The U.S. is Wholly a Warfare State

The latest threat cited by the Trump administration to justify its war mobilization in the Persian Gulf are photographs of Iranian missiles on small boats. Whether we are to add this to or use it to replace the previously cited casus belli of Iranian-aligned Popular Mobilization Forces moving missiles close to U.S. bases in Iraq is unclear. There is also a Houthi casus belli (drone attacks on a Saudi pipeline), not to mention the mysterious sabotage of four oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. Take your pick.

For a good summary of the Trump administration's march to war with Iran read Ed Wong's "U.S. Orders Partial Evacuation of Embassy in Baghdad."

As Wong notes:

Iraqi officials have voiced skepticism about the about the threat described by the Americans, and on Tuesday, so did the British deputy commander of the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, or ISIS.

“No, there’s been no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria,” Maj. Gen. Chris Ghika, speaking from Baghdad, told reporters at the Pentagon by video link. There are threats in the region to United States and coalition forces, he said, referring to “noncompliant actors” among the militias, but “there always have been.”

[The Trump administration is laying the groundwork for major military action against Iran, but it may have a hard time rallying domestic and international support.]

The Pentagon’s Central Command released a statement saying that General Ghika’s comments “run counter to the identified credible threats available to intelligence from U.S. and allies regarding Iranian backed forces in the region,” and that as a result, United States forces in Iraq were “now at a high level of alert.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Representative Seth Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts and a Marine veteran who served in Iraq, introduced legislation to require the Trump administration to have congressional approval before “engaging in hostilities” with Iran. In April, Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, pressed Mr. Pompeo during a hearing for the same commitment, but the secretary of state deflected the request.

It's important to remember that Congress could pull the plug on this right now; that it will not is proof that the United States is, like Hitler's Third Reich, wholly a warfare state.