Lew Rockwell Institute

International Man: Israel and the US have recently initiated their long-anticipated war with Iran.

How do you see it unfolding, and what consequences might follow?

Doug Casey: Anything anyone says may be overtaken by events an hour from now. This is an ultra-fluid situation. If the Three-Body Problem has become famous for its unpredictability, we’re dealing with something like a Twelve Body Problem here.

The consequences of the unprovoked US attack on Iran are completely unpredictable on one level—but totally predictable on another. Among the many unpredictable parts is whether the Iranians will close the Straits of Hormuz and/or the Red Sea entrance to the Suez. Will they seriously attack the numerous US bases around them? Or proceed to build or buy some nukes to counter Israel? How will Iran—quite justifiably at this point—retaliate in any of a hundred different ways? Exactly how does the US/Israel expect to win without invading?

The only predictable part is that the attack moves the world closer to going all-out in WW3.

It’s odd that Iran has been painted as a terrorist state. Why do I say that? The fact is that Iran’s conflict has been solely with Israel. It’s clearly supported Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and Ansar Allah (the Houthis) in Yemen—but those groups only attack Israel, for their own reasons. Iran has—notwithstanding the US Embassy incident in 1979 coincident with the overthrow of the Shah, a US puppet—never attacked the US or anyone else.

What about “Death to America”? It’s just stupid, counterproductive rhetoric, on a par with the late Senator John McCain’s moronic chants of “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.” At least up until Saturday’s unprovoked attack, Iran presented absolutely zero threat to the US.

In fact—and I know this will enrage reflexively nationalistic readers—from an objective point of view, the US can be seen as a terrorist state. The US Government is constantly invading and overthrowing regimes and assassinating leaders—scores of times since WW2, usually in pitiful little nothing/nowhere Third World shitholes. Trump is the one making violent threats. Israel killed, maimed, or seriously wounded about 3400 Lebanese with boobytrapped pagers in their war with Hezbollah. And, of course, its one-sided war against Hamas in Gaza has killed 60,000. You’d think the Israelis might say, “Enough, already”…

However, at some point, the shoe might be on the other foot. Some group or regime may counterattack by massively assassinating US officials. Or attacking US bases with drones, much the way the Ukrainians did in the heartland of Russia. These are technically very easy feats. Both the US and Israel are playing with fire.

International Man: Public opinion in the US has shifted notably. Support for Israel has declined, especially among younger Republicans.

Congressman Thomas Massie conducted an informal poll on X, where 85% of respondents opposed the US providing weapons to Israel.

What’s your take on this shift in public sentiment?

Doug Casey: Maybe a lot of people have heard that, for many years now, the US has given Israel about $4 billion a year in aid, plus weapons. Americans don’t approve of putting a foreign government on welfare. That’s in addition to another $4 billion to Egypt, bribing them to be Israel’s BFF.

Meanwhile, Trump has been acting like a schizophrenic. He makes a point of not being sure what he’ll do, back and forth, on and off, all the while threatening and name-calling like an adolescent. The world’s greatest negotiator? Hardly. No sensible person can take him seriously. And only a fool tries to negotiate with a bully who threatens violence.

The situation is greatly complicated by the US relationship with Israel. Is it the 51st state of the Union? Many seem to think they’re at least our ally—which is ridiculous. They’re an extremely costly liability. Israel acts only in Israel’s best interest. They bring nothing to the party. They’re using the US as a patsy and playing it for a sucker.

And although American Jews overwhelmingly support Israel, Israel isn’t helping their cause. It’s not just what’s going on with the universities, where there’s lots of anti-Jewish sentiment. The antics of Kanye West have underlined how Jews seem to control politics, business, finance, law, academia, entertainment, and the media. It’s no wonder the average American thinks that about a third of the US population is Jewish, when in fact, there are only about 6 million or so American Jews, which means they’re about 2% of the population. Maybe I shouldn’t observe that. It’s the “third rail” for what’s left of free speech in what’s left of America.

It’s not about Jews, per se. The majority always resents it when a small group seems to sway a country’s direction. Much the same thing has happened with blacks. Americans are also experiencing “black fatigue.” Most Europeans who haven’t been to the US, as well as anyone who watches TV commercials, think that the US is about 50% black and most couples are biracial.

International Man: Historically, false flag operations have been used to justify involvement in unpopular wars.

How likely do you think such a tactic is today, especially to build support for another war in the Middle East?

Doug Casey: What’s going on now is an unprovoked attack from Israel and the US. It’s a purely offensive war. Of course, the Israelis justify this by saying that the Iranians are on the point of developing nuclear weapons, but they’ve been saying that for the last 30 years.

The fact is that practically any country in the world can develop nuclear weapons. It’s an 80-year-old technology. And the Israelis are in no position to speak since they’re said to have a nuclear arsenal of about 200 bombs. Even the North Koreans, one of the world’s most poverty-stricken shitholes, have bombs. Anybody can have them and likely will. Why is Iran a special case? Should Israel be censured for threatening to use the “Samson Option” if it seems they’re losing a war?

But, to answer your question, it’s always better to fabricate an atrocity so you can play the victim. The Japanese did that before they invaded China in World War II. The Germans did that in Poland before they invaded. It’s a reliable gambit.

Our friend Michael Yon (link) has asserted that of the 10, 20, or 30 million migrants that are wandering around the US, there are likely a couple of un-uniformed but well-organized armies among these young, military-age men. They can be activated in what amounts to a guerrilla war. And who’s to say that one of these groups wouldn’t attack the US from within and claim to do so on the part of Iran?

International Man: If the war doesn’t unfold as Israel and the US intend, what might the broader geopolitical implications be? Could this accelerate the decline of US hegemony and the rise of a multipolar world?

Doug Casey: Now that the US is actively involved—as opposed to just supporting Israel with money and weapons—we have a lot to lose. It would be a gigantic embarrassment on the scale of Vietnam or Afghanistan.

On the other hand, if the US “wins” and Iran collapses, the place could fall into civil war. Most of Iran is Persian. But Iranian Kurds might split off to join the Kurds in Syria, Turkey, and Iraq to form a new nation-state.

There are lots of imponderables. Is the average Iranian sick of the mullahs who’ve been in charge for the last 45 years? Undoubtedly, lots of Iranians are. But the Big Satan’s attack might unite Iran the way only a war can. Will the Republican Guards take over? “We” don’t know what’s going on in Iran, as evidenced by Tulsi Gabbard, who is head of the US intelligence community, saying that we have no indication that Iran has a nuclear weapon or is moving toward one. Then Trump says he doesn’t care what she says, whereupon she recants. I guess his buddy Bibi gave him the straight scoop.

Or maybe Ted Cruz—I pity the poor fool for his appearance on Tucker Carlson—is advising Trump.

One thing is for sure: when the US sticks its nose into the business of countries on the other side of the world, it always ends badly, just as it did with Iraq—which it transformed from a military power into a chaotic failed state. Or Libya, which our unprovoked attack turned into two countries at war with each other. Or Afghanistan, where we conducted an unprovoked invasion, killed a few hundred thousand peasants, spent a couple of trillion dollars, and 20 years later left the Taliban in charge, as it was before the US invaded.

International Man: What are the potential economic and financial consequences of the Israel-Iran war—particularly regarding inflation, energy prices, national debt, and the financial markets?

Doug Casey: If the US and Israel create chaos in Iran, is the US going to be on the hook to rebuild it? For that matter, now that Israel has destroyed Gaza, is the US going to relocate the Gazans and rebuild Gaza? As Saudi Prince MBS’s phony alignment with Israel destabilizes Saudi Arabia, will we have to invade them, too? I think the answer may be “yes” to all those questions.

The fact is that the Muslim world dislikes, fears, and distrusts what they call “the Zionist entity.” They feel Palestine was invaded by Zionists starting with the first Aliyah 125 years ago and that the place was conquered demographically, economically, politically, and militarily. It’s nothing new. I expect white Californians will feel like Palestinian Arabs in a couple of generations.

There’s no point in rehashing the pros and cons of both sides here. This is a massive replay of the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys in West Virginia. Taking sides is idiotic. I simultaneously wish them both well, with a pox on both their houses. The only solution is complete non-intervention by the US.

Reprinted with permission from International Man.

The post Iran-Israel Conflict: Will It Mark the End of American Hegemony? appeared first on LewRockwell.

The status quo has pushed everything to an extreme of hollowed-out instability to maintain a superficial appearance of normalcy and stability. But it’s all fake.

The phrase that best describes the present era is hollowed out. By hollowed out I mean the exterior facade still looks pretty much the same as it did in the past, but the internal structure has corroded / eroded to the point that little remains of what provided strength and stability. What’s left is the illusion of stability.

Our spectacles have been hollowed out, lifeless, rote repeats of past performances, reduced to unintentional parodies of what was once vibrant.

Our entertainment has been hollowed out, dominated by remakes, retreads, threadbare extensions of tent-pole franchises and sound-alike songs.

Even our outrage has been hollowed out, perfunctory displays phoned in from afar, as we all know outrage has been exhausted along with everything else.

Our “innovation” has been hollowed out, with toys such as flying motorcycles and self-driving taxis presented as “solutions” to phantom “problems,” “solutions” that boil down to hype, clickbait or another reach for higher corporate profits. The most visible result of AI is AI Slop:

AI Slop: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (29 min) (via Richard M.)

Our incentives have been hollowed out, leaving only the most perverse extremes. The motivation to flood social media with AI Slop is the faint hope of creating a viral link that earns a pittance for the AI Slopper.

Our realm of romance has been hollowed out, leaving a hellscape of dating sites and the wreckage left by ubiquitous online porn.

Our food has been hollowed out, ultra-processed slop remorselessly worked into “new” “innovative” products that are parodies of quality and innovation: you’ve just got to try the new jalapeno-yuzu-crawfish bagel…

Our politics have been hollowed out, with the only useful reform–requiring politicians to wear the logos of their corporate campaign donors–nixed because it would have made obvious what everyone knows: politics is now an open auction for favors and influence.

It would be far more honest if we conducted the passage of congressional bills as open auctions on eBay for all to bid and all to see: Buy Now for only $500,000: a tax break hidden deep inside the untouchable Defense Appropriations Bill.

Our economy has been hollowed out in virtually every sector, from Higher Education to Healthcare to housing. Much of what passes for “growth” is either waste (BS work, planned obsolescence, fraud), statistical trickery or artificial stimulus.

The shell remains standing but it now requires massive injections of borrowed money to prop up the rotted facade. Consider Higher Education. Before it was hollowed out, millions of college students were educated without needing to enter debt-serfdom to pay tuition and fees. As this chart shows, student loans were zero in 1993.

Now there’s $1.5 trillion in student loans. The number of administrators quadrupled, while federal legislation made student debt the one form of debt that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, effectively legalizing debt-serfdom.

The Higher Ed / student loan industry’s relentless hype machine drummed the idea that doom awaited any young person without a university degree, or better yet, a graduate degree or MBA. The net result, as we all know, is a vast over-supply of MBAs, graduates of law schools and computer programmers, all fields currently being decimated as AI tools do to white-collar work what industrial robots did to blue-collar factory work.

Meanwhile, back in the real economy, the nation has a severe shortage of skilled trade workers–yup, the kind of work denigrated by the “you gotta go to college” machine. Yes, the kind of work AI and robots can’t do: What AI Can’t Do Faster, Better, or Cheaper Than Humans (June 2, 2025)

The housing and mortgage sectors have also been hollowed out, creating overpriced facades propped up by $2+ trillion in Federal Reserve purchases of mortgage-backed securities (MBS). How did millions of households manage to buy homes from 1946 to 2001 without the Fed nationalizing the mortgage sector and inflating one housing bubble after another in the process?

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Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:1-3)

Since Israel’s attack on Iran, and especially since President Trump bombed Iran, many conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist Christians have begun making rash and unqualified statements like “Iran was about to get a nuclear bomb,” “I support Israel,” “Iran shouldn’t be allowed to have a nuclear weapon,” “I stand with Israel,” “Iran deserved to be bombed,” “bombing Iran was an act of self-defense,” “I stand with President Trump,” “we need to support the troops,” “President Trump is the commander in chief,” “President Trump did what Obama and Biden didn’t do,” “Israel has a right to defend itself,” “Iran was a threat to Israel,” or “Iran was a threat to the United States.”

Some of these Christians have foolishly referenced Genesis chapter 12, quoted above, as if that justifies the military actions of Israel and the United States.

Because a small but vocal contingent of evangelical “leaders” who are considered to be dispensationalists (in actuality, most are very nominally so) are among those who are cheerleaders for the U.S. and Israeli bombing of Iran, Christians and others who are not dispensationalists have stepped up their attacks on dispensationalism as if it is the reason that some evangelicals have turned into warvangelicals.

As an unapologetic theologically conservative Christian who is a dispensationalist, I want to say that whatever blessing Israel does mean, blessing Israel certainly doesn’t include:

• Confounding the government of Israel with the people of Israel
• Supporting regime change
• Taking money from Americans to give foreign aid to the government of Israel
• Giving weapons to the government of Israel
• Agreeing with everything that the government of Israel does
• Thinking that Netanyahu can do no wrong
• Believing that the U.S. government should bomb Iran for Israel
• Calling offensive military actions defensive
• Believing everything that Netanyahu says
• Denying that there is an Israel Lobby in the United States
• Supporting U.S. military intervention in the Middle East
• Backing everything that President Trump does
• Appeasing the country of Israel
• Supporting ethnic cleansing
• Turning a blind eye to Israel’s annual gay pride parades in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv
• Supporting a reckless, belligerent, and meddling U.S. foreign policy
• Dismissing the killing of women and children as collateral damage
• Supporting collective punishment
• Ignoring the 1967 attack on the USS Liberty by Israel
• Denying that Israel owns most members of Congress
• Calling opponents of Israel’s military actions anti-Semitic or pro-Palestinian
• Supporting assassinations
• Excusing the atrocities committed by IDF soldiers
• Supporting indiscriminate bombing
• Thinking that God needs the help of the United States to protect Israel
• Supporting the razing of Gaza
• Inviting Netanyahu to address the U.S. Congress
• Supporting the installation of U.S. puppets as leaders of countries in the Middle East
• Making excuses for everything that Israel does

Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and most prominent supporters of U.S. and Israeli military actions against Iran are anything but dispensationalists and wouldn’t know Clarence Larkin from H. A. Ironside. Those who are or claim to be—like pop dispensationalists John Hagee, Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, Jack Graham, and Mike Huckabee—blindly support U.S. wars and military interventions and almost everything that the state of Israel does because they are warvangelicals, not because they are dispensationalists. I have written about them and their ilk for over 20 years, to which I refer the reader.

The post What Blessing Israel Doesn’t Mean appeared first on LewRockwell.

In baseball there is a rare but beautiful pitch known as the knuckleball.  It is difficult to learn and takes a lifetime to perfect.  It glides through the air without spin and zigzags from side to side before reaching the plate.  Even the best knuckleball pitchers struggle to throw it effectively.  Most catchers simply can’t react fast enough to the ball’s late movements to keep it in their mitts.  Hall of Fame hitters look silly as they swing two feet away from a ball traveling slowly around their bats.  When a knuckleball pitcher is on his game, batters never look more frustrated.

President Trump might just be the greatest knuckleballer of all time.  In both domestic and foreign policy, he throws these pitches whose in-air movements seem to betray the laws of physics.  His adversaries stand at the plate with big smiles and expect to launch Trump’s slow tosses over the fence.  His putative allies trying to catch the ball behind home plate don’t like what they see and keep calling for a different pitch.  But the president just grins and says, Now watch: I’m going to throw this thing very slowly, and that guy up there will fall over trying to hit it.  It’ll be fabulous.  And that’s exactly what happens.

As I write this, there is a tenuous ceasefire between Iran and Israel after two weeks of fighting.  Trump is already trademarking it “The 12 Day War.”  Will peace prevail?  We will see.  But did anybody expect the possibility?  Not really.

The president’s announcement of an end to the war came only two days after he sent American pilots on a daring mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear facilities.  That operation, codenamed Midnight Hammer, included multiple head fakes.  While President Trump indicated that he might take two weeks before hitting Iran, decoy B-2s headed West to Guam.  With the eyes of the world looking in the wrong direction, stealth bombers took off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri for an 18-hour journey into hostile territory.  The pitch came in slow and steady and struck Iran’s nuclear capabilities before anyone even knew the ball was in the catcher’s mitt.

The reaction to Trump’s nuclear strikeout was as frantic as a hitter slamming his bat on the ground after swinging at a ball bouncing several feet before the plate.  Those who have argued against any new U.S.-led wars in the Middle East immediately feared a protracted conflict.  Those who have argued for regime change in Iran hoped that U.S. boots on the ground would soon follow.  Democrats who had been calling Trump a “chicken” for going easy on Iran flipped positions, condemned the attack, and started calling for his impeachment.  All the while, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, was working behind the scenes to find a peaceful solution.

The ball zigzags through the air, and nobody is sure where it will land.  Three paragraphs after noting that there is a “tenuous ceasefire,” I must add that Iran and Israel are now exchanging fire, and President Trump is rhetorically spanking both countries.  Because his administration is working desperately for Middle East peace, the same pundits who applauded his Iran attack yesterday are mad today.  Similarly, those who excoriated the attack as “unconstitutional” yesterday are today having second thoughts.  As witty catcher Bob Uecker once said, “the way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and pick it up.”  Right now Trump’s knuckleball in the Middle East is still rolling.

One of the crazy things about a knuckleball pitcher is that the effectiveness of the pitch can ebb and flow.  I loved watching Tim Wakefield throw for the Boston Red Sox.  He could make the Bronx Bombers look like Little Leaguers still hitting from a tee.  But sometimes he’d throw two or three awful innings and give up a bunch of runs.  Most managers pull their pitchers when that happens; it takes a manager with nerves of steel to stick with a knuckleballer handing out home runs.  Even when Ol’ Wake was struggling, though, he could often miraculously turn things around and pitch a lights-out complete game.  When using a knuckleballer to strike out the side, patience is the key.

Think of some of the crazy pitches that Trump has used to strike out the Democrat party.  He has Democrats defending Hamas baby-killers, Iranian “Death to America” terrorists, violent illegal aliens, child castration, and men beating up women in competitive sports.  The president keeps telling his catcher, Watch: I’ll get them to argue against sending foreign murderers and rapists back to their own countries.  The umpire is listening and murmuring, What kind of moron would swing at that?  And Trump just smiles and whispers behind his glove, The kind of morons who vote for Hillary, Kamala, and Dementia Joe, that’s who!  Trump releases the ball, and while it moves in midair, the Democrats call him vulgar names.  Dim-Dems hack at it from all directions but strike out as the ball travels slowly across the plate.

As funny as it is to see Democrats swinging ferociously and falling to the ground with every Trump pitch, it is also pretty amusing to see all the players supposedly on his team freaking out from the dugout.  The neocons are screaming for endless war.  The so-called “free traders” are busy disparaging tariffs.  The multinational conglomerates hope that they’ll still get to use slave labor overseas.  The Establishment Old Guard are tired of Trump’s “culture war” at home and want to get back to the business of making money from real war in Ukraine.  Batboy Volodymyr Zelensky thinks it’s time to put in a new pitcher.  Why can’t he just pitch like a normal Republican? the benchwarmers keep asking one another.  Nobody’s seen a Republican knuckleballer on the mound before.

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The ongoing pundit discussions whether or not the US attack destroyed the three Iranian nuclear facilities, which might or might not have been involved in developing a weapon, with many challenging the Trump administration’s report that all three facilities were destroyed, is stupid and even dangerous.  The whore media, incapable of thought, is desperate to do Trump in on any and every thing. Why are intelligent analysts keeping the issue alive for the biased media?  I won’t name them, but they need to think before they speak.

Why?  At this time based on the information I have been able to gather, Gilbert Doctorow appears to be correct that the Trump administration’s claim, whether true or not, has eliminated Netanyahu’s only reason for war with Iran.

We should be thankful.

War with Iran is more dangerous than Washington, Moscow, Beijing, Tel Aviv, and Tehran know. Iran is a more formidable opponent than the five Muslim countries Washington has destroyed for Israel. Iran can do damage to Israel, to US bases and naval assets in the region, and to world economies by closing the Strait of Hormuz and raising the oil price by restricting the supply.

Additionally, Iran is a strategic buffer for Russia. If Iran is put into chaos, inflow the CIA’s jihadists into the Muslim provinces of the Russian Federation.

If Iran’s oil falls under US control, China is cut off from an important part of its energy supply.

So far, Russia and China are standing apart from Iran.  But what happens when China doesn’t want to lose another round of oil investments like Washington caused China in Libya when Gaddafi was overthrown?

What happens when Putin realizes, if he ever does, that the demise of Iran opens Russia to CIA jihadists?

Having foolishly stood aside, Russia and China would have to enter the conflict.

What would be the consequences?

How much better if Russia and China had prevented the conflict by placing Iran under their nuclear umbrella or by publicly announcing a mutual defense treaty among the three countries.  But there was no vision.

Russia and China, having failed in their responsibility, left the problem with President Trump. On our side, let us not discredit Trump’s claim and, by doing so, resurrect Netanyahu’s justification for war with Iran.  It would be difficult for Trump to resist Netanyahu’s pressure given Israel’s extraordinary influence in the US. Let’s pre-empt Israel’s pressure for more war by supporting Trump’s statement that there is no longer a nuclear threat from Iran.

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What can an Iranian learn from Syria?

Iranians must understand (and many no doubt do) that the Western political class has been criminalized.

Just as the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)(1)  is a corrupt agency which enabled the downfall of Syria and the installation of an al Qaeda junta, so too is the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) corrupt.

Video by Fox News, March 12, 2021

Transcript:

LeaAnn Duncan

June 14 at 12:43 PM

WikiLeaks: US intelligence assessed just weeks ago that #Iran is not building a nuclear weapon

“The IC [Intelligence Community] continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamanei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.

The IC is monitoring if Tehran decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program.” – Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, 25 March 2025

Then there is the question of opposition.  In Syria, Washington and allies installed an al Qaeda junta.  In Syria, Washington and allies pretended that the opposition was moderate when  in fact they were supporting al Qaeda and ISIS all along. Al Qaeda and ISIS were the “opposition”.  Iran needs to be aware of these deceptions.

The ”New Syria” has been committing genocide(5) against Alawites, and now Christians are once again being targeted.

The West does not want democracy or freedom in Iran.  It wants a puppet government just like its al Qaeda puppet in Syria.

Washington wants Iran’s oil(6) and resources and its subservience in its drive for geopolitical hegemony, and full spectrum control. Remember Wesley Clark: 7 countries in 5 years.  Iran is on the list.

Washington’s world conquest,(7) its permanent warfare and its pre-planned Supreme International crimes are consistent with the label Fourth Reich.  It acts like a global dictator imposing its supremacist will beneath waves of war propaganda.

The Third Reich ended badly, but the supremacist ideology which disregards and corrupts international law, which has criminalized the Western political class, which wages permanent warfare based on war propaganda, lives on.

Notes

(1) “Tulsi Gabbard on OPCW Corruption. ” marktanliano.net website, 26 March, 2021. (Tulsi Gabbard on OPCW Corruption. – Mark Taliano) Accessed 24 June, 2025.

see also: ‘Corrupted’ ICC Is a Tool to Be ‘Used by NATO Leaders, But Never Against Them’/ By Svetlana Ekimento – Mark Taliano

(2) Saheil C. ” IAEA is doing in Iran what OPCW (Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons) did in Syria./ By Saheil C -” marktanliano.net website. 24 June, 2025 (“IAEA is doing in Iran what OPCW (Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons) did in Syria.”/ By Saheil C – Mark Taliano) Accessed 24 June, 2025.

(3) Press TV, “Secret documents seized by Iran expose IAEA chief’s close cooperation with Israel” 12 June, 2025. (Secret documents seized by Iran expose IAEA chief’s close cooperation with Israel) Accessed 24 June, 2025.

See also: How the U.S. and Israel Used Director General Rafael Grossi to Hijack the IAEA and Start a War on Iran – Global ResearchGlobal Research – Centre for Research on Globalization

(4) Saheil C. ” IAEA is doing in Iran what OPCW (Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons) did in Syria./ By Saheil C -” marktanliano.net website. 24 June, 2025 (“IAEA is doing in Iran what OPCW (Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons) did in Syria.”/ By Saheil C – Mark Taliano) Accessed 24 June, 2025.

(5) Mark Taliano,”Well-Documented Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide in Syria.” Global Research, 14 April, 2025. (Well-Documented Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide in Syria – Global ResearchGlobal Research – Centre for Research on Globalization) Accessed 24 June, 2025.

(6) Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, ” Video: U.S. and Western Allies Behind the Genocide. Israel’s Role in the U.S.-NATO War Against Iran (1953-2024)Video on the Criminalization of Politics” Substack (Video: U.S. and Western Allies Behind the Genocide. Israel’s Role in the U.S.-NATO War Against Iran (1953-2024) ) Accessed 24 June, 2025.

7. Prof. Michel Chossudovsky,”Video: War and Globalization, America’s Roadmap of Conquest, Blueprint for Global Domination: Michel Chossudovsky” Global Research, 14 June, 2025. (Video: War and Globalization, America’s Roadmap of Conquest, Blueprint for Global Domination: Michel Chossudovsky – Global ResearchGlobal Research – Centre for Research on Globalization) Accessed 24 June, 2025.

The original source of this article is Global Research.

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Both the system and the word “democracy” were invented by the Greeks, specifically the Athenians. “Demos” was the ancient word for “people,” hence the rule of the people is democracy. I’ve always preferred the selective kind, as practiced by the Brits until late in the 19th century—when one needed to own property before qualifying to vote—and the kind that made ancient Athens great, an obligatory education before being allowed to cast a ballot. That kept the demagogues in their place, because if you are correctly educated you can sniff out the fraud and duper from a mile away.

No longer. Fake news is now believed to be the truth, especially when spread by the media, experts at disinformation. Here are a few examples taken at random from the papers I have in front of me, one week before this article appears: A columnist for the Bagel Times seriously notes that Hitler in 1935 had not as yet enforced a police state in Germany but was just like Trump is today, nuanced but nevertheless bound to turn into a dictator. Now, the man writing this rubbish, Kristof, may scare some children and impress some old ladies, but anyone who knows the difference between Germany in 1935 and the USA in 2025 knows that this theory is not only childish, but written for idiotic children at that.

“American emphasis on individual freedom has come at the expense of families and communities.”

A further editorial in the paper of disinformation charges Trump with corruption and weakening American democracy by his self-dealing. No proof, just charges. In the meantime, democracy is being challenged as 10 to 12 million foreign nationals who walked into these United States during Biden’s time and joined the already 12 to 20 million illegal aliens residing here present a problem. While American citizens were required to present multiple forms in order to travel within the country, illegal entrants were flown across the nation often stealthily without any valid ID at all. If that’s democracy at work, I’m an overripe banana. In the City of Angels—ha ha—foreign flags come out while rioters against law and order burn the place down. Why? Because illegal aliens who have committed crimes are being arrested and deported. And the black female mayor of the city takes the side of the criminals, while the governor of California also plays it safe. In my not-so-humble opinion, something is very wrong here, and it’s democracy not working, nothing else.

Which brings me to the reasons why we need a bit of autocracy, and why we need it now. Egalitarianism seems to be the culprit of what ails these United States, the passions of the mob having taken over what once upon a time was known as civil disobedience. The passions of the mob saw an illegal migrant lighting up a sleeping American woman and watching her burn to death while he fanned the flames with his shirt. Nice. The burned woman was suffering from mental problems, but her immolation soon turned into just another statistic. Like the rape of a dead man in a New York subway by yet another illegal migrant, only arrested after the gruesome incident. Necrophilia lives among illegal aliens in New York City. So what is to be done? Easy. As previously stated above, we need some autocracy and we need it now.

The major threat to the West’s security today emanates from its own pusillanimity. Global elites and immigrants are stacked against good middle-class and working-class guys. The L.A. violence will keep expanding in the U.S. and in Europe, especially in France and the U.K. The latter will see whites in the minority in 25—yes, 25—years, and what comes next is anyone’s guess. Will sharia law prevail? It will probably be shoved up the Brit bum, and the latter will as usual say, “Thank you.”

The battle will have to be fought not only in the streets but also in the classroom. What sets fire in our streets is our complacency and the fifth column of the media. (The fifth column were the pro-German French working for appeasement back in 1939.) And then there’s the great replacement theory that argues that liberal elites are behind a conspiracy to replace white Europeans with migrants from Africa and the Middle East. The rise of non-white immigration in Europe dwarfs any other potential dangers, yet no politicians except a few like Nigel Farage in Britain seem to bother with it.

The great German academic Hans Hoppe, an acquaintance of mine, argues that universal suffrage has supplanted rule by the natural elite. In other words, the foreign criminal has as many or more rights than the law-abiding citizen. A benevolent strongman is needed, according to Hoppe—and Taki—someone who would rule efficiently and prioritize the well-being of his subjects. If I had my way, journalists would have to report the truth, not their truth, and would be prevented by the state when acting like East German Stasi, informing on citizens who didn’t agree with them. I would also abolish Pride Month, because, as Norman Mailer put it so well, “Just because you take it up the bum doesn’t mean we have to watch parades for a month that celebrate it.”

Let’s face it. Liberalism has trampled traditional values underfoot, and many of us are mad as hell and won’t take it anymore. (Sorry, Howard Beale.) American emphasis on individual freedom has come at the expense of families and communities and has turned us into non-related selves—afraid, alone, marionettes controlled by left-wing puppeteers. Egalitarianism is the bad guy wearing a black hat; an autocratic strongman is the good one, and he wears a white one.

This article was originally published on Taki’s Magazine.

The post A Bit of Autocracy appeared first on LewRockwell.

The following are two indirectly related personal experiences I have had, the first sometime in mid-2012, the second, an as-yet-to-be-resolved experience in media res.

Following the passing of my father in 2012, I shipped numerous items (including some furniture) from Los Angeles to Vienna, Austria. Among the items shipped were ca. ten large cans of freeze-dried food purchased from major disaster-preparedness food supplier, Mountain House.

The shipment went from the port of Los Angeles to a port in the UK, where it was to have been unloaded andimmediately transferred to a truck that would bring my shipment though the UK – Europe tunnel and over land to Austria.

Upon arrival of my shipment in the UK, I received an e-mail requesting some information regarding the contents of the cans of freeze dried food. I found this odd, as the contents of each can were clearly written on the outside of the cans. (And all the cans were sealed.)

Not satisfied with information provided right there on the food products, the Brits were requesting “more details” (???) After I informed them that “I had no more ‘details,” they then requested that I contact Mountain Farms so that they provide more documentation regarding the contents of the cans of freeze-dried food.

I spoke with a representative at Mountain Farms on the phone, who thought the request beyond absurd, as it was indeedso absured as to be “surreal.” But, “okay” he said, he would provide some additional (ridiculous and nonsensical) information which I promptly forwarded on to the British officials.

After which I was informed by a British customs official that the information was “not enough.” And as there was nothing left to be done to “honor” (??) their ridiculous request for still more information, I told them this in the hope that this would put an end to their antics and that the cans of freeze-dried food would be forwarded on to me in Austria with the rest of my shipment.

And then what?

Now here is where it goes beyond the absurd, descending into something along the lines of “sado-masochistic.”

I was then informed that all ten cans of freeze-dried food were to be confiscated by the British officials, but, but, . . . in order to carry out their confiscation, they would need considerable time to go through my entire shipment (which was somewhat considerable, as I was moving a portion of my American household to Austria). The cost for their efforts? 2,000 British pounds!!

Should I not submit to their “extortion,” I was informed that they would hold on to (not release) my entire shipment. And because the shipment contained important contents of my American household, I had no choice but to submit to their quite clear “extortion.”

What are the chances that the British officials tossed into the garbage ten large “new” cans of high-quality freeze-dried food in SEALED cans? And what are the chances that one or more officials took the items home?

Despite my love of many things in the UK, I vowed at once to never again set foot inside the country. And I adhere to that to this day.

Now on to my current as yet un-resolved experience which though quite different has a similar “smell” to my British experience of 2012.

Towards the end of March this years (2025), I shipped one non-valuable (only “sentimental” value) earring to a Jewelry repair ship outside New York City. Earlier in the year, I lost one of the earrings; then in mid-March typed into the Google search box, “replacement of lost earring,” which brought me to this very nice and interesting shop outside of New York City. I sent them a photo of the one remaining earring and they then informed me that it would be possible for them to reconstruct a second near-identical earring.

And so, I shipped the one earring to the shop express mail.

While in the middle of completing my order, someone in the shop informed me that they could make, if I would like, two instead of just one duplicate. I gave them the go-ahead on that.

Soon after that I was informed that the package had been shipped express mail (UPS) and that I should be receiving it shortly.

On June 16, I received a request on my mobile phone from UPS to pay (on-line) customs’ duty for my shipment which I promptly did.

But then, . . . enter in the ridiculous and absurd.

When I went on-line (the UPS website) to track my package from its arrival in Vienna to my home in the Austrian Alps, I discovered that the package was being held up pending the need for “missing information.”

Despite the above, however, I had not received any request from UPS regarding this “missing information.” What information was being requested? And where should it be sent?

I then proceeded to contact someone at UPS, first in Austria (no success), next in Germany (no success) and then in the USA. When I finally reached someone in the USA, I was informed that they could not help me and that I must contact someone “local.” So back to square one, or shall we say, “square zero.”

I then tried the chat box on the UPS website where I was informed that they would be “happy” to help me with “any” problem/issue that I have.

But when I typed in my problem in the most simple and succinct way possible, what did I get? A “cookie cutter” reply that had zero to do with my problem. I reframed my question every which way, but nada.

Then somehow, either via another phone call or some info on the internet, I got an e-mail address ([email protected]) to which I wrote a request that they inform me as to what “information” they were “missing,” and to provide an e-mail address to which I could send this info.

I received the following e-mail reply:

Dear Madam,

In order to clear the shipment we need the original Export documents when you sent the shipment for repair.

If the package was shipped with ups please provide us with the tracking number and we will take care of it.

Thank you.

With no one signing off on this e-mail (no specified person to whom I can reply, . . . how nice!) Might I be dealing here with “AI”? Could be. Maybe I am part of some widespread “AI” testing program to help them determine where they are in its application.

So then, I was able to locate the shipping documents from when I shipped the one earring from Vienna, Austria to Long Island City, USA.

I sent them this document and explained to them that I only shipped one earring to the USA, but received three earrings back because the Jewelry shop outside of New York City had fabricated for me two new earrings as replacement for my one lost earring. I also informed them that I had already paid customs duty on my shipment (for the cost of the production of the two new earrings).

I sent them this information yesterday and as of today, I am still informed on the UPS website that my shipment is still being held in some warehouse pending the receipt of “missing information.”

We are not talking here about some expensive earrings made of gold and with precious stones or anything of that nature. We are talking about earrings of silver (with minimal silver) and a small moonstone for each earring. For which I paid ca. $30 in the late-1990s.

The shop charged me $470 for procuring all the earring components + the hand-fabrication of two new earrings, not exactly an amount to garner much attention (one would think) in connection with the crossing of borders.

So what is this all about then?

Could be that at one level here, we are dealing with “AI,” and if that be the case then I am part of a “test” as I believe that we are in an important stage of their AI rollout where they are testing it from and in many different perspectives.

But in the case of the earrings, it is surely not about the “money” (i.e., any charges that can be accrued from any additional customs’ fee add ons, which at this point would be insignificant). Nor is it about attempted violation of any law on my part, or of me simply being up-to-something-not-good via this shipment from the USA to Austria (i.e., trying to secure some illegal type item, like, for instance “Ivermectin”!!)

To understand what is going on here, we have to return to my earlier British experience of 2012. Okay, in the case of Brits, yes, they were extorting me for the handsome sum of 2,000 pounds, something that does not enter into the current situation.

The British incident was about the untold pleasures of extortion, it was a gleeful shout out that “we can do whatever we want.” It is to put it more precisely about “harassment.” Yes, it is the “harassment” that lies at the heart of both the British and the current experience.

When it comes to the rules and the bureaucratic details that are in play in Austria today, it is most surely not Austria that is speaking here. It is the EU. And 2012 in the UK was pre-Brexit, so EU operating there too. Leaving outside “the Great Reset,” “build back better” and all that, the EU is all about creating maximum suffering for EU citizens, particularly the middle class from top to bottom. It is about destruction for the sake of destruction.

I think that most would agree that in addition to a culling of the global population, it was the intention of the “Covid” operation (Psy-Op) to weaken a large sector of those not killed by the bio-weapon masquerading as a “vaccine.”

One way that large swaths of the global population have been “weakened” is through ruined health, but there has alsobeen financial/economic devastation and countless other forms of human devastation.

I am completely convinced that the “harassment” fits right in with this. It is just another way in which human beings across the globe are being significantly “weakened.” As this kind of “harassment” becomes more and more widespread, as it is becoming, it begins to effect people’s health. People weaken.

The only reason I have chosen to publicly present the above experiences is to call attention to the kinds of experiencesthat many are having today (across the globe, but more and more in the West) and which may seem at best anecdotally interesting (and annoying) but of no great significance.

But when taken cumulatively in the lives of each and every one of us and then again taken cumulatively on a global scale, it may be that such “anecdotal” individual experiences are playing perhaps a more important role than we think when it comes to our health and well-being.

The post Two Indirectly Related Personal Experiences appeared first on LewRockwell.

Iran is the kid on the playground that isn’t intimidated by the bully and is willing—and able—to fight back.

President Donald Trump not only attacked a sovereign foreign state (Iran) without provocation, without congressional approval and without constitutional or moral justification, he has also joined the likes of Joe Biden and G.W. Bush in the ranks of war criminals.

I doubt that anyone in America is more qualified to speak to constitutional and legal (and unconstitutional and illegal) acts than legal scholar Judge Andrew Napolitano. In a recent interview with USMC Major/UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter, Judge Nap said the following:

What the president of the United States did was profoundly unconstitutional, absolutely unlawful, was an impeachable offense and was a war crime. Under our Constitution only the Congress can declare war, not the president. And Congress can only declare war on a country that poses an immediate and grave military threat to the United States of America. President Trump has started a war with Iran, which poses no threat—let alone immediate or grave—whatsoever to the national security of the United States of America. Under an unconstitutional statute, but still the law, the War Powers Resolution, the president is required to give notice to Congress and give Congress an opportunity to respond before he attacks a foreign country. He can carry out the response, but he has to tell Congress and give Congress an opportunity to respond. He not only ignored the Constitution, he ignored that law. As unconstitutional as it is—it hasn’t been tested by the courts—it is still the law. The president ignored it. Killing people and destroying property in another country without a just cause is a war crime. It is the moral and legal equivalent of a high crime and misdemeanor. It is an impeachable offense. And it is time for the American public and the Congress to do something about it.

There you have it: What Trump did in attacking Iran was not only unconstitutional, but it was also a war crime, “the moral and legal equivalent of a high crime and misdemeanor,” which is an impeachable offense.

Military scholar Scott Ritter followed the judge’s statement with his own analysis. Ritter said:

What they [the U.S. military] did is carry out an illegal war of aggression. It’s a war crime. It’s not just a war crime, Judge Jackson from the Nuremberg trial period, lead prosecutor of the Nazi war criminals, asserted that the war of aggression is the ultimate war crime, because from this war of aggression all other crimes emanate. This is what we did. I don’t know why Americans are proud of this. This is an act of perfidy, a surprise attack, an undeclared act of aggression that had no foundation in justification. Again, to justify something like this, which is the equivalent of what we would say a preemptive act of self-defense, so there needs to be an imminent threat, an imminent threat, that can only be dealt with through this act of aggression.

Iran was in the process of negotiations that would resolve all of the issues that could be perceived as a threat. So, there is no imminent threat.

Moreover, we know that the sites that had been targeted—three nuclear sites: Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow—were empty, that these strikes would have zero impact on an Iranian nuclear program that had long since been evacuated from these sites and sent to other locations. It’s come out that this strike plan, which was done in cooperation with Israel, was something that had been planned more than a year ago and actually been practiced by the United States and Israel. So, this was a pre-planned strike against three designated sites that had no military value. So, this is purely an act of theater, and any military commander that puts American lives at risk to carry out an act of political theater should literally have their commissions revoked and be drummed out of the service. There was no justification for this.

As I have documented in past columns, Donald Trump likes to portray himself as an emperor, and now he is acting like one.

Here is my four-minute statement on Trump’s unlawful attack against Iran from last Sunday.

Trump has now proven to the world that 1) He was a bald-faced liar when he told the American people he wanted to be a peace president, 2) He remains a bald-faced liar by attacking a country while his administration was in the process of negotiating a peace settlement with that nation, and 3) He is nothing more than a paid lackey of the Zionist government in Tel Aviv and the Israel lobby.

Virtually everything America does in the Middle East is at the behest of Israel. This U.S. attack against Iran was no different. As former CIA analyst Larry Johnson said, “Netanyahu calls the shots.”

The idea that Israel wants peace is ludicrous! Israel has been the world’s greatest destabilizing force since its inception in 1948. And it has also been the most belligerent military aggressor in the world since its inception.

Netanyahu himself will NEVER agree to peace, because keeping Israel at war is the only way that he can stay out of prison. If peace were to ensue in the Middle East, Netanyahu and his wife would immediately be tried and convicted of mass corruption and bribery charges and would spend the rest of their lives in prison. The only way Netanyahu stays out of jail is to keep his country at war.

And by keeping Israel at war, Netanyahu keeps America at war, because 1) Israel has zero military superiority in the Middle East without the backing of the United States, and 2) Netanyahu knows that the Israel lobby controls the politicians in Washington, D.C., including Donald Trump.

The nations of the world know that the Zionist government in Tel Aviv is a rogue government. It always has been and always will be. Its actions are constantly outside the rule of law: judicial, Natural, moral, civil and international. And it does so with impunity because the United States constantly runs interference and provides cover for it.

And now the combined administrations of Joe Biden and Donald Trump have turned the government in Washington, D.C., into a rogue state of its own. These two presidents—and the Congress that turns a blind eye to their unlawful conduct—have turned America’s foundational principles upside down.

Biden and Trump have taken the nation that was called the “City upon a Hill” by Puritan preacher John Winthrop—who penned this moniker to his sermon in 1630 to describe America as a bastion of hope, faith and freedom to the world, the nation whose birth certificate (the Declaration of Independence) announces its parents as being “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God”—and turned that nation into a lawless, murderous lapdog of the rogue iniquitous State of Israel.

And what Netanyahu and his Zionist extremists in Israel want is to turn Iran into another Libya. They have said this openly and often. In other words, their goal is the total destruction of Iran. Why? Because Israel cannot control Iran, and this is unacceptable. Israel’s goal is total regional hegemony.

Israel is the elementary school bully that wants every kid on the playground in total submission to his will. Iran is the kid on the playground that isn’t intimidated by the bully and is willing—and able—to fight back.

In fact, by committing these war crimes against Iran, Israel and the U.S. are making it more likely that Iran will pursue a nuclear weapon, as this might be the only way Iran is assured of its own survival.

A case for a nuclear Iran 

Kenneth Waltz, one of the most influential realist thinkers in international relations, argued in a controversial 2012 Foreign Affairs article titled “Why Iran Should Get the Bomb” that a nuclear-armed Iran might actually stabilize the Middle East, rather than destabilize it.

Waltz’s theory is rooted in neorealism (or structural realism), which sees the international system as anarchic, and posits that states act primarily to ensure their own survival. From this perspective, nuclear weapons are the ultimate deterrent, and their spread, under specific conditions, can actually lead to greater stability. Consider North Korea: since developing nuclear weapons and delivery systems, its behavior has arguably become more calculated and status-quo-oriented. It also encouraged Trump to extend an olive branch to Kim Jong-un.

Israel remains the sole nuclear power in the Middle East, a monopoly fostering strategic imbalance and absolute impunity. The emergence of a rival nuclear-armed state, even with minimal second-strike capability, would force belligerent sides to act with greater caution. Conflicts would likely be reduced to face-saving precision strikes, as seen with nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. Despite hosting radical militant groups, Pakistan has behaved as a rational actor within the nuclear matrix.

Similarly, a nuclear Iran could reduce its reliance on asymmetric proxy strategies – such as its support for Hamas or Hezbollah – because its security would primarily rest on deterrence.

Some critics however warn that if Iran acquires nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia may rapidly follow suit. A moot point, except that Riyadh bankrolled Islamabad’s nuclear weapons program under America’s watch during the 1980s Soviet-Afghan War which featured beloved “anti-Soviet warriors” like Osama bin Laden!

There are also persistent reports which suggest that some Pakistani nuclear assets may already be stationed in Saudi Arabia, under the command of senior Pakistani officers. In the event of a regional nuclear escalation, Riyadh can simply request transfer at will.

Historical precedents also do not support alarmist non-proliferation fears. When North Korea acquired nuclear weapons, neither South Korea nor Japan followed suit. Deterrence, once established, tends to cool ambitions, especially when the cost of escalation becomes too high.

            (Source)

The discussion that is NEVER broached publicly is: Why can a belligerent/aggressor state such as Israel have nuclear weapons (which technology it stole from the United States) but a mostly passive state such as Iran cannot?

Remember that the only reason Iran has not tried to build a nuclear weapon to date (confirmed by National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard only weeks ago) is due to the fact that such a weapon is seen as a violation of Shia Islamic law by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

However, the flagrant acts of international aggression demonstrated by Israel and the U.S. of late may indeed persuade Khamenei that the only way Iran can survive is that it has the deterrence of a nuclear weapon at its disposal. Notice that the U.S. is not using South Korea as a proxy for war with North Korea. Why not? Because North Korea has nuclear weapons.

Plus, Iran might not need to build a nuclear weapon in order to obtain one.

I have read reports that say several countries including Russia and Pakistan have already said they could provide Iran with some of their nuclear arsenal (as apparently Pakistan has already provided nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia). This kind of military support between Sunni and Shia Muslims has the potential of putting the belligerent bully of the Middle East (Israel) permanently in its place.

The old saying still holds true: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” If Iran believes it is necessary to obtain a nuclear weapon for its survival, then obtaining one would be seen as its only option.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if the criminal conduct of Netanyahu and Trump to pound Iran into submission turns out to be the catalyst for Iran obtaining the ability to permanently maintain its sovereignty?

In the meantime, don’t expect Israel to abide by any ceasefire agreement brokered by Trump for very long. Again, Netanyahu needs war to stay out of prison. And Netanyahu also knows that no matter what Trump says, he is still in Israel’s pocket.

Israel’s (and thus America’s) war with Iran has just begun. Remember that Iran still has thousands of hypersonic ballistic missiles (which neither U.S. nor Israeli defenses can stop) that it can launch on Israel.

Furthermore, Iran has already inflicted so much damage in Israel that thousands of Israelis—including members of the Knesset—are fleeing the country. The truly paradoxical part of this story is that Iran has so crippled Israel economically, militarily, emotionally and financially that the Zionist state may actually be standing on its last legs.

But for America’s part, Donald Trump has allowed Israel to drag us into another “stupid” (Trump’s word) foreign war.

And, as did his predecessors, Donald J. Trump has now joined the ranks of war criminals.

Reprinted with permission from Chuck Baldwin Live.

The post Donald Trump Has Joined Joe Biden in the Ranks of War Criminals appeared first on LewRockwell.

Tim McGraw wrote:

“Wars are not made by common folks, scratching for livings in the heat of the day, they are made by demagogues infesting palaces…The very unpopularity of war makes people ready to believe, when they suddenly confront it, that it has been thrust upon them…because their own demagogues have been pretending, all the while, to be trying to prevent it.”

See here.

The post Mencken’s Forgotten Wisdom on War: James Bovard appeared first on LewRockwell.

Click Here:

The MAHA Report

The post It’s Time for the FDA to Allow Access to the Full Range of Homeopathic Medicines appeared first on LewRockwell.

Wriites Saleh Abdullah. 

We do have to consider the source, but it is safe to assume that this would be a logical play the Zionists would resort to when you consider their history. They did the 9/11 attacks to drag America into decades of wars for Israel. These Zionists will mass murder women and children so no crime or act of terrorism is beyond them.

They also have no chance to take on Iran militarily without American help as we saw over the past couple of weeks. They will absolutely try to start shit with Iran again in the future. I don’t think there is really any doubting this. So the false flag play is something to be looking out for. If something happens in America that is blamed on Iran, we should assume Israel did it.

Tehran Times

The post Israel planned false flag operation on US soil appeared first on LewRockwell.

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Trump has suggested changing the title of Secretary of Defense back to Secretary of War.  “We all feel like warriors” after the unprovoked bombing of Iran, he said.  Yes, let’s celebrate the “bravery” of those pilots who dropped 30,000 pound bombs on Iran from ten miles up in the sky while facing no air defense.  And don’t leave out those gallant and brave sailors who pushed buttons to launch missiles at Iran from ships anchored 400 miles away.

The post Our Brave Warriors appeared first on LewRockwell.

Jo Ann Cavallo wrote:

Dear Lew, 

I hope this message finds you well. I’m writing because I have just created a website titled Libertarian Literary and Media Criticism.

Advancing Austrian Economics and Libertarianism in the Humanities

The homepage currently has buttons to access webpages for the Libertarian Literary and Media Criticism volume in memory of Paul Cantor and a few other items, including my bibliography of books, articles, and journals that may be of interest to libertarian and classical liberal humanists. 

The site can also host blogs and announcements related to Austrian Economics and libertarianism in the Humanities.

I welcome suggestions and content for the website as well as recommended titles to add to the online bibliography to keep it current.

Would you be able to alert LRC readers to this new website by mentioning it in the LRC Blog?

Thanks so much and best wishes, 

The post Libertarian Literary and Media Criticism – a new website appeared first on LewRockwell.

Are you loving the Ride of Fate roller coaster yet? If you are an American, or one of its friends or (especially) one of its designated enemies, you better start paying more attention and find a way off this ride before it picks up too much speed.

Let’s review for a second. The United States, as a signatory to the UN charter, the Geneva Conventions, and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, all of which it either wrote or had great input in developing, has used its great post-WW2 power and influence to urge/compel other countries to sign and uphold all of the above agreements. Under these sets of documents, waging war on a country that is not an “immediate and existential threat” is an act of egregious “aggression,” which is a defined war crime.  Just ask US Supreme Court justice Robert Jackson, who was chief prosecutorial counsel at the Nuremberg Tribunal after WW2.  He, as the principal writer of the charter governing the Nuremberg Tribunals, specified that unprovoked aggression against a country not at war and not threatening such is the most execrable war crime, for all other war crimes stem from it. In our most recent expedition into self-unaware double standards, the US has (yet again) managed to violate all of its commitments and self-righteous preening regarding standards of conduct in its use of Israel as a cat’s paw to “once and for all) level Iran.

Iran attacked no one, indeed, it was engaged in negotiations in which it signaled a clear intent to throttle back its nuclear enrichment program to the 3.67% uranium enrichment levels *every* country in the world is entitled to develop under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, to which (unlike Israel, by the way) it is a signatory.

It is not necessary to like or approve of Iran’s internal policies or theological preferences to find them innocent of precipitating recent events. I certainly have no use for their Islam-based policies, but, objectively speaking, they are not the aggressors here.

Neither does one need to fawn over or give mindless approval to every action of the UN; I certainly don’t. It regularly meddles in or wanders into areas of international relations for which it has no competence, but in certain areas, its charter, signed by nearly all nations, does provide it legitimacy, and, for the moment, its codifications regarding war, and ancillary codifications like the Geneva Conventions and the NPT under its effective custodianship, are all we have to keep minor skirmishes from becoming major, potentially world-ending wars.  At least four times since the end of WW2, the UN apparatus has served, however clumsily, to avert wars that could have escalated to nuclear exchanges.  Under the terms of the UN charter, President Trump, the State Department and the US armed forces have facilitated and escalated an act of clear, unauthorized, unjust aggression against Iran, at the eager behest of its equally guilty unsinkable aircraft carrier: Israel.

President Trump, has no basis of authority to do what he has done regarding Iran on the domestic front, as well. He is in massive, clear-cut violation of Constitutional procedure in his exercise of war powers.  To be fair, every president in our lifetime has ignored the constitutional protocols; he’s hardly alone there.  But knowingly aiding a country with both nukes and a touchy trigger finger to use them without going to Congress is flatly unconstitutional *and* grossly irresponsible, considering possible escalation scenarios that are obvious.  It is Congress’ sole prerogative to declare war.  This current situation is not Grenada 2 or something, this could potentially impact the whole world.  The least that could be done is to make Congress debate the merits and make the decision to formally declare war, or not.

As a dodge to that, and a convenient way for Congress to avoid its responsibilities, there is the War Powers Act of 1973, which itself is flatly unconstitutional, but this has never been challenged or tested in a court case (mostly because neither Congress nor the courts want to handle that hot potato).  Anyway, unconstitutional though it may be in itself, the Act purportedly grants a president authority to unilaterally act for up to 60 days under a clear and present danger to *the United States* without direct Congressional authorization, but he still *must* formally notify Congress about his intentions and their scope within 48 hours.  This was not done.

Trump is acting in the precise way a tyrannical king might do, which was expressly understood to be objectionable and avoided by the Founding Fathers, hence their intent to hand declarations of war to Congress in the Constitution.  He’s mercurial and erratic, changing his mind and his “strategies” on a dime over and over, while issuing childish, ALL CAPS threats and edicts on Truth Social to all potential parties and the whole world.  His erratic behavior is undermining his legitimacy , and making other countries conclude that the US is unpredictable and incapable of forming lasting agreements (or, especially, potential treaties) under his administration.

The Russians don’t trust him, those countries  currently forced to engage him in his unilaterally imposed tariff wars don’t trust him, BRICS doesn’t trust him, and you can be darned sure Iran doesn’t trust him, in both his threats or his attempts to mediate or negotiate anything.  He has unilaterally destroyed, or at least severely damaged, the good offices and reputation for fairness that the United States formerly (sort of) enjoyed.  On that basis, watch countries start backing out of the NPT and consider their own nuclear programs.  Why not?  If a country can be attacked for not having nukes, in an area of the world where another country that *does* have them threatens it constantly *with* them, well, they “might as well” develop them too, as at least some form of balance-of-power hedge.  This is by no means an endorsement of that mindset on my part, but one has to see it as a now-likely “thought process “ throughout the Middle East.

Reckless, unilateral actions that are half-baked and have no long-term vision or strategy motivating them are becoming a trademark of an administration that is too egocentric to act rationally.  The situation is even worse when incompetent people with no training or background in foreign policy are routinely put in cabinet-level positions to be yes-men for erratic “visionary leadership.” But such doings have been mandated by a political apparatus that puts people in prominent positions of authority as the result of semi-mindless political “beauty contests” instead of competence and training. The increasingly politically unsavvy electorate, with its minute attention span focusing on the NFL or The Voice, cannot fathom anything more nuanced than that, and must be mollified. Behold the vehicle of our own doom!

As someone who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 (holding my nose a bit the second time) and who stood with him as a matter of principle to protest election fraud by being present in DC during *both* 1-6-21 and 12-12-2020, I take no delight in writing any of the foregoing.  Argue on the basis of the deficiencies in my points if you like, but blindly following a clear egomaniacal megalomaniac just because we “had to stop Harris” is weak sauce, and will no longer pass muster. This guy put us on a path that may, even now, escalate to get us all killed. Twice. In only 8 days!

As Trump himself often puts it: “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

The post We Sure Seem Bound and Determined… appeared first on LewRockwell.

Tucker Carlson and Senator Ted Cruz clashed over Israel, Iran, and US foreign policy. The whole interview (more like an informal debate) was entertaining, but the most intriguing part for me was when Cruz talked about the alleged biblical foundation of his support for Israel.

While I usually write about economic topics, I’m wading into some theological waters here because I, like Senator Cruz, am an evangelical protestant. He didn’t refer to it by name, but the view he was espousing in his interview reflects dispensational theology. My purpose in writing this is merely to show that not all evangelical protestants espouse dispensationalism and that there is a more coherent interpretation of scripture through the lens of covenant theology that does not lead to dangerous US foreign policy.

Here is a bit of the heated conversation between Senator Cruz and Tucker Carlson:

Cruz: “When I came into the Senate I resolved that I was going to be the leading defender of Israel and what you didn’t ask is why, so let me tell you why. […] The reason is twofold: Number one, as a Christian growing up in Sunday school I was taught from the Bible those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed, and from my perspective I want to be on the blessing side of things.”

Carlson: “Where is that?”

Cruz: “I can find it for you. I don’t have the scripture off the tip of my [tongue]. You pull out the phone and…”

Carlson: “It’s in Genesis.”

They are referring to one of the most important passages of scripture, Genesis 12:1-3, in which God makes a covenant with Abram, whose name would later be changed to Abraham:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Similar pronouncements from God were given to Abraham’s descendants. God told Abraham’s grandson, Jacob (whose name would later be changed to Israel), “in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 28:14b).

This, then, is the basis for Senator Cruz’s resolve to be “the leading defender of Israel,” guiding his foreign policy views in the 20th and 21st centuries. This view (an element of dispensationalism) is not unique to Senator Cruz—it’s espoused by many politicians and their constituents in the US, which helps explain why the US maintains such an entangling alliance with the current government of Israel.

Dispensational theology is relatively new, originating in the 19th century. It’s adoption by many in the US can be attributed to the Scofield Reference Bible, published in 1909. It teaches that God “dispenses” grace and reveals himself in distinct ways for distinct people over distinct periods in distinct places. For example, the Abrahamic covenant applied to certain people (Jews) in a certain place (Canaan) starting with Abraham and lasting until Moses. It leads to the conclusion that God has separate plans for Israel and the church.

Covenant theology explains that after the fall of Adam and Eve, God made an overarching covenant of grace, “wherein He freely offered unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ” (see chapters 7 and 8 of the Westminster Confession of Faith). You might be thinking, “But Jesus was born thousands of years later. How was this covenant offered to all the people we read about in the Old Testament?” Answer: “This covenant was differently administered in the time of the law, and in the time of the gospel: under the law it was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all fore-signifying Christ to come” (emphasis added). Thus, Jesus was the perfect fulfillment of the promise to Abraham, but even for Abraham, his faith in God is what mattered, not his works under the law. In short, God does not have separate plans for Israel and the church. God has one plan for his people, and “his people” includes all who have faith in the God who saves them, Jews and Gentiles.

Evangelical protestants believe in the sainthood of all believers and that each believer must interpret scripture under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Where difficulties arise, believers should use clearer passages to help make sense of less clear passages. I invite those Christians who agree with Senator Cruz to consider the whole of scripture and what passages like Genesis 12:1-3 mean in that light.

Who or what is “Israel”?

“Israel” could refer to a single person: Jacob/Israel. It could refer to the land that was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It could refer to the genetic offspring of Abraham throughout generations.

Senator Cruz’s dispensationalism leads him to view the promise to Abraham about blessings and curses as one that belongs to ethnic Jews and the land on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Covenant theology, on the other hand, holds that the entirety of scripture shows that this covenant with Abraham was for the spiritual offspring of Abraham.

The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, makes this very clear: “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (emphasis added). This is exactly what covenant theology teaches.

While it was clear for Paul, a former religious authority who persecuted the early Christian church, he indicates that this is a part of the “mystery of Christ” that was unveiled by Jesus Christ (this implies that Old Testament passages ought to be interpreted in light of the person, work, and ministry of Jesus as revealed in the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament). In his letter to the Ephesians, he says, “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

This view is not unique to Paul, nor are they cherry-picked from Paul’s writing. He goes into more detail in his letter to the Romans and he discusses this mystery in theological discussions throughout his letters. Peter, one of Jesus’s disciples, also confirms this view in a letter to “born again” (1 Peter 1:3 and 23) Christians in various regions in modern-day Turkey (i.e., not Jews in Israel):

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Jesus himself taught in line with this view. Shortly after his famous pronouncement, “I am the way , and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” Jesus provided an analogy of a vine: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” Thus, being born Jewish (or born of Christian parents, for that matter) is no guarantee of God’s blessing or salvation. Those who trust and obey Jesus are a part of his “true vine.”

What constitutes the blessing in Genesis 12:1-3?

Senator Cruz believes that God’s promise to Abraham circa 2000 B.C. means that money from US taxpayers should be used to bolster Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military actions in 2025 A.D. Once again, a full view of scripture casts doubt on Cruz’s perspective, this time on what constitutes “blessing.” We need look no further than Jesus’s Beatitudes, the preamble of sorts to his Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Nowhere in Jesus’s teaching is “blessed” or “blessing” used to refer to taxpayer-funded military defense of Israel or offensive wars against other nations.

Should Christians in the US feel obligated to defend the land promised to Abraham? Jesus dismissed the idea that the land of Israel is especially reserved for worshipping God. In his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, she pointed out that a common view among Jews at the time was that “Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said that “the hour is coming when neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” He said that “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” Jesus’s Gospel is an open door to Jews and non-Jews in the land promised to Abraham and around the world. What matters is that believers worship in spirit and in truth, not that they are located in a particular region on the Mediterranean Sea.

Covenant theology holds that the blessing from God described in Genesis 12:1-3 is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and a great summary of the blessings of Christ is found in Ephesians 1:3-14. God’s “plan for the fullness of time [is] to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” There is no special designation for a particular plot of land. Our “inheritance” is not a plot of land but Christ himself and, through him, adoption into his family, reconciliation with God, grace and forgiveness, etc.

Conclusion

God promised Abraham that through Abraham, “all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Jesus Christ, whose family lineage goes back to Abraham, is the fulfillment of that promise. The entirety of scripture points to Jesus as the focal point of human history because Jesus revealed that God saves his people by grace through faith—not through works, family lineage, or geographic location.

Senator Cruz is trapped in dispensationalism, which leads him and others into a dangerous relationship with the modern-day government of Israel. The US government has committed terrible atrocities in the Middle East because of the sway of dispensationalism over too many US politicians. If we can judge an -ism by its works, dispensationalism should be dispensed with.

Note: The views expressed on Mises.org are not necessarily those of the Mises Institute.

The post Ted Cruz, Dispensationalism, and the State of Israel appeared first on LewRockwell.

The stakes of Iran’s nuclear program are not what one might think. Tehran renounced the atomic bomb in 1988, but is attempting, with Russia’s cooperation, to discover the secrets of nuclear fusion. If it succeeds, it would help the states of the South decolonize by freeing themselves from oil.
As for the stakes of the bombing of certain Iranian nuclear sites by the United States, they may also not be what one might think.
This affair is all the more opaque because it is not possible today to establish a clear distinction between research on civilian nuclear fusion and military fusion.

Since the fall of Iraq, under the blows of the British and the United States, London and Washington have popularized the myth of Iranian military nuclear power, in line with that of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. This myth has been taken up by Israeli “revisionist Zionists” (not to be confused with “Zionists” tout court) and their leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. For twenty years, Westerners have been inundated with this propaganda and have ended up believing it, although announcing for such a long period that Tehran will have “the” bomb “next year” makes no sense.

However, even though Russia, China, and the United States all agree that Iran currently has no military program, everyone can see that Iran is doing something at its power plants. But what?

In 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president of the Islamic Republic, replacing Sayyed Mohammad Khatami. He is a scientist whose vision is to free colonized peoples. He believes that by mastering the atom, he will enable all peoples to free themselves from Western oil transnationals.

Iran then developed training programs for nuclear scientists in numerous universities. The goal was not to create a small elite of a few hundred specialists, but to train battalions of engineers. Today, there are tens of thousands of them.

Iran intends to discover how to achieve nuclear fusion, whereas Westerners are content with fission. Fission is the splitting of an atom; while fusion is the joining of atoms, which releases an immeasurable amount of energy. Fission is used for our power plants, while, for the moment, fusion is only used for thermonuclear bombs. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s plan is to use it to generate electricity and share it with developing countries.

This knowledge is revolutionary, in the Khomeinist sense of the term, that is, it allows for an end to the dependence of the Southern states and their economic development. It clashes head-on with the British vision of colonialism, according to which His Majesty had to divide and rule and prevent the development of the colonized. We recall, for example, that London forbade Indians from spinning the cotton they grew themselves so that it could be spun by its Manchester mills. In response, Mahatma Gandhi set an example for his people and spun his own cotton, defying the British monarchy. Identical to this, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s project defies the power of the West and the Anglo-Saxon oil transnationals.

It is perfectly understandable to be concerned about Iranian investment in nuclear power because these technologies are, by definition, dual-use, both civilian and military. It is clear that this is not the usual civilian use, and the detailed discovery of fusion processes could also be used for military purposes. In any case, Iran is seeking an inexhaustible source of energy.

China and Russia have repeatedly stated that Iran has not had a military nuclear program since 1988. Unlike us, Russia knows what it is talking about: it is involved in Iran’s research. There are Russians in many Iranian nuclear facilities. It goes without saying that Moscow fears proliferation as much as we do. But, unlike us, not civilian nuclear power. Building on the work of Andrei Sakharov, Rosatom and the Russian Academy of Sciences are continuing research, particularly for the Tokamak project. China, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and France have their own research in this area.

It should also be remembered that Iran is a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). It is for this reason that it is subject to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Since 1988, the IAEA has never found any evidence suggesting that Iran still has a military nuclear program. However, the Agency has asked numerous questions to clarify certain aspects of its civilian program and has not received any answers, which is perfectly understandable given the investment in Iranian-Russian fusion research. In practice, the documents released by the Iranian press two days before the Israeli attack attest that the director of the IAEA, the Argentinian Rafael Grossi, behaves like a spy in the service of Israel, to which he transmits all the information from its inspectors; this is even though Israel is not a signatory to the NPT and therefore not a member of the IAEA.

On 4 May 2010, Tehran submitted a proposal to the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations NPT for the “Establishment of a Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone in the Middle East”  [ 1 ] . This proposal was welcomed by all the states in the region, with the exception of Israel. Indeed, Tel Aviv, which benefited from transfers of French technology from senior officials of the Fourth Republic, possesses the atomic bomb  [ 2 ] .

Finally, if Washington does not intervene alongside Tel Aviv and use its penetrating bomb to try to destroy the Fordo plant, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) could resort to the “Samson option”  [ 3 ] , that is, the atomic destruction of Iran, even if they were to suffer a nuclear response.  [ 4 ]

General Mohsen Rezaee, a senior officer in the Revolutionary Guard Corps and a member of Iran’s National Security Council, said in an interview on June 14 that “Pakistan has assured us that if Israel uses a nuclear bomb against Iran, it will also attack Israel with a nuclear bomb.” However, Pakistani Defense Minister Khwaja Asif did not confirm these statements. Without denying them, he simply said: “Israel has targeted Iran, Yemen, and Palestine. If Muslim countries do not unite now, everyone will suffer the same fate. We support Iran and will defend it in all international forums to protect its interests.”

It is not at all certain that the GBU-57 penetrator bombs would have been able to penetrate the underground base at Fordo. The base was dug under 80 meters of granite. To destroy it, several GBU-57s would have to be fired successively into the same hole.

Ultimately, the Trump administration believed, as White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said: “Let’s be very clear, Iran has everything it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon. All they need is a decision from the Supreme Leader to that effect, and it would take them about two weeks to complete the production of that weapon.”

So, since the beginning of June, it has been secretly preparing “Operation Midnight Hammer  ” at the instigation of General Michael Kurilla, commander of the United States forces in the Middle East (CentCom). To do this, the general met his Israeli counterparts on April 25 and gathered the most precise information on his targets. On June 10, he presented to the House of Representatives his strategic analysis of the opportunities that the upheavals in the Middle East offered to the United States. In passing, he revealed that he had presented President Trump with a wide range of options for exploiting them  [ 5 ] .

On June 11, the State Department ordered all non-essential personnel and their families to withdraw from Bahrain, Qatar, and Iraq.

On June 16, President Donald Trump rushed out of the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Canada. On his plane back to Washington, he posted an angry post about his allies: “Because he’s looking for publicity, President Emmanuel Macron of France falsely stated that I left the G7 summit in Canada to return to Washington to work on a ‘ceasefire’ between Israel and Iran. This is false. He doesn’t know why I’m now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a ceasefire. Much bigger than that. Whether deliberately or not, Emmanuel is always wrong. Stay tuned.”  [ 6 ]

On the night of June 21-22, President Trump, in violation of the UN Charter, launched an attack on Iran’s main nuclear sites, but not on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, due to the presence of Russian personnel. However, it appears that Washington had warned Tehran in advance that it was going to strike: a column of trucks was seen by satellite evacuating equipment from the Fordo base.

This surprise attack can be interpreted in two ways: either President Trump saved Israel from massive destruction by Fatah-1 hypersonic missiles, or, conversely, he saved Iran from an Israeli nuclear bombardment. The fact that the Pentagon did not attack the Fatah-1 launchers, which are less well protected than civilian nuclear power plants, suggests the latter interpretation.

In any case, by destroying Iran’s nuclear research program, President Trump has deprived Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the argument he has been using for twenty years to wage his “war on seven fronts.”

We must remember that President Donald Trump, during his first term, ordered the assassination of ISIS Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (October 27, 2019), followed by that of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani (January 3, 2020). In his mind, this was about striking the main Sunni military leader and the main Shiite military leader in order to bring their two groups into line. Which worked.

It is therefore possible that bad news awaits an Israeli leader in the coming months. The arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu by the Israeli justice system, for example.

—

[ 1 ]  “  Creation of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East  ”, Voltaire Network , May 4, 2010.

[ 2 ]  Israel and the Bomb. Secret History of Israeli Nuclear Power , by Avner Cohen, Demi-Lune (2020).

[ 3 ]  The Culture of War , Martin van Creveld, Presido Press (2008).

[ 4 ]  “  Is the possibility of a World War real?  ”, by Serge Marchand & Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network , April 9, 2024.

[ 5 ]  “  Full Committee Hearing: “US Military Posture and National Security Challenges AFRICOM + CENTCOM”  ”, US House Armed Services Committee, YouTube , June 10, 2025.

[ 6 ]  “  Donald Trump  ”, Truth Social , June 17, 2025.

The post The Unspoken Truth About Iran’s Nuclear Program appeared first on LewRockwell.

“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”—Justice Louis D. Brandeis

While the U.S. wages war abroad—bombing Iran, escalating conflict, and staging a spectacle of power for political gain—a different kind of war is being waged here at home.

This war at home is quieter but no less destructive. The casualties are not in distant deserts or foreign cities. They are our freedoms, our communities, and the Constitution itself.

And the agents of this domestic war? Masked thugs. Unmarked vans. Raids. Roundups.

Detentions without due process. Retaliation against those who dare to question or challenge government authority. People made to disappear into bureaucratic black holes. Fear campaigns targeting immigrant communities and political dissenters alike. Surveillance weaponized to monitor and suppress lawful activity.

Packaged under the guise of national security—as all power grabs tend to be—this government-sanctioned thuggery masquerading as law-and-order is the face of the Trump Administration’s so-called war on illegal immigration.

Don’t fall for the propaganda that claims we’re being overrun by criminals or driven into the poorhouse by undocumented immigrants living off welfare.

The real threat to our way of life comes not from outside invaders, but from within: an unelected, unaccountable enforcement agency operating above the law.

President Trump insists that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is focused on violent criminals, but the facts tell a different story (non-criminal ICE arrests have surged 800% in six months)—and that myth is precisely what enables the erosion of rights for everyone.

By painting enforcement as narrowly targeted, the administration obscures a far broader dragnet that sweeps up legal residents, naturalized citizens, and native-born Americans alike.

What begins with immigrants rarely ends there.

According to the Cato Institute, 65 percent of people taken by ICE had no convictions, and 93 percent had no violent convictions at all.

This isn’t targeted enforcement—it’s indiscriminate purging.

What ICE—an agency that increasingly resembles a modern-day Gestapo—is doing to immigrants today, it can and will do to citizens tomorrow: these are the early warning signs of a system already in motion.

The machinery is in place. The abuses are ongoing. And the constitutional safeguards we rely on are being ignored, dismantled, or bypassed entirely.

When legal residents, naturalized citizens, and native-born Americans are swept up in ICE’s raids, detained without cause, and subjected to treatment that defies every constitutional protection against government overreach, this isn’t about immigration.

It’s not about danger. It’s about power—unchecked and absolute.

This is authoritarianism by design.

Here are just a few examples of how ICE’s reach now extends far beyond a criminal class of undocumented immigrants:

• In Los Angeles, ICE agents detained U.S. citizens Jason Gavidia and Javier Ramirez during mass raids at flea markets—actions condemned by local officials as racial profiling.
• In New York City, ICE arrested mayoral candidate Brad Lander at a courthouse after he questioned the legitimacy of an enforcement action.
• In Arizona, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen with developmental disabilities was held for 10 days without charges.
• In Virginia, naturalized citizen Jensy Machado was handcuffed at gunpoint until officers reviewed his REAL ID.
• In Oregon, ICE agents arrested Moises Sotelo Casas—beloved vineyard manager and community member—outside a church.
• In Tennessee, teen soccer player Emerson Colindres was deported without warning, despite having no criminal background. His community was left reeling.
• ICE has even conducted raids at churches—sanctuaries meant to offer refuge—violating not just constitutional rights but community trust and religious protections.

This pattern of abuse is not accidental.

It reflects a deliberate strategy of fear and domination by ICE agents acting like an occupying army, intent on intimidating the population into submission while the Trump Administration redraws the boundaries of the Constitution for all within America’s borders, citizen and immigrant alike.

This is how you dismantle a constitutional republic: not in one dramatic moment, but through the steady erosion of rights, accountability, and rule of law—first for the marginalized, then for everyone.

When constitutional guarantees become conditional and oversight is systematically evaded, all Americans—regardless of status—stand vulnerable to a regime that governs by fear rather than freedom.

We’ve seen this playbook before.

It’s the same strategy used by fascist regimes to consolidate power—using fear, force, and propaganda to turn public institutions into instruments of oppression.

ICE raids often occur without warrants. Agents frequently detain individuals not charged with any crime. Homes, schools, hospitals, workplaces, and courthouses have all become targets. Agents in plain clothes swarm unsuspecting individuals, arrest them without explanation, and separate families under the pretense of national security. In many cases, masked agents refuse to identify themselves at all—creating a climate of terror where the public cannot distinguish lawful enforcement from lawless abduction.

This is not justice. It is intimidation. And it has become business as usual.

ICE has even begun deputizing local police departments to carry out these raids.

Through an expanded network of partnerships, ICE has turned routine traffic stops into pipelines for deportation. According to The Washington Post, immigrants stopped on the way to volleyball practice, picking up baby formula, or heading to job sites have been detained and, in some cases, sent to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.

This is what politicizing and weaponizing local police looks like.

Even members of Congress attempting to exercise constitutional oversight have been turned away from ICE facilities. As The New York Times reported, ICE now claims the authority to “deny a request or otherwise cancel” congressional visits based on vague “operational concerns”—effectively placing its operations beyond democratic scrutiny.

Beyond the high-profile arrests, the abuse runs deeper.

Julio Noriega, a 54-year-old American citizen, was snatched up off the street and detained in Chicago for 10 hours without explanation. Leonardo Garcia Venegas, a U.S.-born citizen, was detained because ICE dismissed his REAL ID as fake. Cary López Alvarado, a pregnant U.S. citizen, was handcuffed and arrested for challenging ICE agents who had followed her fiancé to work. Children, veterans, and immunocompromised individuals have all suffered under ICE’s dragnet.

These are not outliers. They are the product of a system that operates without meaningful checks.

ICE agents are rarely held accountable. Internal investigations are ineffective. Congress has abdicated oversight. Directives from the Trump administration—including those authored by Stephen Miller—have turbocharged deportations and loosened any remaining restraints.

From boots on the ground to bytes in the cloud, ICE’s unchecked power reflects a broader shift toward authoritarianism, fueled by high-tech surveillance, public indifference and minimal judicial oversight. The agency operates a sprawling digital dragnet: facial recognition, license plate readers, cellphone tracking, and partnerships with tech giants like Amazon and Palantir feed massive databases—often without warrants or oversight.

These same tools—hallmarks of a growing surveillance state—are now being quietly repurposed across other federal agencies, setting the stage for an integrated surveillance-policing regime that threatens the constitutional rights of every American.

This isn’t about safety. It’s about control.

These tools aren’t just targeting undocumented immigrants—they’re laying the digital scaffolding for a future in which everyone is watched, scored, and subject to state suspicion.

Quotas over justice. Algorithms over rights.

ICE’s operations have little to do with individualized threat assessments. What drives these raids is not public safety but bureaucratic performance. Field offices are under pressure to meet arrest quotas, creating a system that incentivizes indiscriminate sweeps over focused investigations.

As Jennie Taer writes for the NY Post:

“The Trump administration’s mandate to arrest 3,000 illegal migrants per day is forcing ICE agents to deprioritize going after dangerous criminals and targets with deportation orders, insiders warn. Instead, federal immigration officers are spending more time rounding up people off the streets… Agents are desperate to meet the White House’s high expectations, leading them to leave some dangerous criminal illegal migrants on the streets, and instead look for anyone they can get their hands on at the local Home Depot or bus stop.”

Predictive algorithms and flawed databases replace constitutional suspicion with digital hunches, turning enforcement into a numbers game and transforming communities into statistical targets.

Constitutional safeguards are being replaced by digital suspicion.

We now live in a nation where lawful dissent—especially from immigrants or those perceived as outsiders—can place someone under state suspicion. The line between investigation and persecution has been erased.

Fear needs fuel.

And ICE finds it in propaganda: just as the Gestapo used propaganda to justify its cruelty, ICE relies on the language of fear and division. When the government labels people “invaders,” “animals,” or “thugs,” it strips them of humanity—and strips us of our conscience.

This rhetoric serves to distract and divide. It normalizes abuse. And it ensures that, once targeted, no one is safe.

The construction of a new ICE mega-prison in Florida—nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” for its proposed moat and remote location—serves as a grotesque symbol of the Trump Administration’s mass deportation agenda: out of sight, beyond accountability, and surrounded by literal and bureaucratic barriers to due process.

And Trump’s shifting stance on industries that rely on migrant labor—one moment threatening crackdowns, the next signaling exemptions for hotels, farms, and construction—reveals what this campaign is really about: not security, but political theater.

It’s not about danger; it’s about dominance.

But the crisis isn’t just rhetorical. It’s systemic. Agents are trained to obey, not to question. Immunity shields misconduct. Whistleblowers are punished. Watchdogs are ignored. Courts too often defer to executive power.

This is not law enforcement—it is authoritarian enforcement.

And it’s not limited to immigrants. It’s creeping into every corner of American life.

When a government can detain its own citizens without due process, punish political dissent, and target individuals for what they believe or how they look, it is no longer governed by law. It is governed by fear.

The Constitution was designed to prevent this. But rights are meaningless when no one is held accountable for violating them.

That is why the solution must go beyond the ballot box.

We must dismantle the machinery of oppression that enables ICE to act as judge, jury, and jailer.

Congress must ban warrantless raids, end predictive profiling, and prohibit mass surveillance. It must enforce real oversight and revoke the legal shields that insulate abusive agents from consequences.

We must reassert the rule of law, not just through legislation, but through a cultural recommitment to constitutional values. That includes transparency, demilitarization, and equal protection for all—citizens and non-citizens alike.

This is not just a fight over immigration policy. It’s a battle for the soul of our nation.

ICE is not the exception. It is the prototype.

As I make clear in my books Battlefield America: The War on the American People and A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, the same blueprint is being applied across the federal landscape: to protest monitoring, dissent suppression, and data-mined predictive policing.

If we fail to dismantle the ICE model, we normalize it—and risk reproducing it everywhere else.

ICE has become the beta test—perfecting the merger of technology, policing, and executive power that could soon define American governance as a whole.

Make no mistake: when fear becomes law, freedom is the casualty.

If we don’t act soon, we may find that the Constitution is the next to be detained.

James Madison warned that “the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands… may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”

When ICE acts as enforcer, jailer, and judge for the president, those fears are no longer theoretical—they are the daily reality for countless people within U.S. borders.

This article was originally published on The Rutherford Institute.

The post America’s Most Lawless Agency: ICE Is the Prototype for Tyranny appeared first on LewRockwell.

President Trump says it was necessary for him to order U.S. pilots to bomb Iran to prevent that nation’s government from building a nuclear bomb.

Wait a minute. Something is coming to me. Just give me a moment. It’s coming into my mind. Oh, yes, I remember:

“WMDs! WMDs, Jacob! We have to invade Iran, I mean Iraq, because Saddam Hussein is coming to get us with his WMDs! We have to invade now! Tomorrow will be too late. WMDs! WMDs!”

That was 2003, just before the U.S. government invaded Iraq, a country that had never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so. That was another war of aggression, one that violated the principles set forth at Nuremberg and that also violated the U.S. Constitution’s declaration-of-war requirement, thereby making the war illegal under our form of government.

I remember National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. She knew what she was talking about. She said that mushroom clouds from Iraq’s WMDs could soon start appearing over American cities. Who can forget that?

Oh, and let’s not forget U.S. Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell. He was a military man. He’d never lie. He had charts proving that Saddam Hussein was about to unleash his WMDs on the American people. Who can forget the good general’s beautiful charts?

Oh, and what about that undercover CIA agent that U.S. officials illegally outed by publicly disclosing her identity to the world? That was in vicious retaliation for the audacity shown by her husband for challenging the truthfulness of some “yellow cake” uranium tale that U.S. officials were fraudulently using to “prove” that Saddam was coming to get us with his WMDs.

But where are those WMDs! Yes, I know that the U.S. national-security establishment ended up invading Iraq to protect us from those WMDS. I know that U.S. forces killed, tortured, and maimed hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi people in the process. I know that the U.S. government destroyed the entire country — infrastructure, homes, and businesses. I know that they impoverished those who survived the onslaught. I also know that U.S. forces are still in Iraq.

Yes, I know all that. But that’s not what I’m asking about. I’m asking: Where are those WMDs? Are the U.S. troops that are there in Iraq today still looking for them?

I’ll answer the question. There aren’t any WMDs. There never were any WMDs. There was never going to be any mushroom clouds over American cities. It was all a lie from the get-go. It was always about regime change — that is, ousting their former partner and ally Saddam Hussein from power and replacing him with another loyal and brutal U.S. puppet dictator. The national-security state just needed a way to make U.S. soldiers feel good about killing innocent people as part of a regime-change operation. Otherwise, the troops might have felt a bit squeamish about engaging in the legalized murder of innocent people.

Of course, the same goes for the American people. They too might have suffered a crisis of conscience over the mass killing of innocent people, especially given that their government had already killed countless Iraqis, including children, with brutal U.S. sanctions throughout the 1990s as an indirect way to get regime change. They needed to be scared to death into supporting the invasion and the resulting U.S. killing/torture spree.

What are we supposed to do today? Believe them when they say that Iraq — I’m sorry, Iran — was now about to acquire WMDs?

Let me tell you what, in my opinion, is really going on here. U.S. national-security state officials and their imperialist-interventionist supporters in the private sector have a bloodlust that needs to be quenched. The invasion and multi-year occupation in Iraq, where U.S. forces killed, injured, maimed, and tortured hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis ended in 2011. It was in August 2021 that Taliban forces booted U.S. forces out of their country after a 20-year U.S. killing spree. Four years is a long time to go without killing people. Furnishing brand new state-of-the art weapons and bombs to the Israeli government to kill multitudes of people in Gaza, and also now in Iran, is just not sufficiently satisfying. Using NATO to provoke a war that kills and injures hundreds of thousands of foreign soldiers also just doesn’t cut it. To satisfy the bloodlust, it’s necessary for the U.S. government to participate directly, not indirectly, in killing. Killing multitudes of Iranians in a brand new foreign war could certainly help quench the thirst for more death and destruction.

Reprinted with permission from Future of Freedom Foundation.

The post Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran(q) appeared first on LewRockwell.