Those quotes from Madison, if said today, would be considered treasonous by this administration. We are a nation that has far too many war monuments, but no peace monuments that I'm aware of. If we did have a peace monument, I would put these Madison quotes at the base of it.
Thanks Thom for the historical perspective. Seems to me clay face is going for the hat trick, taking a huge bribe to use our military to destroy Iran, helping Bebe get reelected, plus using his elective war to screw up midterms. People on TV and in person asked why did he bomb Venezuela and take Maduro? Why did he take all those boxes of secrets to Mar a Lago? Now the same questions re Iran. Answer - for Money.
This attack on Iran is also a shot across the bow directed at the American people. It’s saying I’m out of control and no one can rein me in.
The closer we get to what was really going on and who to prosecute in the Epstein affair, the more violent he gets.
He’s literally telling us with this demonstration that he doesn’t care who’s blood he is responsible for spilling—now, it’s our fighter pilots—next it will be who ever stands in his way here in the US.
It also gives a clear message that what went on in the streets of Minneapolis with innocent people being killed, will continue. But, possibly on a larger and more dramatic scale.
This is what he’s been after for a while. This is all he knows: In order to make people bend to your will make them very afraid.
This is who he is a psychopathic bully capable of doing great harm.
The evil idiots President TRump and Senator Lindsey Graham had the audacity to frame troops losing their lives in the Epstein-Iran War as though it would be in service to a noble cause.
What a Commander In Chief! He declares war and runs off to his vacation home to enjoy the Florida sunshine and the crowds of sickos and psychos. He's our ballroom/ball cap President without an ounce of empathy. My heart is with the troops.
Having fought terrorism in the 80's and kept fully informed thereafter, I hate Iran's dirty work. The war results could be diverse. For or against it, either way it will be very expensive and deadly, but that is always the goal when it comes to TRump, Putin, and Netanyahu. See you in the streets.
Trump's Epstein is nothing more than an attempt to distract the U.S. public from the fact that he is a financial and traitorous criminal who should have been jailed on Jan. 6 after he encouraged a violent overthrow of the 2020 elections. He is guilty of sexual assault and may violations of Constitutional Law. I'm disgusted by the corrupt Supreme Court and Democrats lack of guts and spine to stop this would be dictator and his illegal actions.
Trump and Netanyahu have SO much in common! And, most caring people whether like Trump and BiBi or those without so much darkness, are relieved to have the Supreme Leader of Iran gone. Regarding "timing" Donald and BiBi never seem to even consider "timing."
Hal, The Pentagon knows this, there will be no victory only disaster is they invade Iran, this will be an air and Naval bombardment. Iran is not Iraq, for one thing it's army is fanatic.
During the Iran Iraq war, they used young boys as mine detectors (without equipment), Iran lost a whole generation of young men.
The media talks about the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, but not the Basij.
The Basij is volunteer,civilians, ideologically (religiously) motivated, they don't wear uniforms they could be the guy leading a donkey cart, and they too are fanatic.
Nah, no ground war just aerial bombardment, targeting especially the leadership.
I worry about the few thousand Jews left in Iran, a few years ago they numbered about 5,5000 then Khameini went after them with a vengeance after Trump bombed Iran the first time.
Thanks William, I was not aware of the Basiji, but it makes sense. A quick read makes its members sound like a sort of Stasi with the suicidal fanaticism of imperial Japan's last defenders. And I agree there's no way we would send massive ground forces in. Maybe small special units, but that's not the same. Iran is after all, far larger and more populous than Iraq, and Tehran's metro area is approaching 17 million. An urban fight there would be impossible.
But just aerial bombing doesn't make people surrender, and as a commentator I ran across last night pointed out, Iran can make cheap short-range missiles and drones far faster than the U.S. and Israel can make devices to knock them out. Anyway, if the current government collapses, 40% of Iran's population are ethnic minorities, and you can be sure that at least some of them would be happy to break away, so things would be a chaotic mess from one end to the other. Heck, Pakistan, like the British before them, has enough trouble with its marginal tribes. (Taking a bus over that border in 1973 I saw a sign at Khyber warning people not to get off the road because there was no control beyond it.)
As you say, obviously the Pentagon knows all this. That didn't stop them having to follow orders for the absurd last two wars in this part of the world; from the beginning it was clear that they were futile and would cost fortunes. Maybe Trump can spin this whole thing as some sort of "victory", but the outcome can't make him look good. That's a positive, but at a terrible cost.
Excellent comments Docrhw. One take from what you wrote is we could see a civil war in Iran ... after the guy who knows more than the generals declares victory and ends the latest big show.
Thank you. Nobody knows what will happen here, but when in a country different people don't get along and then the pressure to stay together is taken off, they may turn on each other. That certainly happened in Yugoslavia. And we know how the different Iraq groups fought once Saddam was gone. That should have been a lesson but exactly the same thing (with big powers now backing each side) is playing out in post-Gaddafi Libya. Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
Thanks for the info on the Basiji. Do you think Trump's war planners understand that just using air power won't lead to regime change if they've unleashed a civil war where the old guard, both the Basiji and Revolutionary Guard, is far better armed and trained than those who want to turn Iran democratic? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basij
I don't think that Trump's war planners think. IMO the whole affair is the brainstorm of Bibi, he is in dire need of an existential war, to keep his shit out of the fire. He is in deep shit in Israel, and it was put on the back burner because of the war with HAMAS, now that has wound down and he needs another distraction, Trump needs one also because of Epstein and the shit storm he stirred up with his ICE raids.
The two are brothers from another mother, BFF's, interdependent, and Jared has a real estate project going with some Israeli investors, for Gaza.
Trump is going to have Hegseth pelt them with aerial munitions, until we run out of munitions, which is a great boost for Raytheon and munitions manufacturers, not to mention the red states in which those manufacturers are located.
This is my analysis, but I find it ironic, that a conscious decision was made, after reconstruction to create army basis in the south, to keep an eye on the rebs,but over time, the army's main source of recruits is from the south and rural America, like mid west. and the bases that were created to keep an eye on the old confederacy are now hotbeds of right wing racism., led by Trump humping officers.
I agree his buddy Bibi was the major influence besides political expediency here. Don't you think that the Saudis also influenced him but to a lesser degree? Today Trump said the "big one is coming." What does he mean by this?
Does this mean that the initial attack was a small one? I'm not an expert, but it seems that when you start a war like this you hit the enemy as quickly and as hard as you possibly can with the fewest casualties on your side as possible. Is there any other way to hit them harder, any bigger attack? It seems like he is suggesting a ground attack. This would mean we have an invasion force poised to go in the way Russia invaded Ukraine. Do we have a D-Day type invasion ready to go?
As I wrote, this will means bodies on the ground. How many deaths will the nation tolerate in a war we started and which the majority of the country is already against?
Iran has been challenging Saudi Arabia, the major Sunni nation, for world leadership of Islam.
After Muhammad died, one of his followers, the most powerful, assumed the role of succcessor, al Bakr, and beame the first Caliph. And there it stood, until the Muslims conquered the Persian empire. The Persians became Muslim,, but resented the Arabs whom they considered disgusting lizard eaters and drinkers of camels milk. A 20th Century Persian poet name of Ferdowsi wrote a book, called the Shahemenemeh or Book of Kings, bemoaning that it took "dirty" Arabs to make them Muslim.
The Persians adopted the son in law and cousin of Muhammad, who was his first student (Talib) as the proper successor and no one knows his birth name, he was given a name/title of Ali ibn abu Talib, which means exaclted son of the father of the Student, and the student was Ali, in other words Muhammads Cousin.
The Persians, rjeecting the Sunni (Sunnah means successor), took Ali as their patron saint, and his grandson usayn ibn Ali as the successor of Muhammad.
The Umayyad Caliphate defeated the Persian army of Husayn ibn Ali (ibn means son, Ali means exalated) at the Battle of Karbala
Thus begins the Sunni shia conflict ovr the rightful leadership of Islam.
Not quite analoous to the Protestant Reformation, because the quarrel isn't over doctrine, ritual, (although the Shia have developed their own list of saints and rituals,.
It is more akin to the split between the Church of England and the Church of Rome, It is political not doctrinaire, though there has been liberalization and enlightenment seeping into the Church of England and it's American offshoot, the Episcopal Church ( renamed itself after the revolution)
This morning, I read that Iran has over a million soldiers. Retired high-ranking military officials have stated that we cannot win a ground war with Iran.
You can't win a war with an enemy who is willing to die for their faith. There is no greater glory in Islam than to die a marty. Muslims don't mourn their fallen, they celebrated themas Shahed's (martyrs)
Those who fought muhajidin in the Balkans, were terrified of fighting Jihadists, they sought a glorious death, that would lift them to paradise.
The Iraq // Iran war lasted 9 years, and Iraq was supplied with the latest arms by the US (Saddam was a "friend" then). Iran was not well armed, recovering from the revolution, so Baker worked out a deal, after they captured the Embassy personnel and used them as hostages.
That America would supply Iran with weapons needed to defend against Iraq,including the F-14 Tomahawk fighter, if they would release the hostages, when Reagan was elected. Reported in Christian Science Monitor by Ayatollah, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, the first president of Iran (1980–1981),
Congress refused to fund the project, so Reagan launched "Operation Snowfall" we know as Iran Contra.
Where we supplies small arms to the Contras in Nicaragua in their fight against the Sandinistas, and the Contras used their landing strips for exchange of cocaine from Colombia, for weapons flown in by contract pilots, who flew the concaine back and airdropped or landed it in the U.S.
The Cocaine was used by the CIA to fund the purchase of weapons, from an Israeli arms dealer, who then supplied them to Iran., this involved the co operation of the Isrfaeli Government, especially for the transfer of F-14's.
Inorder to sell the Cocaine, the CIA recruited their own cadre of pushers.
Tjere was a TV series, that highlighted the opoeration, called Snowfall.
Snowfall, was a fictionalized representation of what is in fact, reality.
Everything from procuring drug pushers, to hiring private pilots and craft to deliver arms and pick up cocaine, to assassinations of people who knew too much.
Names were changed to protect the guilty.
They even made a movie about Barry Seal, one of the pilots
Ahhh…so now our POTUS & Company is transitioning from its three-ring circus 🎪 to a chaotic, political carnival of carnage with no coherent strategy in sight.
All they seem to seek is plausible deniability. If Americans die, meh. “that’s the way it is”….
Bullseye Thom. Thank you for reminding us of the prescient quotes from Thomas Jefferson who must be turning over in his grave if he somehow sees the lunacy of the current cabal of cosplay crusaders.
How do you/we get this fantastic song out into the general public's music brain? The rebranding as "Epstein's War" is an important concept and needs maximum exposure ASAP. My guess is the real ugliness of this "WAR" and all its wrongness will maybe for the good as the 2026 election grinds on. Plus those that have died and will die to have a proper legacy that they contributed to ending our collective TRUMP killer nightmare.
Mixed emotions here: Glad that Khameini and his friggin family are dead. The bastard was hanging young girls from construction cranes for disrespect of the hijab.
On the other hand: From Ha'aretz today.
Khamenei's Successors Are Showing No Signs of Surrender – and They May Push Even Further
In the long run, the people who may well succeed him are the fanatic extremists of the Revolutionary Guards, which doesn't concern itself with theological issues, but invests all its efforts in a murderous fight against Israel, the West and Sunni Arab countries
AND… Why was Kushner and Witkoff sent as "envoys" for nuclear and peace negotiations with Iran? I think the answer is pretty obvious. Can you spell GAZA? Remember that rebuilding Gaza is worth billions of dollars. This is a grift that the Trump mob can't ignore.
So you need to make the area safe from terrorism- thus take out Iran . Then of course you need Financing - enter the Saudis and take the Iranian oil with our recently commandeered tankers.
And finally, you need cheap labor as the lower class to service the morbidly RICH, who come to the new waterfront playground. Keep the Palestinians to do the work and pay them nothing.
Oh, and the side benefit is to create a war president for the US midterms, and a perfect slight of hand to distract media from our pedophiliac and corrupt leaders.
Those quotes from Madison, if said today, would be considered treasonous by this administration. We are a nation that has far too many war monuments, but no peace monuments that I'm aware of. If we did have a peace monument, I would put these Madison quotes at the base of it.
Thanks Thom for the historical perspective. Seems to me clay face is going for the hat trick, taking a huge bribe to use our military to destroy Iran, helping Bebe get reelected, plus using his elective war to screw up midterms. People on TV and in person asked why did he bomb Venezuela and take Maduro? Why did he take all those boxes of secrets to Mar a Lago? Now the same questions re Iran. Answer - for Money.
The Secretary of "Boxing" War said it best. :
Mike Tyson’s line is “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Many of Donald's voters wanted him because:
- He [not unlike the character Ma in "The Golden Girls"] said what they think about minorities.
Especially, the Blacks and the Browns. [note Ma never hated on minorities; she just had no filter]
He was their race-sick boy. But they did not think he'd flip-flop on war.
Why? Because, well, suh, he ain't never lied, be-foe.
A Faustian deal with the Artful Draft Dodger, to be sure . . .
Anyway, how does "Don the chickenhawk" like the popular hashtag?
# Send Barron
VOTE.
This attack on Iran is also a shot across the bow directed at the American people. It’s saying I’m out of control and no one can rein me in.
The closer we get to what was really going on and who to prosecute in the Epstein affair, the more violent he gets.
He’s literally telling us with this demonstration that he doesn’t care who’s blood he is responsible for spilling—now, it’s our fighter pilots—next it will be who ever stands in his way here in the US.
It also gives a clear message that what went on in the streets of Minneapolis with innocent people being killed, will continue. But, possibly on a larger and more dramatic scale.
This is what he’s been after for a while. This is all he knows: In order to make people bend to your will make them very afraid.
This is who he is a psychopathic bully capable of doing great harm.
Die a noble death?
The evil idiots President TRump and Senator Lindsey Graham had the audacity to frame troops losing their lives in the Epstein-Iran War as though it would be in service to a noble cause.
What a Commander In Chief! He declares war and runs off to his vacation home to enjoy the Florida sunshine and the crowds of sickos and psychos. He's our ballroom/ball cap President without an ounce of empathy. My heart is with the troops.
Having fought terrorism in the 80's and kept fully informed thereafter, I hate Iran's dirty work. The war results could be diverse. For or against it, either way it will be very expensive and deadly, but that is always the goal when it comes to TRump, Putin, and Netanyahu. See you in the streets.
Trump's Epstein is nothing more than an attempt to distract the U.S. public from the fact that he is a financial and traitorous criminal who should have been jailed on Jan. 6 after he encouraged a violent overthrow of the 2020 elections. He is guilty of sexual assault and may violations of Constitutional Law. I'm disgusted by the corrupt Supreme Court and Democrats lack of guts and spine to stop this would be dictator and his illegal actions.
The current president’s power is unlimited.
Thanks Tom - its a sad truth.
Trump and Netanyahu have SO much in common! And, most caring people whether like Trump and BiBi or those without so much darkness, are relieved to have the Supreme Leader of Iran gone. Regarding "timing" Donald and BiBi never seem to even consider "timing."
It's like one mafioso eliminating another mafioso. Who needs the law when you have a gun.
Here's my take on this:
American boots on the ground in Iran will mean bodies on the ground.
How high does the death count have to go before Trump stops the war? What's the magic increment of 10?
https://halbrown.substack.com/p/american-boots-on-the-ground-in-iran
Hal, The Pentagon knows this, there will be no victory only disaster is they invade Iran, this will be an air and Naval bombardment. Iran is not Iraq, for one thing it's army is fanatic.
During the Iran Iraq war, they used young boys as mine detectors (without equipment), Iran lost a whole generation of young men.
The media talks about the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, but not the Basij.
The Basij is volunteer,civilians, ideologically (religiously) motivated, they don't wear uniforms they could be the guy leading a donkey cart, and they too are fanatic.
Nah, no ground war just aerial bombardment, targeting especially the leadership.
I worry about the few thousand Jews left in Iran, a few years ago they numbered about 5,5000 then Khameini went after them with a vengeance after Trump bombed Iran the first time.
Thanks William, I was not aware of the Basiji, but it makes sense. A quick read makes its members sound like a sort of Stasi with the suicidal fanaticism of imperial Japan's last defenders. And I agree there's no way we would send massive ground forces in. Maybe small special units, but that's not the same. Iran is after all, far larger and more populous than Iraq, and Tehran's metro area is approaching 17 million. An urban fight there would be impossible.
But just aerial bombing doesn't make people surrender, and as a commentator I ran across last night pointed out, Iran can make cheap short-range missiles and drones far faster than the U.S. and Israel can make devices to knock them out. Anyway, if the current government collapses, 40% of Iran's population are ethnic minorities, and you can be sure that at least some of them would be happy to break away, so things would be a chaotic mess from one end to the other. Heck, Pakistan, like the British before them, has enough trouble with its marginal tribes. (Taking a bus over that border in 1973 I saw a sign at Khyber warning people not to get off the road because there was no control beyond it.)
As you say, obviously the Pentagon knows all this. That didn't stop them having to follow orders for the absurd last two wars in this part of the world; from the beginning it was clear that they were futile and would cost fortunes. Maybe Trump can spin this whole thing as some sort of "victory", but the outcome can't make him look good. That's a positive, but at a terrible cost.
Excellent comments Docrhw. One take from what you wrote is we could see a civil war in Iran ... after the guy who knows more than the generals declares victory and ends the latest big show.
Thank you. Nobody knows what will happen here, but when in a country different people don't get along and then the pressure to stay together is taken off, they may turn on each other. That certainly happened in Yugoslavia. And we know how the different Iraq groups fought once Saddam was gone. That should have been a lesson but exactly the same thing (with big powers now backing each side) is playing out in post-Gaddafi Libya. Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
Kings, Shah's, and Ayatollah's, military mafia, held the different peoples and sects together by force.
Thanks for the info on the Basiji. Do you think Trump's war planners understand that just using air power won't lead to regime change if they've unleashed a civil war where the old guard, both the Basiji and Revolutionary Guard, is far better armed and trained than those who want to turn Iran democratic? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basij
I don't think that Trump's war planners think. IMO the whole affair is the brainstorm of Bibi, he is in dire need of an existential war, to keep his shit out of the fire. He is in deep shit in Israel, and it was put on the back burner because of the war with HAMAS, now that has wound down and he needs another distraction, Trump needs one also because of Epstein and the shit storm he stirred up with his ICE raids.
The two are brothers from another mother, BFF's, interdependent, and Jared has a real estate project going with some Israeli investors, for Gaza.
Trump is going to have Hegseth pelt them with aerial munitions, until we run out of munitions, which is a great boost for Raytheon and munitions manufacturers, not to mention the red states in which those manufacturers are located.
This is my analysis, but I find it ironic, that a conscious decision was made, after reconstruction to create army basis in the south, to keep an eye on the rebs,but over time, the army's main source of recruits is from the south and rural America, like mid west. and the bases that were created to keep an eye on the old confederacy are now hotbeds of right wing racism., led by Trump humping officers.
I agree his buddy Bibi was the major influence besides political expediency here. Don't you think that the Saudis also influenced him but to a lesser degree? Today Trump said the "big one is coming." What does he mean by this?
Does this mean that the initial attack was a small one? I'm not an expert, but it seems that when you start a war like this you hit the enemy as quickly and as hard as you possibly can with the fewest casualties on your side as possible. Is there any other way to hit them harder, any bigger attack? It seems like he is suggesting a ground attack. This would mean we have an invasion force poised to go in the way Russia invaded Ukraine. Do we have a D-Day type invasion ready to go?
As I wrote, this will means bodies on the ground. How many deaths will the nation tolerate in a war we started and which the majority of the country is already against?
How about commenting on my Substack? https://halbrown.substack.com/p/american-boots-on-the-ground-in-iran
There is word, that the Saudi's also pushed him.
Iran has been challenging Saudi Arabia, the major Sunni nation, for world leadership of Islam.
After Muhammad died, one of his followers, the most powerful, assumed the role of succcessor, al Bakr, and beame the first Caliph. And there it stood, until the Muslims conquered the Persian empire. The Persians became Muslim,, but resented the Arabs whom they considered disgusting lizard eaters and drinkers of camels milk. A 20th Century Persian poet name of Ferdowsi wrote a book, called the Shahemenemeh or Book of Kings, bemoaning that it took "dirty" Arabs to make them Muslim.
The Persians adopted the son in law and cousin of Muhammad, who was his first student (Talib) as the proper successor and no one knows his birth name, he was given a name/title of Ali ibn abu Talib, which means exaclted son of the father of the Student, and the student was Ali, in other words Muhammads Cousin.
The Persians, rjeecting the Sunni (Sunnah means successor), took Ali as their patron saint, and his grandson usayn ibn Ali as the successor of Muhammad.
The Umayyad Caliphate defeated the Persian army of Husayn ibn Ali (ibn means son, Ali means exalated) at the Battle of Karbala
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Karbala
Thus begins the Sunni shia conflict ovr the rightful leadership of Islam.
Not quite analoous to the Protestant Reformation, because the quarrel isn't over doctrine, ritual, (although the Shia have developed their own list of saints and rituals,.
It is more akin to the split between the Church of England and the Church of Rome, It is political not doctrinaire, though there has been liberalization and enlightenment seeping into the Church of England and it's American offshoot, the Episcopal Church ( renamed itself after the revolution)
And the US is about to sacrifice Amercian lives in a conflict between these rivals?
This morning, I read that Iran has over a million soldiers. Retired high-ranking military officials have stated that we cannot win a ground war with Iran.
You can't win a war with an enemy who is willing to die for their faith. There is no greater glory in Islam than to die a marty. Muslims don't mourn their fallen, they celebrated themas Shahed's (martyrs)
Those who fought muhajidin in the Balkans, were terrified of fighting Jihadists, they sought a glorious death, that would lift them to paradise.
The Iraq // Iran war lasted 9 years, and Iraq was supplied with the latest arms by the US (Saddam was a "friend" then). Iran was not well armed, recovering from the revolution, so Baker worked out a deal, after they captured the Embassy personnel and used them as hostages.
That America would supply Iran with weapons needed to defend against Iraq,including the F-14 Tomahawk fighter, if they would release the hostages, when Reagan was elected. Reported in Christian Science Monitor by Ayatollah, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, the first president of Iran (1980–1981),
Congress refused to fund the project, so Reagan launched "Operation Snowfall" we know as Iran Contra.
Where we supplies small arms to the Contras in Nicaragua in their fight against the Sandinistas, and the Contras used their landing strips for exchange of cocaine from Colombia, for weapons flown in by contract pilots, who flew the concaine back and airdropped or landed it in the U.S.
The Cocaine was used by the CIA to fund the purchase of weapons, from an Israeli arms dealer, who then supplied them to Iran., this involved the co operation of the Isrfaeli Government, especially for the transfer of F-14's.
Inorder to sell the Cocaine, the CIA recruited their own cadre of pushers.
Tjere was a TV series, that highlighted the opoeration, called Snowfall.
Snowfall is a series we’ll have to find. Chistians were of that mind of “no greater glory” during the Crusades.
Snowfall, was a fictionalized representation of what is in fact, reality.
Everything from procuring drug pushers, to hiring private pilots and craft to deliver arms and pick up cocaine, to assassinations of people who knew too much.
Names were changed to protect the guilty.
They even made a movie about Barry Seal, one of the pilots
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Seal
Thank you both. Sparked my interest in reading about Madison.
Ahhh…so now our POTUS & Company is transitioning from its three-ring circus 🎪 to a chaotic, political carnival of carnage with no coherent strategy in sight.
All they seem to seek is plausible deniability. If Americans die, meh. “that’s the way it is”….
Bullseye Thom. Thank you for reminding us of the prescient quotes from Thomas Jefferson who must be turning over in his grave if he somehow sees the lunacy of the current cabal of cosplay crusaders.
How do you/we get this fantastic song out into the general public's music brain? The rebranding as "Epstein's War" is an important concept and needs maximum exposure ASAP. My guess is the real ugliness of this "WAR" and all its wrongness will maybe for the good as the 2026 election grinds on. Plus those that have died and will die to have a proper legacy that they contributed to ending our collective TRUMP killer nightmare.
My favorite:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/14V2zbgRhaQ/
Mixed emotions here: Glad that Khameini and his friggin family are dead. The bastard was hanging young girls from construction cranes for disrespect of the hijab.
On the other hand: From Ha'aretz today.
Khamenei's Successors Are Showing No Signs of Surrender – and They May Push Even Further
In the long run, the people who may well succeed him are the fanatic extremists of the Revolutionary Guards, which doesn't concern itself with theological issues, but invests all its efforts in a murderous fight against Israel, the West and Sunni Arab countries
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/iran/2026-03-02/ty-article/.premium/khameneis-successors-give-no-hint-of-surrender-and-they-may-push-even-further/0000019c-ab28-d513-ab9e-efe9f9b60000?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=Content&utm_campaign=daily-brief&utm_content=e89d7c2a50
My answer to the title question: It's about anything and everything BUT national security.
AND… Why was Kushner and Witkoff sent as "envoys" for nuclear and peace negotiations with Iran? I think the answer is pretty obvious. Can you spell GAZA? Remember that rebuilding Gaza is worth billions of dollars. This is a grift that the Trump mob can't ignore.
So you need to make the area safe from terrorism- thus take out Iran . Then of course you need Financing - enter the Saudis and take the Iranian oil with our recently commandeered tankers.
And finally, you need cheap labor as the lower class to service the morbidly RICH, who come to the new waterfront playground. Keep the Palestinians to do the work and pay them nothing.
Oh, and the side benefit is to create a war president for the US midterms, and a perfect slight of hand to distract media from our pedophiliac and corrupt leaders.
Watch this space.