This essay was written before the Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Donald Trump. It was written mainly in response to the Nadia Schadlow’s appearance on Ezra Klein’s show back in March.
“Belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence.”[1]– Robert Anton Wilson
It may not be at all surprising, but it is stunning to watch and listen to many on the right justify Trump’s war in Iran. These people can never be wrong. Any development, even one that is nonsensical, like Donald Trump demanding that the Strait of Hormuz be opened, then declaring that he is blocking it himself, is spun as somehow successful and part of Trump’s 50D chess tactics. We are supposed to ‘trust in the plan’.
There are some in the illiberal liberal class who are adamant that Trump ultimately made the right move in Iran, and will defend the mission, even if they are critical of the means. An illustrative example of this was shown in an interview/debate with The New York Times’ Ezra Klein, Nadia Schadlow, who was on Donald Trump’s National Security Council in his first term and is the principle author of his 2017 National Security Strategy, said, when pushed by Klein on whether Congress had a role in authorizing the war in Iran, that Congress only has “the power of the purse”[2] She argued that while Congress can cut off funding for wars it does not approve of or votes against, the power to go to war, or in her exact, wormy, euphemistic words, “use military force”, is vested solely in the president, in Trump.[3] Schadlow contends that “Congress does not have a constitutional role in the declaration of war. Congress has a role in cutting off funds for wars, which it has threatened to do. And the president doesn’t have to get permission.”, and in response to this, Klein quotes the constitution, which explicitly states that “The Congress shall have the power to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water.”[4] Schadlow’s moronic and unthinking rebuttal to this, a direct quotation from the constitution, is that “Constitutionally, Congress has the power to declare war. But the issue is whether or not a president who deploys military force abroad needs to do so only after having Congress declare war.”[5]
Calling what Trump is doing, and as she goes on to note, many past presidents have done, deploying military force abroad versus calling it going to war is slippery and intended to avoid the need to get congressional authorization. Schadlow asserts that Congress can be a useful forum for debate, “But the president is not obliged to go to Congress to ask for a declaration of war.”[6] According to the constitution, the president is obliged to get a declaration of war form Congress, otherwise, the presidency is imperial and Congress is pointless theater, which is how Washington operates and has operated for decades. The issue of this nature of rhetoric, evading the term war to dodge not just congressional authorization, and by proxy, the approval of the citizenry, goes beyond government doublespeak and lies stacked on lies, bound together by more lies. It reveals the idiocy of those who command and discuss US foreign policy. Consider Trump’s remarks to the press that the Iran war is not a war, it is an “excursion”, and that it is being enacted to “keep us out of a war”[7] So the US is going to war with Iran so that it does not need to go to war with Iran in the future. This anti-logic typifies the imbecility of preemptive war, going to war to prevent war or to wipe out a threat that could one day manifest a war.
This evasive language not only enables the permanent regime to skirt the constitution, as Schadlow demonstrates in her debate with Klein, it is used to justify empire and its eternal warmaking, as endless wars are no longer endless wars, they are excursions or special operations. Thus, Trump is not breaking his promise to his supporters that he would not continue Washington’s endless wars, he is simply repackaging the same policy and marketing it as America First and peace through strength. In George Orwell’s 1984, “Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.”, and this war is meant to be perpetual.[8] That is the objective, not victory. The only difference between Orwell’s nightmarish vision of a society engaged in continuous war to maintain its hierarchy and the US empire’s current state is that the permanent regime. Trump and his goons lazily lie and spew nonsense, refusing to accept that the US is ever at war with anyone, but often referring to relationships with adversaries, like China or Russia, as being warlike and hostile, or that they are at war with them, even if this war I primarily fought through sanctions or tariffs. Trump or one of his officials will say one thing, and then soon after, often on the same day, a contradictory statement will be made. For example, the Defense Department proclaimed on X that “We have Only Just Begun to Fight.”, and Trump, in comments to CBS News, said that the war is “very complete, pretty much.”[9] When asked about this later, whether the war is complete or just beginning, he said “Well, I think you can say both. The beginning- it’s the beginning of building a new country,”[10] Firstly, this contradicts remarks by Pete Hegesth and others that there will be no nation building in Iran. Secondly, and more importantly, how can an event be complete, or in Trump’s eccentric phrasing, “very complete”, and simultaneously just beginning? The morass of contradictions and myths that is the Trump regime’s communication strategy, or more aptly, their sputtering strategy, betrays a key weakness of US leadership, that they are idiots. I do not use this word lightly or to simply tar Trump and his followers as many since his rise to power have done. As Klein’s interview with Schadlow illustrates, it is not just the political class that are idiots, but the ‘intellectuals’ who perch in think tanks, jotting a plethora of articles that relay the necessity of US/Western empire, are, mostly, unenlightened, zombified buffoons who are unable to critically analyze US foreign policy.
Every event is fit neatly into a preconceived worldview. So, it is not just that they are idiots, they are slaves to their ideologies, whatever name they give them, liberal internationalism, principled realism, or flexible realism, as Schadlow refers to Trump’s foreign policy doctrine, which has been given multiple monikers, from conservative internationalism to illiberal hegemony. In their subservience to their ideologies, the illiberal liberal class has given way to a faction of thuggish goons who speak in contradictions and slogans. The ignorance on display in Washington, as well as the euphemistic and contradictory language being used, is a natural evolution of the language used by the illiberal liberal class, who may have used multi-syllabic words and elaborate arguments, but what lay underneath this ornate dressage was putrid. Trump and the rest of the illiberal class scrape off the dressage, leaving only the grotesqueness. The narrative of the Iran war encapsulates this. While there are some in elite circles who are against the US war in Iran, like, surprisingly, Bill Kristol, most are for it, even if they disagree with the means.
The few goals that the Trump regime have expressed, like ensuring that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon or destroying their missile arsenal, they largely agree with, though they often nitpick and offer differing strategies for how to nullify the dire threat of a heavily armed Iran, or so they say. Thus, there are two types of idiots who have immense power and influence in Washington, the buffoons in the White House and the uncritical, unlearning pundits and analysts. Ultimately, they reach the same conclusion, that Iran is a threat and the Ayatollah’s regime must be extinguished, as always, when it comes to war, the entirety of the illiberal class may bicker about the means to the end, but the penultimate end is utterly uncontested.
[1] Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger I: Final Secret of the Illuminati, vol. 1, Cosmic Trigger (Hilaritas Press, 2016).
[2] Ezra Klein and Nadia Schadlow, “Opinion | I Asked a Former Trump Official to Justify This War – The New York Times,” News, New York Times, March 10, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-nadia-schadlow.html.
[3] Ezra Klein and Nadia Schadlow, “Opinion | I Asked a Former Trump Official to Justify This War – The New York Times.”
[4] Ezra Klein and Nadia Schadlow, “Opinion | I Asked a Former Trump Official to Justify This War – The New York Times.”
[5] Ezra Klein and Nadia Schadlow, “Opinion | I Asked a Former Trump Official to Justify This War – The New York Times.”
[6] Ezra Klein and Nadia Schadlow, “Opinion | I Asked a Former Trump Official to Justify This War – The New York Times.”
[7] Justin Fishel, “A ‘little Excursion’ or ‘War’? It’s ‘both,’ Trump Says: ANALYSIS,” ABC News, March 14, 2026, https://abcnews.com/Politics/excursion-war-trump-analysis/story?id=131003550.
[8] George Orwell et al., Nineteen Eighty-Four, Centennial ed (Plume, 2003).
[9] Paul Mcleary, “War with Iran Has ‘Only Just Begun,’ Hegseth Says – POLITICO,” News, POLITICO, March 4, 2026, https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/04/hegset-iran-war-just-begun-00811889; Jason Burke and Andrew Roth, “Trump Says Iran War Is ‘Very Complete, Pretty Much’ as Economic Toll Rises,” World News, The Guardian, March 10, 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/09/us-israel-strikes-iran-supreme-leader.
[10] Burke and Roth, “Trump Says Iran War Is ‘Very Complete, Pretty Much’ as Economic Toll Rises.”
References
Burke, Jason, and Andrew Roth. “Trump Says Iran War Is ‘Very Complete, Pretty Much’ as Economic Toll Rises.” World News. The Guardian, March 10, 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/09/us-israel-strikes-iran-supreme-leader.
Ezra Klein and Nadia Schadlow. “Opinion | I Asked a Former Trump Official to Justify This War – The New York Times.” News. New York Times, March 10, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-nadia-schadlow.html.
Justin Fishel. “A ‘little Excursion’ or ‘War’? It’s ‘both,’ Trump Says: ANALYSIS.” ABC News, March 14, 2026. https://abcnews.com/Politics/excursion-war-trump-analysis/story?id=131003550.
Orwell, George, Thomas Pynchon, and Erich Fromm. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Centennial ed. Plume, 2003.
Paul Mcleary. “War with Iran Has ‘Only Just Begun,’ Hegseth Says – POLITICO.” News. POLITICO, March 4, 2026. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/04/hegset-iran-war-just-begun-00811889.
Robert Anton Wilson. Cosmic Trigger I: Final Secret of the Illuminati. Vol. 1. Cosmic Trigger. Hilaritas Press, 2016.
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