{"id":163843,"date":"2026-02-21T06:17:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T06:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/?p=163843"},"modified":"2026-02-21T07:30:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T07:30:32","slug":"were-on-a-runaway-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/2026\/02\/21\/were-on-a-runaway-train\/","title":{"rendered":"“We’re on a runaway train”<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Chris Hedges, two years ago to the day<\/span><\/a> outside London’s Royal Courts of Justice where Julian Assange’s fate was being decided<\/h6>\n

In his post yesterday, Chris Hedges added little this site hasn’t already said, and left out much that it has. But this joint Pulitzer prize winner who quit the New York Times over its support for the rape of Iraq – an ordained Presbyterian minister fluent in Marxism – knows how to use his pulpit to rain down the wrath of the righteous on our criminally insane leaders …<\/p>\n

The Suicidal Folly of a War with Iran<\/a><\/h2>\n
February 20, 2026<\/span><\/h6>\n

The Laurel and Hardy negotiating team of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, coupled with Trump\u2019s appalling ignorance of world affairs and megalomania, seem set to push the U.S. into yet another debacle in the Middle East, one the Congress has not approved, and the public does not want.<\/span><\/p>\n

The demands imposed on Iran by the Trump White House are no more acceptable to the regime in Tehran than those imposed on Hamas in Gaza under Trump\u2019s sham peace plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s demand that Iran shut down its nuclear program and give up its missile capabilities in return for no new sanctions is as tone deaf as calling on Hamas to disarm in Gaza. But since we have long dispensed with diplomats, who are linguistically, politically and culturally literate, who can step into the shoes of their adversaries, we are being led to another war in the Middle East by our newest coterie of buffoons. The U.S. and Israel foolishly believe they can bomb their way to decapitating the Iranian government and installing a client regime. That this non-reality-based belief system failed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya eludes them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The promise of no new sanctions will not incentivize Iran to broker an agreement. Iran is already crippled by onerous sanctions that have gutted its economy. This will do nothing to break the economic stranglehold. Iran will not give up its nuclear program, which has the potential to be weaponized, or its ballistic missile program, which Israel said it would target in an air attack. Israel\u2019s reputed nuclear arsenal of some 300 warheads is a powerful incentive for Iran to retain the capacity to build a nuclear arsenal of its own. Iran, like Hamas, is never going to render itself defenseless against those seeking its annihilation.<\/span><\/p>\n

An aerial attack on Iran will not be like the 12-day assault last June against Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities and state and security facilities. Then Iran calibrated its response with symbolic strikes on Al Udeid air base in Qatar in the hopes that it would not lead to a wider, protracted conflict. If an aerial assault is launched, Iran will have nothing to lose. It will understand that appeasing its adversaries is impossible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iran is not Iraq. Iran is not Afghanistan. Iran is not Lebanon. Iran is not Libya. Iran is not Syria. Iran is not Yemen. Iran is the seventeenth largest country in the world, with a land mass equivalent to the size of Western Europe. It has a population of almost 90 million \u2014 10 times greater than Israel \u2014 and its military resources, as well as alliances with China and Russia, make it a formidable opponent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite Iran\u2019s relative military weakness, when set against the combined forces of the U.S. and Israel, it can inflict a lot of damage. It will do this as swiftly as possible. Hundreds of American troops will likely be killed. Iran will certainly shut down the Strait of Hormuz, the world\u2019s most important oil chokepoint that facilitates the passage of 20 percent of the world\u2019s oil supply. This will double or triple the price of oil and devastate the global economy. It will target oil installations along with U.S. ships and military bases in the region.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mounting losses and a huge spike in oil prices will provide the fodder for Trump, and his vile counterpart in Israel, to ignite a sustained regional war.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the cost of being governed by imbeciles. God help us.<\/span><\/p>\n

*<\/h6>\n

After penning four posts<\/strong><\/a> on will there or won’t there be war on Iran – and what shape such a war might take – I’m done trying to read a future now so close as to make further speculation otiose. What I will close with, on a take it or leave it basis, is a Duran discussion of thirty lucid minutes. As always we see Alex Christoforou putting questions to a more expansive Alexander Mercouris, before wrapping up thusly:<\/p>\n

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All right, we will end the video there. We’re all boxed in. It seems with this world, we are passengers. We are passengers on this train. It’s a runaway train and we can’t get off.\u00a0 Oh, okay. Uh, we will leave it there.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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