RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2025/06/25/what-will-china-do-post-iran/

Iran may be unraveling under the massive Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities and command centers. It’s uncertain whether the ayatollahs will survive the humiliation or how they will spin the narrative about the loss of their strategic atomic program.

With that, Russia, entangled in a war in Ukraine that it doesn’t seem able to win, will feel the pressure. Iran has been an essential supplier of military goods and a significant political partner in the complex diplomatic game surrounding the fight.

China, the third pole of this hazy coalition, has now kept its distance from Iran. Unlike with Ukraine or Gaza—where it rushed to pledge support for causes that proved to be lost (Moscow’s invasion or Hamas’s attack)—this time Beijing remained mostly silent, issuing a few bland statements about peace.

Beijing appears to be rethinking its foreign policy and shifting its stance.

This is a new kind of domino effect—unlike the Cold War—because China is fundamentally different from the USSR.

In Iran, the Shia-led regime established in the 1980s stands at odds with the enduring cultural legacy of Persia.

Despite all their efforts, the ruling clerics haven’t managed to wipe out the Persian legacy, which may be stronger than ever. If the ayatollahs were to fall, ancient Persia could reemerge from a very shallow underground.

In Russia, generals and oligarchs can survive. Russia might be better off without Vladimir Putin. If Putin were to fall, Russia could quite easily endure. This isn’t about a U.S.-controlled “regime change.” It’s about a natural historical evolution, without any need for direct U.S. meddling.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/06/24/wars-are-won-on-the-factory-floor/

As recent events in Iran have so aptly demonstrated, technological progress married to industrial might produces the most tangible form of power. In the recent conflict in the Middle East, this meant that a second-tier power like Iran was clearly outmatched – first by Israel, then by America.

The West needs to learn this lesson and apply it to its rivalry with a far more formidable foe: China. Unlike the theocrats of Tehran, China’s ambitions are distinctly material. And, until recently, China has made tremendous headway facing relatively little, and largely ineffective, Western opposition.

Fortunately, in America at least, there is an emerging industrial renaissance, led by a wave of new firms investing in key technologies, such as drones, satellites, fuel-efficient jet engines and robotic drilling. These and similar companies remain the West’s best hope of slowing China’s bid for global pre-eminence – a campaign that now extends into space and advanced military systems.

China, the most important ally of Tehran’s beleaguered mullahs, cannot be easily dismissed. Since its accession to the World Trade Organisation in 2000, China has grown to the point where it boasts as many factory exports as the US, Japan and Germany combined. In 2023, the Middle Kingdom forged roughly half the world’s steel and became the world’s largest automobile market – including for electric vehicles, whose batteries are linked to an industrial economy that’s highly dependent on coal-burning power stations. It also accounts for more than half of all shipbuilding.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/arming-authoritarian-regimes-in-the-middle-east/

When the Israeli Air Force destroyed two F-14 fighter jets on an Iranian airbase on June 16, many Americans asked the same question:

How did Iran—a sworn enemy of both the United States and Israel—end up with top-tier American-made military aircraft?

The answer, as uncomfortable as it is, should serve as a powerful warning. The U.S. sold those F-14s to Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when Iran was ruled by the Shah and seen as a strategic American ally in the region. But when the Shah’s regime fell and Islamic extremists seized power, those very same fighter jets fell into the hands of America’s adversaries.

This is not ancient history. It is a lesson in the long-term risks of arming authoritarian regimes—especially in the volatile Middle East—and it is more relevant than ever today.

In recent years, the U.S. has agreed to sell its most advanced aircraft, the F-35 stealth fighter, to countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Bahrain and other authoritarian regimes in the Gulf have also expressed interest in acquiring similar technology. These sales may be seen as diplomatic wins or short-term economic boons, but they represent profound strategic risks.

America’s most sophisticated military assets should not be placed in the hands of authoritarian rulers whose grip on power is inherently unstable. Today’s “friendly” regime can become tomorrow’s adversary. As we saw in Iran, it only takes a single revolution or coup for U.S.-made weapons to be used against American interests—or those of our allies.