Where were you when America started the forever war in Iran? It’s a deceptively simple question, but I’m willing to bet that if you ask it of ten random Americans, you’ll get at least four different answers. Let’s put that question aside for the moment and talk about current events; I promise we’ll get back to it before this essay is over.

To call this Trump’s war alone, would be a gross oversimplification of demonstrable reality. The hard truth is that the American empire now wages war in Iran with full knowledge of our criminality and wicked intentions we’re hiding from no one. Our government brazenly lies to manufacture consent, bombs foreign lands without hesitation, and silences anyone who questions the blood price that must be paid for our arrogance. This isn’t a miscalculation or a strategic blunder by a fascist regime that represents an aberration in American foreign policy. It’s the culmination of almost seventy-five years of American imperial ambitions in Iran, and the natural outcome of a ruling class that only understands dominance through destruction. If anything, Trump’s illegal war will actually bring the Trumpenreich administration closer to the mainstream in US politics; as always, America’s imperial violence will likely be accompanied by declarations of noble intentions and thunderous bipartisan applause.

All of which brings us back to the question I asked at the top of this essay: where were you when America started the forever war in Iran? Unless you’re reading this from an assisted care facility, the correct answer is probably a thoroughly Orwellian retort that “America has always been at war with Iran.” I guess time really is a flat circle in the Pig Empire.