The Iranian Merry Go Round
On 5 May 2026, I was on “Judging Freedom” talking with the Judge about the latest developments in the Iran war. We focused mainly on “Project Freedom,” President Trump’s plan that he announced on 3 May 2026 to effectively open the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping. The US set that plan in motion on the following day, 4 May 2026, which led to Iran and the US shooting at each other’s boats and ships and a few commercial vessels as well. Most importantly, Iran struck the UAE port of Fujairah, which sits outside the Persian Gulf and allows the UAE to ship a substantial portion of its oil abroad. One day later (5 May 2026), the president halted “Project Freedom,” which was clearly a failure, as the Strait was not opened. We are now back to talking about different proposals for ending the war, coupled with occasional threats from Trump officials to go back to bombing Iran if it does not accept US demands. There is no evidence — at least in the public record — that any kind of meaningful deal is in sight.
I love your writing, how about renaming the substack to “The Mearshimer Report” to increase your personal brand? John’s Substack is too generic. Food for thought!
John, here are some of the numbers you are looking for: In his book Endless Holocausts: Mass Death in the History of the United States Empire, the political scientist David Michael Smith calculates that the US has been responsible or shared responsibility for the death of 54 million people between 1945 and 2020. Add in domestic social killing and move the time back to the founding of the American Empire in 1776 and the body count climbs to 300 million. In his 2013 book America’s Deadliest Export, William Blum reported that the United States after World War II: worked to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments; interfered in elections held by 30 sovereign nations; tried to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders; bombed more than 30 nations; and tried to suppress nationalist, leftist, and populist movements in at least 20 nations. (These numbers need to be updated for the last three years of the Obama administration and the Trump and Biden presidencies to include, among other things, US funding and protection of Israel’s 2023-20?? genocide in Gaza, Trump’s boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific, Trump’s kidnapping of Venezuela’s sovereign elected president, and Trump’s reckless and failing fiasco of a war on Iran.)
The United States is the only country to have attacked human beings (unnecessarily) with nuclear weapons (twice) and has brought the world remarkably close to nuclear annihilation on multiple occasions. It is the clear leader in the global march to societal collapse if not human extinction via climate collapse, ecocide (broadly understood), nuclear proliferation, pandemicide, and artificial intelligence.