"Israel’s ‘War to the Root’ May Unravel America"

Quotations from "Israel’s ‘War to the Root’ May Unravel America" by Alastair Crooke, 14 May 2026

Both Trump’s Iran war and the closely connected Israeli war for Jewish hegemony across the Middle East (termed ‘Permanent Security’ in Israeli military vernacular) are unravelling fast.

Iran is standing defiant in the face of Trump and Israel’s threats, leaving Trump gambling the entire US economy and its global strategic standing on conjuring up a decisive ‘win’ over Iran — however deceitful and Pyrrhic that ‘win’ might prove to be.

The US, as the Cold War began, chose a strategy of outspending the USSR - by going for high-end, high-cost weaponry - with a main focus being on air-power and mass aerial bombardment.

That approach, at the time, had seemed justified by the subsequent Soviet implosion. This collapse was presumed to have been triggered by the American maximal spend that had over-stretched the USSR (though the collapse is now well understood to have been more a matter of a more complex internal corrosion from within).

The paradigm of western reliance on a preponderance of air power delivered by hugely expensive airframes has been blown apart and demonstrated to be ineffective by Iran’s asymmetric missile and naval warfare using weapons costing a few hundred dollars versus US defence interceptors costing tens of millions.

The accelerating global perception of the US’ decline however, rests on more than just its failure to adapt to Iran’s asymmetrical war. More significant even than the sense of cognitive dissonance reigning in the White House is the perception that Trump is full partner to Israel’s predations across the region.

The US bequeathed Israel the same doctrine of air war dominance, underpinned by ultra expensive US air frames that were intended to give Israel a ‘qualitative edge’ in maintaining its regional primacy. Israel’s failure in Iran, of its flailing conflict with Hizbullah, and of the unfinished war in Gaza, are the evidence of the failure of the approach — not of success.

Professor Omer Bartov has said “that Hamas’s attack, framed as a Holocaust-like act … gradually [became] the glue binding Israeli society. A historical event transformed into an imminent threat: Hamas are Nazis. [And] criticizing Israel’s [military responses] is antisemitic”.