“The anti-Israel isolationists entire argument rests on the premise that the United States of America—the most powerful military and economic force in human history—is essentially a puppet. That a nation of 335 million people, with the world’s largest GDP, the world’s most advanced military, nuclear weapons, two oceans, and unmatched global influence, is dancing on strings pulled from a country the size of New Jersey with a population of nine million. That American presidents, senators, generals, intelligence chiefs, defense contractors, and diplomats across Republican and Democratic administrations for decades, have been acting against their own country’s interests, against their own judgment, and against the will of their own people, because a small Middle Eastern democracy told them to. This line of argumentation requires you to believe that America has no agency. No independent strategic interests. No ability to think for itself. The most powerful nation on earth is a helpless manipulated fool. They don’t say it that way, of course. They use words like ‘bought’, ‘puppet’, and ‘bidding’. But the insult is the same. Yet America is not stupid. America is not an empty vessel waiting to be filled by Israeli instructions. And any argument that requires you to believe otherwise deserves serious scrutiny, starting with the question: might America have its own reasons to confront Iran?”
—Yama Barkaee—
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Seven days ago, on February 28th, a joint U.S.-Israel strike killed the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His assassination came just weeks after mass anti-government protests within Iran shocked his brutal regime, which in turn decided to murder an estimated 30,000 of its own citizens in retaliation. Thus, in the hours that proceeded Khamenei’s deserved death, every pundit, author, podcaster, and public intellectual on the Right who built their careers and audiences on a professed love of Western civilization, the possibility of a free Iran, or even just the idea of a world without Islamic terrorism almost unanimously rejoiced at the news.
Almost, that is, except the Tucker Carlson/Candace Owens loony contingent of the Right, which—despite being an extremely small minority within the American Right—nevertheless are equally extremely loud online. (An unfortunate side effect of the internet being a place where everyone’s voice can be heard, is that sometimes the loudest minorities can look like the majority and hijack discourse with bad arguments.) This increasingly deranged faction (not restricted to Tucker Carlson or Candace Owens, but extending to their newfound groupies: Megyn Kelly, Carrie Prejean Boller, Brett Cooper, Marjorie Taylor Greene, etc.) have taken to opining with unhinged expressions on their faces that in wiping out Ali Khamenei, the U.S.—and President Trump specifically—has committed some unforgivable crime by doing so. That, in joining with Israel on an operation to wipe out Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Trump “is not putting America first”.
In the interest of dispelling this bullshit, then, I want to deal with the most persistent lie that has been peddled by this loony contingent over the last week (and which I think, unfortunately, will continue to be peddled by them over the duration of the conflict): that the Iran war is not America’s war, but “Israel’s war”, and that Americans have no vested interest in the downfall of Iran’s Islamist theocracy. Let’s begin.
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“America shouldn’t fight Israel’s war. America should only war with Iran if it’s been directly attacked.”
Great, it has been. 400 times. By the country itself and by funded proxies. For 47 years.
Attacks on American tourists. Attacks on American expats. Attacks on American missionaries. Attacks on American children. Attacks on American military compounds. Attacks on American naval vessels. Attacks on five (FIVE!) American embassies. Attacks on American students. Attacks on American diplomats. Attacks on American federal agents. Attacks on American charity volunteers. Attacks on American elected officials. Attacks on American journalists. Attacks on American medical personnel. Attacks on American businessmen. Attacks on American contractors. Attacks on American oil workers. Attacks on American cargo ships.
This is to say nothing of the thousands of Iranian sleeper cells who exploited weaknesses in our border to infiltrate our country that are still active. Operatives that may be eager to commit acts of terror domestically given present circumstances. (Side note: Hezbollah—a Lebanese militant group that’s a proxy of Iran—has extensive networks throughout Latin America.)
This is to say nothing, also, of the time Iran hijacked a commercial aircraft in Athens, singled out a passenger who was a 23-year-old American sailor (flying home to see family), beat and tortured him for fun, shot him in the head, threw his body out of the plane onto the tarmac, then shot his body again… and somehow, the next day, apparently, Tehran didn’t echo with the agonized howls of its mullahs being flayed alive, doused with lemon juice, and crucified by CIA agents, because, apparently, we didn’t have the balls to respond to the incident.
“America is fighting Israel’s war”? Are you kidding me?
Not only is this very much our war, but it’s a war we should have waged a long time ago.
“But if it should’ve been waged a long time ago, why is it now of all times, if not because Israel wanted it?”
Because Iran was planning to attack us again. The 401st time.
In order to understand how, we need to break down what Iran’s nuclear enrichment and ballistic-missile capabilities were. Iran was enriching uranium to 60% purity, and it would not have taken a long time at all for that uranium to be further enriched to weapons-grade (90% purity). This would have given Iran the ability to build 7-10 nuclear bombs. And despite the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warning Iran that it would flag the regime on future inspections if the theocracy didn’t cease escalating enrichment and deploying advanced centrifuges to speed up enrichment, Iran refused.
“But I thought Trump said he destroyed Iran’s nuclear program nine months ago. So the idea that Iran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon is a lie. And it’s a lie meant to cover up the fact that Israel pushed him to strike.”
The U.S. did destroy Iran’s major enrichment facilities (though not all of them, as the locations of all of them were not known) in June 2025. But even after that, Iran was still enriching uranium, and—more importantly—was still developing nuclear and ballistic delivery systems. Nuclear enrichment capability and nuclear/ballistic delivery capability are two different things. Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens’ supporters may think they can dabble in the intricacies of foreign policy discussions because they watched an episode of Jack Ryan once while sitting in the waiting room at their local psychiatric clinic. But if they listened to grown-ups who have actually worked in the defense sector, they would realize that even after the strikes of June 2025, Iran was actively working toward building nuclear and ballistic missiles intended for a certain target not named “Israel”.
Hence, Iran’s refusal to halt their weapons program—even after the June 2025 obliteration of their enrichment facilities—led Secretary of State Marco Rubio to inform President Trump two weeks ago that (paraphrasing) if he “didn’t preempt the threat of an armed Iran now, the regime’s nuclear and ballistic capabilities would cross the capability threshold and render any future action against the country extremely costly.” It was now or never.
Which is why, at a press conference after the joint U.S.-Israel strike, Trump said this:
And in case you think he’s lying, and believe Trump is secretly at Israel’s beck and call, I’d like to remind you that this is the same Donald Trump who said nine months ago (just days after the strike that eliminated some of the enrichment facilities) that he “wasn’t happy with Israel” for the way the country was handling a temporary ceasefire with Iran, and further expressed frustration that the Israeli government “didn’t know what the fuck they were doing”.
He’s hardly a puppet of the “conniving zionists” who the loony fringe of the Right would have us believe manipulate all levers of government, tangle our Christmas lights, and sabotage church bake sales. (“They live in the wallllls!”)
No, contrary to the paranoid delusions of antisemites, President Trump struck Iran because President Trump wanted to strike Iran based on the evidence that was presented to him. He wasn’t afraid of what Tucker Carlson or Candace Owens would say; he wasn’t afraid of what the New York Times would write; he wasn’t afraid of what the boyfriends of the wives of European leaders would think; he wasn’t afraid of the aneurysms Marjorie Taylor Greene or Thomas Massie would have; and he wasn’t afraid of Mark Ruffalo or Robert DeNiro or Jane Fonda bitching and moaning. And in striking Iran, against all external pressures not to, President Trump has—in his second term—become the most courageous president of my lifetime and probably the most courageous president since Teddy Roosevelt.
By the way, for those who still stupidly insist against all proof to the contrary that “America is fighting Israel’s war”, it may come as a shock that there was another group that tried until recently to pressure Trump not to strike Iran… Israel.
The Israeli government, until less than a month ago, felt that any major strike by the U.S. against the regime would trigger a fresh wave of state executions against key protest organizers. It was only in the weeks following the mass protests, when Iran arrested and executed organizers anyway, that Israel was persuaded to join the U.S. on its most recent strike which killed the ayatollah. So tell me again how any of this is “their war” and not ours.
“Well even if we didn’t strike Iran because of Israel, the president was still wrong because he didn’t get a formal declaration of war from congress.”
Okay nerd. That would be fine and dandy if congress was willing to vote yes or no on wars, but by and large they’ve shirked that duty gifted that responsibility to the executive branch. If you were as familiar with American history as you are constitutional law, you would notice that congress hasn’t issued a formal declaration of any of America’s wars since 1942. Every single conflict America has been involved in since Korea has been initiated by a president. You may not like that fact, you may believe in strict adherence to the Constitution, but don’t act like it’s some egregious affront that Trump didn’t follow the little rulies in the cobwebbed rule book that no administration has followed since Truman.
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Setting aside how America benefits from the end of the ayatollah’s regime in Iran, I want to highlight that the Tucker Carlson/Candace Owens loony contingent of the Right has become ideologically warped to the extent that they’re now using the same foreign policy talking points as leftists.
“It is morally unconscionable for American troops and military bases to be spread all over the world.” (As if America withdrawing from the global stage wouldn’t create huge power vacuums; power vacuums that would likely be filled by China, our chief global adversary. As if any discussion about limiting our activity abroad shouldn’t be considered on a case-by-case basis, depending on what region and what adversary.)
“The U.S. and Israel’s strike on Iran was a violation of international law.” (As if “international law” was ever anything real and not a pink butterfly rainbow cupcake fiction propagated by toothless organizations.)
“None of our Europeans allies support the decision to strike Iran.” (As if the European allies whose militaries we’ve funded since the end of World War II have any significant advice to offer the mightiest military in the world. As if the European allies, who are so passive and effeminate they can’t even unite to defend Ukraine from Russia without our help holding their dicks, have any expertise on how to battle the kind of jihadists who plague their cities and feed off their welfare system.)
“Trump only struck Iran to divert attention from the Epstein story.” (As if presidents don’t have power to pardon their friends or themselves for any crime. As if attention to the Epstein story could only be diverted by a war, and not by the next celebrity death or natural disaster to hit the news. As if the release of the Epstein files was ever gonna result in the imprisonment of the people named in them and justice for the victims, you sweet summer child.)
“Oh sorry, I guess I’m just opposed to my country backing governments like Israel who love murdering children.” (Take your meds.)
Big time and small time podcasters and pundits who occupy the loony contingent of the Right have even had the temerity to suggest that—because of the Iran strike and the president’s openness to working with Israel—conservatives “shouldn’t care about the midterms” or should even “vote Democrat to teach Trump a lesson”. To which my reply, from the bottom of my gentle heart, is “You can go suck start a shotgun and say hi to Khamenei when you get to hell.”
I have no patience for these people. Disagreement is fine within sane limits, but the conservative movement shouldn’t be able to stomach liars, nutjobs, and saboteurs. William Buckley didn’t put up with the John Birch Society, and likewise we shouldn’t put up with Qatari-funded sugar babies Fake MAGA.
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Nearing the end of this short piece, I want to express a few thoughts about what’s happening in Iran outside of its framing in terms of American politics, before wrapping up with a final statement.
First of all, I’m so happy for Iran’s women. They’re taking off their hijabs, they’re dancing in the streets, and they no longer carry the daily burden of fear they’ve carried for decades.
Second, I’m happy for Iran’s religious minorities. 8000 Jews, 25000 Zoroastrians, 300000 Baháʼí, and just under a million Christians who hopefully soon will feel free enough to publicly challenge the false god of Islam and its “prophet” in a way they’ve never felt free enough to do before.
Third, I’m happy for the dissidents—intellectual, political, and artistic—who have endured torture, persecution, or driven from their country, and now are finally able to debate, criticize, create, and joke in peace.
Fourth, I want to recognize and pray for the four American soldiers who lost their lives in Iran’s retaliatory strike in Kuwait on Sunday (March 1st), as well as recognize some of the Iranians (many of whom were teenaged girls and young women) who were murdered during the protests a month ago:
CPT Cody Khork
SFC Noah Tietjens
SFC Nicole Amor
SGT Declan Coady
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Mahsa Amini
Rubina Aminan
Mansoureh Heydari
Sajjad Valamanesh Zilayi
Zahra Bani Amerian
Ali Mohammad Sadeghi
Ruhollah Setareh Moshtari
Hossein Mounesi
Amirmohammad Kouhkan
Arefeh Beigi
Samira Khani (just 12 years old!)
Adia Khoshfekr
Ghazal Damarcheli
Zahra Moradi
G-d, full of mercy, who dwells in the heights, grant perfect rest under the wings of your Divine Presence to the departed who have entered eternity. May the Garden of Eden be their resting place. We beseech thee, Merciful One, to shade them forever with divine wings and to bind their souls up in the bonds of life. The Lord is their heritage and they shall rest peacefully. Amen.
Finally, I acknowledge that ordinary Americans—not just the creepy minions of Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens—tend to gravitate toward isolationist sentiment because they’re still war fatigued from the Iraq and Afghanistan debacles. I acknowledge that Bush-era neoconservatives are more out of fashion than frosted tips and dial-up.
But whilst I acknowledge these things, I do not accept them as valid reasons to oppose Trump’s strikes on Iran.
“America First” never meant “America alone”, “America First” never meant that the strategic interests of America couldn’t frequently align with the strategic interests of Israel, and most importantly “America First” never meant turning a blind eye to the Muslim world’s consistent hostility toward Israel, Europe, and the United States.
I support this war. A war that is Jacksonian in every respect. I support this war and so should we all.
