Roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

(1) From yesterday’s primaries: Crenhaw is out, Jasmine Crockett (whom the GOP wanted because she would probably be easiest to beat) is out and declaring her opponent cheated, and Cornyn and Paxton will have a runoff.

(2) The US has torpedoed an Iranian warship:

An American submarine sank an Iranian warship named the Soleimani in the Indian Ocean overnight — the first such US attack on a member of an enemy fleet since World War II, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday.

The “quiet death” strike on Iran’s prized vessel, the IRIS Shahid Soleimani, unfolded late Tuesday off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, Hegseth said, telling reporters during a Pentagon briefing that the ship “thought it was safe in international waters.”

“Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II,” Hegseth added. “Like in that war, back when we were still the War Department, we are fighting to win.”

I watched a great many WWII movies on TV as a child, and torpedoes were heavily featured – and frightening.

(3) In that friendly fire incident in Kuwait in which three US planes were shot down – with all six crew members safe – the fire came from Kuwaiti forces.

(4) Those three policemen who shot the killer in Austin will not be referred to a grand jury. That’s certainly the right call.

(5) Steve Witcoff talks about the negotiations with Iran. The gist of it is that Iran never was willing to make concessions and was openly and unashamedly determined to enrich uranium to weapons-grade:

Alas, we’ve seen the likes of these stories before: “reimagining”crime and punishment

The New Neo Posted on by

When I first saw this story two days ago, I thought it was old. It’s not:

The fiend behind Sunday’s bloodbath at a packed Austin bar was an ex-New York City resident wearing a “Property of Allah’’ hoodie — and possibly out for vengeance over the US attack on Iran, law-enforcement sources told The Post.

Crazed Texas shooter Ndiaga Diagne, 53, of Senegal arrived in the US on March 13, 2000 on a B-2 tourist visa during the Democratic Clinton administration and became a lawful permanent resident (IR-6) when he married a US citizen in June 2006, a source familiar with his immigration history told The Post.

Same for this:

A North Carolina man accused of stabbing another individual in broad daylight has faced more than 18 criminal charges over the past decade, including assault-related cases and a domestic-violence conviction, before the latest violent incident, court records show.

Micah Emmanuel Ragin, 31, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury after a Feb. 28 altercation in east Charlotte.

Not to mention this terrible one:

A Virginia murder suspect accused of fatally stabbing a woman at a bus stop earlier this week has a lengthy criminal history filled with multiple arrests, but was let back onto the streets nearly every time.

Abdul Jalloh, 32, is charged with the Monday night killing of Stephanie Minter, 41, of Fredericksburg, at a bus stop shelter, the Fairfax County Police Department said. …

He was arrested at a liquor store after an employee called 911. At the time, officers arrested him for allegedly shoplifting. Investigators linked him to the murder a day later.

Authorities were still trying to determine a motive for the killing and what led to the deadly stabbing.

A search of online court records revealed Jalloh has more than a dozen arrests in northern Virginia, including on charges of petty larceny and malicious wounding.

In most of the cases, prosecutors dropped the charges, FOX D.C. reported.

The prosecutors say they dropped charges because the victims often had no fixed address and couldn’t be located. Seems that, in addition to robbing liquor stores, this guy may have usually preyed on the homeless, but until now he never killed anyone. And Sephanie Minter was not homeless.

Oh, and by the way, Jalloh is an illegal alien. Surprise, surprise. He entered the US in 2012, during the Obama years:

His criminal history includes more than 30 arrests for charges of rape, malicious wounding, assault, drug possession, identity theft, trespassing, larceny, firing a weapon, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and pick pocketing.

ICE previously lodged a detainer against Jalloh in 2020, and he was granted a final order of removal by a judge who found he could be removed to any country other than Sierra Leone. This case illustrated the importance of third country removals to get criminal illegal aliens out of the U.S.

And yet he was still here. Plus, guess what? Governor Spanberger of Virginia is still refusing to turn him over to ICE without the feds getting a warrant, which is not legally necessary (see this).

Oh, but there’s more. In connection with the Austin shooting, the officers involved will probably go before a grand jury:

Three hero Austin cops who put their lives on the line to stop a maniac’s deadly shooting rampage are expected to face a grand-jury investigation thanks to a George Floyd-era policy.

Texas lawyer Doug O’Connell, whose firm O’Connell West has been tapped to represent the officers at the behest of the Austin Police Association, told The Post on Tuesday that such mandatory reviews are the brainchild of Austin District Attorney José Garza.

“The district attorney, at the direction of the Wren Collective, insists on presenting every officer involved shooting to a grand jury,’’ O’Connell said, referencing a shadowy and influential left-wing Austin-based criminal-justice reform group.

“We believe that our clients will face this same process,” the lawyer said.

What is the Wren Collective? Here’s their website:

Reimagining the Way Our Country Approaches the Criminal Legal System

Ever notice how often the word “reimagine” is connected with these leftist pipedreams? “Imagine,” indeed – a la the John Lennon song.

The Wren Collective works to transform America’s approach to public safety, expose the weaponization of the legal system, and ensure every person has the chance to participate in civic society. For too long, those with power have exploited the criminal legal system to take away the rights of marginalized communities, people of color, immigrants, and increasingly, their political opponents.

Wren pushes for a world where everyone—not just those with money and power—can live healthy, safe, and dignified lives.

Or where only the powerful can. The rest of you must be sacrificed on the altar of virtue-signaling “reimagination.”

Who funds the Wren Collective? The answer is about what you’d expect:

A consulting firm funded by left-wing billionaires has embedded itself in the offices of 40 progressive prosecutors, where it has quietly helped to craft soft-on-crime policies that now affect 48 million Americans across 22 states. Known as the Wren Collective, the firm provides its services to the prosecutors for free and with no expectation of publicity, according to a new report by the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF). …

The Wren Collective is bankrolled by several left-wing billionaires. It received over $500,000 from the Texas billionaire John Arnold, who has invested more than $46 million into progressive criminal justice reform efforts since 2019. The firm also received $295,000 from a group run by disgraced Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King, the Real Justice PAC, and $250,000 from Open Philanthropy, a group run by Cari Tuna, the wife of Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz.

The group worked with some of the most left-wing prosecutors in the country, including former San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin, Burlington, Vt., state’s attorney Sarah George, and Monique Worrell, the state attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit of Florida. Boudin held weekly “comms huddle up calls with the group”; George worked with Wren Collective to decriminalize prostitution; and George shared confidential case files on a murder case with the Wren Collective before she decided to decline charges in the matter. …

… [Former Portland, Oregon, DA Mike Schmidt’s] office dismissed hundreds of criminal charges against violent protesters involved in the George Floyd riots in Portland shortly after the policy went into effect.

Schmidt, who left office in January, is just one of 40 progressive prosecutors who have worked with the Wren Collective since its creation in early 2020 …

“This is a much deeper problem than people understand,” said LELDF policy director Sean Kennedy, who led the group’s research into the Wren Collective. “Progressive prosecutors are not part of some organic movement. They are simply the face of a carefully designed and highly coordinated campaign to undermine the American criminal justice system from within. Our research shows that donors fund the production, activists write the script, the Wren Collective directs the scene, and their client prosecutors dutifully act out their parts.”

We already knew that Soros was involved with funding the campaigns of so many of these DAs. But I don’t recall reading about the Wren Collective before, although it seems to coordinate the whole thing.

In the 60s, leftists used to have to rob banks or people to get money. No more! And you can bet that their wealthy funders have plenty of security; they’re not riding light rail or waiting at bus stops.

Roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

(1) Today is Purim, the Jewish festival that celebrates the obliteration of Haman, head of a movement in ancient Persia to eliminate the Jews, and his followers. Interesting, no? Most people think it’s just a story and has no historical reality, but one wonders. And note this: something like the name “Haman” is embedded in the name “Khameini.

(2) Another snowstorm where I am. Fortunately, I don’t have to go out. And so far I haven’t lost power.

(3) Qatar warns Iran to stop attacking it or they will retaliate.

As you might imagine, Tucker Carlson is experiencing stress, with two of his favorite places – Qatar and Iran – squabbling. But he is flexible enough to resolve his dilemma by claiming that the attacks on Qatar may seem to come from Iran, but they’re actually orchestrated by Israel, of course:

But from Al Jazeera, no special friend of Israel:

Qatar’s FM spokesperson adds that there is no information on Mossad cells operating in the country.

This comes after US broadcaster Tucker Carlson claimed that Qatar and Saudi Arabia have arrested individuals linked to Mossad.

What Qatar has done is to arrest two Iranian sleeper cells (from Al Jazeera as well):

Qatar has announced the arrest of what it called two cells operating for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Ten suspects were arrested in the cells, the Qatar News Agency (QNA) announced on Tuesday. Seven had been assigned to spy on “vital and military facilities” in Qatar, while three were tasked with carrying out sabotage operations.

Hey Tucker, maybe the Jews have hacked Al Jazeera too, right?

(4) Megyn Kelly isn’t far behind Tucker in saying the war is being fought for Israel rather than for the US, and Trump has criticized both of them.

(5) NeverTrumpers Bill Kristol, et al, say Trump shouldn’t have attacked Iran. And yet for quite some time they’ve been angrily asking Trump to do something to help the Iranian protesters. But hey, consistency isn’t their strong suit, except in one regard: whatever Trump does, they’re against it.

Why didn’t we do this to Iran long ago?

The New Neo Posted on by

Those of us of a certain age remember the 1979 Iranian Revolution and of course the taking of the US hostages, which was an outrage and a humiliation. Young people don’t remember it and most probably know little to nothing about it (and perhaps couldn’t care less), but the rest of us remember. It’s not necessarily been in the forefront of our minds, but it’s been there, multiplied by other incidents in which the theocrats of Iran presided over the killings of Americans and others all over the world.

And what did the US do about it? Pretty much nothing.

If you take a look at the sidebar on my blog, you’ll see that I’ve written 387 posts under the category “Iran” (this one will make 388). That’s a lot of verbiage, and many of these posts involve the history of the 70s and 80s there. Another large number involve Obama’s infuriating Iran policy.

It seemed as though something should be done to stop them, but it never was. It’s not that we lacked the firepower, either. But we never wanted to inflame the region, nor did we want to harm the people of Iran, who periodically rose up against their leaders, only to be slaughtered. So our rage was mostly impotent. Meanwhile, our weapons became more and more sophisticated. Even the “smart” bombs of the Gulf War were surpassed over and over, as pinpoint accuracy became the norm. Some of the advances were secret, but we knew they were happening although we didn’t know the details – only rumors.

The policy on the part of Democrat presidents over the forty-seven years since 1979 has been weak, and with Obama (and Biden) it even turned against Israel, at least somewhat, and towards Iran. Both Bush II and Trump in his first administration had a “let Israel take care of it” mindset. With Trump’s second administration, that has ended.

Trump is basically Jacksonian in foreign policy:

Although Jacksonians share a domestic focus, they have been behind some of the most assertive American foreign policies in history. They are populists who believe in democracy emerging from the people and display a belligerent nationalism, quick to defend American honour and interests. Jacksonians support strong defence spending and are focused on American victory rather than global salvation.

Jacksonians don’t like to intervene militarily in foreign countries. But not only will they do it when sorely pressed, but when they decide on a military attack they don’t do it halfheartedly. They unleash a “terrible swift sword” and also try to spare American lives. But they have no trouble moving boldly and decisively.

And at this point, Trump doesn’t mind a little “global salvation” either.

It took Trump to move this way against Iran, and it helped very much that Netanyahu is the head of Israel at present. There has never been such a coordinated US/Israel military action, and that started last summer with the first wave of bombings of nuclear facilities. Trump is unafraid of doing things that previous presidents thought either impossible or unwise or both, such as moving the embassy to Jerusalem or killing Soleimani. The repercussions from Iran were thought to be too high, but it turned out they weren’t high at all.

This military assault on Iran has been planned, in one way or another, for a long time. And by “a long time” I mean more than fifteen years. I saw a recent interview with Petraeus in which he said there was a similar plan already developed back when he was in charge in the Middle East in 2009. Although the weaponry was of course not as sophisticated as it is now, the general plan was there. But it was never used.

Until now.

Whatever ends up happening in Iran and whether the people of Iran can manage the difficult task of forming a viable state that no longer threatens its neighbors, it took Trump (in tandem with Netanyahu) to lance this long-festering boil. The Iranian refugees around the world are thanking them, especially Trump:

[NOTE: In other news, there was a report that the mullahs got bombed while trying to elect a new leader. However, I think it was probably just the building:

Following the attack, Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency claimed that the building was an old structure that was no longer used by the assembly for its meetings.

It remains unclear how many members of the assembly, if any, were inside the building and casting a ballot when the building was hit.

And now it’s been announced that a new leader has in fact been selected: Khameini’s son.]

[ADDENDUM: Why is Europe so afraid to stand up to Iran? Short answer: they’re afraid of their own large Muslim populations causing internal trouble. I also think they don’t want to stand up to anyone except Israel and the US.]

So much news

The New Neo Posted on by

So much to read, so much to hear, so much to think about. I can’t cover it all, so I pick and choose, day by day. But some general thoughts …

For those of us who are older – and I know many of you are – we remember back to the 1979 Iranian revolution. Until the last few days, I didn’t really think I’d see the regime fall. And of course it still might not fall; nothing is certain. But the stunning scope of the attack on Iran by the US and Israel is really astounding.

I’m planning to write a post about that tomorrow – the coordination of intelligence and the weaponry that’s being revealed. It’s like something out of science fiction. And there’s probably plenty we still don’t know.

What will happen in Iran if the regime is destroyed? Could things get worse than they already were? I don’t know; it’s certainly possible, although Iran has been so bad for so long that I think it’s worth the risk. The rewards could be extremely great if things do work out.

Trump and Netanyahu were well aware of that:

Ahead of Saturday’s US-Israel attack on Iran, US President Donald Trump received briefings both warning of the potential major US casualties and touting the prospect of a significant shift in the Middle East in favor of US interests, a US official told Reuters Saturday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the briefers described the operation to the president as a high-risk, high-reward scenario.

I think that’s obvious. It’s probably the main reason why no president has ever tried it before, despite the many provocations. I think we can safely say that Trump is different.

Where’s Larijani?

The New Neo Posted on by

Taking a leaf out of Hamas’ book?:

The two most powerful officials in Iran have sought refuge in a hospital.

Ali Larijani and Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, who are both high-priority targets, have reportedly taken refuge inside a hospital for cover out of fear of being located and targeted.

Both widely seen as wielding the most power in Iran’s leadership after Khamenei’s death.

The Islamic Republic is widely reported to use hospitals and schools as human shields.

Makes sense.

As far as we know, there are no US boots on the ground in Iran and no plan for any. However, it’s Israel that’s been offing the Iranian leaders. There may be Mossad boots on the ground.

The Gulf states are not happy about being attacked by Iran

The New Neo Posted on by

It’s not just US bases in the Gulf states that are being attacked by Iran:

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Aragchi, has denied targeting his country’s neighbours, telling Al Jazeera: “We are not attacking our neighbours in the Persian Gulf countries, we are targeting the presence of the US in these countries. Neighbours should direct their grievances to the decision-makers of this war”.

Some of the damage to civilian infrastructure in the Gulf states is accidental – resulting from debris falling from intercepted missiles.

But not all.

The number of attacks on airports in Bahrain and the UAE point to more than coincidence.

Iran always made it clear in advance that, if it was attacked, it would retaliate at any country it considered to be complicit in that attack.

As one would imagine, the target states are not happy. Iran seems to want them to blame the US, but they’re not:

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expresses its rejection and condemnation in the strongest terms of the blatant and cowardly Iranian attacks that targeted the Riyadh Region and the Eastern Province, which were successfully intercepted. These attacks cannot be justified under any pretext,” the statement said.

This is not the first time Iran has attacked its Arab neighbours in the Gulf, either directly or indirectly, but never quite on this scale.

From where I sit – which is far, far away, and not privy to any special information – there’s been no great love lost between Iran and these countries even before these incidents. Although they’re all basically Muslim-majority states, Iran is a Shia country and the others are Sunni-majority countries with varying Shia populations, nations that have thrown their lot somewhat in with the US for years. If Iran’s decision to attack these countries seems counter-productive, it is probably nevertheless done because of a combination of pent-up anger (by an Iranian regime under great pressure), plus the notion that it might deter these states (or others) in the future from consorting with the US. If so, that doesn’t seem to have been a good bet:

The calls, led by the United Arab Emirates from inside the six-country Gulf Cooperation Council, are for the Arab states to act in self-defence against Iran, but it would be a huge step for Gulf leaders in effect to side with Israel in a war that will determine the future shape of the Middle East, probably to the advantage of Israel.

A video meeting of GCC foreign ministers on Sunday made no explicit reference to such a plan but stated the “option to respond to Iranian attacks” to protect regional security and stability remained on the table.

Iran had expended huge diplomatic effort in the past two years trying to convince the Gulf states that Israel, not Iran, is the chief destabilising force in the region, but much of that painstaking work in speeches, conferences, and diplomatic visits appears to have fallen apart in a matter of days.

The first article I linked and quoted is from the leftist BBC and the second is from the leftist Guardian. I don’t think it’s my imagination that both pieces seem more sympathetic to Iran than to any other country in the mix. But I don’t think Iran’s “huge diplomatic effort” was bearing fruit even before this; why would it?

I also wonder how much command and control is left in Iran. Who’s giving the orders? I don’t know, but these figures seem to be gone.

Iranian leaders who are reported to be no longer with us

The New Neo Posted on by

There’s a lot of celebration by the people of Iran, although the joint US/Israel operation is not over, and the mullahtocracy has not fallen.

But here are some prominent people who aren’t giving orders anymore:

In addition to Khamenei, several other senior officials were killed in US-Israeli airstrikes too.

They include Iran’s army chief of staff, General Abdol Rahim Mousavi, and defence minister General Aziz Nasirzadeh.

Also killed was Major General Mohammad Pakpour, who took over as the Revolutionary Guard’s top commander after Israel killed its last commander last June, and Ali Shamkhani, a top security adviser to Khamenei.

Iranian media said Khamenei’s daughter, grandchild, son-in-law and daughter-in-law were killed as well.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) also claimed it had killed:

• Saleh Asadi, head of the Intelligence Directorate of the Khatam al Anbiya emergency command;
• Mohammad Shirazi, head of the military bureau;
• Hossein Jabal Amelian, head of SPND (Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research);
• And Reza Mozaffari-Nia, a former head of SPND and former deputy defence minister. …

Under Iran’s system of vilayat-e faqih – guardianship of the Islamic jurist – the supreme leader must be a senior leader with political and religious authority.

Khamenei’s power was often wielded through close advisers. But it is unclear how many have survived, and he was never publicly recorded as naming a successor.

His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, a 56-year-old cleric, has been seen as a possible successor. He has never held government office, however.

I have also read that his son is no longer alive, but I don’t know whether that’s true.

This guy was no longer in office, but he seems to have been eliminated as well:

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — a polarizing hardliner who became the face of Tehran’s nuclear defiance and incendiary anti-Israel rhetoric — was reportedly killed in Israeli airstrikes at the outset of the military operation inside Iran.

A report by the Israeli media outlet Ma’ariv stated that Ahmadinejad was under house arrest at the time and was killed in a targeted strike on his residence. …

Ahmadinejad served as Iran’s sixth president from 2005 to 2013, rising from relative obscurity as mayor of Tehran to defeat establishment figure Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a surprise 2005 runoff. …

In 2006, his government hosted a conference in Tehran widely condemned as a platform for Holocaust denial, drawing international outrage.

During a 2005 conference titled “A World Without Zionism,” he quoted Iran’s founding leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, who had referred to Israel as “the occupying regime of Jerusalem” and a “disgraceful cancerous growth” that “must be wiped off the map.” …

His presidency was also marked by an unusual emphasis on Shiite messianic belief in the return of the Hidden Imam, which critics said blurred the line between theology and statecraft.

Internationally, he forged a high-profile alliance with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, framing their partnership as a united front against U.S. influence.

Venezuela. Iran.

Why was Ahmadinejad under house arrest? According to the article, “he clashed openly with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and was repeatedly barred from running for president again.” I assume the reason is connected to that.

Was Ahmadinejad involved in the 1980 US embassy hostage-taking? Perhaps.

By the way, all these assassinations are the result of Israeli action. The US has focused on military targets.

Many of these people are said to have been killed because they were meeting in a group or several groups. Why were they foolhardy enough to do that? Did they figure they wouldn’t be targeted while negotiations were still going on? Maybe. But it also might be the case that they had few alternatives. Cellphones could be tracked – and/or booby-trapped. Pagers? Forget about it. I suppose carrier pigeon or courier might do the trick, but it’s been clear for quite a while that there is an informer (or multiple informers) within the inner circle.

I heard a joke yesterday that the only Iranian leaders left are members of the Mossad, but each doesn’t know the others are agents.

Glimpses through the fog of war in Iran

The New Neo Posted on by

Many of those who criticize Trump for the attack on Iran – and there are plenty who do, of course – say some version of “of course the mullahs are evil and need to be destroyed, but what Trump did was wrong.” But they have no suggestions as to what else might have worked, because virtually everything has been tried and nothing has ever worked.

Meanwhile, Trump has shown remarkable courage, as has Netanyahu. We still don’t know whether their courage will pay off in establishing a new and better Iran, less bent on terrorism and destroying (or taking over) its neighbors, and less oppressive of its citizenry. How could we know? But there’s a chance those good things will result, and if the attack hadn’t been tried, Iran would almost certainly have continued on a terrible trajectory that would not only have been destructive to its own people but potentially destructive to the entire world, particularly Israel and the US but also much of the Middle East and the Western nations.

Now for some news of what’s happened there already.

(1) The report is that Khameini and forty other Iranian leaders are dead. But the death of the Supreme Leader isn’t just a rumor. It has been confirmed by Iranian state media:

The Iranian government announced 40 days of public mourning following the “martyrdom” of the 86-year-old ayatollah, who had ruled Iran for over 36 years.

Khameini was part of the original revolutionary crew of mullahs back in 1979, ruling with a repressive and iron hand.

Aarabi also warned that “eliminating Khamenei in isolation on its own is not enough,” calling for a broader strategy aimed at the wider apparatus surrounding the supreme leader.

“You have to dismantle this extensive apparatus that he has created,” he said.

I am sure that Israel and the US are well aware of that, and are trying to manage it. The question is whether they will succeed. But they are on their way. The IDF says that forty Iranian leaders were killed, and Trump says “a large number.” But this is just the first day; more needs to be done, and much remains to be seen.

Among the officials killed were Iran’s Minister of Defense, Head of Intelligence, and the Supreme Leader’s Advisor for Security Affairs and Secretary of the Defense Council.

“The world is a better place without them,” The IDF wrote on X.

(2) Six people have been killed in retaliatory strikes by Iran in nine countries. I am very sorry about those six people, but considering the efforts Iran has made, the number could have been far greater. Most of the Iranian strikes were stopped by air defense systems.

(3) The UN Secretary-General Gutteres condemned the strikes, saying they were “a grave threat to international peace and security.” Of course he did.

(4) Iranians are dancing in the streets – not just in the US, but in Iran:

Iranians were seen dancing and chanting in the streets Saturday morning in video circulating online after “Operation Epic Fury,” which unleashed strikes targeting Iranian leadership.

“I love Trump!” one student shouted as smoke arose from a nearby building, according to a clip shared on X and reported by The Telegraph.

Other footage showed people dancing in the middle of the road — an act of joy that has been criminalized by the Islamic regime since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Women smiled and twirled as music played and onlookers clapped …

I would assume the great majority of people are staying behind closed doors. But I would also guess that the majority of them are celebrating, too.

(5) Will Iranian terror agents strike in US? They certainly will try, if they can. But there wasn’t much activity after US/Israel strikes in Iran last summer. Let’s hope that they don’t succed at retaliating now.

(6) Mamdani says exactly what you might think he would say, showing he’s both a knave and fool (but you already knew that):

“Today’s military strikes on Iran — carried out by the United States and Israel — mark a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression. Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war. Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change. They want relief from the affordability crisis. They want peace,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement. “I am focused on making sure that every New Yorker is safe. I have been in contact with our Police Commissioner and emergency management officials. We are taking proactive steps, including increasing coordination across agencies and enhancing patrols of sensitive locations out of an abundance of caution. Additionally, I want to speak directly to Iranian New Yorkers: you are part of the fabric of this city — you are our neighbors, small business owners, students, artists, workers, and community leaders. You will be safe here.”

As though Iran hasn’t been at war with us for forty-seven years. As though we are carpet-bombing Tehran, a la WWII. I wonder what he considers “sensitive locations” in New York, in need of protection. I bet they’re not synagogues. And the Iranian New Yorkers he says he will protect are probably beside the themselves with joy right now at Khameini’s fall.