By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
June 19, 2025
There is absolutely no excuse for buying into the war propaganda about Iran after what we all saw with Iraq.
"OMG nuclear weapons!" Shut up, idiot. If you're a grown adult with internet access still swallowing this load of bull spunk in the year 2025 you're either stupid or evil.
❖
President Donald Trump is now saying he has no intention of seeking or facilitating a ceasefire with Iran, telling reporters that he's after a "complete give-up" from Iran instead.
"I'm not too much in a mood to negotiate," Trump said.
Asked by the press if he's worried about US troops being targeted by Iran in the coming days, the president said "We'll come down so hard if they do anything to our people. We'll come down so hard. The gloves are off. I think they know not to touch our troops."
This is a stupid, crazy lie. Iran has explicitly said it will strike US bases in the region if the US attacks Iranian territory. If you punch someone, you expect to be punched back.
If Trump orders US forces to bomb Iran, it will be because he wants to start a war and knowingly chose to do so.
❖
One of the dumbest narratives we're currently being fed about Iran is the claim that Israel is precision-striking high-level targets in Iran while Iran is just bombing civilians all over the place in Israel.
A casual glance at the death tolls shows this is clearly false. As of this writing the current official death count sits at 24 Israelis killed by Iran and 224 Iranians killed by Israel - most of whom are reportedly civilians. On Friday they bombed a residential building and killed 60 people, including 20 kids.
❖
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz thumped his chest on Twitter about an IDF strike on an Iranian television station on Monday, saying "The Iranian regime's propaganda and incitement broadcasting authority was attacked by the IDF after a widespread evacuation of residents in the area."
I wonder how the western press who are currently deceiving the public to promote Israel's information interests feel about this new rule that it's okay to bomb media outlets if someone decides they're propaganda?
❖
People shouldn't be so hard on Trump about all this. You'd probably start a war with Iran too if someone was threatening to leak your child molestation video.
❖
The war on Iran isn't really about nuclear weapons - if it was they would've kept the nuclear deal in place, which was working as intended. The Gaza holocaust isn't really about Hamas or hostages - if it was they would've just targeted Hamas or negotiated a hostage deal.
It's all lies. The war on Iran is about regional hegemony and the genocide in Gaza is about Israel's longstanding desire to remove all Palestinians from a Palestinian territory. It's not about self-defense, it's about land and power, and it always has been.
❖
This is one of the reasons antiwar people have been focusing so hard on Gaza, by the way. It wasn't just because it's a horrific genocide happening right in front of us, it was because it always risked blowing up into a regional war involving Israel's western allies. We've been watching it expand into the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and into Iran for a bit last year, and now it's blown up into all-out war between Israel and Iran with the US poised to join in.
For 20 months I've been getting people asking me why I've been so laser-focused on Gaza while paying less attention to this or that conflict or foreign policy issue. This is why. It's a waking nightmare in and of itself, but it's also always been a powderkeg that could explode into something much, much worse.
_________________
My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Click here for links for my mailing list, social media, books, merch, and audio/video versions of each article. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.