Retired Lt. Col. Oliver North — once convicted for his role in illegally selling missiles to Iran — now appears as a respected Fox News military analyst warning the public about the “threat” of Iranian missiles and urging the Trump administration to invade Iran.

The irony isn’t just thick. It’s radioactive.

North was a central figure in the infamous Iran-Contra affair, a covert scheme during the Reagan administration that sold weapons to Iran (yes, the same “enemy” North now denounces) and funneled the proceeds to right-wing death squads in Nicaragua.

He was convicted on multiple felony counts in 1989, though the convictions were later vacated on a technicality. Nevertheless, the record remains: he helped arm the very regime he now wants to bomb.

This kind of hypocrisy isn’t a bug in the system — it is the system. The military-industrial complex, which President Eisenhower warned about in 1961, thrives on perpetual conflict. It funds think tanks, backs pundits, and funnels retired military personnel into media roles where they beat the drums of war to an eager audience.

North’s transformation from disgraced operator to patriotic commentator is less an anomaly than a blueprint.

Mainstream media, particularly right-wing outlets, often act as stenographers for the intelligence community and defense industry. The very same networks that championed the invasion of Iraq — based on CIA fabrications — now elevate figures like North to push for hardline action against Iran, Russia, or whoever the next target may be.

These narratives are shaped less by facts and more by defense contracts and intelligence agendas.

It’s worth remembering the Church Committee hearings of the 1970s, where the CIA’s dark and illegal operations — including propaganda campaigns, foreign assassinations, and media manipulation — were exposed to the public.

The hearings proved that American democracy had long been under the shadow of unelected, unaccountable security agencies. Those lessons have been largely forgotten, buried under decades of war-on-terror rhetoric and a 24/7 news cycle addicted to fear and conflict.

American Dad parodied Oliver North in 2008 in a bizarre but strangely accurate musical number, portraying him as a shady relic of the deep state with an inexplicable hold on patriotic sentiment.

The absurdity of that song now feels like prophecy: a cartoon understanding of how the Deep State lionizes its worst actors in the name of freedom.

Oliver North’s career arc — from illegal arms dealer to media war hawk — isn’t just hypocritical. It’s a symbol of a broader sickness: a nation where accountability is optional, war is profitable, and truth is whatever the intel agencies say it is.