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"Luke Ford reports all of the 'juicy' quotes, and has been doing it for years." (Marc B. Shapiro)
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
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- Tournier on Desmond Ford
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- The Self-Hating Jew
- The Alliance Theory in the Academy
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- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
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Category Archives: Iran
Decoding The Iran War (3-22-26)
05:00 Video: White Identity Is Galvanizing the Right | Interesting Times with Ross Douthat, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=17729710:00 Rabbi Aron Tendler, https://lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/aron_tendler.htm21:00 Video: Inside Iran: Why the Regime May Be Near Collapse | Emily Schrader Interview, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=17731623:00 When I Kissed The Teacher 29:00 … Continue reading
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Video: Inside Iran: Why the Regime May Be Near Collapse | Emily Schrader Interview
Emily Schrader argues that the regime is in a state of decline and discusses the potential for a transition led by figures like Reza Pahlavi. David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory suggests that human behavior, especially in political and moral contexts, is … Continue reading
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Genre Errors in the Iran War: You Can’t Call “Fault” on a Football Match Just Because No One Is Using a Net
The same category mistake that has dogged blogging for twenty-seven years is now playing out in real time over the Persian Gulf. People are watching a brutal, fast-moving, high-tech air-and-missile campaign—now in its fourth week as of March 22, 2026—and … Continue reading
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Airpower Won the First Phase. The Hard Part Just Started.
The expert story on the 2026 Iran war has not flipped. It has hardened. Three weeks in, the facts are clear. The US and Israel have air dominance. They have degraded Iran’s missiles, air defenses, and naval forces. They have … Continue reading
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Every country lies during war. What are the painful truths the major countries in this Iran war are hiding now?
Grok says: The “2026 Iran War” (also called the US-Israel war on Iran or Operation Epic Fury) began February 28, 2026, when the US and Israel launched surprise airstrikes across Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, top officials (e.g., Ali … Continue reading
Posted in Censorship, Iran, Israel
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One War, Three Realities: How Expert Coalitions Build the World They Need
The Iraq War did not fail because the intelligence was wrong, though some of it was. It failed because the system that processes intelligence was designed to produce a specific output, and it produced that output faithfully. The people who … Continue reading
The Jurisdictional Wars: Alliance Theory and the Battle for Iran Policy Authority
American foreign-policy actors do not compete for authority by openly saying they want power. They compete by invoking moral languages that frame their authority as faithfulness to strategy, loyalty to responsible endgames, or responsibility for managing global crises through process, … Continue reading
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The Iran Expertise Industrial Complex: Alliance Theory and the Battle for Status Among Iran Experts
High-status actors among America’s Iran experts do not compete for authority by openly saying they want control over think-tank fellowships, congressional testimony slots, media bylines, book advances, and government advisory roles. They compete by invoking moral languages that frame their … Continue reading
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The Vocabulary of Order: Elite Moral Claims in the 2026 Iran War
Nobody in the foreign policy establishment says they want authority over how this war is understood. They say they are protecting civilians, managing escalation, defending the rules-based order, or preventing catastrophe. That is the move. In every crisis of this … Continue reading
Posted in Assassination, Elites, Iran, War
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The Most Lopsided War I Can Remember
Three weeks into the war, a question keeps surfacing: why has Iran’s retaliation been so underwhelming? The pre-war simulations imagined something far more devastating. Iran had missiles, drones, proxies across the region, and decades of asymmetric doctrine. What the simulations … Continue reading