EXPLAINED: 20 | Vintage Vibes

Trump’s war with Iran signals perilous shift from showman to strongman

The emergence of Hawk Trump dismayed some of his Maga base but students of US adventurism were unsurprised

The Guardian - US · Jun 23, 2025

Vance says difference between this Middle East attack and others is that previous presidents were ‘dumb’

Vice President assures Americans Iran conflict will not become ‘drawn-out’ commitment like War on Terror

The Independent UK · Jun 23, 2025

Why the US strikes on Iran are illegal and can set a troubling precedent

After the United States bombed Iran’s three nuclear facilities on Sunday, US President Donald Trump said its objective was a “stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror”.

The Conversation · Jun 23, 2025

Two Weeks

Plus: MAGA's non-interventionists speak out against the Iran war, ICE denies visiting the Dodger Stadium, and more...

Reason · Jun 20, 2025

We’re on the brink of a disastrous, illegal conflagration in the Middle East. Trump must be stopped

This is a war of choice, based on misinformation. If the US and UK join it, they risk a rerun of the Iraq debacle of 2003, says Fawaz Gerges of the LSE

The Guardian - UK · Jun 20, 2025

Are Israel’s attacks against Iran legal?

International law proscribes the use of force except in self-defence – but what constitutes self-defence?

Al Jazeera · Jun 20, 2025

Dubya Dubya II: Democrats see echoes of Bush Iraq War push in Trump’s Iran nukes rhetoric

“If this president wants to completely ignore the intelligence community, we are playing in dangerous ground,” one senator warned

The Independent UK · Jun 19, 2025

Netanyahu is using Muslim women’s ‘rights’ to justify his war. What hideous, hollow hypocrisy

As his troops slaughter civilians in Gaza, he claims to be standing up for Iranian women’s autonomy. He is far from the first warmonger to do so, says author Mona Eltahawy

The Guardian - UK · Jun 19, 2025

8 Times the System Was Rigged—And People Found Out Too Late

There’s something uniquely unsettling about discovering the game was fixed long after the final whistle. Whether it’s politics, sports, finance, or education, the sting of realizing a system was stacked from the start never fades easily. Most people operate under the belief that fairness, however imperfect, is at least the…

Clever Dude · Jun 18, 2025

US and Iran have a long, complicated history, spanning far beyond Israel’s strikes on Tehran

Relations between the United States and Iran have been fraught for decades – at least since the U.S. helped overthrow a democracy-minded prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, in August 1953. The U.S. then supported the long, repressive reign of the Shah of Iran, whose security services brutalized Iranian citizens for decades.

The Conversation · Jun 18, 2025