I’ve noted how often we’ve been told, by mainstream and alt media sources alike, that we are on the brink of WWIII. Never closer, as Alex Jones would say. That’s been at least three to four years now. It’s nonstop fear porn, which the COVID psyop taught us works really, really well. But is it real this time? Are you ready for a World War?
Israel’s attack on Iran recently, in the middle of peace negotiations, changed the equation. Trumpenstein at first appeared flustered. He had been at least saying he wanted to avoid war, something that no diehard Zionist has ever said. Iran has been the primary target of Zionists for decades now. They know they can’t drudge up any more alleged Nazi war criminals, and give them a Kafkaesque show trial like Eichmann. So Iran has been branded as the “state sponsor of terrorism,” whatever that means. According to the man who really runs U.S. foreign policy, Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran has been on the verge of developing nuclear weapons since 1979. As Bugs Bunny might have said, that last step is a doozy. Trumpenstein has ranted that as long as he’s president, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. But Trump says lots of contradictory things, as we all know. He also continues to want to broker a “deal.” Alex Jones and others claim the decision has been made; we are going to war.
Now, it takes some real nerve to blame the Iranians for being bombed first. The Yiddish word for it is chutzpah. The mantra has always been that “Israel has a right to defend itself.” In this case, from what? A possible peace? One of those big, beautiful “deals” that Trumpenstein is renowned for? It will take all the powers of the state controlled press and subservient political “representatives” to portray Israel as the aggrieved party here. Why, exactly, is Israel so mad at the Iranians? For supposedly developing nuclear weapons? Which Israel was working on over sixty years ago, greatly angering President Kennedy. Right before he was assassinated. Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Why isn’t the world concerned about that? Don’t they prefer to defecate in the sand at beaches? Who trusts people who do that with nuclear weapons? And, of course, our beloved United States is still the only nation in history to use nuclear power on another country. Why would Iran trust us?
And why would Iran trust Israel? They are a rogue state, inserted onto land occupied by other people, with the backing of the world’s greatest military powers. In their early years, they featured the Irgun Gang, a group which included future Israeli leader Menachem Begin. I don’t know, they sure seem to have been terrorists. They blew up the King David Hotel, killing a whole lot of civilians. I don’t think the court historians can provide a discernable difference between the Irgun Gang, and the PLO. Or Al Qaeda. Or Hamas. Or Hezbollah. The Taliban. Isis. The list is pretty long. As someone once said, one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter. If we had lost our War for Independence, they probably could have called the Minute Men “terrorists.” They were camoflauged while firing at the proud and arrogant British troops. When the communists did that later, they called it guerilla warfare. Who’s the “terrorist,” the Palestinian kid throwing rocks, or the IDF soldier bulldozing his former home?
Many prominent Trump backers have turned on him. This is a bombed bridge too far for them. Tucker Carlson. Steve Bannon. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Even Alex Jones was kind of critical, but as always he held back and made sure to say he agrees with 95 percent of what Trump is doing. Trumpenstein retaliated by calling Tucker “kooky.” When it was reported that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had concluded Iran had no nuclear weapons, Trumpenstein scoffed, “I don’t care what she said.” Somehow, I don’t think Tulsi is long for this administration. To the degree that anything he does is sincere and unscripted, Trump appears to believe that his MAGA base is as committed to Israel as he and everyone else in Washington, D.C. is. Not all the MAGA faithful are waiting for the Rapture, or believe that going against Israel is going against God. Most see it for what it is; the antithesis of an America First policy.
The MAGA movement is reeling, with the primary point of contention being Israel. “America First,” which Trump used before the less scintillating “Make America Great Again,” is not compatible with unswerving support for another nation. The Christian Zionists and the millions who were thrilled by Trump’s oft cited disdain for the “forever wars” aren’t compatible, either. There is a huge difference between the Mark Levins and Ben Shapiros and the Candace Owens’s and the Tucker Carlsons. An America First foreign policy was a nonnegotiable issue with most MAGA supporters. If Trump puts Americans in harm’s way over Israel’s squabbles, then he is no different that Bush, Clinton, Obama, or Biden. Probably 100 million Americans are fed up with the two party duopoly, and want something that represents their interests. Going to war with Iran obviously doesn’t fall into that category.
There really hasn’t been much criticism of Israel from anyone in Washington, D.C. since November 22, 1963. An otherwise nondescript Republican, Rep. Paul Findley, had the audacity to buck AIPAC, and it ended his political career. He wrote the best seller, They Dare to Speak Out, but it changed nothing. Very few have dared to speak out against our “greatest ally.” Another Republican, Pete McCloskey, talked about how the ADL uses bullying tactics, and declared, “There is a strong Jewish lobby….I do not understand why the Jewish community should resent it being labeled as such.” McCloskey’s political career, too, was ended by these kinds of comments. James Trafficant was one of the last great Democrats in Congress. His criticism of Israel, and courageous defense of embattled Cleveland autoworker John Demjanjuk, resulted in him being expelled from Congress, and sentenced to seven years in prison.
As I wrote about in an earlier Substack, Rep. Thomas Massie gave a remarkable interview last year to Tucker Carlson, in which he spoke of AIPAC having a “babysitter” for every politician, and how he threw them out of his office. Shortly thereafter, his healthy wife suddenly died, after a vacation with their grandkids. I still haven’t read anything on what the cause was. She wasn’t vaccinated, so it wasn’t a case of “doctors baffled.” Maybe all these things are coincidences, and opposing Israel has no impact on one’s life or political career. We’ll see how many members in Congress join Marjorie Taylor Greene and Massie in opposing any U.S. involvement in the mess between Israel and Iran. Massie has introduced a bill about this, demanding that Congress hold a debate, and vote on any declaration of war, which is their role under the Constitution. But Congress hasn’t declared war since WWII. Needless to say, we have been at war somewhere almost continuously since then.
Iran has never done anything to us, other than the hostage situation just before the 1980 election, which ended with a real “October Surprise.” Perhaps Iran had had enough of our meddling in their affairs. After all, the CIA overthrew Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953. It’s a “democracy” thing, you wouldn’t understand. The Shah was an American puppet. Remember that whole “consent of the governed” thing that we fought a revolution about. Now, Abraham Lincoln crushed that notion forever, but it’s still a timeless and profound concept. In more recent years, the U.S. backed Iraq, led by CIA asset to become foreign hobgoblin Saddam Hussein, during their war with Iran, poison gas and all. One of the few things Trumpenstein did the first time around was assassinate Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, supposedly the most dangerous “terrorist” in the world at the time, although no American had heard of him before.
Now, we backed Iraq because Israel wanted us to. Trump assassinated Soleimani because Israel ordered him to, just like he bombed Syria twice at their behest. Barack Obama murdered an entire wedding party in Yemen, certainly an impeachable offense if ever there was one, but it is unknown if Israel personally requested it. The Gulf War, our senseless years in Afghanistan- all of it was because it was in Israel’s interest, not ours. What has Afghanistan, let alone Yemen, ever done to us? Donald Trump pulling out and holding a chair for Bibi Netanyahu was about as symbolic a gesture as could be imagined. Maybe Bibi asked him to. You don’t turn down Bibi. And you don’t make fun of a less than masculine nickname like that. Bibi apparently wants to kill the latest Ayatollah. That’s how out of step I am; I didn’t know there were multiple Ayatollahs. Trump allegedly stopped Bibi from doing that. I’m not sure that’s believable.
