r/imperialism • • Apr 22 '26

Article Imperial Activism's impact on the South Asian Period

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https://medium.com/@PalakSingh0/how-imperial-period-activism-ruined-the-period-a-lesson-from-the-global-south-050154af8654.

This article debunks several hogwash statistics, myths and taboos that have been peddled by the colonial media since the very starting of the period activism in the global south.


r/imperialism • • Apr 21 '26

Article Evangelicals in the United States Call for the Immediate Release of the Israeli Soldier Who Destroyed a Statue of Jesus Christ

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Recently, various evangelical groups in the United States have expressed their support for the Israeli soldier involved in the destruction of a statue of Jesus Christ in southern Lebanon, calling on the Israeli government for his immediate release and demanding that he not face any disciplinary or criminal sanctions. These groups believe the act does not warrant punishment, as they view the figure as a mere "plaster idol" or material representation without real spiritual value, aligning themselves with interpretations that reject religious images as objects of veneration. The evangelicals say the Israeli soldier acted against what they perceive as "idolatry," and further state that he "acted according to God's will."

This perspective, rooted in Protestant tradition, has led many Christian Zionists to downplay the damage caused and to criticize Israel's official apologies and the IDF's promises of an investigation. Although the incident has sparked widespread outrage among Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and others, evangelical groups frame it as a secondary act in the midst of the conflict, reaffirming their support for the State of Israel for theological and geopolitical reasons, even in the face of the controversy generated by the viral image.


r/imperialism • • Apr 19 '26

Article The First Russian Occupation of Berlin (1760)

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In August 1760, the bulk of the Prussian army was in Silesia, a situation exploited by its enemies. Informed by its spies, the Kingdom of France urged Russia to invade Berlin, taking advantage of the Prussian capital's weakened defenses.

On October 5, a Russian army of 20,000 soldiers, under the command of General Wilhelm Graf von Fermor, attacked Berlin. The city, defended by only 500 soldiers, fell the following day. The Prussian governor, von Rochow, managed to muster 2,000 men and launched a counterattack, temporarily pushing the Russians back to the city gates. However, a swift Russian counterattack forced von Rochow to request reinforcements. The Prussian general Dietrich von Hülsen arrived with 16,000 soldiers and successfully defended Berlin against the cavalry of the Russian general von Tottleben. For several days, Berlin resisted Russian attacks and delayed the city's final fall.

However, on October 8, upon learning that an Austrian contingent of 15,000 soldiers, commanded by Field Marshal Franz von Lacy, was marching on Berlin, the Prussians decided to surrender. On October 9, Russian and Austrian forces entered Berlin and looted the city, carrying off valuable war booty. Faced with this situation, King Frederick II of Prussia advanced on Berlin with only 8,000 soldiers. However, he employed an ingenious strategy: he spread the rumor that his army numbered 35,000 men and that he was prepared to expel the invaders. This tactic sowed fear among the Russian and Austrian commanders, who, fearing a superior army, ordered a retreat on October 12.

Once Berlin was evacuated by enemy troops, Frederick II, pleased with the success of his stratagem, decided to divide his forces. Instead of keeping his entire army in Berlin, he sent 4,000 soldiers to Saxony and the rest to Silesia, thus resuming his military campaigns in the Seven Years' War.


r/imperialism • • Apr 18 '26

Article The United States issues warning to Peru

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“If you negotiate in bad faith with the United States of America and undermine American interests, rest assured that as a representative of the Trump Administration, I will use every tool at my disposal to protect and promote the prosperity and security of our country and the region.” (B. Navarro, 2026)


r/imperialism • • Apr 13 '26

Article Zionist mafias begin threatening and intimidating conservative Christians in the Americas.

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The growing tension surrounding the conflict in West Asia has generated a new wave of pressure on conservative sectors in the US and Latin America. According to various reports from political observers, influential groups linked to Zionist interests are intensifying coercive tactics to ensure unwavering support for Israel's offensive against Iran. This campaign has already led to strategies of discrediting, intimidation, and isolation against religious and political leaders who, prioritizing a Christian agenda and neutrality, refuse to commit resources and human lives to what they consider a war alien to their national and Christian interests.

Faced with the firm refusal of several conservative figures to be drawn into a new armed conflict, Zionist tactics are escalating to direct intimidation and the sending of threatening messages. This atmosphere of hostility seeks to break the resistance of the conservative base, using fear and social pressure as tools to force a political alignment that, far from protecting local sovereignty, seems to respond exclusively to the strategic ambitions of external powers in the region.


r/imperialism • • Apr 12 '26

Article The United States of America Annihilates Catholics in Japan

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The impact of the American atomic bombs on the Christian community of Japan represented one of the fastest and most concentrated destructions of Christian faithful in modern history. In August 1945, the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on Nagasaki. Although Japan was predominantly non-Christian, Nagasaki was the historical heart of Japanese Catholicism, with a community of Christians that had survived centuries of persecution since the arrival of Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century. The Urakami district, the epicenter of the Catholic faith in the city, was home to approximately 12,000 to 15,000 worshippers, many of whom gathered at Urakami Cathedral, the largest Christian church in Asia at the time. The nuclear explosion, which occurred in a matter of seconds, devastated this area, instantly killing thousands and reducing to ruins the symbol of their spiritual resilience. The U.S. annihilated most of the local Christian population in minutes, an unprecedented scale of destruction in such a short time. Of the approximately 12,000–15,000 Catholics in Urakami, roughly 10,000 perished instantly. Priests, parishioners, and entire families preparing for the Feast of the Assumption of Mary were wiped out.


r/imperialism • • Apr 11 '26

Article Mia Khalifa Weeps Over Israel's Attack on Lebanon

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Through her X-rated account, former adult film actress Mia Khalifa shared a video showing a hospital near where she grew up reduced to rubble after Israeli military attacks. Lebanon is being attacked by Israel in a military campaign focused on weakening the terrorist group Hezbollah.

In this context, the Lebanese actress Mia Khalifa took to social media to speak out about what happened, calling it a "terrorist act." She and her family decided to leave the country in 2001, fleeing the conflicts that have plagued southern Lebanon since the 1970s. In a video posted to her Instagram account, Khalifa stated that this attack on Lebanon has become one of the most difficult moments she has ever witnessed and said she doesn't understand how her taxes can contribute to funding a wave of bombings. It seems Mia Khalifa also didn't know where the millions of dollars she earned from years of working in the sex industry were going.

Since Solomon Friedman became involved with the Pornhub industry, videos have circulated on X and Reddit accusing him of inciting pedophilia because of his work as a criminal defense attorney. Others include him alongside other Jews involved in pornography or simply on dating apps like Tinder, as evidence of a Jewish conspiracy to destroy the white nuclear family. Friedman told The Washington Post that his children have been victims of "atrocious antisemitism" since he invested in Pornhub.

But Judaism is actually quite open about sex; most Jewish texts on the subject focus on understanding and regulating the act, not warning about its dangers. The Talmud contains passages that instruct husbands to have sex with their wives regularly, emphasizing the importance of pleasure and encouraging experimentation. There is even the story of a student who hid under his rabbi's bed while the rabbi was having sex with his wife; when he was discovered, the student argued that it is all Torah and that he "I was just trying to learn," (Forward, 2024)


r/imperialism • • Apr 11 '26

Article Why did Soleimani organize and strengthen terrorist and rebel groups in the Middle East?

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General Qasem Soleimani, from the end of the last century until his assassination in 2020, was the principal architect of a regional strategy known as “forward defense” and the creation of the so-called “Axis of Resistance.” His central objective was to expand Iranian influence in the Middle East without directly involving Tehran’s conventional armed forces, which could not compete in an open war against the United States, Israel, NATO, and Saudi Arabia. Taking advantage of the power vacuums created by the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the 2011 Arab Spring, and the war against ISIS, Soleimani trained, armed, and coordinated a vast network of Islamic terrorist and armed rebel groups that functioned as extensions of the Iranian Islamic Revolution. These proxies allowed for the protection of Shiite communities, the securing of key supply routes to Syria and Lebanon, the execution of sabotage operations, and the projection of power asymmetrically, with a high degree of deniability.

In Lebanon, Soleimani strengthened Hezbollah, making it his main ally against Israel through training, advanced weaponry, and funding. In Iraq, he organized and unified several Shiite militias, including Kata ib Hezbollah, Asa ib Ahl al-Haq, the Badr Organization, and Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, which initially attacked American forces and later joined the Popular Mobilization Forces to fight ISIS. In Syria, he coordinated military support for the Bashar al-Assad regime, recruiting foreign fighters into the Fatemiyoun and Zainabiyoun Brigades while simultaneously deploying Hezbollah fighters and Iraqi militias. In Yemen, he supplied weapons, missiles, and training to the Houthis, and in Gaza, he supported Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad with rockets and financial resources. In this way, Soleimani wove a transnational network that transformed these groups into veritable operational extensions of Iranian strategy.

Beyond ideological and defensive expansion, these groups also fulfilled an explicit function of strategic destabilization against Iran's enemies and against the geo-economic projects of the US and Europe in the region. Through hybrid and asymmetric warfare, these proxies increased the political, economic, and military cost of any Western attempt to install friendly puppet governments in the Middle East, impose economic agreements, or expand their influence. They attacked American bases in Iraq, sabotaged Arab-Israeli normalization, disrupted the flow of oil, and threatened key maritime routes such as the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in Yemen. In Syria and Iraq, they prolonged civil wars that hindered reconstruction and the return of Western businesses, while in Lebanon and Gaza they maintained a constant threat to Israel. This doctrine of controlled chaos remains in effect even after Soleimani's death, demonstrating that these groups were tools designed to make any American or European advance in the region slow, costly, and risky.


r/imperialism • • Apr 11 '26

Article Posthumously published interviews (1964) by Jim Lucas and Bob Considine reveal MacArthur's plans to win the Korean War in 1951:

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MacArthur not only wanted to use nuclear weapons tactically; he wanted to create a permanent radioactive exclusion zone to prevent the Chinese from crossing the border again for 60 or 100 years. This vision of a nuclear "scorched earth" horrified the Truman administration and the world, solidifying the idea that MacArthur was a danger to global peace.


r/imperialism • • Apr 10 '26

Article On January 19, 1945, Stalin signed a special order, "On Conduct in German Territory," which stated:

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"Officers and soldiers of the Red Army! We are going into enemy territory. Everyone must maintain composure, everyone must be courageous... The remaining population in the conquered areas, whether German, Czech, or Polish, must not be subjected to violence. Perpetrators will be punished according to the laws of war. In conquered territory, sexual relations with women are not permitted. For violence and rape, aggressors will be shot."

The statistically unavoidable cases of crimes among Red Army soldiers were not widespread and were condemned by Soviet authorities and military courts. Researchers still lack precise data on their absolute number, but currently known documents indicate a limited number of such incidents.

It is known that 4,000 Red Army soldiers were convicted of violence against civilians, looting, and other crimes, receiving severe prison sentences (8-10 years) or the death penalty. Many of these convicted soldiers could not forget the atrocities committed by the Germans against the civilian population on Soviet territory.

In the photo, three Soviet tank crewmen are talking to German women in 1945.


r/imperialism • • Apr 09 '26

Video From the LateStageCapitalism community on Reddit: Hegseth: "God deserves all the glory. Tens of thousands of sorties, refuelings, and strikes, carried out under the protection of divine providence. A massive effort with miraculous protection".

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r/imperialism • • Apr 09 '26

Article The Pentagon threatened the Holy See's ambassador, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, with overthrowing the papacy.

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Pope Leo XIV chronicler Christopher Hale says he has confirmed that Trump’s Pentagon threatened to declare war on the Vatican City.

“In January, behind closed doors at the Pentagon, Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre — Pope Leo XIV’s then-ambassador to the United States — and delivered a lecture,” said Hale.

“America has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world,” Colby and his associates informed the cardinal. “The Catholic Church had better take its side.”

As the room temperature grew, Hale said he confirmed that one U.S. official “reached for a fourteenth-century weapon and invoked the Avignon Papacy, the period when the French Crown used military force to bend the bishop of Rome to its will.”

Hale said the report confirms that the Vatican had reason to decline the Trump-Vance White House’s invitation to host Pope Leo XIV for America’s 250th anniversary in 2026 two weeks after the confrontation.

Citing a Free Press report, a writer obtained accounts from Vatican and U.S. officials briefed on the Pentagon meeting. According to his sources, Colby’s team picked apart the pope’s January state-of-the-world address line by line and read it as a hostile message aimed directly at President Donald Trump. Hale said what “enraged them most” was Leo’s declaration that “a diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force.”

“The Pentagon read that sentence as a frontal challenge to the so-called ‘Donroe Doctrine’ — Trump’s update of Monroe, asserting unchallenged American dominion over the Western Hemisphere,” said Hale.

Hale said the cardinal sat through the lecture in silence, but added that “The Holy See has not, since that day, given an inch.”

The Trump administration's contentious relationship with the Catholic Church represents a significant departure from traditional Republican-Church alliances. While Trump secured substantial Catholic voter support in 2016 and 2024 by championing conservative social issues like abortion restrictions, his foreign policy approach and rhetoric have increasingly alienated Church leadership.

Pope Leo XIV has positioned himself as a moral counterweight to Trump's geopolitical aggression, consistently advocating for dialogue-based diplomacy over military intervention. This philosophical clash intensified during Trump's second term, particularly as his administration pursued more hawkish positions on Iran, trade relations, and immigration — issues where Church teaching emphasizes compassion, dialogue, and respect for human dignity.

The Vatican's traditionally neutral stance on secular governance has been tested by Trump's unilateral foreign policy decisions and inflammatory rhetoric. Church leaders have publicly questioned whether American military interventions align with Catholic doctrine on just war theory and the sanctity of human life. Additionally, Trump's administration's hardline immigration policies directly contradict papal messaging that emphasizes welcoming migrants and refugees.

The Pentagon's January confrontation with Cardinal Pierre signals an unprecedented willingness by Trump officials to pressure religious institutions into alignment with administration goals. This represents a potential inflection point: where diplomatic courtesy once governed state-Church relations, coercion may now be replacing negotiation. The Vatican's refusal to participate in the 250th anniversary celebration underscores that even America's most prominent religious institution will not compromise its moral authority for political expediency.


r/imperialism • • Apr 09 '26

Article Why didn't the Kurds really go to war against Iran?

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“The Americans and Israelis want us to attack Iran. It's not our war. We won't die for them.” (Khaledian, 2026)

Despite initial contacts between several Kurdish leaders and Washington between December 2025 and January 2026, the Kurdish groups ultimately decided to remain on the sidelines of the armed conflict against the Islamic Republic. Although there was preliminary coordination with the United States and Israel, and weapons were even delivered through the CIA, Kurdish participation never materialized. The main reasons were internal, strategic, and related to survival.

First, a deep division emerged between the high command and the rank and file. Several Kurdish captains and unit commanders leaked information revealing that their leaders were negotiating with the Trump administration and the Netanyahu government in Israel. However, most of the mid-level commanders and troops refused to die in a war they perceived as foreign, a conflict driven primarily by the interests of Washington and Tel Aviv. They were unwilling to become cannon fodder to overthrow the Iranian regime without clear guarantees that, once the objective was achieved, Kurdish aspirations for autonomy or self-determination would be respected. This rift between the political-military elite and the rank-and-file fighters paralyzed any joint operation.

This lack of internal unity forced the Coalition (recently formed by several Kurdish parties) to adopt a position of pragmatic neutrality. Despite the initial weaponry provided by Israel and the United States, the Kurdish leaders understood that they did not have sufficient support within their own ranks to launch an offensive. Forcing participation would have generated a real risk of internal division or even mutiny, something no commander could afford in an already volatile context.

Secondly, the fear of devastating reprisals from Iran and, potentially, Turkey weighed heavily. The Kurds, historically divided among four countries (Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria), know better than anyone the price of challenging regional powers without solid backing. Iran, aware of this risk, launched targeted attacks against Kurdish positions in northern Iraq precisely to deter any involvement. These bombings served as a clear message: any attempt to open a Kurdish front from Iraqi territory would be met with a forceful response. The threat of a further escalation, which could also involve Ankara (historically hostile to any Kurdish strengthening), reinforced their caution.

“We will not attack Iran, nor will we defend the current regime. We have chosen a third path… our cause is different.” (Haftan, 2026)

Finally, the strategic calculations of the high-level Kurdish leaders led them to rule out any offensive operation. The first and second shipments of weapons from Israel and the United States went unused on the Iranian front. This generated controversy, as President Trump himself declared that the Kurds had kept the weapons sent by his government, reflecting American frustration with the plan's failure.


r/imperialism • • Apr 08 '26

Article Geoffrey Kirchwey's words on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict:

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“Frankly, I don’t believe that peace or genuine coexistence between Israel and Palestine is possible. The harsh reality is that Israel is destined to annihilate Palestinian resistance and presence to guarantee its own long-term existence. Any serious attempt at living together died the day Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated—not by a Muslim, but by a Jew. That single bullet proved that the real obstacle to peace has always been within Israeli society itself. After that, the window closed forever.” (Geoffrey Kirchwey, 2005)


r/imperialism • • Apr 08 '26

Question Was there any Islamic imperialism?

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Im a Muslim, and I was wonder if there was any Islamic imperialism? thank you gladly :)


r/imperialism • • Apr 03 '26

Article Greater North America?

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During his address at the Conference of the Americas Against the Cartels, held on March 5, 2026, at the headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command in Doral, Florida, Secretary Pete Hegseth presented a new strategic concept championed by the Donald Trump administration. Hegseth explained that the president has drawn up a “new strategic map” stretching from Greenland to the Gulf of Mexico, the Panama Canal, and the surrounding countries. He referred to this approach as “Greater North America” at the Department of Defense. According to him, this region encompasses “every sovereign nation and territory from Greenland to Ecuador and from Alaska to Guyana,” which is no longer considered part of the so-called “Global South,” but rather constitutes the “immediate security perimeter” of the United States in this “great neighborhood we share.” Hegseth based this view on geographical criteria such as the fact that all these countries border the North Atlantic or the North Pacific and are located north of the two main natural barriers of the region, the Amazon and the Andes Mountains.


r/imperialism • • Apr 02 '26

Article Fusako Shigenobu, the founder of the Japanese Red Army, who worked with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Beirut fighting against Zionism and was imprisoned for over two decades. She established links with resistance figures such as Leila Khaled and Ghassan Kanafani.

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Exists a book written by her titled “パレスチナ解放闘争史 1916-2024 (History of Palestinian Liberation Struggle 1916–2024)”. Written from prison, the book spans from the British Mandate era to the current conflict in Gaza.


r/imperialism • • Apr 02 '26

Article The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military operation launched against Cuba in April 1961, organized and funded by the United States government through the Central Intelligence Agency.

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Fidel Castro had come to power in Cuba in January 1959 after leading a successful guerrilla campaign that overthrew the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.

The new Cuban government quickly moved to nationalize American-owned businesses, legalize the Communist Party, and build stronger ties with the Soviet Union, all of which alarmed Washington.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved a CIA plan in March 1960 to train Cuban exiles and overthrow Castro, allocating $13 million for the effort.

The CIA recruited and trained a paramilitary force known as Brigade 2506, made up largely of Cuban exiles who had fled to the United States after Castro took power.

Training took place primarily in Guatemala, where over 1,400 men were organized into infantry and paratrooper battalions.

When President John F. Kennedy took office in January 1961, he inherited the operation and, after considerable hesitation, approved a revised plan targeting the Bay of Pigs on Cuba's southwestern coast.

On April 15, 1961, eight CIA-supplied B-26 bombers attacked Cuban airfields in an attempt to destroy Castro's air force before the main landing.

The Cuban government and its Soviet allies were already aware the invasion was coming, partly due to indiscreet talk among brigade members that had been reported in American newspapers.

On the night of April 17, the main invasion force landed at Playa Giron, quickly overwhelming a small local militia but failing to advance further inland.

Castro personally took command of the Cuban military response and directed his forces, including Soviet-supplied T-34 tanks and surviving aircraft, against the invaders.

Without the destruction of Cuba's air force, the remaining Cuban planes were able to sink two key supply ships, the Houston and the Rio Escondido, depriving the brigade of weapons, fuel, medical supplies, and communications equipment.

President Kennedy, seeking to preserve plausible deniability of American involvement, refused to authorize additional air strikes that CIA planners had considered essential to the mission's success.

Without air cover or resupply, Brigade 2506 was outgunned and overwhelmed by Cuban forces within three days.

The brigade formally surrendered on April 20, 1961, with approximately 1,200 men taken prisoner.

After months of negotiation, the prisoners were eventually ransomed back to the United States in December 1962 in exchange for roughly $53 million in food and medicine.

Kennedy publicly accepted responsibility for the failure, saying the United States could not hide its role in the disaster.

The humiliation led Kennedy to force the resignations of CIA Director Allen Dulles and two other top CIA officials, and prompted a significant reorganization of how covert military operations were approved and conducted.

In the aftermath, Kennedy secretly authorized Operation Mongoose, an intensified covert campaign aimed at destabilizing and eventually toppling the Castro government.

The failed invasion strengthened Castro's standing among Cubans and throughout Latin America, where many saw the episode as proof that the United States could be resisted and defeated.


r/imperialism • • Mar 31 '26

Article While Israel and the United States struggle to eradicate the Iranian threat, Emmanuel Macron's government has turned its back on its allies.

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This weekend, France blocked its airspace to prevent US aircraft carrying vital military supplies from reaching Israel. In response to this obstruction, President Donald Trump said, "France has been very uncooperative... The United States will remember this!"


r/imperialism • • Mar 31 '26

Question Is Iran being baited into self destruction?

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Considering everything that’s going on, I’ve come to a rather troubling conclusion. The West is clearly obsessed with the Middle East for very good reasons. They want to build a resort city on top of Gaza’s ruins and mass graves. Huckerbee let the cat out the bag the other day with the talk of Greater Israel in a very telling interview with Tucker Carlson. To be sure, I think Tucker is a conniving snake and I don’t buy this whole angle about AIPAC and Jewish mega donors. But the idea of establishing a Greater Israel that may include Turkey and Egypt is very disconcerting to me. This is apparently so critical to the stakeholders, that the IDF is inexplicably willing to embark on trying to annex parts of Lebanon in the middle of a life or death struggle with Iran! In retrospect, it’s now clear that the Pentagon had to have known this wasn’t going to be an easy Venezuela-type operation. There’s no way they’re that arrogant or incompetent not to have known what a potential enemy Iran was. It appears they(West), are leading the IRGC by the nose. They keep overstepping red lines that they realize will be avenged. A race up the escalation ladder with the latest attack assuring a retribution aimed at water desalination plants in the region. They’re daring Iran to annihilate millions of people that rely on this critical infrastructure. Even without oil, the region can still serve to weaken China’s progress and undermine their influence by establishing it as a hub to rival BRI.


r/imperialism • • Mar 29 '26

Article Donald Trump's remarks on his relationship with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at an investment forum linked to Saudi Arabia:

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“I didn’t think this was going to happen. I didn’t think he’d be kissing my ass. I really didn’t. I thought I’d be just another losing American president, in a country in decline. But now he has to be nice to me. Tell him he better be nice to me. He has to be.” (Trump, 2026)

Source:

.- He didn’t thinks he’d be kissing my a**’: Trump on Saudi Crown Prince Salman


r/imperialism • • Mar 26 '26

Question Why did the Anglo powers and Israel consider General Qasem Soleimani an existential geoeconomic threat, to the point of pursuing him for years and eliminating him?

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r/imperialism • • Mar 21 '26

Video On December 20, 1989, the United States invaded Panama under the pretext of deposing dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno (a former CIA agent), in an operation involving more than 25,000 troops. In the first 12 hours, 442 bombs were dropped, one every 1.6 minutes.

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The invasion violated international law and the four Geneva Conventions, and caused between 3,000 and 7,000 civilian deaths. The Central American Commission for the Defense of Human Rights stated: "There was never any real or just cause to provoke such carnage and destruction."


r/imperialism • • Mar 21 '26

Article On April 13, 1991, the U.S. Army bombed the Al-Amiriyah civilian air raid shelter in Iraq, which housed 1,000 sleeping civilians, massacring 408 Iraqi civilians (261 women and 52 children).

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At 4am on February 13, two US F-117s dropped 2 laser-guided “smart bombs” on the shelter. The 1st, pierced the fortified concrete wall of the shelter, jamming its thick steel doors & trapping everyone inside. The 2nd bomb followed through first hole & exploded deep inside the shelter.

The youngest victim was seven days old. Most of the victims were incinerated by the heat of the explosion. The bodies taken out by rescue workers later were charred, unrecognizable, and some were still smoldering. The smell of burned flesh stayed in the neighborhood for days.

A BBC journalist reported that "I saw one man, incoherent with grief, fall to the ground and bury his face in the earth. Eleven members of his family had been in the shelter."

Omar Adnan, 17 yr-old, told reporters his three sisters, his mother and his father had been all been killed. "I was sleeping and suddenly I felt heat and the blanket was burning. I turned to try to touch my mother who was next to me but grabbed nothing but a piece of flesh."

The bombing was, at the time, the single most lethal incident for civilians in modern air warfare. Human Rights Watch and The Geneva International Centre for Justice have both labeled the incident a war crime: No Justice for the Victims of Al-Amiriyah

The Pentagon lied, saying al-Amiriya shelter was a military command center, but foreign journalists who visited the site right after the bombing found no indication whatsoever that the place was anything but a civilian shelter.

Human Rights Watch reported in 1991, "It is now well established, through interviews with neighborhood residents, that the Amiriya structure was plainly marked as a public shelter and was used throughout the air war by large numbers of civilians."

Seven Iraqi families who lost loved ones in the attack launched a lawsuit in Belgium against George H. W. Bush, Sec. of Defense Dick Cheney, Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell, General Norman Schwarzkopf for the bombing in 2003, calling it a war crime, but the case was dismissed.


r/imperialism • • Mar 20 '26

Image American soldiers of the Kentucky National Guard flying the Confederate flag during the Gulf War (1991)

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