Opinions of Peter Belmont
Speaking Truth to Power
| USA Has Lost Its War With Iran, What Should It Do Next? |
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by Peter A. Belmont / 2026-03-04
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| I began to write this essay on March 4, 2026. Last edit: 3/5/2026 2:15 ET. I write of war, and particularly of the current USA-Israeli-begun war against Iran. This essay continues a series of mine that began with: • A Modest Proposal To End The War On Iran. • How USA Can Be Freed From Trump And Israel. Information (which is not USA propaganda) about the war with Iran can be found easily on YouTube and I recommend: • PENTAGON PANIC — IRAN HAMMERING U.S. BASES | Alastair Crooke and any other interview with this well-informed gentleman. • George Galloway interviewingGlenn Diesen. Another estimable pair. Who Starts Wars? Iran never attacked any country until recently, and that was, of course, in response and retaliation after the present attack by the USA-Israeli alliance. Most of these attacks have been against USA and Israel but some, also, I believe, against Arab Gulf countries which “host” USA military and are thus and to that extent “enemies” of Iran. By contrast, the USA has been fighting aggressive (and thus illegal) wars in the Middle East (Western Asia) for many years, always at Israel’s request. Iran calls the USA the “Great Satan” and calls Israel the “Little Satan”. It is easy to see why! The USA and/or Israel has destroyed Syria, Iraq, and Libya and has hurt Lebanon and Yemen, all against Iran’s desires, all by Israel’s hand or at Israel’s request. The USA has supplied Israel with money and weapons and has provided Israel with immunity and impunity by using its veto in the UN Security Council. What About The USA’s National Interest? I am not alone in opining that the present joint USA-Israeli attack on Iran (as did the earlier joint USA-Israeli wars against Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc.) serves no national interest of the USA but is being fought at Israel’s request or command. So far from serving any USA national interest, these wars have contributed significantly to the USA’s national debt (we never tax to pay for wars but borrow) leading to a sort of national bankruptcy which I fear will soon come home to roost. USA and Israel Are Losing This War! The USA and Israel are losing the current war with Iran, and are at best weeks away from total helplessness before Iran’s extensive and many-splendored missile arsenal. This war is like no other! Increasingly, neither Israel nor the USA has any defense against incoming Iranian missiles, and vice-versa. But there is an important difference: Iran is an enormous country whereas the USA’s military bases in Western Asia and the entire state of Israel are both quite small. So although Iran is undoubtedly hurting as USA and Israel continue to pound it, Iran is inflicting much more focused and therefore much more severe pain on the USA and on Israel. The explanation for this—for the USA’s and Israel’s inability to fend off Iran’s attacking missiles is that the (joint) USA-Israel arsenal of anti-missile-missiles is being rapidly depleted and is not being significantly resupplied. When that arsenal is empty, the USA-in-Western-Asia and Israel will be helpless before Iran’s extensive arsenal of offensive missiles. At that point, Iran could, if it so desired, continue to attack undefended Israel and the USA—perhaps at a low level—indefinitely. When the USA’s arsenal of anti-missile-missiles is depleted, the USA will also be naked defensively in all the world, a matter that I have not seen discussed and that no-one in the USA seems to have considered. After The War Is Admitted Lost, What Then? Iran is now in the “driver’s seat” and it is not clear what—if anything—would persuade it to end its retaliations. When the USA finally admits that it has lost this war, what should it do next? Option [1] is for the USA to nuke Iran or to allow Israel to nuke Iran. This option of course raises the question of Russia’s and China’s response to this. I think that any nuking of Iran would bring this war home very unpleasantly onto the USA’s homeland—something no other war has done since, I suppose, the Mexican-American war (1846) or the American Civil War (1861-65). Or the destruction we call “9-11” (2001). Option [2], which I much prefer, is for the USA to identify its loss to Iran with its feckless support over the years for Israel and to end it’s support for Israel decisively, demanding that Israel withdraw behind its pre-1967 borders and end all its military operations and settler-colonial occupations anywhere in Western Asia—hoping that Iran would be satisfied to end its retaliatory attacks against Israel after Israel ended its belligerency against any part of the Arab and Muslim world. Option [3] would be for the USA to retreat from Western Asia, leaving its many military outposts there to be destroyed, and leaving Israel to continue its exchange of missiles with Iran. I would expect Iran to offer to end the war on the same terms I outlined in Option [2]. A Possible Benefit For The USA Interestingly, this war and its loss, might have a beneficial result for the USA internally. I see the USA polity as composed (politically) of two parts. Part [1] is composed of people who love democracy, rule-of-law, decency, and peace. I hope it is a majority. Part [2], which disdains democracy and rule-of-law and decency and peace, includes the ruling oligarchs (billionaires and CEOs of great corporations), the CIA, the neocons and Zionists in and around the government (call it the “deep state”) and which currently includes most politicians who are “bought-and-paid-for” by the oligarchs and especially by the Zionists among them. Part [2] got the USA into its ultimately suicidal support for Israel since 1967, into endless war, and into the present war (and impending defeat) with Iran. I assign to Part [2] the label “America’s Internal Great Satan” and hope that the USA’s defeat by Iran will somehow lead to political defeat at home of Part [2], our internal “Great Satan” component. America’s oligarchs (and not just the Zionists: AIPAC, Adelson, et al.) are by all appearances so protected by personal wealth that they are unaware of, unconcerned with, and basically ignorant of any realities outside those of their own businesses and political intrigues. This means that the oligarchs should never, never, never have been allowed to assume direct control of the USA’s government, because they are unconcerned with, often ignorant of—and in many cases opposed to— all the components of the American National Interest except their own narrow desires for profits and political power. I say, emphatically, that “What’s good for business is not necessarily good for America”, and letting these ignoramuses run our governments makes as much sense as letting three-year-olds drive cars. And since the oligarchs achieved their take-over of government by “capture”, we may thank the obviously captured Supreme Court which for decades has empowered the take-over of government by businesses by its money-is-speech and corporate-money-as-speech-is-protected-by-the-First-Amendment just like the speech of human persons. The oligarchs have allowed—and many have promoted—the USA’s support for Israel and all the USA’s ridiculously expensive wars and are directly responsible for all the consequences of that support including the loss of the present war. Defeating America’s Internal Great Satan Getting “Big Money Out Of Politics” is the only way to wrest political control from the oligarchs. If anger about the loss of this war can lead to a popular revolt against Big Money In Politics, there is some hope for the future of America. Among other things, the USA might in that case begin to treat the climate catastrophe (global warming and its consequences) as the great threat that it is, a threat that the brain-dead politicians and attention-depleted oligarchs have done nothing about except to denounce it as a hoax and defeat any effort to deal with it. |
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