Leo Hohmann – Leo’s Newsletter March 28, 2026

The Middle East theater of World War III has officially been raging for one month.

And the U.S./Israel war on Iran has taken new steps up the escalatory ladder this weekend, following a pattern of escalation each weekend since the war started on Feb. 28 with an unprovoked attack on Iranian sovereign territory.

My fear from the start was that by biting off more than it could chew with Iran, the U.S. Empire would be exposed as a paper tiger. That is now looking more likely by the day, with the Houthis now entering the war on the side of Iran and Iran showing it is far from running low on missiles like we have been told by our largely corrupted Western media.

We were told that the war would be quick and easy. That Iran was “more vulnerable than ever” and we had a “historic opportunity,” in the words of cartoonish politicians like Lindsey Graham and dishonest Fox News military generals like Gen. Jack Keane.

They assassinated the leadership of Iran and their replacements, and the replacements of the replacements, Trump told us.

The Iranian military troops are all “hiding in their bunkers” cowering in fear, Trump’s equally cartoonish War Secretary Pete Hegseth told us just a few days after the war started.

Without a functioning leadership structure, it was just a matter of time before they exited their bunkers waving little white flags.

All of this talk amounted to the fantasies of sick men who believe their own lies about America being the “strongest military force the world has ever seen, and it’s not even close,” as Trump assured us.

Those who refused to give their minds over to the cult of Trump knew better.

You can’t cut the head off the snake when the snake has a thousand heads.

You can’t assassinate your way to regime change.

You can’t kill your way to a safer, more peaceful world.

These are all presuppositions that need to be exploded and forever dispelled as lies leading to horrific consequences.

If these axioms were true, then Hamas and Hezbollah should have gone extinct long ago. They have been pummeled by a superior military force for decades, that being the Israeli Defense Forces, and yet they still exist. They still fight back.

Rather than reflexively celebrating each new assassination by the U.S. and Israel, maybe we should look from 30,000 feet above at the overall effect of this policy.

It has galvanized the Iranians against us. Even many who opposed the Islamic regime now support it. And not only the Iranians but Shia Muslims everywhere are seething in anger against the Great Satan. In Iraq, in Bahrain, in Yemen, in Lebanon, and everywhere they reside, which by the way includes places like Dearborn, Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan.

All the while, U.S. government officials lie to us about why they started this war to begin with.

Financial analyst Catherine Austin Fitts explained in a 12-minute video clip recorded on March 26 the real reasons Iran had to be attacked and its regime taken out. Spoiler alert: It has absolutely nothing to do with Islam, nuclear development or freeing an oppressed people. It has to do with “leakage” in the global financial system and corresponding Western control grid.

As I reported on March 1, the U.S. and Israel made two massive blunders on the first day of the war on Feb. 28 — they killed the ayatollah, the spiritual leader for 300 million Shia Muslims, and they killed 175+ Shia school girls in southern Iran.

This opened Pandora’s box by making it a religious war and, in the eyes of the Shia, an unjust and immoral war against not just their religion, but their leaders, their communities, their people. It doesn’t matter if you think the ayatollah was a bad guy, a terrorist, or whatever your favorite label of choice.

It doesn’t matter if you think those dead school girls were just collateral damage.

What matters is how your enemy sees it and how they respond. And what the Trump-Netanyahu tag-team’s response to the responses will be.

With major new escalations coming every weekend, we could easily be staring down the barrel of full-on World War III and potential attacks on American soil in the near future. The hornet’s nest has not only been kicked. It has been turned upside down and emptied of its decades-long resentment against U.S. power, or the misuse of power as the Iranians see it. Their memories extend back to the first economic sanctions slapped on them 46 years ago. They remember the atrocities committed against them by the U.S. ally Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, when the U.S. used Saddam as a proxy to attack the center of Shia Islam while cuddling up to Sunni Islam.

Are we prepared for the blowback of this pent-up anger? As individuals? As families? As a nation? I would submit that we aren’t. The Trump administration has destabilized the world and made it much more dangerous for Americans, especially those living or visiting abroad, but also here at home. The saddest thing is that it all could have been avoided. It’s too late for that now, however, so all we can do is prepare for the worst, which will include attacks on American cities. It’s inevitable.

Leo’s Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Upgrade to paid

Here are just some of the concerning escalations that have taken place over the last day or two:

• The Russians delivered a stern warning to the U.S. and Israel Friday regarding Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Plant, a civil power generation plant that was built by the Russians 30 years ago and is still operated largely by Russians. On Friday, it was targeted for the third time in the last 10 days by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes. The Kremlin has accused Washington and Israel of putting the whole region in danger. If the reactor gets sufficiently damaged, it will start to release radioactive contamination. You have to wonder why so many attacks on this one nuclear facility. Could this be a sneaky way of unleashing the nuclear option against Iran?
• The war has spread to Iraq as the Iranian-backed Shia there are mobilizing for war against the U.S.
• Shia militias are already engaged in pitched battles against the Israelis in Lebanon.
• Yemen has just announced that it has entered the war on the side of Iran.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have issued a statement announcing their first direct military operation in support of Iran which included ballistic missiles launched at military targets in southern occupied Palestine.

The statement reads:

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful,

Allah says: O you who believe! If you support Allah, He will support you and make your feet firm. } Verily, Allah is mighty and wise.

In implementation of the previous statement by the Yemeni Armed Forces regarding direct military intervention in support of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the resistance fronts in Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine, and due to the continued military escalation, targeting of infrastructure, and the perpetration of crimes and massacres against our brothers in Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, and Palestine, the Yemeni Armed Forces, with the help of Allah and relying on Him, have carried out their first military operation by launching ballistic missiles targeting sensitive military objectives of the Israeli enemy south of occupied Palestine.

This operation coincided with the heroic operations carried out by the Mujahideen brothers in Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the operation successfully achieved its objectives, thanks to Allah.

With the help of Allah, our operations will continue until the declared objectives are achieved, as stated in the previous statement of the Armed Forces, and until the aggression against all resistance fronts ceases.

By Allah, we are content and trust in Him, the Best Guardian, the Best Master, and the Best Supporter.

Long live Yemen, free, proud, and independent!

Victory to Yemen and all the free people of the nation!

Sanaa, ninth of Shawwal 1447 AH

Corresponding to March 28, 2026 AD

Does this sound like a people who are ready to raise the white flag, just as all their Shia brothers are rallying to their side?

The Houthis have a record of delivering on their promises. They possess missiles far more devastating than Hamas or Hezbollah. And they have the ability to shut down a second major waterway critical to global commerce. The Daily Mail reports:

“Experts fear that the Houthis could close the Suez Canal after the Yemeni militia joined the conflict in the Middle East overnight by firing a missile towards Israel.

“Israel’s military said it had successfully intercepted the strike, but the move raises concerns that the armed militia could join Tehran in attacks on shipping in the region.

“The Houthis could target ships in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a choke point which leads to the Suez Canal, or even the canal itself, Mohamad Elmasry, a professor of Media Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, has said.

“This would mean a second major shipping route closed in addition to the Strait of Hormuz, potentially causing significant harm to the global economy – with vessels unable to retain insurance to travel through the region.

“Elsewhere, more than two dozen U.S. troops have been wounded in Iranian strikes on a Saudi air base in the past week, sources have said, including 15 in an incident at the Prince Sultan air base on Friday.

“Strikes continued across the region overnight, including in Iran, Lebanon, Israel and Bahrain.”

Brace yourself for more carnage, both physical and economic, as we enter the second month of this war. I have a feeling this war is just getting started.

Upgrade to paid

 

Source