The warmongers, once again, get the war they've sought for decades. Trump and Netanyahu outsource the dirty work to the people they're bombing

Edited by Sam Thielman


I THOUGHT IT would happen after the next round of scheduled talks and Secretary of State-plus Marco Rubio's announced trip to Israel. I woke up to learn that I fell for the ruse.

To say the first thing first: This is dying-empire behavior. The bellicosity of the late-phase Ottoman Empire comes to mind. But we're in no danger from breakaway territory, nor have we missed out on a leap in military technology, though the economic foundations of the country display atrophy. Dying is not the same as dead. I'm not trying to predict where we are on a trajectory of historical collapse. I'm only pointing out that launching an unprovoked war to overthrow a longstanding enemy under cover of negotiation to resolve a pretextual crisis is the sort of aggression typical of empires in, at a minimum, steep decline.

Overthrowing the Islamic Republic addresses none of the compounding social and economic crises the United States faces. Accordingly, from a certain rot-at-the-heart-of-decisionmaking perspective, such a war looks like an opportunity, in the sense that it defers addressing such crises.

The next thing to say: This is an unambiguous aggression by the United States and Israel. Trump spoke of "imminent threats from the Iranian regime." There were none. Out of one side of the warmongers' mouths comes the satisfaction that Iran has difficulty projecting power after the 2024 Israeli decimation of the Resistance Axis and the 2025 Twelve-Day War. Out of the other side, this claim of imminence that no one believes and no one, certainly not Trump, devotes much effort to presenting as believable. Already the Israelis have bombed a girls' elementary school—not the only school they hit today—and killed dozens. That's not what you do when you face an imminent threat. That's what you do when you want to seize a sick opportunity.

While the bombs fall on the regime and its opponents alike, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu say that they come as liberators. Only they won't be the ones who do the dirty work. "The time has come for all sections of the people in Iran… to remove the yoke of tyranny… and bring a free and peace-loving Iran," al-Jazeera quotes a statement from Netanyahu. "Our joint operation will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their fate into their own hands."

In 1991, as the First Gulf War entered its terminal phase, President George H.W. Bush told the Iraqis to overthrow Saddam Hussein. When they did, Bush realized he would be stuck occupying Iraq if he aided them, so he didn't, and the regime held on through massacres.

This morning, Trump sounded even less concerned with the fate of the people he was encouraging to join his war (even as his allies bombed their children's schools). He told the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the rest of the Iranian security apparatus it could have "complete immunity" if it puts up no resistance—a contradiction, as this is the regime's apparatus of domestic repression; but more like a tell that the Iranian people's desires are irrelevant.

"To the great, proud people of Iran: I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand… Bombs will be falling everywhere. When we finish, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations," Trump said. "No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a president who is giving you what you want. Let's see how you respond."

Let's see how you respond.

The U.S. and Israel may have started this war in Iran but already the war is regional. Reprisal attacks are hitting everywhere from Bahrain to Kuwait, targeting at first the U.S. military presence in the region, and will likely spread to Iraq. My older daughter spoke this morning with a friend in the region. The little one was heading into a bomb shelter.

Congress did nothing here. There was supposed to be a vote on the Ro Khanna-Thomas Massie War Powers Resolution next week. Congressional lethargy, which conceals political comfort with the war, provided time for Trump to ignore Congress entirely. I am not making a process critique. I am pointing out that this march to war was deliberate enough for politicians to have attempted to obstruct it and they did not. That is yet another sign of a necrotic political system and symptom of a dying empire. It's a sick joke that Dario Amodei speaks about America's democratic values and its authoritarian enemies.

So, congratulations to generations of American and Israeli warmongers. You worked tirelessly to seed the bed for today. You made sure Bush's son in 2002 rejected Iranian pledges of assistance with the War on Terror. You demanded time and time again that the U.S. military expand the Iraq occupation to attack the Iranians who exploited it to facilitate attacks on U.S. troops. You ginned up crisis after crisis over Iran's nuclear program, and then rejected the 2015 diplomacy that verifiably ended it. You pretended that Iran was not the ground force that kicked ISIS out of Iraq under American air cover. You lied relentlessly and unconvincingly when insisting that you did not desire war. You did the same sort of thing the last time you got the war you wanted, which was Iraq, and which was an epochal disaster—the sort of epochal disaster that many people figured would spell your political marginalization.

But because there were never any consequences for it, we are right back here, only worse now. Will there be consequences for the warmongers this time?

US "Diplomacy"

HEGSETH: “No stupid rules of engagement, no nation building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars. We fight to win and we don’t waste time or lives.”

"The American People want to know what they're sending their men and women to war for, is there a concern of this spiraling into a longer war?"
Pete Hegseth: "Did you not hear my remarks? We know, we have plans, we have generals, we have chairmans, we have commanders."

Now, America is going to be force fed and gas lighted all the “noble” reasons the American “Peace” President and Pro-Peace administration had to go to war once again this year, after being in power for only a year.
Head-spinning, but maga.

Why Hasn’t Trump Mentioned Iran’s Oil?

"Crickets"
So who says Trump ain't got no message discipline?

Maybe we just need a  warmup?


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