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Friday, March 20, 2026
Thursday, March 19, 2026
War On Iran: Energy War Moves From Disruption To Destruction – Moon of Alabama
War On Iran: Energy War Moves From Disruption To Destruction – Moon of Alabama
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2026/03/war-on-iran-energy-strikes-move-from-disruptive-to-destructive.html
War On Iran: Energy War Moves From Disruption To Destruction
March 18, 2026
War On Iran: Energy War Moves From Disruption To Destruction
The war on Iran continues to be the most important issue currently moving the world.
Israel and the U.S. are continuing their assassination campaign of Iranian officials. It was confirmed today that Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was killed by an Israeli airstrike on the house of his daughter. The strike caused several dozens of additional casualties. Larijani was a highly capable pragmatist, not a hardliner. His death is a loss for everyone who seeks peace in the Middle East.
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Fr. Bob's Reflection for the Fourth Sunday in Lent - Guest Post
Many things can challenge and unsettle our Christian faith, leading us to question God’s presence in our lives. Few things do this more powerfully than the suffering of a child – especially when a child is born with illness or deformity. It feels like the clearest example of innocent, senseless suffering. There is no easy explanation for it.
As adults, we sometimes bring hardship upon ourselves through poor choices. We may neglect our health, eat poorly, drink or smoke too much, or make decisions that eventually affect our well-being. In those cases, we can often see some connection between cause and effect.
But a newborn has done none of these things. When a baby is born with something wrong, it feels deeply unfair. Our hearts naturally cry out in protest.
This same anguish appears in today’s Gospel. The man Jesus encounters had been blind from birth, and like us, the disciples wanted to know why. In their time, many believed suffering was a punishment from God for sin. Yet that explanation falls apart immediately. How could a newborn be guilty of sin?
Jesus firmly rejects that way of thinking. He makes it clear that the man’s blindness had nothing to do with sin. Still, Jesus does not offer a reason for why the man was blind. He doesn’t attempt to explain it away. For Jesus, blindness was not a theoretical problem to be solved, but a human need to be met. His question was not, “How did this happen?” but, “How can I help?”
One of the most striking moments in this story is that Jesus looks directly at the suffering man. Many others had likely walked past him, day after day, without a second glance. He had been there so long that he had become part of the background, almost invisible.
That is often how we respond to suffering as well – we avoid it. We turn away because it makes us uncomfortable. But Jesus does the opposite. He faces suffering head-on. He acknowledges it. He refuses to ignore it.
There is, however, a surprising twist in the story. Jesus says that through this man’s blindness, “the works of God would be made visible.” This does not mean that God caused the blindness. Rather, it means that through healing the man, Jesus would reveal Himself as the Light of the World. From a tragic situation, something holy would emerge.
Human suffering is real and painful, and Jesus never pretends otherwise. We must remember that. Yet He also shows us that suffering is not the final word. There can be meaning, compassion and healing that come from it.
Suffering can soften our hearts and make us more sensitive to others who are hurting. It can move us to action. Jesus not only heals the man; He befriends him. He restores dignity to someone who had long been ignored and alone.
We may not be able to cure blindness, but we can offer company to someone who is lonely. From our abundance, we can share with those who have little. We can support organizations that go into the streets to care for the poor and forgotten.
My friends, human suffering remains a mystery. We may never fully understand why it exists. But if our desire is to help, to heal and to love, then Christianity is the right place to be.
Jesus saw suffering as a tragedy that demanded compassion and response. You and I are invited to join Him in that work.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Robert Warren, S.A.
Spiritual Director
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Monday, March 16, 2026
Sunday, March 15, 2026
Saturday, March 14, 2026
[Salon] Iran digs in for a long struggle - ArabDigest.org Guest Post
Iran digs in for a long struggle
Summary: America's illegal and brutal war on Iran has catastrophically backfired, trapping Washington and its Gulf state allies in the Iranian mangle while the myth of US and Israeli invincibility is systematically dismantled.
This is a war that is illegal, immoral and brutal, a crime of aggression and a naked violation of the United Nations Charter, launched without international sanction or the justification of self-defence. It is built on the cynical manipulation of public opinion, on nuclear smoke screens and recycled propaganda borrowed from Iraq and Libya. And it is exceptional in its brutality, from the Tomahawk missile strike that killed at least 175, almost all of them school girls, in the town of Minab in the south of Iran to the relentless bombardment that has seen the United States and Israel launch hundreds of strikes on Iran since February 28.
But for all its firepower, this war represents something far more damning than a military and moral failure. It is a self-inflicted wound for the United States. Washington and Tel Aviv have catastrophically mistaken “inflicting punishment” for “strategic victory.” Thirteen days into their illegal adventure, there is no victory, no surrender, no collapsed regime. There is only a dangerous stalemate, a quagmire that promises no escape.
Nowhere is this miscalculation more painfully evident than in the Gulf states. These absolute monarchies long wrapped in an American security blanket now find themselves exposed, hostages to a war they never wanted, being fought using bases on their soil, wreaking havoc on their cities.
The United Arab Emirates has borne the heaviest punishment. More than 1,800 missiles and drones have targeted this tiny state, a near ceaseless rain of fire – much of it hitting Dubai – that American-supplied defences cannot fully stop. Officials frame the 93% interception rate as a “successful outcome” but the psychological shock of sustained attack has shattered something far more delicate: Dubai's carefully constructed aura of stability.
Civilian infrastructure has been directly and repeatedly hit. Debris from interceptions caused a fire at the towering landmark Burj Al Arab. Direct strikes hit the Fairmont Hotel on the Palm Jumeirah. A drone attack on Dubai International Airport on March 11 wounded four labourers, the very people who built these monuments but cannot afford to flee them. A British national was arrested simply for filming the missiles.
Now America and Israel's illegal war has catastrophically backfired Iran is seeking to decolonise West Asia
The psychological shock has been profound. The myth of Dubai as a “safe haven,” robustly cultivated by Western influencers paid in petrodollars, has been shattered. Real estate transactions have halted, with analysts predicting price drops of 25% to 33%. An institutional investor reportedly withdrew a bid worth hundreds of millions for a logistics park in Jebel Ali after it was struck. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil once flowed, has virtually stopped. The economic model that built modern Dubai - low taxes, stability, openness - is under existential threat.
Meanwhile, the human reality is one of division and desperation. Some residents stay, buoyed by influencer campaigns insisting “everything is normal.” Others flee at any cost. Private jet evacuations for a family of four can reach US$250,000. Taxi fares to Oman’s capital Muscat have jumped from a few hundred dollars to over US$5,000. Banks are evacuating staff: Citi and Goldman Sachs have ordered Dubai employees to leave their offices and there are credible reports of unofficial capital controls introducing a US$100,000 limit on outbound transfers.
The Gulf states import over 90% of their food, with 70% passing through the now largely blocked Strait of Hormuz. Logistics giant Kühne+Nagel warns that Dubai may have only ten days of fresh produce left. Emergency airlifts - LuLu Group has flown in 80 tonnes of meat and 80 tonnes of vegetables from India - are expensive stopgaps, not solutions.
Even more alarming is the water crisis. Saudi Arabia depends on desalination for 70% of its water; a single plant provides 90% of the water for Riyadh. Kuwait relies on desalination for 90% of its needs, Oman for 76%. With a plant in Bahrain heavily damaged by the Iranians these are not abstract vulnerabilities. With the destruction of desalination plants Iran could render these states virtually uninhabitable.
If the war ends soon, the UAE has options: the “Covid playbook” of stimulus packages, perhaps even the long-discussed “casino option” to lure back tourism. But if the fighting continues, the consequences are profound. A prolonged war threatens the fundamental social pact of the Gulf monarchies: very limited political rights in exchange for extreme prosperity and safety. If oil revenue and investment dry up, the contract between rulers and the ruled will crack.
On March 9, US Senator Lindsey Graham issued a threat: Saudi Arabia and the GCC countries must join the fight against Iran. “If not, consequences will follow.”
The response from the Gulf was instructive and unprecedented. Khalaf al-Habtoor, a billionaire close to the UAE's ruling circles, delivered a stinging rebuke - later deleted but widely understood to reflect regime sentiment. “If President Donald Trump and Senator Graham are prepared to risk their country and the lives of Americans for Israel’s interests, that is their choice,” Habtoor wrote. “As for us, we will not do the same. Anyone who hears your statements might think you're a member of the Israeli Knesset.”
Saudi influencers joined the chorus, openly cursing Graham on social media. “You are a senator from South Carolina, not the President of the United States and certainly not the commander of Saudi Arabia's military. So STFU and know your place.”
This exchange exposes the deep fracture separating the Gulf states from their supposed allies. They no longer trust any party to this war. They cannot rely on the US for security, seeing Washington prioritise Israeli goals over Arab stability. They fear America will declare victory and leave behind a mess. They fear Israel dragging them into the conflict. They fear Iran. But most of all the ruling families fear prolonged war will expose their own fragile foundations.
Gulf rulers face an impossible choice. Join the American war and become legitimate targets for Iran's retaliation. Refuse and risk the wrath of their protector. This is the trap of client status, the inevitable cost of allowing America to be the GCC's security guarantor.
As discussed by Andreas Krieg in our 5 March podcast the United States has no strategy. Its war plans have changed multiple times. It is running out of interceptor missiles. Meanwhile, Iran executes a strategic plan decades long in preparation without deviation. It has effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz, crashing global energy markets and sending US petrol prices climbing toward $4.00 per gallon, directly threatening Trump’s political base.
The colonial strategy of “divide and conquer” has been reversed. Iran now fractures its enemies. A growing gap separates Washington and Tel Aviv based on incompatible war aims. Israel, driven by its quest for “Greater Israel” and a racist supremacist ideology wants destruction regardless of global economic fallout. The United States, bound by material interests, must calculate the cost of what could become a global economic apocalypse.
Trump, characteristically, is in denial, attempting to manage a military catastrophe with the playbook of a New York con man, changing his story every few hours, hoping to talk his way out of reality. But reality cannot be talked away.
Washington and Tel Aviv now face a prolonged conflict they did not prepare for, cannot sustain and cannot win. By destroying US early detection systems and radars in the first ten days, Iran has pushed the American military into a corner it had failed to anticipate. The American plan to escalate will backfire as Iran can damage the Gulf states more than the United States can defend them.
Iran is prepared to endure significant punishment. It has learned from Vietnam, from Algeria, from every successful struggle against colonial domination. Though for most Iranians survival and an end to the war will suffice, the regime’s goals are grander: the complete defeat of American imperialism in West Asia, the humiliation of the Trump administration and the final decolonisation of the region.
As Mohsen Rezaee a former Revolutionary Guard commander observed: “Look, the big mistake they made was that they came and designed a short-term war, but they didn’t realise this might turn into a long-term one.”
Friday, March 13, 2026
Thursday, March 12, 2026
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Fr. Bob's Reflection for the Third Sunday in Lent - Guest Post
A tourist returning from the Holy Land once shared a simple story. One day, he was sitting beside a well in a field when a woman came down from the hills. Slung over her shoulder was a large leather bucket. In her hand, she carried a ball of twine and a much smaller bucket.
She tied the twine to the small bucket and lowered it into the well. When it was full, she pulled it up and poured the water into the larger bucket. After filling it, she returned to the hills.
A short time later, a man arrived at the well. But he had no rope, no twine, nothing to lower into the well. Desperately thirsty, he dropped to his hands and knees and lapped up the water the woman had spilled.
It’s an unremarkable scene – easy to overlook. Yet it perfectly illustrates today’s Gospel. The woman at the well says to Jesus, “Sir, you do not have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where, then, will you get living water?”
But Jesus is not speaking of water that quenches the body’s thirst.
He is speaking of water that quenches the thirst of the soul.
Pointing to the well, He says, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst.”
My friends, all of us carry a spiritual thirst. We feel it as restlessness, emptiness, or longing. But what is it we truly seek?
Scripture names it clearly. The psalmist cries, “Like a deer that longs for running streams, my soul thirsts for God.” Isaiah calls out, “Come, all you who are thirsty.” Jeremiah describes the Lord as “a spring of living water.” And St. Augustine famously reminds us, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in God.”
One writer put it simply: “Our hearts have a God-shaped hole that only God can fill.” The great tragedy of our time is that we try to fill that hole with everything but God.
We attempt to quench a spiritual thirst with material success, distractions, possessions, or pleasure. But it is like drinking salt water. The more we consume, the thirstier we become. It may distract us for a moment, but it never satisfies.
Think of a crying child. We may distract the child with candy or funny faces, but until we uncover and address the real cause of the crying, the problem will remain.
Author Charlie Brower once described this emptiness through a friend named Bill, a successful football player who kept striving long after the game had been won.
“He keeps scoring touchdowns,” Brower wrote, “but the game is over. He has reached the end of the rainbow, but there is no pot of gold. He has found the buried treasure chest, but there is nothing inside.”
And that brings us to the heart of the Gospel: nothing in this world can satisfy the thirst within us – except Christ.
Jesus alone is the living water. He is the calm in our restlessness, the peace in our longing, the fullness our hearts have been searching for.
My friends, everything else may refresh us for a moment – but only Christ can satisfy us forever.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Robert Warren, S.A.
Spiritual Director
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Monday, March 9, 2026
[Salon] Dozens of US lawmakers demand probe into Pentagon officials saying Iran war 'God's divine plan -
FM: John Whitbeck
As a further installment in our world-gone-mad series, transmitted below is a report on the appeal by Trump acolytes to organized irrationality, superstition and delusion to try to generate enthusiasm for the destruction of Iran by claiming that Trump has been "appointed by Jesus" to produce Armageddon and the end of human life on our planet.
https://thecradle.co/articles/dozens-of-us-lawmakers-demand-probe-into-pentagon-officials-saying-iran-war-gods-divine-plan
Dozens of US lawmakers demand probe into Pentagon officials saying Iran war 'God's divine plan'
Hundreds of complaints from US service members report that commanders told them the war on Iran is part of biblical prophecy for Armageddon.
[Salon] The Iran war lays bare Bahrain’s fault lines - ArabDigest.org Guest Post
The Iran war lays bare Bahrain’s fault lines
Summary: the joint US and Israel attack on Iran has re-ignited tensions between Bahrain’s ruling Sunni family and the majority of its Shi’a citizens.
We thank Andrew McIntosh for today’s newsletter. Andrew is the Director of Research at the NGO SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights. His specialty fields are media analysis, sectarianism and statelessness in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Syria.
In the Gulf, the unthinkable has happened. In what was an oasis of calm in a tumultuous region, high rise skylines in the GCC are now marred by Iranian drone strikes on US military assets and civilian infrastructure. These attacks have taken on a unique character in Bahrain, as the small island kingdom - with a majority indigenous Shi’a population ruled by a Sunni royal family - struggles with domestic unrest. Following the US and Israeli forces’ assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei, both a head of state and an international Shi’a clerical leader, Bahraini civilians have taken to the streets in protest. A minority have clashed with security forces, and dozens have been arrested.
The crackdown involves civilians arrested for filming drone strikes and then publicly shamed by pro-government media. Authorities detained Bahraini Shi’a for engaging in peaceful mourning processions for Khamenei while pro-regime media levelled accusations against protestors for “sympathising with the Iranian aggression.” This follows a longstanding pattern of sectarian domestic suppression, which has now erupted in a highly polarised society with the estimated 55-70% of Bahraini citizens who are Shi’a denied democratic representation in a context where both civic space and participation in public life are highly restricted. As the Iran war continues Bahrain once again faces a significant crisis.
As angry protests sweep many Bahraini cities and villages, some joke the US and Israel regime change war in Iran might have sparked regime change in Bahrain instead
Since 2011, when protests were violently crushed by a Saudi-led military intervention, the Bahraini Government has failed to make reforms addressing the social and political inequalities that caused the unrest. These issues include an empowered parliament, limitations on the King's powers, the implementation of rights guaranteed by the Bahraini constitution and social and cultural rights for the Shi’a population. Instead, the Bahraini state has severely limited freedom of speech, press and expression over the past fifteen years, worsening social and political resentments.
Although Bahrain currently has the only functional parliament in the Gulf (Kuwait’s parliament was dissolved in 2024), the country’s opposition parties are banned, with their leaders imprisoned or in exile. Moreover, 6,000-11,000 citizens were stripped of their right to participate in politics under Law 26/2018, also known as the “Political Isolation Laws”, which bars key dissidents from running for political office, heading a civil society organisation, being on the board of a company or even running a sports club. Within the kingdom, the media is tightly regulated by the state. Individual acts such as posts criticising the government can result in arrest and torture. Politicians are no exception. In August 2024, MP Mohammed Al-Husseini was stripped of his parliamentary position after he publicly called for the release of political prisoners in parliament.
These heavy constraints maintain a system that concentrates wealth and power within the ruling Al-Khalifa family, Sunni elites and the urban classes. Despite representing more than half the citizenry, Bahraini Shi’a have limited cultural representation in the country and minimal presence in domestic media. Official history, including museums and tourist attractions, almost exclusively showcases and amplifies Sunni Arab culture.
The modern high rises and elegant garden villas in and around Manama are within miles of neglected, run-down, Shi’a-majority villages, which experience high unemployment, poor infrastructure and intense scrutiny from the police and government security forces. These segregated areas are sites of low-intensity, usually peaceful protests. Despite Bahrain being roughly half the size of Greater London, these two worlds rarely interact.
In a recent survey Shi’a Bahrainis said that while most believe in democracy, 81.1% do not feel their elected representatives reflect a fair representation of the Bahraini citizenry and 86% feel alienated from Bahraini politics, believing they have little to no agency.
These divisions are significant when measured against Bahrain’s foreign policy initiatives. 76% of Bahrainis disapprove of Bahrain joining the Abraham Accords which saw normalisation of relations with Israel in 2020. Support for the US has also declined, with only 12% of Bahrainis now considering it a friendly country. The poll, though it was taken before the US Fifth Fleet in Manama was attacked by Iran, is still significant. It reflects dissatisfaction with America’s backing of Israel in the Gaza war that began in October 2023 further cementing opposition to the government’s normalisation decision. While these opinions cross sectarian lines, they are arguably felt most acutely among many Bahraini Shi’a.
Since 2023, prominent Shi’a imams and reciters have been summoned to police stations or arrested for voicing opposition to normalisation with Israel or for calling for the release of political prisoners. Significant religious events, such as Ashura, were subjected to harsher restrictions, including travel bans on key clerics and the arrests of other Shi’a religious figures for making statements critical of the Bahraini government. In October 2024, Imam Al-Saddiq Mosque, Bahrain’s largest Shi’a Mosque, was closed indefinitely following repeated sermons condemning Israel and criticising the US for arming the IDF in its wars in Gaza and Lebanon, leading to altercations between security forces and Shi’a civilians as the mosque was shuttered.
In November 2025, Ebrahim Sharif, the former leader of the banned opposition party Wa’ad, was arrested and sentenced to six months in prison for “making offensive remarks against sister Arab states and their leaders" after he publicly condemned normalisation between Bahrain and Israel during an interview in Lebanon. His arrest and conviction has further inflamed political tensions as it occurred alongside sustained, small-scale protests to release political prisoners and demands for better access to unemployment benefits. The kingdom was already a tinderbox of political divisions and resentments; the US and Israeli war on Iran and Iranian retaliatory attacks attacks on Bahrain and other Gulf states has now dramatically heightened those tensions.
Faced with an unprecedented geopolitical crisis in its neighbourhood, the Bahraini government’s options are limited. The ruling Al Khalifa family has continuously ignored public opinion and imposed draconian policies to maintain control. Yet, in the face of a regional war, these protests show the limitations and diminishing returns of that strategy. Social and political marginalisation is increasing the risk of radicalisation and violence as Bahrain remains in a downward spiral of unrest where repression breeds resentment and leads to further crackdowns. Although the government is currently at no risk of collapse, its inability or unwillingness to engage in political reconciliation or pluralism means the country continues to lurch from one polarising crisis to another. Foregoing state-led dialogue and social inclusion ensures that alienation and anger among Shi’a communities, heightened by the Iran war, will continue and likely led to further unrest, harsh security crackdowns and wider fractures in an already divided Kingdom.
Sunday, March 8, 2026
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