.

What is the Israel plan called the "Greater Israel"?

 

 What is the Israel plan called the great Israel?

"Greater Israel" (Hebrew: Eretz Yisrael HaShlema) refers to an ideological, often territorial, concept proposing an expanded State of Israel. It can mean a narrower area encompassing Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, or a wider, more expansionist vision stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates, rooted in specific biblical interpretations and Zionist history, according to Wikipedia.

 

Key aspects of this concept include:

Biblical and Historical Context: The most expansive vision is based on interpretations of Genesis 15:18-21, promising land from the Nile to the Euphrates, which critics suggest implies taking territory from neighboring countries like Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, say Facebook and YouTube.

Political Usage: It is often associated with revisionist Zionism and right-wing Israeli factions, notably the Likud party, which historically held that sovereignty should exist between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

Modern Implications: In recent years, it has been used by critics to describe the ongoing occupation and annexation of the West Bank and Gaza, say ProQuest and Al Jazeera.

Controversy: The vision is highly contested, with Arab and Muslim nations strongly condemning references to "Greater Israel" as a threat to regional stability, notes Al Jazeera.