Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain
Feb 18, 2026
A former senior U.S. intelligence official who is an informal advisor to the Trump administration on Middle East policy told Drop Site that, based on his discussions with current officials, he assesses an 80-90% likelihood of U.S. strikes within weeks.
Iran realizes that it is facing an unprecedented threat from the U.S. if a deal that conforms with Trump’s terms is not reached, former Pentagon official Jasmine El-Gamal told Drop Site. “This is not a dress rehearsal,” she said. “This is it. This is not the negotiations of last year or the year before or the year before that. They’re backed into a corner. There’s no off ramp.”
Sadly, it’s just Bibi and Donnie with their, ahem, questionable motives, who seem willing to intervene there
Willing? Do you mean: doing all the harm?
Do you think the Iranian regime murdering all opposition is causing no harm?
usa is going to intervene by bombing civilians and killing people who have nothing to do with anything, like they always do.
Last time they concentrated on military sites. What makes you think they’re going to bomb civilians?
do you want me to post wikileaks pictures here?
Well if you’re really claiming that their attacks were concentrated on civilians instead of military targets last year, hard proof to back that up is welcome.
idk man it seems pretty bad to me and not concentrated. also why are you pretending that the us cares about iranians? you know whats gonna happen right? its gonna be another iraq and another afghanistan, the us will lose this like it did with almost every other country and it will make iranians lives worse. the us is the plague of the world. why doesnt the us attack north korea if they truly care about others? oh right because they have nukes, so if iran doesnt have nukes the us can just attack it, bomb it, destroy it, rape it, do anything it wants with it. you have fallen for the epstein class’s propaganda, idk what to tell you. also like usa has been sponsoring and arming israel since its foundation, why is that i wonder? what did joe biden say about that in 1986 and again in 2022?
It’s astonishing that you think, after the last 2-3 years of the Gazan genocide, that the US and Israel are going to target military sites only.
What motive do you think the US have to throw their bombs on Iranian civilians instead of the regime?
Im not advocating for that regime. Thats a separate issue.
However, the usa abd pissrael goaded Iran into a much more severe reaction. Do you remember when pissrael said they had agents inciting insurrection amongst the protesters?
They ‘goaded them’? They started torturing and killing all opposition the very day they took power. Didn’t need any help for that
Again, this is not me advocating for the regime. However, as an anti-imperiliast, I can hope that the people of Iran make changes to their government on their own, without 2000 lb palestinian child murder bombs from the usa
Do you think they have a chance without outside help?
I think, considering the totality of the circumstances eg: what america will do/does across the globe; they have a greater chance on their own, of being free, than with the “”““help””“” of the usa
Do you think the US is helping?
I think the people have a better chance if the regime is busy with another enemy, yes
Sad it has to be the US but I don’t think they have any other chance