Experts now suggest we "retire" the term superpower as concentrated power is no longer available to any one nation. Welcome to the post-primacy world, where influence is contested and rules are in flux.
Friday, May 15, 2026
Trump’s Iranian Nightmare
Trump’s catastrophic miscalculation in Iran and refusal to accept the inevitability of defeat is pushing us towards a global depression and ensuring the suffering and immiseration of millions.
America’s newest quagmire in the Middle East is like its old quagmires in the Middle East. It is based, as were the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, on a gross misreading of our adversaries, a catastrophic failure to understand the limits of imperial power and no discernable strategy. It swells the profits of the war industry, wasting billions of public funds, alienates our allies and erodes the global power and prestige of the United States.
Dying empires, governed by the corrupt and the incompetent, are blinded by militarism and hubris. They are unable to read the world around them. They stumble into self-defeating cul-de-sacs — as we did in Iraq, Afghanistan and earlier in Vietnam — where military adventurism accelerates self-inflicted wounds.
The war on Iran is one more chapter in our precipitous and ultimately fatal decline.
Tehran’s 10-point temporary ceasefire proposal — brokered by Pakistani mediators and presented to the U.S. 40 days after war against Iran had begun — is tantamount to surrender terms. It demands the end of U.S. and Israeli attacks, including in Lebanon. It calls for the removal of U.S. military bases and installations from the region. It solidifies Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz. It refuses to abandon uranium enrichment. It calls for the end to sanctions and termination of anti-Iranian resolutions by the United Nations Security Council and International Atomic Energy Agency. It also requires release of frozen assets — estimated at $100 billion — and reparations for the U.S. and Israeli attacks.
This is too bitter a humiliation for the U.S. and Israel to accept. (more...)
Pope slams Europe’s military buildup as ‘betrayal’ of diplomacy
The pontiff has decried rising European military spending, which saw its sharpest increase since the Cold War last year
Pope Leo XIV has condemned rising European military spending, warning that rearmament betrays diplomacy and fuels tensions in a world already being “maimed by wars.”
Global military spending approached a record $3 trillion in 2025 despite lower US outlays, according to a SIPRI report released last month, with Europe recording the sharpest regional increase. SIPRI linked the surge to the Ukraine conflict, tensions with Russia, and growing US pressure for greater NATO burden sharing.
Pope Leo argued that such policies should not be described as defense, but as dangerous rearmament. Addressing students at Rome’s Sapienza University on Thursday, he said that young people were asking older generations what kind of world they would leave behind.
“A world unfortunately maimed by wars… In the last year, the growth in military spending worldwide, and particularly in Europe, has been enormous,” the pontiff said. “Let’s not call ‘defense’ a rearmament that increases tensions and insecurity, depletes investments in education and healthcare, undermines trust in diplomacy, and enriches elites who care nothing for the common good.”
He also warned about the growing use of artificial intelligence in warfare, citing conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran as evidence of “the inhumane evolution of the relationship between war and new technologies in a spiral of annihilation.” (more...)
Pope slams Europe’s military buildup as ‘betrayal’ of diplomacy
Handala announces hack of figure tied to Israeli normalization accords
The Handala hacker group said it breached communications linked to a figure involved in the Israeli normalization accords and Netanyahu’s reported UAE visit.
The Handala hacker group announced it had breached communications belonging to a figure it described as a central architect of the Israeli normalization accords and an organizer of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reported March visit to the United Arab Emirates.
In a statement released Thursday alongside published images and documents, the group identified the individual as Samuel Shay, noting that he played a key role in behind-the-scenes coordination between the Israeli government and Gulf states.
Handala described Shay as the “mastermind behind Netanyahu’s UAE visit” and stated that it had exposed what it characterized as a covert regional political, economic, and “security” network.
The group asserted that Shay acted as a facilitator of relations between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi through business and strategic initiatives involving Gulf states and "Israel". (more...)
Handala announces hack of figure tied to Israeli normalization accords
Faith leaders hold ‘Moral Monday’ peace rally in Washington to decry Trump's 'unholy war’ in West Asia
Faith leaders held a Moral Monday peace rally outside of the White House against what they called the ‘unholy war' in the West Asia region.
Their demands were simple, no to war, no to policy violence, yes to peace and yes to justice.
A new poll finds that just 13% of Americans believe that the US has won the war against Iran.
There is increasing admission in the United States that the war is looking like a loss, economically speaking, no matter what happens next.
After over 70 days of war, the costs are being paid for by the nation's lower class at the gas pumps and the supermarkets.
Research shows, however, that most war costs are incurred after the fighting ends. (more...)
Christians face harassment and violence from Israeli settlers
On Capitol Hill, a protest was held to denounce the mainstream media's silence about the growing wave of persecution of Christians by Israelis.
From a brutal attack on a nun in Jerusalem to the desecration of a cross in Lebanon, the increasing number of high-profile incidents is drawing attention to Israel's worsening violent intolerance of many groups
Getting spit on, disparaging graffiti, insults, intimidation; all things which would receive huge amounts of attention if done towards Jews have reportedly become a daily experience for Palestinian Christians.
Almost 200,000 Christians live in Israel. However, polls indicate that half of them under the age of 30 are considering leaving due to the constant violence, harassment and insults as Israeli society continues to drift even further to the right
Israel's decades of land grabs and murder of Palestinians of all faiths have escalated into an attempt to foment an all-out regional war since October 7, 2023.
This has allowed Israel's most racist and ultra nationalist groups, who have been incorporated into the government, to feel that they can operate with impunity. (more...)
Christians face harassment and violence from Israeli settlers
Leaked Documents Show Cisco Systems’ Deep Relationship with Israeli Security State
“Never Let a Good Crisis Go To Waste”: Internal documents show Cisco’s growing collaboration with the Israeli military over the course of the genocide in Gaza.
Cisco Systems is one of the most consequential—yet least visible—corporations in Silicon Valley. The San Jose-based networking giant, with a market capitalization in excess of $270 billion and annual revenue of $56.7 billion in 2025, manufactures the routers, switches, firewalls, and communications platforms that run the internet’s infrastructure, as well as many of its worldwide corporate, government, and military networks.
Cisco makes a point of publicly highlighting its commitment to corporate social responsibility, and building “an inclusive future for all” in the dozens of countries around the world in which it operates. Yet the company’s aggressive pursuit of contracts with the Israeli government and military—a small yet growing part of its global business—has led to accusations that behind this sunny facade the networking giant is profiting from genocide.
A new set of leaked documents—provided to Drop Site by whistleblowers disturbed by the company’s operations in Israel—shows Cisco’s deep and growing collaboration with the Israeli military and intelligence establishment in its regional wars and the genocide in Gaza.
In 2025, an Israeli Air Force officer publicly discussed using Cisco-powered infrastructure to support operations. The anonymous officer, identified as the head of the Israeli Air Force’s operational branch, told a tech conference in Israel that the Air Force had conducted “tens of thousands of attacks” in the past year, and described how IT systems had been vital to enabling this combat activity. The officer referenced Cisco infrastructure being used by air force intelligence personnel for communications and managing high volumes of operational data—including the use of networking tools by drone operators and ground forces to store and analyze videos and share coordinates for strikes.
Cisco’s work with the Israeli government and military has been documented in public news reports and new business announcements in the country. But the internal documents—including presentations, purchase and revenue records, and schedules—shed light on the rapidly expanding list of services that Cisco has been providing directly to the Israeli Ministry of Defense and other branches of the security state over the past several years. (more...)
Leaked Documents Show Cisco Systems’ Deep Relationship with Israeli Security State
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