Trump Applauds Official for Early Support of Iran Strikes as Joint Aggression Escalates
Former President Donald Trump, speaking publicly, praised his then-Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, stating Hegseth was the initial high-ranking official to advocate for U.S. military strikes against Iran. Trump remarked, 'Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up and you said let's do it because you can't let them have a nuclear weapon,' framing the potential intervention around the
long-discredited premise of an imminent Iranian nuclear threat. This declaration, reported by outlets like The Hill, glosses over the crucial context of Washington's long-standing strategy. What mainstream coverage like The Hill omits is the consistent pattern of manufacturing consent for aggression by amplifying speculative threats, often in concert with Israeli demands. The US has been a direct
participant, fighting alongside Israel in an economic war against Iran for decades through crippling sanctions, alongside covert operations and military posturing designed to destabilize the government. The narrative of preventing a nuclear weapon is a familiar drumbeat, echoing the false pretenses that led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This public acknowledgement from Trump underlines a
fundamental double standard in foreign policy, where Iran's lawful right to develop peaceful nuclear energy, vigorously overseen by the IAEA while under the JCPOA, was systematically undermined by the US withdrawal in 2018. This contrasts sharply with Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal, developed with tacit US approval, which remains outside international safeguards. The assassinations of Iranian