The unconstitutional war in Iran continues, though President Donald Trump has decided to temporarily cease airstrikes after hitting Iran hard for thirteen straight days and destroying or damaging several bridges, energy sites, and water desalination plants within the country (which harms the civilians living there). In the process, Kuwait has been decimated and had one of its water desalination plants damaged (in dry and arid environments, these plants are the only way for these countries to provide water to citizens); and Iraq (where Saudi Arabia joined the United States in attacking pro-Iran forces), Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia were also attacked by Iran, largely because they host American military bases. Iran has mirrored the United States’ tactics, attacking military targets in retaliation for the same type of targets being hit and only destroying civilian infrastructure when their infrastructure is targeted. It is clear from this vantage point that Iran is not actually interested in waging the war (it is not some suicidal regime bent on ushering in the apocalypse, as many commentators like to pretend), and it is only responding to the Trump administration’s insistence that the war continue on behalf of doing Israel’s dirty work.
In fact, Israel has been nowhere to be seen in the recent airstrikes on Iran, and it is taking a “break” by allowing American servicemen to be killed instead of Israeli troops. Yes, our so-called “greatest ally” is happy to sacrifice our fellow countrymen so that it does not have to use its equipment and lose its soldiers on the frontlines. President Trump and Vice President JD Vance attempted to make a peace deal, only to have Israel sabotage it and force the United States right back into the fighting, and now, we have to do the fighting for Israel while it sits back and assesses the situation for its own strategic interests. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he is waiting for Iran to attack it directly or through proxies, and then, he will send a “very, very forceful” message against the Persian nation. So far, Iran has refrained from attacking Israel, knowing very well that that would cause Israel to pound Iran into the ground while the United States government cheers on the destruction.
Aside from reports that the United States is running low on its missile supplies, which is a national security issue that would prevent our government from defending the nation in case of a real attack on the homeland, eighteen troops have been killed and as many as 624 have been wounded (previous numbers had read about 482 before the reassessment). Meanwhile, the Trump administration is attempting to manipulate the numbers by not considering four of the deaths and 207 of the injuries (the ones from the renewed fighting after the memorandum of understanding fell apart) as part of the war (classifying them as from “Overseas Operations” instead), and therefore, it reduces the casualty counts to make Americans able to stomach the war better. This is a way for the Trump administration to be able to push through propaganda to make the war seem like it is more successful than it actually is, and yet, we still just sit by and let the executive branch unconstitutionally fight a war that Congress actually vetoed (Article I Section 8 Clause 11 of the Constitution is clear that Congress must declare war before operations can commence).
Not only was Secretary of Defense (War) Pete Hegseth crying, alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, to Congress to secure additional funds for the war in Iran, which has cost $37.5 billion and counting; but he brought along Secretary of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) Brooke Rollins in order to tie unrelated relief to farmers into a new spending bill in order to make it easier to pass the war-weary Congress. The House of Representatives was able to approve a $95 billion spending bill, which included $70 billion for the war in Iran and $12 billion for farmers and the SAVE America Act (an election overhaul bill is also something distinct that needs to be voted on separately, and sneaking in a bunch of unrelated items into a bill is how politicians do business to get their pet projects passed).
Fear not, though, because the spending is about to get even crazier. The 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authorizes $1.15 trillion (with a “T”) in spending on military expenditures. It is ironic that so-called “fiscal conservatives” are perfectly fine with spending liberally on the military (no different from the Democrats that they criticize), as long as it is under a Republican president. However, hypocrisy and spending money that we do not have with taxpayer dollars is far from the only problem with this year’s NDAA.
Though I have written about this previously when it was part of Section 224, the newly-numbered Section 219 maintains that “The Secretary of Defense shall designate an executive agent, as such term is defined in Department of Defense Directive 5101.01 (relating to DoD Executive Agent, issued February 7, 2022), responsible for synchronizing cooperative efforts between the United States and Israel, to expand and accelerate bilateral defense technology research, development, testing, evaluation, integration, and industrial cooperation, by… identifying jointly developed or Israeli-origin technologies with operational utility for potential integration into United States systems and programs of record…ensuring collaborative research initiatives involving government, private sector, and academic institutions in the United States and Israel, is done in a manner that protects sensitive technology and information and the national security interests of the United States and Israel…facilitating the transition of technologies from research and development into procurement and acquisition pathways… establishing frameworks for joint ventures, licensing agreements, and United States-based co-production or manufacturing partnerships with Israeli industry…coordinating with relevant Department of Defense components, including the Irregular Warfare Technical Support Directorate, capability development and innovation divisions, the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, the Defense Innovation Unit, the United States-Israel Operations Technology Working Group, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Missile Defense Agency, the United States Space Command, the military departments, and other Department of Defense entities, as appropriate, to align efforts and avoid duplication… promoting joint training exercises and information-sharing mechanisms to enhance operational readiness to deploy jointly developed technologies.”
Though this does not completely merge the United States and Israeli militaries in the literal sense, as the pro-Israel camp keeps parroting the fact that American soldiers will not answer to Israeli generals on the battlefield, it gives Israel dangerous new admission to the United States’ military-industrial complex and certain-level access to our agencies’ secrets. As the Israeli propagandists point out, the United States has been sharing technology for years (like with the Iron Dome or David’s Sling), but this pushes the boundaries even further and allows Israel access to the information internally.
This is the next step in Israel’s attempt to burrow itself into our government and control it from the inside out. It is a gradual process, but now that there will be integration between our two militaries, even if anti-Israel voices overwhelm our politicians, it will be nearly impossible to unwind this merging of technology. Israel is cementing its American aid well into the future, and Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna were unable to stop this madness with an amendment, which would have stripped this section from the NDAA, because the pro-Israel forces within Congress are just too strong. Every Representative who voted in favor of the NDAA (and every Senator who will vote for it to get it to move to the president’s desk) is a traitor to the United States. We would not accept the United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Australia, Ukraine, or any other ally to have anything close to this technology integration, so why does Israel get special privileges? The fact that our so-called “representatives” can sell away the will of the people and our sovereignty to a foreign government is telling of just how much the United States has strayed from being a constitutional republic. The United States can be purchased by the highest bidder, and in this case, Israel is one of those dealers (particularly through the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC).
Then, there is the expanding of the war into the Yemen front, as Saudi Arabia has been hammering the Houthis, which are allies of Iran, that control the western portion of the country, including the Bab el-Mandeb Strait (between the Arabian Sea-Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea-Suez Canal). Controlling both this strait (via the Houthis) and the Strait of Hormuz (via Iran) means being able to choke off much of the world’s oil and threaten Western economies, but even as the Saudis and the Houthis exchange fire, the Trump administration is in the process of negotiating a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, which may even include permitting the kingdom to enrich uranium (the same thing that Iran is being prevented from doing). Of course, President Barack Obama signed a nuclear deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) back in 2009, allowing that country to establish a nuclear power program (officially for civilian purposes), and it seems as if the American Empire just arbitrarily allows some countries to have nuclear programs while going to war to prevent others from doing so (Iran).
Both Saudia Arabia and the UAE were responsible (with the backing of the United States) for displacing one-seventh of the Yemeni population and starving the people through blockades in their war effort to prevent the Houthis from taking control (roughly 80% of the population needed some kind of aid). Aside from the constitutional issues associated with presidents making treaties without having to get two-thirds of the Senate to agree (with the Saudi Arabia agreement, Congress has the privilege of getting to veto the president’s legislation with a near-impossible supermajority vote), we must grapple with the hypocrisy of allowing another Middle East country to potentially acquire a nuclear weapon while condemning Iran from furthering the nuclear program that President Dwight Eisenhower started (under “Atoms for Peace”) in the 1950s for Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (the Shah).
As President Trump threatens Russia and China not to sell weapons to or assist Iran (while the United States is permitted to aid Ukraine and Taiwan, of course), the next phase of the war is being considered (without authorization from Congress). Netanyahu, who is worried about possibly losing his upcoming election and actually having to face accountability in Israeli courts for corruption charges, is concocting his plan for the Trump administration to follow (like perhaps bombing the possible new nuclear facility at Pickaxe Mountain). Though the federal government will not release the transcript of the conversation that Netanyahu had with Trump in private in the White House (while the Israeli prime minister is visiting the United States), we can be sure that even though Trump is attempting to play this off like he is in charge, we know who the actual leader of this war effort is. Our politicians are largely controlled by the Israeli government, and we cannot lobby or demand change against officials in a foreign government. As a result, we are ultimately an occupied nation with no de facto representation. American officials are either blackmailed or bribed, and there is nothing that we can do from within the political system. If we want change, we must make it for ourselves.
Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.