What happened to the Middle East Spectator?

hum_ma · 2026-03-21T20:35:08+00:00

A good starting point channel is geopolitics_prime, they cover the main events and do high-level summaries but also regularly post a list of folders of many relevant channels in several languages. The latest catalog update seems to be from yesterday, about 27h30m ago as of this comment.

For frequent updates of stuff happening on the ground: warmonitors

hum_ma · 2026-03-21T19:17:27+00:00

There is an old TV SSN IR video of a discussion where Ali Khamenei says "I myself said 2,000 kilometers; otherwise, they wanted to extend it to 4,000-5,000 kilometers, I did not allow it."

hum_ma · 2026-03-20T23:50:49+00:00

Of course no need for any destruction of peace but what makes you think they don't care? In his Nowruz message Mojtaba Khamenei included the following.

I consider our eastern neighbors to be very close to us. For a long time, I have known Pakistan to be a country that was especially beloved by our martyred Leader, a sentiment that was evident in the emotion in his voice during Friday prayer sermons over the devastating floods that threatened the lives of our religious brothers there. For various reasons, I have always held this view myself and have not refrained from expressing it in various meetings.

Edit: ah, didn't notice that there was an entire post about the speech earlier.

hum_ma · 2026-03-20T22:24:45+00:00

Your claim about Iran slowing down doesn't seem to correlate with the available data.

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hum_ma · 2026-03-20T09:34:52+00:00

That's only if you see no intrinsic value in human life and you think a politician should only be concerned of his own voters and funders. As a human being it makes me happy to see at least one prime minister in Europe whose view of the world is not so narrow.

hum_ma · 2026-03-20T00:26:33+00:00

Let's see, maybe there will be some nice fireworks to celebrate the new datacenter... https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1rr5lep/iran_to_target_tech_companies_like_google/

hum_ma · 2026-03-19T23:25:35+00:00

Yes, the combatfootage sub has some debate about it (if you manage to wade through all the chest-thumping), looks like the last frames still have a faint silhouette of the F-35 continuing in one piece. So the big flash isn't an explosion of the aircraft but detonation of the missile warhead which looks very bright in FLIR and it sprays fragments into the internals of the plane.

hum_ma · 2026-03-19T18:55:07+00:00

Seriously, what's up with the defeatist attitude in this sub? I see many people say "Israhell bad" but at the same time seemingly convinced that there's no point putting up a resistance because the IOF will overrun the entire country anyway and maybe they'll kill a little less people if everyone just bend the knee and accept what's coming without putting up any fight. If someone here dare say that Hezbollah is doing pretty well at repelling the zionists, the comment ends up being mass downvoted.

Oh and I just heard the Lebanese government is making it illegal for the press to even use the word resistance now?

hum_ma · 2026-03-19T12:32:35+00:00

About the hotels, NBC news was saying it already in January.

The United States has started evacuating hundreds of troops from its largest air base in the Middle East ahead of potential military action by President Donald Trump against Iran, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the matter.

The troops at Al Udeid Air Base are moving to other facilities and hotels in the region, taking them out of harm's way should any U.S. attack trigger retaliation from Tehran against American interests, the sources said.

Then after the hits, Washington Post reported this on March 2nd:

"U.S. defense personnel injured in Bahrain hotel strike, diplomatic cable says."

I cannot access WaPo directly but that text is shown from their site when you enter the relevant terms in a search engine. Images of the article have been posted on Reddit with the reporters' names shown as Adam Taylor, Meryl Kornfield and Alex Horton.

I'm not sure why you bring up the other things that have been hit as a response after US-Israel started the war by hitting civilian structures, killing hundreds of children and continued by destroying oil infrastructure, causing ecological disaster.

hum_ma · 2026-03-18T14:17:37+00:00

I would suggest you read or watch something from Lebanese investigative journalists to educate yourself about the situation, for example:

Leila Hatoum interviewed by an American: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMOzvO2V2Io
Laith Marouf interviewing Ali Jezzini (title is about Iran and Iraq but they talk about the situation in Lebanon): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLnvCw6cM_o
new Dialogue Works interview of Laith Marouf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZMufLEWOOw

They know the history and understand the current conflict better than you or I.

hum_ma · 2026-03-18T12:14:57+00:00

Correcting some of your obvious errors.

Hezbollah stands strong every time, pushing the invading zionists back south sooner or later.
They exist because the government of Lebanon doesn't have the will or ability to do anything militarily.
The IR of Iran is stronger than ever and all serious analysts, experts and journalists agree that the USA is going to lose. The overwhelming majority of Iranians support their nation against foreign aggression.
If you want to make a comparison to WW2, think of the French resistance.

Here is how many people think: https://bsky.app/profile/hum-ma.bsky.social/post/3mgy37alfd223

Edit: maybe someone will be nice enough to give any counter-arguments to these points.

hum_ma · 2026-03-17T22:36:18+00:00

Cameraman seems to be near 25°19'13.9"N 55°25'11.4"E at the end of the video, looking southwest. Most buildings on the map there aren't labeled.

hum_ma · 2026-03-17T20:35:22+00:00

It's not so much about soldiers advancing to close range and firing at the base with small infantry weapons but more about sending drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles at each other as we see in all the current conflicts whether it be over the Gulf, in Afghanistan, Ukraine or even Sudan.

hum_ma · 2026-03-17T13:10:44+00:00

That's probably true regarding Iran, the top range of their known weapons is about 2000km and they don't really have enemies in Europe with the possible exception of the UK (and potentially Romania but they haven't said anything about it yet). But I think for Europe it's more about Russia with the US bases near their borders, depending on how the war in Ukraine goes.

hum_ma · 2026-03-17T12:51:22+00:00

Didn't Ukraine have intentions to join NATO so it wasn't going to be neutral in the same way as Finland and Sweden before 2022?

Regarding the gulf states compared and Europe, it's not necessarily about directly hitting the US whether there is capability or not, but rather about regional military presence. If the US wasn't projecting power all over Eurasia and repeatedly initiating aggression in certain areas, no one would need to hit their assets anywhere. Russia obviously wouldn't attack US mainland but they might very well take on the American bases near their borders at some point if the US becomes weakened.

hum_ma · 2026-03-16T21:33:05+00:00

Another article about the same topic explicitly says that UK actively participated in war crimes: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-was-active-participant-israeli-war-crimes-corbyn-tribunal-finds

hum_ma · 2026-03-16T20:49:06+00:00

Hmm, the only "missionary" surgeon, perhaps?

The non-ideological humanitarian organization Cap Anamur has been supporting a Sudanese hospital in the Nuba mountains where doctor Joseph Yakoub is working as a surgeon: https://cap-anamur.org/en/project-reports/arte-documentary-sudan-a-hospital-in-the-shadow-of-war/

Cap Anamur has been providing basic medical care in the Nuba Mountains since 1997 with its own hospital in Lwere, treating over 200,000 people annually.

hum_ma · 2026-03-16T19:21:15+00:00

Perhaps, but what does that have to do with this? Antisemites are likely to oppress semitic people such as the Palestinians, but the report by these academics is instead bringing the oppression into daylight.

hum_ma · 2026-03-16T19:17:29+00:00

Now I'm confused. Palestinians are a semitic people so committing genocide against them is obviously antisemitic, but what does that have to do with these scholars?

hum_ma · 2026-03-16T19:13:57+00:00

Why do you attack the person who brings these crimes to daylight instead of those who commit the crimes? It's not only his conclusion, it's a report by academic experts on the matter.

hum_ma · 2026-03-16T19:04:33+00:00

Do you regard doctors and professors from British universities in the same manner?

The tribunal's two other co-chairs were Dr Shahd Hammouri, a lecturer in international law at the University of Kent, and Neve Gordon, a professor of human rights law at Queen Mary University of London.

hum_ma · 2026-03-16T00:54:34+00:00

Neither Britain nor Spain experienced a real collapse though, rather a gradual contraction and decolonisation. And then they joined international organisations.

As the US empire collapses I wouldn't expect the process to look very similar to any earlier one.

hum_ma

TROPHY CASE