The Same Script, Every Time: Israel, Iran, and the US War Machine

(Originially appeared on my Substack on Feb. 28th, 2026)

Well, I can’t say I’m surprised. Yet again, America is engaging in its most cherished pastime, the preemptive strike (i.e., military action against a supposed “aggressor” absent a credible, imminent attack). Israel and their biggest defender of the indefensible apparently aren’t content with just being genocidal regimes. Israeli foreign policy is one of aggression, and American foreign policy skews toward supporting almost any action taken by the settler-colonial outpost. Even when we rein in Israel, it serves to legitimize our position as a fair arbiter, which we are not.

This attack should come as a surprise to no one, due to both the presence of a massive US naval force near Iran in the last few weeks and the consistent and intensifying saber-rattling that Benjamin Netanyahu has been engaging in ad nauseum since the 1980s.

The narrative used to justify goes something like this every time it’s deployed

It goes something like this:

1. Israel is our weak, defenseless ally (false) and must be protected at all costs.

2. Iran seeks to develop nuclear capacity, specifically to eradicate Israel (also borne out to be false).

3. Peace talks flounder after lots of goal-post-moving, Israel claims Iran wants war, scolds Iranian negotiators for not giving in to each and every increasingly untenable demand (impossible for Iran to comply enough to satisfy Israel).

4. Israel strikes Iran, lately with American military support, without any provocation except refusal to bend the knee (violating international law by launching an unprovoked strike).

5. Israel cries anti-semitism and wrings its hands about the “genocidal Muslims” who are trying to destroy their nation-state, while their genocide in Gaza has been live-streamed for years now.

You tell me who the aggressors are in this equation.

That’s not a gotcha. It’s actually fairly straightforward:

• Israel has expansionist ambitions (known as “the Greater Israel Project”) and has been illegally annexing territory since 1948 when it was carved out of Palestinian land without any regard for the native population.

• Iran is their main adversary, who supports guerilla forces (called “terrorists” largely due to complexion, religious tensions between Israeli hardliners and Islam, and regional opposition to American interests) that fight back against Israel-US aggression.

• Resentment for Israel grows, which Israeli administrations and both Israeli and American media (and in UK, France, Germany, and many other countries) frame as increased anti-semitism (a false equivalency as not all Jews are Zionists, nor are all Zionists Jewish).

• This provides cover for further expansion, which Israeli foreign policy frames as a sort of buffer between their “liberal democracy” (read: apartheid regime) and the "scary Muslims" surrounding them.

• US funnels more aid and arms to Israel, patting itself on the back for being so good to their “special ally.”

• Rinse, and repeat. Always repeat.

Pretty obvious Israel is dead-set on engaging in forever-wars, knowing they’ve secured enough American political cover to do so with impunity and steal more and more land at gunpoint, isn’t it? The only way to break this cycle is for the US to immediately and completely withdraw all financial, logistical, and military support for their beloved client state.

Zooming Out: The American Domestic Political Landscape is Difficult Terrain for a “Forever War”

Sadly, despite overwhelming opposition by the American public (recent polls are as low as ~20% support for war with Iran), both Democrats and Repulicans are at best engaging in vibes-based “resistance” (i.e. the Khanna-Massie War Powers resolution, which the administration will likely ignore, as it has virtually all attempted constraints), and at worst they’re cheering on the illegal and indefensible attacks. Lindsey Graham and Chuck Schumer must both be so happy. They finally got the War they’ve been begging for on behalf of the Israel lobby, in varying degrees of magnitude, for quite some time now (I’m old enough to recall Graham singing “bomb Iran” to the tune of “Barbara Anne,” while Chuckles didn’t even bat an eye).

Such impunity (I’d like to think and sincerely hope) is not sustainable domestically, especially while ICE/CBP terrorize Americans in Minnesota and across the country, concentration camps are built to house immigrants falsely labelled as violent criminals (real figures are ~2/3 of the detainees and deportees having no criminal record), and the Trump administration signals a desire to suppress unsymathetic voters and/or abandon electoralism entirely.

The Way Out of the Darkness

So how do we stop this constant cycle of atrocity after atrocity? Simple: the American people have to wake up and reject Zionism wholesale, and remove its influence root and branch from this country. Only then can we succeed in cutting of all aid and comfort to the rogue state we’ve armed and coddled for decades. Forget strategic this and national security that- it’s neither strategic nor safe to start a hot war with a well-equipped, geographically difficult to invade sovereign nation with whom we have no defensible beef. The best thing for America and Americans is to no longer buy the narrative Zionists have been using to manufacture consent for colonization, expansion, and unchecked aggression since the creation of the state of Israel out of what used to be Palestine. One day, maybe it will be again.

Solidarity,

-Dee

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