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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

It truly is! Thank you Howard. What a disastrous, utterly idiotic war. With no end in sight.

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Reposted by Monica Marks

Howard Eissenstat @heissenstat.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

It's a war crimes fiesta. In the meantime, I hope that you and yours stay safe.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

American unis in the Gulf evacuated weeks ago bc of similar concerns. There was no way to do emergency planning w/o considering Iran targeting American soft targets—of which these unis are some of the largest. Even a 1% risk of it was too high to gamble with students’ safety ❤️‍🩹 3/3

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Link to source: www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-ea... Note that Iran announced that it will target its enemies in parks, recreation centers & other civilian sites worldwide. And it has been bombing civilian infrastructure right & left. None of this justifies 🇺🇸🇮🇱 war crimes or this war ofc!

aa.com.tr

Iran says US, Israeli universities ‘legitimate targets’ amid military escalation

IRGC vows retaliation for US-Israeli attacks on Iranian educational facilities - Anadolu Ajansı

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Iran’s defenders won’t explain why targeting my campus & students at NYU in the UAE—or my colleagues & their students in Qatar, Israel, or anywhere—would be morally or legally justifiable IRGC “retaliation” for despicable, criminal 🇺🇸🇮🇱 attacks on Iran’s unis. Multiple wrongs do not make right. 1/3

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Iran’s gaslighting about its attacks on civilian infrastructure in the Gulf throws maddening salt in the wound for ppl living there. Giving civilians’ all too real trauma the Pallywood treatment likewise fuels hate, going even farther in its maddening denialism. This is Israel’s Persian account ⬇️

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Dear Leader gets a curated feel-good video montage, fiddling while Rome burns. This, in a nutshell, is why authoritarian personalities who struggle with self-criticism should be kept as far as possible from the reins of power.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Wishing everyone as good an Eid/Bayram as possible in these difficult days. This was not the Ramadan that almost anyone in the MENA region wanted. Hoping with everything I’ve got that not another drone, missile, or bomb punctures anyone’s peace. May next year be brighter.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Huge honor to know, learn & grow from your work & friendship dear Hussein

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

This is horrifically unpopular with Americans—even Republicans, who overwhelmingly approve only limited special ops strikes, not thousands of troops deployed on the ground in Iran, as we appear to be gearing up for now. What a nightmare for these young troops & their families.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

There’s no hope of finding a Delcy Rodriguez in Iran w/ Israel empowered to guide this file. That’s one of my takeaways from Raz’s excellent explanation of the Israeli government’s point of view. Trump hoped for a Venezuela ending. But Israel is copying its Hezbollah playbook.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Accurate. And likely to erode more credibility than it restores. PR needs to feel authentic & believable. If people feel like the truth is being hidden, they’ll feel manipulated & tune out. Hence why this approach is driving more critical journalism as the PR becomes the story.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

People who want the info need to be on X, I’m afraid. It’s simply impossible to post & spend much time here on it bc the whole ecosystem for info is over there w/ videos. Arabic & Farsi sources, government accounts, a lot of local media that’s not here yet, etc. Ppl are back there for that reason

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

@ksadjadpour.bsky.social I think that’s everyone here whom I’d mentioned on X two posts above! If I forgot anyone, didn’t find anyone, or you’d like to chip in with your own recommendations for excellent Gulf & Iran analysis, please chip in here!

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

And here’s my non-exhaustive & in-no-particular-order list of top scholars, analysts, journalists & establishments running great Gulf &/or Iran analysis. Like them, I post overwhelmingly on X—not bc I don’t share its boycotters critiques of the platform, but bc it has more Arabic & primary sources.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Reposting this 🧵 from X, which—despite its enshitification by Elon—is still the best social media hub for quality Iran War analysis. Some of the scholars & analysts whom I’ve recommended here (see the final post here for those recommendations) are on this platform. But most aren’t/post there more.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

Last week a former diplomat in DC confided his fears for NE Asian security since 🇺🇸 redeployed THAAD air defense from South Korea to the Gulf theatre. South Koreans objected that they’re too essential to be moved. Kim Jong Un just proved them right. Another window into how poorly we planned this.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

You cannot make this stuff up. DC finally fulfilled John Bolton’s wet dream by launching a neocon regime change war in Iran. A dream that launched decades worth of op-eds by him. But less than 3 weeks in, Bolton’s got cold feet. If you don’t realise that this war is a disaster yet, you should.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Pandora’s box has been opened now, though, and we’ve unleashed forces we cannot control. The generals will be trying to do what’s in America’s best interests, but will be confused now because they’re choosing between terrible options & likely don’t understand Iranian political drivers fully.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Our elected government in DC didn’t plan for, and likely even dismissed Pentagon military experts who vociferously warned them about, what would very obviously become Iran’s strategy: closing Strait of Hormuz. Remember the upset Pentagon leaks before we launched this debacle.

edition.cnn.com

Trump administration underestimated Iran war’s impact on Strait of Hormuz | CNN Politics

The Pentagon and National Security Council significantly underestimated Iran’s willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to US military strikes while planning the ongoing operation, accord...

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

This war is a strategic disaster for 🇺🇸 & will likely worsen any way you slice it. Americans should consider protesting this in greater numbers than they did Iraq at this point. They’ll be economically punished faster for a war that was planned with a fraction of the thought.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Brilliant piece by Nadwa Dawsari on a question we’ve all been wondering: Why are the Houthis, so far, sitting this out? She argues the Houthis are Iran’s pinch hitter, strategically positioned to rescue the Islamic Regime in a bind. Expect their deployment if & when Tehran truly gets desperate.

mei.edu

Iran’s insurance policy: Why the Houthis have stayed out of the fight - Middle East Institute

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Iran hit Oman again. It has no US base & exhausted itself trying to negotiate a way to avoid this war. All Iran’s Oman hits targeted civilian infrastructure. On March 1 & 3 its drones targeted oil storage & workers’ housing. Reuters reports it just hit oil storage at Salalah.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

This is right. The conversations I’m having with lower waged workers in Dubai, in particular, strongly echo the early COVID lockdown period when many were terrified—and rightly so, given the widespread layoffs—that reduced footfall & business closures would make them return home.

thetimes.com

Dubai’s cortisol-fuelled rat race overrides concern at Iran attacks

Residents have taken to social media to scorn news reports of the UAE as a war-torn country and to scoff at those quick to abandon the city

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

I wonder if the new “strategy” is going to be mowing an expanded regional lawn now, with more frequent Iran wars resembling more frequent Hezbollah wars. This puts the entire Gulf in an absolutely terrible bind.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Intelligent teenagers in my classrooms do a better job strategising through war scenarios like this when presented with their basic parameters. The Trump administration is projecting hubristic confidence without bog-standard competence in a gravely serious war.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

First day in Dubai where I haven’t received an aerial attack alarm on my phone. Enjoying the quiet, save for sound of what were likely fighter jets on patrol. It’s a welcome reprieve after Sat. evening, when a skyscraper in Dubai Marina where two couples I know reside got hit.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

I try to check my Iraq War Syndrome as a Millennial whose worldview was shaped by that conflict. But here’s one parallel: Many Iraqis, like Iranians, were initially enthused about intervention to topple their hated regime, but turned against it when civilian sites were attacked.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

I myself said that until February 28. For the first time here, though, I’ve felt like it’s somewhat… ensouled. A sense of community & rooting for each other that I never felt in Dubai before. Maybe we’re trauma bonding. Or maybe places & people get ensouled through pain.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Fuel prices are about to go vertical. The cost of transporting yourself, your food & anything else you buy, is about to spike worldwide. There’s a near-50% chance US gas prices rise to $5 USD by the end of the month. Yet Trump won in 2024 largely bc he promised lower inflation.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Martyrdom mode. Tempting, but overly optimistic I think. The likeliest outcome isn’t the IR’s death, but its survival. And that’s becoming likelier every day that we bomb civilian sites, infrastructure & assets in Iran. If last night’s scenes are “liberation” from the IR, many Iranians will pass.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Israel wants a long war. But it’s not bearing the brunt of economic & military blowback—the Gulf is. Energy prices & the midterms will bite Republicans hard, yes. But Iran’s regional tantrum strategy can be easily read in DC as raising the costs of leaving its regime in place.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Taking Gulf states hostage as whipping boys in a war of attrition is a stupid strategy for Iran. The aggressors (🇺🇸🇮🇱) have proven they do not prioritise Gulf interests or security. And they will spin Iran’s efforts to take the global economy hostage as escalatory imperatives.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

The USA’s actions tonight in Iran just put the whole Arab Gulf at greater risk. Instead of targeting IRGC military installations and leaders, 🇺🇸 destroyed energy infrastructure & a water desalination plant. The total opposite of winning friends & influencing people.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

4 deaths in the UAE now. Many more injuries. Nearly every victim is from the Middle East, South Asia or Africa. Yet media coverage—esp British coverage—of Dubai continues to focus on “influencers” & wealthy Westerners, reproducing the very racism & classism it claims to oppose.

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Yes you are absolutely right! Good catch! bsky.app/profile/moni...

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Meant to say communist-adjacent here, since Mossadegh was a leftist nationalist who had complex relations with Iran’s pro-Soviet Marxist-Leninist Tudeh Party. The CIA did not understand those nuances & viewed Mossadegh, wrongly, as nothing more than a “communist pawn.”

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Kushner’s “liquid moment” theory of the Middle East—namely, that this post-Oct. 7 period is a historically unique opportunity to remould the region to our liking—may run up against the hard reality of these 7 challenges and more. It places a hugely risky onus on Iranian dissidents’ heads. 8/ -end-

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

7. Iran’s opposition has a thuggish element in Pahlavism, an exclusionary contrast with to the more pluralistic pro-democracy leadership of Maria Corina Machado. These are just some of the challenges Iran’s dissidents will face that Venezuela didn’t, or not to the same degree. 7/

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

6. Iran’s regime is more ruthless & violent. It killed thousands more of its citizens in January than Maduro did in his entire term in office. It was also behind Assad in Syria & death squads in Iraq. Its capacity to kill, torture & intimidate its citizens is even more severe. 6/

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

5. Iran’s society contains far more ideologically committed pro-regime hardliners than Venezuela has ideologically devoted Maduro supporters. Zealous devotion brought 1000s of theocracy supporters onto the streets spontaneously after Khamenei was killed, crying in grief & beating their chests. 5/

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

4. Iran has a famously negative experience of US regime change. In 1953, the CIA orchestrated a coup against Iran’s democratically appointed communist leader, Mossadegh, bc he was nationalising Iran’s oil. We put the corrupt, repressive shah back on peacock throne—setting the scene for 1979. 4/

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Iran is emphatically not Venezuela: 1. Iran has no recent history of democracy in many of its citizens’ living memory. 2. Iran’s regime has a flatter internal organisational structure that’s less vulnerable to decapitation strikes. 3. Iran’s opposition is more disunited. 3/

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Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Even if we do eliminate most of Iran’s heavy weapons stocks, it likely won’t be a cakewalk for Iran’s dissidents to take back their country. Lighter weapons seem likely to end up in regime-friendly hands, even if the regime’s top brass are obliterated. 2/

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