Liars, lunatics, and the Iran war
By 
To start with the liars, some graduate of Princeton’s law school no doubt came up with this brilliant legal justification for assassinating the political and military leadership of another country, via what to simple country folk looks like aggressive and therefore illegal warfare:
Israel’s determination to attack Iran and the certainty that US troops would be targeted in response forced the Trump administration to take pre-emptive strikes, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said, in a new explanation for Washington’s surprise entry into the conflict. . . .
“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.”
We know this isn’t just Rubio freestyling, because Mike Johnson is saying the same thing.
We also know this is all a fantastical lie, not only on the basis of the first principle that these people lie about absolutely everything, but also because the ongoing attacks have all the earmarks of a long-planned joint military operation between the US and the Israelis.
But beyond that, imagine if this lie were true. I’m sure the rabidly anti-Semitic groyper elements of Trump’s base are going to be thrilled by the idea that Israel can force America into a war in this fashion.
Some other important elements of Trump’s base are actually thrilled by his war, because it’s the opening act of a really big show that goes by the name of Armageddon:
A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer.
From Saturday morning through Monday night, more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the military had been logged by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).
The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations, the MRFF told me Monday night.
The MRFF is keeping the complainants anonymous to prevent retribution by the Defense Department. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to my request for comment.
One complainant identified themselves as a non-commissioned officer (NCO) in a unit currently outside the Iran combat zone but in Ready-Support status, deployable at any time. The NCO said they were Christian and emailed the MRFF on behalf of 15 troops, including at least 11 Christians, one Muslim, and one Jew. (Full email printed below.)
The NCO wrote to the MRFF that their commander “urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has enshrined evangelical Christianity at the uppermost levels of the U.S. military, airing monthly prayer meetings throughout the Pentagon. Last year, the Pentagon confirmed to me that Hegseth attends a weekly White House Bible study. It’s led by a preacher who says God commands America to support Israel.
Monday’s email from the NCO said that their commander’s remarks “destroy morale and unit cohesion and are in violation of the oaths we swore to support the [C]onstitution.”
MRFF President and Founder Mikey Weinstein, a veteran of the Air Force and the Reagan White House, told me that since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran early Saturday morning, the MRFF has been “inundated” with similar complaints:
“These calls have one damn thing in freaking common; our MRFF clients [service members who seek MRFF aid] report the unrestricted euphoria of their commanders and command chains as to how this new “biblically-sanctioned” war is clearly the undeniable sign of the expeditious approach of the fundamentalist Christian “End Times” as vividly described in the New Testament Book of Revelation.
Many of their commanders are especially delighted with how graphic this battle will be zeroing in on how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100% accordance with fundamentalist Christian end of the world eschatology.”
Weinstein cited constitutional and Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) prohibitions against injecting religious beliefs into official military instruction or messaging.
He said, “Any military members seeking to take advantage of their subordinates by advancing their blood-soaked, Christian nationalist wet dreams upon the flames of this latest non-Congressionally sanctioned attack against Iran, should be swiftly, aggressively and visibly prosecuted.”
Weinstein added that the MRFF receives similar complaints about Christian eschatology — end-of-the-world theology — “whenever this shit blows up with Israel in the Middle East.”
People who in the year of our Trump 2026 treat the literary stylings of John of Patmos as a how-to guide should be far far away from the chain of command of the world’s most powerful military. Should be . . . but our Totally Butch War Secretary, or whatever his official title is now, appears to be a biblical literalist, which is to say a crazy person, except you can’t call people who believe completely crazy things crazy if they use the world “God” a lot.
I’m gradually coming around to LGM commenter Bathawk’s long-articulated view that there’s simply no living with these people, so we’ve got to figure out how to structure either an actual divorce or at least a marriage in name only, along the lines advocated by hardcore federalist types, where California and Alabama are nominally part of the same country, but have as little to do with each other as reasonably possible. As to how to accomplish either of these things, well that’s what blog comments are for, or I guess we could all just pray on it.