trump orders another 1,000 troops into the forever blender
Stock footage of U.S. troops boarding a plane for yet another Middle East deployment, because apparently we’re doing sequels forever now.
Trump is deploying more than 1,000 additional U.S. troops to the Middle East, because if there’s one American export this administration will never run out of, it’s young people in uniform sent into open-ended "missions" no one can fully explain on camera. Congress, naturally, is treated as an optional setting, like airplane mode or the Geneva Conventions.
Reporters dutifully repeat the talking points about "deterrence" and "stability" while the White House keeps pressing the big red "more troops" button like it’s a reality-show prop. No public debate, no clear endgame, just another hazy promise that this extra batch of boots on the ground will definitely, totally, for sure fix the last 20 years of bipartisan failure in the region.
Meanwhile, the administration continues to treat the War Powers Resolution as a polite suggestion and the American military as a presidential fidget spinner. The actual people being deployed — and the civilians who will live under an even thicker cloud of U.S. hardware — are reduced to background scenery in Trump’s ongoing live-action remake of Imperialism for Dummies.
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy
commander-in-tweet sets monday deadline for global chaos
Pictured: a man who thinks the Strait of Hormuz is something you threaten on a Sunday show so it’ll trend by Monday.
Trump has now moved from threatening domestic institutions to threatening one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes like it’s a cable bill that’s past due. He’s publicly warning Iran that if the Strait of Hormuz isn’t opened by Monday, there will be consequences — because nothing says stable superpower like turning a chokepoint for a fifth of the world’s oil into a reality show cliffhanger.
Instead of diplomacy, alliances, or literally any coherent strategy, we get the usual: a made-for-TV ultimatum, zero nuance, and the implied promise that millions of people’s access to fuel and a functioning global economy can be decided by whether Trump wakes up in a good mood. Foreign policy has officially been downgraded from "serious business" to "live-action Doomscrolling Theater."
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy
special relationship downgraded to situationship
Keir Starmer waits patiently for Trump to notice Britain exists, armed only with a sad nuclear deterrent on a US leash and a very special PowerPoint about being an ally.
Britain has finally noticed that its "special relationship" with Trump’s America looks less like Churchill–Roosevelt and more like an emotionally abusive WhatsApp thread where only one side is sending heart emojis. Keir Starmer dares to draw a microscopic line between "defensive" and "offensive" strikes in Trump’s latest Middle East war, and the response from the MAGA brain trust – represented here by Steve Bannon, America’s favorite nicotine-stained authoritarian cosplayer – is basically: "fuck you, the special relationship is dead". Diplomatic subtlety meets the foreign-policy equivalent of a bar fight behind a Waffle House.
The piece walks through how Britain, having amputated its EU leg with Brexit, is now limping around on its one remaining crutch: US security dependence. That dependence buys London exactly zero leverage. Decades of British prime ministers promising that if they just stay really, really close to Washington they’ll "shape" US decisions have culminated in Trump openly treating them like background extras, while his people dismiss their concerns as "diplomatic bullshit". The UK built a nuclear deterrent it can’t fully operate without US tech, shrank its army to cosplay scale, and now finds itself being described by American soldiers with something closer to pity than respect.
So we end up with the great post-imperial plot twist: Britain, once the empire that lectured the world, is now the needy ex refreshing Trump’s Twitter feed for signs of affection while he publicly announces the relationship is over. The only realistic route back to dignity, the author notes, is for the UK to stop begging the White House for scraps of relevance and reattach itself to Europe – including, gasp, rejoining the EU. Until then, Trump gets to play global strongman while his allies line up to sacrifice their self-respect for a photo-op and a pat on the head.
#imperialism#killing-democracy
trump’s forever war subscription model goes international
State TV but make it polite: an ambassador explaining that wars end whenever Washington gets bored, which historically is never.
The Israeli ambassador to the U.S. went on TV and basically said the quiet part into a studio-quality microphone: Israel will think about ending its war with Iran when the United States decides it’s done with its own permanent military hobbies. So U.S. foreign policy is now the geopolitical equivalent of a gym membership you never cancel, except this one comes with carrier strike groups and dead civilians.
Instead of pretending Israel is making independent strategic decisions, the ambassador cheerfully echoed Trump’s line that America’s endless presence in the region is just the natural state of things. No talk of congressional authorization, no mention of international law, just a casual acceptance that Washington keeps a “military footprint” in the Gulf the way Starbucks keeps opening new locations.
The subtext, of course, is that as long as Trump wants to play regional warlord, allied governments are happy to peg their own conflicts to his timeline. Democratic oversight, diplomacy, and any notion that wars should have defined ends are all politely escorted offstage so the Forever War Industrial Complex can keep the show running. Empire sets the hours, everyone else just works the shift.
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy
great news: we’re *not* currently invading cuba (we just say we can do anything we want)
Gen. Francis Donovan explains that the US definitely isn’t invading Cuba, it’s just upgrading the colonial outpost down the coast "for security reasons."
The head of US Southern Command, Gen Francis Donovan, has reassured Congress that no, the Pentagon is not currently rehearsing a military takeover of Cuba. Always comforting when the baseline is: "we’re not actively planning an invasion of the neighbor the president says he can 'do anything' he wants with." Donovan insists SOUTHCOM isn’t practicing land-grabs, just nobly standing by to "defend" Guantanamo Bay, protect the embassy, and help manage any mass migration that might mysteriously follow from collapsing Cuba’s economy.
While everyone pretends to be shocked that Trump mused about "taking Cuba in some form," the actual track record is already a Latin America cosplay of a 1970s coup tour. US special forces kidnapped Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro in January and flew him to New York on drug charges like he’s a particularly stubborn cocaine shipment. Trump has ordered strikes on alleged drug boats that have already killed at least 157 people, and is deepening counter-narcotics alliances with friendly regimes like Ecuador, where joint raids now double as foreign policy photo ops.
Meanwhile, Washington is strangling Cuba the old-fashioned way: by cutting off Venezuelan oil shipments, forcing severe rationing, and helping push the island’s entire electric grid into a nationwide blackout. As relations hit their worst point in decades, Donovan uses his Senate appearance to pitch fresh investment in hurricane-battered Guantanamo Bay—because if you’re going to run a forever-occupation and detention camp on stolen land, you at least want the piers to be in good shape. The message from Trump’s Latin America policy is clear: we may not be invading today, but the Monroe Doctrine is back, wearing body armor and high-fiving itself.
#imperialism#lawlessness#killing-democracy
trump starts $16.5bn bonfire in gulf, asks europe to bring marshmallows
Trump stares at a map of the Gulf, circles the Strait of Hormuz in Sharpie, and calls it a NATO strategy session.
Donald Trump has kicked off an unprovoked war with Iran, racked up more than 1,200 dead Iranian civilians, 13 dead U.S. troops, and burned through $16.5 billion in 12 days—more than the entire U.S. humanitarian assistance budget for 2024—and now wants Europe to come mop up his oil-soaked disaster. Iran responded by closing the Strait of Hormuz, spiking global oil prices and threatening recession in Europe and parts of Asia, but the White House solution is apparently: have NATO turn this into another full-scale Gulf adventure so Trump doesn’t have to own his own war of choice.
#imperialism#lawlessness#killing-democracy
trump declares oil emergency, democracy spill ‘contained’
A California coastline patiently waiting to find out whether it’s more expendable as habitat, tourist economy, or just another prop in Trump’s national security oil pageant.
After one of California’s worst oil spills shut a coastal pipeline in 2015, state regulators spent a decade saying, "absolutely not, this thing is a disaster." The Trump administration took one look at that record, launched a war on Iran, watched gas prices spike, and decided this was the perfect moment to dust off the Defense Production Act and order the pipeline back on, permits and state authority be damned. Why let boring things like environmental law or federalism get in the way when there’s crude to pump and donors to please?
Sable Offshore, which inherited Exxon’s oily mess in 2024, couldn’t get California to sign off, so Trump and energy secretary Chris Wright simply declared the pipeline "vital to national security" and flipped the switch from Washington. California’s response was to tell Sable to remove the pipeline from state park land and for Gavin Newsom to threaten lawsuits while pointing out the obvious: Trump started a war, bragged it would raise gas prices, and is now using that crisis to finally crack open California’s coastline for his industry buddies to "poison our beaches."
So oil is flowing again, seabirds are basically on a countdown clock, and the Defense Production Act has been repurposed from Cold War emergency tool to "help Texas oil guys override California voters." The administration calls it energy security; everyone else can see it’s just another episode of Executive Power Mad Libs: Fossil Fuel Edition.
#imperialism#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
operation epic photo op: trump postpones china trip for war time
Trump explains to Xi that he’d love to talk trade, but first he has to finish his branded war event, ‘Operation Epic Fury.’
Trump has decided that his big summit with Xi Jinping can wait "five or six weeks" because he’s busy running Operation Epic Fury, which sounds less like a military campaign and more like a Monster Energy flavor. The China trip, originally scheduled for March 31–April 2 to talk tariffs and trade, is now on hold while the White House pretends the president is glued to the Situation Room instead of Fox News.
Administration officials insist this has absolutely nothing to do with Trump trying to strong-arm Beijing into helping reopen the Strait of Hormuz first. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent swears the delay isn’t about demanding that China police one of the world’s most sensitive shipping chokepoints, while Trump tells the Financial Times he’s… waiting for China’s answer on policing the Strait of Hormuz before the visit. Totally coherent strategy.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt dutifully recites that Trump’s "utmost responsibility" is ensuring the success of Operation Epic Fury, as if turning a war into a branding exercise is normal statesmanship. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court just kneecapped much of Trump’s tariff carnival, the U.S.–China trade mess is still smoldering, and the big diplomatic reset with Xi is downgraded to "we’ll get back to you in a month or so" while the commander in chief shops his latest military sequel.
#imperialism#killing-democracy
president foreclosure eyes cuba
Cuba’s lights go out while Trump wonders if the whole island comes with naming rights and a helicopter pad.
As Cuba struggles with massive blackouts and a collapsing power grid, Donald Trump reportedly mused about the U.S. possibly just 'taking' the island – because when a neighboring country is in crisis, obviously the responsible thing is to LARP as 19th-century imperialists with brain damage. Why send aid or support democratic reforms when you can daydream about annexation like you’re picking out a new resort property.
This is not foreign policy so much as a live reenactment of a drunk Monopoly game: the president sees 11 million people and a sovereign nation and thinks, "great location, needs work, we’ll take it." No mention of international law, self-determination, or, you know, the fact that you can’t just grab countries the way you grab classified documents and women. Just a casual little colonial fantasy thrown into the mix while Cuba literally sits in the dark.
So while Cubans endure blackouts and infrastructure collapse, the leader of the free world’s contribution is to publicly wonder if maybe the U.S. should just scoop the island up like it’s Atlantic City in a Chapter 11 sale. The Monroe Doctrine has officially been replaced with the Trump Doctrine: if it’s nearby and struggling, it’s probably for sale.
#imperialism#fascism
team usa turns the world baseball classic into a recruiting commercial
Team USA lines up for the national anthem, carefully framing the shot so you can’t see the defense contractors just off camera handing out business cards.
The United States is headed into the World Baseball Classic final against Venezuela, a country we’re currently on at least our second type of "engagement" with, depending on whether you count the part where Donald Trump had Nicolás Maduro literally snatched in a military operation. While the war with Iran hums along in the background like a broken White Noise machine at the Pentagon, Team USA has decided its main job is not, say, baseball, but serving as a traveling tribute act to the Forever War.
Instead of goofy dugout dances and espresso-fueled joy like Italy, or the pure chaos energy of the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, the US squad has gone full recruitment-poster chic. Players are saluting each other after wins, the manager invited Robert J O’Neill — the ex–Navy SEAL who brags about killing bin Laden and calls men who voted for Kamala Harris his "concubines" — to give a locker room speech, and pitchers Paul Skenes and Griffin Jax talk about "honoring the military" as the core reason they’re here. Manager Mark DeRosa solemnly explains that “that’s why we wear USA across our chest,” which is a bold rebrand of a baseball jersey into a wearable drone strike.
Skenes helpfully sums up the new national ethos: “This is what we do in America. We fight and we win. And that’s our responsibility.” Not "we play," not "we compete" — we fight. On a baseball field. In a global tournament. While our government is literally at war and just abducted another country’s president. Other teams are dancing, kissing cheeks, and enjoying themselves; Team USA is basically running live B-roll for the next Pentagon ad buy. But sure, tell us again how sports and politics should never mix — unless they’re mixing into a nice, smooth, militarized propaganda smoothie.
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy
trump’s forever war fan club takes aim at iran’s oil jugular
Nothing says “stability in the Middle East” like pointing expensive flying gas tanks at someone else’s oil infrastructure.
The U.S. has reportedly sent jet fighters to hit Iran’s Kharg Island oil facilities, because if there’s one thing Washington can’t resist, it’s rolling the dice on global energy markets while reassuring everyone this is totally “limited” and “proportional.” As Iran ramps up strikes across the Middle East, the administration’s answer is to start poking the part of Iran’s economy labeled DO NOT TOUCH UNLESS YOU’RE TRYING TO START SOMETHING BIG.
Officials will no doubt insist this is a “clear message” and not, say, an undeclared escalation that could drag the region into another disastrous conflict. Congress, naturally, will continue its longstanding tradition of watching presidents play real-time Risk with U.S. forces and foreign civilians while bravely issuing sternly worded press releases. Call it the War Powers Act, but make it decorative.
So now we’re in the fun phase where Iran hits targets across the region, the U.S. hits Iran’s oil lifeline, and everyone pretends this isn’t edging closer to a direct war that nobody voted on and nobody can afford. American troops and Middle Eastern civilians get to be the chips on the table, while the White House and its forever-hawk cheering section congratulate themselves on their "strength" and then act stunned when the blowback arrives right on schedule.
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy
the jolene doctrine: bomb them just because you can
Trump’s foreign policy team workshopping new lyrics to “Jolene” between airstrikes and Greenland invasion plans.
Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal has helpfully given Trump’s second-term foreign policy a name: the “Jolene doctrine” — as in, the Dolly Parton lyric, “don’t take him just because you can.” Except in this version, it’s: “don’t abduct foreign leaders, assassinate supreme leaders, and level schools full of girls just because you can,” and Trump replies, politically speaking, “challenge accepted.” Since Christmas, Trump has ordered murky airstrikes in Nigeria, a snatch-and-grab of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro for narco-terrorism charges, and a joint US-Israel strike that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, while his administration flails around trying to define what “victory” even means.
While historians politely describe the Trump team as acting like an “unbridled Jolene,” the real-world translation is closer to: unhinged superpower with cruise missiles. The Iran conflict now includes Trump trying to dodge responsibility for the bombing of a girls’ school that killed at least 175 people, mostly children, because nothing says “leader of the free world” like mass civilian casualties and a press strategy. In the middle of all this, Trump briefly threatens military action to seize Greenland — again — managing to alienate NATO allies who are already watching this administration treat alliances like expired coupons.
The White House, naturally, insists Trump has restored America’s “place as leader of the free world,” which is one way to describe a country other nations now view as a heavily armed Jolene, wandering the globe, doing whatever it wants simply because nobody can wrestle the launch codes out of its hands. McChrystal, who spent a career inside the machine, gently suggests that maybe, just maybe, blowing things up on a whim and trashing alliances isn’t a long-term strategy. The Trump team, however, appears fully committed to the Jolene doctrine: if we can do it, we must. Consequences are for lesser countries.
#imperialism#killing-democracy
state department discovers 'talking' after trying 'slow-motion strangulation'
Pictured: a friendly diplomatic partner explaining that the beatings will continue until democracy improves.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has confirmed that Havana is in talks with the U.S., which is what happens when your neighbor spends years tightening an oil chokehold and then graciously offers to chat about the mess they helped create. Washington calls it "pressure"; people standing in hours-long fuel lines might have a spicier word.
Instead of reversing the sanctions regime that helped push Cuba into an energy crisis, the U.S. is apparently workshopping its favorite tactic: manufacture the humanitarian disaster, then show up as the deeply concerned arsonist asking how the fire is going. The message to the region is clear: obey Washington, or enjoy your rolling blackouts and empty gas stations.
While TV anchors politely describe it as "discussions amid an oil blockade," the real template is the same old Monroe Doctrine DLC pack: weaponize the economy, destabilize the government, and then pretend it's all about democracy and freedom. Because nothing says "rules-based international order" quite like throttling a country's access to fuel and then negotiating over the rubble you helped create.
#imperialism#killing-democracy
trump’s one‑month putin stimulus package
Two guys who really hate each other, which is why one keeps rearranging U.S. policy to boost the other’s oil revenue.
The Trump administration has discovered a bold new way to fight a US‑Israel war with Iran: hand Vladimir Putin a temporary $10 billion-a-month oil voucher. Treasury Secretary and hedge-fund cosplay enthusiast Scott Bessent calls it a “tailored, short-term” waiver so countries can buy up Russian oil that sanctions had stranded at sea. Sanctions experts and people who can count call it what it is: a serious bailout for the Kremlin’s war machine in Ukraine.
This about-face comes after Washington spent months slapping 50% tariffs on Indian imports to punish Russian oil buying, only to now declare, actually, never mind, go nuts. Pro-Ukraine campaigners warn the message to Moscow is clear: just keep bombing and stalling until the West “blinks,” and eventually some American president will decide inflation polls worse than funding your invasion. Britain, Canada, and Germany are all yelling “absolutely not,” while Trump calmly rebrands “maximum pressure on Russia” as “what if we refilled Putin’s war chest a little.”
Bessent insists Russia will see only a “limited” boost, which is a fascinating way to describe billions in exports and tax revenue flowing straight into the Kremlin. Analysts say the move lets Russia clear storage, ramp production, and slide back into a “comfortable situation” if the Strait of Hormuz crisis drags on. So the new Trump doctrine is set: when global energy markets convulse, America’s answer is to turn the sanctions regime into a limited-time Putin promo sale and hope nobody notices that the supposed leader of the free world just threw Ukraine under the oil tanker.
#imperialism#killing-democracy
kemi badenoch applies to be trump’s junior war intern
Kemi Badenoch, carefully calibrating the exact distance at which you can both support and not support a Trump war at the same time.
Kemi Badenoch has discovered the difficult art of supporting Trump’s war on Iran while simultaneously denying she ever supported Trump’s war on Iran. Initially, she accused Keir Starmer of cowardice for not diving headfirst into a US-Israeli bombing campaign with no legal mandate and no plan, then retrofitted her position into a galaxy-brain distinction where calling for British forces to strike targets inside Iran is somehow not the same as joining the war. She can’t explain how, but you’re supposed to clap anyway.
The problem, beyond the obvious "starting a war with no strategy" thing, is that Trump’s latest foreign-policy improv session is wrecking global trade, spiking oil prices, rattling markets, and pumping up inflation. So now Badenoch is frantically backing away from the flaming wreckage she was cheering a week ago, trying to look like Churchill while behaving like a focus group in human form. Nigel Farage did the same routine, just faster, proving that if you’re going to be a Trump satellite, at least orbit with some agility.
What’s left of the British right is now basically a franchise operation for MAGA foreign policy: automatically align with Washington’s worst impulses, then panic when the bill arrives. Badenoch literally praised JD Vance’s rant about Europe being a bigger threat than Russia as "truth bombs"—because nothing says "serious stateswoman" like applauding the US vice president for insulting your own continent. The editorial’s core point is simple: maybe, just maybe, the leader of the opposition should base war-and-peace decisions on the UK national interest, not on earning a retweet from Donald Trump.
#imperialism#killing-democracy
trump workshopped world war iii like a yelp review
Trump, fresh off bombing Iranian ships, explains that when it comes to war, the U.S. really hasn’t even started trying yet.
Trump was asked what other “military accomplishments” were needed in Iran, and he responded like he was rating a hotel on TripAdvisor instead of openly musing about more war. Saying “we could do a lot worse,” he treated the prospect of escalating conflict with a major regional power as a kind of casual upsell, as if the Pentagon were a timeshare and the Strait of Hormuz was the pool bar.
This is the same administration already bragging about hitting multiple Iranian mine-laying ships and then acting baffled that gas prices and war fears are rising. Trump’s answer made clear there’s no coherent strategy, just a vibes-based foreign policy where civilian lives, global markets, and U.S. troops are background extras in his personal action movie.
So what else needs to be accomplished in Iran? According to Trump, apparently the only real limit is how much destruction he can get away with before the polls, oil prices, or reality catch up. American foreign policy reduced to a shrug and a threat: we “could do a lot worse,” and this White House is always happy to prove it.
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy
trump exports freedom to iran via high‑explosive democracy
Trump, Netanyahu, and Pahlavi audition their latest regime-change reboot: now with 100% more dead civilians and the same old shah-branded merchandise.
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have finally found a human rights strategy they can both get behind: bomb first, eulogize freedom later. As US-Israeli strikes hammer Iran under the very subtle brand name "Lion’s Roar", thousands of civilians are dead, including more than 150 schoolgirls likely killed by a US strike. Naturally, the man billed as the savior of the Iranian people is Reza Pahlavi, the shah’s son, who responded to all this carnage by tweeting heartfelt condolences — to the families of three dead Americans — while Iran buries its children.
Inside Iran, people who have survived the Islamic Republic’s prisons and firing squads are being told by Trump, Netanyahu, and Pahlavi to "rise up" and "take over your government" — from beneath falling bombs. The regime, which already executes activists as supposed US or Israeli agents, now gets to point at the airstrikes and say, "See? Foreign collaborators." Tens of thousands of protesters have already been killed, more than 50,000 arrested, including hundreds of children, but Washington’s reality show president keeps hitting the "uprising" button like it’s a broken elevator.
Meanwhile, parts of the monarchist diaspora are cheering the air war like it’s the Super Bowl, waving the shah’s old flag and chanting about killing mullahs, leftists, and Mojahedin — the same people the current regime has been executing for decades. The US and Israel don’t seem terrified of the dictatorship; they seem terrified of Iranians overthrowing it on their own, without a pre-installed king or a Pentagon logo. So the world’s most freedom-loving war machine is carefully managing regime change from above, while the people under the bombs are told they’re either with the foreign-backed saviors or with the torturers who run their prisons. Truly, American liberation has never looked so much like mass murder from 30,000 feet.
#imperialism#killing-democracy#national-security
warmonger discovers consequences, demands a refund
Lindsey Graham, wondering why the region he helped set on fire isn’t more grateful for the opportunity to burn.
Lindsey Graham, America’s most enthusiastic unpaid defense lobbyist, is suddenly wondering if maybe, possibly, the US shouldn’t keep shoveling security guarantees and weapons at Saudi Arabia, since Riyadh has declined to jump into the Iran war he personally helped sell to Donald Trump between golf swings. The US embassy in Riyadh is being evacuated under Iranian fire, Americans are dying, civilians across the region are being blown apart, and Graham’s big takeaway is that the Saudis are being insufficiently enthusiastic about the carnage.
Graham posted on X to complain that the US is spending billions to “dislodge the terrorist Iranian regime” while Saudi Arabia is mostly issuing statements and doing “marginally helpful” things in the background. He then helpfully expanded the guilt trip to the entire Gulf Cooperation Council, warning that if they don’t get more involved in the war being fought in their “backyard”, “consequences will follow” — a phrase that always ends well when shouted by the guy who just helped light the region on fire.
This comes after the Trump administration bragged in 2025 about a $142bn arms package with Riyadh — the “largest defense cooperation agreement in US history” — and handed Saudi Arabia major non-NATO ally status, all while dangling a Japan-style mutual defense pact. Now the same crew that spent years arming and appeasing Mohammed bin Salman is shocked that he’d prefer Washington to do the heavy lifting while he issues sternly worded press releases from a safe distance.
The Wall Street Journal helpfully laid out how we got here: Graham spent months lobbying Trump for strikes on Iran, coordinating with retired general Jack Keane, neocon columnist Marc Thiessen, Israeli officials, and even chatting up MBS to signal that war was coming. Trump, ever the strategic thinker, was nudged along via TV hits and op-eds he saw on his phone. The result: Operation Epic Fury — yes, that’s the actual name, not a Mountain Dew flavor — which killed Iran’s supreme leader and senior officials, and so far has produced at least 1,255 dead in Iran (mostly civilians), nearly 400 dead in Lebanon, deaths across Gulf states, and seven dead US service members. Tens of thousands of Americans are being airlifted out of the region, and Lindsey Graham is online asking why his favorite autocracy isn’t pulling its weight in the disaster he helped engineer.
#imperialism#national-security
trump promises he's 'nowhere near' invading iran, which is extremely reassuring
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Trump explains he’s 'nowhere near' invading Iran while standing on a runway surrounded by enough hardware to start three wars by accident.
Trump is now assuring everyone he’s "nowhere near" sending US ground troops into Iran, which is a comforting thing to hear from the man who just told reporters he "possibly" could do exactly that. He’s talking about sending troops to "safeguard" nuclear material at Isfahan — the underground site the US already bombed — and adds that if he ever did send them, Iran would be "so decimated" it couldn’t fight at ground level. Always great when the nuclear-armed superpower’s strategy is: we’ll just level the country first, then stroll in.
While Trump plays Schrödinger’s Invasion on Air Force One, the Pentagon has already rolled out the Greatest Hits of Forever War: F-15s, F-16s, F-18s, F-22s, B-1s, B-2s, drones, Patriots — basically everything short of a commemorative merch line. The conflict with Iran is at day 10, seven US service members are dead from Iranian retaliation, and Congress is, predictably, a non-factor in this undeclared war. Why bother with authorization when you’ve got vibes and a press gaggle?
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dutifully backs up the boss on "60 Minutes," saying the US "reserves the right" to put boots on the ground and that it would be "unwise" to rule anything out. Translation: there is no limiting principle here, only an ever-expanding menu of military options. Even Israel’s Isaac Herzog is out here saying he doesn’t expect American or Israeli troops to enter Iran, which tells you how far out the US executive branch is free-styling this.
Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi goes on US television to say Iran is "capable enough" of defending itself and reminds everyone they’ve been doing the "defend our land" thing for a few thousand years. So we’ve got Trump half-threatening an invasion, Hegseth polishing the legal fig leaf for escalation, CENTCOM flying a fireworks show over the region, and a nuclear site that may or may not be a step away from bomb material. American democracy still hasn’t voted on any of this, but the commander in chief has workshopped the talking points, so apparently that’s close enough.
#imperialism#national-security
fox & friends goes full dr. strangelove at the pentagon
America’s ‘secretary of war’ explains that more dead troops and bombed schools just mean our resolve is strong and our gravity bombs are working as designed.
Pete Hegseth, the self-branded "secretary of war" and former Fox News couch ornament, went on 60 Minutes to calmly explain that yes, more Americans will die in Trump’s Iran adventure, but that’s just the price of "advancing American interests" and "protecting American lives"—which currently includes getting seven reservists killed in Kuwait by an Iranian drone strike. The message to military families: steel your spines, your kids are now inspirational props for Operation Epic Fury, a name that sounds like it was A/B tested on Xbox Live.
Having already promised "death and destruction from the sky all day long," Hegseth now brags that the bombing of Iran—3,000 targets and counting—is "only just the beginning" and that the US and Israel’s combined air forces haven’t even started the really fun part with 500lb, 1,000lb, and 2,000lb bombs. This is all totally not a regime-change war, he swears, even though the former Ayatollah is dead and Trump is demanding Iran’s "unconditional surrender" like he’s role‑playing Patton on Truth Social.
On the home front, Hegseth casually contradicts House speaker Mike Johnson’s fantasy that the US is "not at war" with Iran, because apparently even this administration can’t keep its propaganda straight. Meanwhile, Trump is blaming Iran for a deadly airstrike on an Iranian girls’ school that US investigators strongly suspect was done by US forces, while new footage shows what looks awfully like a Tomahawk missile in the neighborhood. Hegseth’s brave stance when pressed on the likely US strike on a school full of children: it’s "being investigated"—the Beltway version of hitting mute on a war crime.
#imperialism#killing-democracy
