Pope Francis, pray for us! www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...

Civilian deaths from U.S. airstrikes in Iran have called into question the Pentagon’s decision last year to gut a program dedicated to protecting civilians, Alia Awadallah and Jesse Marks write for World Politics Review.

If an offensive war with civilian casualties (including children) is not a matter of morality, then what would be one? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Under new regulations announced by Beijing last week, companies could be sanctioned simply for trying to comply with their home country’s laws. Mary Gallagher examines the new regulations in her latest column for WPR:

L'annessione della #Cisgiordania con i soldati complici dei coloni. #Gaza annientata. L'avanzata in #Libano. ll confine violato in #Siria. La guerra all' #Iran. Puizia etnica e massacri. Così la destra sionista dà forma al "Grande #Israele", un progetto fondato sulla Bibbia. ⬇️

Be careful around him! He's blue today!

I suspect the Pope sounds "woke" to many Christian conservatives because the US is steeped in prosperity theology, where the point of worship is to deliver health and wealth to believers. Thus, "feed the hungry" and "show mercy for the poor" sounds needlessly political and "woke."

Regime change in Heaven?

Magyar ended Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's 16-year grip on power in a landslide victory on Sunday. The former Orbán loyalist burst onto the scene as an opposition leader in 2024. n.pr/4vqI1Wn

NEW: Between October 2023 and December 2024, the Israeli army ran a covert psy-op aimed at shaping public opinion in Israel and abroad, originating from the “campaigns” division of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Ha_Makom recently revealed. 🧵

They made it through a few storms and eventually got delivered. Author copies of my book "Counterinsurgency, Military Occupations, and Civilian Targeting" are here. Thanks @routledgebooks.bsky.social !!

Important lesson from the Iraq debacle: when leaders make a big strategic blunder, they don’t get out of it without paying a price. It’s why it’s better not to elect incompetent leaders with severe personality disorders.

From 2020. 'Mr Trump said the US had identified 52 Iranian sites, some "at a very high level and important to Iran and the Iranian culture", and warned they would be "hit very fast and hard" if Tehran carried out revenge attacks on US interests or personnel.' www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-m...

The US government providing intelligence and military support to a local ally in the hunt for an important political figure?! No, it’s not Iran. It’s Bolivia, in 1967. New article with Thomas Field in @intnatsecjournal.bsky.social. Here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Let's be clear: you would not be pulling THAADs from South Korea and moving a Marine Expeditionary Unit from Japan to the Gulf two weeks after launching a war on Iran if you had properly anticipated the fallout it would be likely to cause.

The main difference between the #Bush administration in 2003 and the #Trump administration today is that Bush & Co. told a bunch of lies BEFORE the war, to persuade Americans it was necessary, and Trump & Co. are telling a bunch of lies with a war underway in an attempt to cover up their blunder.

The State Dept. painted humanitarian aid cuts as a necessary “disruption.” For the World Food Program, that disruption meant telling 300,000 refugees half of them would receive a meager portion of rice, lentils and oil. The rest would get nothing. (Published Dec. 2025)

Opinion Between Distinction and Destruction: Civilian Harm in Modern www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/11/03/2...

Are they surprised? If so, that would be the actual bad news. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/u...

Pre-orders have just opened for my book Counterinsurgency, Military Occupations, and Civilian Targeting. Explaining Indiscriminate Violence in Expeditionary Campaigns, with @routledgebooks.bsky.social. I am thankful to the amazing people who supported this project! www.routledge.com/Counterinsur...

The only less-than-sinister (I cannot say "good") thing in this Samsara of stupidity is that at some point he may realize he needs to reverse his decision because something bad has happened. Truly very little, I know, but I feel we cannot expect more, at present.

All wars create unexpected second and third-order effects. One of the appalling things about the Trump administration is that they don’t seem to have thought through the expected effects either. open.substack.com/pub/danieldr...

Long and useful article on Trump as a pyromaniac; setting longstanding relationships afire to no good purpose. Consumer warning: I am quoted. newrepublic.com/article/2072...

An inspiring journal is looking for two Co-Editors-in-Chief!

Fascinating on the critical minerals consumed in US weapons in the past week and the time it will take to replenish those. Gallium is a particular concern. foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/05/i...

Remarkable to hear Colby say to Congress that regime change isn't a war aim because killing Khamenei was an Israeli decision. In his Feb 28 statement Trump himself made clear that it was essentially a joint action. Meanwhile the administration appears to be actively arming a Kurdish ground force.

I’m deeply grateful to Emil Aslan Souleimanov and Lorenzo Zambernardi for endorsing my book Counterinsurgency, Military Occupations, and Civilian Targeting: Explaining Indiscriminate Violence in Expeditionary Campaigns @routledgebooks.bsky.social. I sincerely appreciate their thoughtful engagement.

“The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.” @sangernyt.bsky.social

NEW: Ukraine is holding its own. Data from the battlefield show it’s Moscow that may be in trouble, write ISW's Kim Kagan and @criticalthreats.bsky.social's Frederick Kagan in a new op-ed for @washingtonpost.com: wapo.st/3MHUlAh (Gift Link)

Mummy of a hawk (Asyut, Late Period (722-332 BCE)) Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy

This interview with the CEO of UK property giant Landsec is really fascinating. "Demand for office space is robust: businesses are signing 15 to 20 year leases... fear that AI will trigger mass job losses isn’t materialising just yet in leasing behaviour." www.bbc.com/audio/play/p...

A long list of leaders from across Latin America are aping the president of El Salvador’s iron-fisted tactics against violent crime, declaring states of emergency while pushing for more draconian treatment of convicted criminals.

RIP Robert Duvall

I am pleased to share that my book "Counterinsurgency, Military Occupations, and Civilian Targeting: Explaining Indiscriminate Violence in Expeditionary Campaigns" will be published by Routledge @routledgebooks.bsky.social (Cass Military Studies) in early April 2026.

Ambushed, dragged to a hilltop outpost, beaten unconscious: Palestinian teen Owais Hammam recounts his brutal torture by Israeli settlers and soldiers. www.972mag.com/owais-hammam...

...and just as important, she seems to forget that people around critical demonstrations have a right to security as much as citizens of any specific community, even after a terrible attack. Police resources were where they needed to be at that particular moment.

Perhaps most importantly, the Trump plan does nothing to advance Palestinian self-determination, which as @danaelkurd.bsky.social highlighted is strikingly absent from efforts to stop the war. To the contrary, Trump's plan further institutionalizes the obstacles to self-determination. (Gift link.)

American science has been under attack since January 20. Today we’re meeting with scientists to learn straight from them about the research they were doing before the Trump admin canceled their research grants—we’re learning about the things we’ll never know. #StandUpForScience

NEW: Putin rejected Trump's call for a quick peace in Ukraine during a phone call on July 3. Putin's stated commitment to his goals in Ukraine, including eliminating the so-called "root causes" of the war, contradicts his claim that Russia supports meaningful negotiations. isw.pub/UkrWar070325

Book of the week: Centers of Power in the Arab Gulf States,by @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social. Very comprehensive overview of the exercise of power in the six Arab states of the Persian Gulf. A must-read by one of the best specialists of the region to understand who gets what, when and how.

What just happened with the US and Israeli attacks on Iran? Are we any safer? Why had Trump ripped up the deal that had already solved the problem, shrinking and freezing Iran’s nuclear program? I discuss with @martindicaro.bsky.social historyasithappens.libsyn.com/visions-of-m...

"Israeli soldiers in Gaza told Haaretz that the army has deliberately fired at Palestinians near aid distribution sites..." www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Jaw-dropping reporting by Haaretz www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

True, but growing military power (that cannot match the US anyway) and a submissive attitude with "Daddy undertones" do not make for more influence.

FYI

"Today...Bourges is on the cusp of a remarkable revival...Defence-dependent towns, long used to industrial decline, are preparing for the opposite. Three places, in France, Germany & Poland, illustrate the huge potential [and] strains this can bring." www.economist.com/europe/2025/...