Looks like the war with Iran is cooking off

[gortex]

I believe the blunder made in Iraq (other than the initial blunder of starting a war on an unnecessary front to begin with) was sending in "occupation" forces after the initial flush of victory. I think thy would have been in a much better place had they not sent in those occupation forces, but instead left Iraq to the Iraqis and just moved on to more important matters..

I don't think there was a choice not to occupy Iraq following the downfall of Saddam , you can't just walk away from something like that handing them their Freedom fries saying "Ok now you fix it" , the mistake as I see it , other than the Iraq invasion , was Rumsfeld's hare-brained idea of using a relatively small force rather than properly occupy Iraq.

Trump is repeating the same mistakes of the past thinking you can just pop in and break stuff then walk away , now it seems he's not ruling out boots on the ground and the likelihood is there will have to be , it's likely you will have a achieved what Israel wanted but be left holding the baby.

America first seems a distant memory , Shah of Iran 2.0 ?

[SomeStupidName]

I don't think there was a choice not to occupy Iraq following the downfall of Saddam , you can't just walk away from something like that handing them their Freedom fries saying "Ok now you fix it" , the mistake as I see it , other than the Iraq invasion , was Rumsfeld's hare-brained idea of using a relatively small force rather than properly occupy Iraq.

Trump is repeating the same mistakes of the past thinking you can just pop in and break stuff then walk away , now it seems he's not ruling out boots on the ground and the likelihood is there will have to be , it's likely you will have a achieved what Israel wanted but be left holding the baby.

America first seems a distant memory , Shah of Iran 2.0 ?

You could be right, but leaving it the way it was really wasn't the right answer either. Lets see what this does as it is technically not fixed but it's different.

[Kenzo1]

In the Iraq-Iran war 1980–1988   , Iran absorbed huge losses and survived ...same regime as 2026 . Numbers differ but some sources mention 500000-600000 casualties in Iran side .

On some time , both Iraq and Iran fired scud missiles to enemys cities .

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Day 3 of Operation Epic Fury / Roaring Lion Vs Operation Lion & Sun.




March 2, 2026: IDF Continues to Bomb in Iran: "Ring of Fire" in Tehran. These guys are a little too close to the action. Boom-Boom-KabOOm!
https://x.com/Faytuks/status/2028435000316625314

According to a number of Israeli assessments, the war with Iran could last until August.
In the Pentagon PR this morning, SecWar Hegseth said the US has no exit strategy...or he's not saying, yet.


Footage of Kuwaiti locals coming to aid one of the shot down American (female) pilots this morning.
https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/2028511302683861388


Meanwhile, a bad day almost turned worse for the male pilot...


Photo is from Reuters.

At 11:03 p.m. ET, March 1, three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagles flying in support of Operation Epic Fury went down over Kuwait due to an apparent friendly fire incident.

During active combat—that included attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones — the U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses.

All six aircrew ejected safely, have been safely recovered, and are in stable condition. Kuwait has acknowledged this incident, and we are grateful for the efforts of the Kuwaiti defense forces and their support in this ongoing operation.

The cause of the incident is under investigation. Additional information will be released as it becomes available.
U.S. Central Command Press Release

3x B-1B Lancer strategic bombers entered the campaign last night. Fear the BONE. Trump said earlier today: “We haven’t even started hitting them hard, the big wave hasn’t even happened yet." Are the B-52 BUFFs up next?



B-1B Lancer AFTERBURNER Nighttime Departure from Oshkosh, Wisconsin (2018)
Crank volume to 11.




CENTCOM: US Forces Struck Iranian Drone Carrier Shahid Bagheri in Opening Hours of Iran Campaign

A major loss.



Unconfirmed reports that Iran's "IRIS Zagros" spy ship—the most advanced vessel in Iran's navy, Commissioned in 2025—was targeted and sunk in the red sea. This has only been reported as sunk by the Saudis.



Current Iranian navy:




Iran's Red Crescent Society (Red Cross) says 555 people have so far been killed in the war. Iranian reports say in the town of Minab, 165 people were killed and 96 injured in a blast near a primary school for girls - which is adjacent to an IRGC base.


Gotta say, I did not have "Greece sends warships to defend island from Persian attacks" on my bingo card for this millennium, yet here we are.




So, we’ll have US nukes with a NATO stamp on them in Turkey, while there will be French nukes in Greece with an EU stamp on them. Well, that’s interesting.


Translation: The bluff he threatens with is designed to reestablish external funding. When it fails (it will) the follow through will be EU funding for the "cause" that will be siphoned away by grift. Any "umbrella" will be a cocktail one.

Spain will be dealt with and bent over at a later time...

[Ninurta]

Those B1-B's are awesome aircraft.

I once saw one zoom across the flight field at Langley AFB upside-down and only about 100 or 150 feet above the deck. I didn't even think that was possible, but there it was. As I recall, my main thought at the time was "who in the hell thought it was a good idea to put a fighter jockey in THAT monster?"


.

[The Crying Bunny]

I didn't make this up, I heard it somewhere; I'll paraphrase

Trump is finally ending a 47-year war.

[kwaka]

A good overview of some of the dynamics going on.

[sailorsam]

Gotta say, I did not have "Greece sends warships to defend island from Persian attacks" on my bingo card for this millennium, yet here we are.





one of the Greek ships is named the Kimon
named after a general (son of Miltaides) who led a naval force to rescue Cyprus from the Persians
in 450b.c.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Day 4 Update just released from CENTCOM Commander on Operation Epic Fury:

B-52s struck Iran last night along with every other bomber in the US arsenal.


https://x.com/CENTCOM/status/2028983418801803741


Pentagon identifies four of the Army Reserve Soldiers killed in the war against Iran.
R.I.P.
Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Lakeland, Florida
Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota
Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska
Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of Des Moines, Iowa


They died on March 1, 2026, in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, during an unmanned aircraft system attack. They were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command, Des Moines, Iowa.


Marco Rubio: "Unleash Chiang!"


https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/202...7036697778
https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/202...3777727815

George HW Bush played a lot of tennis, and when serving, he would threaten to "unleash Chiang." This was a joke about people who believed all the US needed to do to avoid losing China was to "unleash" Chiang kai-Shek against the Communists.

Jeb Bush (dimmer bulb of the family) at some point garbled this and thought his father was referring to a legendary Chinese warrior named "Chiang," who wielded a golden sword. And "Chiang" wasn’t an ancient Chinese warrior, he was a mid-twentieth century would-be dictator of China.


Iran missile & drone attacks on the following countries:
Israel
Jordan
Iraq
Kuwait
Bahrain
Qatar
UAE
Saudi Arabia
Oman
Cyprus


Sounds like BS to me...preparing the masses for another forever war or trolling the enemy.


Whatever the case, if the war continues into the summer, Congress will approve emergency war powers to Trump, followed by ground pounder invasion of Iran, mid-term elections canceled.

The US has unlimited supply of weapons, yet the US may have to pull its air defense out of South Korea to continue the war against Iran. Who knows. Could be media BS.


U.S. Considers Relocating THAAD, Patriots to Middle East


Airstrikes hit a building in Iran of the body tasked with electing Iran’s new supreme leader, according to Iranian Tasnim news agency. An Israeli defense source confirms that the Israeli Air Force struck a building in the Iranian city of Qom (about 75 miles south of Tehran) where senior clerics had gathered to elect Iran's new supreme leader. The Assembly of Experts has 88 members, all highly senior mullahs though it is unclear how many of them were at the building at the time of the strike. America might not be in this war for regime change, but Israel sure as hell is. It's open season on EVERY mullah.


Locations: 34.625264, 50.876187 and 34.624566, 50.876745

If you're going to keep gathering your top leaders in one place, it will definitely help this process proceed quicker and easier.


The building of Secretariat of Expediency Discernment Council in Tehran is now rubble.
The Council advises the Supreme Leader & supports a top body that settles gov disputes.
Map location


Police Command Headquarters in Tehran was just obliterated.




Satellite imagery from Vantor Tech showing impacts at the Iranian naval base in Konarak and remains of Iran presidential office.

March 3: US Navy destroyers continue to fire BGM-109 Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles into Iran.
https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/2028876834201309686


Operation EPIC FURY is now Operation IMMENSE RAGE?


https://x.com/CENTCOMHebrew/status/2028818937849278529


Greek Navy frigates Kimon and Psara departed port last night, on their way to defend Cyprus from Iranian attacks. The Kimon is a brand new French-built FDI HN frigate. Psara is a Meko 200 variant frigate that saw service against the Houthis in 2024, shooting down multiple drones.
Notably, one is the namesake of the Ancient Athenian general Kimon, who led a campaign against the Persians on Cyprus in 450 BC...as mentioned above by sailorsam.

[Ninurta]

[Ninurta]

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Short vid on the Russian LNG tanker Arctic Metagaz that was attacked & went kaboom in Mediterranean




Geolocation of an Israeli airstrike on a building at Hadi Hassan Nasrallah Street in Beirut's southern suburbs, 33.850181, 35.516117.



The seeming appearance of the Strait of Hormuz "closing" was not any particular decision by either side of the belligerents. The pattern is the result of Adam Smith's theory of the  "invisible hand" of the market that made this happen.

Hundreds of Ship owners, and their few dozen Insurance providers, and an even smaller list of key experts on special panels, mostly in London or New York, etc, all collectively made hundreds of decisions that resulted in ships taking a pause while their War Risk Insurance policies were cancelled, re-evaluated, re-priced and re-signed... at higher rates.  Thousands of small risk-reward decisions were made across the world.  All manifesting into what we currently see from the cool animated AIS data from MarineTraffic.

Dire Strait: Strait of Hormuz



An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, usually referred to by its shortened title The Wealth of Nations, is a book by Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith. Published on 9 March 1776, it offers one of the first accounts of what builds nations' wealth. It has become a fundamental work in classical economics, and been described as "the first formulation of a comprehensive system of political economy". Reflecting upon economics at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, Smith introduced key concepts such as the division of labour, productivity, free markets and the role prices play in resource allocation.

The Wealth Of Nations

3,200 ships caught up in Hormuz paralysis


The US Navy and government are now the protectors of global shipping. So, what does it mean to fly an American flag versus that of Panama, Liberia or the Marshall Islands?
The spice must flow...




Marco after they tell him he’s in charge of the London ship insurance market now.




On February 28, the US sent B-2 Spirits. You send B-2s when the enemy’s air defenses are intact and you need to penetrate undetected. Four B-2s dropped 160,000 pounds of bunker-busting ordnance on hardened underground facilities in the opening wave.

On March 2, the US sent B-1 Lancers. The B-1 is a supersonic bomber. Faster than the B-2 but not stealth. You send B-1s when air defenses have been degraded enough that speed, not invisibility, is sufficient to survive.

On March 3, the US sent B-52s. The B-52 is a 70-year-old subsonic aircraft. It is not stealth. It is not fast. It has a radar cross-section the size of a barn. It flies at 650 miles per hour at 50,000 feet and it is visible to every radar system on earth.

You send B-52s when there is nothing much left to shoot them down.


Following the success of B-52 sorties over Iran, the USS Constitution is preparing to offload Marines following shore bombardment.





March 2nd, the sun setting over the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln as Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornets were readied for another round of strike sorties on Iran.

[Kenzo1]

Seems like Iranians are equipped with home made boring machines ......i wonder what the IRGC might think to use it 


Tunnel saz machine

[727Sky]

Possible Saudi and Israeli airforce doing joint strikes in Iran... Never would have happened IMO before.
 There was a meeting by the Iranians to figure out who was next to lead the regime when a Israeli fighter bomber showed up and killed every last one at the meeting. 

[727Sky]

The U.S. and Israel have launched a massive strike campaign against Iran, targeting its navy, missile forces, and nuclear infrastructure. Satellite imagery now shows burning naval bases, destroyed warships, and bombed military sites across the country. In this breakdown, Chris Cappy analyzes how the U.S. sank Iran’s fleet, why Tomahawk missiles changed the battle, how Iran is retaliating with drones and ballistic missiles, and what this means for the Strait of Hormuz and the wider regional war.

[727Sky]

Typical Chinese defense junk

[putnam6]

Here' a positive offshoot this is the ultimate  Uncle Sam's MIC live real-time sales presentation. 


 

[F2d5thCav]

Iranian frigate torpedoed and sunk by USN submarine in the Indian Ocean.

[quintessentone]

Here' a positive offshoot this is the ultimate  Uncle Sam's MIC live real-time sales presentation. 


 

Now change that young man into Barron Trump, so say some of the people then how the war will end immediately, hmm?

[putnam6]

Here' a positive offshoot this is the ultimate  Uncle Sam's MIC live real-time sales presentation. 


 

Now change that young man into Barron Trump, so say some of the people then how the war will end immediately, hmm?

Ah shit where's the ignore button... never mind found it...

[/url]

Iran Spectator


@IranSpec

·
[url=https://x.com/IranSpec/status/2029079646856413515]11h






 ???????? ???? 

Reports say Mojtaba Khamenei — son of Iran’s Supreme Leader and the reported successor — has been killed in U.S. strikes in Tehran.

Look, it doesn’t matter who comes into power.

Anyone Islamic who touches the Iranian throne will be executed by a U.S—Israeli airstrike.

No one is looking for a Jihadi leader to take over, reformist, hardliner doesn’t matter.

The only way they can “salvage” the Islamic Republic is if they remove the Islamic part.

End of story.