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Munich at dawn. Tehran at dusk.
The coincidence is too precise to be accidental. On February 28, 2026, at 2:30 a. m. Washington time, Donald Trump appears on Truth Social in a video recorded at the White House. His voice is calm. His gaze is fixed. He announces that“ the U. S. military has begun major combat operations in Iran,” specifying that the objective is to“ eliminate imminent threats from the Iranian regime” and that he is addressing the Iranian people directly:“ Your time of freedom has arrived.” Explosions rock several areas of Tehran, including the neighborhood where Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei resides. Ministries in the southern part of the capital are also targeted. Strikes are reported in Isfahan, Qom, Karaj, Kermanshah, Lorestan, and Tabriz. Cyberattacks paralyze Iranian news agencies. Mobile communications are cut off in some areas of the capital. Iran retaliates on the same day with an operation dubbed“ Honest Promise 4.” Tehran fires missiles at US bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The Middle East is ablaze. And in the aftermath of this winter night, one question looms large with renewed urgency: is this war really what we are being told it is? To understand this, we need to go back in time. Way back.
The common thread running through 80 years of American wars
Flashmag! Edition 170 Mars 2026
Take a map of the world. Draw a circle around every country that the United States has bombed, invaded, sanctioned, or destabilized since 1945. The result is striking. The list is long, but it is not random. It maps out, with almost geometric precision, a single war. Guatemala, 1954. President Jacobo Árbenz reforms agricultural land, affecting the interests of the American United Fruit Company. The CIA overthrows him. Thirty years of civil war ensue. Iran, 1953. Prime Minister Mossadegh nationalizes Iranian oil. The CIA orchestrates a coup d’ état. Twenty-five years of the Shah’ s dictatorship follow— until the Islamic revolution of 1979, a direct response to these decades of repression supported by Washington.
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