Thursday, 26 June 2025

"Wake Up People!" Dave Smith's Plea To MAGA On Iran

ZeroHedge
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Conflicting reports out of the Middle East. For those keeping track:

  • Antiwar’s Scott Horton said his sources were predicting a U.S. strike as soon as last Monday (thought Horton hoped they were wrong).

  • Seymour Hersh is now reporting that “heavy” U.S. strikes are inbound until the Supreme Leader of Iran is removed.

  • Trump downplayed the WSJ story that he had “approved” strikes for Iran, essentially calling it fake news.

  • WH Press Sec Leavitt: Trump will make up his mind in two weeks.

    • Meanwhile Israel is threatening to launch attacks without the help of the U.S. and calls for all-out “regime change” are becoming all too common from the usual suspects.

    That’s why last night, ZeroHedge hosted a debate: Should Trump support yet another Regime Change war in the Middle East?

    Hosted by former Congressman Matt Gaetz, libertarian Dave Smith and author Robert Spencer engaged in fiery debate. Here were the highlights for those short on time:

    Months away from a nuke since 1995…

    Watch debaters react to Netanyahu’s decades-long claim that Iran is on the cusp of acquiring a nuclear weapon:

    “Wake Up People”

    Smith dissected the pro-regime change argument to its roots, first starting with the fact that intelligence has shown little evidence of pursuit of nukes, followed by proper policy if they were, and ending with Israel’s glaring hypocrisy on the topic of secret nukes:

    The claim that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons is unproven:

  • “The intelligence indicates that they're not trying to get a nuclear weapon anyway... you have to demonstrate that they are actually attempting to get a nuclear weapon before you can just make that call.”

    • Historical precedent shows restraint is possible even with hostile nuclear development:

  • “As the great Scott Horton said... Truman did not start a war with the Soviets because they were developing a nuke and Johnson didn't start a war with the Chinese communists because they were developing a nuke.”

    • Launching a war over nuclear development is unjustified and a war of aggression:

  • “This idea that therefore it's okay to just launch a war of aggression because somebody else is developing a nuke...”

    • Israel’s own secret nuclear arsenal makes its position hypocritical:

  • “There is one country in the Middle East who has secretly developed nuclear weapons and is not a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and that's Israel.”
  • “Iran is in the nonproliferation treaty and is not developing nuclear weapons... Israel does and lies to the world about it.”

    • “This is their justification for launching a war that they want to drag America into? I mean wake up people!”

    “Death to America”

  • Support Doesn’t Require Direct War (Historical Analogy):
    Spencer compares the current situation to U.S. aid to Britain before entering World War II:
    “There was the Lend-Lease program. There was the propaganda war. There were all kinds of ways in which [Roosevelt] was aiding the side of freedom against the Nazis before Pearl Harbor.”
    He implies the U.S. could support Israel similarly—providing material, strategic, and diplomatic support—without direct military involvement.
  • Support for Regime Change Aligns with Trump’s Doctrine:
    Spencer argues that it is consistent with the “America First” or MAGA agenda to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power:
    “Trump... in his first political speech announcing he was going to run for president in 2015, he says, ‘Not going to allow Iran to get nuclear weapons.’”
  • Iran's Anti-American Hostility is Not Just Rhetorical:
    He emphasizes that Iran’s hostility is not empty sloganeering:
    “The Ayatollah Khamenei actually said not long ago… ‘When you chant death to America, it's not just a slogan, it's a policy.’”
    Spencer then lists decades of Iranian-sponsored attacks:
  • 1979: Embassy seizure and hostage crisis.
  • 1980s: Torture and murder of CIA agent William Buckley.
  • 1983: Marine barracks bombing in Beirut.
  • Recent years:
    “Tom Cotton asked Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin… has Iran attacked any American interests… and Austin says eighty-three times… and [the U.S.] responded four.”
  • Failure to Respond Projects Weakness:
    By not retaliating to repeated Iranian attacks:
    “That projects weakness if… you just let that keep happening and never respond.”

    • Be sure to check out the full debate and subscribe to ZeroHedge Spotify, Rumble, and YouTube channels for more debates and our podcast on those channels hosted by comedian Rob Bernstein for weekly recaps on our most crucial articles.


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