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Antiwar.com’s Weekly Newsletter for January 30, 2026

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January 30th, 2026 | Weekly Issue
Trump Considering Strikes on Iran to Reignite Protests
Kyle Anzalone | January 29th
Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed Trump has the ‘preventive defensive option’ to strike Iran
President Donald Trump is considering strikes on Iran, hoping the attack will restart anti-government protests.

Reuters reported on Thursday that Trump was hoping strikes on Iran would reignite the protest movement. Earlier this month, the President was considering striking the Iranian government and security forces in response to the crackdown on demonstrators.

Trump initially asserted he would attack Iran for killing protesters, but decided against strikes because they lacked enough military assets in the Middle East to deliver a decisive blow to the Islamic Republic and protect American forces from retaliatory attack.

The President has since ordered a massive military buildup in the Middle East.

In an effort to justify the major US military buildup in the Middle East, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US must be prepared for an Iranian strike on American troops in the Middle East. He asserted that President Donald Trump had the right to launch a “preemptive defensive” attack on Iran.
Read More
U.S. policy toward Iran is frequently sold as a reaction to urgent threats. In practice, it behaves more like a system: narrative escalation, economic coercion, covert pressure, and then the steady normalization of “military options.” The pattern repeats because it is institutionally convenient. It compresses debate, rewards maximal claims, and makes restraint look like failure.

Start with the information environment. On Iran, the line between verified reporting and advocacy often collapses. Casualty figures circulate fast, harden into “fact” faster, and then become emotional fuel for punitive policy. In the current cycle, official Iranian sources have cited a death toll around 6,000 during unrest, while Iran International has promoted numbers in the tens of thousands, including claims around 36,500. A gap that large isn’t normal uncertainty. It should trigger basic questions about method, sourcing, and incentives.
Read More
The Iran Escalation Machine: Narratives, Sanctions, and the Normalization of Force
Sophia Gonzalez | January 29th

 
Treating Peaceful American Civilians as Enemy Combatants
Ted Galen Carpenter | January 21
The recent killing of Alex Pretti by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents in Minneapolis has generated a new wave of fury on the part of Americans upset about the mounting abuses that federal law enforcement personnel are committing.  The alarm is fully warranted.  ICE, the FBI, and other government entities increasingly both look and behave like ruthless military combat units.  Unfortunately, too many people who are alarmed about the recent incidents seem to believe that the problem originated with Donald Trump’s presidency and that removing him from that post would end the ominous threat to civil liberties.
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The families of two men who were killed by a US strike on their boat in the Caribbean Sea have used the White House to demand justice for the wrongful deaths of their loved ones.

The lawsuit alleges that Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, who were killed by a US bomb on October 14, were fishermen. The families are claiming standing for the lawsuit under the High Seas Act and the Alien Tort Statute.

The ACLU is part of the legal team representing the families.

The Department of War has destroyed at least 36 vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, justifying the lethal action by claiming the victims were members of narcoterrorist cartels, and in the process of bringing narcotics into the US.
Read More
Trump Admin Sued By Families of Boat Strike Victims
Kyle Anzalone | January 27th

The US has conducted dozens of strikes on alleged drug boats, killing over 100 people
Israel Seeks 10-Year Military Aid Package with Additional Security Assistance
Kyle Anzalone | January 27th

An Israeli official described US military aid as “free money”
Israel is gearing up for talks with the US on a new decade-long pledge for Washington to provide military aid to Israel. The deal would include additional American security assistance for Israel.

According to Gil Pinchas, a financial adviser to the Israeli military, talks to establish a new Memorandum of Understanding between Washington and Tel Aviv will kick off in the coming weeks. The current MOU grants Israel $3.8 billion in annual US military aid and is set to expire in 2028.

The MOU is structured as $3.3 billion in financial support that Pinchas dubbed “free money.” Under the deal, the US also sends Israel $500 million every year for the Iron Dome air defense system.

Netanyahu has previously stated that Israel wants to decrease the amount of direct financial support it receives from the US. But, Pinchas explained, that will not result in Washington providing less military support to Tel Aviv.
Read More
Greenland Gambit: How Trump’s Arctic Ambition Shattered the Atlantic Alliance
Harris Jenner | Jan 28th
A specter is haunting the transatlantic alliance – not from the East, but from within. What began as a seemingly quixotic real estate fantasy has evolved, through weeks of escalating pressure, into the most profound stress test of U.S.-European relations since the Cold War. President Donald Trump’s campaign to acquire Greenland has laid bare a stark reality: the alliance’s most powerful member is willing to wield coercion against its own partners, treating sovereignty as a transactional commodity. While an eleventh-hour tactical retreat has pulled the world back from the brink of immediate conflict, the crisis has illuminated a fatal flaw in the alliance’s foundation.

The Tactical Retreat: A “Framework” That Exposes More Than It Resolves
Read More
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