The Third Gulf War

by Contributor | March 17, 2026 10:54 am

Before the illegal U.S. invasion of Iraq, David Armstrong wrote in Harper’s Magazine, “The Plan is for the United States to rule the world.”
Armstrong referred to the Bush Administration’s 2002 National Security Strategy. It called, “for the United States to maintain its over­whelming military superiority and prevent new rivals from rising up to challenge it on the world stage.”

Likewise, G. John Ikenberry called Bush’s National Security Strategy “America’s Imperial Ambition”: “The United States will use its unrivaled military power to manage the global order.” That’s exactly what we’re witnessing in the U.S. war of aggression against Iran.

Two weeks ago, the Israeli news outlet Haaretz wrote, “Trump has unequivocally committed to a vision of muscular American global dominance, in which the U.S. acts unrestrained by international law, enforcing its will through the exercise of overwhelming military force.”

The Wall Street Journal and its editor-at-large, Gerard Baker, explained why we should ignore the “cavilling critics at home and abroad.” The war may be “unpopular at home,” and it may lack “a coherent argument.” But, the “impressive” thing about our illegal aggression was “regime decapitation [and] degrading Iran’s military hardware.” The Wall Street Journal knows that Iran “sits alongside the world’s most important route for oil supplies,” with the third largest oil reserves in the world.

This was the opportune moment to eliminate Iran as a regional power and “transform the region’s strategic landscape with Israel as an unrivaled military power.” Senator Lindsay Graham told Fox News, “When this regime goes down, we are going to have a new Mideast and we are going to make a ton of money [i.e., oil money].”

Even if Trump ends the current stage of war against Iran, it will continue at a later date. Haaretz reported “Israel is transposing the strategy of ‘mowing the lawn’ to Iran.” Haaretz continued, “In the early 2010s, Israeli military officials began to describe the army’s periodic offensives in Gaza, typically conducted through airstrikes and artillery barrages, as ‘mowing the lawn.’”

In 2008, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. Amnesty International documented “some 1,400 Palestinians had been killed, including some 300 children.” 58,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. “Much of the destruction was wanton and resulted from direct attacks on civilian objects.”

In 2014, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. The United Nations reported “2,251” Palestinians were killed. This included “551 children.” The President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer said “I’ve never seen such massive destruction ever before.”

Now, that military policy of repeated attacks every few months and years is being implemented against Iran. Working-class taxpayers will continue to fund it to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.

The Financial Times reported, “[gas prices are] up 20 per cent since the US president launched the war.” However, Washington forces taxpayers to accept the higher costs at gas stations and grocery stores because the U.S. Empire has an opportunity to remake the Middle East.

-Anton Porcari

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/the-third-gulf-war/

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