As the Trump Administration Surrounds Iran with an “Armada,” We Wait to See What Military Actions Will Be Taken

Much has been going on in the Middle East that most people are not paying attention to, and it is almost certain that President Donald Trump will add (in some capacity) to the airstrikes against Iran from June of last year that targeted Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant, Natanz Nuclear Facility, and Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center. Though the president vowed to keep the United States out of any new wars, he could not resist aiding the Benjamin Netanyahu regime’s Twelve-Day War (Iran-Israel War) in what became known as “Operation Midnight Hammer.” Just like before the Trump administration’s regime-change operation in Venezuela (Operation Southern Spear), the United States military is being moved around the Middle East in a geopolitical chess game. Will the military buildup turn into more than a show of force and be utilized to depose of Ali Hosseini Khamenei’s government, currently headed by President Masoud Pezeshkian?

For starters, most are aware of the anti-government protests that have been erupting throughout Tehran and other parts of Iran, but those were fueled in large part due to the economic sanctions that the United States has placed on the country (and potential covert operations by American and Israeli intelligence and special forces that cannot be confirmed at this time). This has caused inflation to rise 40%, food prices to increase by 70%, and vital oil sales to plummet. The Trump administration knew that this would cause civilians to rise up in opposition, and in turn, the Iranian government would suppress the protests. Therefore, it should be reasonably asked whether or not the bloodshed of thousands of Iranians actually rests with both the Iranian regime and the Trump administration. To Americans, this is just a game to destabilize Iran, but to Iranians, this is their livelihood. New Iranian protests have emerged in the wake of President Trump’s “armada” that is ready to bomb the country, and perhaps the president is banking on civil war to bring down the government instead of having to use American troops to do the dirty work.

The USS Gerald R Ford has been redeployed from the Caribbean Sea and spotted near the Mediterranean Sea, while the USS Abraham Lincoln (Nimitz-class supercarrier) is operating near Oman in the Arabian Sea. Both aircraft carrier groups are within close range of Iran, and in addition to this, other deployments to the region have included: E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, F-35 stealth strike fighters, other fighter jets (F-15s, F-16s, F-18s, and F-22s), MH-60 Seahawks, and potentially B-2 bombers (not confirmed) stationed at the United Kingdom’s Indian Ocean territory of Diego Garcia. There have been reports of massive buildups and abnormal aircraft activity around Portugal’s Azores Islands, Qatar, Bahrain, and Jordan, indicating that a strategic move is in the process (including possible evacuations at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar). Additionally, Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles have been readied just in case. Although we cannot say for sure whether or not another war will be started in the Middle East, remember that the United States has been surrounding Iran for years with troops (likely around 30,000 to 40,000), military bases, nuclear weapons, and crippling economic sanctions, so it has always been a matter of time before a final showdown would result.

The Israeli government is salivating at the opportunity to eliminate its long-time rival so that it can become the dominant force in the Middle East, and the Trump administration has been just enough of a puppet who bows down to Master Netanyahu that such a war could finally be in the works (as I have been saying for years). The Israeli government has been attempting to get its lobbying power in Congress to declare war on Iran forever, but why wait when you can get the current emperor to bypass the Constitution and unilaterally declare war? Who needs checks and balances? Let the president create and execute foreign policy completely and without accountability. We the people will just sit back and let the executive branch dominate our government and take charge over everything (Constitution be damned).

Of course, Iran has been only days or months away from acquiring a nuclear weapon for the last like thirty years, but this time, guys, it is so much different and warrants a response. War hawks and the Israel-first crowd have been crying that Iran is rebuilding its nuclear program that was supposedly destroyed during the Trump administration’s first set of strikes in June (the president openly bragged about how Iran’s program had been obliterated, and yet, it was not at all), and the country is enriching too much uranium to be considered acceptable by United States-led global order (972 pounds of highly enriched uranium remains unaccounted for, after all). Despite the Institute for Science and International Security claiming that the chance of Iran actually intending to develop a nuclear weapon is around only 40-50%, while the chances of success if that is followed would only be about 15% in the short-term and 42% in the long-term, we can never be too careful, right? We might as well bomb Iran and find out later if it was justified.

This is typical Trumpian diplomacy: use the Theodore Roosevelt method of carrying a “big stick” and threaten any nation that does not comply with the American Empire’s wishes. Bullying weaker nations into submission may work for now, but some day, Russia and China will become bold and challenge this strategy. When that day comes, World War III will become inevitable, and we will have nobody to blame for any nuclear exchange except for the government that we have allowed to run amok. As it stands now, Iran is in the process of acquiring CM-302 anti‑ship supersonic cruise missiles from China; and Iran, Russia, and China are partaking in military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz (including with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), thus increasing the likelihood that a confrontation could occur between these vessels and American ships. If Iran shuts off the Strait of Hormuz (and the Persian Gulf) for retaliatory purposes, it could cause issues in shipping and commerce (much of the world’s oil flows through this waterway), and the Trump administration may respond with force to keep resources flowing. Although unconfirmed, reports suggested that China may have flown sixteen aircraft into Iran to show support for that country and supply it in the wake of the American threat, and if this is true, it may indicate China’s willingness to prevent the United States from invading the Persian nation. Either way, China may intervene, and because of this, the Trump administration may want to think twice about military action, as to avoid the conflict escalating into a hot war with multiple superpowers.

Currently, the Trump administration is considering limited airstrikes, an assassination of Khamenei, or a full-scale war, and none of these options are good for the American people, as troops will be killed and a war economy could result (not to mention the threat of World War III). The president has threatened Iran by saying that it either makes a nuclear deal that is favorable to Israel and the West (not Iran), or face war. He reiterated this during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, and this is nothing more than bullying a weaker nation into compliance, something that we learn is wrong in elementary school but that we somehow disregard when it comes to geopolitics. Regardless of whether Iran is a repressive regime and a bad actor in the Middle East (so too is Israel), flexing muscles and pushing around other kids on the playground is not a moral position to take. For years, the United States has surrounded Iran with bases, troops, ships, and nuclear weapons (and overthrew its government in 1953), and it is no surprise that the nation would want some kind of deterrent (if you were the leader of a nation constantly being threatened, you would make the exact same type of strategic move, so stop pretending that Iran is a rogue nation that only wants to destroy the United States and Israel and not protect itself).

Currently, special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are part of the negotiations between the United States and Iran and will be influential in the decision on whether to strike the country. Yes, this is the same Kushner who is the president’s son-in-law and who received $2 billion from Saudi Arabia (and hundreds of billions of dollars from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates through his Affinity Partners) for helping to broker the Abraham Accords and share classified intelligence with the Saudi government in Trump’s first term. As I mentioned previously, Kushner was also mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein Files as the mastermind behind the first Trump presidency and the one who pushed the president into being “compromised” by Israel. Trump’s son-in-law had connections to Russia’s Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish movement and may have even laundered money through the president’s Beverly Hills mansion. So much for Trump draining the swamp and being a transparent administration. No, the current president will continue to bow to Israel and do the bidding of the Netanyahu regime at the expense of American taxpayers. Other advisors on the decision to strike Iran include: Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard (our last hope for any sane policy on Iran).

So, we know that a military buildup almost certainly means that some type of aggressive action will be taken against Iran, but what will Iran do in response? Iranian national security official, Ali Larijani, said, “We are definitely more powerful than before. We have prepared over the past seven, eight months…We found our weaknesses and fixed them…We are not looking for war, and we won’t start the war. But if they force it on us, we will respond.” Iran has stated that not only would it attack American bases throughout the Middle East (the ones surrounding it), but it would allow its proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and al Qaeda, to participate in the terrorist attacks. This could mean sleeper cells in the United States being activated to cause chaos domestically, and the Houthis could cut off shipping lanes in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait (and in turn, the Suez Canal and Arabian Sea). With ballistic and hypersonic missiles being produced and received from China and elsewhere, it is possible that Iran would be able to damage the two aircraft carriers that the United States has sitting and waiting in the region (sinking the ships would be challenging, as the defensive capabilities of these carriers are seemingly unmatched and accompanied by carrier strike groups, destroyers, submarines, and cruise missiles).

With a population of around 92 million (roughly one-quarter the population of the United States), Iran would not be an easy country to tame or conquer militarily, especially with backing from Russia and China. The United States struggled to take the weaker and less populated Iraq after twenty years of armed conflict, so it is ludicrous to think that Iran would fall quickly. Yet, the Trump administration is confident in its abilities to engage in such a war. We acknowledge as a society that the George W. Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq was a mistake and waged unjustifiably and under false pretenses, and yet, the people are again being asked to blindly trust that the Trump administration has our best interests at heart this time around (trust me, bro, this time is different). We should look to diplomatic solutions, and bullying Iran may work up to a certain point, but at what cost? Can we say that on a moral level that what the United States government is doing to that country is justified? We the people should decide if we want war, and if we do not, we should be out in the streets protesting to prevent our troops from meeting their untimely deaths. Since Congress will do nothing to rein in the president’s unconstitutional powers, it is up to us to answer the call and stand in the way of military deployments.

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.