I Was a US Intelligence Analyst. Israel and the US Are Lying to You About Iran
Debunking 7 key lies behind Trump and Netanyahu’s new Middle East regime change war.
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have launched their most dangerous war yet, but the pretenses underpinning it are weaker than ever. You’re already being bombarded by lies from the White House, the Capitol, and TV commentators.
Here are seven truths behind the half-hearted arguments meant to manufacture consent for a war you never asked for:
1. This War Won’t Keep Americans Safe
Trump says he launched this war to “defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.” He apparently expects us to forget he used this lie the last time he bombed Iran. What was true in June still is true now: There’s no evidence the Iranian government is on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon (despite Netanyahu’s claims to the contrary for the past 30 years), the Iranian military do not have weapons that can strike the US (despite Trump’s claim to the contrary) – a fact confirmed by my old employer, the Defense Intelligence Agency – and Iran’s leaders had no intention of preemptively attacking US forces in the Middle East.
The Trump administration’s pained justification that Iran planned to fire missiles “preemptively, but if not, if not simultaneous, against with any actions against them,” is beyond dubious given that the Iranian government watched US forces posturing to attack for weeks and did not, in fact, launch a preemptive strike against them (and “simultaneous” is an exceptionally creative way to say “firing missiles after we start attacking them”).
If Iran really represented an immediate threat to the American people, why has Trump been telegraphing this attack since mid-January? What is true is that the Iranian government’s missiles, drones, and proxies can strike US forces in the region, which is exactly what started happening on Saturday after US planes started bombing Iran. US Central Command said on Sunday that three US service members had been killed and five seriously wounded since the US-Israeli operation began. Anyone who actually wanted to keep US forces safe could simply move them out of the region and out of range of Tehran’s capabilities – or, even easier – just avoid starting a war of choice with them in the first place.
2. Iran Isn’t Really the Greatest Threat to Stability in the Middle East Today
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