Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Rubio Says Israel Dragged US into Attacking Iran
When the US and Israel attacked Iran early Saturday morning, it was unclear why the attack occurred. On Tuesday, the issue was still unclear, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained it to the press when he was preparing to brief Congress on the attack. While he has since walked it back because the president flat-out contradicted him, the reason he offered smacks of the truth disclosed in an unguarded moment. And the truth appears to be that the US got dragged into attacking Iran by the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Here is what Mr. Rubio said: according to the Guardian:
"It was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone -- the United States or Israel or anyone -- they were going to respond, and respond against the United States," Rubio told reporters at the Capitol.
"We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn't pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties."
There are at least three problems with this explanation. The first is whether the allegation that Iran would attack the US regardless of who attacked Iran. Iran has attacked US assets and those of its alliles, but this happened only after the US and Israel attacked first. One would demand excellent intelligence that proved Iran would strike the US regardless of the origin of the attack before believing the US "had no choice."
Second is the statement that the US knew Israel was going to attack. How the hell did the US allow that? The whole point of being a super-power is so one is not forced into this kind of situation. When the US found out about the Israeli planned attack, it should have been scuppered immediately. The US will decide when and where and why it attacks, not Israel. The president should have told the Israeli government that if there is an attack, the US will make damn sure Israel never gets another US weapons system and never gets another dime of support.
The third problem is the word "pre-emptively." In international law, it is legal to attack another country pre-emptively. In other words, if an attack is about to occur, it is OK to strike first to take out the threat. That is not what the US and Israel did. They engaged in a preventative attack, which is illegal under international law. There was no imminent threat, though there might have been one someday. Without such a threat, the attack cannot be pre-emptive. Calling it such does not make it so. The attack was illegal.
The reason all of this matters is simple. If Israel dragged the US into the conflict, as it appears happened, then the US has handed Tel Aviv its foreign policy agenda in the region. The war aims are the aims of Israel not of the US, and the end-game is unclear in the US because the policy is not set in Washington.
"This is Trump's war. This is a war of choice. He has no strategy, he has no endgame," the Senate's Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer said before going into the briefing.
In fact, it is worse than that. It is Netanyahu's war, and Mr. Trump and the American military and government are just along for the ride.
© Copyright 2026 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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