Uncertainty Remains with the War in Iran, But Some Suffering Is Guaranteed

Israel and the United States continue to exchange fire with Iran (with the Gulf states that house American military personnel being in the crossfire), including Israel hitting Iran’s electricity infrastructure (temporarily knocking out Tehran’s power) and Iran punching Israel’s Neot Hovav industrial zone (which includes chemical and pharmaceutical plants). Iran also struck back at Israel’s nuclear research facility at Dimona (yes, Israel is allowed to have nuclear weapons while Iran is condemned for even thinking about acquiring them) after Israel further damaged Iran’s nuclear facility at Natanz (Iran is mirroring exactly what the United States and Israel do). In order to enforce a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has damaged a Kuwaiti ship, along with twenty-two others, and prevented American and Israeli allies from navigating the important waterway that carries around one-fifth of the world’s oil (3,200 ships are currently stranded, and Iran allowed eight to ten, and then twenty, Pakistani-flagged ships of oil to pass through as a gesture of good faith).

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing further into southern Lebanon (perhaps to conquer it), where Israel has killed 1,200 people and displaced one million in its battle against Hezbollah (of course, because Israel is an American ally, it can slaughter people and destroy their homes without any condemnation whatsoever), and Houthi-controlled Yemen has entered the war on the side of Iran, thus threatening to cut off another 12% of global oil (and 8% of liquefied natural gas) at the Bab el-Mendeb Strait (between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, which leads to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea) and send oil prices further through the roof (Iran and Yemen can control roughly one-third of the global oil combined).

Oil prices remain uncertain, as President Donald Trump keeps insisting that he is negotiating a deal with Iran (now admitting that it is through Pakistan and not directly) while simultaneously threatening to send American troops to seize Iran’s fuel infrastructure at Kharg Island and force open the Strait of Hormuz. If you are going to put boots on the ground to attack Iran, just do it, already. Stop pausing the threats against Iran’s civilian infrastructure and of a land invasion. If you want to prove that you are a “macho man” who can bully any nation on earth, stop bluffing and do what you said that you would do. Iran is waiting, and it said that it will “set them [American troops] on fire” when they step foot in Iran.

Now that the United States has done Israel’s bidding and crossed that line into a direct war with Iran, the Iranian government is making the Trump administration commit to a long-term and costly war in the region that will certainly have detrimental effects on the American population. I expect Trump, along with Mark Levin, Ben Shapiro, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth, to lead the charge and dodge gunfire like George Washington would have done. If you are going to force Americans to die on behalf of Israel, at least have the decency to fight on the front lines yourself.

Yet, we the people let the king have all of the power to wage war without any domestic debate or congressional approval (as Article I Section 8 of the Constitution requires). He can send Americans to the slaughter, drive up the cost of living for all of us, and increase our taxes to support the war without a single American citizen having any say whatsoever. The president campaigned on staying out of foreign wars and lowering costs, and that is what the people who voted for him expected. He has done the complete opposite and betrayed the entire country to serve his master, Netanyahu.

Now, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has announced potential energy lockdowns, and several countries have begun implementing emergency oil-saving measures. The ten-point plan put forth by the IEA includes: “Work from home where possible,” “Reduce highway speed limits by at least 10 km/h” (six miles per hour), “Encourage public transport,” “Alternate private car access to roads” (determine when drivers are allowed on the roads), “Increase car sharing and adopt efficient driving practices,” “Improve efficiency for freight vehicles and commercial deliveries” (eco-friendly techniques), “Shift LPG away from transport,” “Avoid air travel where alternatives exist” (no more flying), “Switch from gas or LPG cooking to electric alternatives,” and “Allow industry to shift to alternative feedstocks.” Although these are currently just recommendations, remember that so too were the COVID-19 measures from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other bodies, and yet, those became enforceable measures when they were implemented by governments at various levels. Now that the precedent has been set from the totalitarian experiment of the pandemic, lockdown measures are now regular tools that governments can rely on at any time that they declare an emergency, and this is exactly what many of us “crazy conspiracy theorists” tried to warn against.

Many Asian countries have begun to implement IEA-recommended policies, including Bangladesh and Thailand regulating air conditioning usage; Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka applying four-day work weeks for public employees; and Vietnam encouraging bicycles and remote work over driving. Even the United Kingdom (UK) is planning for emergency measures, including reducing speed limits and restricting when fuel can be sold. Though it is difficult to predict the future, do not forget that China and Italy started implementing lockdown procedures in 2019 while Americans were laughing at coronavirus memes and thinking that such measures could not be implemented here, and yet, the global totalitarian trend swept ashore to the “land of the free” and dominated for several months (a couple years in some places, like New York).

It is hardly just the prices of necessities (businesses will include oil surcharge fees in the price of consumer goods, as that is basic economics) and lockdowns that Americans need to worry about with an escalating war in Iran. War is the perfect opportunity for elites in society to censor information and increase surveillance, and governments prefer having one voice and a population that rallies around the cause. Last week, I mentioned the Paramount acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery and the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) threats of license revocations as early steps in the fascist consolidation of media.

Is it possible that World War I-era Espionage and Sedition Acts are possible to make dissent in the United States illegal? With modern technology, it is doubtful that this would be the case, and more than likely, what we will see is a COVID-19-style censorship campaign, where governments partner with Big Tech corporations and demand or pressure companies to take down unfavorable online information (remember the Twitter Files?). Using this method is preferable because the suppression of speech is hidden behind the scenes, and people have the illusion of freedom and choice, even though they are being manipulated and censored by government entities in reality (liberals and progressives erroneously claimed that the censorship was part of social media companies’ terms and conditions, but I doubt that they will make the same consistent argument this time around when they are the subjects of the censorship). With corporations like Palantir, Oracle, and others, the surveillance state is expanding, especially under the Trump administration. During the George W. Bush administration (September 11 era), the Patriot Act was easily passed to increase espionage capabilities against Americans, and hardly anyone spoke out because they were afraid that the Muslim terrorists hiding under their beds would come to get them (just like the virus would come for you if you did not bend your knee to the government during the pandemic). Will there be another Patriot Act passed during the Iran war, or will the government covertly monitor us? Will the powers that be utilize new artificial intelligence (AI) technologies without any related legislation or knowledge by the public?

Time will tell whether the war in Iran becomes an unbearable situation domestically, but how long are we willing to allow the imperial throne in Washington, D.C. to be used to conquer new territories? Are we really going to again let the military-industrial complex profit off of the bloodshed (corporations profited off of Afghanistan, Iraq, COVID-19, and the Russo-Ukrainian War)? Where does this leave we the people? Will we stand up against tyranny or fall into the usual trap of pretending that governments have our best interests at heart and are working for the collective good? Will we let partisan politics stand in the way of uniting against our common enemy: the deep state?

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