“No matter whom you vote for, you always wind up getting John McCain.”  ~Tom Woods

The U.S. is now at war with Iran.  We will have to wait and see if it escalates into something more serious.

After Israel attacked Iran, the U.S. initially denied involvement.  Many people warned that the U.S. is obviously involved, yet some Trump defenders tried to deny it.  Now that the U.S. government has bombed Iran, these people look foolish.  Of course, even if the U.S. government hadn’t directly bombed Iran, we know that it provides funds, weapons, intelligence, and defense for Israel, so it is still foolish to say that the U.S. wasn’t involved.

Iran sent in 14 missiles into Qatar where American military bases reside.  This was Iran’s “retaliation”.  It is reported that Iran actually let officials in Qatar know about the missiles in order to avoid casualties.  The real reason is that Iranian officials want to be able to tell the Iranian people that they retaliated without escalating the war.

This act by the Iranian government destroys the myth that Iran is trying to obtain a nuclear weapon so that they can use it against Israel and the United States.  The people in Iran, including government officials, don’t want to be obliterated.  That’s why they announced the missile attack in Qatar.  That is also why they wouldn’t nuke the U.S. unless they felt they were going to imminently die anyway.

This accusation that we can’t let Iran get nuclear weapons is foolish.  The only country to actually use nuclear weapons is the main one dictating that Iran can’t have nuclear weapons.

Iran doesn’t want war.  It is obvious by its actions.  Why would they have ever offered to negotiate if this was the case?  The only reason it would use nukes is if it was backed into a corner.  Of course, even if Iran had nukes, there would be no way to use them to strike the United States.

The Sloped Roof Theory

We get all of these ridiculous and unsubstantiated claims about Iran.  One of the latest is that they want to assassinate Donald Trump.  Of course, it is actually Trump who has been threatening to assassinate the leader of Iran.

When Trump was shot in the ear in July 2024, do you think there is a better chance that the CIA was behind it or the Iranian government?

It is unbelievable to hear all of these clowns say that Iran wants to assassinate Trump.  Yeah, I suppose it was some Iranians who came up with the sloped roof theory.  That’s why the Secret Service couldn’t be stationed on the roof from where Trump was shot.

How can anyone actually say this with a straight face?

Ted Cruz said that Iran wants Trump dead.  That’s his proof that Iran wants to assassinate Donald Trump.  If that’s his proof, then half of Democrats in this country want to assassinate Trump.  They would say that they prefer if he were dead.

These claims are completely laughable and ridiculous.

Sponsoring Terrorism

Another claim the war hawks like to throw out there is that Iran is the number one sponsor of terrorism.  They say this with absolutely no evidence to back it up.  It is also a very subjective claim.

You can call this “whataboutism” all you want, but the hypocrisy here is stunning.  The U.S. funded Osama bin Laden.  The Israelis funded Hamas (probably with U.S. funds).  The U.S. helped foment war in Syria which has now been taken over by a known terrorist.  We all should know who the number one sponsor of terrorism actually is.  It is the entity with the biggest budget in the world.

Even if Iran is helping to fund “terrorists”, it is completely subjective.  One person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter.  If the U.S. didn’t keep bombing and occupying other countries, maybe some of this terrorism wouldn’t exist.

Iran’s Threats

People like to say that Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map.  They want to wipe America off the map.  They chant “death to America”.

Some of these claims are only loosely true.  There was a translation of it being said that they want Israel wiped off the map, but this was clarified a long time ago by Iranian leadership saying that they want to get rid of the state of Israel or the Zionist regime.  They mean no harm to the Jewish people.  Anyway, this statement is now 20 years old.

Maybe you think that in itself is unacceptable, but it doesn’t mean Iran will actually do anything.  Of course, Netanyahu actually does want Iran wiped off the map.  He wants it part of Israel.  He is actually attacking Iran with missiles and bombs.

Did you know that there are Jews who live in Iran?  The numbers used to be far larger, but there are some who are still there.  Sure, they must follow the laws there like everyone else, but they are allowed to practice their religion and generally live in peace (when they aren’t being hit with missiles from Israel).

Most Iranian people don’t hate Americans, but they hate the American government, and rightly so.  There is a long history going back to at least the 1950s where the U.S. government toppled the Iranian leader.  It is probably not a regular thing for Iranians to be chanting “death to America”, but who could hardly blame them at this point?  If your neighborhood was being bombed by another country, you don’t think you would hear some of your neighbors calling for death to the country bombing you?  We can already hear some Americans calling for death to Palestinians without that happening.

The Iraq Playbook

In 2015, one of the things Trump said in his campaign for president is that Bush lied us into war in Iraq.  Trump was able to get the Republican nomination in spite of this, or maybe because of this.

Now, Trump is acting like Bush.  The same lies we heard about Iraq are being repeated with Iran.  They are not always exactly the same, but they are incredibly similar.

If you are not old enough to remember the leadup to the Iraq war in 2003, it was all about how Saddam was a bad man and that he might use weapons of mass destruction against us.  It was actually sold as a defensive move to pre-empt any attack from Saddam.  But no matter what Saddam did or said, it was never enough to prevent being attacked.  It was always portrayed as “Saddam is stalling” or something like that.

Once U.S. troops actually invaded, the story changed quite a bit.  It went from WMDs to liberating Iraq.  The narrative shifted to it being about humanitarianism, even as tens of thousands of people were being killed and cities being destroyed.

Another parallel here is that they use multiple arguments at the same time.  They like to shift the argument whenever one of their arguments is challenged.  If you say that even U.S. intelligence has said that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon or the capability to get one in a short amount of time, then the argument will change.  They’ll say that you love Iran or that you love terrorism or that you think it’s ok for Iran to have a nuke.

The arguments constantly shift with multiple pieces of propaganda.  Most of it is lies or things that can’t be proven.  They like to demagogue anyone who questions it.  “Oh, so you think Iran is a great place?”  “Oh, so you think it’s ok to fund Muslim terrorists?”

Wait, what happened to the argument that Iran was about to get nuclear weapons and use them against the United States?

It is the same act as 22 years ago.  Either Trump is just another neocon war hawk or he is very easily duped.  It is probably both.  Either way, Trump is a war criminal and has completely betrayed the people who voted for him in the hopes that we might get some peace.

Even if the war with Iran doesn’t escalate much from here, it is still absolutely inexcusable what Trump has done.