We can’t pretend that where we are in this moment is not a shit show; there’s no dressing up the unenviable position in which we find ourselves. This is failed US foreign policy, which other Western democracies have supported like sheep for decades. It was always just a matter of time before the world woke up to just how far Trump is prepared to go for profit. He’s a man who has redefined avarice, and the world is now set to face the consequences of his hubris.
Unfortunately, you’ll be hard-pressed to find much challenging analysis in US mainstream reporting. Trump has created a hostile environment for anyone daring to criticise his inability to find a solution to this self-made quagmire America finds itself in. The world is watching from a safe distance, trying to assess the risk to their economies while assessing the global economic fragility resulting from this illegal war of choice.
To understand the geopolitical dynamics, we have to zoom out and examine Israel’s role. It’s beyond question that Netanyahu has been incubating a plan to castrate Iran for decades. He just needed a useful US idiot president to show up and follow him on his holy crusade. Trump was that guy, and his malignant narcissism was the fuel Netanyahu needed to light the blue touch paper on eliminating a longstanding Iranian threat.
There are many moving parts in this adventure, but it’s very telling when the only two willing participants are the US and Israel; it certainly speaks to why US allies are unwilling to take part in any offensive actions. European leaders have been led down this garden path before when they were told lies about the existence of weapons of mass destruction. As they say, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."
Netanyahu is a top-drawer manipulator. In the last 48 hours, we have seen him cleverly claim he wants to engage with Lebanon, while having no real intention of doing so; it’s just another fairy tale acting as cover for continued indiscriminate strikes in Southern Lebanon and Beirut. This is a man who has normalised murder and suffering while playing the victim card, assuming the world is still falling for his persistently cynical, crafted propaganda. Israel has long invested billions of dollars in buying political influence around the world. In the US, it is systemic to a point where it is clearly shaping Middle East foreign policy, yet BOTH political parties have declared the Israeli lobby a protected class.
In a piece in The Guardian by Joseph Gedeon on April 9th, he notes that the Democratic establishment has taken measures to kill a measure targeting AIPAC:
During a meeting in New Orleans, the party rejected a symbolic resolution to confront what its sponsors described as the outsized influence of dark money in Democratic primaries – singling out the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which spent approximately $14m in a single Illinois Democratic primary and has pumped tens of millions more into races across the country to block candidates critical of Israel.
The report goes on:
AIPAC has spent more than $221m in Democratic primaries since the 2022 midterms, and over $22m in Illinois alone last month, funnelled partly through shell groups with names such as “Elect Chicago Women”, whose ties to the pro-Israel lobby were only confirmed after votes had been cast.
There is no doubt in my mind, Israel has long worked hard on both sides of the aisle to reshape American politics. Their influence is now baked into the very heart of government. As with all effective psyops operations, the way they buy influence has evolved over the decades as it has adjusted to the geopolitical climate. The Israeli government is now more than awake to the need to become ever more creative when it comes to, let’s call it what it is, ‘bribing politicians.’ Unquestionably, the American people are becoming increasingly aware of the undue influence Israel now has on American politics, and in particular, Middle East policy. The move by the DNC is just another example of how both parties show nothing but disdain for their constituents as a result of their addiction to Israeli bribes.
It’s time to halt the sanitisation of corporate and overseas interference and call it out for what it is, rampant corruption undermining the democratic process. It’s corrosive and, sadly, systemic in the US and, to some extent, the UK and Europe. It has become so deeply invasive that I suspect removing it would kill the patient. This is how deep this malignant growth extends.
Trump finds himself with nowhere to go as a direct result of Netanyahu whispering in his ear that he could be a hero if he brought Iran to heel. The leader of a nation of 10 million people has led the US into an unwinnable war for the sole purpose of attempting to castrate Israel’s primary threat to regional dominance. What’s more, the American taxpayer is footing the bill for it all, at the cost of reputational collapse for the US. (not that it was not already on life support before this catastrophe began).
In a delusional social media post, Trump said:
Aside from it being nonsense, Iran holds to only card that matters, control over the Strait of Hormuz. I would also add that he’s referring to the very extortion mechanism that he had discussed just 24 hours earlier with Jonathan Karl from CBS, who shared what Trump had said in their conversation.
To be clear, the sole purpose of this failed war is self-enrichment; it’s why Kushner and Witkoff are involved in the talks in Pakistan today. Although the Iramians, it seems, don’t want them in the room, which is hardly surprising, given that the last time they engaged with them, the US and Israel bombed Iran the next day.
The level of Iranian slapdowns aimed at Trump is not only cutting but also factually on point. The IRGC is certainly at the top of its game when it comes to trolling Trump
And one that stood out for me:
Trump has decided to wage a war on a nation for which attempts at invasion have been a way of life for thousands of years. This is just another bump in the road for this ancient nation. Shock and awe only works when the target fears it. To Iran, it’s just another attack on top of sanctions upon sanctions. It doesn’t matter a jot if Trump kills a million Iranians; THEY DON’T CARE, it saves them bullets, while the world blames the US for a holocaust and indicts Trump as a war criminal.
The obvious question is: what cards does Trump hold? I can’t find any. There’s no question he has the most powerful military on the planet (although China might disagree). Even if he nuked them, it would make no difference. Iran is prepared to sacrifice as many lives as required to destroy the American economy if it comes to that. Which part of THERE IS NO WIN for the US is Trump struggling to understand?
He has plenty of options regarding military action. He could attempt to seize the oil terminals and lay siege to the Strait of Hormuz, as in medieval times, but every military road leads to mass-casualty events and the return of plane loads of body bags to the US. It’s not about taking the oil terminals; I dare say Iran would let them be taken; it’s all about holding them.
In a live conflict zone, no insurer will insure tankers to travel through the Strait of Hormuz. If Ukraine has taught us anything, it’s that sinking naval hardware is cheap and highly effective when using sea drones. The Russian navy dares not go anywhere near Crimean ports. Warfare has changed, and unfortunately, it appears the US military, while recognising the threat, has not yet scaled up to meet the threat of asymmetric warfare. Iran has proved that low radar profiles are all well and good, but aircraft still emit infrared heat signatures. As the saying goes, ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way’.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is the nightmare scenario that the US top brass envisaged and warned Trump against, only to be ignored. Even more important is that this conflict is being examined under a military microscope by Chinese military planners, who will, as we speak, be identifying weak points. There’s no question that the US military has NOT failed to carry out any of the orders they were given; they have done precisely as asked. They decapitated the regime on day one and have hit all KNOWN targets exactly as instructed.
The problem is that by the end of day two, the snake had grown eight new heads, and the subsequent destruction of civilian infrastructure will simply have served as a recruiting tool for the IRGC. I repeat, the US has NOT won a war since World War II, and it could be argued that the Russians had a big hand in that win. When it comes to insurgent enemies, they have emerged victorious on EVERY occasion. The US military is the only military in the world to have spent well over 2 trillion dollars on defeat. Take a moment to think about that. The only victory was that handed to arms manufacturers.
Not only did America spend silly money to lose, but it also incubated Islamic terrorism around the world, all while displacing millions, creating a global migration crisis. A crisis that is expanding in Lebanon as I write this. As rage wells up inside you at the thought of all this, I’ll leave you today with the knowledge that the cost of all of the wars of the past quarter-century represents just two years of taxes evaded by the wealthy elite in the US.
"... the cost of all of the wars of the past quarter-century represents just two years of taxes evaded by the wealthy elite in the US."
And if those taxes had been collected and added to the reserves NOT wasted on maiming and killing and stealing, we could have lifted everyone out of poverty and want, and invested in education, infrastructure, health... and everyone's well-being.
Trump never does anything unless he sees something for himself in it. Every decision he makes is based only on economic or authoritarian calculations.