Episode 43- Easter 2026 In A World At War

Easter morning, 2026 feels like a contradiction: despair in the streets and on the front lines, but a rocket on its way to the Moon. I use that tension to ask a blunt question: if we can build Artemis II and imagine colonies beyond Earth, why do we still reach for the oldest human habit of all, killing in the name of God, nation, and pride?

From the US Israel Iran confrontation and the widening violence across the Middle East, I walk through how the Abrahamic religions get pulled into modern power struggles as cover for nationalism, empire, and control of resources. I challenge the “anointed leader” mythology around Trump 2.0 and the apocalyptic politics of Christian Zionism, and I extend the same moral scrutiny to Netanyahu’s choices and to Iran’s regime and the IRGC. I won’t pretend this is a clean story with one villain. I argue that using religion to justify murder makes a mockery of the values faith claims to defend.

Then we get specific about incentives: oil, energy security, and the Strait of Hormuz as a chokepoint that can reshape global shipping, fertilizer, and markets overnight. I also widen the lens to authoritarian pressure around the world, from Putin’s war in Ukraine to Xi’s repression, Kim’s nuclear logic, and Modi’s historical revisionism. The way out is not wishful thinking. It is accountability, protest, voting, and a return to universal standards like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

If you want geopolitics that connects moral language to real-world power, listen now, then subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it.

Transcript

Welcome To The Greenfield Report

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Greenfield Report with Henry R. Greenfield, your gateway to understanding today's geopolitical landscape. With 50 years of experience across 10 countries, Henry shares expert insights on world affairs, offering practical solutions and engaging guest perspectives. Dive into the Greenfield Report for lively discussions on the issues that matter.

Easter Message Of Hope

Artemis II And A Future Beyond Earth

Rewilding And Human Damage

Hot Wars And Religious Cover

Trump, Zionism, And Iran Escalation

Oil, Hormuz, And War Folly

Calling Out Global Strongmen

Accountability, Voting, And Human Rights

Closing Reflections And Sign Off

SPEAKER_00 0:24

This is Henry R. Greenfield with an Easter 2026 message for the Greenfield Report, where there appears to be throughout the world a great deal of despair, but also messages of hope and forgiveness. We have continued during the past month away from the Greenfield Report to provide daily insights into the world, especially what is happening in the Middle East, specifically the Gulf War, between the United States and Israel on one side and Iran on the other, as well as various areas of technology and AI and other changes in the world that are clearly moving to the advantage of China. You can find all of this on Quora, which we put in on a daily basis. On this Easter morning, 2026, we would like to take a moment and look at where we are in key places on the globe as Artemis II carries its four-person, multiracial, multigender, multinationality crew to the moon, the first of its type in 53 years. Yes, that is a message right there of hope, and the experiments to be carried out could easily lead to colonies on the Moon and Mars and begin to offer alternatives to our war and climate change ravaged planet. A planet, of course, we must add, has primarily and increasingly been ravaged by us, Homo sapiens, who over the millennia have come to be the keepers and sole potential protectors of the decreasing species which we have relentlessly and increasingly eliminated and unfortunately wantonly destroyed. But all is not lost. While there are dozens of video documentaries depicting what the world and specific places would be like five years, ten years, one hundred years after man is gone, we know from limited examples right here on earth, such as in the so-called rewilding movement, that places as divergent as English farms to the demilitarized zone between the Koreas would result in a rebirth of species and also the local flora and fauna in the areas. Writ large, these could be blueprints for the world if we were so inclined. But we unfortunately, at the moment, are not so inclined. At the moment, we are in hot wars again, not the Cold War and its multiplicity of proxy wars. No, now it is solely on us, and especially between the three so-named Abrahamic religions, which use religion as a proxy and an excuse to continue to kill each other as they have for the past 2,000 years. Into this mix on Good Friday, the self-proclaimed, or should we say, self-anointed, as clearly Trump feels he has been anointed. Well, don't believe me? Ask Franklin Graham, the son of the late great evangelist Billy Graham, who seems to repeat almost every day that Jesus somehow has sent Trump to do something to save America. The question, of course, is even if you believe in such nonsense, is what? What has Trump been sent to do? He proclaimed, in Trump 2.0, to be the golden age of America, and he actively lobbied and lied about how many wars he has stopped since he came back in office in January 2025. I think it was eight when he got bored and stopped counting. Of course, it was all a sham, yet another series of lies, which, like his peace deals, we can no longer keep track of, and adding them up only depresses those on the left, as they are not real, or enrages them, while on the MAGA lovers on the right feels that yes, Trump is the chosen one. Trump is on the path, as they believe, to Armageddon as Israel achieves its pre-King David boundaries, and the rapture will be coming soon. They even tell that to the troops these days as they attack Iran. You know, the self-named, self-again, Christian Zionists, all 70 million of them in the United States, and some in Australia and as far away as Europe. At the same time, the other Abrahamic religions, especially Jews in Israel, and Shias in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East, are at each other's throats, which has been the case almost constantly since the birth of Israel in 1948, which will be recelebrated again on May 14th, or 77 years since that amazing day when Jews were finally said to have a peace in their land and in their own homeland. A long time to be at almost perpetual war, and you wonder why the Israelis are so paranoid, especially against Iran, which has made its primary mission to wipe out the little Satan with the United States, as of course the great Satan. Well, at least Trump is keeping up the greatness on the Satan side with his Christian war, as Heg puts it, on Iran. Take a moment to look at what role religion is or is not playing in this game of nationalism and imperialism and globalism and control of resources around the world. There is absolutely no mistaking or doubt that the three Abrahamic religions, of which Jesus Christ has a prominent position as either a prophet in Judaism and Islam or the Son of God in Christianity, he clearly has a central role. On this anniversary of the death of Jesus of Nazareth at the hands of the superpower of its time, the Romans, and his resurrection, the following Sunday and subsequent ascension into heaven, where Christians say he is seated at the right hand of the Father, it is fair to ask, are we getting closer or farther away from the ideals, the philosophy, and the love of Jesus? Are we just moving the deck chairs around as we do the equivalent of a circular firing squad, as we always seem to have done in the entire history of Homo sapiens? Having lived in ten countries and worked in and traveled to every continent except Antarctica, we got close on our ship, but we had to turn back. I can say unequivocally that no religion, no country, no culture, no race, no gender is without blood on their hands. The fact that Trump and his acolyte Heggseth, as well as the bloodthirsty Netanyahu, are the latest in this unending line of avarice and violence, are doing it in the name of Christianity or Judaism, or for Iran, Islam is besides the point. Why? Because every country, every person who puts religion and used as an excuse for their violence are nothing more than murdering apostates. There are no virgins waiting for you in heaven if you kill innocents. I'm sorry to tell you that. There is no rapture to take you up to heaven if you participate in the ongoing slaughter. There's no great book of Judaism or prophecies that can cover up your own denigration and debasement of your religion to justify ongoing murder. For that is where we are, dear listeners. We are at the point where we all need to stop and say exactly that. Stop. We need to stop decrying just the action, but also the lies. The lies on all sides. Trump is not an avatar of peace, he is just another grifter, stealing from Americans and trying to make the Gulf his little playground so that he can live out his fantasy of being the most powerful man in the history of the world and control the most important resource in the world. Yes, once again you got it, dear listeners, oil. Does this clown really think he is going to heaven? Well, apparently not. Even he admits it, and he really doesn't care. Ditto for Bibi Netanyahu, whose only goal seems to be to wipe out certain regimes. Most notably the Ayatollah and the Molas in Iran, who have their proxies around the region. But really, isn't he just at this point all about wiping out anyone? As that is simply who he is at this point, having lost his humanity and with it the dignity of the Israeli cause, thus sullying Israel's dream for a homeland open to all. As for the Ayatollah and the IGRC, or revolutionary guards in Iran, they too are living out their fantasy of glory and death, which they seem to also revel in. A return of glory, that is, back to the days of ancient Persia, I guess, and the glorious death at the hands of the Greeks and others. Unfortunately, these revolutionary guards didn't seem to read their history. Persia always eventually loses, and no matter how much oil or LNG they pull up and ship, they will not control much, except, yes, the Strait of Hormuz, which now has a toll being paid by shippers of oil and fertilizer and anything else going through that narrow passage to Iran, meaning exactly what Trump and Netanyahu did not want to do and did not want to happen. Such is the folly of war with no goal other than the control of oil. So where are we and what can we do to stop this latest headlong rush into oblivion and death of thousands, if not more, for no purpose, no reason other than the personal egos of the so-called leaders on all sides. And that includes you too, Putin, who continues to murder thousands on both sides in Ukraine, including his own people, or you, Xi Jinping, who controls the Uyghurs and others like the Tibetans in your unending quest for empire. Or you, Little Kim in North Korea, who seems to be now thrilled and says he is justified in having nuclear weapons, so no one can do to him what the US and Israel are doing to Iran. I guess he's meaning like bombing the hell out of him and killing him and all the leadership like him. Whoops, there goes the place on the throne for his thirteen year old daughter. Sorry about that, my bad. Or others on their way to authoritarianism like Modi in India and his relentless quest to erase fifteen hundred years of Islam from India bordering on the absurd, such as the Taj Mahal is no longer the greatest love story of all time. A Mughal emperor meaning Muslim for his departed wife. Nope, now it is just another Hindu shrine built by a guy who was what? Now what's the latest on that one, Modi? Oh yeah, that's right. He was a Hindu, or whatever the lie is this month. Remember this as you celebrate Passover or the just completed Ramadan or Easter, the three Abrahamic religions all have to start to get along. Islam is foremost, though not exclusively the one creating the most issues. Modi has shown that Hindus can also be awful too. My hope is that we will all take a moment and say stop. Stop the madness in the Gulf, stop it in the Middle East, stop it in any place in the world that is done in the name, especially in the name of religion. That includes you too, Putin, who constantly uses Orthodox Christian religion as his excuse for murdering hundreds of thousands and grabbing more and more parts of the world, especially in the Ukraine. It invariably ends in death, destruction, and no amount of twisting the Vedas or the Bible or the Quran or the Torah will make it any less the antithesis of the actual religion it is stealing these lies from. We can do this, people of the world. We can hold our governments accountable, but we have to step up. Like the No Kings marches in the United States last week, eight million said no more, no more to Trump, and no more to the election coming up in Hungary. That's coming up too now. The Hungarians will have to make that decision. Will it be no more Orbán and his authoritarianism after sixteen years? And don't forget the old-fashioned way of rising up. They said it could not happen under the Tsar, but it did in 1917. Or when the Soviet Union collapsed with the whimper in 1991. These are recent examples. You don't have to go all the way back to the US Revolution, the American Revolution, or the French Revolution, but it did happen, and it can happen again. For if we learned anything from our various religions, it is about forgiveness and feeding the hungry and the poor and providing opportunities for the future. Ask yourself, what side of that France will you be on in 2026 and beyond? Will you be on the side of peace, even if it needs to be enforced? Or will you hide like the Europeans are doing right now? Will you put some limits on the out of control United States, which the people and its representative, the Congress and Senate must do? And that means voting in November and getting rid of the current Congress if that is what is necessary to slow down Trump and to make that actual U.S. Constitution work, which he seems to throw out at every day, including even with his supermajority on the Supreme Court not following him all the time. Even they know when enough is enough. Will you, the people of Iran, rise up and say enough to the madness of the regime whose only goal appears to be the annihilation of Israel and the United States and the total subjugation of women and their rights? In 1948, speaking of rights, Eleanor Roosevelt led the adoption by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was just three years after the last apocalyptic war. We do not have to reinvent the wheel. We know what to do, and we have done it in the past. Make that vow, I believe, on the day that Jesus Christ is said to have risen. Let all of the Abrahamic and other religions be inspired by his sacrifice. Let all of us be followers of a man who wanted nothing more than the end of war, the end of hunger, and peace to each other. This is Henry R. Greenfield, signing off on Easter Sunday, 2026, in the south of France, where the sun is out and spring is here. A spring where we all need to do our part to keep peaceful in the challenging times that we are facing again in 2026 and beyond.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Thank you for joining us on the Greenfield Report with Henry R. Greenfield. We hope today's insights into the ever shifting geopolitical landscape have sparked your curiosity and broadened your perspective. Stay connected with us for more in depth discussions and expert solutions. Until next time, keep exploring the world beyond the headlines.