The Atlantic: 🚨 American Democracy Might Not Survive a War With Iran . . .

[CousinIT]

🚨 American Democracy Might Not Survive a War With Iran
The United States is well down the road to dictatorship. Imagine what Trump would do with a state of war.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/06/democracy-iran-israel-war-trump/683269/

No paywall: https://archive.ph/WxqU2

The current debate over bombing Iran is surreal. To begin with, bombardment is unlikely to lead to a satisfactory outcome. If history has shown one thing, it is that achieving a lasting resolution by bombing alone is almost impossible. There was a reason the United States sent ground forces into Iraq in 2003, and it was not to plant democracy. It was that American officials believed they could not solve the problem of Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs simply by bombing. They had tried that. The Clinton administration bombed Iraq for four days in 1998. At the end, they had no idea what they had destroyed and what they hadn’t. They certainly knew they had not put a permanent end to the program. In 2003, if George W. Bush thought he could have permanently ended Saddam’s weapons programs by bombing alone, he would have taken that option.

Iran today poses the same dilemma. America’s weapons may be better than they were in 2003, its intelligence capabilities greater, and Iran may be weaker than it was even a year ago, but the problem remains. Bombing alone will not achieve a verifiable and lasting end to Iran’s nuclear program. It can buy time, and Israel’s strikes have done that. American strikes could extend that period, but a determined Iranian regime will likely try again. A permanent solution would require a far more intrusive international verification regime, which in turn would require a ground presence for protection.

However, that is not the main reason I oppose bombing Iran. Nor is it the reason I find the discussion of all of this so bizarre. You would never know, as The New York Times churns out its usual policy-option thumb-suckers, that the United States is well down the road to dictatorship at home.

That is the context in which a war with Iran will occur. Donald Trump has assumed dictatorial control over the nation’s law enforcement. The Justice Department, the police, ICE agents, and the National Guard apparently answer to him, not to the people or the Constitution. He has neutered Congress by effectively taking control of the power of the purse. And, most relevant in Iran’s case, he is actively and openly turning the U.S. military into his personal army, for use as he sees fit, including as a tool of domestic oppression. Whatever action he does or doesn’t take in Iran will likely be in furtherance of these goals. When he celebrates the bombing of Iran, he will be celebrating himself and his rule. The president ordered a military parade to honor his birthday. Imagine what he will do when he proclaims military success in Iran. The president is working to instill in our nation’s soldiers a devotion to him and him alone. Imagine how that relationship will blossom if he orders what he will portray as a successful military mission.

Indeed, I can think of nothing more perilous to American democracy right now than going to war. Think of how Trump can use a state of war to strengthen his dictatorial control at home. Trump declared a state of national emergency in response to a nonexistent “invasion” by Venezuelan gangs. Imagine what he will do when the United States is actually at war with a real country, one that many Americans fear. Will he tolerate dissent in wartime? Woodrow Wilson locked up peace activists, including Eugene V. Debs. You think Trump won’t? He has been locking people up on flimsier excuses in peacetime. Even presidents not bent on dictatorship have taken measures in wartime that would otherwise be unthinkable.

[roamer65]

1. The country is going come apart.

[yellow dahlia]

2. Bookmarking to read later.

I am apoplectic and sputtering swear words, right now.

[Strelnikov_]

3. And Trumps Dictatorship will not survive the inevitable Recession

Further, the vast majority of the American people are over nation building.

The United States is not early 1930’s Germany.

[4th]

4. Has democracy survived up to now?

Not that I'm aware.

What freedoms we still have are due inertia.

[misanthrope]

5. I could be wrong

But I expect Trump is very reluctant to put American troops on the ground over there. It would send his poll numbers southward and he knows it.

Besides, he and his administration need those boots on American streets to wage war on Democratic-led cities.

[CousinIT]

7. I don't think he's too worried about his poll numbers. They've been in the shitter

on every issue for weeks now: tariffs, immigration/deportation, economy, hollowing out the government, etc.

He doesn't care. He knows he never has to run for office again either because he is term-limited or because he intends not to leave or to choose his successor himself. As for Republicans and all that Trump has done ruining their brand, well they seem fine with that.

A dick-measuring petty tyrant will find ways to carry out war on his own people and Iran at the same time. I don't think he'll find that an issue.

[UTUSN]

6. His fan Jon KARL gushed that *now* KRASNOV will be judged by this new gambit, forget everything else.

[Javaman]

8. Iran is not Iraq and certainly not Afghanistan

But I bet you, sure as shit, Iran will get help from both

[msfiddlestix]

9. I think that ship has sailed I felt this way when Bush invaded Iraq, actually I felt that way when the SC installed

Bush.Cheney but hey.. somehow the USA show continued on. There is no question we lost it long ago and didn't even effing know it.

[Kaleva]

10. Wouldn't the theft of the 2024 election prove our democracy was already ended?

[Jit423]

12. What effing democracy? Democracy died in 2026.

We were just attending a very long funeral. The burial took place last night.