Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted today that President Donald Trump’s “wise decision” to attack Iran on Saturday wasn’t his. Instead, it was Israel’s.
U.S. officials knew Israel would strike Iran, Rubio said. Thus, he confessed, Trump had no choice because Iran would retaliate against not only Israel, but also U.S. bases and personnel in the region. That would mean casualties and questions about U.S. preparedness.
The startling admission came as the U.S. Central Command reported that six Americans had been killed as of 4 p.m. today.
Israel Forced America’s Hand
Rubio’s frank confession of the role Israel played in convincing Trump to attack may well have been inadvertent, although Rubio is generally good on his feet with the media and perhaps the administration’s most articulate official.
“The United States conducted this operation with a fair, clear goal in mind,” Rubio said, “to eliminate the threat of Iran’s short-range ballistic missiles and the threat posed by their navy, particularly to naval assets.”
“The second question I’ve been asked is, ‘Why now?’” he continued:
Well, there’s two reasons why now. The first is 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. The orders had been delegated down to the field commanders. … Within an hour of the initial attack on the leadership compound, the missile forces in the south and in the north … had already been activated to launch.
But then Rubio spilled the beans. Trump had to attack because Israel had decided to attack.
“The third is the assessment that was made that if we stood and waited for that attack to come first before we hit them, we would suffer much higher casualties, and so the president made the very wise decision,” the secretary of state said:
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 preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties, and perhaps even higher [numbers] killed. And we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and didn’t act.
Reaction to that news was swift.
Far-left Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas essentially said the Israeli tail is wagging the U.S. dog.
“Secretary Rubio’s remarks indicate that Israel put U.S. forces in harm’s way by insisting on attacking Iran,” he wrote on X:
And the administration was complicit — joining their war instead of talking them down
This is unacceptable of the President, and unacceptable of a country that calls itself our ally.
Imprudent Admission
Commentators left and right agreed that Rubio had confessed that Israel led the U.S. into war.
“So he’s flat out telling us that we’re in a war with Iran because Israel forced our hand,” podcaster Matt Walsh wrote on X. “This is basically the worst possible thing he could have said.”
Far-left podcaster Cenk Uygur said much the same thing.
“There’s two amazing admissions here,” he wrote:
Rubio says Israel was going to attack anyway, so we had to go along. So they did drag us into this war. Second, he said if Israel attacked before us, a lot more of our troops would have been killed. Did Israel use that as leverage against us?
Commenters under the Rapid Response X feed video of Rubio fumed about it.
“Just so we’re all crystal clear: these servicemembers died because Israel decided to attack Iran,” a military veteran called Alex wrote over the Central Command’s announcement that six Americans had died:
They didn’t die for our country or our freedoms, they died because our “greatest ally” attacked another country while we were in [negotiations] with them.
My brothers and sisters in uniform deserve so much better.
Asked leftist Christopher Hale, a Biden-Obama campaign alumnus: “U.S. foreign policy is dictated by Benjamin Netanyahu?”
“So he’s confirming that we’re in a war with Iran specifically because of Israel,” FedUpMajority wrote:
It’s time to remove ALL of our military personnel from the region and end all foreign and military aid to Israel. They are not our ally.
One X user reminded readers about President George Washington’s Farewell Address on September 19, 1796. The first president warned about becoming too close to another nation, and that foreign diplomacy must be dispassionate, not favoring one nation or another.
“Nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated,” Washington wrote:
The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. …
A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification.
Thus, Washington wrote, “it is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world. … Nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated.”
