"Beyond this, the offensive against Iran might be interpreted as a violent displacement activity on the part of a declining empire confronted with a rival centre of capital accumulation in the Pacific, about which it seems able to do nothing rational or constructive. It is a symptom of secular decay – of the political authority of the American bourgeoisie, the political capacities of the permanent state and the intellectual calibre of its overseers. Now the US finds itself in what Robert Pape calls the escalation trap: it cannot achieve its stated goals by air war, but to declare victory and walk away would be a clear strategic defeat.

True to form, the Democrats immediately signalled their readiness to fund the war, on the assurance that there was a ‘plan’. As Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin put it, ‘we’re in it’. They had no disagreement of principle, having been fully complicit themselves in the Gaza genocide – all they offered was cavilling about process and tactics. And why not? The Democrats had long assimilated Trump’s first-term foreign policy lines regarding China and the Middle East. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jefferies vied to out-hawk Trump on negotiations with Iran: ‘no side deals’ they insisted. The Democrats voted through Trump’s massive military spending bill; they gave a standing ovation for his sabre-rattling against Iran in the State of the Union address; there was also quiet admiration in the Democratic establishment – openly expressed by Hillary Clinton – for the way he bullied European vassals into bumping up their NATO spending.

Whatever reservations America’s vassals may have had about the war, they clearly hoped that unity of purpose against an old foe might temper some of Trump’s disdain for erstwhile allies."

https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/cognitive-dissonance

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