Iran - Israel/US War: Israel-US declare war on Iran, Iran responds

[Meengla]

I am curious why there is so little discussions here or out on the web connecting the Isfahan 'rescue' mission, the multiple downed American jets in that raid, the alleged attempt to grab the Iranian enriched Uranium, the fate of the rescued pilot, the ceasefire in the second week of April around that time (and that is still holding!), the leaked reports that Iran can witthstand four months of the Blockade ... all those factors seem like tied to the multiple reports/leaks just now about Iran has more capability to hurt any aerial attacks then given credit to and to Trump's repeated TACOs.

 

[KAL-EL]

You think Pakistan will just sit on their nukes. Only need a few to get through to dimona and Tel Aviv. Jews can shove their sansom option up their asses. Remember how brave they were againt hamas in Oct

You make it sound so easy? Why hasn't it happened yet? The real world answer is obvious. Again, you don't just destroy a country in a vacuum. Especially a country with a nuclear arsenal and second strike capability.

My God how many people here don't live in the real world it's really sad. I mean you talk as if this is some kind of video game or something. It's really disappointing and that's all I'll say on the matter

 

[Aryan_B]

My friend, it all comes down to this, you have to be realistic and live in the real world. You just don't nuke or throw a dirty bomb at a country in a vacuum.

I highly suggest you look up Samsung option. If they're going down, they're going to take the Middle East with them. Please be rational about this and not live in it like it's a video game okay?

samsung operation? lol

 

[Aryan_B]

You make it sound so easy? Why haven't it happened yet? Again, you don't just destroy a country in a vacuum. Especially a country with a nuclear arsenal and second strike capability.

My God how many people here don't live in the real world it's really sad. I mean you talk as if this is some kind of video game or something. It's really disappointing and that's all I'll say in the matter

It hasnt happened as Pakistan hasnt been attacked. Samson option would mean Israelis send a nuke to Islamabad

I was responding to someone suggesting Israel would start samsom bollocks and I was stating that Pak has options too under thosse circumstances

 

[Meengla]

War is imminent... Iran can sit around waiting for the first shots but every indicator is pointing towards it... talks are for show as they were the last two times. Orange clown has for the first time after second world war cornered US in a strategic defeat, and retreat from the region leaving the thieves to their own device...
This war is already untenable with oil already hovering around $110... highest treasury yields and losing the last triple A credit ratings!

The biggest strategic defeat for America, should it happen, would be the greatly reduced American presence in the Middle East, thus leaving Israel on its own AND of the death of the Petro Dollar, which may well lead to USD losing its status as the Reserve Currency of the world, which would be a nightmare for the American geopolitical goals: No more turning acres of trees into suitcases of crispy USD notes to buy the 'influence' around the globe and with the influence comes the goodies, whether we see it or not at first glance. Ask Ron Paul: 'We given them the fiat currency and they give us real goods!'.

Ultimately, ordinary Americans like you and I are also among the beneficiaries of the hitherto prevailing American global order! So we better be aware of some 'unintended consequences'.

 

[BigMela2onin]

I highly suggest you look up Samsung option. If they're going down, they're going to take the Middle East with them.

When your two options are the Samson option or the Amalek solution, which is worse? As I have to repeatedly tell americans on here for some reason, "You will be genocided and like it or we will genocide you" isn't as magnanimous an offer as you think it is.

 

[Desert]

My friend, it all comes down to this, you have to be realistic and live in the real world. You just don't nuke or throw a dirty bomb at a country in a vacuum.

I highly suggest you look up Samsung option. If they're going down, they're going to take the Middle East with them. Please be rational about this and not live in it like it's a video game okay?

samson operation is BS , if they felt they are going down they would just flee to europe or usa .. why ? because they believe in a prophecy that their messiah (anti-christ according to muslims) will rule from jerusalem and middle east , how come he can rule from a place that got nuked or has radiation ? they would never do that.

 

[KAL-EL]

samson operation is BS , if they felt they are going down they would just flee to europe or usa .. why ? because they believe in a prophecy that their messiah (anti-christ according to muslims) will rule from jerusalem and middle east , how come he can rule from a place that got nuked or has radiation ? they would never do that.

I keep having to explain this geez. In the event they were going down and they were going to be destroyed, they would take everyone with them. Why is it so hard to understand?

You think they will just sit there and let their population be eliminated, cities destroyed and not respond? Come on man be real.

If it was that easy, why hasn't it been tried yet? I know the answer because I live in the real world

 

[Desert]

I keep having to explain this geez. In the event they were going down and they were going to be destroyed, they would take everyone with them. Why is it so hard to understand?

You think they will just sit there and let their population be eliminated, cities destroyed and not respond? Come on man be real.

If it was that easy, why hasn't it been tried yet? I know the answer because I live in the real world

Haven't you read my comment ? they won't just sit they would flee like how thousads of them flee through egypt taba crossing now to sinai airport to usa.

they believe their messiah will come back to rule this area whether their country got destroyed or not , they won't nuke the place where their messiah rule.

got my point or i need to explain in arabic or german or spanish?

 

[KAL-EL]

Haven't you read my comment ? they won't just sit they would flee like how thousads of them flee through egypt taba crossing now to sinai airport to usa.

they believe their messiah will come back to rule this area whether their country got destroyed or not , they won't nuke the place where their messiah rule.

got my point or i need to explain in arabic or german or spanish?

Again, if it's that easy why hasn't it been tried yet? I keep asking that question. Easy to say things behind a keyboard.

But I live in the rational world. You don't just nuke or dirty bomb a country in a vacuum. What language should I explain that in? Kryptonian perhaps?

I'm not going to keep this merry-go-round going. You got your beliefs and I got mine

Full stop!

 

[FUB]

A very good and detailed analysis by Patricia Marins, as always. The war will resume regardless. America must fight until the last goy drops, and the fight for greater Jizrael will not end until America is completely bankrupt.

 

[Desert]

Again, if it's that easy why hasn't it been tried yet? I keep asking that question. Easy to say things behind a keyboard.

But I live in the rational world. You don't just nuke or dirty bomb a country in a vacuum. What language should I explain that in? Kryptonian perhaps?

I'm not going to keep this merry-go-round going. You got your beliefs and I got mine

Full stop!

you just insist on your foolish idea over and over and over .. in the first days of 73 they could have nuked all egypt but they haven't cuz they know the consequences , the jews in israel including everyone believe in the return of their messiah to rule the area of greater israel and middle east .. how the **** will he rule an area that got nuked ?

wtf is so hard about my words? I live in Egypt and we see news of them crossing to Egypt through Taba to flee to USA or Europe through our airports in sinai or cairo.

why have't they nuked lebanon untill now ? or Syria in 73 ? or even iran ? etc

 

[BHAN85]

No evidence of Israel having nukes, all information about Israeli nukes comes from Israel itself through vanunu op.

Israel nukes are like Golem of Prague, a invention to scare enemies.

But Iran has real long range missiles, and have real nuclear power plant, they can just put nuclear garbage aboard a missile and towards Israel.

They dont do it because it's not useful for anything.

Iran wants deterrence and stop the war.

The corrupt dumbfuck ruling elite who live for war is Israel, under USA orders.

And USA is fcking world economy in the daylight, as internet trolls keep bullshitting about religion, when reasons are plain material and from USA, not from the little corrupt entity.

 

[Solomon2]

A ship’s crew risked the Strait of Hormuz. They met with a hail of bullets.​

Seafarers just trying to do their jobs are caught up in the currents of international conflict, at grave peril.

May 19, 2026 at 5:00 a.m. EDT Today at 5:00 a.m. EDT

A billboard in Tehran depicts U.S. aircraft being caught by Iranian forces. The words in Farsi say, “The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed; the entire Persian Gulf is our hunting ground.” (Vahid Salemi/AP)

By Sammy Westfall

Before chancing the treacherous waters of the Strait of Hormuz, the all-Filipino crew of 23 had been stranded at anchor for more than a month in the Persian Gulf as the U.S. and Israel waged war against Iran.

The crew members had huddled on the cargo ship’s bridge to cast a final vote: Should they risk the perilous six-hour journey, made treacherous by mines and Iranian attacks? Although the path was closed to most international traffic, there was no way out but through.

Their worst fears came to pass: As the vessel navigated the Strait of Hormuz, it met with a hail of bullets that shattered windows and pockmarked it with dents. The crew scattered for cover, caught up in the ripple effects of a conflict in which they had no part. The gunfire appeared to come from small Iranian boats.

Before each of the five votes the sailors wound up holding ahead of their passage, the captain printed and handed out copies of letters from the Greek shipping company managing the vessel, urging them in increasingly strident terms to go for it, and expressing what sailors, some paid as little as a few hundred dollars a month, described as “great disappointment” at their refusal, according to two seafarers who took part.

The pros: They were being offered an additional two months’ pay to take the risk, were already sitting off the coast of a war zone and wanted to avoid being blacklisted by their company or in the industry. The company assured them that permission from Iran would be squared away, despite a previous attack on a ship that had been cleared. “We get out of here, and after that no more overthinking, no more fear, no more sleepless nights,” one seafarer said.

The cons: “We might get blown up by a rocket,” he said. “Or something like that.”

In reporting this story, The Washington Post spoke with two sailors on the ship, along with another who passed through the strait on a different vessel around the same time. The sailors, who remain at sea, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. The Post also reviewed photos, videos and correspondence from the ship.

The shipping company, along with others operating in the area, did not respond to a request for comment on the attack or the decision to send the crew through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s U.N. delegation in New York did not respond to a request for comment on Iranian attacks on ships in the strait.
Four times, the sailors voted no, apologizing to the company for any inconvenience. They were still too afraid. A few began changing their minds. Still, the captain held firm: “If one says no, we all say no,” he said.

In the sailors’ fifth vote, in late March, it was like “a domino effect” of yeses, one said. The two men said they voted to go through the strait “under pressure.”
A few days after the U.S. and Iran announced a temporary ceasefire on April 7, with assurance that proper permission had been granted, they set off.

Two skiffs, carrying three or so people each, soon began tailing the ship, the two seafarers said. One crew member used binoculars to check and saw a “high-powered gun,” then he shouted “Get down, there’s a gun!”

One seafarer described hearing “a chipping hammer ... Ding, ding, ding, ding.” At first, he thought it was on-ship construction, but radios paged news of the attack throughout the ship. The gunfire was on-and-off for more than 20 minutes, seafarers said. “Too many bullets, too many sounds,” one of them said.

One bullet flew through the bridge’s window, missing a crew member by a few feet as he crouched low to send a distress signal call. Panicked crew members hid behind a metal door. The Post reviewed photos and videos of the attack and aftermath.

After the attack, the crew found at least nine dents from bullets on the ship, including two through glass windows.

The crew made it out safely and is heading back to South America — potentially to do the whole thing over again.

One of the crew members said he believes the shots were “a warning” signal by Iranian naval authorities, because the ship went slightly off the authorized passage plan — shallower lanes closer to the shore than usual.

But shooting through windows into the ship’s occupied bridge is hardly the typical warning.

Before the shooting began, someone on the skiff showed his gun and signaled for a crew member to run inside, the crew member said. “I guess they’re just sending a signal that we are doing the wrong way, I don’t know.”

He had been scared of “rockets, mines,” but “luckily it’s only bullets,” the seafarer said. Throughout the war, fellow crew members chose to sleep on the floor near the door, closer to the ship’s center, in case of a strike. Others had packed go-bags with food and passports. Some wore life jackets. They prayed together out loud.

Eleven erratic weeks of the Strait of Hormuz effectively closing and reopening only to close again has brought chaos to the stock market and oil prices. But nobody is more affected by the constant whiplash than the more than 20,000 sailors stranded in the Persian Gulf with the chokepoint of the strait as their only exit.

Some among the relative trickle of ships that have attempted to pass the vital waterway, through which one-fifth of global oil shipments ordinarily pass, have faced attacks by drones and missiles, gunboat fire, seizures and the threat of Iranian mines.

More than two dozen ships have been attacked attempting to run the gantlet to and from the Gulf, according to U.K. Maritime Trade Operations, which monitors the waters. The attack described in this story has not been previously reported. Companies may choose not to share such details, to keep their ships crewed.

At least 11 seafarers have been killed in incidents in the Middle East since the war began, according to the International Maritime Organization, including three Thai sailors killed in an Iranian strike on the Thai-flagged Mayuree Naree as it passed Hormuz on March 11. On May 5, an attack wounded eight on a French cargo ship.

Tides change all the time at anchor, so stranded seafarers living in close quarters with dozens of others have spent two months unable to disembark and “running routines, but you’re not really getting anywhere,” said Stephen Cotton, general secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation.

A third sailor aboard a different ship told The Post that he was stranded in the Gulf on a livestock vessel with more than 60 other seafarers from the Philippines for 75 days. (The livestock were off-loaded.) His vessel could produce fresh water, and they caught fish to supplement dwindling provisions, he said. This week, they finally made it through.

The ITF has received more than 2,000 inquiries from seafarers about the Hormuz crisis, according to Cotton. They’re asking, “What extra pay am I entitled to in a war zone? What if our ship is running out of food, or medicine? Can I leave this boat and go home?”

Under their collective agreement, covered seafarers in designated danger zones receive double pay and have the right to refuse to sail. But asking to be repatriated proves to be logistically difficult when ships require a minimum crew to run safely, even at anchor. Sailors also worry one refusal means being blacklisted from future voyages.

Many seafarers — desperate to provide for families back home, including in the Philippines, which sends more than half a million people to work on ships globally — are up for the gamble. One of the seafarers aboard the attacked ship told The Post that a crew member joked about wanting a rocket to hit their ship so they could get benefits, to which he responded, “Are you insane? Lives are lost during those attacks.”

At least eight mariners, most of them Filipinos, were killed in attacks on commercial shipping by Yemen’s Houthi rebels during the war in Gaza.

A container ship is seen in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Qeshm Island, Iran, on April 18. (Asghar Besharati/AP)

Hanz Chester Galuno, who worked on the deck department of the bulk carrier Minoan Glory, had been docked at an Iranian port for two weeks, waiting to discharge its cargo of corn from Brazil when the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran began.

While stranded, the crew limited time outside, except for such necessary tasks as checking the ropes and watchkeeping, where Galuno said he saw missiles “from land going up, up, up in the sky.”

The crew members hardly hesitated when their company said they could traverse the strait on April 1; they wanted “to go out and sail because we are scared inside there,” Galuno said. En route, he said, he saw at least three vessels that had been damaged by drones and missiles.

Their joy swelled as they neared the strait’s exit, and sailors were ready with an A4 piece of paper stuck onto the back of a binder — a makeshift plaque — for picture-taking. In printed-out faux stenciled font, it read: “I WAS IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ THE GATE OF TEARS.”

Crew members posed with the sign, flashing thumbs-up, V’s for peace and rock-on gestures or putting their hands in the prayer position. Some pretended to look through binoculars.

Galuno said he knows that the “Gate of Tears” is actually the name of a different strait, the historically treacherous Bab el-Mandeb, but the crew liked the sound of it nonetheless.

Once through, the sailors celebrated with a cookout, breaking out their grill. “Filipino vibes, dancing, so that we feel happy,” he said. The food was a mix of Filipino barbecue [pork and fish] and Persian [kebab and biryani].

They sang karaoke, too, settling on “Under the Same Sun” by the German rock band Scorpions as their anthem of the moment — because all seafarers sail under one sky, he said.

“Why can’t we stop the fight / ’Cause we all live under the same sun,” the men sang, as they left the Strait of Hormuz in their wake.

Joyce Sohyun Lee in Washington and Susannah George in Lahore, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

 

[Professor Jiang]