The hottest War Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top World Politics Topics

It's Unethical To Have Sympathy For Israelis, And Other Notes

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 1974 implied HN points • 22 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. The piece argues that one should never express sympathy for Israelis because, it claims, Israel habitually weaponizes sympathy to justify mass atrocities, so withholding sympathy is framed as the responsible choice.
  2. It warns that US and Israeli threats against Iran—especially attacks on energy infrastructure—risk escalating into a far larger, potentially catastrophic war and need to be restrained.
  3. It criticizes Western media and political hypocrisy for being shocked by Iranian retaliation while ignoring prior aggression, and calls for mass protests against the US-Israeli war policies.

It's Getting Close to Clear How the War Will Turn Out

God's Spies by Thomas Neuburger • 1141 implied HN points • 26 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. Israel may be nearing a breaking point as actual casualties and the everyday strain of sheltering and nonstop attacks are likely far worse than reported, and public and political tolerance for the war has limits.
  2. Israel’s air defenses may be close to collapse after radar damage, leaving it vulnerable to Iranian drones and high-speed missiles that can strike military bases and cities and could force more desperate Israeli options.
  3. A nuclear strike by Israel on Iran could provoke an Iranian retaliatory use of low-yield nukes, causing catastrophic casualties in cities like Tel Aviv and risking uncontrollable regional escalation.

They Lied About The School Bombing In Iran, And They're Going To Keep On Lying

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 2407 implied HN points • 13 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. US leaders and mainstream outlets pushed a false narrative about the Iranian girls' school bombing to hide US responsibility, and they will keep lying to justify the war.
  2. The war is being used to crush dissent and erode free speech at home, with harsh laws and arrests showing how blowback becomes an excuse for authoritarian measures.
  3. Christian Zionism and imperial interests have reshaped politics and religion to prioritize military support for Israel, fueling cycles of violence, resource extraction, and predictable retaliation.

Jeffrey Sachs Is Trying To Fix The New York Times' Iran War Coverage, One Email At A Time

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 2828 implied HN points • 11 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. The US pursued a “maximum pressure” strategy—using sanctions and economic measures early on—to weaken Iran and push for regime change, which helped trigger economic collapse and street protests. Major media outlets have largely failed to report this connection.
  2. Current US and Israeli military actions against Iran look like unjustified aggression rather than lawful self‑defense and risk a severe global energy crisis, stagflation, and long recovery times for damaged infrastructure. Global leaders need to publicly pressure Washington and Tel Aviv to stop the attacks.
  3. A powerful, unaccountable “deep state”—including intelligence agencies and military interests—drives aggressive foreign policy with little congressional oversight, and officials who promise reform often get co‑opted. Strong, independent investigations and oversight are urgently needed to restore democratic control.

War Isn't a Zero-Sum Game

Nonzero Newsletter • 790 implied HN points • 21 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. War is often non-zero-sum: even if one side gains land or security, the human and economic losses can leave both sides worse off.
  2. Political leaders can personally benefit from conflicts, so they may start or prolong wars for domestic political gain even when the country as a whole suffers.
  3. If people recognize that wars are often driven by leaders' incentives and special-interest pressure, they can be more skeptical of threat inflation and help push to change the incentives that make war politically rewarding.
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Watching Amazon Prime While The Iranians Burn

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 2882 implied HN points • 09 Mar 26
🎭️ Culture War
  1. Mass entertainment and consumer comforts let people ignore and real human suffering happening elsewhere.
  2. Many respond to distant tragedies with performative politics and shallow jokes instead of real empathy or action.
  3. Global capitalism profits from and commodifies suffering, turning pain into products and leaving people morally numb.

New Issue Of JOHNSTONE: They're Going To Keep Lying About This War The Entire Time

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 1075 implied HN points • 15 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. The government and mainstream media are repeatedly lying about this war, inventing or mischaracterizing events like missile strikes, nuclear threats, and casualty figures. They use those lies to build support for military action.
  2. These deceptions expose the true nature of imperial power and the plutocrats who run it, showing that they prioritize control and violence over democracy or human rights. Their actions reveal hypocrisy and a willingness to harm others to keep power.
  3. The proper response is skepticism and refusal to accept pro-war narratives at face value, so people should stop trusting leaders and outlets that push warmongering propaganda. Demand accountability, question official claims, and resist being rallied into war.

Weekend Update #177: Russian Losses And Ukrainian Fighting

Phillips’s Newsletter • 341 implied HN points • 22 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. Ukrainian forces have reorganized around drone-based units and new doctrine, using UAVs (including fibre-optic controlled drones) to inflict record Russian casualties while keeping Ukrainian soldiers safer.
  2. The U.S. policy shift has effectively eased pressure on Russia—lifting or reducing sanctions, opening trade channels for Belarus, and publicly downplaying support for Ukraine—signaling weaker American backing for Kyiv.
  3. Ukraine has escalated long-range drone strikes deep into Russian territory against refineries, factories, and logistics hubs, demonstrating increased reach and prompting Russian officials to admit growing vulnerabilities.

Has the Russian offensive in Ukraine stalled?

Comment is Freed • 132 implied HN points • 21 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. The war in the Middle East has shifted global attention and resources, pushed oil prices up, and eased sanctions in ways that give Russia a financial windfall and make Western support for Ukraine harder to sustain.
  2. Ukraine has survived a tough winter, is holding its lines, and its long-range strikes and drone-defence expertise are causing real damage to Russian logistics and could become an exportable strength, but Kyiv worries about dwindling Western stocks and political reluctance to help.
  3. Russia’s offensive has been slow and costly, and while Putin still bets on eventual gains, it’s unclear the spring campaign can produce decisive breakthroughs — he may get limited forward movement, but not guaranteed victory.

Fuck Everyone Who Made This War Possible

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 4805 implied HN points • 28 Feb 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. The US and Israel have launched a major military attack on Iran, prompting retaliatory strikes and likely causing widespread death and suffering.
  2. Many people see the official reasons for this war as false and believe powerful leaders and institutions are pushing it forward regardless of public consent or the horrific consequences.
  3. There is raw anger and total condemnation directed at the US, Israel, political parties, the media, and the military‑industrial complex, who are being blamed for enabling and profiting from the war.

Chartbook 435: All perversions have their acting out. Reading Baudrillard on the weekend of the attack on Iran.

Chartbook • 2532 implied HN points • 01 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. Mass media turns real events into consumable signs and spectacles, so people get the dizzy thrill of catastrophe at a safe distance instead of actually engaging with history or violence.
  2. Private everyday life uses those media signs to justify passivity and security, craving dramatized violence so inaction feels morally acceptable and emotionally thrilling.
  3. There is a tension today: some military actions are driven by real geopolitical aims but occur without public preparation or legitimation, which raises the question of whether the media‑spectacle framework still fully explains contemporary war‑making.

Why Americans Should Root for Iran

Nonzero Newsletter • 1615 implied HN points • 14 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. Iran’s war aim is to make future attacks on it too costly so they won’t be repeated, and if it succeeds that could push Gulf states to help build a more stable regional security architecture.
  2. Israel’s strategy of repeated punitive strikes (the “mowing the lawn” approach) and recent U.S.-backed attacks have been major drivers of instability, so political checks on such adventurism would likely reduce future violence.
  3. Many Iranian actions are reactive to past foreign interventions, so labeling Iran the sole destabilizer ignores important context; negotiated guarantees, sanctions relief, or a return to nuclear diplomacy could help lock in a lasting ceasefire and fewer future deaths.

If Westerners Could Wrap Their Minds Around What War Really Is

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 3357 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. War is unimaginably brutal and causes horrific physical and emotional suffering. Many people in the West treat it like a video game because they haven’t experienced those horrors firsthand.
  2. Our culture, media, and leaders sanitize and glamorize war while dehumanizing people on the receiving end. That makes it easier for the public to support or ignore large-scale violence.
  3. The western empire depends on ongoing war and powerful actors benefit from it. Real peace requires removing or resisting the systems and leaders that profit from bloodshed.

Debating the Ex-IDF Spokesman About the War in Iran on Piers Morgan's Show, with Mike Pence

Glenn Greenwald • 2787 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. The war with Iran is rapidly expanding and risks turning into a wider regional conflict, which is driving intense public and media debates.
  2. Some prominent U.S. figures remain steadfast in defending past military interventions and continue to advocate for new wars with little change in their arguments.
  3. Participants questioned whether Israel places key military and intelligence command centers inside residential areas of Tel Aviv, and former military spokespeople gave responses that many found revealing.

What Iranians Really Think About the War

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 1321 implied HN points • 09 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. People are terrified and exhausted by heavy bombing, but many feel they've lived under state terror for decades.
  2. The state appears to be unraveling and many hope the conflict might end the regime, though past brutal crackdowns make people wary of what comes next.
  3. The war is causing real civilian suffering and uncertainty, with strikes aimed at regime sites but still killing children and making daily life dominated by explosions and rumors.

The Second Phase of the Iran War

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 259 implied HN points • 16 Mar 26
🌐 International War
  1. The U.S. and Israel have spent the first phase trying to decapitate Iran’s leadership and weaken its military power.
  2. Their announced next goal is to end Iran’s nuclear program for good.
  3. This represents a strategic shift toward targeting nuclear infrastructure and signals a potentially longer, more intense campaign with big regional and diplomatic consequences.

More Shockingly Honest Confessions From The Empire Managers

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 2835 implied HN points • 17 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics War
  1. Some US officials are openly saying future wars are being planned in Israel and are pushing for military action against countries like Iran, even while admitting that American troops could be harmed.
  2. Top politicians are praising five centuries of Western colonialism and calling for a renewed Western alliance with Europe to reassert dominance over the Global South.
  3. There is a strong critique that 'Western civilization' today relies on war, exploitation, and ecocide, and many argue that this system should be challenged and reformed rather than celebrated.

We Deserve Better War Propaganda

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 1909 implied HN points • 23 Feb 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. Officials and tabloid media are pushing obvious, unverified claims about Iran to justify hostility, often relying on anonymous sources and weak evidence.
  2. The propaganda is so crude it shows leaders don’t care about winning public consent, yet they’re still preparing for a large and dangerous war despite broad opposition.
  3. This loss of credible justification suggests the empire is growing more openly tyrannical and strengthens the case for popular resistance and systemic change.

The War Is Iranians’ Best Chance at Peace

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 1136 implied HN points • 01 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. Some peace advocates ignore how Iran’s own government represses and hurts its people, treating calm as acceptable even when citizens suffer daily.
  2. Many Iranians reject that hollow peace because the regime prizes martyrdom rhetoric and funnels scarce resources to proxies instead of caring for its people.
  3. Iranians don’t want war, but many see external pressure or conflict as the most likely way to end the regime and achieve a real, lasting peace.

From October 7 to Killing Khamenei

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 843 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. A single cross-border attack on October 7 set off a 28-month war that drew in at least 18 countries and cost tens of thousands of lives.
  2. The conflict expanded largely because of miscalculations by multiple actors, turning a brief, localized assault into a sprawling, unpredictable war.
  3. By the later stages, regional power shifted: Israel emerged as the dominant military force while Iran was weakened and many leaders who started or supported the fighting were killed.

Is the Current Gulf War Taking Place?

The Ruffian • 313 implied HN points • 14 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. Modern wars can be experienced and shaped as media spectacles, where television and narrative frame events more than straightforward facts on the ground.
  2. The 1991 Gulf War had clear geopolitical motives so the ‘everything is spectacle’ claim is too strong for that case, but the idea fits more closely with how recent conflicts play out in a media-saturated age.
  3. Leadership style and the 24/7 news/social feed change perception: steady, credible statesmanship makes actions feel discrete and serious, while erratic leadership and nonstop doomscrolling make military events seem continuous and surreal.

Simon Sebag Montefiore: The Dictator's Death and the Dawn of a New Mideast

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 843 implied HN points • 01 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. The killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader is a watershed event that could reshape Iran and the wider Middle East, with consequences that may ripple across the world.
  2. The U.S.-led strikes represent a high-stakes gamble: their aims may be noble, but the risks are enormous and the outcomes highly unpredictable, even for American democracy.
  3. It’s unclear whether Iranians can turn this moment into a successful popular overthrow because they lack arms and organization, and uncertainty about succession means a new, possibly more radical leader could emerge or the regime could collapse.

Our Rulers Are Psychopaths And They're Making Everything Awful

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 3567 implied HN points • 01 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics War
  1. Those in power are pursuing cruel, dangerous policies—preparing wars, enabling repression, and allowing horrific abuses to continue.
  2. The political system and its leaders have driven intense division and polarization, keeping people fighting each other instead of uniting against abuse.
  3. All this cruelty and chaos is leaving many people exhausted, anguished, and unsure how to respond.

The Journal I Started the Night I Thought I Might Die

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 426 implied HN points • 06 Mar 26
🎭️ Culture War
  1. War affects real people and families, not just nations. When service members die, they leave behind grief, memories, and unfinished lives.
  2. Facing the possibility of death can inspire someone to preserve their voice and lessons for loved ones, such as writing a journal to leave for their children.
  3. Fear and duty can coexist: soldiers often accept great risk out of quiet courage and love, and preparing for the worst is an act of responsibility toward family.

The Ancient Male Art of Monitoring the Situation

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 565 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
🎭️ Culture War
  1. Men often feel a deep, instinctive pull toward heroic action. That urge drives a lot of their attention to conflicts and crises.
  2. Social media and live feeds let people follow military conflicts in near real time. That constant flow of information amplifies fascination and keeps attention fixed on the situation.
  3. 'Monitoring the situation' memes are a joking, self-aware way men describe this habit. The humor masks a sincere, long-standing behavior of watching and being ready to act.

Daughter of Stanley Kubrick Responds to Trump 'Full Metal Jacket' Political Ad: 'I Believe My Father Would Approve'

The Take (by Jon Miltimore) • 456 implied HN points • 15 Oct 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics War
  1. Vivian Kubrick thinks her father would support using scenes from 'Full Metal Jacket' in a political way, even if it seems strange since the film is anti-war.
  2. She believes it's important for the military to focus on strong training and not be influenced by what she calls 'wokism'.
  3. Vivian sees a big difference between past racism/sexism and today's America, saying that many people overlook how much progress has been made.

How the World Just Changed. Plus. . .

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 375 implied HN points • 06 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. A U.S.-Israel strike that killed Iran’s supreme leader has set off a week of intense retaliation across the Middle East, including attacks that killed U.S. service members. The conflict’s duration and who will rule Iran next are still deeply uncertain.
  2. The war is reshaping U.S. politics, with Trump firing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and publicly splitting from Tucker Carlson, exposing fractures in the right-wing movement. These fights could change presidential politics and media alliances.
  3. The crisis has big global stakes: it shifts the regional balance of power, ties into broader U.S.-China competition, and raises the risk of wider war or civil conflict in Iran depending on succession and opposition forces. Analysts warn that internal divisions, like the Kurdish factor, will be crucial to how the situation unfolds.

Watching the Olympics in Ukraine

Thinking about... • 445 implied HN points • 21 Feb 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. War shapes even leisure: air-raid sirens, power cuts, and the deaths of athletes make watching the Olympics in Ukraine a precarious and poignant experience.
  2. Ukrainian coverage feels human and unscripted, offering small comforts and clear explanations that let viewers actually enjoy the sports while personal stories remind us of the wider sacrifice.
  3. Remembering others’ suffering and practicing empathy are essential to freedom; when a society cares only about winning or outcomes it risks tolerating indifference and empowering tyrants.

Life and Death and Other Numbers

Thinking about... • 332 implied HN points • 24 Feb 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. Numbers can show the scale of death, but each number is a unique person with a life and relationships that statistics cannot capture.
  2. Anniversaries and counts risk turning loss into an abstraction and can let individuals and states avoid moral responsibility.
  3. The war’s length and size are the result of ongoing political and economic choices, so ending it depends on changing those choices and actions.

The Iceberg Ahead

John’s Substack • 16 implied HN points • 21 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. The conflict with Iran is getting worse every day and risks spiraling into a much larger war.
  2. The president allowed Israel to push him toward war with Iran, which was a serious mistake, and he seems to have no clear plan to fix it.
  3. A major crisis is looming like an iceberg ahead, so urgent steps are needed now to steer away from catastrophe.

The Lies Get So Tedious

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 2225 implied HN points • 27 Jan 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. Society is propped up by nonstop lies about politics, economics, morality, and success that keep power structures in place.
  2. Those lies are taught from childhood and normalize suffering, making people miserable, confused, and complicit instead of critical.
  3. Gaining mental sovereignty means actively unlearning indoctrination and learning to see reality clearly. It's difficult but necessary for truth and meaningful change.

What Went Wrong with the American Man?

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 848 implied HN points • 18 Feb 26
🎭️ Culture War
  1. For much of the 20th century the ideal American man was a confident, mixed-origin archetype that symbolized strength, ambition, and cultural influence.
  2. The costly, unresolved wars on terror and the loss of America's military aura eroded that confident masculine myth and left many men’s sense of identity destabilized.
  3. In the aftermath a resentful, aggrieved male archetype has emerged—seen in the manosphere, rising addictions, and a widespread feeling among men that they’ve been humiliated and betrayed.

Shine

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 1625 implied HN points • 02 Feb 26
📚 Literature War
  1. The world is full of violence, exploitation, and hypocrisy — wars rage, powerful people hurt the vulnerable, and environmental and moral collapse leave people outraged and exhausted.
  2. Sacred and ordinary images blur: what might be wisdom or beauty can look like ruined nature, corrupt elites, or an ordinary person sobbing, showing how suffering wears many faces.
  3. Even when darkness feels overwhelming and ironic gestures seem futile, people keep shining light — they keep witnessing, resisting, and caring anyway.

Making it up as they go along

Comment is Freed • 188 implied HN points • 08 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. Military strikes and public calls for regime change have escalated the conflict, but there’s no clear plan or willingness to commit forces to actually topple the government, which raises the risk of a long, unpopular war.
  2. The regime is fragile because of repression, corruption, mismanagement, sanctions and a failing economy, so many people want change even as the state struggles to govern effectively.
  3. History shows that degrading a government’s military or leadership doesn’t quickly produce collapse; the regime still has guns and leadership capacity, so fighting for survival is likely to be prolonged and unpredictable.

The problem with Tucker

Michael Tracey • 152 implied HN points • 13 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics War
  1. Urging prayer instead of concrete political or civic action encourages passivity and weakens efforts to address real crises.
  2. Publicly allying with a powerful politician erodes independent scrutiny, leading to blame-shifting onto others rather than holding that leader accountable.
  3. Spreading conspiratorial, evidence-light theories degrades public reasoning and diverts attention from practical responses, which is especially dangerous during an active war.

Top 10 Books of the Year of the Snake

ChinaTalk • 548 implied HN points • 16 Feb 26
📚 Literature War
  1. Listening to whole religious texts and Tibetan Buddhist guided audio shifts attention from isolated verses to broader narrative arcs and gives a direct, experiential sense of meditation practice.
  2. Modern military history can be both deeply scholarly and vividly readable, with some Pacific War histories offering masterful scene-setting and powerful climaxes that clarify strategic decisions.
  3. Recent books on the CCP, Soviet dissidents, and Gulag literature reveal how authoritarian systems shape lives and ideas, and they are essential for understanding twentieth-century repression and contemporary Chinese political and technological ambitions.

You Know They're Lying About Iran

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 2300 implied HN points • 14 Jan 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. A familiar propaganda script is being used to push for intervention in Iran, repeating the same claims about oppression and the need for military 'help'.
  2. Media and empire apologists often use human-rights rhetoric, nuance-policing, and false both-sides arguments to steer public opinion toward war.
  3. Trust your own judgment, resist being shouted down by loud voices, and be skeptical of narrative distortion and recycled talking points.

The Iran Strikes—and the War to Come

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 292 implied HN points • 01 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. A joint U.S.-Israel strike killed Iran’s supreme leader, ushering in a sudden and dangerous turning point for the Middle East.
  2. Iran has launched widespread drone and missile retaliations and further U.S.-Israeli strikes are continuing, greatly increasing the risk of a wider, prolonged war.
  3. The attack reflects a shift toward a 'decapitation' strategy and has sparked urgent legal and congressional battles at home; analysts warn the fighting could be long, costly, and might either topple the regime or deepen suffering inside Iran.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin: When the Last Hostage Came Home

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 1525 implied HN points • 27 Jan 26
🌍 World Politics War
  1. The last Israeli hostage held in Gaza was returned, so no hostages remain there.
  2. Families of hostages lived with daily rituals—like morning prayers and a day counter—that kept hope alive and now must be changed or taken down.
  3. Even after the returns, grief and disorientation persist, and many people feel part of their souls are still elsewhere as they learn to live with the loss.

Encouraging News: Lindsey Graham Looks HEARTBROKEN About Iran

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 2132 implied HN points • 16 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics War
  1. Lindsey Graham’s facial expressions are presented as a shorthand indicator of how eager US leaders are for military action.
  2. Reports that airstrikes on Iran are unlikely are viewed skeptically because past misleading statements have sometimes preceded real attacks.
  3. Many find it hopeful when hawkish politicians look discouraged, and satire (like a joking "Graham-o-Meter") is suggested to track and mock warmongering.