Mike Whitney – The Unz Review June 5, 2025
Tucker Carlson has posted an extraordinary article on X that could potentially stop a war with Iran. As everyone knows, Carlson’s political views are admired by President Donald Trump who sees the former Fox commentator as a blunt, but fair-minded analyst who sees the world in similar terms as himself. And while there’s no evidence that the two men communicate regularly, a number of pundits believe that Carlson has influenced Trump’s thinking, particularly on matters related to foreign policy. That said, it is entirely possible that Trump will read Carlson’s June 4 post on Iran, and see that—once again—influential neocons are making every effort to drag the US into another bloody conflict in the Middle East to achieve Israel’s ambition of becoming the preeminent power in the region. Here’s Carlson:
Mark Levin was at the White House today, lobbying for war with Iran. To be clear, Levin has no plans to fight in this or any other war. He’s demanding that American troops do it. We need to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons, he and likeminded ideologues in Washington are now arguing. They’re just weeks away.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because the same people have been making the same claim since at least the 1990s. It’s a lie. In fact, there is zero credible intelligence that suggests Iran is anywhere near building a bomb or has plans to. None. Anyone who claims otherwise is ignorant or dishonest. If the US government knew Iran was weeks from possessing a nuclear weapon, we’d be at war already.
Iran knows this, which is why they aren’t building one. Iran also knows it’s unwise to give up its weapons program entirely. Muammar Gaddafi tried that and wound up sodomized with a bayonet. As soon as Gaddafi disarmed, NATO killed him. Iran’s leaders saw that happen. They learned the obvious lesson.
So why is Mark Levin once again hyperventilating about weapons of mass destruction? To distract you from the real goal, which is regime change — young Americans heading back to the Middle East to topple yet another government. Virtually no one will say this out loud. America’s record of overthrowing foreign leaders is so embarrassingly counterproductive that regime change has become a synonym for disaster. Officially, no one supports it. So instead of telling the truth about their motives, they manufacture hysteria: “A country like Iran can never have the bomb! They’ll nuke Los Angeles! We have to act now!” Tucker Carlson @TuckerCarlson
This an excellent summary which underscores the crucial point that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon, is not building a nuclear weapon, and has no nuclear weapons program. The entire legal case against Iran rests on a fiction that is fueled by an endless wave of Israel-friendly propaganda. Check out this clip from an article by analyst Dave DeCamp:
US intelligence agencies have reaffirmed that there’s no evidence Iran is developing nuclear weapons or that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has reversed his 2003 fatwah that banned the production of weapons of mass destruction.
“The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. US Intelligence Says Iran Is ‘Not Building a Nuclear Weapon’, antiwar.com
But if Iran has no nukes and is not building nukes, then what’s the problem?
Exactly. Which means that the real problem is the “weaponized media” that uses its influence to advance an Israeli agenda. (Just like Iraq, Libya and Syria) Here’s more from Tucker:
It goes without saying that there are very few Trump voters who’d support a regime change war in Iran. Donald Trump has argued loudly against reckless lunacy like this. Trump ran for president as a peace candidate. That’s what made him different from conventional Republicans. It’s why he won. A war with Iran would amount to a profound betrayal of his supporters. It would end his presidency. That may explain why so many of Trump’s enemies are advocating for it. Tucker Carlson
US Bases surrounding Iran. All within easy reach of Iran’s surface-to-surface missiles. Click to enlarge
He’s right, it would end his presidency, in fact, we’re already hearing protests from some of Trump’s most loyal supporters like Marjorie Taylor Greene who think the president has not done enough to wind-down the wars abroad and focus on America First (like he promised). It’s worth recalling what Trump actually said during the campaign and how many reluctant backers voted for him based on his opposition to foreign interventions and regime change wars. Here’s Trump in Cincinati:
We will pursue a new foreign policy that finally learns from the mistakes of the past…We will stop looking to topple regimes and overthrow governments…. Our goal is stability not chaos, because we want to rebuild our country [the United States]… We will partner with any nation that is willing to join us in the effort to defeat ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism …In our dealings with other countries, we will seek shared interests wherever possible and pursue a new era of peace, understanding, and good will.
This is an example of Trump the “peace candidate”; the candidate that many Americans supported thinking he would usher in a new era of security and cooperation not more of the same ‘gunboat diplomacy’ that brought us Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine. “Peace through strength” okay, but peace all the same. Here’s Carlson again:
And then there’s the question of the war itself. Iran may not have nukes, but it has a fearsome arsenal of ballistic missiles, many of which are aimed at US military installations in the Gulf, as well as at our allies and at critical energy infrastructure. The first week of a war with Iran could easily kill thousands of Americans. It could also collapse our economy, as surging oil prices trigger unmanageable inflation. Consider the effects of $30 gasoline.
But the second week of the war could be even worse. Iran isn’t Iraq or Libya, or even North Korea. While it’s often described as a rogue state, Iran has powerful allies. It’s now part of a global bloc called BRICS, which represents the majority of the world’s landmass, population, economy and military power. Iran has extensive military ties with Russia. It sells the overwhelming majority of its oil exports to China. Iran isn’t alone. An attack on Iran could very easily become a world war. We’d lose.Tucker Carlson
This is no exaggeration; we would lose. According to retired U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (who was former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell), the US is not nearly as strong as many believe and would not prevail in a war with Iran. Here’s Wilkerson:
A war with Iran would be 10 to 15 times worse than the Iraq War in terms of casualties and costs… And we would lose. We would undoubtedly lose….. Iran is not Iraq… It’s got terrain that’s unbelievable… It’s got a military that’s far more capable—500,000 active forces, probably a million reservists who would come immediately to the fore.
Here’s more from a piece by Jordan Cohen at the Cato Institute:
…Previous analysts have weighed the chances of success for a campaign reliant on U.S. air and naval power. A 2002 war game that required U.S. planners to change the rules mid-conflict showed that Iran could easily sink U.S. ships, and in 2012, Pentagon officials estimated that such a strategy would require a minimum of 100,000 troops….
If the intention is to use air and naval power to allow for ground operations, Iran is equally prepared. Such an assault would require absorbing massive costs to gain access into the country. Analysts estimate that any ground invasion would require 1.6 million U.S. troops, almost ten times what the U.S. committed to Iraq at any given time. Upon arrival in Iran, Washington will face the 13th largest fit-for-service population in the world, the 13th most armored vehicles and self-propelled artillery in the world, the 9th most towed artillery in the world, and the 8th most mobile rocket projectors in the world. The human and material costs would be immense.
Iran’s strategy to combat the U.S. would center around making any naval and air assault costly, slow, and predicated on an assumption that eventually Americans will lose their willingness to continue fighting a war. Iran is surrounded by water and will use their anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles to cover their 2,400 kilometer southern coastline as well as exploiting the lack of U.S. minesweepers to slow down the pace of a naval assault. By slowing the pace of war, Iran will attack the political will of U.S. policymakers and the American public, while also giving themselves time to make decisions and potentially even blockade the Straits of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman. Despite Washington’s Confidence, US War with Iran Would Be Disastrous, CATO
In short, a war with Iran would be a disaster and WE WOULD LOSE. Here’s more from Tucker:
None of these are far-fetched predictions. Most of them comport with the Pentagon’s own estimates: many Americans would die during a war with Iran. People like Mark Levin don’t seem to care about this. It’s not relevant to them. Instead, they insist that Iran give up all uranium enrichment, regardless of its purpose. They know perfectly well that Iran will never accept that demand. They’ll fight first. And of course that’s the whole point of pushing for it: to box the Trump administration into a regime change war in Iran.
The one thing that people like Mark Levin don’t want is a peaceful solution to the problem of Iran, despite the obvious benefits to the United States. They denounce anyone who advocates for a deal as a traitor and a bigot. They tell us with a straight face that Long Island native Steve Witkoff is a secret tool of Islamic monarchies. They’ll say or do whatever it takes. They have no limits. These are scary people. Pray that Donald Trump ignores them. Tucker Carlson
“Scary” is an understatement. These people are dragging us towards total annihilation!
My advice to Trump: Listen to your friend Carlson and avoid a war with Iran.
Massive Attack slam racist and ‘unethical’ Barclays bank and demand removal of adverts at venue before a gig
Massive Attack and others have criticised Barclays and shared their views, claiming it is an “unethical corporate identity” ahead of a gig at a venue sponsored by the company this week. The band were set to take to the stage at Co-op Live in Manchester before they made the statement.
It follows the news of a partnership between the indoor arena and Barclays last month. Two weeks ago, it was announced that the bank has become a “founding partner” of Co-op Live, which opened in the city last year. Massive Attack – comprised of Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja and Grant ‘Daddy G’ Marshall – hit out over the partnership in a statement shared on Instagram just hours before their concert at the venue last night. They referenced both fossil fuel extraction and the Palestinian genocide, and accused Barclays of being a “profoundly unethical corporate identity”.
The band, known for songs such as Unfinished Sympathy and Teardrop, said that the gig would still go ahead, though. They told fans that organisers had agreed to remove Barclays promotional material from the arena for it.
The material was a series of horrific racist posters
featured black men with white women
The Black womens caucus sued Barclays for discrimination, their racist posters suggested black women were not good enough for their own men, only white women were.
They won a large undisclosed sum.
israel claims the land and mineral resources and oil in iran belongs to them
move away of they will jut take it
bastards
The whole world has gone mad
‘Men who get their periods are men,’ according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which is now demanding men’s restrooms, men’s homeless shelters and men’s prisons across the United States be stocked with tampons and other menstrual products.
I got some way though this, but.
First off, Trump won’t run again, despite threats he could. There are lots of very ambitious sheeple who not only aspire to be president, but will only have a chance of a top position, if a new president enters office.
The next point, while Iran probably hasn’t assembled a nukes, they have most of the components assembled to the point it can be put together in half an hour.
The next point, Iran DOES HAVE NUKES. Iran had at least, maybe more, Soviet era nukes, the big fecking dirty nukes.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, MI6 and CIA buyers went into the global market place with big fat cases full of bills, to buy any and every nuke that came onto the market. There’s plenty of movies and books about this.
A previous Iranian leader alluded to the fact that any attack on Iran would result in a catastrophic event inside the US. The only interpretation, is that one of these nukes is in the US, somewhere.
The next point, this entire escapade based on the Iranian nuke threat is a big fat lie. Donald Hitler is committed to a greater Israel, and a major obstacle, is Iran and those who they support.
Donald Hitler wants Bibi gone, but that’s a hard nut to crack, and an even harder nut to find, who will behave accordingly. The chats are going on, for one reason, they buy Nazi Amerika time. One reason why DH can’t get shot of Nutanyahu, is that 60 plus % of Joos in Joolandia, actually support the genocide, that’s how sick and brainwashed the Joos have become.
Defo, Donald Hitler isn’t in control, and this is precisely why Iran won’t bend, and why Putin won’t do any deal, because Nazis are Nazis, just pure evil, and this is writ large all over Nazi Europe.
If Israel attacks Iran, and it fails, it’s doubtful that the US will be drawn in.
I hear the Chinese have sent 800 missiles to Iran. It’s not that Iran needs tham, this is China putting the Nazis on notice, that China would send more that missiles, they’ll send there military, and even their navy, because China gets over 30% of its oil from Iran.
Of course, many on here would say Xi and Putin are in on it. They are not. We are in the process of a massive transition of global power away from Nazi NATO regimes.
Countless pundits say Donald Hitler isn’t responsible for the wave of recent attacks, because they weren’t in power 18 months ago, to which I say bollox. Donald Hitler knew, he allowed a treaty protected element of Russias strategic nuclear forces to be attacked. Putin knows this, and Donald Hitler knows Putin knows this, and this is why Putin told DH that tactical nukes can’t be ruled out.
Aside from this, the Russians have publicly named Nazi UK as the lead protagonist in these terror attacks, which should be called ‘war crimes’.
Once again, and I must have said this over one hundred time. Only Putin has prevented the Russia military from nuking the UK, but indications are that Putin is running out of road, and soon he might be forced to nuke the UK. As Ritter said ‘London will be gone’.
Israel and the Moslems, both sides, know that Israel is good for Islam. I saw why Net is always claiming Iran is about to get nukes (although I have already forgotten again)
RENT BOYS ?
that kier starmer gives dirty homosexual perverts a bad name
( sorry carl jones )
This tucker guy is just an implanted cia writer with his own website and channel. So then when some writer like Whitney, who is often on the unz site, blabbers on and on about “will T2 listen to Tuck”, then we know who Whitney is. This enternet as well as this website is infested with cia writers.
Only problem is Tucker is CIA-KGB tool. All these mass media/alt news figures are actors reading their script handed to them by the Israel Overlords. Another Truman Show skit. The Israel Overlords themselves revealed in the 60 Minutes episode: ‘The Pager Plot’ that:
“We create a pretend world.We are a global production company. We write the screenplay. We’re the directors, the producers, we’re the main actors. The world is our stage. We make like Truman Show. Everything is controlled by us behind the scenes.”
If it wasn’t for me, you people wouldn’t know how the world works.
Well, we have tasted globalism with open borders and nation deconstruction, as well as every form of institutionalized crime and corruption under Obama and Biden, and was it not that Trump was to stop all of that, but also to “Make America Great Again”? The problem is that other than insourcing to bring manufacturing back to the US, no one ever really was clear about what the word ‘Great’ in MAGA really meant. Some Trump supporters, no doubt based on his election promises, thought the word also meant to be “Good” – like not only ending all of the unjust wars the US has instigated, such as in the Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, and stopping the scheduled one with Israel against Iran, but also that he would end the wars against the American people with all of the deep-state mass deceptions, psyops, brainwashing, fearmongering, arbitrary justice, migrant invasions, human and drug trafficking, family destruction and endemic corruption. But no, Trump never really represented or stood for those things good people regard as evil. He just pretended to lean in the direction of instigating a massive clean up while he and his corrupt bankster and criminal backers of the ruling class continued to believe and behave all along that the US “greatness” is dependent on raw military and money power, and that all of the institutionalised crime and stealth is integral to the American way of life. .
It appears that it is only through wars, stealth, and fear that the mighty US business empire can continue, and that in the corridors of power there is no right or wrong, or good or evil. The empire runs on wars, threats of wars, stealth, and the desire for money like any empire of old. Just like sex, no matter how much the money is debased, it is always desired.
Under the American system all things which make money are institutionalised and seen as necessary to preserve the power of the empire including wars, drug trafficking and even child trafficking. If the ruling powers do not control and exploit every opportunity to generate money they fear rival powers will fill the vacuums. That is the thinking. As all of the criminal operations and methods, which decent people abhor and consider to be evil, have become more and more institutionalized in the US economy, the more they are seen by the ruling powers as “necessary” to maintain their status in the world.
The only choice the common people have had over recent decades is between totalitarian globalism and old-fashioned blatant imperialism as seen with the present administrations of the US and Israel. The globalist model is one based on centralized technocratic controls together with the reliance on all forms of mass deceptions, intimidation, and oppression entailing the end of sovereign nation states and the self-determination and integrity and basic rights of the person. The other model as represented by Trump has nothing to do with preserving the sovereignty and integrity of nations or even that of individual persons. The globalist model is based on the same principles as the imperialist model which are very clearly the might-makes-right and ends-justify-the-means principles of the “old-world order”. In fact, this so-called “choice” we have been given, and which we spend so much time and effort disputing, is controlled by the same ruling powers and owners, whose main goal is the centralizing of all power and wealth into their hands. They do not care if they do it through the US, Israel and China or through globalism.
Anyone who thinks that Zion Don the Con would give a squatting shit about “betraying his supporters”, other than his satanic Jew puppet masters, is mentally retarded. Never forget that Chump occupied the Blight House when the convid-19(84) full-spectrum war on humanity was launched and encouraged his “supporters” to get injected with the “great” solution of rat shit and toxic sludge. That bloviating buffoon should be gutted on the sidewalk in front of the Blight House and his hollowed-out trunk used as a public piss trough.
who is this donald hitler ?
never heard of him
@ Umbra Bellator. Correct. But include his bloodline.
why stop a very just war Iran/Russia/china/N Korea
against Zio/US/UK/Israhell ?
let Accident (he alone is god) do its way !
Accident is creator, to understand LOOK AT GAZA !
for god ACCIDENT prayers dont count !