IRAN

“A US. Air Force officer who, along with another crew member ejected from a jet shot down in Iran on Friday, was rescued by US forces Sunday morning. Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard, says at least five people were killed by US and Israeli forces involved in the operation. President Trump announced the rescue on social media, calling it, quote, one of the most daring search and rescue operations in US history.”

“On this Easter Sunday, President Trump went on Truth Social to threaten Iran. In a profanity-laden post, he said Tuesday will be Power Plant Day and Bridge Day. Repeating his threat to strike critical infrastructure, if Iran doesn't reopen the Strait of Hormuz by tomorrow, Trump ended the post with, praise be to Allah. The Strait of Hormuz carries about one-fifth of the world's oil supply, and gasoline prices have spiked since the war began.”

“Assuming there's actually a ceasefire and that Iran is interested in respecting it, it's going to be at least a couple of months. Reopening of the Straits will be slow because it may have been mined. Also, the logistics of getting all the ships that are trapped in out and the ones that are out in will be slow. Repair, there's been a lot of damage to infrastructure. We don't know how bad. It takes time to get the crew in. There's also restart. A lot of the oil fields have been damaged.”

“President Trump's executive order calls for his administration to create lists of adult US citizens in each state. It also calls for banning the US Postal Service from delivering mail-in-balance to anyone not on those lists. In their lawsuits, Democrats, voting rights groups, and almost two dozen states argue that Constitution gives state legislatures and Congress, not the president, the power to set rules for federal elections.”

“Dymast and the National Rural Letter Cares Association says the order would weaponize the Postal Service to determine a voter's eligibility. It's going to cause confusion and could cause further delays in the daily handling of the mail and the daily routine and work of a postal worker. Trump says his order is trying to stop illegal voting by non-citizens in federal elections, a problem that numerous studies have shown is incredibly rare.”

“We have a tendency in America to view things in very short periods. Our year in Iraq, or in my case, five years in Iraq. Yeah. But we tend to come in and say, we are going to fight the war to end all wars, at least in our minds. But it really starts in 1953, when the US and British intelligence services overthrew the constitutionally-elected prime minister and put back into power the peacock regime of the Shah.”

“They oppressed the people tremendously, particularly through SAVAK, the secret police. So when the Iranian Revolution erupts in 1978, we may be surprised. The Iranian people are not surprised. And when they suddenly say, death to America, most Americans will say, what's your problem? Why are you angry at us?”

“So then after 2002, when George W. Bush names Iran to the Axis of Evil, reportedly to their surprise, you start to continue this set of grievances. So I try to remind people, whenever we think of what's happening now, if we don't understand that journey to this point, we don't understand the attitudes that are going to drive decisions people make.”

“And so Iran survives this eight-year, extraordinary experience, twice as long as the First World War. And it sets a mark upon the Iranian population that we shouldn't forget to this day, because the baby boomers are veterans of that experience. And the clerics get a lot of support from them.”

“I don't know, because the Iranian opposition is not really evident. We saw in 2009, they came in the streets and they were sort of beaten back into submission, and then reportedly thousands of Iranians protesting were killed by the regime in recent months. But I couldn't name the opposition leader. I couldn't tell you the liberation front.”