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Israel Isn’t Driving the Iran War, US Imperial Decline Is 

Two days into the US attack on Iran, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the extraordinary claim that the war was, in fact, a legal, pre-emptive defensive measure necessitated by Israel’s own pending strikes on the country. Scrambling for a legal figleaf for the US role in the aggression, he claimed that the Israeli strikes alone would have led to Iranian retaliation against US forces in the region, and therefore Iran, although it did not know it, posed an imminent threat to the US, which the US had the legal right to pre-emptively defend itself against. “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” he told reporters on March 2nd. 

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The post Israel Isn’t Driving the Iran War, US Imperial Decline Is  appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

Two days into the US attack on Iran, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the extraordinary claim that the war was, in fact, a legal, pre-emptive defensive measure necessitated by Israel’s own pending strikes on the country. Scrambling for a legal figleaf for the US role in the aggression, he claimed that the Israeli strikes alone would have led to Iranian retaliation against US forces in the region, and therefore Iran, although it did not know it, posed an imminent threat to the US, which the US had the legal right to pre-emptively defend itself against. “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” he told reporters on March 2nd. 

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If you are logged in but can't read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here
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The post Israel Isn’t Driving the Iran War, US Imperial Decline Is  appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Dan Glazebrook.


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Dan Glazebrook | Radio Free (2026-03-22T05:57:57+00:00) Israel Isn’t Driving the Iran War, US Imperial Decline Is . Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2026/03/22/israel-isnt-driving-the-iran-war-us-imperial-decline-is/

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" » Israel Isn’t Driving the Iran War, US Imperial Decline Is ." Dan Glazebrook | Radio Free - Sunday March 22, 2026, https://www.radiofree.org/2026/03/22/israel-isnt-driving-the-iran-war-us-imperial-decline-is/
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