As public support for the war in Iran dips lower and lower, the Trump administration is not only threatening a massive bombing campaign but appears to be planning a large-scale ground invasion, including (1) seizure of Iran’s main export terminal at Kharg Island, and (2) raids on nuclear facilities.
The U.S. Army has deployed part of the 82nd Airborne Division, positioning an initial entry force of thousands of soldiers for possible ground operations.
The U.S. military is readying for weeks of troop operations on the ground, though the government claims the “operation would ‘fall short of a full-scale invasion.’”
But, as Global Defense News/Army Recognition Group admits, this would “…represent a significant escalation, exposing U.S. forces to sustained retaliation…”
Even U.S. Generals seem acknowledge this with Trump having fired General Randy George, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, Major General William Greene Jr., the army chief of chaplains, and General David Hodne, the Commander of Army Tranformation and Training Command, who all are thought to have opposed the proposed ground invasion.
The U.S. ground invasion of Iran would put Western Asia, the U.S., and the rest of the world in more, not less, danger. It would also escalate the U.S. and Israel’s attack against Iran, already the worst crime in international law, and unconstitutional in U.S. law. And it would portend a Vietnam-type quagmire, with Iranians committed to defending their country from foreign aggression, as the Vietnamese were 60 years ago.
In 1953, CIA head Allen Dulles, the U.S. Ambassador to Iran, and the king of Iran’s sister met. Soon after, the CIA overthrew Iran Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh because he had the audacity to claim Iran’s oil for Iran. The king, called the Shah, took over, Iran’s oil was restored to foreign ownership, and Iran experienced 25 years of repression and torture, backed by the U.S.
Following the triumph of the Islamic Revolution against the Shah in 1979, the U.S. government committed to a policy of regime change that was to be achieved through economic and political warfare, proxy war in the 1980s via Iraq, covert subversion and now direct military invasion.
The current war, long planned by the neo-conservatives, has resulted in the bombing of more than 12,000 targets so far and has killed more than 1,500 civilians, including 175 school girls in Minab.
It should be recognized that the unprovoked U.S./Israel war crime against Iran is not to prevent it from building nuclear weapons or building long-range missiles, or to stop its government from killing protesters. The U.S. and Israel have long been supportive of countries with nuclear weapons, long-range missiles, and repression (i.e., themselves and many others) when they are in the service of Western corporate and state interests. Iran has not threatened the U.S. and is not developing nuclear weapons (late Supreme Leader Ali Khameini issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against nuclear development).
Some U.S. military commanders fear that a war causing a weakened, unstable and unpredictable Iran could pose a serious risk to the U.S. due to resulting conflicts. That is not to mention that rising oil prices are already causing hardship and tensions among nations. Likely rising energy costs will hit U.S. and other families’ pocketbooks, promoting more political polarization and excuses for the U.S., Israel, and other governments to oppress their populations.
Only about a quarter of people in the U.S. (27% according to one poll) currently approve of U.S. strikes on Iran, and on March 28, 2026, some eight million people took part in more than 3,300 protest events worldwide in rallies calling for “No Kings” in the U.S. and opposing the war in Iran, ICE violence, and other oppressions. U.S. military actions in recent decades have more quickly provoked majority disapproval at home.
But capitalist governments, like that of the U.S. and Israel, are not about to let peace break out. The wars are just too profitable for the donor classes and financial elites who have grand designs they want to pursue that can only be achieved through violence.
Capitalist governments have a habit of manipulating elections, and Trump has been loudly justifying his efforts to meddle in our elections by disenfranchising millions, and Trump allies have a plan to declare a national emergency.
Of course, Trump denies that he would declare a national emergency. But authoritarians like to say one thing and do another, especially using the excuse of supposed war-time national security concerns.
The Trump administration’s various attacks on what little democracy we have are not so new. They are escalations of past presidents’ anti-democratic actions, dating back to the U.S. founding (rich white men) fathers who were generally skeptical of democracy. But the current blatantly militarist, elitist, racist, misogynist U.S. regime seems likely to use war-time to cause even more political damage.
The explanation for the insanity of attacking Iran is that U.S. and Israeli imperial power, upper-class wealth, and many corporations’ profits depend on fear, crisis and real or imagined threats. This is despite shorter term financial market tremors and stock market drops.
Whatever mess results from this aggression, upper classes worldwide gamble they will gain. So far, they are correct, but the growing global anti-war and social justice movements suggest that the rulers’ winning streak is headed for an improvised explosive device.
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About the Author
Josh R. Klein is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology at Iona University, New York.
Josh studies culture and violence, white-collar crime, and imperialism. His publications include: “Civilian United States Support for Military and Imperial State Crime.” Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Criminology 8(2):124–43; “National Insecurity Crime.” Criminal Justice Ethics 34(1):1–17; and “Toward a Cultural Criminology of War.” Social Justice 38(3):86–103.
Dr. Klein is on the CovertAction Magazine Editorial Board and can be reached at JKlein@iona.edu.
