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.”
The 50/50 count also includes the Israeli bombs of course, that also went after regime guys in their bedrooms and sometimes in appartment buildings. (I sure agree they were coordinated with the US strikes though.)
Would you consider a bomb taking out Netanyahu to be aimed at civilians if he was in a building with 20 innocent people?
In this case I don’t think a puppet (if they could even install one without occupation) could be worse than what they have now. Something all Iranian refugees I hear on the matter seem to agree on, by the way. You have to understand that we’re not talking about Allende in this matter…