[News] Lies Of Omission As Fresh American War Crimes Loom

Thu Feb 19 11:03:17 EST 2026

The US has amassed the largest military force in the Middle East since 
the invasion of Iraq almost 23 years ago and is poised once again to 
commit mass murder and gleefully perpetrate an astonishing amount of war 
crimes.
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  Lies Of Omission As Fresh American War Crimes Loom
  <https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=1402572&post_id=188470774&utm_source=post-email-title&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=lvppb&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjozNjc1MTU4MywicG9zdF9pZCI6MTg4NDcwNzc0LCJpYXQiOjE3NzE1MDczMzksImV4cCI6MTc3NDA5OTMzOSwiaXNzIjoicHViLTE0MDI1NzIiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.JyA4pyrdm7B2TAzv1Lf6fqdt0EzJkDKSaclMiUMoXaA>

Nate Bear <https://substack.com/@donotpanic>

Feb 19, 2026

<https://substack.com/@donotpanic>

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The US has amassed the largest military force in the Middle East since 
the invasion of Iraq almost 23 years ago and is poised once again to 
commit mass murder and gleefully perpetrate an astonishing amount of war 
crimes.

Yesterday a huge number of planes, from fighter jets to air-to-air 
refuelling tankers to command and control planes, left the US en route 
to the Middle East. The planes had stop-overs on US military bases in 
England and Germany, because no imperial war crime is ever complete 
without the involvement of Europe.

	<https://substack.com/redirect/35ca3e6a-4a7c-4eba-a97f-98b948eae7e1?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM> 	

Screenshot of US military planes flying from the US to Europe

A US attack on Iran, a flagrant violation of international law, if such 
a thing is even worth mentioning any more, appears imminent.

Why? For Israel, for oil, for power projection, for Trump’s legacy. 
Because the logic of the military-industrial complex demands that $1 
trillion dollars a year and an astonishing array of killing machinery 
doesn’t just sit idle.

Because this is what empires do.

Because the US is violence.

And there is no more stunning display of American violence than a big war.

The US has been at war for 222 out of 239 years since 1776 
<https://substack.com/redirect/818b53e6-50e2-4d7d-9fda-928d47d1a904?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>. 
The country is hardly going to stop now, especially not with the stars 
aligning for a project the US-Israel-Zionist axis has been desperate to 
undertake for nearly 50 years.

And despite the fact that a nation at almost constant war is going to 
attack a country that last initiated a war nearly 300 years ago 
<https://substack.com/redirect/f63b81c4-2890-425f-89bd-93feec9de0c4?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>, 
the US and Israel are going to pose as the saviours and pacifiers.

The leaders of these countries will self-anoint themselves as such, 
while western media will subject their readers and viewers to a dizzying 
display of propaganda to enable the murders and wash the crimes.

        The groundwork

But the propaganda won’t start from the day of the attack.

The truth is, we wouldn’t be in this situation without the groundwork 
laid by the media over the years.

We wouldn’t be on the verge of another major US war without the often 
subtle lies of omission that have characterised western reporting on 
Iran for decades, and have been especially evident in recent months.

Let’s go through some of them.

        Shifting narratives

Firstly, and importantly, the premise for an attack.

Last June Trump said the US had ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear sites.

But now, eight months later, the US apparently needs to do a much bigger 
war to take out Iran’s nuclear programme.

No one will ask the obvious question.

The premise, that Iran’s nuclear programme is a threat, will stand tall 
and uninterrogated in the mind of the propagandised western media 
consumer who just eight months ago was told it had all been destroyed.

        Loaded terms

“Iran’s nuclear programme.”

The words themselves are loaded with an intent that is rarely examined 
or explained.

They never come with any context and are purposefully designed to shut 
down any critical thinking, as I’ve written about before. 
<https://substack.com/redirect/b8cafc45-a6e5-45aa-9d9b-32befbc227c7?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>

Western media never explains that Iran is one of the world's biggest 
producers of radiopharmaceuticals used for cancer diagnostics and 
treatments. And to diagnose cancer and make cancer drugs, you need 
medical isotopes. And you can’t make medical isotopes without enriching 
uranium. Iran is in the top five global exporters of radioactive drugs, 
supplying fifteen countries, including European countries, with nuclear 
medicines. And sanctions on Iran prohibit the import of 
radiopharmaceuticals.

So without its deliberately misrepresented “nuclear programme” Iran 
would find it hard, if not impossible, to diagnose and treat people with 
cancer and other illnesses.

        The nuclear deal

Media never explains this and also never explains the background to US 
threats towards Iran over this programme. Amid all the coverage of talks 
and possible deals, Western media never mentions the fact that in 2018 
Trump himself ripped up a deal 
<https://substack.com/redirect/63faedb3-25e4-4da4-a1d6-e9c4dd99cc99?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>, 
signed in 2016, that was working just fine.

That agreement, ratified by the UN Security Council, facilitated regular 
site inspections and allowed Iran to manufacture nuclear material for 
medicine and energy. The media will never remind us of this, nor that 
the last inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency reported 
Iran to be in full compliance with their obligations. 
<https://substack.com/redirect/cd9ccd9c-39fe-4240-bb36-5c23eccf9108?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>

We are never told that Trump, under pressure from his Zionist backers to 
manufacture a crisis which could move the US and Israel towards war, and 
eager to undo a rare Obama success, deliberately created a problem to 
solve.

And as we’re about to find out, there was never any intention of solving 
it peacefully.

But media will keep up the pretence that these were good faith 
negotiations that broke down because of Iran’s demands. And they won’t 
tell us those demands included being able to diagnose and treat cancer.

        Unilateralism

The fact of the US unilaterally withdrawing from the previous deal is 
also a key omission in the coverage.

Because to remind readers that the crisis was triggered by the US might 
make the US, not Iran, look like the rogue state.

The fact of American unilateralism is often buried by western media. 
This is why we’ve heard so little about the 66 international 
organisations and treaties the US announced in January it will withdraw 
from 
<https://substack.com/redirect/d38addb5-6901-4579-acc2-37cdc74972fb?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>. 
And in case you’re tempted to think this unilateralism is all on Trump, 
the Biden administration withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear 
Forces Treaty and the Open Skies Treaty, both key elements of an 
international framework to avoid nuclear war.

*The US is a rogue state operating in plain site and a huge amount of 
effort goes into obscuring that fact. *Because if people understood the 
US as a rogue state, they might question if its constant violence is not 
the violence of a peacekeeper or a freedom fighter, but the violence of 
a rogue.

They might question who, in fact, the bad guys are.

        Israel’s nukes

Talking of rogue states, the media will never examine the foundational 
premise underlying the whole issue of Iranian nuclear capability.

They’ll never question why Israel is allowed to have a nuclear weapon 
but Iran isn’t. They’ll never lead readers or viewers to question why 
the region’s preeminent aggressor, a perpetrator of genocide and a 
constant violator of laws and norms, is the one trusted with the most 
destructive weapon in human history.

Because then they’d have to frame Israel as the aggressor.

Then they’d to explain empire.

Then they’d have to examine glaring double standards and hypocrisies and 
introduce people to critical thinking which doesn’t lead to reflexive 
cheerleading for empire.

And that is a big no-no.

It is, after all, much easier to manufacture consent for war if a large 
chunk of the population thinks you’re the good guys doing freedom and 
peace things.

        New pretexts

If you’ve been following the news, you might be aware that the latest 
talks go beyond the nuclear programme and introduce new pretexts for 
war, one of which is Iran’s ballistic missile programme.

Israel, having been shocked at Iran’s ability to strike its territory 
last June, wants the new deal to include the elimination of all Iran’s 
long-range missiles. 
<https://substack.com/redirect/fdf04f6d-97bb-4515-9853-fa92ff54abbe?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>

When the US and Israel attack, we’ll be told that it’s Iran’s fault. 
We’ll be told that wanting to retain defensive capability in the face of 
an expansionist, genocidal enemy loudly committed to your destruction is 
an irrational position.

The Guardian among others have already started pushing 
<https://substack.com/redirect/ca90053f-3d44-46f2-8eb0-c14c59eea893?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>this 
line.

By contrast, we won’t be asked to think about why Israel can have any 
weapon it likes.

We won’t be asked to think about why the US would go to war to stop a 
country being able to defend itself from Israel.

This will just be presented as the natural order of things.

        American violence

The coming war on Iran will be a completely illegal war of unprovoked 
aggression committed by the US against a country 4500 miles away which 
poses zero threat.

Yet I doubt a single American serving in the US military will object.

Because massive war crimes are an American tradition.

Because the US is violence.

Will the US ever have a reckoning with the fundamentally violent and 
imperial nature of its society?

Not judging by the political alternatives currently on offer.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, considered by many to be the leading leftist 
edge of the Democratic Party and a viable future presidential candidate, 
just went to the Munich security conference to establish her imperial 
credentials. Speaking at a session sponsored by Palantir, she refused to 
condemn 
<https://substack.com/redirect/0a79f505-844c-46e6-8f43-45763ec15bcf?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>Trump’s 
military build-up while spouting anti-Iran regime change propaganda. At 
the same time, she tried to outflank Trump on the right over Venezuela, 
saying 
<https://substack.com/redirect/2b15db94-9b59-4e15-94b0-d83106472180?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>he 
should have committed to regime change and toppled the entire government.

With lefty peace-loving friends like AOC who needs war-mongering enemies 
like Trump eh?

        Freedom

As the war begins and bombs rain down, politicians and the media will 
regurgitate fake atrocity propaganda regarding the number of dead 
<https://substack.com/redirect/f70f0879-ba9d-49c5-a3ad-e3ff565f4ef7?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>in 
the recent protests to convince us that the violence on our screens is 
the violence of the liberator.

We’ll be hearing about the ‘mullahs,’ the ayatollahs and authoritarianism.

The average western media consumer will be convinced that Iranians live 
in a colourless society led by religious nutters who routinely stone 
women to death, when a simple YouTube search 
<https://substack.com/redirect/87c88ced-c55f-4769-ac8e-b8d08c43a8de?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>shows 
a very different reality. Scenes from streets and shopping malls in 
Tehran 
<https://substack.com/redirect/6583aca2-9655-41bf-b79c-875bea3ab163?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>that 
could have been filmed in any western city are a click away, but media 
consumers will never be directed to these sources.

All we’ll hear about is the necessity of imperial violence.

We’ll hear that Iran failed to cut a deal in stories sheared of context.

We’ll hear that Americans are helping free Iranians from tyranny and 
this will be good for the world, when in reality the only path to peace 
is in freeing Americans from the tyranny of their own empire.

/*(Indebted to all my financial supporters. You make this newsletter 
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Restack 
<https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9vcGVuLnN1YnN0YWNrLmNvbS9wdWIvZG9ub3RwYW5pYy9wL2xpZXMtb2Ytb21pc3Npb24tYXMtZnJlc2gtYW1lcmljYW4_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.0DgdFNxl03zpjSR9Y0kt18r5K_ivkU3Eb-7916uR1EI?&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email> 

© 2026 Nathan Bear
UK

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