I just read Maria's post after looking at a CNBC picture of Putin seated next to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. The expressions on both men and their body language are so striking and seem to confirm everything in Maria's post: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/07/russia-slams-us-sanctions-against-iran-promises-to-save-nuclear-deal.html
I also just so happened to be taking a break from Ronan Farrow's War on Peace, and found Maria's #4 heart-breaking. I hope the EU can pull off diplomacy for America, too, because Farrow's very dense book explains exactly why we don't have any diplomats left.
Maria I am glad that you have posted this today. Iran and North Korea have both been on my mind and in visions over the past few weeks.
What you've posted in roughly what I'm seeing too. I'm getting the sense that the US may start a war on two fronts. One with Iran and one with North Korea. When I think of this I see tangled rope. It's all intertwined.
The greed and arrogance of the Trump government will lower US standing in the world and it will now awaken the Chinese dragon. These wars, especially one on China's doorstep will eventually push China into showing it's strength. I see that the Trump government will continue to think that it will invade or sanction any country that it sees fit with continuing loss of support around the world. (It's already happening the EU has told businesses to ignore US sanctions against Iran and continue to trade with Iran). The US will be seen as the bully boy disrupting the peace in the world. The loss of power on the world stage will come as a major shock and will shake the US to its core. This is a war they simply cannot win. At this point the visions I am seeing is that countries around the world, especially Europe, will tell the US to remove it's bases, missiles and weapons to protect that countries people as it will be a target for an attack. One country will feel strong enough to do so and others will follow. Britain will stand by America's side to the very end until the UK breaks apart itself.
Iran on its own will be suprisingly strong and combat ready which will shock Israel and the US. The Trump government has brought in sanctions again so that they can weaken Iran for occupation. Dare I say it? There are more countries than just Russia and China willing to back Iran. I get the feeling that Iran likes to be seen as the weaker country. Psychological warfare. Be under no illusions this is a strong and capable country. This in turn will encourage others in the area to say they have had enough of US interference in the Middle East.
My visions of missiles being launched from a hillside are not subsiding. I cannot see any outcome other than war. I don't see a nuclear war. But I see one which the US will lose. I don't see the US being occupied either or under control of another country. But it will be severely weakened by economic turmoil, constant war and loss of allies. If Trump has any sense he will back off from both North Korea and Iran.
Sorry if this seems a total downer on the US but looking at the replies before I think we can all agree that there are major changes coming.
Celticwitch, what I see is that developments depend on how far war extends. If things remain limited to a regional Middle East conflict, or even two conflicts in very separate areas, we won't see nuclear weapons used or any attempt to attack/occupy mainland US territory.
However, if things go all the way to WWIII, which remains a possibility, at some point nuclear weapons will be used. Not in large scale, as in the MAD scenario, but to target specific military objectives. Also, in a WWIII scenario, certainly the US losing would be a potential outcome, and that would happen with attacks to US mainland. WWIII would not start if the winner wasn't hanging in the balance, that is, both sides could win or lose.
The Pentagon "gamed out" a war with Iran over a decade ago - the US lost. Iran just has too many advantages including straddling the Straights of Hormuz where much of the world's oil tanker traffic goes. War game was "Millennium Challenge" if anyone wants to look it up.
Also, I can't see a war because the military knows just how bad it could be. They "slow walked" plans to strike NK before and I would expect them to do the same here. If push came to shove they might just disobey.
(Posted this once before but it disappeared.)
I'm bumping this thread in hopes that Maria and others will update us on their predictions.
I'm especially curious what others are seeing regarding cyber attacks and the potentially catastrophic loss of life this could entail. What cyber weapons are Iran, China, Russia, and/or North Korea holding in their back pockets, and will they use them? And will Trump order the launch of something as destructive as Stuxnet, or worse?
Speaking of, Trump has spurious business links to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (from that bizarre hotel job in Azerbaijan). In May, an Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, reported that the Revolutionary Guards wanted to see the U.S. scrap its nuclear deal. Its dissolution would make Rohani vulnerable for having supported it in the first place, and his "plans to curb the economic activity of the Guards will come to an end."
I've been meaning to post something more on this thread for a while but my sense of where things were heading kept shifting around - I think lots of things have been happening "behind the curtains" in the past month.
It's true that war with Iran would be a strategic nightmare - it has always been. That's why the people living there today are mostly the descendants of the people that have always lived there. It's a very difficult area to try to conquer. However, I don't think the US would attempt to conquer Iran in any conventional sense. What they can attempt, and where I feel things are heading, is a limited military operation in order to change 2 things: (1) Destroy any facilities capable of any nuclear programs (2) Give them enough trouble at home that they will call back their troops in Syria in order to deal with the situation in Iran. They also hope that those two things, combined with a propaganda campaign and support to anti-regime groups, can precipitate regime change in Iran. The problem with that plan is that it can easily escalate, and it's very likely to.
Vestralux, the question of cyber warfare is a complicated one, so I'll start a new thread on that. Where it comes to Iran, they have some good hackers, but they aren't a match for the US. When they have successfully attacked the US (the GPS attack on a military drone and then a boat), they had help from Russian hackers, who are very good.
It's true that scraping the nuclear deal, and the recent scraping of the old "friendship treaty" that amounted to very little but still put some limits on the sanctions that the US could impose on its own on Iran, has favored the fundamentalist hardliners in Iran. I don't get that Trump particularly wanted that. His main business interest here is the wide Israeli interests of the Kushner family, that as everybody knows, are intertwined with the business interests of the Trump family.
What all of this is leading to is a final showdown. Assad in Syria is determined to re-take the Golan Heights, and Iran has decided to help. Iran doesn't even recognize Israel as a country. And the US is preparing to respond not just by helping Israel defend the Golan Heights, but also attacking Iran. Right now, my feeling is that the main event is going to start at the end of this month. But it won't last long, just one wave of military operations, and then the US won't be doing much for the rest of the year. And in the meantime, Iran and Syria are going to re-group and try some guerrilla warfare, they won't be leaving in peace the Golan Heights. That's going to set things up for a bigger confrontation next year.
Maria, Thank you for responding. You've been pretty accurate and well informed as well. I wonder if anyone else, perhaps Bright Opal would weigh in. She's been picking up signals from that part of the world.
Maria, I inadvertently missed your post on the 6th, but I'm glad to see it tonight.
I've been seeing timeline instability in the Middle East where Iran is a central player, though there are shifts occurring which extend beyond Iran's borders. My post may be more appropriate to another thread (one specifically about the Middle East), but I'm placing it here for now. Let me know if there's a better place for this discussion.
I sense that axis powers are allying out of convenience and that certain of their movements will be Trump-dependent. We may see him appear to act assertively or claim a position with regard to the region, but I sense that he has too many competing interests and is at risk of being painfully checked.
Some questions:
1. Can anyone pick up a future map of Syria? (2-3 years out from now, for example.)
If so, does it appear whole, or has it been divided?
2. Is anyone able to see Erik Prince's organizational efforts in the region?
[If Israeli connections (Mossad or otherwise) show up, it may still be important to probe further out.]
3. Is anyone able to pick up the energy or morale of the secular-leaning Persian/Iranian population?
If so, can you follow this collective energy outward in time? How does it feel 10, 20, or 30 years in the future?