The Iran Conflict: A New National Embarrassment

America is at war with Iran, with no justification being presented other than that of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling us to. Our country, at will, has placed itself in historical calamity, marking the beginning of America’s return to war in the Middle East. 

While, in 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell falsely remarked to the UN on Saddam Hussein and Iraq’s nuclear armament, the Trump administration has made no such attempt, nor have those in support of it, to nuance the Iran conflict. Their rhetoric, although inconsistent, often echoes a single sentiment: this war is for Israeli interests and those alone. When the ambassador to the state, Mike Huckabee, practically screams it from anywhere he can, invoking biblical passages to explain why America must fight this battle, the overarching message can’t get much clearer.

Before the war’s outbreak, a nuclear agreement sat tentatively on the table between the U.S and Islamic Republic, with talks ultimately stalling due to disagreements about Iran’s timeframe for diluting its facilities. Despite the friction caused by these stalled negotiations, it is important to note that this did not lead to an immediate escalation of direct military hostilities. U.S intelligence assessments have suggested a distinction between Iran’s nuclear brinkmanship and actual active aggression, with the Pentagon noting that the Iranian State holds no prior intention of targeting American interests, nor do they pose an existential threat to the United States.

Such being the case, even a seasoned statesman like Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, had “more questions than answers” as he exited his committee’s classified briefing on the conflict. For Senator Blumenthal and others, their confusion hadn’t arisen solely from opposition to the war. Moreso, a genuine dumbfoundedness about what this country had gotten itself into. Overnight on February 28th, without congressional oversight, the Trump administration launched the United States into a clusterfuck of historic proportions.​ More likely than not, we are only at the beginning of what will become a lengthy, tumultuous national embarrassment.

Politically, the Middle East is a powder keg at full capacity. Americans abroad have been instructed by the State Department to exercise caution wherever they are or to return stateside outright. In economic matters, the Strait of Hormuz has inevitably been closed by Iran, putting the global market in a spin and pushing the energy crisis to new heights. The world’s largest natural gas production facility in Qatar has been struck by Iran, which has begun targeting American interests in the region. Subsequently, domestic gas prices now sit just under the four-dollar mark, and airfares have risen sharply. The United States has increasingly become an unviable trading partner due to the uncertainty it has created among European allies, who view China as a more stable option. 

Although a Saudi oil pipeline, bypassing the Strait, has been touted as a way to mitigate America’s issues, it does little to answer the obvious, glaring questions at hand. With Iran showing they are entirely unafraid of attacking American-linked infrastructure in the Middle East, what would stop them from targeting the pipeline? Does this pipeline have missile-averting technology? Given the present circumstances, it doesn’t appear to be a fix at all. Perhaps a temporary one, if so, but merely a sitting duck for Iran in that case.

All is not calm, domestically or internationally. Trump has dug himself in too deep this time, biting off more than he can chew. His base sees it, and the MAGA coalition is becoming increasingly fragmented. Young Republicans at CPAC have appeared disillusioned, while conservative firebrand Tucker Carlson has cemented his place as the voice of a burgeoning anti-war coalition on the right. Attempting to quell the mass fallout his war has brought, the Commander-in-Chief has made claims of a decisive victory, à la George Bush’s Mission Accomplished debacle, practically every day. These efforts to calm a spooked economy look increasingly floundering. Just yesterday, Trump threatened to attack Iran’s energy sites if a peace deal was not agreed “shortly”. 

While a peace deal, as sudden as the war’s inception, remains not entirely out of the question, given the Trump administration’s almost trademark volatility, the scenario appears unlikely. By every indication, Iran is in this conflict for the long haul. It appears that the United States is headed down a collision course. “We are waiting”, was the message Tehran’s Foreign Minister sent, concerning the prospect of a full-scale ground invasion by the United States – a horrifically foreboding statement. When Trump originally struck, in the wee hours of February 28th, he thought Operation “Epic Fury”, which killed Iran’s already-ailing Supreme Leader and numerous feasible successors, would be a Grenada-type excursion in and out with regime change in less than 2 weeks. As White House press briefings have proven, the Trump Administration, somehow, did not plan for a lasting conflict in Iran. 

Ostensibly, Grenada is how this conflict, the brainchild of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli state, was presented to Trump. The Prime Minister absolutely saw that a swift end to the Iran conflict was not on the cards. A country with Iran’s density and size would never simply roll over. Netanyahu finally found an administration incompetent enough to believe his willy-nilly assurances that a conflict in Iran would result in a quick victory.  Throughout his tenure as Israeli Prime Minister, like a doomsday cult leader, Netanyahu has attempted to persuade Commanders-in-Chief, one after the next, to target Iran, with rejection being a routine occurrence. Bibi finally found his mark in a senile Trump, surrounded by a gaggle of dullards and lackeys in his cabinet – predominantly, an alcoholic religious zealot in the Secretary of Defense (or War, as he prefers), Pete Hegseth. With characters like these at the helm, the United States and the world are experiencing the catastrophe that scholars, in every political direction, foretold in a dreaded conflict with the Islamic Republic. As they noted for years, Israel was supposed to stand as a buffer for America against Iran. Not a rogue state that pulls us into a war with them. 

Contrary to the views of those in favor of the conflict: our gin-enthusiast Defence Secretary, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, and those who justify the war by evoking the Iranian people’s liberation from their repressive Islamic theocracy. This war is not beneficial to Iran or the United States. Despite Iran having serious issues domestically, a war that kills Iranian citizens was always going to unite their populace around the government, with many Iranians being fervently nationalistic.

What did the Trump administration then expect the outcome would be, when they greenlit the bombing of a school which killed 168 of Iran’s own, with many of the casualties being children? It seems imaginative to believe that folks in Iran who held abundant ill-will towards Israel and the United States before the war would respond to a war crime like this with anything but fury and vengeance. 

Ex-National Security advisor, John Bolton, whom I once lampooned as probably cheering on America’s June bombing campaign in Iran “with a foam finger”, has even noted his serious concerns around the conflict, “I am very worried that they have not done adequate consultation with the opposition on the ground in Iran”. Bolton remarked in an interview with Politico. Noting the impulsiveness in the decision of the action, even with palpable instability in the Islamic Republic. Adding, “There could be a lot of turmoil, a lot of bloodshed.” Many Americans, left and right, thought the day would never come when Bolton saw a conflict and erred on the side of caution. However, the seemingly unthinkable happened.

When a man of John Bolton’s posture notes matters like these, it means quite a bit. This is a gentleman who, for all intents and purposes, hadn’t seen a war he didn’t like, stating quite the opposite in this case. By all indications, Bolton’s comments signal that this conflict is being drastically misguided. Things have gone, and can very much continue going, horribly awry.

It appears this war with Iran is here to stay. America’s worst-case scenario concerning Middle Eastern conflicts has come home to roost. When President Trump stated in the direct aftermath of the attack on Iran that Americans would die in this process, “But that’s what happens in war”, there was reason to take him at face value. Troops have begun touching the ground, and more seem destined for deployment. Efforts called ‘expeditionary’ in nature have marked the commencement of star and stripe-draped caskets coming home. Another generation of Americans will be, before long, bearing witness to the ramifications of another costly war. We are once again a nation at war, and there’s no other way around it.