So to say that this is "Trump's war" or if you insist, "International Iranian terrorism" coming to a head, is to simplicate (not simplify, but render) the whole churning mess into an object that may be seen as understood. Of course it isn't.

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As the US/Israeli war on Iran settles in for the long, bloody haul, the question of credit or culpability only seems to get more confused. The question of context, now, that's a serious bone of contention.

"It's not a war," says one the leaders, apparently believing that only Congress can say it's a war, and they haven't, and it's not until they do, according to the Constitution. Useless to say, the Constitution might not be quite that stretchy. But that's typical legal thinking these days, upside-down and bass-ackwards.

"It's a War!" says another, apparently unaware that in that heady realm of power, the word "loyal" is a synonym for "stupid," and such people are often highly placed for that very reason. Take ICE Barbie... oh, they did! Take note, ye loyal minions, if you actually serve your nefarious purpose, you will be summarily dispatched. The play's the thing.

As to who owns this debacle, the deeper you dig, the farther back in history you look, the more explainable it all becomes. In the case of Iran we have to look before 1953, when the democratically-elected government was taken down by CIA and MI6 and replaced by the Shah. I was in nursery school at the time, and as an American my knowledge of Iran is spotty, but even I know about that. And it was all on PBS, and quite recently, who could have missed it? But whether it penetrated our exceptional minds or not, the Persian civilization pulled itself up out of that bloody morass and built a constitutional republic. It took a revolution.

And now this.

To make any sense of a war of conquest, you have to know who is doing the conquering. And that's way complicated in America, by organized crime, political and social intrigue, clandestine government operations, and the arcane and convoluted financial system (which is a puzzling economy-hack).

So to say that this is "Trump's war" or if you insist, "International Iranian terrorism" coming to a head, is to simplicate (not simplify, but render) the whole churning mess into an object that may be seen as understood. Of course it isn't.

If it's "Trump's war" the problem then becomes how to stop Trump before it gets any worse? If it's "terrorism" fighting it to the death seems the only option. But neither of these reactions is either realistic or at all effective. There is a range of such simplications, each of which renders a "solution" or set of same that might even seem plausible.

None of them are new, most were tried in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria... Most Americans don't know that Sudan has experienced genocide, and like Congo it is still going on now. All of these horrors were very unlikely except for "our vital interests."

Even accepting that all of the above are inextricably entangled in the Iran debacle doesn't make us wiser by much. But at least that view dismisses "Trump's war" as the cause-of-causes. And maybe that frees our attention to focus on what matters, instead of hanging on every demented exudate from that suppurating pustule, while Rome burns. Whomever the big boss is loyal to, paymasters, creditors, blackmailers, the loyal are stupid, and the stupid are easily replaced, when they have served their purpose.

Now whose war is it?

When the first Gulf War was ramping up, the promoters had a simple enough task: create the "narrative" in which enough of the people can entrench themselves to argue with the rest, leaving the business of war to business. But since then the internet has gone super-critical. In network-speak that means giant nodes appeared that had very large numbers of connections like international airports do. That made two things possible: a signal saturates the net very fast; and unlike TV, each individual screen can be curated according to user-reactions.

Social Fragmentation means instead of a society living with one "narrative" about world affairs and events, every person has their own, while having no means of knowing if their worldview agrees with everyone else, or even one other person. This is so painful that it's unlikely anyone will reach across the yawning solipsistic gulf and ask. Because, you see, it is relational impairment, and relation is our very means of existence.

This is easily seen now, as the "Secretary of War" explains that this is War, and we are not going to Play Fair, because Jesus as Anointed the president; and the Speaker of the House explains that this is not a war, but a limited military operation, and Jesus is Coming Back; and lots of other people explain that the Bible says God told the Israelites to kill all the Amaleks to the last nursing infant.

Now whose war is it?

This is why the war machinery, which takes months or years to crank up to escape-velocity, could just wind up, louder and faster, for months and months, and in this case decade after decade, until the US Navy could lure an Iranian ship to a naval boat show in India, where nobody brings any ammo, and then sneak up and sink it with a torpedo from a sub as it sailed homewards.

This is why the invasion could start with blowing up toddlers at school, the latest number of mangled children reported is one hundred eighty, as the opening salvo. It would not be the first such civilian target. To "send a signal" no doubt.

The administration is not immune to social fragmentation, it too is operating in its own world. When I went to Nigeria in 1963 my mind was full of Tarzan movies and Jungle Jim serials down at the local cinema palace. This isn't different from the world of the now-unitary executive, where Iran is a bunch of primitive tribes ruled by fanatical witch-doctors who keep women enslaved and spend their time launching terror attacks on Americans. They have no functioning economy because they don't even have a culture. This level of ignorance leads to terrible fantasies of power. If "we" just knocked off the brutal dictator, the people would rise up and "take back" their country, and hand it to the previous ruler's son, a current pretender to the throne. In his tiny bubble people think he will be welcomed back to Iran with parades and flowers. I knew the son of the deposed Shah, briefly: I built part of his mansion near Langley, Va, in the 1980s. He was a spoiled, supercilious idiot then, and by all accounts remains so.

In the actual world, Iran's culture is several thousand years old, and shaped much of ours at the roots, and Iran is a constitutional republic that recently loosened religious prohibitions on women's attire in response to public demand. The largest population of Jews lives there in quiet harmony with the neighbors. The economy was sanctioned into the ground for the last decade or two, according to Sec. Bessent (proudly taking credit at the WEF). The violent "protesters" were, according to public statements from both Israel and Washington, "assets" of Mossad. CIA wanted credit for that too, but subsequent reports cast doubt. The "media," knowing this, continue to report on the "government massacre" of 2 or 40 thousand innocent bystanders.

When the Ayatollah (think, the Pope) was killed in his office, he had already said he would prefer to die as any other Iranian must who didn't have a bunker to run to. The succession was constitutionally established and the constitution was followed. There was no "regime" and it didn't change. Instead, millions poured into the streets, "under the open sky" as they put it, while drones and rockets whizzed overhead, shouting that they were ready to die too.

Within ten hours, according to Pepe Escobar, whose impeccable reporting is done with both feet on the ground, Iran had

• bombed 27 major US military bases, relentlessly - inflicting extensive damage.
• determined that all US and Israeli assets and interests in West Asia were legitimate targets for retaliation.
• blocked the Strait of Hormuz (then unblocked; but allowed free passage only for Russian and Chinese vessels).

The State Department is advising Americans to leave, when there are no functioning airports. The pundits and comics are laughing it up about Iran just attacking everything at random. The economic repercussions have only just begun.

The Americans are being thrown out of West Asia. It doesn't matter if Iran is left a parking-lot. Imagine a carrier, with four or five thousand aboard, reduced to fragments in a few seconds. This is easily possible, and several times over. At this writing it has not been done. That can only indicate forbearance, a spiritual quality that might not occur to Pistol Packin' Pete. But don't hold your breath.

Now whose war is it?

You see where this is going: it's not whose war it is, not even whose "narrative"; but whose context. And the Americans (joined to Israel at the umbilicus), with their shattered, algorithm-fragmented society, can't settle on one story. And when they do, if they do, they will find it but one of many stories within the context of a much older and deeper history, in a world that has matured in relations while the west was busy accumulating what it sees as wealth.

A multi-polar world that sees little hedge-money empires in toxic competition as a culture in the death-throes of late-stage addiction. Who would want to kill us? We're doing that just fine, thank you.

Meanwhile, we are slaughtering civilians, again. Our "limited military operation" is nothing but Gaza redux. Whatever the stories in which this behavior makes any human sense at all, it is collective mental impairment, and it is the acute phase of the by-now well-understood cycle of abuse, trauma, addiction and denial. This is what underlies the financial system called "Capitalism" or "Fascism." It's real name is Colonialism, and will continue until it burns out, or we abandon it.

Other parts of our world are already well along in the decolonization process. They have much to teach us, if we will listen and learn. If not, it won't be long before we are gone. But we are alienated, cut off even from each other. With luck we won't take everything else down with us.

Authors Website: https://attentionage.com

Authors Bio:

I'm an old Pogo fan. For some unknown reason I persist in outrage at Feudalism, as if human beings can do much better than this. Our old ways of life are obsolete and are killing us. Will the human race wake up in time? Stay tuned...