Commentary: Claims About Hidden Motives Behind the Iran Conflict

Dan Lieberman, Countercurrents, March 7, 2026 :The ether is saturated with the horrendous events afflicting the Iranian people; seems as if there is nothing more to be said. Not from my observation; from my lofty perch in the firmament what should be said is not being heard. Reasons for the attack on the Islamic Republic are hidden by the “fog of war.” The war serves no American purpose and Israel’s purposes are more than those falsely stated. Iran might lose the war big time (how can they win?), more than they anticipated. “Genocidal” Israel and its lackey, the United States, will lose credibility and support; a seething world population is prepared to have them choke. Israel will not care. The victory will extend its territory, power, and influence beyond its borderless borders.

As Israel slowly guides the hostilities, the real reasons for the war against Iran, to which Donald Trump is in the dark, is slowly being revealed. For the United States, the war on Iran does not follow any strategic plan; it has less conviction than the war on Iraq, where Saddam Hussein was accused of already having weapons of mass destruction. The mullahs are accused of only considering weapons of mass destruction. Mike Johnson gave reporters a reason for the attack. “Senior administration officials told Republican and Democratic lawmakers at a classified briefing on Capitol Hill that the Israeli plan to strike Iran pushed the United States to take preemptive action to protect U.S. troops stationed at bases throughout the Middle East, whom the Pentagon believed would have been targeted by retaliatory strikes.”

Is this believable? Knowing that Israel’s belligerent actions will cause damage to United States personnel, the U.S. administration does not attempt to stop the belligerent action that will cause America damage. Trump and company join Israel in the gruesome adventure and gladly invite the damage.

Wait, no that was some administration officials’ reason. Trump had another reason. He claimed that “Iran had been about to attack its neighbors and Israel, and he made the decision to go to war to preempt that action.” Why would Iran attack anyone, knowing that they gain nothing, except getting pulverized? Did Trump preempt that action or assure that action? Can anyone believe this?

Not knowing that the Israeli leadership was giggling and laughing at his remarks, Trump clarified “U.S. aims” — destroying Iran’s missile capabilities and their capacity to produce new ones; annihilating the Iranian navy; ensuring Tehran can never obtain a nuclear weapon; and finally ensuring it cannot arm and fund groups outside their borders. Have the U.S. destroy an Iran that has never has been a threat, is not now a threat, and cannot conceivably ever be a threat to Uncle Sam. In other words, do the dirty work for Israel, as was done in Libya, Sudan, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq.

Sticking their chests out as if they are accomplishing something, which again provokes Israeli leaders into raucous laughter, we hear:

From Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: “If you kill Americans, harm Americans, or threaten Americans, we will hunt you down without apology and without hesitation and we will kill you.” Know of any Americans recently killed, harmed, or threatened by Iranians? I have read of more than a few Americans recently killed, harmed, and threatened by Israelis. By the way, kill, harm or threaten Iranians and they may hunt you down without apology and without hesitation kill you.

Another from Secretary Hegseth: “We didn’t start this war but we will finish it under President Trump.” True, the U.S. did not start the war. Israel started the war. Correction: President Trump will not finish it; it will finish him. Israel will finish it when they achieve their aims.

From Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “Our embassies are being attacked by a terrorist regime.” Iran is not allowed to defend itself against a terrorist attack.

From Trump: “We thought these lunatics were going to attack us, so we attacked first.” Spoken like a true lunatic.

The principal reasons for the war on Iran, of which Trump and his entourage are clueless, were Iran’s vocal condemnation of the genocide of the Palestinian people, and being the only physical opposition to Israel accomplishing that purpose and other covert purposes. The covert purposes began to be exposed in the first day’s attack. Trump recited the reasons and did not know the meaning of his own statement.

President Trump said on Tuesday that officials the United States had eyed as potential new leaders of Iran had been killed in the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign. As the war in the Middle East widened, he said that the worst outcome would be that whoever takes over Iran could be “as bad” as their predecessors.

Wanting to pretend that the U.S. guided the first day attack by providing Israel with intelligence of the daily location of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other Iranian leaders (never proven), Trump contradicted himself by stating, “potential new leaders of Iran had been killed in the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign.” They had not been killed in the “U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign,” they were killed by a solo Israeli strike and, if Trump directed regime change, why would he permit those who could accomplish regime turnover and change be killed?

In the first attack, Israel, by itself, ensured that Iran would be leaderless, anarchistic, and unable, especially after its military, energy grid, energy sources, and communication were destroyed, to prevent minorities from successfully rebelling and decapitating the ancient state. Israel has cultivated ties with the Kurds and Azerbaijan and is prepared to assist the former in creating a state that will counter Turkey, and the latter in having Iran’s Azeris join their ancient motherland and provide a powerful Central Asian ally. Lackey and clueless Trump continued to serve Israel’s purposes.

In calls this week to Kurdish minority leaders in Iran and neighboring Iraq, President Donald Trump offered “extensive U.S. aircover” and other backing for anti-regime Iranian Kurds to take over portions of western Iran, according to multiple people familiar with the effort.

Trump was clear in his call to PUK leader Bafel Talabani. “He told us the Kurds must choose a side in this battle — either with America and Israel or with Iran,” said the official, one of several Kurdish and U.S. officials who discussed sensitive matters on the condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah sent drones and missiles at an Israeli base, for which they will be rewarded by Israel extending itself to the Litani River. Hezbollah’s rockets were its first major violation of the November 2024 agreed ceasefire. According to the United Nations, since the agreement date Israel has bombed Lebanon on a near daily basis, killing over 340 people and committing over 15,000 ceasefire violations.

Extending borders to the Litani River finalises a pursuit described in the Zionist 2019 platform and which Israel attempted to achieve in its Suez Crisis attack on Egypt by seizing the Sinai and trying to convince France and United Kingdom to allow its expansion into Lebanon up to the Litani River.

Rarely mentioned is a controversial meeting known as the 1956 Protocol of Sevres, discussed in the article Anatomy of a War Plot by Avi Shlaim. It described proposals attributed to Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion regarding the reorganisation of the Middle East. The meeting occurrence and parts of the plan were also discussed in Shimon Peres: The Biography.

With Iran demolished, Turkey occupied with the Kurds, and stronger friends to help in its expansion plans, Israel will continue its campaign in Gaza Strip and the West Bank while slowly extending its territory in accord with its geopolitical vision.

In the meantime, the attack on Iran, a relatively defenceless nation that had not harmed its neighbours, has moved western peoples into a new political debate about the role of Israel and the United States in global affairs. A recent poll by Gallup reports that 41% of Americans say they sympathise more with the Palestinians in the Middle East situation, while 36% sympathise more with the Israelis.

Primary elections in North Carolina and Texas have also demonstrated shifting political sentiment. In North Carolina House District 4 Democratic primary, incumbent Valerie Foushee rejected funding from AIPAC and narrowly defeated challenger Nida Allam.

In Texas, state representative James Talarico defeated U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat. Another race saw Reverend Frederick Douglas Haynes win the Democratic primary in Texas’s 30th congressional district.

If these primary outcomes forecast the November congressional races, then the political debate around U.S. policy toward Israel and the Middle East may become an increasingly central issue in American politics.

Dan Lieberman publishes commentaries on foreign policy, economics, and politics at https://dlieb10gmailcom.substack.com/. He is the author of the non-fiction books A Third Party Can Succeed in America, Not Until They Were Gone, Think Tanks of DC, The Artistry of a Dog, and a novel: The Victory (under a pen name, David L. McWellan)