The Daily Wire reports: Israeli secret service operatives used a fake phone call to trigger what appeared to be an “emergency meeting” among Iran’s top military leaders — and then targeted the location of the meeting. Amit Segal told the Call Me Back podcast on Monday: “What Israel did was create a fake phone call for 20 […]
Impressive intelligence operation
Impressive intelligence operation
28 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: Iran, Israel, Middle-East politics, war against terror
The Grim Logic of Israel’s War
24 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, International law, laws of war, war and peace Tags: bombing of Germany, Gaza Strip, Iran, Israel, Middle-East politics, World War I, World War II
If the best course of action is to avoid war, then the second-best course, with war already raging, is to end it. Chris Trotter writes – THE LOGIC OF WAR is pitiless and relentless. Once embarked upon, warfare creates needs and imposes priorities that cannot be ignored without imposing unsustainable costs on one’s own military […]
The Grim Logic of Israel’s War
Omissions in BBC report about strike on Iran state TV building
19 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, industrial organisation, war and peace Tags: Iran, Israel, media bias, Middle-East politics, war against terror
In the early hours of June 17th the BBC News website published a report by David Gritten headlined “Israel bombs Iran state TV during live broadcast” which opens as follows: [emphasis added] “Israeli aircraft have struck the headquarters of Iran’s state broadcaster in Tehran, after the Israeli military told residents of the area of the […]
Omissions in BBC report about strike on Iran state TV building
Initial BBC News website coverage of events in Iran and Israel
15 Jun 2025 1 Comment
in defence economics, economics of media and culture, war and peace Tags: Atomic bomb, Iran, Israel, media bias, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
On the morning of June 13th the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page had little to offer its visitors in the way of reporting on the strikes that Israel had carried out in Iran in the early hours of that day. Coverage on that page itself was limited to a live page: In the ‘updates’ […]
Initial BBC News website coverage of events in Iran and Israel
The Unprecedented Nature of Israel’s Strikes on Iran
13 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Atomic bomb, Iran, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
Hawks, doves, Israel and Iran
13 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, defence economics, economics of information, economics of media and culture, Public Choice, war and peace Tags: game theory, Iran, Israel, Middle-East politics, war against terror
In The Conversation last October, Andrew Thomas (Deakin University) discussed the recent (at that time) military flare-up between Iran and Israel, likening it to a ‘game of chicken’:Israel’s strike on military targets in Iran over the weekend is becoming a more routine occurrence in the decades-long rivalry between the two states…There is a reason why…
Hawks, doves, Israel and Iran
THE SIEGE: A SIX DAY HOSTAGE CRISIS AND THE DARING SPECIAL FORCES OPERATION THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD by Ben Macintyre
01 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics Tags: Iran, Middle-East politics, war against terror
(On 30 April 1980 six gunmen took over the Iranian embassy in Kensington. The siege ended when the SAS stormed the building.) If one thinks about events that took place in 1980 two hostage situations should come to mind. The first and more prominent was the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran by Islamic […]
THE SIEGE: A SIX DAY HOSTAGE CRISIS AND THE DARING SPECIAL FORCES OPERATION THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD by Ben Macintyre
Vegas, CSICon, sex and nooz
27 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, discrimination, gender, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, war and peace Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, Gaza Strip, Iran, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination, war against terror
I’ve been busy at the CSICon conference, which included giving my own 30-minute presentation this morning. I had to modify it to take into account the misguided views of Steve Novella, who gave a talk yesterday about “When Skeptics Disagree.” It turned out to be largely a diatribe about how sex in humans is not […]
Vegas, CSICon, sex and nooz
New Rule: Gender Apartheid | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
03 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, television, TV shows Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, Gaza Strip, gender wage gap, Iran, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Claims about Iran (from the comments)
27 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, development economics, economics of crime, economics of religion, growth disasters, law and economics Tags: Iran
I’ve chatted with a lot of Iranians online in the past few years (they’re in Iran). Some of their takes (always subject to the “plural of anecdote is not “data”)… 1. Islam is seen by younger people as the doctrine of a failed government staffed by a bunch of crooks. 2. And it’s a foreign, […]
Claims about Iran (from the comments)
The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East by Christopher Phillips (revised edition, 2020)
08 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, economics of crime, energy economics, International law, law and economics, Public Choice, war and peace Tags: Iran, Israel, Middle-East politics, Syria, war against terror
There are quite a few book-length studies of the Syrian Civil War. The distinctive thing about this one is that academic and author Christopher Phillips insists that other regional countries weren’t ‘drawn into’ the conflict once it had got going but, on the contrary, were involved right from the start, helped to exacerbate the initial […]
The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East by Christopher Phillips (revised edition, 2020)
How Iran’s repression machine works
07 Mar 2023 Leave a comment
in economics of religion, law and economics, liberalism Tags: Iran
Fair question for @jeremycorbyn
12 Jan 2020 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, International law, law and economics, laws of war, transport economics, war and peace Tags: air crashes, British politics, Iran, Middle-East politics, useful idiots
Why the US and Iran are fighting over this tiny waterway
23 Aug 2019 Leave a comment
in defence economics, development economics, energy economics, growth disasters, International law, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics, war and peace Tags: Iran
The Middle East’s cold war, explained 2017
06 Aug 2019 Leave a comment
in defence economics, development economics, economic history, economics of religion, international economics, International law, law and economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, war and peace Tags: Iran, Iraq, Middle-East politics
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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