CONGRATULATIONS, Donald. You have your war! Ukraine was Biden’s; Obama shared Iraq and Afghanistan, with Bush Jr. who started them. Clinton had his Kosovo and the Bosnian wars; Bush the dad has his Gulf wars, Desert Shield and Desert Storm; Reagan had his invasion of Grenada; Johnson had his invasion of the Dominican Republic; and had to share with Nixon and Kennedy for one of the longest — the Vietnam War where the pajama-clad nuoc mam-cum-rice-eating combatants of Ho Chi Minh beat the hell out of the MRE-fed American grunts.

Warmongest country

This litany of America’s wars is not simply “tongue and cheek” metaphors. A brief history of the world’s most warmongering nation validates this assertion and may help us situate the current conflicts. This column will not discuss America’s internal wars and conflicts from the American Revolution in 1715-1783 through the two world wars of 1917 and 1941.

Back then, nuclear weapons were not in play except for an instance that wiped out Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But today, there are nine countries with a combined total of 12,100 nuclear warheads that can obliterate the planet several times over.

America loves wars. It is in its DNA. And it’s good for business. President Eisenhower first warned the world of the military-industrial complex (MIC), this symbiotic relationship between the US government and the defense industry that leads “to unwarranted influence on US foreign policy jeopardizing peace and democracy.”

In the 80 years since World War II, America never won a single major war — Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. But winning or losing are of no real consequence. The US economy and prosperity to a large extent were propelled by wars. America is the world’s No. 1 arms dealer, exporting 43 percent of the world’s weapons.

Israel-Iran war

But the relevant wars that directly impact the Israel-Iran conflict today is contained in what Jeffrey Sachs, the noted political scientist, revealed in a political document post-911 called “Clean Break” which advances that Israel need not fight militants supporting the Palestinians against Israel head-on — al-Qaida, IS, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc. Just bring down the governments that support them in a “regime change.” Thus, the wars the US was involved in in the last 30 years were on behalf of Netanyahu to overthrow Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Iraq and now Iran.

Netanyahu always had a hard-on embroiling America in a war with Iran. Jeffrey Sachs has written that since 1996, “Netanyahu’s greatest dream was to go to war with Iran and pull the United States into this war... his philosophy and approach is to dominate the Middle East, use Israel’s nuclear monopoly in the region to bludgeon, kill, assassinate and overthrow any government that opposes Israel’s actions... the end purpose of all of this seems to allow Israel to define its own borders in any way that it chooses as expansively as it chooses... and the complete control over the territory of British mandatory Palestine meaning that Israel would have full control over Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem...” (“US prepares to join war against Iran,” Jeffrey Sachs, YouTube, June 16, 2025).

The Donald is putty in the hands of Bibi and the US Congress is virtually under the control of the Zionist Christian and Jewish Israeli lobby. What better way to achieve the above scenario than to replicate Bush Jr.’s raison d’etre for invading Iraq in 2003 — destroying Sadam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) — which turned out to be a dud. The same playbook is being used by these two madmen.

Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s own director of national intelligence, back in March testified before Congress that America has conclusive evidence that Iran is not building nuclear bombs and have no ambitions of going nuclear; contradicting Netanyahu who has been doing the same song and dance number since 1996 that “Iran is only weeks away from developing nuclear weapons updating this message in 2001, 2002, 2006.” And the unthinking US president went along “I will not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons.”

True or not, Iran’s possessing nuclear weapons may play eerily well into new geopolitical perspectives. Some argue that Iran’s nuclear capabilities could truly become a deterrent to persistent wars in the Middle East by providing another level of mutual terror preventing a temptation toward shattering the mutually assured destruction (MAD) syndrome. North Korea’s case has been cited; North Korea’s possessing nuclear capability has reduced Trump to just rhetorical invasion. In contrast to Libya’s castration and Ghadaffi’s assassination after surrendering its prerogative to developing nuclear capabilities.

Then again, with the cognitively impaired authoritarian Trump who claims to know better than all his intelligence professionals and unable to think all implications through, nonchalantly decides America’s and the world’s fate by siding with Netanyahu’s proclivities. Living up to his new moniker — Trump the TACO — he backtracked a little, giving Iran two weeks to negotiate a deal. But not for long.

Anti-war president

Running as the anti-war president in 2016, the Donald announced that he would not lead the US into any wars. He will keep America and the world safe from World War III. Upon assuming office, he proceeded to shred unilaterally the Iran nuclear deal, negotiated by President Obama under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Iran immediately resumed its nuclear program, planting the seeds for this current conflict.

Friday the 13th, an ominous day, Israel attacked Iran. Trump lied about America’s involvement. But believing Israel was succeeding in Iran’s devastation, Trump changed his tune, from non-involvement to “...we are in control and dominating the skies over Iran...” — grabbing the credit. With that, he casually brought America into this conflict. Adding to his rantings, a hint of an assassination: “We know exactly where the so-called supreme leader (Khamenei) is hiding, he is an easy target but is safe there, we are not going to take him out and kill him, at least not for now.”

A continuing tragedy

Except for Trump being played by Netanyahu and America’s hatred for Iran dating back to US President Carter’s presidency when the American puppet Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was deposed during the Iranian revolution and subsequent ascendancy of Ayatollah Khomeini; there are no clear goals for America’s evolving support for Israel. As the noted American political scientist John Mearsheimer asks, “Does Netanyahu and Trump have a theory of victory?” It seems that Israel’s “...objective was to get the United States involved from the outset... and that (Israel’s) goal was not to win by themselves but to bring about a war between the United States and Iran because without such a war how can Israel win?”

While this was being written, Trump directed American warplanes to deploy its “bunker buster bombs” on the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear facilities. “Israel can’t destroy Iran’s underground nuclear facility,” Trump declared. So, he did it himself.

The US Constitution grants Congress the sole power to declare war. Attacking Iran unprovoked is an act of war. Trump, the only sitting American president already convicted of 34 counts of felony, just committed another crime.

Netanyahu must be jumping with glee!