US Preps for Major Escalation Against Iran, Israel Sends More Ground Troops Into Lebanon, and More

Hey, this is Dave DeCamp from anti-war.com and welcome to anti-war news.

It is about 9.30 on Thursday night here in Virginia.

We had a beautiful, glorious spring day here.

I wish I had more time to spend outside, but we have a lot of nice weather ahead of us.

This is really the best time of year.

But we're not talking about the weather tonight.

We are talking about war.

So the first story at the top of anti-war.com,

the U.S. prepares for escalation and ground operations against Iran.

So the Pentagon is developing options for a potential major escalation against Iran that

could involve ground troops and an intensified bombing campaign.

And this was reported by Axios on Thursday.

U.S. officials and other sources speaking to Axios reporter Barack Reved,

who is a former IDF intelligence officer,

described the potential escalation as a final blow that would give Trump more leverage

and room to declare victory, though all indications are that Iran is ready to face ground forces

and that any such operation would prolong the war.

So it's always important to tell you what the source is.

This is an Axios report from Barack Reved.

And a lot of stuff is laundered through Axios that the U.S. and Israel want to put out.

A lot of narratives are formed that aren't really true.

This idea that there's been separation that Netanyahu and Trump are at odds with each other.

But I remember in the lead up to the war before it started,

Reved was reporting that the U.S. was preparing for a major bombing campaign against Iran

much bigger than people would expect and that turned out to be true.

And this could be leaking this and putting this out as some kind of threat to try to get

Iran to capitulate and give into U.S. demands, but there's no sign that that's going to happen.

And it really does look like they are going toward some sort of attack to seize islands.

So these are the four options that are being considered according to this report.

Number one, invading or blockading Carg Island, Iran's main oil export hub.

Number two, invading a laryk in Ireland that helps Iran solidify its control of the

strait of Hormuz. The strategic outpost hosts Iranian bunkers, attack craft that can blow up cargo

ships and radars that monitor movements in the strait. Number three, seizing the strategic island

of Abu Musa and two smaller islands which lie near the western entrance to the strait

and are controlled by Iran but also claimed by the UAE.

Number four, blocking or seizing ships that are exporting Iranian oil on the eastern side of

the Hormuz strait. So as I've been saying, I kind of suspect that if we do see some sort of

attacks to seize islands that we'd probably see it closer to the strait of Hormuz then rather than

Carg Island, which is very deep inside the Persian Gulf and apparently that is being considered.

The report also said that the other another option they are considering sending in special

operations forces to secure the stockpile of uranium that's enriched at 60%.

But as I keep saying, as I understand it, that's buried under the rubble. I don't know how they would

get it. And plus it's also very deep inside Iran. And despite what Pete Hegseth claims at these

Pentagon press briefings, the US does not have total air dominance control of the skies over

Iran. We saw an F-35 get shot while it was over Iran not that long ago.

So anyway, this report said that Trump has not made a decision but that a major escalation was

likely if negotiations made no progress. And there's no sign that real diplomacy is underway despite

Trump's claims. Iranian officials have rejected a 15-point proposal that the US passed through

mediators and have set their own conditions to end the war. We'll get more into the

negotiations, the fake negotiations in another story. But this is the message coming from the

White House that if they don't agree to U.S. demands, then the US will escalate Caroline

leave it threatened on Wednesday that President Trump was ready to unleash hell on Iran.

And about 5,000 U.S. Marines and several thousand U.S. Army airborne soldiers appear to be on

their way to the region. You have one Marine Expeditionary Unit that I believe is expected to

arrive this weekend. And then another one that's on its way that will probably still take some

time to get there. And then the airborne soldiers are not sure exactly what the timeline is there.

I've seen different reports saying that anywhere from 1000 to 3000 are on their way or are going

to be deployed to the region. It hasn't been officially confirmed yet. And now the Wall Street

Journal is reporting on Thursday night. They reported that Trump is considering sending an

additional 10,000 ground troops to the region on top of these Marines and airborne soldiers.

And there's already about 50,000 U.S. troops in the Middle East. So it would bring the total

number to nearly 70,000 in the region. So that's a major force. And when it comes to attacks on

islands, it's different than trying to raise an army for a full scale invasion of Iran, which would

take, I believe hundreds and hundreds of thousands of troops. But the things that they're considering

are seizing islands, seizing ports, oil infrastructure, things like that. And unfortunately,

we seem to be headed in that direction. So the next one here, Trump again says that he is

delaying attack on Iran's power plants. So President Trump on Thursday, again,

said that he was delaying his plan to order major strikes on Iran's power plants, claiming

that negotiations with Iran were going well, despite Tehran's continued insistence that talks

with the U.S. are not even happening. So Trump wrote this on truth, social quote,

as per Iranian government request, please let this statement serve to represent that I am

pausing the period of energy plant destruction by 10 days to Monday, April 6th, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Eastern time. Talks are ongoing. And despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the fake

news media and others, they are going very well. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

End quote. So he's claiming talks are ongoing and that they're going well. And Iran is saying that

they're not happening at all. They've said that they've got messages from the U.S.

but that they're not engaged in negotiations. So when it comes to this threat to blow up Iran's

power plants, which of course would be warfare on the civilians of Iran, Trump initially said this

over the weekend and Monday night was the initial deadline and then he pushed it back to Friday and

now he's pushing it back again. And I do think this could just be, you know, he's waiting to build up

force, bigger force in the region before escalation. And you see Trump in another post on Thursday

earlier in the day, he contradicted himself. He basically said that Iran is desperate for a deal,

but then he also said in the same post that they have to get serious about the negotiations. So

he said that they're begging for a deal, but they also need to get serious. So it doesn't really

make sense. And a lot of what he has been saying lately, it's just flat out.

Doesn't make sense. Just lies or just complete misinformation. I think for the purpose of

just confusing everybody. And the big, the main purpose I believe is the markets trying to keep

the price of oil not, you know, a little down, but it's over $100 a barrel at the moment.

I believe I haven't checked in the past few hours, but price of gas, I mean, I drove past a gas

station today, where it was $4 and where I live, I mean, that's very high. We have a pretty,

you know, it's usually around the national average here. So anyway, it's a serious crisis that

is happening, especially in the Asian countries taking all these emergency measures. And, you know,

Trump is trying to artificially, you know, lower the prices and things and this just isn't going to

work for much longer. I mean, it's already not working, but it's just as this war drags on,

these things are going to get worse and worse. So the next one here, Iran is earning $139 million

a day from oil amid the Hormuz crisis. So there's one country that this is kind of working out for.

And when it comes to their oil situation, and that is Iran. So this is from oilprice.com.

So Iran's oil exports have not collapsed and are fetching much higher prices than before the war,

handing Tehran hands some extra revenues from its crude, which is the which is the only one

unimpeded from transiting the straight of Hormuz. Unlike all other Gulf producers, Iran is

passing its oil through the straight and its export volumes remain resilient.

Steady volumes and higher prices have been bringing millions of dollars of additional oil revenues

for the Islamic Republic since the war began as oil prices jumped and discounts for Iranian

barrels significantly narrowed versus Brent. Iran has likely earned $139 million per day by selling

its flagship Iran light crude so far in March, according to Bloomberg calculations based on export

estimates by tankertrackers.com and prices for Iranian light. The estimated daily revenues were

nearly $25 million higher compared to the average of 115 million daily proceeds from Iran light

in February, according to Bloomberg's calculations. Iran is benefiting in several ways from the Hormuz

crisis. First, its tankers are transiting the straight of Hormuz while most other Gulf oil

supplies still trapped. Then the massive supply shock from the Middle East has hiked international

crude prices to above $100 per barrel at about 105 a barrel of Brent early on Thursday,

which adds more revenues from oil sales and last but not least the huge discount of more than

$10 per barrel for Iran's oil to Brent before the war has now narrowed to just $2.10 per barrel this

week. So Iran is selling its oil for much more money than it was before and also the USE's sanctions

on Iran and I saw India bought some Iranian oil recently. So it is certainly not exactly what

President Trump had in mind I bet when he launched this war. So the next one here,

Vance claims that Iran could make a nuclear suicide vest. So Vice President JD Vance, the supposed

restrainer in the administration, the war skeptic has just made a completely absurd claim and I

mean he needs to be shamed for this. People need to not forget this. So Vice President JD Vance

on Thursday attempted to justify the continued US-Israeli war against Iran by implying that Iran

could potentially turn a nuclear bomb into a suicide vest, a claim not grounded in reality.

Vance made the claim during a cabinet meeting while discussing military and diplomatic options

that the US has regarding the conflict with Iran. He has continued to portray the war as being

necessary to prevent Iran from making a nuclear weapon, though there was no evidence that Tehran

had decided to build a bomb. Either before the June 2025 war or the current war that was launched

on February 28th, but despite that this is what JD Vance said at a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

What we have now that we didn't have when the President took over just a little over a year

ago is the ability to use every tool at our disposal to ensure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon.

Because when I say options, I think it's important the American people know options for what.

And it's options to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon. You talk about people who walk

into a crowded supermarket and have a vest on and they blow up the vest and a couple people get

killed. And that's a terrible tragedy. What happens when what's on the vest is not something that

can kill a couple of people, but can kill many, many tens of thousands of people. And quote.

And so I mean, this is one of those things. It's like, is it even worth like debunking his claim

here? Because it's just so ridiculous. And I mean, I know that there's been attempts at like the

nuclear, the suit case bombs and everything. But even those ones, I mean, if you look at them,

the portable bombs, they're huge. Nothing you could turn into a vest. And I saw a lot of people

on X who are defending him saying, oh, you never heard of a dirty bomb. But a dirty bomb doesn't

create a nuclear blast. And there's just no scenario where like a small dirty bomb could kill tens

of thousands of people, many tens of thousands of people, as he said. And also the suicide bombings

in the Middle East, this century overwhelmingly have been committed by the Sunni Muslim extremists

and not Iran, none by Iran or its Shia allies there. In talking about this, this century over the past

few decades. And actually, one of the groups very well known for suicide bombings was called Jabat

al-Nusra or the al-Nusra Front or al-Qaeda in Syria or as they're known now, Hayat through al-Sham,

or their other name, the Syrian government that the U.S. helped put in power. That's also what they're

known by. So that's just a little detail about who the U.S. is allied with in the Middle East.

And of course, al-Qaeda in Iraq was notorious for suicide bombings. That's where the current Syrian

president got his start. But anyway, you know, again, when it comes to these absurd, is it even worth

saying those things when they're just throwing this stuff out there like the truth, does the truth

even matter anymore? I mean, obviously it does, but this is just, you know, advance before the war,

he was the one, he was making all these claims saying that, oh, we have evidence that Iran is

rebuilding a nuclear weapon. I mean, Iran has never had a nuclear weapon. And there was no evidence

of that. Just complete fake lie that he's telling. I mean, this is Dick Cheney. I mean,

this reminds me of Dick Cheney. I remember when I was a kid, you know, I was pretty young. He was

always talking about, oh, Saddam Hussein was going to give a nuclear bomb to terrorists. And then a

nuclear bomb's going to hit us. And I would think, you know, I was a grew up on the island in the

suburb of New York City when I was young when 9-11 happened. And I remember being scared of like

this New York City getting nuked because of stuff like that. But that was after 9-11, you know,

we haven't had enough. It's just, and Vance is just saying all this nonsense to justify

this completely immoral war. I saw Aaron Mate on Twitter, he said something like, oh, is the

suicide vest in allegory for Vance's political career because he's just, you know, destroying his

prospects for a future political career with all these lies. Anyway, so the next one here,

Hegseth prays for violence against those who deserve no mercy. So US Secretary of War,

Pete Hegseth held a worship service. Worship service is in quotes there at the Pentagon on Wednesday

where he prayed for God to inflict violence on those who deserve no mercy. And for wicked souls

to be delivered to eternal damnation as the US War Chief continues to portray the US

Israeli war against Iran as one sanctioned by God. Hegseth said that the prayer was recited

that he said, so Hegseth said this prayer that he recited at this service was said by a US

military chaplain to troops ahead of the January 3rd attack on Venezuela. So this is what Hegseth

said. And I'm just quoting him. He said, quote, snap the rod of the oppressor,

frustrate the wicked plans and break the teeth of the ungodly by the blast of your anger,

let the evil perish, let their bulls go down to slaughter for their day has come the time of their

punishment. Pour out your wrath upon those who plot vain things and blow them away like chaff

before the wind. Grant this task force clear and righteous targets for violence. Let every round

find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every

decision, endurance for their trial ahead, unbreakable unity and overwhelming violence of action

against those who deserve no mercy, preserve their lives, sharpen their resolve and let justice

be executed swiftly and without remorse, that evil may be driven back and wicked souls delivered

to the eternal damnation prepared for them. So I mean, it's just there's a lot to say about

this prayer. I don't want to get too much into it, but just the idea of praying for your enemies

to face eternal damnation is just a complete inverse of what Christ taught in the Gospels.

And also saying that these people deserve no mercy. This is kind of his

align throughout his war briefings that they're operating without mercy that all these people

were killing, you know, saying that they deserve no mercy. I mean, from a Christian perspective,

we don't deserve mercy from God, but he has granted it to us, but nobody is outside of that

mercy. No human being is not granted that opportunity. So it's just completely the inversion of that,

what what Hegseth prayer says here, but but anyway, so Cardinal, I mentioned here that the Latin

patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierre Batista, pizza balla has criticized Hegseth's, you know,

this idea that he's trying to act like God is on his side. And pizza balla was asked about this

last week and he said, you know, doing this, manipulating and abusing God's name to justify

this violence is the gravest sin that humans can can commit at this time. So pretty strong words

there from pizza balla. So anyway, so Hegseth and Vance just really man. And one thing about Vance

is this is the guy who is supposedly going to negotiate a peace deal that apparently Iran has

requested him or we want to talk to Vance. That's just it's just crazy. So anyway, the next one here,

UAE envoy to the U.S. calls for more escalation in Iran war. So this article is from Middle East

eye. So the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the U.S. has said that a simple ceasefire is not

enough and the ongoing Israeli U.S. war on Iran calling instead for a conclusive outcome against

Iran. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Yusuf Al-Otaiba did not mention who initiated the war

and seemed to pin the blame on Iran while framing the UAE as being on the front line of this conflict.

And he said, quote, we need a conclusive outcome that addresses Iran's full range of threats,

nuclear capabilities, missiles drones, terror proxies and blockades of international sea lanes.

Iran has launched more than 2,180 missiles and drones at the Emirates far more than at any other

country. End quote. So the UAE wants escalation doesn't want a ceasefire. And this is interesting

because we saw the speaker of Iran's parliament. I think I mentioned it yesterday. Say that

there's indications that one specific country Arab country in the Gulf is involved in some sort of

plans for the next U.S. escalation. And that Axios report said that one option on the table is

seizing these islands that are Iran's controlled by Iran but claimed by the UAE.

And then there's a report from the cradle that we have in the lower part of the page. According to

their sources, Iran is planning some kind of escalation against the UAE because of their

whatever exactly they're doing. So again, we see all these different

actors in the region and everything's just pointing to escalation here instead of diplomatic

breakthrough, unfortunately. So the next one here is real sends more ground troops into Lebanon.

And remember, according to Iranian media, one of the conditions that Iran has for ending the war

is also ending this war in Lebanon. So this article is from Jason Ditz. So Israel has announced that

they are sending another division of ground troops into southern Lebanon as part of an invasion

that began earlier this month and which earlier this week, defense minister Israel Katz

said would include the occupation of the entire area south of the Latani river. This is the fifth

division to be sent into Lebanon since the invasion began. And a six division, the 98th division

is reportedly prepared to be deployed as well. Occupying such a large amount of territories,

no small task despite efforts to depopulate the area ahead of time. And obviously we've seen

just horrific attacks on healthcare infrastructure and lots of civilians being killed, lots of

children, at least 1,100 people have been killed since Israel escalated its war in Lebanon. And

there's just no sign that they're going to slow down or that they're going to stop here.

All right, so the next one here, Israeli forces raid Syria and raise Israeli flag over a Syrian town.

So this is another one from Jason and just something that gets literally no coverage. I mean,

this is based on the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which publishes short reports about

the goings-on in Syria but really gets no media coverage beyond that. So the Israeli military

vehicles rolled into the town of Hodder in Syria's Qanitra government on Wednesday and raised the

Israeli flag over the town's entrance. Quite the provocative move I would say locals say that

they also closed all but one road leading into or out of the town and established a checkpoint on

that road as well. Though Israel has now routinely raids these villages in this area, raising the flag

over the town is more provocative than things that they've done before. They also detained some

shepherds, some young men who were hurting sheep. They captured them and not sure if they were

released and they also detained captured two village elders in a different town though they were

later released. But I mean, this is life under the Israeli occupation for these villages in

southwestern Syria. It's becoming like the West Bank. All right, so the next one here, the US

may divert Ukraine military aid for mid-east war. So the Washington Post reported on Thursday that

the Pentagon was considering diverting military aid meant for Ukraine to the Middle East.

For use in the US-Israeli war against Iran. As the US military continues depleting its stockpiles

of air defenses and other munitions in the conflict. So this would be, so the US has been sending

military aid to Ukraine that is funded by other NATO countries that's paid for by other NATO

countries called the it's called the prioritize Ukraine requirements list or the pearl initiative.

And apparently these weapons that they've pledged about four billion dollars,

the US is NATO allies to buy weapons from the US to send to Ukraine. And apparently they're

looking at diverting these weapons to the Middle East because they're running so low on things

like Patriot interceptors according to this report. It's mainly air defense stuff, you know,

interceptors and things that they are considering. And Trump was asked about this and basically said,

yeah, you know, we're probably going to do it. This is what he said. Quote, we do that all the time.

We have them in other countries like in Germany and all over Europe. Sometimes we take from one

and we use for another end quote. And the US is seriously running low on their advanced interceptors.

And that's certainly factored into Iran's calculations. I'm sure they have some idea of how many

weeks the US might have left on when it comes to certain things. And you know, I'm sure Iran

has the capacity to manufacture at least drones, probably underground in areas that the US and

Israel cannot reach with their missiles. And you know, it's a very different situation for them.

This is an existential war. They are on a war time footing, a war economy, what the new

Iatola called a resistance economy. So they're putting everything into this war effort for the US.

It's very different now. And but another thing is that this equipment that the US has these

advanced air defense systems. They can't just start building, you know, thousands of them. It takes

time. You know, Lockheed Martin. Is it Lockheed Martin that makes the Patriot interceptors? Yeah.

So they currently make about 600 a year. The US and its allies to use over a thousand in just the

first like 10 days of the war. Lockheed Martin says they're going to increase that to 2000 a year.

But that's going to take a few years to get to that level. And then already, you know, that was

10 days into the war that they used 1000. They could be at 2000 already at this point. So it really

goes to show that that issue that the US has when it comes to using stuff much faster than it can

be produced. So the next one here, the US blows up a boat in the Caribbean, killing four. So US

Southern command set on Wednesday that its forces blew up another alleged drug running boat in the

Caribbean sea, killing at least four people. Whoops. Sorry about that. As usual, the command offered

no evidence to back up its claim that the boat was carrying drugs, something the Pentagon has not

done for any of the small vessels that it has struck since the bombing campaign began in early

September. And as I covered the other day, you know, the US as part of its operations in Latin

America started military operations in Ecuador and support of the government against alleged drug

targets. And that is called operation total extermination, totally normal thing to name your

military operation. But they claim that they bombed a drug camp. And according to a report from

the New York Times, which seemed to be very well sourced and they interviewed a lot of people and

things, it was a dairy farm that was blown up. So that certainly raises questions about the

credibility of the US intelligence in the region. And again, they're just blowing these boats up

and saying, trust us, they were carrying drugs, you know, no evidence, no trial, just executing

people at sea. And the death toll in the Spam and Campaign is now up to 163 since it began in early

September. So the last story here, Cuban patients are dying because of the US blockade.

So this is an article from the New York Times coverage of the situation in Cuba. It's pretty long,

it's worth reading. But essentially, as the title says, Cuban patients in hospitals are dying

because of the blockade, the hospitals have no electricity. You know, there's blackouts all

over the country. The US has allowed some more oil to enter. But on the condition that it goes

to private companies. And I know in some cases, hotels are able to get oil and run generators

and things. But hospitals and, you know, because Cuba's whole infrastructure is state run, hospitals

and things are not getting any oil. And, you know, people are in ventilators and things are dying

because of this. So it's a very cruel blockade. That's killing people. And you know, I don't know

what this situation is. You know, I haven't been following it too closely. I know there's some kind

of negotiations happening. But I think with little little Marco Rubio running this, I don't think he

really wants to deal with the Cuban government. I think he's really hoping for a regime change

war or whatever, you know, in Cuba. So anyway, that is it for the news for today. Please go check

out our viewpoints. One from JD Hester, how the West is quietly legitimizing anti-Aran terrorists.

One from Judge Napolitano, war and morality. One from Connor O'Keefe, the immorality of Trump's

war with Iran matters. One from Michael Holmes, when the US supported a brutal Chinese conquest

of Taiwan. One from Roger D. Harris, US sanctions on Venezuela continue, corporate beneficiaries

and a targeted society. One from Steve Simon, like Iraq, key intelligence before Iran strikes was

ignored. And our spotlight is from Mason Stallings at the American Conservative Unpatriotic

Conservatives Redux. And that's a reference to what was at the National Review during the

First Iraq War at a piece called Unpatriotic Conservatives, you know, targeting all the conservative

critics of the war, like Papi Canon, like Justin Romando, who's a co-founder of anti-war.com.

It's just the same old smear that these people, oh, they hate our country because they oppose

the war. When, in fact, their criticism of it is rooted in the fact that they want the best for

this country. And they know that this war is going to be a complete disaster for it.

But anyway, that's it for the week. Hopefully, there's no ground operations that start

this weekend, so I don't have to do another show. And obviously, that's not the only reason to hope

for that not to happen. But, you know, I know, you know, we talk about a lot of negative things here.

And I mean, that is the nature of our coverage at anti-war.com. It's war. It's ugly.

It's not very nice. It's rare that we have positive news. But I think, you know, I mean,

I'm trying to end with a positive message here. I mean, again, I said in the beginning,

it's beautiful time of year. It's good to get outside, get in the fresh air. Holy week is coming up.

Palm Sunday and then Easter's coming up. So certainly a reason to hope, a reason to pray for peace.

But anyway, that is it for me. I hope everyone has a good weekend. Please support anti-war.

If you can, I'll talk to you in a couple of days. Thanks for listening.