Not Without Incident: Questioning Big Brother's Platitudes

In 2019, Donald Trump considered striking Iran, but he was eventually convinced by Tucker Carlson not to.[i] This angered the likes of John Bolton, who had yearned to bomb Iran for decades.[ii] Again, this year, Carlson is reported to have met with Trump to try and again persuade him that going to war with Iran would be a catastrophic error, however, after attacking Iran, Carlson and others in the conservative elite, like Megyn Kelly, have criticized Trump’s decision and have platformed other voices critical of the war.[iii] In response to this, Trump said that “I think that MAGA is Trump-MAGA’s not the other two…MAGA loves what I’m doing- every aspect of it…This is a detour that we have to take in order to keep our country safe and keep other countries safe, frankly.”[iv] Goons like Mark Levin and the Free Press have rushed to call out Carlson and Kelly, especially Carlson, for their criticism of Trump’s warmaking in the Middle East.

Contrary to what he promised, Trump has started a war- or has he? According to many, the US is not at war, it is conducting an operation. Both Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson made this claim, and yet, simultaneously, according to some, Iran has been at war with the US for 47 years, so the US did not start a war, they finished a war, the war that is not a war, but is also a war.[v] If it is a war, it was certainly not started by the US. This headache inducing anti-logic is the bureaucratic nonsensical language of Washington. Rather than be a break from it, the Trump regime has fully imbibed it, though he and his cronies express and execute it in a more blunt and crude manner than their predecessors in the illiberal liberal class.

Last June, Trump ordered strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran, Fordow, Natanz and the Esfahan complex. Following this ’12-day war’, Trump declared victory and according to the White House, after this strike, “Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Have Been Obliterated — and Suggestions Otherwise are Fake News”, and the article quotes many White House officials and analysts affirming that yes, Iran’s nuclear capabilities were crippled.[vi] However, leading up to Trump’s most recent strikes on Iran, as well as the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, there were claims made by him and some of his advisers that Iran still posed a nuclear threat.[vii] As an American armada amassed around the Middle East, Trump was claiming that Iran was trying to revamp its nuclear program. In his State of the Union Address, Trump said that “After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, and in particular nuclear weapons, yet they continue. They’re starting it all over. We wiped it out and they want to start it all over again and are at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions.”, and he went on to say that the world’s ‘No. 1 sponsor of terrorism’ must never have a nuclear weapon. He echoed this affirmation in his address on Truth Social officially announcing the war in Iran when he said “we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. It’s a very simple message. They will never have a nuclear weapon.”[viii] What was the point of the strikes last June then?

Trump also said recently that Iran was apparently two weeks away from acquiring a nuclear weapon.[ix] Unlike the Bush regime, who at least pretended they had a pretense for going to war in Iraq. In contrast, the Trump regime offered no such pretense. There were instead jumbled reasons, justifications that contradict each other, and the overarching notion that it was a preemptive strike, which mirrors the logic behind Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which were of course motivated by the 9/11 bombings, but were also waged as wars to stop further terror attacks before they occurred. However, it has just been reported that according to US intelligence, there was no strike expected from Iran, so the narrative that Iran had to be attacked to prevent an anticipated attack on US assets and military personnel stationed in the Middle East is of course complete bogus. Further, the policy of preemptive war was a key tenet of the Bush Doctrine, so evidently Trump is not a repudiation of the old guard of the GOP, he is a different form of it. Much like the end of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, where the revolution by the pigs results in a regime that is indistinguishable from the humans who they revolted against, we are watching a movement morphing into what it claimed to be opposed to.[x] Ultimately, they are indistinguishable from the previous regime.

Back in January, Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified before the Senate that the US was considering a “preemptive strike” on Iran, and this explained the military buildup.[xi] However, during a press conference, Rubio revealed the real imminent concern. He said that “There was absolutely an imminent threat and it was that we knew that if Iran was attacked and we believe that they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us and we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow,”[xii] Here he is referring to the result of a strike by Israel, where if Israel struck Iran, then Iran would inevitably target US military outposts and troops in the region. He is thus admitting that the worry was Iran’s reaction to being bombed, not Iran bombing on its own accord, or out of a hatred of freedom and democracy, as many in the illiberal liberal class argue. 7 US servicemembers have already been killed in Iranian strikes.[xiii] US strikes have killed hundreds, including the Ayatollah, as well as most of his top military and political advisers, one of whom would likely have been chosen to take over for the Ayatollah.[xiv]

Like with the abduction of Nicolas Maduro, it is unclear what Trump’s goal is. Is it regime change? The historian Niall Ferguson calls Trump’s strategy “regime alteration”, which apparently differs from full on regime change as it is not necessarily a move to supplant the reigning rulers, but a move to shuffle their cabinet, and on a recent episode of The National Review’s The Editors podcast, Michael Brendan Dougherty floated the term “trans surgical strikes”, as opposed to simply surgical strikes, which implies a similar shift in power, not transformation, that Ferguson’s ‘regime alteration’ concept does.[xv] These are both mealy-mouthed ways of avoiding calling the Trump regime’s policy here for what it is, an unprovoked war of aggression. As always, there are would be wordsmiths crafting grandiose passages that call the US war in Iran anything but a war, despite Trump referring to it as a war when asked about it by reporters.

As with all wars the US starts, there is a perversion and distortion of the English language that is deployed to make the US heroic and its enemies monstrosities. There is of course the notion that this war was not started by the US, that Iran started it. Hegseth captured this in his remarks on Monday, where he said “we didn’t start this war, but under President Trump we’re finishing it”, and he also remarked that “It turns out the regime who chanted ‘death to America’ and ‘death to Israel’ was gifted death from American and death from Israel,”[xvi] In a bizarre statement, he argued that what the US is doing in Iran “is not a so-called ‘regime change war’, but the regime sure did change.”[xvii] This is beyond the usual distortion of language by the political class. It is the embodiment of Orwell’s doublespeak. The declaration that the US war in Iran is simultaneously a war to change the regime, but also not a regime change war, is utterly inane. One explanation might be that it is an attempt to dissociate not from the concept of regime change, but only its association with Trump’s predecessors, who he harshly criticized and ran against in each of his presidential campaigns.

Of course, there is the claim that Trump’s war is not in fact a war. A whole host of sordid euphemisms are being thrown around to avoid the reality that Trump has gone to war, one that will likely be catastrophic and endless, one that will be a forever war, the exact type of war that he repeatedly promised the US would no longer wage. This leads to the most ridiculous argument in favor of this war, that Trump is not starting a new war in the Middle East, he is ending a war that has long been waged by Iran. Josh Hammer makes this argument, writing that Trump is not “starting a new “forever war” in the Middle East. He is ending one.”[xviii] So, it is a war then, or at least it was. If it’s over, then why are the US and Israel still bombing Iran? How is what they are doing not warmaking? Beyond the semantics of this, what is the goal here? The narrative on Trump’s war in Iran is a morass of lies and perplexity. As David S. D’Amato writes, “This is what a lawless empire wants: total confusion not only about the rules that govern when we go to war, but about the objectives themselves and, indeed, the question of whether or not particular military actions against another sovereign state are even regarded as “war.”[xix] The incoherence is the point. Trump has not communicated a clear plan because there is not one, and there never was one, as if there is no objective, then it can never objectively be considered a success or a failure. Trump and his cronies can just declare it a triumph, and his most ardent and zombified supporters will slavishly laud him. There is no way for this war to be successful not just because there is no measurable goal or set of goals, but because, as Julian Assange has put it about other US wars in the Middle East, “the point is not to have a successful war, it is to have an endless war”[xx] The Trump regime and others can evade the term endless war all they want, but reality is reality, and myth is myth, and their narrative control perfectly embodies Karl Rove’s infamous line of the US that “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality-judiciously, as you will-we’ll act again, creating other new realities”[xxi] A multitude of new realities is constantly being concocted as soon as the previous reality is exposed as false or brittle. The end game is not truth; it is a myth accepted as truth that is designed to justify whatever the permanent regime wants to do.

The most absurd claim made by the Trump regime and its media lackeys is that Iran has been at war with the US for 47 years, since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. As noted, Hegseth made this claim in a press briefing.[xxii] Senator Tom Cotton affirmed this when he said on FOX News that Iran “has been an imminent threat to the United States for 47 years. The president was right to act.”[xxiii] Aside from being an obscene justification, this is another example of abusing the English language to justify war. An imminent threat is one that is impending, coming soon, not over a long period of time, so if Iran has been a threat for 47 years, it cannot have been imminent. Senator Ron Johnson, who at least seems to know what words mean, said that “Iran has been at war with the United States for 47 years and has the blood of thousands of American soldiers and citizens on its hands.”[xxiv] How much blood does the permanent regime and their servants in Washington have on their hands? A lot more than the Ayatollah’s regime. This is not to defend or whitewash the brutality of the Ayatollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, but to pretend that only they have backed terrorists around the world, not the US, is laughable. Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has never invaded another nation, it has been invaded, notably by Iraq in 1980, which led to a year’s long war in which the US sided with Saddam Hussein (who was also supported by the Soviet Union). Of course, the US supports a myriad of ruthless dictatorships in the immediate region, from Egypt to Qatar, so the idea that the Ayatollah had to be taken out for being tyrannical is fantasy. Further, if this war has been ongoing for 47 years, why have previous administrations not said so, campaigned on ending it, or have even referenced it. In his first term, Trump’s strategy with Iran was ‘maximum pressure’, a policy of punishing sanctions and containment. During this time, no one in his regime said that what they were doing was part of a decades long war with Iran. This also contradicts the name given to Trump’s strike on Iran in June 2025, which is referred to as the ’12-day war’. How can this have been a 12-day war if Iran and the US have been at war for 47 years? This line has only been trotted out to pretend that Iran is the sole aggressor, and that the US is just reacting to its aggression.

Through his war on Iran, which is poised to be another endless war, as like in the early days of the Iraq war in 2003, days turn into weeks, which turn into months, and so it goes. US Central Command  has just reported that they expect their operations in Iran to extend into September.[xxv] Whether the US eventually puts its own troops on the ground, or it decides to back Kurdish militias with air support, Trump has betrayed one of his chief promises, not just of all his presidential campaigns, but of his political movement, his purpose of getting into the White House in the first place. He has fully morphed into everything that claimed to hate and be a opponent of. After this, as with Venezuela and his foreign policy overall, what is the point of Trump? What is the point of MAGA? Those, like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Carlson, who are true believers in America First will leave or be pushed into exile from the GOP. Trump has just denounced Carlson, deeming him not part of MAGA.[xxvi] His cultists will slavishly cheer whatever he does. Evidently, the promise of Trump was false, and his supporters were exploited for power. Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran is dangerous and tragic.

Hegseth said of the war at a press conference at the Pentagon, “Pick your adjective…Combat ineffective, decimated, destroyed, defeated.”[xxvii] I will pick my adjectives, this war in Iran is not only a war, plain and simple, it is grotesque, disastrous, misguided, imbecilic, inhumane, brutal, carnal, treacherous, atrocious, ghastly, and so on. Hegseth’s adjectives are jingoist, militaristic sloganeering. My adjectives are accurate descriptions of reality, the real reality, not the manufactured reality the illiberal liberal class and the permanent regime want us to live in.

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[i] David Atkins, “War With Iran Depends on a Battle Between John Bolton and Tucker Carlson,” Washington Monthly, June 22, 2019, https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/06/22/war-in-iran-depends-on-a-battle-between-bolton-and-carlson-for-the-whims-of-a-mad-king/.

[ii] Eliana Johnson, “Inside Trump and Bolton’s Spectacular Split – POLITICO,” Politico, September 10, 2019, https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/10/trump-john-bolton-relationship-1488514.

[iii] Max Rego, “Tucker Carlson Urged Donald Trump Not to Attack Iran: The New York Times,” March 2, 2026, https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5763289-tucker-carlson-trump-iran-war-report/; Bill Hutchinson, “Trump’s Iran Decision Sparks Backlash from Tucker Carlson and Some MAGA Supporters – ABC News,” ABC News, March 1, 2026, https://abcnews.com/US/trumps-iran-decision-sparks-backlash-tucker-carlson-maga/story?id=130622270; George Ochenski, “If MAGA’s the Name, Then Chaos Is the Game,” CounterPunch.Org, March 9, 2026, https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/03/09/if-magas-the-name-then-chaos-is-the-game/.

[iv] Marni Rose Mcfall, “Donald Trump Cuts Tucker Carlson out of MAGA: ‘Lost His Way,’” Newsweek, March 6, 2026, https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-cuts-tucker-carlson-out-maga-iran-war-11632180; William Vaillancourt, “Donald Trump Denounces Two of MAGA’s Biggest Stars in New Civil War,” The Daily Beast, March 3, 2026, https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-denounces-two-of-magas-biggest-stars-in-new-civil-war/.

[v] Annie Karni, “Republicans Toil to Avoid Saying ‘War’ as Iran Conflict Widens,” The New York Times, March 5, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/us/politics/iran-war-republicans.html.

[vi] The White House, “Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Have Been Obliterated — and Suggestions Otherwise Are Fake News,” The White House, June 25, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/06/irans-nuclear-facilities-have-been-obliterated-and-suggestions-otherwise-are-fake-news/.

[vii] The White House, “74 Times President Trump Has Made Clear That Iran Cannot Have a Nuclear Weapon,” The White House, March 3, 2026, https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2026/03/74-times-president-trump-has-made-clear-that-iran-cannot-have-a-nuclear-weapon/.

[viii] Donald J. Trump, “Remarks by President Trump in State of the Union Address – The White House,” accessed March 9, 2026, https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-state-union-address-3/.

[ix] PBS NewsHour, WATCH: Trump Claims If U.S. “didn’t Hit within 2 Weeks,” Iran Would Have Had a Nuclear Weapon, 2026, 03:20, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-1AS46O7xY.

[x] George Orwell, Animal Farm (Penguin Books in association with Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, 2008).

[xi] Filip Timotija, “Rubio Raises Potential for Preemptive Strikes against Iran: ‘I Hope It Doesn’t Come to That,’” The Hill, January 28, 2026, https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5711269-rubio-preemptive-strike-iran/.

[xii] Marco Rubio, “Secretary of State Marco Rubio Remarks to Press,” The White House, United States Department of State, March 2, 2026, https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/03/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-remarks-to-press-6/.

[xiii] Eric Schmitt and Helene Cooper, “Pentagon Announces Seventh U.S. Death in War With Iran – The New York Times,” The New York Times, March 8, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/world/middleeast/american-soldier-killed-iran-war.html.

[xiv] Graeme Bruce, “Charting Iran’s Complex Regime: Who’s Dead and Who Remains,” CBC News, March 3, 2026, https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/iran-regime-explained-9.7112753.

[xv] Niall Ferguson, “Niall Ferguson: Khamenei May Be Gone, but Iran 2026 Is Not Iraq 2003,” The Free Press, March 9, 2026, https://www.thefp.com/p/niall-ferguson-khamenei-may-be-gone; The Editors, “Trump Pulls the Trigger,” National Review, March 2, 2026, https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-editors/trump-pulls-the-trigger/.

[xvi] Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine Hol,” U.S. Department of War, accessed March 10, 2026, https://www.war.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/4418959/secretary-of-war-pete-hegseth-and-chairman-of-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff-gen-dan/.

[xvii] Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine Hol.”

[xviii] Josh Hammer, “Donald Trump Is a Great Man of History,” NewsWeek, March 6, 2026, https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-is-a-great-man-of-history-11630992.

[xix] David S. D’Amato, “Lies and Doublespeak on Iran – CounterPunch.Org,” Counterpunch, March 6, 2026, https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/03/06/lies-and-doublespeak-on-iran/.

[xx] TRT World, Julian Assange on Afghan War in a 2011 Video, n.d., accessed March 9, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_IGU_7alJ80.

[xxi] Karl Rove claims that he did not say this, but see: Michael Leonardi, “‘We Create Our Own Reality’: Empire and the Illusion of International Law from Rafah to Caracas – CounterPunch.Org,” Counterpunch, January 9, 2026, https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/09/we-create-our-own-reality-empire-and-the-illusion-of-international-law-from-rafah-to-caracas/.

[xxii] Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine Hol.”

[xxiii] Tom Cotton [@SenTomCotton], “Iran has been an imminent threat to the United States for 47 years. The president was right to act. https://t.co/5e7ZdI53eW,” Tweet, Twitter, March 3, 2026, https://x.com/SenTomCotton/status/2028854712678707321.

[xxiv] Senator Ron Johnson [@SenRonJohnson], “Iran has been at war with the United States for 47 years and has the blood of thousands of American soldiers and citizens on its hands. This is an opportunity for the Iranian people to live in freedom. It is not risk-free, and it is not guaranteed. But it is a chance to change https://t.co/dWdyP4Bfol,” Tweet, Twitter, March 5, 2026, https://x.com/SenRonJohnson/status/2029360341512003682.

[xxv] Chris Walker, “Report: CENTCOM Suggests Trump’s War in Iran Will Likely Last Through September,” Truthout, March 5, 2026, https://truthout.org/articles/report-centcom-suggests-trumps-war-in-iran-will-likely-last-through-september/.

[xxvi] Marni Rose Mcfall, “Donald Trump Cuts Tucker Carlson out of MAGA.”

[xxvii] Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine Hol.”

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References

Annie Karni. “Republicans Toil to Avoid Saying ‘War’ as Iran Conflict Widens.” The New York Times, March 5, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/us/politics/iran-war-republicans.html.

Atkins, David. “War With Iran Depends on a Battle Between John Bolton and Tucker Carlson.” Washington Monthly, June 22, 2019. https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/06/22/war-in-iran-depends-on-a-battle-between-bolton-and-carlson-for-the-whims-of-a-mad-king/.

Bill Hutchinson. “Trump’s Iran Decision Sparks Backlash from Tucker Carlson and Some MAGA Supporters – ABC News.” ABC News, March 1, 2026. https://abcnews.com/US/trumps-iran-decision-sparks-backlash-tucker-carlson-maga/story?id=130622270.

David S. D’Amato. “Lies and Doublespeak on Iran – CounterPunch.Org.” Counterpunch, March 6, 2026. https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/03/06/lies-and-doublespeak-on-iran/.

Donald J. Trump. “Remarks by President Trump in State of the Union Address – The White House.” Accessed March 9, 2026. https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-state-union-address-3/.

Editors, The. “Trump Pulls the Trigger.” National Review, March 2, 2026. https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-editors/trump-pulls-the-trigger/.

Eliana Johnson. “Inside Trump and Bolton’s Spectacular Split – POLITICO.” Politico, September 10, 2019. https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/10/trump-john-bolton-relationship-1488514.

Eric Schmitt and Helene Cooper. “Pentagon Announces Seventh U.S. Death in War With Iran – The New York Times.” The New York Times, March 8, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/world/middleeast/american-soldier-killed-iran-war.html.

Ferguson, Niall. “Niall Ferguson: Khamenei May Be Gone, but Iran 2026 Is Not Iraq 2003.” The Free Press, March 9, 2026. https://www.thefp.com/p/niall-ferguson-khamenei-may-be-gone.

Filip Timotija. “Rubio Raises Potential for Preemptive Strikes against Iran: ‘I Hope It Doesn’t Come to That.’” The Hill, January 28, 2026. https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5711269-rubio-preemptive-strike-iran/.

Graeme Bruce. “Charting Iran’s Complex Regime: Who’s Dead and Who Remains.” CBC News, March 3, 2026. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/iran-regime-explained-9.7112753.

House, The White. “74 Times President Trump Has Made Clear That Iran Cannot Have a Nuclear Weapon.” The White House, March 3, 2026. https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2026/03/74-times-president-trump-has-made-clear-that-iran-cannot-have-a-nuclear-weapon/.

House, The White. “Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Have Been Obliterated — and Suggestions Otherwise Are Fake News.” The White House, June 25, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/06/irans-nuclear-facilities-have-been-obliterated-and-suggestions-otherwise-are-fake-news/.

Josh Hammer. “Donald Trump Is a Great Man of History.” NewsWeek, March 6, 2026. https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-is-a-great-man-of-history-11630992.

Marco Rubio. “Secretary of State Marco Rubio Remarks to Press.” The White House. United States Department of State, March 2, 2026. https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/03/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-remarks-to-press-6/.

Marni Rose Mcfall. “Donald Trump Cuts Tucker Carlson out of MAGA: ‘Lost His Way.’” Newsweek, March 6, 2026. https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-cuts-tucker-carlson-out-maga-iran-war-11632180.

Max Rego. “Tucker Carlson Urged Donald Trump Not to Attack Iran: The New York Times.” March 2, 2026. https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5763289-tucker-carlson-trump-iran-war-report/.

Michael Leonardi. “‘We Create Our Own Reality’: Empire and the Illusion of International Law from Rafah to Caracas – CounterPunch.Org.” Counterpunch, January 9, 2026. https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/09/we-create-our-own-reality-empire-and-the-illusion-of-international-law-from-rafah-to-caracas/.

Ochenski, George. “If MAGA’s the Name, Then Chaos Is the Game.” CounterPunch.Org, March 9, 2026. https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/03/09/if-magas-the-name-then-chaos-is-the-game/.

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Penguin Books in association with Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, 2008.

PBS NewsHour. WATCH: Trump Claims If U.S. “didn’t Hit within 2 Weeks,” Iran Would Have Had a Nuclear Weapon. 2026. 03:20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-1AS46O7xY.

Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine. “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine Hol.” U.S. Department of War. Accessed March 10, 2026. https://www.war.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/4418959/secretary-of-war-pete-hegseth-and-chairman-of-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff-gen-dan/.

TRT World. Julian Assange on Afghan War in a 2011 Video. n.d. Accessed March 9, 2026. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_IGU_7alJ80.

Walker, Chris. “Report: CENTCOM Suggests Trump’s War in Iran Will Likely Last Through September.” Truthout, March 5, 2026. https://truthout.org/articles/report-centcom-suggests-trumps-war-in-iran-will-likely-last-through-september/.

William Vaillancourt. “Donald Trump Denounces Two of MAGA’s Biggest Stars in New Civil War.” The Daily Beast, March 3, 2026. https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-denounces-two-of-magas-biggest-stars-in-new-civil-war/.