Commentaries by Bardia Farahmand

An End to Shadow War? Making Sense of Iran’s Drone Attack on Israel

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An End to Shadow War? Making Sense of Iran’s Drone Attack on Israel

Bardia Farahmand

May 22, 2024 10:16:25 pm

After decades of “Shadow War” between Israel and Iran, on 13 April 2024 Iran took a revolutionary action against Israel by direct attack from its soil. According to Israel Defense Forces on X, Iran has launched 185 kamikaze drones, 36 cruise missiles, and 120 ground-to-ground ballistic missiles. Tensions between Iran and Israel have long simmered [...]

THIS DAY @ LAW

President Johnson signed law against burning draft cards

On August 31, 1965, President Johnson signed a law making the burning of draft cards a federal offense subject to a five-year prison sentence and $1000 fine. In response to the law and in protest of the war in Vietnam, the student-run National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam staged the first public burning of a draft card in the United States on October 15, 1965. The constitutionality of the federal law was upheld in 1968 by the US Supreme Court in US v. O'Brien.

Gdansk Agreement reached

On August 31, 1980, the communist government of Poland and labor leaders settled the Gdansk Agreement. The accord settled a summer of labor strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland. With the Agreement, Poland became the first communist country to allow the creation of an independent labor union, which was called Solidarity. Solidarity then became the driving force that ended communism in Poland. Learn more about the history of Solidarity.