MAGA’s new excuse for Iran war: Israel made us do it
Marco Rubio and top Congressional allies offer up a new excuse for attacking Iran, one so farcical that Trump immediately contradicted it.
In justifying the US-Israeli regime change war on Iran, the Trump administration and Congressional allies have tried to settle on a new excuse: Israel made us do it.
On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted that the US struck Iran in response to the “imminent threat” that it posed to US forces in the region. Yet that threat, he argued, was solely created by Israel. “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill. “...We went proactively in a defensive way to prevent them from inflicting higher damage.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson concurred. “Because Israel was determined to act with or without the U.S., our commander in chief and the administration... had a very difficult decision to make,” Johnson said. Iran “would have immediately retaliated against U.S. personnel and assets,” he argued. Therefore, “the consequences of inaction on our part would have been devastating.”
“Israel faced an existential risk and they were prepared to strike Iran alone,” Sen. Tom Cotton said on Fox News. “If that happened, Iran was very likely to target our troops. That may address the question of ‘why now.’”
Rubio, Johnson, and Cotton are effectively arguing that if Israel is determined to attack another country, the US is obligated to attack that same country before it can retaliate against the US forces that happen to surround it. Taking these claims at face value would lead to the conclusion that the administration has come up with a new definition of “America First”: if Israel chooses to go to war, then America Goes First.
The rationale is so farcical that even President Trump couldn’t bother to go along with it. At the White House today, Trump directly contradicted his top diplomat and Congressional allies. Asked if “Israel forced your hand” to launch strikes on Iran, Trump responded: “No. I might’ve forced their hand. It was my opinion that these lunatics were gonna attack first.”
By lunatics, Trump was not referring to his Israeli partners, but to the government of Iran. Although his explanation is just as ludicrous as Rubio et al’s, I believe that it is nonetheless closer to the truth. The US and Israel have jointly planned to attack Iran for months, as new reporting from the New York Times and Axios underscores. Trump did not bomb Iran because Israel forced him to, or because Iran was poised to attack US forces; he bombed Iran because he decided to become “a full partner” with Israel “in a war to topple the Iranian leadership,” as the Times put it.
This also explains why Trump pretended to engage in diplomacy with Iran, as I discuss in an interview with Judge Andrew Napolitano below.
The US Empire wants a fragmented Iran and is desperate to control the world supply of oil, save the dollar, and to strangle the Chinese economy. The operative word is desperate. The US ultra rich, the empire, are scared shitless that their wealth and power will evaporate with the falling dollar. And it appears to be doing just that. Israel is their clueless Mideast enforcer. But the empire is pulling this shit all over the world.
From the text of your article: “new definition of “America First”: if Israel chooses to go to war, then America Goes First.” & “By lunatics, Trump was not referring to his Israeli partners, but to the government of Iran.” Aaron, I only wish you wrote more often!